Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet.
John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, legal scholar, antiquarian, polymath
Table Talk, § 45 “Friends” (1689)
(Source)
All members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to the public. All members of the public should be equally eligible for Federal benefits that are financed by the public. All members of the public should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the public good.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1964-01-08), “State of the Union,” sec. 6, Joint Session of Congress, Washington, D. C.
(Source)
He thinkes not well, that thinkes not againe.
[He thinks not well, that thinks not again.]George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 836 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
History is the essence of innumerable Biographies.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1830-11), “On History,” Fraser’s Magazine Vol. 2, No. 10.
(Source)
Collected as "History," Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).
A year and a half later, in his essay "Biography" (first published in Fraser's Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28 (1832-05)), as he was wont to do, Carlyle anonymously quoted himself ("'History,' it has been said, 'is the essence of innumerable Biographies.'").
I am satisfied that thare iz more weakness among men than malice.
[I am satisfied that there is more weakness among men than malice.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 155 “Affurisms: Ink Lings” (1874)
(Source)
People keep working in a freelance world, and more and more of today’s world is freelance, because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don’t even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. People will forgive the lateness of the work if it’s good, and if they like you. And you don’t have to be as good as the others if you’re on time and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Speech (2012-05-17), Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia [14:10]
(Source)
Thanks to the flattering paint brush of the imagination, the cold skeleton of reason takes on rosy, living flesh. Through the imagination, the sciences flourish and grow in beauty; it makes woods speak, echoes sigh, marble breathe, and rocks cry; all inanimate bodies take on life. It is imagination once again that adds the piquant allure of sensuality to the tenderness of an amorous heart. Imagination causes the germination of sensuality in the dusty studies of philosophers and pedants. Finally, imagination forms learned men as well as orators and poets.
[Par elle, par son pinceau flatteur, le froid squelette de la raison prend des chairs vives et vermeilles; par elle les sciences fleurissent, les arts s’embellissent, les bois parlent, les échos soupirent, les rochers pleurent, le marbre respire, tout prend vie parmi les corps inanimés. C’est elle encore qui ajoute à la tendresse d’un cœur amoureux le piquant attrait de la volupté; elle la fait germer dans le cabinet du philosophe, et du pédant poudreux; elle forme enfin les savants comme les orateurs et les poëtes.]
Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751) French physician and philosopher
L’homme machine [Man a Machine] (1747) [tr. Watson/Rybalka (1994)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:By [imagination's] flattering pencil the cold skeleton of abstract reason assumes living and vermillion flesh; by it the sciences flourish, arts are embellished, woods speak, echoes sigh, rocks weep, marbles breaths, and all the inanimate bodies are suddenly inspired with life. 'Tis it that adds to the tenderness of an amourous heart the poignant taste of pleasures; it makes love bud in the cabinet of the philosopher and dusty pedant: in fine it forms the scientific men as well as orators, and poets.
[ed. Owen (1746)]By the imagination, by its flattering brush, the cold skeleton of reason takes on living and ruddy flesh, by the imagination the sciences flourish, the arts are adorned, the wood speaks, the echoes sigh, the rocks weep, marble breathes, and all inanimate objects gain life. It is imagination again which adds the piquant charm of voluptuousness to the tenderness of an amorous heart; which makes tenderness bud in the study of the philosopher and of the dusty pedant, which, in a word, creates scholars as well as orators and poets.
[tr. Bussey (1912)]Thanks to the imagination, to its flattering touch, the cold skeleton of reason acquires living rosy flesh; thanks to it the sciences flourish, the arts are embellished, woods speak, echoes sign, rocks weep, marble breaths and all inanimate objects come to life. It is, again, the imagination that adds to the tenderness of a loving heart the spicy attraction of sensuality. It makes it flower in the study of the philosopher or the dry-as-dust pedant, and it moulds scientists as well as orators and poets.
[tr. Thomson (1996); Machine Man]
We must overcome our fear of each other by seeking out the humanity within each of us. The human heart contains every possibility of race, creed, language, religion and politics. We are one in our commonalities. Must we always fear our differences?
Dean Swift’s rule is as good for women as for men — never to talk above a half minute without pausing, and giving others an opportunity to strike in.
CYCLOPS: Are you the ones who went to punish Ilium on the Scamander for the theft of the worthless Helen?
ODYSSEUS: Yes, we are the ones who endured that terrible toil.
CYCLOPS: Disgraceful expedition, to sail for the sake of one woman to the land of the Phrygians!
ODYSSEUS: It was the doing of a god: blame no mortal for it.
[ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: ἦ τῆς κακίστης οἳ μετήλθεθ᾽ ἁρπαγὰς
Ἑλένης Σκαμάνδρου γείτον᾽ Ἰλίου πόλιν.ΟΔΥΣΣΕΥΣ: οὗτοι, πόνον τὸν δεινὸν ἐξηντληκότες.
ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: αἰσχρὸν στράτευμά γ᾽, οἵτινες μιᾶς χάριν
γυναικὸς ἐξεπλεύσατ᾽ ἐς γαῖαν Φρυγῶν.ΟΔΥΣΣΕΥΣ: θεοῦ τὸ πρᾶγμα: μηδέν᾽ αἰτιῶ βροτῶν.]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Cyclops [Κύκλωψ], l. 280ff (c. 424-23 BC) [tr. Kovacs (1994)]
(Source)
Regarding the Trojan War, as told in Homer's Illiad.
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:POLYPHEME:Are ye the men
Who worthless Helen's ravisher pursued
To Ilion's turrets on Scamander's bank?
ULYSSES: The same: most dreadful toils have we endured.
POLYPHEME: Dishonourable warfare; in the cause
Of one vile woman, ye to Phrygia sail'd.
ULYSSES: Such was the will of Jove; on no man charge
The fault.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]CYCLOPS: What, have ye shared in the unenvied spoil
Of the false Helen, near Scamander's stream?
ULYSSES: The same, having endured a woeful toil.
CYCLOPS: Oh, basest expedition! sailed ye not
From Greece to Phrygia for one woman's sake?
ULYSSES: 'Twas the Gods' work -- no mortal was in fault.
[tr. Shelley (1824)]CYCLOPS: Are ye the men who visited on Ilium, that bordereth on Scamander's wave, the rape of Helen, worst of women?
ODYSSEUS: We are; that was the fearful labour we endured.
CYCLOPS: A sorry expedition yours, to have sailed to the land of Phrygia for the sake of one woman.
ODYSSEUS: It was a god's doing; blame not any son of man.
[tr. Coleridge (1913)]CYCLOPS: Oho ! then you’re the men who went in search
Of Helen, who left her husband in the lurch,
And ran away to Ilium by Scamander?
ODYSSEUS: Yes: slippery fish -- hard work to hook and land her.
CYCLOPS: Yes -- and a most disgraceful exhibition
You made of your own selves! -- an expedition
To Phrygia, for one petticoat! -- disgusting!
ODYSSEUS: Don’t blame us men: it was the Gods’ on-thrusting.
[tr. Way (1916)]
Everybody keeps calling for Excellence — excellence not just in schooling, throughout society. But as soon as somebody or something stands out as Excellent, the other shout goes up: “Elitism!” And whatever produced that thing, whoever praises that result, is promptly put down. “Standing out” is undemocratic.
Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning, ch. 1 “Schooling No Mystery” (1991)
(Source)
INFIDEL, n. […] A kind of scoundrel imperfectly reverent of, and niggardly contributory to, divines, ecclesiastics, popes, parsons, canons, monks, mollahs, voodoos, presbyters, hierophants, prelates, obeah-men, abbés, nuns, missionaries, exhorters, deacons, friars, hadjis, high-priests, muezzins, brahmins, medicine-men, confessors, eminences, elders, primates, prebendaries, pilgrims, prophets, imaums, beneficiaries, clerks, vicars-choral, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, preachers, padres, abbotesses, caloyers, palmers, curates, patriarchs, bonzes, santons, beadsmen, canonesses, residentiaries, diocesans, deans, subdeans, rural deans, abdals, charm-sellers, archdeacons, hierarchs, class-leaders, incumbents, capitulars, sheiks, talapoins, postulants, scribes, gooroos, precentors, beadles, fakeers, sextons, reverences, revivalists, cenobites, perpetual curates, chaplains, mudjoes, readers, novices, vicars, pastors, rabbis, ulemas, lamas, sacristans, vergers, dervises, lecturers, churchwardens, cardinals, prioresses, suffragans, acolytes, rectors, curés, sophis, muftis, and pumpums.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Infidel,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)
Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-10-10).
During one Lent a youthful vicar came to preach in the cathedral at Digne and did so with some eloquence. His theme was charity. He urged the rich to give to the poor so that they might escape the torments of Hell, which he depicted in hideous terms, and attain to Paradise, which he made to sound altogether delightful, Among the congregation was a Monsieur Geborand, a wealthy and grasping retired merchant, who had made a fortune in the cloth-trade but had never been known to give anything to the poor. It was observed, after this sermon, that on Sundays he handed a single sou to the old beggar-women clustered outside the cathedral door. There were six of them to share it. Noting the event, the bishop smiled and said to his sister: “Monsieur Geborand is buying a penny-worth of Paradise.”
[Pendant un carême, un jeune vicaire vint à Digne et prêcha dans la cathédrale. Il fut assez éloquent. Le sujet de son sermon était la charité. Il invita les riches à donner aux indigents, afin d’éviter l’enfer, qu’il peignit le plus effroyable qu’il put, et de gagner le paradis, qu’il fit désirable et charmant. Il y avait dans l’auditoire un riche marchand retiré, un peu usurier, nommé M. Géborand, lequel avait gagné deux millions à fabriquer de gros draps, des serges, des cadis et des gasquets. De sa vie M. Géborand n’avait fait l’aumône à un malheureux. À partir de ce sermon, on remarqua qu’il donnait tous les dimanches un sou aux vieilles mendiantes du portail de la cathédrale. Elles étaient six à se partager cela. Un jour, l’évêque le vit faisant sa charité et dit à sa sœur avec un sourire : — Voilà monsieur Géborand qui achète pour un sou de paradis.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 1 “Fantine,” Book 1 “An Upright Man,” ch. 4 (1.1.4) (1862) [tr. Denny (1976)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Once, during Lent, a young vicar came to D---, and preached in the cathedral. The subject of his sermon was charity, and he treated it very eloquently. He called upon the rich to give alms to the poor, if they would escape the tortures of hell, which he pictured in the most fearful colours, and enter that paradise which he painted as so desirable and inviting. There was a retired merchant of wealth in the audience, a little given to usury, M. Geborand, who had accumulated an estate of two millions in the manufacture of coarse cloths and serges. Never, in the whole course of his life, had M. Geborand given alms to the unfortunate ; but from the date of this sermon it was noticed that he gave regularly, every Sunday, a penny to the old beggar women at the door of the cathedral. There were six of them to share it. The bishop chanced to see him one day, as he was performing this act of charity, and said to his sister, with a smile, “See Monsieur Geborand, buying a pennyworth of paradise.”
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]During one Lent a young vicar came to D.... and preached at the cathedral. He was rather eloquent, and the subject of his sermon was charity. He invited the rich to give to the needy in order to escape hell, which he painted in the most frightful way he could, and reach paradise, which he made desirable and charming. There was among the congregation a rich retired merchant, somewhat of an usurer, who had acquired $400,000 by manufacturing coarse cloths, serges, and caddis. In his whole lifetime M. Géborand had never given alms to a beggar, but after this sermon it was remarked that he gave every Sunday a cent to the old beggars at the cathedral gate. There were six women to share it. One day the bishop saw him bestowing his charity, and said to his sister, with a smile, “Look at M. Géborand buying a bit of paradise for a cent.”
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]In the course of one Lent, a youthful vicar came to Digne, and preached in the cathedral. He was tolerably eloquent. The subject of his sermon was charity. He urged the rich to give to the poor, in order to avoid hell, which he depicted in the most frightful manner of which he was capable, and to win paradise, which he represented as charming and desirable. Among the audience there was a wealthy retired merchant, who was somewhat of a usurer, named M. Geborand, who had amassed two millions in the manufacture of coarse cloth, serges, and woolen galloons. Never in his whole life had M. Geborand bestowed alms on any poor wretch. After the delivery of that sermon, it was observed that he gave a sou every Sunday to the poor old beggar-women at the door of the cathedral. There were six of them to share it. One day the Bishop caught sight of him in the act of bestowing this charity, and said to his sister, with a smile, "There is M. Geborand purchasing paradise for a sou."
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]Once, during Lent, a young vicar came to Digne, and preached in the cathedral. The subject of his sermon was charity, and he treated it very eloquently. He called upon the rich to give alms to the poor, if they were to escape the tortures of hell, which he pictured in the most fearful colors, and enter paradise, which he portrayed as desirable and inviting. There was a wealthy retired merchant at the service, somewhat inclined to usury, a M. Geborand, who had accumulated an estate of two million from manufacturing coarse cloth and woolens. Never in all his life had M. Geborand given alms to the unfortunate; but from the day of this sermon it was noticed that regularly every Sunday he gave a penny to the old beggar women at the door of the cathedral. There were six of them to share it. One day the bishop, seeing him perform this act of charity, said to his sister with a smile, 'There's Monsieur Geborand, buying a pennyworth of paradise."
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]Once, during Lent, a young vicar came to Digne and preached in the cathedral. He was quite eloquent. The subject of his sermon was charity. He urged the rich to give to the poor so to as avoid going to hell, which he depicted in the most dreadful terms he could, and to get to parasdise, which he represented as desirable and delightful. Among hsi audience was a somewhat tight-fisted retired wealthy merchant named Monsieur Géborand, who had amassed half a million in the manufacture of coarse cloth, serge, caddis and felt caps. Monsieur Géborand had never in his life been charitable to any poor unfortunate. After that sermon it was noticed he gave one sou every Sunday to the old beggar-women at the cathedral door. They had to share it between six of them. One day the bishop saw him making his donation and said to his sister with a smile, "There's Monsieur Géborand buying one sou's worth of paradise."
[tr. Donougher (2013)]
As for really new ideas of any kind — no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be — there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Part 2, ch. 10 “The Need for Aged Buildings” (1961)
(Source)
Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need — a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.
Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), ch. 3 (1889)
(Source)
MACBETH:The innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 48ff (2.2.48-52) (1606)
(Source)
Men whose only concern is other people’s opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste; some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery.
[Ceux qui rapportent tout à l’opinion ressemblent à ces comédiens qui jouent mal pour être applaudis, quand le goût du Public est mauvais. Quelques-uns auraient le moyen de bien jouer si le goût du Public était bon. L’honnête homme joue son rôle le mieux qu’il peut, sans songer à la galerie.]
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 141 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 117]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Those who refer everything to the opinion of others are like comedians who act badly, when the public taste is bad, in order to be applauded. Some of them could have acted well if the taste of the audience had been good. An upright man plays his part as excellently as he can, with no thought for the gallery.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]Those who defer in everything to the general opinion are like actors who act badly in the hope of applause, when the public’s taste is bad. Some of them would be able to act well, if the public’s taste were good. An honest man plays his part as well as he can, without a thought for the gallery.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]Those who refer everything to public opinion are like those actors who play badly in order to be applauded, when public taste is bad. some would have an opportunity to act well, if public taste were good. The respectable man plays his part as best he can, without thinking of the gallery.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]
Printer’s ink has been running a race against gunpowder these many, many years. Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries.
Christopher Morley (1890-1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist, poet
The Haunted Bookshop, ch. 6 [Roger Mifflin] (1919)
(Source)
Hee that marries for wealth sells his liberty.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 784 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
Eternal torment some sour wits foretell
For those who follow wine and love too well, —
Fear not, for God were left alone in Heaven
If all the lovely lovers burnt in hell.Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 127 [tr. Le Gallienne (1897)]
(Source)
I am fairly certain I am conflating two different quatrains below, Bodleian 127 (which mentions hypocrisy in the second line), and one not found in that manuscript (see the Whinfield translations). But both conclude with the sentiment that if lovers and drinkers are to be sent to Hell, then Heaven will be empty. Further discernment is left as an exercise for the reader.
This quatrain(s) is also unique in FitzGerald only offering a single go at translation, and that in just the 2nd ed.
Alternate translations:If but the Vine and Love-abjuring Band
Are in the Prophet's Paradise to stand,
Alack, I doubt the Prophet's Paradise
Were empty as the hollow of one's hand.
[tr. FitzGerald, 2nd Ed (1868), # 65; this does not appear in other editions before or after]Folk say that there is a hell. This is a vain error, in which no trust should be placed, for if there were a hell for lovers and for bibbers of wine, why heaven would be, from to-morrow morn, as empty as the hollow of my hand.
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 131]If wine be an unpardonable sin,
God help Khayyam and his wine-bibbing kin!
If all poor drouthy souls be lodged elsewhere,
Heaven's plains must be as bare as maiden's chin.
[tr. Whinfield (1882), # 33]Drunkards are doomed to hell, so men declare,
Believe it not, 'tis but a foolish scare;
Heaven will be empty as this hand of mine,
If none who love good drink find entrance there.
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 67]To drain the cup, to hover round the fair,
Can hypocritic arts with these compare?
If all who love and drink are going wrong,
There's many a wight of heaven may well despair!
[tr. Winfield (1883), #381]With Tales of future pains men threaten me,
They say there is a Hell in store for thee; --
Love, if there is a Hell for all like us,
Their Heaven as empty as my Palm will be.
[tr. Garner (1887), 1.19]To drink wine and consort with a company of the beautiful
is better than practising the hypocrisy of the zealot;
if the lover and the drunkard are doomed to hell,
then no one will see the face of heaven.
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 127]Better to drink, with fair maids wander free.
Than in deceit to practice piety;
If sots and lovers all in Hell will be.
Then who would wish the face of Heaven to see?
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 425]Tis better here with Love and Wine to sit
Than to become the zealous hypocrite;
If all who love or drink are doom'd to Hell,
On whom shall Heaven bestow a benefit?
[tr. Talbot (1908), # 127]Drinking wine and wooing fair ones
Is a better thing than the hypocrisy of fanatics.
If all who drink wine were to go to Hell
No one would then behold Paradise.
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 256]Better to drink and dance with rosy fairs,
Than cheat the folk with doubtful pious wares;
Tho' drunkards, so they say, are doomed to hell,
To go to heaven with cheats who ever cares?
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 10.88]They say lovers and drunkards go to hell,
A controversial dictum not easy to accept:
If the lover and drunkard are for hell,
Tomorrow Paradise will be empty.
[tr. Avery/Heath-Stubbs (1979), # 87]
I hope you’ll make mistakes. If you make mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something. And the mistakes in themselves can be very useful. I once misspelled Caroline, in a letter, transposing the As and the O, and I thought, “Coraline looks almost like a real name…”
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Speech (2012-05-17), Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia [09:17]
(Source)
Man has gradually become a fanciful animal, who has one more condition of existence to fulfil than any other animals: from time to time, man must think he knows why he exists; the human race cannot flourish without periodically renewed trust in life! Without believing in the reason in life!
[Der Mensch ist allmählich zu einem phantastischen Thiere geworden, welches eine Existenz -Bedingung mehr, als jedes andere Thier, zu erfüllen hat: der Mensch muss von Zeit zu Zeit glauben, zu wissen, warum er existirt, seine Gattung kann nicht gedeihen ohne ein periodisches Zutrauen zu dem Leben! Ohne Glauben an die Vernunft im Leben!]
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 1, § 1 (1882) [tr. Hill (2018)]
(Source)
Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.
(Source (German)). Alternate translations:Man has gradually become a visionary animal, who has to fulfil one more condition of existence than the other animals: man must from time to time believe that he knows why he exists; his species cannot flourish without periodically confiding in life! Without the belief in reason in life!
[tr. Common (1911)]Gradually, man has become a fantastic animal that has to fulfil one more condition of existence than any other animal: man has to believe, to know, from time to time why he exists; his race cannot flourish without a periodic trust in life -- without faith in reason in life.
[tr. Kaufmann (1974)]Man has gradually become a fantastic animal that must fulfil one condition of existence more than any other animal: man must from time tot time believes he knows why he exists; his race cannot thrive without a periodic trust in life -- without faith in the reason in life!
[tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]
Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness on the confines of two everlasting hostile empires, — Necessity and Free Will.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1832-08), “Goethe’s Works,” Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 19, Art. 1
(Source)
A review of Goethes Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe letzer Hand [Goethe's Works. Completed, Final Edition (1827-1830). Reprinted in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1845).
I hav larn’t one thing, bi grate experience, and that iz, I want as much watching az mi nabors do.
[I have learned one thing, by great experience, and that is, I want as much watching as my neighbors do.]Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 155 “Affurisms: Ink Lings” (1874)
(Source)
In H. Montague, ed., Wit and Wisdom of Josh Billings (1913), this is given:I've learned one thing from experience -- that I'll bear watching about as much as some of my neighbors.
It isn’t for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) American writer, pilot
Diary (1932-09-27), Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead (1973)
(Source)
Approximately six months after the kidnapping/murder of her son, Charles, Jr., and a month after the birth of her second son, Jon.
Give not thy Enemy Despair; for it is a weapon more dangerous than Valour it self.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 531 (1725)
(Source)
It is not a Fault in Company to talk much; but to continue it long, is certainly one; for, if the Majority of those who are got together be naturally silent or cautious, the Conversation will flag, unless it be often renewed by one among them, who can start new Subjects, provided he doth not dwell upon them, but leaveth Room for Answers and Replies.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
“Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation” (c. 1710)
(Source)
IMPUNITY, n. Wealth.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Impunity,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)
Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-09-19).
CYCLOPS: Little man, the wise regard wealth as the god to worship; all else is just prating and fine-sounding sentiments.
[ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: ὁ πλοῦτος, ἀνθρωπίσκε, τοῖς σοφοῖς θεός,
τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα κόμποι καὶ λόγων εὐμορφία.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Cyclops [Κύκλωψ], l. 316ff (c. 424-23 BC) [tr. Kovacs (1994)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:POLYPHEME:Vile caitiff,
Wealth is the deity the wise adore,
But all things else are unsubstantial boasts,
And specious words alone.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]CYCLOPS: Wealth, my good fellow, is the wise man's God, All other things are a pretence and boast.
[tr. Shelley (1824)]CYCLOPS: Wealth, manikin, is the god for the wise; all else is mere vaunting and fine words.
[tr. Coleridge (1913)]CYCLOPS: Wealth, master Shrimp, is to the truly wise
The one true god; the rest are mockeries
Of tall talk, naught but mere word-pageantries.
[tr. Way (1916)]
M. Myriel had to submit to the fate of every newcomer in a small town, where many tongues talk but few heads think.
[M. Myriel devait subir le sort de tout nouveau venu dans une petite ville où il y a beaucoup de bouches qui parlent et fort peu de têtes qui pensent.]Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 1 “Fantine,” Book 1 “An Upright Man,” ch. 1 (1.1.1) (1862) [tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]
(Source)
This quotation is often given with just the second clause ("Many tongues ..."), making a more general statement than the context provides.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:M. Myriel had to submit to the fate of every new-comer in a small town, where there are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]M. Myriel was fated to undergo the lot of every new-comer to a little town, where there are many mouths that speak, and but few heads that think.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]M. Myriel had to undergo the fate of every newcomer in a little town, where there are many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]He had to accept the fate of every newcomer to a small town where are plenty of tongues that gossip and few minds that think.
[tr. Denny (1976)]Monsieur Myriel had to undergo the fate of every newcomer to a small town where there are plenty of tongues given to wagging and very few minds given to reflection.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]
The Universe appears to be a device contrived for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village, Part 4, ch. 27 (1992)
(Source)
A number of variants can be found, e.g., "I sometimes think the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers" or "The universe: a device contrived for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers." The above is the only one I could find from a source by Clarke himself.
There are dangers in sentimentalizing nature. Most sentimental ideas imply, at bottom, a deep if unacknowledged disrespect. It is no accident that we Americans, probably the world’s champion sentimentalizers about nature, are at one and the same time probably the world’s most voracious and disrespectful destroyers of wild and rural countryside.
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Part 4, ch. 22 (1961)
(Source)
It always is wretched weather, according to us. The weather is like the Government, always in the wrong. In summer time we say it is stifling; in winter that it is killing; in spring and autumn we find fault with it for being neither one thing nor the other, and wish it would make up its mind. If it is fine, we say the country is being ruined for want of rain; if it does rain, we pray for fine weather. If December passes without snow, we indignantly demand to know what has become of our good old-fashioned winters, and talk as if we had been cheated out of something we had bought and paid for; and when it does snow, our language is a disgrace to a Christian nation. We shall never be content until each man makes his own weather, and keeps it to himself.
If that cannot be arranged, we would rather do without it altogether.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On the Weather” (1886)
(Source)
First published in Home Chimes (1885-07-11).
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 44ff (2.1.44-53) (1606)
(Source)
Don’t say “When I have time I will learn,” lest you never have time.
[וְאַל תֹּאמַר לִכְשֶׁאִפָּנֶה אֶשְׁנֶה, שֶׁמָּא לֹא תִפָּנֶה:]
Hillel (1st C. BC-1st C. AD) Jewish sage, rabbi [הלל]
Mishna, Seder Nezikin [Order of Damages], Pirkei Avot [Chapters of the Fathers] 2:4
(Source)
(Source (Hebrew)). Alternate translations:Say not, When I have leisure I will study; perchance thou mayest not have leisure.
[tr. Taylor (1897)]Say not: ‘when I shall have leisure I shall study;’ perhaps you will not have leisure.
[tr. Gorfinkle (1913)]Say not: ‘when I shall have leisure I shall study;’ perhaps you will not have leisure.
[tr. Kulp]Do not say: When I can free myself [of my affairs] I shall learn (Torah); perhaps you will not free yourself.
[tr. Shraga Silverstein]Do not say, "When I will be available I will study [Torah]," lest you never become available.
[Open Mishnah]Do not say "When I have leisure, I will study," perhaps you will not have leisure.
[Source]Say not, "When I have free time I shall study"; for you may perhaps never have any free time.
A book is the only place I know in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear that it will go off in your face. It is one of the few sources of information left that is served up without the silent black noise of a headline, the doomy hullabaloo of a commercial. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.
Administrivia: Slow Traffic Ahead
My website host has shifted me to a new server which seems to be less well provisioned configured quite a bit differently than the one I was previously on, meaning that access to the site was very slow (if not actually timing out) over the weekend. I think I’ve gotten things battered into sufficient shape that I can actually post things (and have them readable), so, yay!
He that feares death lives not.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 781 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
Blame not this ball, impelled by bat’s hard blows,
That now to right and now to left it goes,
That One who wields the bat and smites the strokes
He knows what drives thee, yea He knows, He knows.Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات] [tr. Whinfield (1882), # 204]
(Source)
This metaphor of life as a polo game appears in some translations of the Rubaiyat (particularly FitzGerald), but not in the Bodleian manuscript.
Alternate translations:The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes;
And He that toss'd Thee down into the Field,
He knows about it all -- He knows -- HE knows!
[tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859), # 50]The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes;
And He that toss'd you down into the Field,
He knows about it all -- HE knows -- HE knows!
[tr. FitzGerald, 2nd ed. (1868), # 75; 3rd ed. (1872), 4th ed. (1879), 5th ed. (1889 ed.), # 70]Man, like a ball, hither and thither goes,
As fate's resistless bat directs the blows;
But He, who gives thee up to this rude sport,
He knows what drives thee, yea, He knows, He knows!
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 401]Oh thou who art driven like a ball, by the bat of
Fate, go to the right or left -- drink wine and say
nothing, for that One who flung thee into the run
and search (mêlée) he knows, he knows, he knows, he -- .
[tr. Garner (1895 ms)]O thou who art gone to the club of fate like a ball!
Go to the left and to the right; but say nothing;
For He that threw thee down amidst the galloping,
He knows, and He knows, and He knows, and He --
[tr. Rodwell (1931) # 50/70]Whirling like a ball before the mallet of Fate, go running to right and left, and say nothing; for he that hurled thee into the chase, He knows, and He knows, and He knows!
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 43]Do not despair because to left and right
Fate drives you onward with his ballet-blows,
For He who flung you out into the fray,
He knows the game's technique -- He knows, He knows.
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 43]In the cosmic game of polo you are the ball
The mallet’s left and right becomes your call
He who causes your movements, your rise and fall
He is the one, the only one, who knows it all.
[tr. Shahriari (1998), literal]In the cosmic there is a flow
To which you must submit and bow
And though you act in this show
And seem to move to and fro
The plot you’ll never get to know
The only way you get to grow
Align yourself with this flow.
[tr. Shahriari (1998), figurative]
What does your conscience say? You should become who you are.
[Was sagt dein Gewissen? — „Du sollst der werden, der du bist.”]Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 3, § 270 (1882) [tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]
(Source)
Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.
(Source (German)). Alternate translations:What Saith thy Conscience? -- "Thou shalt become what thou art."
[tr. Common (1911)]What does your conscience say? -- "You shall become the person you are."
[tr. Kaufmann (1974)]What does your conscience say? "You shall become who you are."
[tr. Hill (2018)]
After all, brevity is the soul of wit! There is endless merit in a man’s knowing when to have done. The stupidest man, if he will be brief in proportion, may fairly claim some hearing from us: he too, the stupidest man, has seen something, heard something, which is his own, distinctly peculiar, never seen or heard by any man in this world before; let him tell us that, and if it were possible, nothing more than that, — he , brief in proportion shall be welcome!
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1843-07), “Dr. Francia,” Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 62, Art. 12
(Source)
Reviewing Rengger and Longchamp, Essai Historique sur la Révolution de Paraguay , et le Gouvernement Dictatorial du Docteur Francia (1827), et al.
Reprinted in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1845).
See Shakespeare.
Revenge sumtimes sleeps, but vanity always keeps one eye open.
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 155 “Affurisms: Ink Lings” (1874)
(Source)
When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thick skinned, to learn that not every project will survive. A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out a hundred things for every bottle that winds up coming back.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Speech (2012-05-17), Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia [04:53]
(Source)
I believe there is no devil but fear.
Therefore ye Furies who with vengeful ire
Visit men’s deeds, whose brows with serpents crowned
Show the heart’s blast of wrath, haste hither, haste,
And listen to the words of my complaint
Forced from the depths of my unhappy heart,
O! helpless, burning, blinded, frenzied me!
But since it is God’s truth my heart reveals,
Suffer not yet my woe to come to nought,
But ev’n as Theseus left me desolate,
Such desolation whelm his life, his home.[Quare, facta virum multantes vindice poena
Eumenides, quibus anguino redimita capillo
frons exspirantis praeportat pectoris iras,
huc huc adventate, meas audite querelas,
quas ego, vae miserae, extremis proferre medullis
cogor inops, ardens, amenti caeca furore.
Quae quoniam verae nascuntur pectore ab imo,
vos nolite pati nostrum vanescere luctum,
sed quali solam Theseus me mente reliquit,
tali mente, deae, funestet seque suosque.]Catullus (c. 84 BC – c. 54 BC) Latin poet [Gaius Valerius Catullus]
Carmina # 64 “The Nuptuals of Peleus and Thetis,” ll. 193-202 [tr. MacNaghten (1925)]
(Source)
Ariadne's curse on Theseus, who abandoned her on a desert island after she eloped with him.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:And you, Eumenides, with snaky hair,
Who for men's crimes due chastisements prepare;
Whose inward rage sits pictur'd on your brows;
O, hither come, and listen to my woes!
Woes pour'd in torture from my inmost soul,
Where burning phrenzy, and wild tumult roll!
Rack'd is this breast with no fictitious pain;
Then hear my pray'r, just maids, nor hear in vain!
And grant that Theseus, and his race may share
Such fate accurst, as now I'm doom'd to bear!
[tr. Nott (1795)]Ye, who avenge their crimes on all mankind,
Furies, whose hair with angry snakes entwined
Paint on the threatening brow the hell-born breast,
Haste, hither haste, and hear my fell request.
'Tis helpless frenzy, senseless, blind despair;
Teach me, 'tis all that's left, my frantic prayer;
Rend from my secret heart each cold restraint,
And pour forth all my soul in my complaint.
Since then it warmly flows from heartfelt pain,
Let me not speak my rage, my grief in vain;
But grant, that still the reckless, ruthless mind
Which made him fly, and leave a wretch behind,
May guide, may urge his life with headlong pace,
Till Theseus curse alike himself and all his race
[tr. Lamb (1821)]Come ye that wreak on man his guilt with retribution dire,
Ye maids, whose snake-wreathed brows bespeak your bosoms' vengeful ire!
Come ye , and hearken to the curse which I, of sense forlorn,
Hurl from the ruins of a heart with mighty anguish torn!
Though there be fury in my words, and madness in my brain,
Let not my cry of woe and wrong assail your ears in vain!
Urge the false heart that left me here still on with head long chase
From ill to worse, till Theseus curse himself and all his race!
[tr. T. Martin (1861)]Ye powers ! who to the crimes of men dire chastisement assign;
Eumenides! around whose heads the snaky ringlets twine;
Whose brows portray the hellish wrath that rankles in your breast;
Oh! hither, hither haste, and list to this the sad request
Which from my inmost soul, alas! to misery consigned,
I'm forced to pour -- a helpless wretch, with burning madness blind;
And since even from my bosom's depths these bursts of anguish stream,
Oh, doom them not to vanish like an airy, idle dream,
But let him in that soul, in which he has abandon'd me,
Bring on himself and all his race death and black infamy.
[tr. Cranstoun (1867)]Then, O sworn to requite man's evil wrathfully, Powers
Gracious, on whose grim brows, with viper tresses inorbed,
Looks red-breathing forth your bosom's feverous anger;
Now, yea now come surely, to these loud miseries harken,
All I cry, the afflicted, of inmost marrow arising,
Desolate, hot with pain, with blinding fury bewilder'd.
Yet, for of heart they spring, grief's children truly begotten,
Verily, Gods, these moans you will not idly to perish.
But with counsel of evil as he forsook me deceiving,
Death to his house, to his heart, bring also counsel of evil.
[tr. Ellis (1871)]Therefore, O you who 'venge man's deed with penalties direful,
Eumenides! aye wont to bind with viperous hairlocks
Foreheads, -- Oh, deign outspeak fierce wrath from bosom outbreathing,
Hither, Oh hither, speed, and lend you all ear to my grievance,
Which now sad I (alas!) outpour from innermost vitals
Maugre my will, sans help, blind, fired with furious madness.
And, as indeed all spring from veriest core of my bosom,
Suffer you not the cause of grief and woe to evanish;
But with the Will wherewith could Theseus leave me in loneness,
Goddesses! bid that Will lead him, lead his, to destruction.
[tr. Burton (1893)]Wherefore you requiters of men's deeds with avenging pains, O Eumenides, whose front enwreathed with serpent-locks blazons the wrath exhaled from your bosom, come here, here, listen to my complaint, which I, sad wretch, am urged to outpour from my innermost marrow, helpless, burning, and blind with frenzied fury. And since in truth they spring from the very depths of my heart, be unwilling to allow my agony to pass unheeded, but with such mind as Theseus forsook me, with like mind, O goddesses, may he bring evil on himself and on his kin.
[tr. Smithers (1894)]Therefore , O ye that visit the deeds of men with vengeful pains, ye Eumenides, whose foreheads bound with snaky hair bear on their front the wrath which breathes from your breast, hither, hither haste, hear my complaints which I ( ah , unhappy!) utter from my inmost heart perforce, helpless, burning, blinded with raging frenzy. For since my woes come truthfully from the depths of my heart, suffer not ye my grief to come to nothing but even as Theseus left me desolate, so, goddesses, may he bring ruin on himself and his own!
[tr. Warre Cornish (1904)]Wherefore, ye Furies, ye who on men's sin
Due punishment inflict, whose very hair
In viper's form reveals the rage within,
Hither in judgment come and hear my prayer;
The only outlet for my helpless wrath,
As blind with rage I burn and pour it forth.
And as I launch my curses from my soul,
I charge you guard them till they reach their goal;
God grant the shallow heart that left me here
Bring death on those that Theseus holds most dear.
[tr. Symons-Jeune (1923)]Ye, then, who vindicate their deeds of shame
On guilty men; whose vengeance-breathing breast
Speaks in the snaky hair, the withering flame:
Come, Furies, come! Give ear to the request
An injured woman makes, with maddening woe oppressed.
Since forced by sad misfortune I complain;
Since deep and true the sorrows that I bear;
Ah, let not my petition be in vain!
Let the vile author of my misery share
As sad a fate, as gloomy a despair,
As brought his cruel deed on wretched me!
[tr. Wright (1926)]Hear me gods whose antiquity flows backward beyond the time of man, whose vengeance falls on all, O wake again
with snakes circling your foreheads and now releasing rivers of blood pouring from sightless eyes,
make these the signals of the anger (red coals in your breasts) that brings you out of the forgotten
womb of time. Hear what I say, look at my heart, wrapped round with flames, my soul in madness, O remember
these last words spoken from my heart, O gods! And as Theseus has now forgotten me, make him a stranger
to his own soul, so that the architecture of his mind falls to ruin.
[tr. Gregory (1931)]O Furies, charged with vengeance that punishes evil,
you whose bleak foreheads are girded with writhing serpents
which clearly display the outrage yo7ur cold hearts keep hidden,
come here to me quickly, listen to my lamentation,
which I deliver in pain from the depths of my passion,
unwilling forced to, afire, blinded with madness!
-- Since what I say is the truth, since I say it sincerely,
do not allow my lament to fade with out issue:
but just as Theseus carelessly left me to die here,
may that same carelessness ruin him and his dearest!
[tr. C. Martin (1979)]Therefore, you that punish with avenging price men's crimes,
Furies, Eumenides, whose brows, bound with serpents for tresses,
announce the rages of your panting chests,
Be here! Be here! Respond to my complaints
which I -- pitiful I -- am forced to bring out from my very bones,
helpless, burning, blind with mindless rage.
Since those are true-born from my deepest heart,
do not allow my suffering to gutter out.
Goddesses, may the same intent that left me behind, alone,
defile Theseus himself and his own with death.
[tr. Banks (1997)]So you Eumenides who punish by avenging
the crimes of men, your foreheads crowned
with snaky hair, bearing anger in your breath,
here, here, come to me, listen to my complaints,
that I, wretched alas, force, weakened, burning,
out of the marrow of my bones, blind with mad rage.
Since these truths are born in the depths of my breast,
you won’t allow my lament to pass you by,
but as Theseus left me alone, through his intent,
goddesses, by that will, pursue him and his with murder.
[tr. Kline (2001)]So, you whose vengeful exactions answer men's crimes, you Furies whose snake-wreathed brows announce the wrath gusting up from your secret hearts, I summon you here to me now: give ear to the complaints which I in my misery am forced to dredge up from the inmost core of my being -- helpless, burning, blinded by mindless frenzy. But since they're the true products of my private heart, don't let my grief all go for nothing; rather in just such a mood as Theseus abandoned me to my lonely fate, let him, goddesses, now doom both himnself and his!
[tr. Green (2005)]Wherefore, Eumenides, punishing the deeds of men with avenging penalty,
to whom the forehead having been encircled with snaky hair
carries forth angers breathing out of the chest,
here come here, hear my complaints,
which I , alas wretched, have been compelled to bring forth
from the bottom marrows helpless, burning, blind with crazy fury.
Since such things are being born from the deepest chest,
you don't suffer our grief to wane,
but with what type of mind Theseus left me alone,
let him pollute both himself and his own with death, goddesses
[tr. Wikisource (2018)]
In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? Or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians or surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered? Or what old ones have they advanced? What new constellations have been discovered by the telescopes of Americans? Who drinks out of American glasses? Or eats from American plates? Or wears American coats or gowns? or sleeps in American blankets? Finally, under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow-creatures may buy and sell and torture?
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Edinburgh Review, No. 65, Article 3 (1820-01)
(Source)
Review of Adam Seybert, Statistical Annals of the United States of America (1818).
IMPARTIAL, adj. Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Impartial,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)
Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-09-12).
A fresh hope is astir. From many quarters comes the call to a new kind of education with its initial assumption affirming that education is life — not a mere preparation for an unknown kind of future living. Consequently all static concepts of education which relegate the learning process to the period of youth are abandoned. The whole of life is learning, therefore education can have no endings,
Eduard C. Lindeman (1885-1953) American educator
The Meaning of Adult Education, ch. 1 (1926)
(Source)
CYCLOPS: I sacrifice to no one save myself and this belly, the greatest of deities; but to the gods, not I!
[ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: ἁγὼ οὔτινι θύω πλὴν ἐμοί, θεοῖσι δ᾽ οὔ,
καὶ τῇ μεγίστῃ, γαστρὶ τῇδε, δαιμόνων.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Cyclops [Κύκλωψ], l. 334ff (c. 424-23 BC) [tr. Coleridge (1913)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:POLYPHEME:To no other God except myself,
And to this belly, greatest of the Gods,
I sacrifice.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]CYCLOPS:To what other God but to myself
And this great belly, first of deities,
Should I be bound to sacrifice?
[tr. Shelley (1819)]CYCLOPS: I sacrifice to my great Self, sir Sprat,
And to no god beside -- except, that is,
My belly, greatest of all deities.
[tr. Way (1916)]CYCLOPS: I sacrifice to no god save myself --
And to my belly, greatest of deities.
[ed. Adams (1952)]CYCLOPS: I sacrifice to no one but myself -- never to the gods -- and to my belly, the greatest of divinities.
[tr. Kovacs (1994)]
As wealth grows, worry grows, and thirst for more wealth.
[Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam,
Maiorumque fames.]Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 3, # 16, l. 17ff (3.16.17-18) (23 BC) [tr. Michie (1963)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:With growing riches cares augment,
And thirst of greater.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]Care still attends encreasing store,
And craving Appetite for more
[tr. Creech (1684)]As riches grow, care follows: men repine
And thirst for more.
[tr. Conington (1872)]Care, and a thirst for greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]But as wealth into our coffers flows in still increasing store,
So, too, still our care increases, and the hunger still for more.
[tr. Martin (1864)]Care grows with wealth, with wealth the greed for more.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]The care of wealth, together with the thirst for more, attend increasing riches.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]But care with growing treasure grows,
And thirst for more.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]Wealth, the faster it grows, is but the prey of care,
And of lusting for more.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]Care follows growing wealth, and thirst for more.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]As riches grow, care follows, and a thirst
For more and more.
[tr. Marshall (1908)]Yet as money grows, care and greed for greater riches follow after.
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]Increase of wealth and greed bring on
Care.
[tr. Mills (1924)]But gold brings both greed and
Trouble on its back.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]The more the money grows the more the greed
Grows too; also the anxiety of greed.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]But with increasing wealth, follow
anxiety and greed for more and more.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]Anxiety, and the hunger for more, pursues
growing wealth.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame. To praise for the wrong possession or attribute can wound beyond amends.
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) American writer
To My Daughters, with Love, ch. 4 “First Meeting” (1967)
(Source)
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
Sonnet 43 “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,” ll. 9ff. (1920), The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems (1923)
(Source)
Originally published in Vanity Fair (1920-11).
If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish national poet
“Epitaph on My Own Friend and My Father’s Friend, William Muir in Tarbolton,” ll. 7-8 (1784-04), First Commonplace Book (1785).
(Source)
A mock epitaph for William Muir (1745-1793), a miller in Tarbolton and good friend to Burns' family.
The best smell is bread, the best savour, salt, the best love that of children.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 7841 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
In England such concepts as justice, liberty and objective truth are still believed in. They may be illusions, but they are very powerful illusions.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius, Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2 (1941)
(Source)
What counts now is not just what we are against, but what we are for. Who leads us is less important than what leads us — what convictions, what courage, what faith — win or lose. A man doesn’t save a century, or a civilization, but a militant party wedded to a principle can.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-07-21), Democratic National Convention, Chicago
(Source)
I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.
Custom is the law of one description of fools, and fashion of another; but the two parties often clash; for precedent is the legislator of the first, and novelty of the last.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 547 (1820)
(Source)
IDLENESS, n. A model farm where the devil experiments with seeds of new sins and promotes the growth of untried vices.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Idleness,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)
Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-08-29).
DEAR MISS MANNERS: Is it ever possible to be too polite?
GENTLE READER: When politeness is used to show up other people, it is reclassified as rudeness. Thus it is technically impossible to be too polite.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Miss Manners Rescues Civilization, ch. 13 “Tradition Moves Ahead” (1996)
(Source)
"Miss Manners's Parting Shot." Concluding words of the book.
There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.
If you are brave too often, people will come to expect it of you.
Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1966)
(Source)
God helps them that help themselves.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1736 ed.)
(Source)
Sometimes misattributed as a Biblical proverb. A modern variant is "God helps those that help themselves."
LADY MACBETH: Look like th’ innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ‘t.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 75ff (1.5.75-76) (1606)
(Source)
Her mind lives tidily, apart
From cold and noise and pain,
And bolts the door against her heart,
Out wailing in the rain.
Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It creates the failures. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.
The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one’s own — even more, one’s own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being.
Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) American journalist, essayist, author, political activist [b. Callie Russell Porter]
Ship of Fools, Part 3 [Freytag] (1962)
(Source)
It’s impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time.
Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1963)
(Source)
MACBETH: If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 1, sc. 7, l. 1ff (1.7.1-2) (1606)
(Source)
The fust intimashun i had that i waz gitting old waz, i found myself telling to mi friends the same storys over again.
[The first intimation I had that I was getting old was, I found myself telling to my friends the same stories over again.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 155 “Affurisms: Ink Lings” (1874)
(Source)
There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Introduction (1961)
(Source)
On urban planning that disregards actual needs for gratuitous features that please outside observers.
“It’s just Eeyore,” said Piglet. “I thought your Idea was a very good Idea.”
Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, because when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
House at Pooh Corner, ch. 6 “Eeyore Joins the Game” (1928)
(Source)
TEMPTATION. An irresistible force at work on a movable body.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Book of Burlesques, “The Jazz Webster” (1924)
(Source)
Variant:Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.
[Chrestomathy, ch. 30 "Sententiae" (1949)]
An Army of Trumpeters would give as great a Strength to a Cause, as this Confederacy of Tongue-Warriours; who like those military Musicians, content themselves with animating their Friends to Battel, and run out of the Engagement upon the first Onset.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Freeholder, No. 28 (1716-03-26)
(Source)
Regarding those supporting the Jacobite risings of the late 17th and early 18th Centuries.
Do not allow your children to mix drinks. It is unseemly and they use too much vermouth.
There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
The Summing Up, ch. 4 (1938)
(Source)
None are so desolate but something dear,
Dearer than self, possesses or possess’d
A thought, and claims the homage of a tear.George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 2, st. 24 (1812)
(Source)
When we think of loss we think of the loss, through death, of people we love. But loss is a far more encompassing theme in our life. For we lose not only through death, but also by leaving and being left, by changing and letting go and moving on. And our losses include not only our separations and departures from those we love, but our conscious and unconscious losses of romantic dreams, impossible expectations, illusions of freedom and power, illusions of safety — and the loss of our own younger self, the self that thought it would always be unwrinkled and invulnerable and immortal.
Judith Viorst (b. 1931) American writer, journalist, psychoanalysis researcher
Necessary Losses, Introduction (1986)
(Source)
I’m growing fonder of my staff;
I’m growing dimmer in the eyes;
I’m growing fainter in my laugh;
I’m growing deeper in my sighs;
I’m growing careless of my dress;
I’m growing frugal of my gold;
I’m growing wise; I’m growing, — yes, —
I’m growing old!
Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear: All of these increased opportunities — in employment, in education, in housing, and in every field — must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ of Federal law will run, we must abolish not some, but all racial discrimination. For this is not merely an economic issue, or a social, political, or international issue. It is a moral issue, and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the House.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1964-01-08), “State of the Union,” Joint Session of Congress, Washington, D. C.
(Source)
Law sutes consume time, and mony, and rest, and friends.
[Lawsuits consume time, and money, and rest, and friends.]
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 776 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
Gradually we become tired of the old, of what we safely possess, and we stretch out our hands again. Even the most beautiful scenery is no longer assured of our love after we have lived in it for three months, and some more distant coast attracts our avarice: possessions are generally diminished by possession.
[Wir werden des Alten, sicher Besessenen allmählich überdrüssig und strecken die Hände wieder aus; selbst die schönste Landschaft, in der wir drei Monate leben, ist unserer Liebe nicht mehr gewiss, und irgend eine fernere Küste reizt unsere Habsucht an: der Besitz wird durch das Besitzen zumeist geringer.]Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 1, § 14 (1882) [tr. Kaufmann (1974)]
(Source)
Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.
(Source (German)). Alternate translations:We gradually become satiated with the old, the securely possessed, and again stretch out our hands; even the finest landscape in which we live for three months is no longer certain of our love, and any kind of more distant coast excites our covetousness: the possession for the most part becomes smaller through possessing.
[tr. Common (1911)]We slowly grow tired of the old, of what we safely possess, and we stretch our our hands again; even the most beautiful landscape is no longer sure of our love after we have lived in it for three months, and some more distant coast excites our greed: possession usually diminishes the possession.
[tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]We gradually grow weary of the old, familiar things we securely hold, and again stretch forth our hands; even the most beautiful landscape lived in for three months is no longer assured of our love, and some more distant shore excites our avarice: what is had loses much in the having.
[tr. Hill (2018)]
… [T]he three great elements of modern civilization, Gunpowder, Printing, and the Protestant Religion ….
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“The State of German Literature,” Edinburgh Review No. 92, Art. 2 (1827-10)
(Source)
A review of Franz Horn's The Poetry and Oratory of the Germans, from Luther's Time to the Present (1822-1824), and Outlines for the History and Criticism of Polite Literature in German, 1790-1818 (1819).
Collected in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).
On the other hand, even if we cannot see beauty in particular measured results, we can already claim to see a certain beauty in the equations which describe general physical laws. For example, in the wave equation (20.9), there’s something nice about the regularity of the appearance of the x, the y, the z, and the t. And this nice symmetry in appearance of the x, y, z, and t suggests to the mind still a greater beauty which has to do with the four dimensions, the possibility that space has four-dimensional symmetry, the possibility of analyzing that and the developments of the special theory of relativity. So there is plenty of intellectual beauty associated with the equations.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 2, ch. 20 “Solutions of Maxwell’s Equations in Free Space,” sec. 20–3 “Scientific Imagination” (1964)
(Source)
We all git tired pretty soon looking at a goose standing on one leg.
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 155 “Affurisms: Ink Lings” (1874)
(Source)
Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him. If a man has not this quality, he will feel that majority opinion, or governmental opinion, is to be treated as infallible, and such a way of feeling, if it is general, makes both moral and intellectual progress impossible.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Authority and the Individual, Lecture 4 (1949)
(Source)
Collection, with some edits, of the inaugural Reith Lectures, BBC, "Authority and the Individual," No. 4 "The Conflict of Technique and Human Nature", 27:01 (1949-01-16).
Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.
George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Scenes of Clerical Life, “Janet’s Repentance,” ch. 6 (1857)
(Source)
Endeavour rather to get the Approbation of a few good Men, than the Huzza of the Mob.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 512 (1725)
(Source)
Greed is not good. Being rapacious doesn’t make you a capitalist, it makes you a sociopath. And in an economy as dependent upon cooperation at scale as ours, sociopathy is as bad for business as it is for society.
Nick Hanauer (b. 1959) American entrepreneur and venture capitalist [Nicolas Joseph Hanauer]
Lecture (2019-07) “The Dirty Secret of Capitalism — and a New Way Forward,” TEDsummit, Edinburgh
(Source)
(Source (Video), 14:19)
But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
The Letters of Peter Plymley, Letter 5 (1807)
(Source)
IGNORAMUS, n. A person unacquainted with certain kinds of knowledge familiar to yourself, and having certain other kinds that you know nothing about.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Ignoramus,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)
Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-08-29).
I had been gone a fortnight when the telegram was put into my hands. I had got a letter from my sister, a few hours before, saying that all was well at home. The telegram said in five words that she had died suddenly the previous night. There was no mention of my mother, and I was three days’ journey from home.
The news I got on reaching London was this: my mother did not understand that her daughter was dead, and they were waiting for me to tell her.J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Margaret Ogilvy, ch. 10 “Art Thou Afraid His Power Shall Fail?” (1896)
(Source)
The book is a biographical work about his mother and family.
The need for a body of common knowledge and common reference does not disappear when a society is largely pluralistic, as ours has become. On the contrary, it grows more necessary, so that people of different origins and occupation may quickly find familiar ground and, as we say, speak a common language. It not only saves time and embarrassment, but it also ensures a kind of mutual confidence and good will. One is not addressing an alien, blank as a stone wall, but a responsive creature whose mind is filled with the same images, memories, and vocabulary as oneself.
Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
“Of What Use the Classics Today?,” Lecture, St. John’s College (1987-07-17)
(Source)
Collected in Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning (1991).
True or false, what is said about men often figures as large in their lives, and above all in the fate that befalls them, as what they do.
[Vrai ou faux, ce qu’on dit des hommes tient souvent autant de place dans leur vie et souvent dans leur destinée que ce qu’ils font.]Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 1 “Fantine,” Book 1 “An Upright Man,” ch. 1 (1.1.1) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Be it true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]What is said of men, whether it be true or false, often occupies as much space in their life, and especially in their destiny, as what they do.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]What is reported of men, whether it be true or false, may play as large a part in their lives, and above all in their destiny, as the things they do.
[tr. Denny (1976)]Whether true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and particularly on their destinies, as what they do.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]
Unity, like so many good things, is good only in moderation. The same can be said of disunity.
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
Dark Age Ahead, ch. 1 “The Hazard” (2004)
(Source)
The rich are like beasts of burden, carrying treasure all day, and at the night of death unladen; they carry to their grave only the bruises and marks of their toil.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
(Attributed)
I could not find something similar to this in searches of Augustine's writings. The usual earliest citation for this wording is Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, ed., Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895). But it previously shows up in Edward Payson Tenney, Jubilee Essays: A Plea for the Unselfish Life, "The Retributions" (1862), though again with no original citation.
See, in contrast, Matthew 11:28-30.
