The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part I, Sec 9 (1951)
 
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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.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) American theologian and clergyman
The Irony of American History (1952)
 
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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
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.
 
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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)
 
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Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
The Temple, “The Church Porch,” l. 307 (1633)
 
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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.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Human Condition, ch. 16 “Labor” (1958)
 
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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.

 
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Tell me my Faults, and mend your own.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Dec 1756)
 
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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.

 
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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.

 
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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."

 
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My mouth is full of decayed teeth and my soul of decayed ambitions.

James Joyce (1882-1941) Irish writer, poet
Letter to his brother, Stanislaus Joyce (19 Feb 1907)
 
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Those who love to be feared fear to be loved.

François de Sales (1567-1622) French bishop, saint, writer [a.k.a. Francis de Sales, b. François de Boisy]
(Attributed)

In Jean-Pierre Camus, The Spirit of Saint Francis de Sales, 7.3 (1952)

 
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Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
(Attributed)
 
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sandman 69 p16

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)
 
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To safeguard one’s health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #633 (1665-1678) (1665) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
 
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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.
 
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How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew!

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Progress of Culture,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)
 
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Faith does not admit of telling.  It has to be lived and then it becomes self-propagating.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Young India (20 Oct 1927)
 
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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.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 5 “The Fourth Hussars” (1930)
 
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I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

Jane Austen
Jane Austen (1775-1817) English novelist
Letter to her sister Cassandra (24 Dec 1798)
 
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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.

 
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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."
 
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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)
 
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Wit’s an unruly engine, wildly striking
Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
The Temple, “The Church Porch,” l. 241 (1633)
 
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Where there is devotional music, God with his grace is always present.

[Bei einer andächtigen Musik ist allezeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden Gegenwart.]

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) German composer
Annotation in a copy of the Calov Bible
 
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A perfect character might be attended with the inconveniences of being envied and hated; … a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in contenance.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Autobiography, 1784 (1798)
 
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There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden, “Economy” (1854)
 
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‘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)
 
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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.

Leó Szilárd (1898-1964) Hungarian-American physicist
“I’m looking for a market for wisdom: Leo Szilard, scientist,” LIFE‎ (1 Sep 1961)

Variant: "If you want to succeed in the world, you don't have to be much cleverer than other people. You just have to be one day earlier."

 
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In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct, beyond all need of checking, is the mistake.

(Other Authors and Sources)
“Finagle’s Third Law”

In Arthur Bloch, Murphy's Law: And Other Reasons Why Things Go gnorW, "Murphology" (1979)

 
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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.

Ben Hogan
Ben Hogan (1912-1957) American golfer
(Attributed)

Longest form of this widely attributed phrase found.  Many shorter paraphrases are quoted instead, most commonly "Placing the ball in the right position for the next shot is eighty percent of winning golf."

 
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No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 2.2 (1756)
 
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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.
 
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If it’s never our fault, we can’t take responsibility for it. If we can’t take responsibility for it, we’ll always be its victim.

Richard Bach (b. 1936) American writer
Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit (1994)
 
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Faith and doubt go hand in hand, they are complementaries.  One who never doubts will never truly believe.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Reflections, #291 (1974) [ed. V. Michels]
 
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You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 4 “Sandhurst” (1930)
 
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I will ride my luck on occasion, but I like to pick the occasion.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Might As Well Be Dead, ch. 6 [Archie] (1956)
 
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The true republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) American reformer, aboltionist, sufferagist
Motto of Revolution (newspaper) (1868)
 
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“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.”

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)

The two quoted verses are from Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18.

 
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The philosophers themselves, even in those books in which they tell us to despise fame, inscribe their names.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Pro archia poeta, ch. 11
 
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The desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.

Tacitus (c.56-c.120) Roman historian, orator, politician [Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
Histories, Book IV, ch. 6 (AD 100-110)
 
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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.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part I, Sec. 5, ch. 2 “The Desire For Substitutes” (1951)
 
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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.

 
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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.

 
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Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave
A paradise for a sect.

John Keats (1795-1821) English poet
“The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream,” 1.1 (1856)
 
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Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie:
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
The Temple, “The Church Porch,” ll. 77-78 (1633)
 
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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.
 
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MR. CRAIG:  I like a cleverish woman — a woman o’ sperrit — a managing woman.

George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Adam Bede, 53 (1859)
 
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But nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Preface to the Bishop of Sarum’s Introduction to the Third Volume of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England (8 Dec 1713)
 
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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.

Leó Szilárd (1898-1964) Hungarian-American physicist
“I’m looking for a market for wisdom: Leo Szilard, scientist,” LIFE‎ (1 Sep 1961)
 
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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.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Letter

In James MacGregor Burns, Presidential Government, ch. 2 (1965)

 
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We think our Fathers Fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser Sons, no doubt, will think us so.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Essay on Criticism,” l. 438 (1711)
 
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The history of failure in war can be summed up in two words:  Too Late.

Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) American general
Letter to William Allen White.

In William Manchester, American Caesar, ch. 4 (1978).

 
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Love the sinner and hate the sin.

[Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum.]

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
Opera Omnia, Vol. II, col. 962, letter 211.
 
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