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.James Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist
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.
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 11:28-30 [JB (1966)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
[KJV (1611)]
Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.
[GNT (1976)]
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.
[NJB (1985)]
Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.
[CEB (2011)]
Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
We are so bound together that no man can labor for himself alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf helps to mold the Universe.
Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Getting on in the World” (1886)
(Source)
First published in Home Chimes (1885-01-24).
MACBETH: If we should fail —
LADY MACBETH: We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 1, sc. 7, l. 68ff (1.7.68-71) (1606)
(Source)
The sticking-place on a crossbow was where the bowstring was screwed or wound to prior to its bolt being shot.
The line was most famously revived by Howard Ashman in the lyrics to "The Mob Song [Kill the Beast]" in Beauty and the Beast (1991). Lin-Manuel Miranda also included the line (amidst many other Macbeth references) in Hamilton (2015), in the song "Take a Break."
Poets, orators, even philosophes, say the same things about fame we were told as boys to encourage us to win prizes. What they tell children to make them prefer being praised by their nannies to eating jam tarts is the same idea constantly drummed into us to encourage us to sacrifice our real interests in the hope of being praised by our contemporaries or by posterity.
[Ce que les poètes, les orateurs, même quelques philosophes nous disent sur l’amour de la Gloire, on nous le disait au Collège, pour nous encourager à avoir les prix. Ce que l’on dit aux enfans pour les engager à préférer à une tartelette les louanges de leurs bonnes, c’est ce qu’on répète aux hommes pour leur faire préférer à un intérêt personnel les éloges de leurs contemporains ou de la postérité.]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. 1, ¶ 85 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 69]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
The things which poets, orators, and even a few philosophers tell us about the love of Glory, are exactly the things we are told at College to encourage us to win prizes. And what they say to children to make them prefer the praise of their nurses to a tartlet, they repeat to grown men to make them prefer the eulogy of their fellows or of posterity to personal advantage.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]
All that the poets, the orators, and even certain philosophers tell us about the love of fame we were told at school to urge us to win prizes. All that is said to encourage children to prefer the praise of their mentors to a piece of pie is repeated to men to make them consider their personal profit less desirable than the plaudits of their contemporaries and of posterity.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]
Things said by poets, orators, even some philosophers, about love of glory, were told to us at the Collège to encourage us to win prizes. What children are told to incline them to prefer a slice of tart to their nurses' approval, is the same as what men are repeatedly told to make them put the commendation of their contemporaries, or that of posterity, before their personal interest.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]
What poets, orators, even several philosophers have said about the love of fame, was told to us at school to encourage us to win prizes.
[tr. Dusinberre (1992)]
What poets, orators, and even philosophers say to us about love of glory is the same as what people said to us in the colleges to encourage us to compete for prizes. What people tell children to make them prefer the praise of their nurses to something silly is the same thing that people repeat to men to make them prefer the praise of their contemporaries or of posterity to their own self-interest.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]
A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.
Henry Miller (1891-1980) American novelist
The Books in My Life, ch. 1 “They Were Alive and They Spoke to Me” (1952)
(Source)
I will explain myself more clearly, — the Germans add, when they have explained themselves clearly.
[Ich will mich deutlicher erklären, setzen die Deutschen hinzu, wenn sie sich deutlich erklärt haben.]
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
Titan, Jubilee 31, cycle 122 [Schoppe] (1803) [tr. Brooks (1863)]
(Source)
Let Tom and Jane not think, because they see
one man is picking pockets and another
is offering all his goods to charity,
that they can judge their neighbors with God’s eyes:
for the pious man may fall, and the thief may rise.[Non creda donna Berta e ser Martino,
per vedere un furare, altro offerere,
vederli dentro al consiglio divino;
ché quel può surgere, e quel può cadere.]Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 3 “Paradiso,” Canto 13, l. 139ff (13.139-142) [Thomas Aquinas] (1320) [tr. Ciardi (1970)]
(Source)
Berta and Martino were common names in Dante's era, and stand in for "ordinary people" (with a sarcastic hint of pretension by giving them minor titles). Most translators use a straight translation of the names to Bertha and Martin; others change them to something more modern to reflect their everyman status.
(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:
The pious man
May fail ; the Penitent, altho' by spoil
He liv'd, may purchase Heav'n by arduous toil
Ere death: it is not our's their fate to scan.
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 24]
Seeing one steal,
Another bring, his offering to the priest,
Let not Dame Bertha and Sir Martin thence
Into heav’n’s counsels deem that they can pry:
For one of these may rise, the other fall.
[tr. Cary (1814)]
Let not Nun Bertha and Saint Martin try,
Seeing one offer, and another steal,
The counsel of the heaven from that to tell:
For this may rise again, and that may fall.
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]
Let not Dame Bertha nor Ser Martin think,
Seeing one steal, another offering make,
To see them in the arbitrament divine;
For one may rise, and fall the other may.
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]
Let not Dame Bertha and Master Martin deem, for seeing one steal, another make offerings, that they are seeing them within the Divine counsel; for that one may be exalted and this may fall.
[tr. Butler (1885)]
Let not Dame Bertha nor Sir Martin deem,
Because they see one rob, another pray,
That they can pry within the will supreme;
For one can rise, and one can fall away.
[tr. Minchin (1885)]
Let not dame Bertha and master Martin, seeing one rob, and another make offering, believe to see them within the Divine counsel: for the one may rise and the other may fall.
[tr. Norton (1892)]
Let not Dame Bertha or Squire Martin think, if they perceive one steal and one make offering, they therefore see them as in the divine counsel; for the one yet may rise and the other fall.
[tr. Wicksteed (1899)]
Let not Dame Bertha and Master Martin, when they see one rob and another make an offering, think they see them within the divine counsel; for the one may rise and the other fall.
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]
Let no Dame Bertha or Sir Martin deem,
Because they see one steal and one give all,
They see as divine forethought seéth them;
For the one yet may rise and the other fall.
[tr. Binyon (1943)]
Let Jack and Jill not think they see so far
That, seeing this man pious, that a thief,
They see them such as in God's sight they are,
For one may rise, the other come to grief.
[tr. Sayers/Reynolds (1962)]
Let not dame Bertha and squire Martin, if they see one steal and one make offering, believe to see them within the Divine Counsel: for the one may rise and the other may fall.
[tr. Singleton (1975)]
Let not every Bertha and Martin think
Because they see one a thief, another respectable,
That they see how they are in the eyes of God;
For one may rise, and the other one may fall.
[tr. Sisson (1981)]
Let not Dame Bertha or Master Martin think
that they have shared God’s Counsel when they see
one rob and see another who donates:
the last may fall, the other may be saved.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1984)]
No Mr. or Miss Know-It-All should think,
when they see one man steal and one give alms
that they are seeing them through God's own eyes,
for one may yet rise up, the other fall.
[tr. Musa (1984)]
Let not dame Bertha and messer Martin believe, because they see one stealing, another offering, that they see them within God’s counsel,
for that one can rise up, and this one can fall.
[tr. Durling (2011)]
Do not let Jack and Jill think, that if they see someone steal or another make offering they therefore see them as Divine Wisdom does, since the one may still rise, and the other fall.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
And so when Mrs Smith and Mr Jones
see one man steal, another offer alms,
don’t let them think they see this in God’s plan.
The thief may rise, the other take a fall.
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2007)]
Let not Dame Bertha and Master Martin,
when they see one steal and another offer alms,
think that they behold them with God's wisdom,
for the first may still rise up, the other fall.
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]
Let not Mrs. Judy and Mister John,
Seeing one man steal but another before
The altar with offerings, think one is sinful,
The other's in Heaven -- for people rise and fall.
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
The man of firm and righteous will,
No rabble, clamorous for the wrong,
No tyrant’s brow, whose frown may kill,
Can shake the strength that makes him strong.[Iustum et tenacem propositi virum
non civium ardor prava iubentium,
non voltus instantis tyranni
mente quatit solida]Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 3, # 3, l. 1ff (3.3.1-4) (23 BC) [tr. Conington (1872)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
An honest and resolved man,
Neither a peoples tumults can,
Neither a Tyrants indignation,
Un-center from his fast foundation.
[tr. Fanshaw; ed. Brome (1666)]
Not the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not the aspect of a threatening tyrant can shake from his settled purpose the man who is just and determined in his resolution.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]
He that is just, and firm of will
Doth not before the fury quake
Of mobs that instigate to ill,
Nor hath the tyrant's menace skill
His fixed resolve to shake.
[tr. Martin (1864)]
Not the rage of the million commanding things evil,
Not the doom frowning near in the brows of the tyrant,
Shakes the upright and resolute man
In his solid completeness of soul.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]
Neither the fury of the populace, commanding him to do what is wrong, nor the face of the despot which confronts him, [...] shakes from his solid resolve a just and determined man.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]
The just man, in his purpose strong,
No madding crowd can bend to wrong.
The forceful tyrant's brow and word,
[...] His firm-set spirit cannot move.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]
Him who is just, and stands to his purpose true.
Not the unruly ardour of citizens
Shall shake from his firm resolution,
Nor visage of the oppressing tyrant.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]
The upright man holding his purpose fast,
No heat of citizens enjoining wrongful acts,
No overbearing despot's countenance,
Shakes from his firm-set mind.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]
The man that's just and resolute of mood
No craze of people's perverse vote can shake,
Nor frown of threat'ning monarch make
To quit a purposed good.
[tr. Marshall (1908)]
The man tenacious of his purpose in a righteous cause is not shaken from his firm resolve by the frenzy of his fellow citizens bidding what is wrong, not by the face of threatening tyrant.
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]
Who loves the Right, whose will is resolute,
His purpose naught can shake — nor rage of brute
Mob bidding him work evil; nor the eye
Of threatening despot
[tr. Mills (1924)]
A mob of citizens clamouring for injustice,
An autocrat's grimace of rage [...] cannot stagger
The just and steady-purposed man.
[tr. Michie (1963)]
The man who knows what's right and is tenacious
In the knowledge of what he knows cannot be shaken.
Not by people righteously impassioned
In a wrong cause, and not by menacings
Of tyrants' frowns.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]
The just man, tenacious in his resolve,
will not be shaken from his settled purpose
by the frenzy of his fellow citizens
imposing that evil be done,
or by the frown of a threatening tyrant.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]
The passion of the public, demanding what
is wrong, never shakes the man of just and firm
intention, from his settled purpose,
nor the tyrant’s threatening face.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
Neither the passion of citizens demanding crooked things,
Not the face of a threatening tyrant
Shakes the man who is righteous and set in purpose
From his strong mind.
[tr. Wikisource (2021)]
What did you expect? I don’t know why we’re so surprised. When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1968-04-08) to George Christian
(Source)
Regarding the continuing rioting after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., four days earlier.
Quoted in Nick Kotz, Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed America, ch. 14 (2005), from the author's interview with Christian.
Shew a good man his errour and he turnes it to a vertue, but an ill man doubles his fault.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 655 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
After awhile, when accusations are continually and sweepingly made against all men, good and bad, the public as a whole grow to believe that there is a little something bad about the decent man and that there is not much bad about the crook. No greater harm can be done to the body politic than by those men who, through reckless and indiscriminate accusation of good men and bad men, honest men and dishonest men alike, finally so hopelessly puzzle the public that they do not believe that any man in public life is entirely straight; while, on the other hand, they lose all indignation against the man who really is crooked.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-08-29) “The Nation and the States,” Colorado State Legislature, Denver
(Source)
Collected in Roosevelt, The New Nationalism, Part 1 (1910).