The settled opinion here is, that religion is essentially distinct from Civil Govt., and exempt from its cognizance; that a connexion between them is injurious to both; that there are causes in the human breast which ensure the perpetuity of religion without the aid of the law; that rival sects, with equal rights, exercise mutual censorships in favor of good morals; that if new sects arise with absurd opinions or over-heated imaginations, the proper remedies lie in time, forbearance, and example; that a legal establishment of religion without a toleration could not be thought of, and with a toleration, is no security for public quiet & harmony, but rather a source of discord & animosity; and, finally, that these opinions are supported by experience, which has shewn that every relaxation of the alliance between Law & religion, from the partial example of Holland to its consummation in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, &c., has been found as safe in practice as it is sound in theory.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Letter to Edward Everett (18 Mar 1823)
I tell this story to illustrate the truth of the statement I heard long ago in the Army: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, National Defense Executive Reserve Conference (14 Nov 1957)
Quoted in R. Nixon, Six Crises, "Krushchev" (1962) as "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." Sometimes paraphrased as "Plans are nothing; planning is everything."
Art is man’s nature; nature is God’s art.
For there’s a lot of masochism in the acting profession. We’re willing to take a lot of punishment, but the minute we hit a little bit of success we are liable to run from it. We’re frightened of it and develop all kinds of phobias as a consequence. Outsiders who don’t understand think we have a chip on our shoulder, but it’s not that at all. We’re so used to failure, to being hurt and rebuffed, that we can easily come unhinged by success.
Lucille Ball (1911-1989) American actress, comedian, producer
Love, Lucy (1996)
Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god, and he is traveling in the right direction.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Confessio Fidei,” Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922)
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Luncheon, London (10 Nov 1942)
Referring to the victory over the German Afrika Korps at the Second Battle of El Alamein.
Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger.
Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) American political activist
Quoted in “Mourning, and Celebrating, a Radical,” New York Times (20 Apr 1989)
(Source)
Most likely from "Sacred cows make great hamburgers," an anonymous saying recorded in Reisner and Wechsler, Encyclopedia of Graffiti (1974).
All gardening is landscape painting.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
(Attributed)
In Joseph Spence, Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters, of Books and Men Collected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope and Other Eminent Persons of His Time, 2nd ed., ch. 4 "1734-1736" (1858)
A statesman who cannot shape events will soon be engulfed by them.
Henry Kissinger (b. 1923) German-American diplomat
Years of Upheaval, ch. 24 (1982)
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Studies,” Essays, No. 50 (1625)
(Source)
The problem with knowing everything’s going exactly as it needs to is that when you’re not having that much fun it doesn’t even do any good to complain.
Brian Andreas (b. 1956) American writer, artist, publisher [birth and pen name of Kai Andreas Skye]
Trusting Soul, “Partial Enlightenment” (2000)
To believe that if we could have but this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 6 (1955)
(Source)
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
Yet ne’er looks forward further than his nose.Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Essay on Man,” 4.223 (1734)
Ignorance armed with power is just as dangerous as insanity armed with a razor.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
“Stalin as a Theoretician” (Mar 1930)
Full text.
Conscience can’t be compelled.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #1144 (1732)
(Source)
For nothing worthy proving can be proven,
Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise,
Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt,
And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“The Ancient Sage”, l. 66-69 (1885)
God’s Mill grinds slow, but sure.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 747 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
The rock-bottom foundation of a free press is the integrity of the people who run it.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech to journalists, Portland, Oregon (8 Sep 1952)
A taxpaying public that doesn’t understand the law is a taxpaying public that can’t comply with the law.
Lawrence Gibbs (b. 1938) American tax lawyer, IRS Commissioner
Wall Street Journal (3 Mar 1987)
It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend of his faults. … To speak painful truth through loving words — that is friendship.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
Life Thoughts [rec. Proctor (1858)]
Always think of yourself as everyone’s servant; look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for them all.
Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) Spanish mystic, poet, philosopher, saint
“Maxims for Her Nuns,” #25
In Complete Works St. Teresa of Avila, Vol. 3 (1963) [ed E. Allison Peers]
We are teaching the world the great truth, that Governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson: that Religion flourishes in greater purity without, than with the aid of Government.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Letter to Edward Livingston (10 Jul 1822)
Administrivia:
Howdy. WIST will be taking a brief vacation break, returning next Tuesday. Thanks for all your support.
If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644 (1929) [Dissent]
(Source)
In adversity, remember to keep an even mind.
[Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 2, Ode 3, l. 1 (13 BC)
We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Considerations by the Way,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 7 (1860)
To have courage for whatever comes in life — everything lies in that.
Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) Spanish mystic, poet, philosopher, saint
(Attributed)
It is moreover to weaken in those who profess this Religion a pious confidence in its innate excellence and the patronage of its Author; and to foster in those who still reject it, a suspicion that its friends are too conscious of its fallacies to trust it to its own merits.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
“A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” letter to the Virginia Assembly (20 Jun 1785)
On a proposed law to have the state financially support "Teachers of the Christian Religion." Full text.
Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17 (1782)
(Source)
One day I met a lady who was dying of cancer in a most terrible condition. And I told her, I say, “You know, this terrible pain is only the kiss of Jesus — a sign that you have come so close to Jesus on the cross that he can kiss you.” And she joined her hands together and said, “Mother Teresa, please tell Jesus to stop kissing me”.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) Albanian-Indian religious and humanitarian [b. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu]
Address, National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, DC (3 Feb 1994)
I suppose you could never prove to the mind of the most ingenious mollusk that such a creature as a whale was possible.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1848-04/05)
A modern revolutionary group heads for the television station, not the factory. It concentrates its energy on infiltrating and changing the image system.
Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) American political activist
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980)
If nothing may be published but what civil authority shall have previously approved, power must always be the standard of truth.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Lives of the English Poets, “Milton” (1781)
“Rules are made to be broken” — true. Also true is that breaking rules out of ignorance leads to disaster, while breaking them from knowledge can lead to the truly special. It can also lead to disaster, too. Don’t break rules unless you know them well enough to know when they shouldn’t apply.
Charles "Chuq" Von Rospach (contemp.) American science fiction writer and critic
(Unsourced)
Used by him as a sig line at least as early as Usenet article 61635@apple.Apple.COM on rec.arts.sf.written (Jan 1992).
It is one thing to be moved by events; it is another to be mastered by them.
Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970) American Methodist clergyman
Bulletin of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago (17 Nov 1957)
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Beauty,” Essays, No. 43 (1625)
(Source)
When people are free to do as we please, they usually imitate each other.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 33 (1955)
(Source)
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
[Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Satires, Book 1, Satire 9, l. 59 (c. 35 BC)
Any attempt to replace the personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Reflections, ch. 32 [ed. Volker Michels (1974)]
Trust me, Clara Vere de Vere,
From yon blue heavens above us bent
The gardener Adam and his wife
Smile at the claims of long descent.
Howe’er it be, it seems to me,
‘Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“Lady Clara Vere de Vere,” st. 7 (1832)
Every man haz a perfekt right tew hiz opinyun, provided it agrees with ours.
[Every man has a perfect right to his opinion, provided it agrees with ours.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Ramrods” (1874)
A liberal is a person who believes that water can be made to run uphill. A conservative is someone who believes everybody should pay for his water. I’m somewhere in between: I believe water should be free, but that water flows downhill.
Theodore H. White (1915-1986) American political journalist, historian, author
(Attributed)
Morality is the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
An Ideal Husband, Act 2 [Mrs. Cheveley] (1895)
For man must strive, and striving he must err.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Faust, 1, “Prologue in Heaven” (1808-1832) [tr. P. Wayne (1959)]
I began my talk by saying that I had not written my plays for purposes of discussion. At once, I felt a ripple of panic run through the hall. I suddenly realized why. To everyone present, discussion was the whole point of drama. That was why the faculty had been endowed — that was why all those buildings had been put up! I had undermined the entire reason for their existence.
Tom Stoppard (b. 1937) Czech-English playwright and screenwriter
In Kenneth Tynan, “Tom Stoppard,” New Yorker (19 Dec 1977)
The ruins of himself, now worn away
With age, yet still majestic in decay.[γήραϊ τειρόμενον, μέγα δὲ φρεσὶ πένθος ἔχοντα]
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 24, l. 233 (24.233) [tr. Pope (1725), l. 271]
(Source)
Describing Laertes as Odysseus finds him. Gloss by Pope, as the original just describes him as "worn with age and grieving." (Source (Greek))
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the Despot abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. it is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them: and to effect this they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man, into mystery & jargon unintelligible to all mankind & therefore the safer engine for their purposes.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Horatio G. Spafford (17 Mar 1814)
(Source)
The choice in politics isn’t usually between black and white. It’s between two horrible shades of gray.
Peter, Lord Thorneycroft (1909-1994) British politician.
Sunday Telegraph (11 Feb 1979)
The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (12 Nov 1936)
Full text.
My critique of democracy begins and ends with this point. Kids must be educated to disrespect authority or else democracy is a farce.
Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) American political activist
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980)
With freedom of the press, nations are not sure of going toward justice and peace. But without it, they are sure of not going there.
Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
“Homage to an Exile” (1955), Resistance, Rebellion, and Death [tr. O’Brien (1961)]
We are not a cynical people. The will to believe lingers on. We like to think that heroes can emerge from obscurity, as they sometimes do; that elections do matter, even though the process is at least part hokum; that through politics we can change our society and maybe even find a cause to believe in.
Ronald Steel (b. 1931) American writer, historian, and professor
“The Vanishing Campaign Biography,” New York Times (5 Aug 1984)
The things that make good headlines attract our attention because they are on the surface of the stream of life, and they distract our attention from the slower, impalpable, imponderable movements that work below the surface and penetrate to the depths. But, of course, it is really these deeper, slower movements that, in the end, make history, and it is they that stand our huge in retrospect, when the the sensational passing events have dwindled, in perspective, to their true proportions.
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) English historian
Conversation with his son Philip Toynbee, Comparing Notes: A Dialogue Across a Generation (1963)
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Studies,” Essays, No. 50 (1625)
(Source)
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than of deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt than the assailant without.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 63 (1955)
(Source)