Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.
Not clamour, but love,
Not rumour but dedication,
Not violence but intelligence
Sings in the ear of God.[Non clamor, sed amor,
non vox, sed votum,
non cordula, sed cor
cantat in aure Dei]Thomas of Celano (c.1200 - c.1265) Italian friar, poet, hagiographer [Tommaso da Celano]
(Attributed)
A similar phrase -- "Not the voice but the deed, not the music of the heart but the heart, not noise but love sings in the ear of God" -- is attributed to Jordanus de Saxonia, an Augustinian hermit born in Quedlinburg in 1299.
It is not to be supposed that the age-old readiness to try to convert minds by pressure or suppression, instead of reason and persuasion, is extinct. Our protection against all kinds of fanatics and extremists, none of whom can be trusted with unlimited power over others, lies not in their forbearance, but in the limitations of our Constitution.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 438-439 (1950) [concurrence and dissent]
(Source)
The price of absolute freedom from necessity is, in a sense, life itself, or rather the substitution of vicarious life for real life. … The human condition is such that pain and effort are not just symptoms which can be removed without changing life itself; they are the modes in which life itself, together with the necessity to which it is bound, makes itself felt. For mortals, the “easy life of the gods” would be a lifeless life.
Striving for perfection is demoralizing. Striving for excellence is motivating.
Harriet Braiker (1948-2004) Psychologist, consultant, author
The Disease to Please, ch. 2 (2001)
A parallel quote in the book is "Striving for perfection is a demoralizing and guaranteed formula for failure. Striving for excellence, on the other hand, is motivating because reaching it is attainable."
More often quoted as: "Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing."
Full text.
This evil fortune, which generally attends extraordinary men in the management of great affairs, has been imputed to divers causes, that need not be here set down, when so obvious a one occurs, if what a certain writer observes be true, that when a great genius appears in the world the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Essay on the Fates of Clergymen (1728)
Restatement of this earlier thought.
Even in times of war, you can see current events in their historical perspective, provided that your passion for the truth prevails over your bias in favor of your own nation.
Leó Szilárd (1898-1964) Hungarian-American physicist
“Are We on the Road to War?”, speech at Harvard Law School (17 Nov 1961)
Full text.
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.
[Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.]
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) French lawyer, politician, epicure and gastronome
Physiologie du goût, “Aphorismes pour servir de prolégomènes” (1825)
Popularly, "You are what you eat."
LUCIFER: I had the hubris originally to regard myself as a collaborator, as a co-author …. Very rapidly I found myself reduced to the status of character, following something of a disagreement in the fundamental direction of the Creation. Now I sometimes feel I’m simply waiting around to see which of us was right, which was wrong.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 9. The Kindly Ones, # 69 “The Kindly Ones” (1995-07)
(Source)
I have only made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
[Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.]
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Lettres provinciales, #16 (1657)
Alt. trans.: "The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter." Sometimes attributed to Ben Franklin or Mark Twain. For more information see here.
I wonder whether any other generation has seen such astounding revolutions of data and values as those through which we have lived. Scarcely anything material or established which I was brought up to believe was permanent and vital, has lasted. Everything I was sure or taught to be sure was impossible, has happened.
It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest things in praise of it. It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke — that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
All Things Considered, “Oxford from Without” (1908)
Full text.
If I knew the world should go under tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.”
[Und wenn ich wüsste, dass morgen die Welt unterginge, so pflanzte ich heute noch einen Apfelbaum.]
Martin Luther (1483-1546) German religious reformer
(Attributed)
Many alternative translations and paraphrases of this apocryphal statement can be found:
- "Even if I knew that the whole world was going to smash tomorrow, still, I would plant an apple tree today. [Auch wenn ich wüsste, dass morgen die Welt zugrunde geht, würde ich heute noch einen Apfelbaum pflanzen.]"
- "If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would plant a tree this afternoon."
- "If I knew I was to die tomorrow, I would plant a tree today."
But we must not forget that in our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds — that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous. Communists are not the only faction which would put us all in mental straitjackets.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 438 (1950) [concurrence and dissent]
(Source)
‘Tis an old maxim in the schools,
That flattery’s the food of fools;
Yet now and then your men of wit
Will condescend to take a bit.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
“Cadenus and Vanessa,” l. 766ff (1713)
(Source)
In order to succeed it is not necessary to be much cleverer than other people. All you have to do is be one day ahead of them.
Management — that is, placing the ball in the right position for the next shot, knowing exactly where to be on the green — is eighty percent of winning golf.
One does not read in the Gospel that the Lord said: ‘I will send you the Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon.’ For He willed to make them Christians, not mathematicians.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
De actis contra Felicem manichaeum [Answer to Felix, a Manichean], 1.10 (AD 404)
Alt. trans.:
- We do not read in the Gospel that the Lord said, ‘I will send the Paraclete to teach you the course of the sun and the moon’, in fact He wanted to create Christians not mathematicians.
- In the Gospel we do not read that the Lord said: I am sending you the Holy Spirit so that he can teach you about the course of the sun and the moon. He wanted to make Christians, not mathematicians.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them. It is as if ivied maidens and garlanded youths were to herald the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
Since inequalities of privilege are greater than could possibly be defended rationally, the intelligence of privileged groups is usually applied to the task of inventing specious proofs for the theory that universal values spring from, and that general interests are served by, the special privileges which they hold.
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) American theologian and clergyman
Moral Man and Immoral Society, ch. 5 “The Ethical Attitudes of Privileged Classes” (1932)
Full text.
It is totally illogical to seek happiness if we do nothing to restrain angry, spiteful, and malicious thoughts and emotions.
The Dalai Lama (b. 1935) Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader [The 14th Dalai Lama; a/k/a Lhama Thondup / Lhama Dhondrub; b. Tenzin Gyatso]
Twitter (23 Mar 2010)
Post.
The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of “living well,” which all men desire; all acts are but different means chosen to arrive at it.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Life of the Mind, Vol. 2 “Willing,” Part 2, ch. 7 (1977)
(Source)
Discussing Aristotle, noting he never addressed the moral issue of ends and means.
The most important step in getting a job done is the recognition of the problem. Once I recognize a problem I usually can think of someone who can work it out better than I could.
Let us stand valiantly for what is decent and right; let us strike hard and take with unshaken front whatever comes, whether it be good or ill. Then the fates must decide what the outcome will be.