He who shall hurt the little wren
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Shall never be beloved by men.
“Auguries of Innocence,” l. 29 (1803)
(Source)
It is easy to go down into Hell;
Night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide;
But to climb back again, to retrace one’s steps to the upper air –
There’s the rub, the task.[Fácilis descensus Averni:
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradium superasque evadere ad auras.
hoc opus, hic labor est.]
Aeneid, Book 6, l. 126 (c. 29-19 BC)
Gregorius bared his teeth at me. They needed cleaning — badly. “Let’s have the exit line, chum.”
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
”Yes, sir,” I said politely. “You probably didn’t intend it, but you’ve done me a favor. With an assist from Detective Dayton. You’ve solved a problem for me. No man likes to betray a friend but I wouldn’t betray an enemy into your hands. You’re not only a gorilla, you’re an incompetent. You don’t know how to operate a simple investigation. I was balanced on a knife edge and you could have swung me either way. But you had to abuse me, throw coffee in my face, and use your fists on me when I was in a spot where all I could do was take it. From now on I wouldn’t tell you the time by the clock on your own wall.”
For some strange reason he sat there perfectly still and let me say it. Then he grinned. “You’re just a little old cop-hater, friend. That’s all you are, shamus, just a little old cop-hater.”
”There are places where cops are not hated, Captain. But in those places you wouldn’t be a cop.”
The Long Goodbye (1953)
There are two schools of social reform. One bases itself upon the notion of a morality which springs from an inner freedom, something mysteriously cooped up within personality. It asserts that the only way to change institutions is for men to purify their own hearts, and that when this has been accomplished, change of institutions will follow of itself. The other school denies the existence of any such inner power. … It says that men are made what the are by the forces of the environment, that human nature is purely malleable, and that till institutions are changed, nothing can be done. … There is an alternative to being penned in between these two theories. We can recognize that all conduct is interaction between elements of human nature and the environment, natural and social.
John Dewey (1859-1952) American teacher and philosopher
Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology, Introduction (1922)
Nobuddy ever listened t’ reason on a’ empty stomach.
[Nobody ever listened to reason on an empty stomach.]
Kin Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist [Frank McKinney Hubbard]
Abe Martin: Hoss Sense and Nonsense (1926)
Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
A Dictionary of the English Language, Preface (1755)
(Source)
I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned — I’m Irish.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
I was court-martialled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
Brendan Behan (1923-1974) Irish poet, author, playwright
The Hostage, Act 1 (1958)
To think all you say, is but candor;
William Allingham (1824–1889) Irish poet, diarist
To say all you think, would be slander.
Blackberries Picked Off Many Bushes (1884)
Every religion consists of moral precepts, and of dogmas. In the first they all agree.All forbid us to murder, steal, plunder, bear false witness &ca. and these are the articles necessary for the preservation of order, justice, and happiness in society. In their particular dogmas all differ; no two professing the same. These respect vestments, ceremonies, physical opinions, and metaphysical speculations, totally unconnected with morality, and unimportant to the legitimate objects of society. Yet these are the questions on which have hung the bitter schisms of Nazarenes, Socinians, Arians, Athanasians in former times, and now of Trinitarians, Unitarians, Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Methodists, Baptists, Quakers &c. Among the Mahometans we are told that thousands fell victims to the dispute whether the first or second toe of Mahomet was longest; and what blood, how many human lives have the words “this do in remembrance of me” cost the Christian world!
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Letter to James Fishback (Sep 1809)
I’ve missed over 9,000 shots in my career.
Michael Jordan (b. 1963) American basketball pro
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.
(Attributed)
In Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson, Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh (1998).
Cosmogony and cosmology have always aroused great interest among peoples and religions. The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise, but in order to state the correct relationships of man with God and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer. The Sacred Book likewise wishes to tell men that the world was not created as the seat of the gods, as was taught by other cosmogonies and cosmologies, but was rather created for the service of man and the glory of God. Any other teaching about the origin and make-up of the universe is alien to the intentions of the Bible, which does not wish to teach how heaven was made but how one goes to heaven.
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) Polish-born Catholic Pontiff (1978-2005) [b. Karol Józef Wojtyła]
“Cosmology and Fundamental Physics,” Discourse to the Pontifical Academy of Science (3 Oct 1981)
(Source)
When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed, his praises never.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
(Attributed)
The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that the world cares about.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) American educator, writer
“Mind and Matter,” Speech, Alabama State Teachers’ Association, Selma, Ala. (5 Jun 1895)
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Horace Mann (1796-1859) American educator
Speech, closing words, Yellow Springs, Ohio (1859)
Last public address.
But now Nixon has come along and everything I’ve worked for is ruined. There’s a story in the paper every day about him slashing another one of my Great Society programs. I can just see him waking up in the morning, making that victory sign of his and deciding which program to kill. It’s a terrible thing for me to sit by and watch someone else starve my Great Society to death. She’s getting thinner and thinner and uglier and uglier all the time; now her bones are beginning to stick out and her wrinkles are beginning to show. Soon she’ll be so ugly that the American people will refuse to look at her; they’ll stick her in a closet to hide her away and there she’ll die. And when she dies, I, too, will die.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
LBJ and the American Dream, ch. 10 (1971)
At the shrine of friendship
Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist
Never say die.
Let the wine of friendship
Never run dry.
“Drink with Me,” Les Misérables [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]
If you can go past those awful idiot faces on the bleachers outside the theater without a sense of the collapse of the human intelligence; if you can stand the hailstorm of flash bulbs popping at the poor patient actors who, like kings and queens, have never the right to look bored; if you can glance out over this gathered assemblage of what is supposed to be the elite of Hollywood and say to yourself without a sinking feeling, “In these hands lie the destinies of the only original art the modern world has conceived”; if you can laugh, and you probably will, at the cast-off jokes from the comedians on the stage, stuff that wasn’t good enough to use on their radio shows; if you can stand the fake sentimentality and the platitudes of the officials and the mincing elocution of the glamour queens (you ought to hear them with four martinis down the hatch); if you can do all these things with grace and pleasure, and not have a wild and forsaken horror at the thought that most of these people actually take this shoddy performance seriously; and if you can then go out into the night to see half the police force of Los Angeles gathered to protect the golden ones from the mob in the free seats but not from that awful moaning sound they give out, like destiny whistling through a hollow shell; if you can do all these things and still feel next morning that the picture business is worth the attention of one single intelligent, artistic mind, then in the picture business you certainly belongif you can do these things and still feel the next morning that the picture business is worth the attention of one single, intelligent, artistic mind, then in the picture business you certainly belong because this sort of vulgarity, the very vulgarity from which the Oscars are made, is the inevitable price that Hollywood exacts from each of its serfs.
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
“Oscar Night in Hollywood,” The Atlantic (Mar 1948)
The best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.
John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
An Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)
I shall never be ashamed to quote a bad author if what he says is good.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
“On Tranquility of Mind” (11.8), Moral Essays [tr. Basore (1932)]
People in my situation get to read about themselves whether they want to or not. It’s generally wrong. Or oversimplified — which is sometimes useful.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
“What I’ve Learned,” Interview by Mike Sager, Esquire (Jun 2008)
(Source)
If the reactionary man, who thinks of nothing but the rights of property, could have his way, he would bring about a revolution; and one of my chief fears in connection with progress comes because I do not want to see our people, for lack of proper leadership, compelled to follow men whose intentions are excellent, but whose eyes are a little too wild to make it really safe to trust them.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
Where there is no love, there is no Church. There remains only its external form, a deceit, which repulses people. That is why our churches remain empty, that is why our young people lapse. Lord, help us to become Your Church, not just its appearance.
Anthony Bloom (1914-2003) English writer, Orthodox cleric [a.k.a. Anthony of Sourozh]
(Attributed)
The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
St. Petersburg Times (26 Nov 1932)
Article by Rogers.
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, author, politician [1st Baron Verulam and Viscount St Albans]
“Of Adversity,” Essays (1625)
The strongest poison ever known
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Came from Caesar’s laurel crown.
“Auguries of Innocence,” l. 97 (1803)
(Source)
Being not unacquainted with woe, I learn to help the unfortunate.
[Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Aeneid, Book 1, l. 630 (c. 29-19 BC)
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
“East Coker” (1940), Four Quartets (1943)
Those who do not complain are never pitied.
Jane Austen (1775-1817) English novelist
Pride and Prejudice, ch. 20 [Mrs. Bennet] (1813)
(Source)
God has not created anything better than Reason. [...] Understanding is by it, and God’s wrath is caused by disregard of it.
Mohammed (570-632) Founder of Islam
The Sayings of Muhammed, #372 [tr. Al-Suhrawardy (1941)]
But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in few words.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #175 (19 Nov 1751)
You know I used to think the future was solid or fixed, something you inherited like an old building that you move into when the previous generation moves out or gets chased out. But it’s not. The future is not fixed, it’s fluid. [...] The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
(Source)
Being a professional is doing all the things you love to do on the days when you don’t feel like doing them.
Julius Erving (b. 1950) American basketball player ["Dr. J"]
(Attributed)
Quoted by David Halbertam, Charlie Rose television interview, PBS (23 Jul 1993)
He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (3 Apr 1777)
It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.
Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon (458 BC)
Every religion consists of moral precepts, and of dogmas. In the first they all agree.All forbid us to murder, steal, plunder, bear false witness &ca. and these are the articles necessary for the preservation of order, justice, and happiness in society. In their particular dogmas all differ; no two professing the same. These respect vestments, ceremonies, physical opinions, and metaphysical speculations, totally unconnected with morality, and unimportant to the legitimate objects of society. Yet these are the questions on which have hung the bitter schisms of Nazarenes, Socinians, Arians, Athanasians in former times, and now of Trinitarians, Unitarians, Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Methodists, Baptists, Quakers &c. Among the Mahometans we are told that thousands fell victims to the dispute whether the first or second toe of Mahomet was longest; and what blood, how many human lives have the words “this do in remembrance of me” cost the Christian world!
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Letter to James Fishback (Sep 1809)
It can be said, in fact, that research, by exploring the greatest and the smallest, contributes to the glory of God which is reflected in every part of the universe.
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) Polish-born Catholic Pontiff (1978-2005) [b. Karol Józef Wojtyła]
Address on the Jubilee of Scientists (25 May 2000)
(Source)
Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.
Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1900-1965) American politician
(Attributed)
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
(Attributed)
Until he has been part of a cause larger than himself, no man is truly whole.
Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) US President (1967-74)
Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1969)
Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
Time (5 Feb 1973)
I know a place where no one’s lost,
Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist
I know a place where no one cries,
Crying at all is not allowed,
Not in my castle on a cloud.
Les Misérables. “Castle on a Cloud” [Cosette] [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
In James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1780 (1791)
We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.
John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
Dedication in his translation of Virgil, The Aeneid
(Source)
Few things are more tempting for a writer than to repeat, admiringly, what he has said before.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Economics and the Public Purpose, Introduction (1973)
In fact, the French — who read and theorize the most — became so addicted to political experiment that in the two centuries since our own rather drab revolution they have exuberantly produced one Directory, one Consulate, two empires, three restorations of the monarchy, and five republics. That’s what happens when you take writing too seriously.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
“Lincoln and the Priests of Academe”, United States (1993)
[I]n the interest of the working man himself we need to set our faces like flint against mob-violence just as against corporate greed; against violence and injustice and lawlessness by wage-workers just as much as against lawless cunning and greed and selfish arrogance of employers. If I could ask but one thing of my fellow countrymen, my request would be that, whenever they go in for reform, they remember the two sides, and that they always exact justice from one side as much as from the other. I have small use for the public servant who can always see and denounce the corruption of the capitalist, but who cannot persuade himself, especially before elections, to say a word about lawless mob-violence. And I have equally small use for the man, be he a judge on the bench, or editor of a great paper, or wealthy and influential private citizen, who can see clearly enough and denounce the lawlessness of mob-violence, but whose eyes are closed so that he is blind when the question is one of corruption in business on a gigantic scale.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.
William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
The Summing Up (1938)
All clouds are not rain clouds.
Other Authors and Sources
Latin Proverb
The virtue of Prosperity is temperance; the virtue of Adversity is fortitude.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, author, politician [1st Baron Verulam and Viscount St Albans]
“Of Adversity,” Essays (1625)
A dog starved at his master’s gate
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Predicts the ruin of the state.
“Auguries of Innocence,” l. 9 (1803)
(Source)
Even virtue is fairer when it appears in a beautiful person.
[Gratior ac pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Aeneid, Book 5, l. 344 (c. 29-19 BC)
You cannot fix what you cannot face.
James Baldwin (1924-1987) American author [James Arthur Baldwin]
(Attributed)
When men in power propose doing something that is shameful, wrong and destructive, the first casualty is the English language. It would matter less if it were the only casualty. But if they carry on perverting our vocabulary and twisting our grammar, the result will spell death for many who are now alive.
Terry Jones (b. 1942) English comic
“Powell Speaks with Forked Tongue,” The Observer (23 Feb 2003)
(Source)
When Reason preaches, if you won’t hear her, she’ll box your Ears.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Mar 1753)
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #135 (2 Jul 1751)
I know idealism is not playing on the radio right now, you don’t see it on TV, irony is on heavy rotation, the knowingness, the smirk, the tired joke. I’ve tried them all out but I’ll tell you this, outside this campus — and even inside it — idealism is under siege beset by materialism, narcissism and all the other -isms of indifference.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
(Source)
The worst is not
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
So long as we can say, “This is the worst.”
King Lear, IV.i [Edgar] (1606)
(Source)
Ludicrous concepts [...] like the whole idea of a “war on terrorism”. You can wage war against another country, or on a national group within your own country, but you can’t wage war on an abstract noun. How do you know when you’ve won? When you’ve got it removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?
Terry Jones (b. 1942) English comic
“Powell Speaks with Forked Tongue,” The Observer (23 Feb 2003)
(Source)
He that swells in Prosperity will shrink in Adversity.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia, #2321 (1732)
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
“Auguries of Innocence,” l. 1 (1803)
(Source)
A woman is an ever fickle and changeable thing.
[Varium et mutabile semper femina.]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Aeneid, Book 4, l. 569 (c. 29-19 BC)
Alt. trans.:
- "My lord, you know what Virgil sings -- Woman is various and most mutable." [Tennyson, Queen Mary, Act 3, sc. 6]
- "Donna è mobile." [Verdi, Rigoletto (1851)]
- "A woman is always changeable and capricious."
Tomorrow to fresh Woods, and Pastures new.
John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
“Lycidas” (1638)
(Source)
There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“On Democracy,” Presidential Inaugural Address, Birmingham and Midland Institute (6 Oct 1884)
(Source)
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher
Autobiography, 1771 (1798)
He that would pass the latter part of life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #50 (8 Sep 1750)
Often misattributed to Joseph Addison
Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
(Source)
ACQUAINTANCE, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
The greatest humiliation in life, is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it.
Edgar Watson "Ed" Howe (1853-1937) American journalist and author [E. W. Howe]
Ventures in Common Sense (1919)
Take up the White Man’s burden –
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
“The White Man’s Burden,” st. 1 (1899)
Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish within yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and on opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson Randolph (24 Nov 1808)
(Source)
New knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.
[De nouvelles connaissances conduisent à reconnaître dans la théorie de l'évolution plus qu'une hypothèse. Il est en effet remarquable que cette théorie se soit progressivement imposée à l'esprit des chercheurs, à la suite d'une série de découvertes faites dans diverses disciplines du savoir. La convergence, nullement recherchée ou provoquée, des résultats de travaux menés indépendamment les uns des autres, constitue par elle même un argument significatif en faveur de cette théorie.]
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) Polish-born Catholic Pontiff (1978-2005) [b. Karol Józef Wojtyła]
Message to the Plenary of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (22 Oct 1996)
(Source)
Saying “We will destroy terrorism” is about as meaningful as saying: “We shall annihilate mockery.”
Terry Jones (b. 1942) English comic
The Daily Telegraph (1 Dec 2001)
One couldn’t carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the fact that everything has been said better than we can put it ourselves.
George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Daniel Deronda, Book 2, ch. 16 (1876)
Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe, #500 [tr. Saunders (1892)]
That’s just the trouble, Sam Houston — it’s always my move. And damnit, I sometimes can’t tell whether I’m making the right move or not. Now take this Vietnam mess. How in the hell can anyone know for sure what’s right and what’s wrong, Sam?
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
In Sam Houston Johnson, My Brother Lyndon, ch. 1 (1969).
The work is an absolute necessity for me. I can’t put it off, I don’t care for anything but the work; that is to say, the pleasure in something else ceases at once and I become melancholy when I can’t go on with my work. Then I feel like a weaver who sees that his threads are tangled, and the pattern he had on the loom is gone to hell, and all his thought and exertion is lost.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch painter
Letter to Theo Van Gogh (3 Jun 1883)
(Source)
Quoted in A. Lubin, Stranger on the Earth : A Psychological Biography of Vincent Van Gogh (1996).
Alt. trans.: "For me, the work is an absolute necessity. I cannot put it off; I don't care for anything else; that is to say, the pleasure in something else ceases at once, and I become melancholy when I cannot go on with my work. I feel then as the weaver does when he sees that his threads have got tangled, the pattern he had on the loom has gone to the deuce, and his exertion and deliberation are lost." [Quoted in I. & J. Stone, ed., Dear Theo: the Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh (1995)]
Alt. trans.: "For me work is an absolute necessity, indeed I can’t really drag it out, 2v:7 I take no more pleasure in anything than in work, that’s to say, pleasure in other things stops immediately and I become melancholy if I can’t get on with the work. Then I feel like a weaver when he sees his threads getting tangled and the pattern that he had on the loom going to the devil and his thought and effort coming to nothing."
Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It’s staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.
Casey Stengel (1890-1975) American athlete, coach, manager [Charles Dillon Stengel]
(Attributed)
And nothing in human philosophy persists more strangely than the old belief that God is always on the side of those who have the most revolvers.
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) American poet, biographer
“Revolver”
(Source)
Date unknown; unpublished poem discovered in 2013.
He that tries to recommend [Shakespeare] by select quotations will succeed like the pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Plays of William Shakespeare, Preface (1765)
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (1992)
The fundamental thing to do for every man is to give him a chance to reach a place in which he will make the greatest possible contribution to the public welfare. Understand what I say there. Give him a chance, not push him up if he will not be pushed. Help any man who stumbles; if he lies down, it is a poor job to try to carry him; but if he is a worthy man, try your best to see that he gets a chance to show the worth that is in him.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
Though I’ve belted you an’ flayed you,
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
“Gunga Din,” st. 5 (1892)
One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.
Henry Ford (1863-1947) American industrialist
Quoted in The American Magazine, vol. 131 (1941)
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshiped.
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) American lawyer, politician, US President (1925-29)
Speech, Boston (11 Jun 1928)
A robin redbreast in a cage
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Puts all Heaven in a rage.
“Auguries of Innocence,” l.5 (1803)
(Source)
I have lived, and I have run the course which fortune allotted me; and now my shade shall descend illustrious to the grave.
[Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi:
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Et nunc magna mei sub terras currit imago.]
Aeneid, Book 4, l. 653 (c. 29-19 BC)
The great and almost only comfort about being a woman is that one can always pretend to be more stupid than one is and no one is surprised.
Freya Stark (1893-1993) Franco-British explorer, travel writer [Freya Madeline Stark]
The Valleys of the Assassins, ch. 2 (1934)
Let the business of the world take care of itself … My business is to get the world saved; if this involves the standing still of the looms and the shutting up of the factories, and the staying of the sailing of the ships, let them all stand still. When we have got everybody converted they can go on again, and we shall be able to keep things going then by working half time and have the rest to spend in loving one another and worshipping God.
William Booth (1829–1912), British evangelist, founder of the Salvation Army
“The Risks,” The War Cry (20 Dec 1884)
We are indebted for all our Miseries to our Distrust of that Guide which Providence thought sufficient for our Condition, our own Natural Reason, which rejecting both in Human and Divine things, we have given our Necks to the Yoke of Political and Theological Slavery.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
A transition from an author’s book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #14 (5 May 1750)
(Source)
I didn’t expect change to come so slow, so agonizingly slow. I didn’t realize that the biggest obstacle to political and social progress wasn’t the Free Masons, or the Establishment, or the boot heel of whatever you consider “the Man” to be, it was something much more subtle. As the Provost just referred to, a combination of our own indifference and the Kafkaesque labyrinth of “no”s you encounter as people vanish down the corridors of bureaucracy.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
(Source)
I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking. But I strongly object when they start shaking them to make certain they are still going.
William Norman Birkett (1883-1962) British barrister, judge, politician, preacher [Lord Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett]
In The Observer (30 Oct 1960)
Every church is a better church if it wins the loyalty or obedience of its people instead of relying on the government to enforce church teaching.
John M Swomley, Jr. (b. 1915) American ethicist, theologian, civil libertarian scholar
Church & State (Nov 1976)
It was my good fortune at Santiago to serve beside colored troops. A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterward. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Springfield, Illinois (4 Jun 1903)
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment [...] inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Letter to Jean Nicholas Demeunier (24 Jan 1786)
Science develops best when its concepts and conclusions are integrated into the broader human culture and its concerns for ultimate meaning and value. Scientists cannot, therefore, hold themselves entirely aloof from the sorts of issues dealt with by philosophers and theologians. By devoting to these issues something of the energy and care they give to their research in science, they can help others realize more fully the human potentialities of their discoveries. They can also come to appreciate for themselves that these discoveries cannot be a genuine substitute for knowledge of the truly ultimate. Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) Polish-born Catholic Pontiff (1978-2005) [b. Karol Józef Wojtyła]
Letter to the Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory (1 Jun 1988)
The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Attribited)
The bigger they come, the harder they fall.
Robert James "Bob" Fitzsimmons (1863-1917) British professional boxer
Comment (9 Jun 1899)
When asked by a reporter if he could beat the much heavier James J. Jeffries. (Fitzsimmons lost.)
God is. That is the primordial fact. It is in order that we may discover this fact for ourselves, by direct experience, that we exist. The final end and purpose of every human being is the unitive knowledge of God’s being.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Seven Meditations” (1945)
If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice yo’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
In Bill Moyers, "What a Real President Was Like," Washington Post (13 Nov 1988)
Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but getting it onto paper is something that unfortunately doesn’t go as readily as looking.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch painter
Letter to Theo Van Gogh (18 Mar 1883)
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
- "Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but to bring it on paper is, alas, not so easy as to look at it."
- "Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it."
My childhood was picket fences, blue skies, red flowers, and cherry trees — but then I would see millions of little ants swarming on the cherry tree, which had pitch oozing out of it.
David Lynch (b. 1946) American filmmaker and director
Interview with Lou Stathis, Heavy Metal (1982)
(Source)
It’s not fame, at least not in the sense of publicity. They see their names and faces in the paper so often they take it for granted. It’s not money. There may be some congressmen with deals going, but most lose money while in office because of the cost of campaigning and entertaining. It’s not even the exercise of power, at least not in the sense of putting a bill through or having a part in policy decisions. For most of them it is something else. It’s more … seeing people jump. It’s a feeling … knowing that anywhere they go, people will move for them, give way, run errands, gather around … and jump.
Abraham Ribicoff (1910-1998) American politician
Speech, American Studies Club (1953?)
On what drives congressmen. Quoted in Tom Wolfe, "The Ultimate Power: Seeing 'Em Jump," New York (23 Dec 1968)
Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
Journal (May 1849)
Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won’t be.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (1992)
Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on. Conservation is a great moral issue for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of the nation.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
The price to be paid for distrusting power is always smaller than the price to be paid for worshiping it.
Jim Hoagland (b. 1940) American journalist, editor
“How the Jones Case Plays in Paris,” Washington Post National Weekly Edition (15 Apr 1998)
Prosperity has damn’d more Souls than all the Devils together.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia, #3963 (1732)
The only moral lesson which is suited for a child — the most important lesson for every time of life — is this: “Never hurt anybody.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) French philosopher and writer
Emile (1762)
Fun I love, but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsome. Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Letter to Rev. Dr. Trusler (23 Aug 1799)
O tyrant love, to what do you not drive the hearts of men!
[Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Aeneid, Book 4, l. 412 (c. 29-19 BC)
The need to exert power, when thwarted in the open fields of life, is the more likely to assert itself in trifles.
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) American sociologist
Human Nature and the Social Order, rev. ed., ch. 5 (1922 (1902))
Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow.
R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
Equality (1931)
There is hardly any error into which men may not easily be led if they base their conduct upon reason only.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Erewhon, ch. 21 (1872)
Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #2 (24 Mar 1750)
(Source)
Let me tell you something. I’ve had enough of Irish Americans who haven’t been back to their country in twenty or thirty years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home; and the glory of the revolution, and the glory of dying for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! They don’t talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. What’s the glory of taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children? Where’s the glory in that? Where’s the glory of bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old-age-pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day? Where’s the glory in that? To leave them dying, or crippled for life, or dead, under the rubble of the revolution that the majority of the people in my country don’t want. No more! Sing No more!
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Rattle and Hum (1987)
Statement to audience made before a live performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
Let them hate, if only they fear.
Lucius Accius (170-c. 86 BC) Roman tragic poet, literary scholar [a.k.a. Lucius Attius]
In Cicero, De officiis, 1.28 [tr. Miller (1913)]
Ever since the world’s far-off lands were discovered, what has been the conduct of the white peoples to the coloured ones? [...] Who can describe the injustice and the cruelties that in the course of centuries they have suffered at the hands of Europeans? [...] If a record could be compiled of all that has happened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over unread because their contents would be too horrible. We and our civilization are burdened, really, with a great debt. We are not free to confer benefits on these men, or not, as we please; it is our duty. Anything we give them is not benevolence but atonement.
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Alsatian theologian, philosopher, physician, philanthropist
On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, ch. 11 (1922) [tr. Campion (1928)]
It is unbecoming for a cardinal to ski badly.
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) Polish-born Catholic Pontiff (1978-2005) [b. Karol Józef Wojtyła]
(Attributed)
When asked if it was becoming for a cardinal to ski (Cardinal Wojtyła was an avid skier). In Frank Pakenham Longford, Pope John Paul II: an authorized biography (1982).
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
Commencement Address, Stanford University (2005)
(Source)
Harvey and I sit in the bars… And they come over… and they sit with us… and they drink with us… and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they’ve done and the big wonderful things they’ll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey… and he’s bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back; but that’s envy, my dear. There’s a little bit of envy in the best of us.
Mary Chase (1906-1981) American journalist, playwright and screenwriter
Harvey [Elwood P. Dowd] (1950)
The President must have not only the courage of his convictions, but also the courage to change his convictions.
Sydney Warren (b. 1916) American author
The President as World Leader, ch. 23 (1964)
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, ch. 11 [ed. Aneila Jaffe] (1962)
One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
If we but try to live uprightly, then we shall be all right, even though we shall inevitably experience true sorrow and genuine disappointments, and also probably make real mistakes and do wrong things, but it’s certainly true that it is better to be fervent in spirit,30 even if one accordingly makes more mistakes, than narrow-minded and overly cautious. It is good to love as much as one can, for therein lies true strength, and he who loves much does much and is capable of much, and that which is done with love is well done.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch painter
Letter to Theo Van Gogh (3 Apr 1878)
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
- "If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and great disappointments, and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things, but it certainly is true, that it is better to be high-spirited, even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent. It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love, is well done." [tr. Constable (1927)]
- "Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well."
Administrivia: Reducing page turns
I’ve bumped up the number of quotes that can appear on a page to 200 — which, at this point, means that all my authors will be fit on a single page. This should make it a bit easier to find stuff or sift through a given author’s quotes without going from page to page. The rendering time also seems to still be pretty decent that way, even on a smartphone.
If you have any problems, let me know.
Computer games don’t affect kids, I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.
Marcus Brigstocke (b. 1973) English comedian, actor, satirist
(Attributed)
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Quotations and Originality,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)
It takes two to make a quarrel.
Socrates (c.470-399 BC) Greek philosopher
In Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 2.5 [tr. Hicks (1925)]
The average “educated” American has been made to believe that, somehow, the United States must lead the world even though hardly anyone has any information at all about those countries we are meant to lead. Worse, we have very little information about our own country and its past.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
“William Dean Howells” (1983)
Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. I ask nothing of the nation except that it so behave as each farmer here behaves with reference to his own children. That farmer is a poor creature who skins the land and leaves it worthless to his children. The farmer is a good farmer who, having enabled the land to support himself and to provide for the education of his children leaves it to them a little better than he found it himself. I believe the same thing of a nation.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
You mustn’t force sex to do the work of love, or love to do the work of sex.
Mary McCarthy (1912-1898) American author, critic, political activist
The Group (1962)
What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Letter to Rev. Dr. Trusler (23 Aug 1799)
That the greatest of evils is idleness, that the poor are the victims, not of circumstances, but of their own “idle, irregular, and wicked courses,” that the truest charity is not to enervate them by relief, but so to reform their characters that relief may be unnecessary — such doctrines turned severity from a sin into a duty, and froze the impulse of natural pity with an assurance that, if indulged, it would perpetuate the suffering which it sought to allay.
R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, 4.4 (1926)
Morality is not properly the doctrine [of] how we should make ourselves happy, but how we should make ourselves worthy of happiness.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German philosopher
Critique of Practical Reason, 1.2.2.5 (1768) [tr. Abbott (1873)]
The gods thought otherwise.
[Dis áliter visum]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Aeneid, Book 2, l. 428 (c. 29-19 BC)
Thousands upon thousands are yearly brought into a state of real poverty by their great anxiety not to be thought poor.
William Cobbett (1763-1835) English politician, agriculturist, journalist, pamphleteer
Advice to Young Men and (incidentally) to Young Women, ch. 58 (1830)
War may not be Hell itself but it definitely does weaken the barriers between us and the dark regions
Glen Cook (b. 1944) American author
– Glen Cook,
Faded Steel Heat, ch. 12 (1999)
Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, ch. 3 (1909)
Ah! let not Censure term our fate our choice,
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The stage but echoes back the public’s voice;
The drama’s laws the drama’s patrons give,
For we that live to please must please to live.
Opening of Drury Lane Theatre, Prologue (1747)
It’s an amazing thing to think that ours is the first generation in history that really can end extreme poverty, the kind that means a child dies for lack of food in its belly. That should be seen as the most incredible, historic opportunity but instead it’s become a millstone around our necks. We let our own pathetic excuses about how it’s “difficult” justify our own inaction. Be honest. We have the science, the technology, and the wealth. What we don’t have is the will, and that’s not a reason that history will accept.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Interview, World Association of Newspapers, World Press Freedom Day (3 May 2004)
In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.
André Maurois (1885-1967) French author [b. Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog]
The Art of Living (1963)
(Source)
If at first you don’t succeed, that’s one data point.
Randall Munroe (b. 1984) American webcomic writer, roboticist, programmer
XKCD, “Resolution” [rollover] (31 Dec 2012)
(Source)
Almost all propaganda is designed to create fear. Heads of government and their officials know that a frightened people is easier to govern, will forfeit rights it would otherwise defend, is less likely to demand a better life, and will agree to millions and millions being spent on “Defense.”
J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) English author, dramatist [John Boyne Priestley]
“The Root is Fear,” Outcries and Asides (1974)
Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in every other thing. I may grow rich by art I am compelled to follow, I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment, but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve & abhor.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
“Notes on Religion” (Oct 1776)
(Source)
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
Commencement Address, Stanford University (2005)
(Source)
Money has only one use — to give one independence from his enemies.
Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) American actor
(Attributed)
I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the word. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman and reformer
“The Most Durable Power,” sermon, Montgomery, Alabama (6 Nov 1956)
You see, for me that God of the clergy is as dead as a doornail. But does that make me an atheist? Clergymen consider me one — que soit — but you see, I love, and how could I feel love if I were not alive myself or if others were not alive, and if we are alive there is something wondrous about it. Now call that God or human nature or whatever you like, but there is a certain something I cannot define systematically, although it is very much alive and real, and you see, for me that something is God or as good as God. You see, when in due course my time comes, one way or other, to die, well, what will keep me going even then? Won’t it be the thought of love (moral or immoral love, what do I know about it?)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch painter
Letter to Theo Van Gogh (c. 21-23 Dec 1881) [tr. van Gogh-Bonger]
(Source)
Alt trans.:
- "That God of the clergymen, He is for me as dead as a doornail. But am I an atheist for all that? The clergymen consider me as such -- be it so; but I love, and how could I feel love if I did not live, and if others did not live, and then, if we live, there is something mysterious in that. Now call that God, or human nature or whatever you like, but there is something which I cannot define systematically, though it is very much alive and very real, and see, that is God, or as good as God. To believe in God for me is to feel that there is a God, not a dead one, or a stuffed one, but a living one, who with irresistible force urges us toward aimer encore [more love]; that is my opinion."
- "Look, I find the clergymen’s God as dead as a doornail. But does that make me an atheist? The clergymen think me one – be that as it may – but look, I love, and how could I feel love if I myself weren't alive and others weren't alive? And if we live, there's something wondrous about it. Call it God or human nature or what you will, but there’s a certain something that I can't define in a system, even though it's very much alive and real, and you see, for me it’s God or just as good as God. Look, if I must die in due course in one way or another, fine, what would there be to keep me alive? Wouldn't it be the thought of love (moral or immoral love, what do I know about it?)." (Source)
No member of our generation who wasn’t a Communist or a dropout in the thirties is worth a damn.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
You’ve got to be carefully taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
Of people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) American librettist, theatrical producer, and director
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
“You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” South Pacific (1949)
There is no nation on earth so dangerous as a nation fully armed, and bankrupt at home.
Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) American politician and historian
Speech, National Security League, Washington (22 Jan 1916)
Thrice is he arm’d that hath his quarrel just.
Artemus Ward (1834-1867) American humorist, editor, lecturer [pseud. of Charles Farrar Browne]
And four times he who gets his fist in fust.
Shakespeare Up-to-Date
See Shakespeare.
My father had a deep and lifelong contempt for politicians in general (“They tell lies,” he used to say with wonder, “even when they don’t have to”).
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
“On Flying” (1985)
I believe in national friendships and heartiest good-will to all nations; but national friendships, like those between men, must be founded on respect as well as on liking, on forbearance as well as upon trust. I should be heartily ashamed of any American who did not try to make the American Government act as Justly toward the other nations in international relations as he himself would act toward any individual in private relations. I should be heartily ashamed to see us wrong a weaker power, and I should hang my head forever if we tamely suffered wrong from a stronger power.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. [...] I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.
Charles Rozell "Chuck" Swindoll (b. 1934) American evangelist, author, educator
“Attitude”
A sermon on Paul's Letter to the Philippians, ch. 2.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
“A Cult of Ignorance,” Newsweek (21 Jan 1980)
(Source)
More on this quotation here and here.
There are large parts of the Christian ethic which are universally admitted to be too good for this wicked world. We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but do not preach.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Sceptical Essays, ch. 8 “Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness” (1928)
(Source)
When the stars threw down their spears,
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Songs of Experience, “The Tyger”, st. 5 (1794)
Do not trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Grecians, even bearing gifts.
[Equo ne credite, Teucri.
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.]
Aeneid, Book 2, l. 48 (c. 29-19 BC)
Alt. trans.: "O Trojans, do not trust the horse. Be it what it may, I fear the Grecians even when they offer gifts."
There is a continent — Africa — being consumed by flames.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did — or did not do — to put the fire out in Africa.
History, like God, is watching what we do.
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
(Source)
The ruling Passion, be what it will,
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
The ruling Passion conquers Reason still.
Moral Essays, 3.153 (1731-35)
I did not imitate the sceptics who doubt only for doubting’s sake, and pretend to be always undecided; on the contrary, my whole intention was to arrive at a certainty, and to dig away the drift and the sand until I reached the rock or the clay beneath.
René Descartes (1596-1650) French philosopher, mathematician
“Discourse Touching the Method of Using One’s Reason Rightly and of Seeking Scientific Truth” (1870)
Alt. trans.: "I was not copying the sceptics, who doubt only for the sake of doubting and pretend to be always undecided; on the contrary, my whole aim was to reach certainty -- to cast aside the loose earth and sand so as to come upon rock or clay." [Cottingham, Stothoff and Murdoch (1988)]
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Dr. Johnson’s Table Talk (1807)
No sane person with a life really wants to be a political activist. When activism is exciting, it tends to involve the risk of bodily harm or incarceration, and when it’s safe, it is often tedious, dry, and boring. Activism tends to put one into contact with extremely unpleasant people, whether they are media interviewers, riot cops, or at times, your fellow activists. Not only that, it generates enormous feelings of frustration and rage, makes your throat sore from shouting, and hurts your feet.
Starhawk (b. 1951) American writer, activist, feminist theologian [b. Miriam Simos]
“Toward an Activist Spirituality,” Reclaiming Quarterly (Fall 2003)
(Source)
No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.
Henry Adams (1838-1918) American journalist, historian, academic, novelist
Letter to Henry Cabot Lodge (15 Nov 1881)
For in a republic, who is “the Country”? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant — merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is “the country?” Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Is it the school-superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in the thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn’t.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Papers of the Adams Family, Part 6 “Two Fragments from a Suppressed Book Called ‘Glances at History’ or ‘Outlines of History’” (1939)
The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
Mein Kampf, 1.6 (1924) [tr. Manheim (1943)]
In the middle ages of Christianity opposition to the State opinions was hushed. The consequence was, Christianity became loaded with all the Romish follies. Nothing but free argument, raillery & even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Notes on Religion (Oct 1776)
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
Commencement Address, Stanford University (2005)
(Source)
At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Human, All-Too-Human [Menschliches, Allzumenschliches], #536 (1878)
(Source)
‘Tis much safer for thee to reconcile an Enemy than conquer him.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Introductio at Prudentiam, #782 (1731)
In a life short and uncertain, it seems heartless to do anything that might deprive people of the consolation of faith when science cannot remedy their anguish. Those who cannot bear the burden of science are free to ignore its precepts. But we cannot have science in bits and pieces, applying it where we feel safe and ignoring it where we feel threatened — again, because we are not wise enough to do so.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
The Demon-Haunted World (1995)
This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Prayers and Meditations, Against Inquisitive and Perplexing Thoughts (1785)
Sexual integrity means honestly recognizing our own impulses and desires and honoring them, whether or not we choose to act on them. If we value integrity, we must also value diversity in sexual expression and orientation, recognizing that there is no one truth, or one way, that fits everyone. Sexuality is sacred because through it we make a connection with another self — but it is misused and perverted when it becomes an arena of power-over, a means of treating another — or oneself — as an object.
Starhawk (b. 1951) American writer, activist, feminist theologian [b. Miriam Simos]
Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics, ch. 3 “The Ethics of Magic” (1982)
Against our traditions we are now entering upon an unjust and trivial war, a war against a helpless people, and for a base object — robbery. At first our citizens spoke out against this thing, by an impulse natural to their training. Today they have turned, and their voice is the other way. What caused the change? Merely a politician’s trick — a high-sounding phrase, a blood-stirring phrase which turned their uncritical heads: Our Country, right or wrong! An empty phrase, a silly phrase. It was shouted by every newspaper, it was thundered from the pulpit, the Superintendent of Public Instruction placarded it in every schoolhouse in the land, the War Department inscribed it upon the flag. And every man who failed to shout it or who was silent, was proclaimed a traitor — none but those others were patriots. To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, “Our Country, right or wrong,” and urge on the little war. Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation?
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Papers of the Adams Family, Part 6 “Two Fragments from a Suppressed Book Called ‘Glances at History’ or ‘Outlines of History’” (1939)
If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come, and offer your gift.
The Bible (14th C BC - 2nd C AD) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 5:23-24
In the view of the primitive simplicity of their minds, [the masses] more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
Mein Kampf, 1.10 (1924) [tr. Manheim (1943)]
Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) US President (1801-09)
Notes on Religion (Oct 1776)
Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50-50 maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more. And I find myself believing a bit more. I kind of – maybe it’s ’cause I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated. Somehow it lives on, but sometimes I think it’s just like an on-off switch. Click and you’re gone. And that’s why I don’t like putting on-off switches on Apple devices.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
(Attrbuted)
Quoted by his biographer, Walter Isaacson, in a 60 Minutes interview (Oct 2011)
No sackcloth and fasting avail, but repentance and good deeds.
The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
(Unreferenced)
A stable social structure thrives not on triumphs but on reconciliations.
Henry Kissinger (b. 1923) German-American diplomat
A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh, and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822, 11.1 (1957)
Man’s only legitimate end in life is to finish God’s work — to bring to full growth the capacities and talents implanted in us.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 11 (1964)
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: “President Can’t Swim.”
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
I have often thought that the best way to define a man’s character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: “This is the real me!”
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
Letter to Alice Gibbons James (1878)
No human being is so bad as to be beyond redemption.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (26 Mar 1931)
When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all that I can permit myself to contemplate.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
Travels With Charley (1962)
KING HENRY: Thrice is he arm’d that hath his quarrel just.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry VI, Part 2, III.ii.233 (1590)
Religions are manipulated in order to serve those who govern society and not the other way around.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
“Sex Is Politics” (1979)
It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us.
Epicurus (341-270 BC) Greek philosopher
(Attributed)
I have felt a slightly contemptuous amusement over the discussion that has been going on for several months about my popularity or waning popularity or absence of popularity. I am not a college freshman [...] and therefore I am not concerned about my “popularity” save in exactly so far as it is an instrument which will help me to achieve my purposes.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Letter to Sereno S. Pratt (1 Mar 1906)
(Source)
All theories of morality agree in considering that conduct whose total results, immediate and remote, are beneficial, is good conduct; while conduct whose total results, immediate and remote, are injurious, is bad conduct. The happiness or misery caused by it are the ultimate standards by which all men judge of behavior.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher, naturalist
Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical, ch. 3 (1860)
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
in the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Songs of Experience, “The Tyger”, st. 1 (1794)
Perhaps, one day, remembering even these things will bring pleasure.
[Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Aeneid, Book 1, l. 203 (c. 29-19 BC)
Alt. trans.:
- "An hour will come, with pleasure to relate your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate." [John Dryden]
- "Perhaps it will even please us to remember these things someday."
Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country — hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Papers of the Adams Family, Part 6 “Two Fragments from a Suppressed Book Called ‘Glances at History’ or ‘Outlines of History’” (1939)
Have I ever heard a sceptic wax superior and contemptuous? Certainly. I’ve even sometimes heard, to my retrospective dismay, that unpleasant tone in my own voice. There are human imperfections on both sides of this issue. Even when it’s applied sensitively, scientific scepticism may come across as arrogant, dogmatic, heartless and dismissive of the feelings and deeply held beliefs of others. And, it must be said, some scientists and dedicated sceptics apply this tool as a blunt instrument, with little finesse. Sometimes it looks as if the sceptical conclusion came first, that contentions were dismissed before, not after, the evidence was examined. All of us cherish our beliefs. They are, to a degree, self-defining. When someone comes along who challenges our belief system as insufficiently well based — or who, like Socrates, merely asks embarrassing questions that we haven’t thought of, or demonstrates that we’ve swept key underlying assumptions under the rug — it becomes much more than a search for knowledge. It feels like a personal assault.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
The Demon-Haunted World (1995)
If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and then vote against them, you have no business being up here.
Jesse Unruh (1922-1987) American politican
(Attributed)
(Source)
On lobbyists. In Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power, ch.13 "Adversary" (2003). A bowderized version of the quote can be found in Lester Velie, "This Is How Payola Works in Politics (by Assemblyman X as told to Lester Velie)," Reader's Digest (Aug 1960); Unruh was "Assemblyman X".
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
(Attributed)
Quoted in Sir John Hawkins, "Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions and Occasional Reflections" (1787-89), in George Birbeck Hill (ed.), Johnsonian Miscellanies, Vol. 2 (1897)
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