I think the gist of the matter is that a saint can live without politeness, and indeed that politeness is incompatible with a saintly character. But the man who is always to be sincere must be free from spite and envy and malice and pettiness. Most of us have a dose of these vices in our composition and therefore have to excerise tact to avoid giving offence. We cannot all be saints, and if saintliness is impossible, we may at least try not to be too disagreeable.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Tact,” New York American (1933-02-01)
(Source)
Quotations about:
compensation
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Our strength is often composed of the weakness that we’re damned if we’re going to show.
Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotics Handbook, ch. 10 (1966)
(Source)
THERE ARE BETTER THINGS IN THE WORLD THAN ALCOHOL, ALBERT.
“Oh, yes, sir. But alcohol sort of compensates for not getting them.”Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Death’s Domain (1999)
(Source)
Death speaking with his manservant, Albert.
You can boast about anything if it’s all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.
To be a human being means to possess a feeling of inferiority which constantly presses towards its own conquest. … The greater the feeling of inferiority that has been experienced, the more powerful is the urge for conquest and the more violent the emotional agitation.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychologist
The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, ch. 3, sec 3 (1956) [ed. Ansbacher]
There are many attempts to pass a law in states just requesting a limit of buying one gun a month, and it doesn’t pass. People are like, “What about Christmas?” I mean, one gun a month. If you started when you were 18, by the time you were 60 that’s over a thousand guns. I don’t care how small your penis is, that should be enough guns.
William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
Be More Cynical (2000)
Tell me what you brag about and I’ll tell you what you lack.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Spanish proverb
Why do men with little souls have to have big weapons?
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Friday [Friday Jones] (1982)
Don’t make excuses — make good!
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
A Thousand and One Epigrams (1911)
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American essayist and novelist
Backlog Studies, Fifth Study, sec. 3 (1872)
(Source)
Originally published in Scribner's Monthly (Apr 1872). Frequently misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
