WIST

To live among friends is the primary essential of happiness.

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) Scottish physicist
Lord Kelvin’s Replies to Addresses given on the Celebration of the Jubilee of his Professorship (15-17 Jun 1896)
    (Source)

Quoted in G. Fitzgerald, Lord Kelvin, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow 1846-1899 (1899)

It is hard to say whether the doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Why do we expect our Presidents to control destiny when they cannot even control the House of Representatives?

Russell Baker (b. 1925) American journalist, author, humorist
Poor Russell’s Almanac, 2 August (1972)

Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)

Just as the good actor perform well whatever role the poet assigns, so too must the good man perform whatever Fortune assigns. For she, says Bion, just like a poet, sometimes assigns the leading role, sometimes that of the supporting role; sometimes that of a king, sometimes that of a beggar. Do not, therefore, being a supporting actor, desire the role of the lead.

Bion of Borysthenes (c. 325-c. 250 BC) Greek philosopher, cynic, wit
As quoted by Teles of Megara, frag. 2, “On Self-Sufficiency”