A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 276 (1955)
(Source)
Lazyness iz a good deal like money, — the more a man haz ov it the more he seems tew want.
[Laziness is a good deal like money — the more a man has of it, the more he seems to want.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-08 (1871 ed.)
(Source)
He that resolves to mend hereafter, resolves not to mend now.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)
(Source)
FAUSTUS: Si peccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas;
“If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there’s no truth in us.”
Why, then, belike we must sin,
And so consequently die.
Ay, we must die an everlasting death.Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 1, sc. 1 (sc. 1), l. 70ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)
(Source)
The quote is from the Bible, 1 John 1:8; Faustus ignores verse 9 which speaks of forgiveness.
The same words are used in the "B" text (w. 1594; pub. 1616), l. 68ff.
Writing fiction is definitely a universe disturber, and for the writer, first of all. My books push me and prod me and make me ask questions I might otherwise avoid. I start a book, having lived with the characters for several years, during the writing of other books, and I have a pretty good idea of where the story is going and what I hope it’s going to say. And then, once I get deep into the writing, unexpected things begin to happen, things which make me question, and which sometimes really shake my universe.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
(Source)
“Life,” he said, “is like a grapefruit.”
“Er, how so?”
“Well, it’s sort of orangey-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It’s got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have half a one for breakfast.”Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 4, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, ch. 23 (1984)
(Source)
Ford Prefect speaking with a creature in his dreams.
O man! as a citizen thou hast lived, and conversed in this great city the world. Whether just for so many years, or no, what is it unto thee? Thou hast lived (thou mayest be sure) as long as the laws and orders of the city required; which may be the common comfort of all.
[Ἄνθρωπε, ἐπολιτεύσω ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ ταύτῃ πόλει: τί σοι διαφέρει, εἰ πέντε ἔτεσιν ἢ τρισί; τὸ γὰρ κατὰ τοὺς νόμους ἴσον ἑκάστῳ.]
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 12, ch. 36 (12.36) (AD 161-180) [tr. Casaubon (1634), 12.27]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:Hark ye Friend; you have been a Burgher of this Great City; what's matter tho' you have lived in't but a few Years; if you have observ'd the Laws of the Corporation, the length or shortness of the Time, makes no difference.
[tr. Collier (1701)]You have lived, O man, as a denizen of this great state: Of what consequence to you, whether it be only for five years? What is according to the laws, is equal and just to all.
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]O! my friend, you have lived a citizen of this great commonwealth, the world; of what consequence is it to you, whether you have lived precisely five years or not? What is according to the laws of the community, is equal and just to all.
[tr. Graves (1792)]Man, thou hast been a citizen in this great state [the world]; what difference does it make to thee whether for five years [or three]? for that which is conformable to the laws is just for all.
[tr. Long (1862)]Hark ye friend; you have been a burgher of this great city, what matter though you have lived in it five years or three; if you have observed the laws of the corporation, the length or shortness of the time makes no difference.
[tr. Collier/Zimmern (1887)]Man, you have been a citizen of the great world city. Five years or fifty, what matters it? To every man his due, as law allots.
[tr. Rendall (1898)]You have lived, O man, as a citizen of this great city; of what consequence to you whether for five years or for three? What comes by law is fair to all.
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]Man, thou hast been a citizen in this World-City, what matters it to thee if for five years or a hundred? For under its laws equal treatment is meted out to all.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]Mortal man, you have been a citizen in this great City; what does it matter to you whether for five or fifty years? For what is according to its laws is equal for every man.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]O man, citizenship of this great world-city has been yours. Whether for five years or fivescore, what is that to you? Whatever the law of that city decrees is fair to one and all alike.
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]My friend, you have been a citizen of this great city [of the universe]. What difference if you live in it for five years or a hundred? For what is laid down in its laws is equitable for all.
[tr. Hard (1997 ed.; 2011 ed.)]You've lived as a citizen in a great city. Five years or a hundred -- what's the difference? The laws make no distinction.
[tr. Hays (2003)]Mortal man, you have lived as a citizen in this great city. What matter if that life is five or fifty years? The laws of the city apply equally to all.
[tr. Hammond (2006)]Man, you have been a citizen in this world city; what does it matter whether for five years or fifty? [...]
[tr. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (2004)]
The next stage in the development of a desirable form of sensitiveness is sympathy. There is a purely physical sympathy: a very young child will cry because a brother or sister is crying. This, I suppose, affords the basis for the further developments.
The two enlargements that are needed are: first, to feel sympathy even when the sufferer is not an object of special affection; secondly, to feel it when the suffering is merely known to be occurring, not sensibly present. The second of these enlargements depends mainly upon intelligence. It may only go so far as sympathy with suffering which is portrayed vividly and touchingly, as in a good novel; it may, on the other hand, go so far as to enable a man to be moved emotionally by statistics. This capacity for abstract sympathy is as rare as it is important.Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 1, ch. 2 “The Aims of Education” (1926)
(Source)
This (in the penultimate sentence) appears to be the origin of phrases such as:Sometimes attributed to George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde.
- "The of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics."
- "he mark of a civilized man is the ability to look at a column of numbers, and weep."
For more discussion, see: Quote Origin: It Is the Mark of a Truly Intelligent Person To Be Moved By Statistics – Quote Investigator®.
The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody’s guess.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American humorist, cartoonist, writer
Letter (1961-07-05) to Marianna Brown
(Source)
He that wrestleth with a turd shall be beshitt fall he over or under.
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659) [compiler]
(Source)
CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
BALOGNA-SAUSAGE, n. A dead dog that is better than a living lion, but not to eat.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Bologna-sausage,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-05-14)
(Source)
CHORUS: I hope the man who does not honour his friends, the man who does not open an honest heart to them, I hope that man dies a horrible, a miserable death. Such a man will certainly never be a friend of mine!
[ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: ἀχάριστος ὄλοιθ᾽ ὅτῳ πάρεστιν
μὴ φίλους τιμᾶν καθαρᾶν ἀνοί-
ξαντα κλῇδα φρενῶν: ἐμοὶ
μὲν φίλος οὔποτ᾽ ἔσται.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 659ff, Antistrophe 2 (431 BC) [tr. Theodoridis (2004)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Other translations:Perish the wretch devoid of worth.
Engrossed by mean and selfish ends.
Whose heart expands not, those he lov'd, to aid;
Never may I lament attachments thus repaid.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]Unpitied may he die,
Who to a friend assistance can deny;
Nor, to afflicted virtue kind,
Unlocks the treasures of his mind!
[tr. Potter (1814)]Let shameful blight
Slay him who gives not friends their right,
Unlocking them his heart's pure store:
Let him be friend of mine no more.
[tr. Webster (1868)]May he perish and find no favour, whoso hath not in him honour for his friends, freely unlocking his heart to them. Never shall he be friend of mine.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]Thankless may he perish who desires not to assist his friends, having unlocked the pure treasures of his mind; never shall he be friend to me.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]But he, who regardeth not friends, accursed may he perish, and hated,
Who opes not his heart with sincerity's key to the hapless-fated --
Never such shall be friend of mine!
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]Ah, but the man -- cursèd be he,
Cursèd beyond recover,
Who openeth, shattering, seal by seal,
A friend's clean heart, then turns his heel,
Deaf unto love: never in me
Friend shall he know nor lover.
[tr. Murray (1906)]Perish the fiend! whose iron heart
To fair Affection’s truth unknown,
Bids her he fondly lov’d depart,
Unpitied, helpless, and alone;
Who ne’er unlocks with silver key,
The milder treasures of his soul;
May such a friend be far from me,
And Ocean’s storms between us roll!
[tr. Byron (1907)]O let him die ungraced whose heart
Will not reward his friends,
Who cannot open an honest mind
No friend will he be of mine.
[tr. Warner (1944)]May dishonor and ruin fall on the man
Who, having unlocked the secrets
Of a friend's frank heart, can then disown him!
He shall be no friend of mine.
[tr. Vellacott (1963)]Perish unloved the one
who does not unlock a pure heart to friends;
No friend of mind will he ever be.
[tr. Podlecki (1989)]May that man die unloved who cannot honor his friends, unlocking to them his honest mind. To me at any rate he shall never be friend.
[tr. Kovacs (Loeb) (1994)]Untouched by grace or favour may he die, the man who cannot honour his loved ones, by opening a heart that harbours no guile! Never shall he be friend of mine.
[tr. Davie (1996)]Without grace may he perish who
does not treat his loved ones honorably
unbolting his heart in pure love.
He will never be a friend of mine.
[tr. Luschnig (2007)]The man who shames his family,
who does not open up his heart
and treat them in all honesty --
may he perish unlamented.
With him I never could be friends.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]May an ungrateful person be destroyed, one who does not honour family and friends when he has opened up their hearts and found them pure; may such a person never be my friend.
[tr. Ewans (2022)]May he perish without grace [kharis], whoever could treat his philoi without timē, not opening the key of his phrenes. Never will he be philos to me.
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]May that man die unloved who cannot honour his friends, unlocking to them his honest mind. To me at any rate he shall never be a friend.
[tr. Kovacs / Zhang / Rogak]
To answer before listening —
This is foolish and disgraceful.[מֵשִׁ֣יב דָּ֭בָר בְּטֶ֣רֶם יִשְׁמָ֑ע אִוֶּ֥לֶת הִיא־ל֝֗וֹ וּכְלִמָּֽה׃]
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 20. Proverbs 18:13 (Prov 18:13) [RJPS (2023 ed.)]
(Source)
See La Rochefoucauld (1665).
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:He that answereth a matter before he heareth it,
it is folly and shame unto him.
[KJV (1611)]To retort without first listening is folly to work one's own confusion.
[JB (1966)]To retort without first listening is both foolish and embarrassing.
[NJB (1985)]Listen before you answer. If you don't, you are being stupid and insulting.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]Those who answer before they listen
are foolish and disgraceful.
[CEB (2011)]If one gives answer before hearing,
it is folly and shame.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
When virtue is banished, ambition invades the hearts of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community.
[Lorsque cette vertu cesse, l’ambition entre dans les cœurs qui peuvent la recevoir, & l’avarice entre dans tous.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 3, ch. 3 (3.3) (1748) [tr. Nugent (1750)]
(Source)
Speaking of republics. See notes here on Montesquieu's meaning of "virtue": political virtue of love of country and of equality.
(Source (French)). Other translations:When that virtue ceases, ambition enters those hearts that can admit it, and avarice enters them all.
[tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]When that virtue ceases, ambition enters the hearts that can receive it, and avarice enters them all.
[tr. Stewart (2018)]
Dearer to me than the evening star
A Packard car
A Hershey bar
Or a bride in her rich adorning
Dearer than any of these by far
Is to lie in bed in the morning.Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “Introduction,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
(Source)
Whatever passion enters into a sentence or decision, so far will there be in it a tincture of injustice.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1713-07-04), The Guardian, No. 99
(Source)
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down,
And, in the dust, be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.James Shirley (1596–1666) English poet, playwright
Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for Achilles’s Armour, sc. 3, st. 1 (1659)
(Source)
Sung by Calchas over the body of Ajax.
The poem was eventually set to music by Edward Coleman. It was said to be a favorite of England's King Charles II, perhaps because it was said by some to have terrified Oliver Cromwell.
Titled as "Death's Final Conquest" in Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Book 3, No. 2 (1885). There the first line is given as "birth and state."
BASSANIO: In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 77ff (3.2.77-79) (1597)
(Source)
We are stubborn because we are narrow-minded; it is hard to believe what is beyond the scope of our vision.
[La petitesse de l’esprit fait l’opiniâtreté, et nous ne croyons pas aisément ce qui est au delà de ce que nous voyons.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶265 (1665-1678) [tr. Heard (1917), ¶273]
(Source)
This maxim was in the 1st (1665) edition (with the wording "... fait souvent l’opiniâtreté ...")
(Source (French)). Other translations:It is from a Weakness and Littleness of Soul, that Men are Stiff and Positive in their Opinions; and we are very loth to Believe, what we are not able to Comprehend, and make out to Our Selves.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶266]Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy: we do not easily believe beyond what we see.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶319; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶248]Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we believe no farther than we can see.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶458]Narrowness of mind is the cause of obstinacy -- we do not easily believe what is beyond our sight.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶276]A narrow mind begets obstinacy, and we do not easily believe what we cannot see.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶265]Obstinacy of opinion is due to want of intelligence; we find it difficult to believe what is beyond our mental horizon.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶265]A small mind is a stubborn mind; it is hard to believe what lies beyond our field of vision.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶265]A small mind becomes an obstinate mind: we find it hard to believe what lies beyond our understanding.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶265]Obstinacy comes from limited intelligence, and we do not readily believe what is beyond our field of vision.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶265]Narrowness of mind begets obstinacy; and we do not easily believe what we cannot see ourselves.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶]
We are told “God so loved the world” that he is going to damn almost everybody. If this orthodox religion be true, some of the greatest, and grandest, and best who ever lived are suffering God’s torments to-night. It does not appear to make much difference with the members of the church. They go right on enjoying themselves about as well as ever. If this doctrine is true, Benjamin Franklin, one of the wisest and best of men, who did so much to give us here a free government, is suffering the tyranny of God to-night, although he endeavored to establish freedom among men. If the churches were honest, their preachers would tell their hearers: “Benjamin Franklin is in hell, and we warn all the youth not to imitate Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, with its self-evident truths, has been damned these many years.”
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado
(Source)
Published as its own book in 1884.
To give the public what they do not want, and yet expect to be supported: we have there a strange pretension, and yet not uncommon, above all with painters. The first duty in this world is for a man to pay his way; when that is quite accomplished, he may plunge into what eccentricity he likes; but emphatically not till then.
In Books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream. Mighty fleets and armies, harbors and arsenals, vast cities, high-domed, many-engined, — they are precious, great: but what do they become? Agamemnon, the many Agamemnons, Pericleses, and their Greece; all is gone now to some ruined fragments, dumb mournful wrecks and blocks: but the Books of Greece! There Greece, to every thinker, still very literally lives: can be called up again into life. No magic Rune is stranger than a Book. All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-19), “The Hero as Man of Letters,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)
The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 5 (1841).
JO: I don’t believe it! It’s bigger inside than out!
THE DOCTOR: Yes. That’s because the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental.
JO: What does that mean?
THE DOCTOR: It means that it’s bigger inside than out.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
08×04 “Colony in Space,” Part 1 (1971-04-10) [w. Malcolm Hulke]
(Source)
(Source (Video); dialog confirmed).
The difference between the interior and exterior of the TARDIS was mentioned in the very first episode, 01x01 "An Unearthly Child" (1963), by Susan:I thought you'd both understand when you saw the different dimensions inside from those outside.
The first use of the "bigger [on the] inside" line was in 10x01 "The Three Doctors" (1972), when Sergeant Benton first goes inside, and the Third Doctor is actually the one to comment (video):Well, Sergeant, aren't you going to say it that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? Everybody else does.
(Which implies that others have said it before, we've just not seen it.)
Conversely, in (2005 revival) 10xCS "The Snowmen" (2012), Clara changes the perspective (video):CLARA: But it's. Look at it, it's --
THE DOCTOR: Go on, say it. Most people do.
(Clara makes a circuit of the exterior of the TARDIS, then steps back in.)
CLARA: It's smaller on the outside.
THE DOCTOR: Okay, that is a first.
A compilation of the theme can be found here.
There are greater forces and means for attacking than for defending the State. The reason is, that reckless and abandoned men need only a nod to set them moving, and their own natural disposition incites them against the State; while honest folk somehow or other show less activity, neglect the beginnings of movements, and are aroused to action at the last moment only by simple necessity; so that sometimes, owing to their hesitation and indolence, while they wish still to enjoy peace even with the loss of dignity, through their own fault they lose both.
[Maioribus praesidiis et copiis oppugnatur res publica quam defenditur, propterea quod audaces homines et perditi nutu impelluntur et ipsi etiam sponte sua contra rem publicam incitantur, boni nescio quo modo tardiores sunt et principiis rerum neglectis ad extremum ipsa denique necessitate excitantur, ita ut non numquam cunctatione ac tarditate, dum otium volunt etiam sine dignitate retinere, ipsi utrumque amittant.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Pro Sestio [For Publius Sestius], ch. 47 / sec. 100 (56-02 BC) [tr. Gardner (Loeb) (1958)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:The constitution is attacked with greater forces and troops than wherewith it is defended; because audacious and reckless characters are set on by a nod, and are even of their own accord incited against the constitution; whilst the good are for some reason or other slacker, and from having neglected the beginnings of things, are at last aroused to action by mere necessity; so that sometimes, while they are willing to retain their tranquility even without freedom, through their own fault they lose both from their hesitation and tardiness.
[tr. Hickie (1888)]The republic is attacked by greater forces and more numerous bodies than those by which it is defended; because audacious and abandoned men are impelled on by a nod, and are even of their own accord excited by nature to be enemies to the republic. And somehow or other good men are slower in action, and overlooking the first beginnings of things, are at last aroused by necessity itself; so that sometimes through their very delays and tardiness of movement, while they wish to retain their ease even without dignity, they, of their own accord, lose both.
[tr. Yonge (1891)]
Not being able to control events, I control myself, and adapt myself to them if they do not adapt themselves to me.
[Ne pouvant regler les evenemens, je me regle moy-mesme : & m’applique à eux, s’ils ne s’appliquent à moy.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Cohen (1958)]
(Source)
This essay appeared in the 1st (1580) edition, and was expanded in succeeding editions. This passage was added in the 2nd (1588) edition.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Being unable to direct events, I governe my selfe; and if they apply not themselves to me, I apply my selfe to them.
[tr. Florio (1603)]Not being to govern events I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they do not apply themselves to me.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]Being unable to regulate events, I regulate myself, and adapt myself to them if they do not adapt themselves to me.
[tr. Ives (1925)]Not being able to rule events, I rule myself, and adapt myself to them if they do not adapt themselves to me.
[tr. Frame (1943)]Not being able to control events I control myself: if they will not adapt to me then I adapt to them.
[tr. Screech (1987)]Since I cannot control events, I take control of myself and suit myself to them, if they do not suit me.
[tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012)]
Man iz mi brother, and i konsider that i am nearer related tew him through hiz vices, than i am through hiz virtews.
[Man is my brother, and I consider that I am nearer related to him through his vices, than I am through his virtues.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-07 (1871 ed.)
(Source)
Many complain of their Memory, few of their Judgment.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)
(Source)
Not an original sentiment from Franklin. See, for example, La Rochefoucauld (1666).
BAD ANGEL: He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure fall.
Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 4 (sc. 19), l. 2032 (5.4.2032) (1594; 1616 “B” text)
(Source)
This scene with the Bad Angel was added in the "B" text.
We need to dare disturb the universe by not being manipulated or frightened by judgmental groups who assume the right to insist that if we do not agree with them, not only do we not understand but we are wrong. How dull the world would be if we all had to feel the same way about everything, if we all had to like the same books, dislike the same books.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
(Source)
He gazed keenly into the distance and looked as if he would quite like the wind to blow his hair back dramatically at that point, but the wind was busy fooling around with some leaves a little way off.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 3, Life, the Universe, and Everything, ch. 2 (1982)
(Source)
Describing Ford Prefect.
Nothing exerts a stronger psychic effect upon the human environment, and especially upon children, than the life which the parents have not lived.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Lecture (1929-06), “Paracelsus,” Literary Club of Zurich, Paracelsus House, Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Switzerland [tr. Hull (1966)]
(Source)
(Publication notes.) Collected in The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature, Part 1, "Paracelsus," ¶ 3 (1929).
Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry. In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act. This state of mind is rather difficult: it requires a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy. But though difficult it is not impossible; it is in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when wide-spread, produce social disaster.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 1, ch. 2 “The Aims of Education” (1926)
(Source)
America must learn that humor, whatever form it may take, can be one of our strongest allies, but it cannot flourish in a weather of fear and hysteria and intimidation.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American humorist, cartoonist, writer
Essay (1958-12-07), “State of the Nation’s Humor: ‘On the Brink of Was,'” New York Times Magazine
(Source)
I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking. With equal truth it may be said that a first-rate mind is not one which does not remember the past, nor is it one which cannot forget the past; it is a mind which will use the past but not be ordered by it. It is a mind independent of everybody and everything but the facts in front of it. It is as little perturbed to find itself sharing a thought with the simple as it is elated to find itself sharing a thought with the subtle.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
War with Honour, Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940)
(Source)
Milne wrote this work in repudiation (or perhaps emendation) of his 1934 book, Peace with Honour, which argued that, given the tragedy of World War 1, that similar saber-rattling about the rise of Hitler's Germany was irresponsible and immoral. Having seen the course of fascism in the first years of World War 2, while still espousing pacifist principles, he saw Hitler as an evil that must be defeated.
CHORUS: May I know the blessing of a heart that is not passion’s slave; no fairer gift can the gods bestow. But may the dread Cyprian never inflict upon me quarrelsome moods and insatiable strife, firing my heart with love for a stranger; may she rather show respect for marriages where peace reigns and judge with a shrewd eye the loves of women.
ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: στέργοι δέ με σωφροσύνα, δώρημα κάλλιστον θεῶν:
μηδέ ποτ᾽ ἀμφιλόγους ὀργὰς ἀκόρεστά τε νείκη
θυμὸν ἐκπλήξασ᾽ ἑτέροις ἐπὶ λέκτροις
προσβάλοι δεινὰ Κύπρις, ἀπτολέμους δ᾽
εὐνὰς σεβίζουσ᾽ ὀξύφρων
κρίνοι λέχη γυναικῶν.Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 636ff, Second Stasimon, Antistrophe 1 (431 BC) [tr. Davie (1996)]
(Source)
The Cyprian goddess is an epithet for Aphrodite, who was born (in some versions) at Pamphros in Cyprus. The Chorus sings specifically here from the perspective of women.
(Source (Greek)). Other translations:May I in modesty delight,
Best present which the Gods can give.
Nor torn by jarring passions live
A prey to wrath and canker'd spite.
Still envious of a rival's charms,
Nor rouse the endless strife
While on my soul another Wife,
Impresses vehement alarms:
On us, dread Queen, thy mildest influence shed.
Thou who discern'st each crime that stains the nuptial bed.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]May no distracting thoughts destroy
The holy calm of sacred love!
May all the hours be winged with joy,
Which hover faithful hearts above!
Fair Venus! on thy myrtle shrine
May I with some fond lover sigh!
Whose heart may mingle pure with mine,
With me to live, with me to die!
[tr. Byron (1807)]The noblest present of the skies,
Be modest temperance mine:
May no unruly passions rise,
Nor pride and hate combine
Their baleful venom wide to spread,
And kindling rage and jealous strive,
Embitter all the joys of life,
In vengeance for the injur'd bed,
O Venus, prompt connubial peace t' approve,
And quick to mark the faults of wand'ring love!
[tr. Potter (1814)]But be my guardian chastity,
The god's best gift, nor let my mind,
By cruel Cypris forced awry,
The burden of hot anger find,
Of gnawing jealousy;
But may she, pleasured with calm wedded lives,
Wisely adjudge their lots to wives.
[tr. Webster (1868)]On me may chastity, heaven’s fairest gift, look with a favouring eye; never may Cypris, goddess dread, fasten on me a temper to dispute, or restless jealousy, smiting my soul with mad desire for unlawful love, but may she hallow peaceful married life and shrewdly decide whom each of us shall wed.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]But may temperance preserve me, the noblest gift of heaven; never may dreaded Venus, having smitten my mind for another's bed, heap upon me jealous passions and unabated quarrels, but approving the peaceful union, may she quick of perception sit in judgment on the bed of women.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]But let Temperance shield me, the fairest of gifts of the Gods ever-living:
Nor ever with passion of jarring contention, nor feuds unforgiving,
In her terrors may Love's Queen visit me, smiting with maddened unrest
For a couch mismated my soul: but the peace of the bride-bed be holden
In honour of her, and her keen eyes choose for us bonds that be best
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]The pent hate of the word that cavilleth,
The strife that hath no fill,
Where once was fondness; and the mad heart's breath
For strange love panting still:
O Cyprian, cast me not on these; but sift,
Keen-eyed, of love the good and evil gift.
Make Innocence my friend, God's fairest star,
Yea, and abate not
The rare sweet beat of bosoms without war,
That love, and hate not.
[tr. Murray (1906)]Let my heart be wise.
It is the gods’ best gift.
On me let mighty Cypris
Inflict no wordy wars or restless anger
To urge my passion to a different love.
[tr. Warner (1944)]Let Innocence, the gods' loveliest gift,
Choose me for her own;
Never may the dread Cyprian
Craze my heart to leave old love for new,
Sending to assault me
Angry disputes and feuds unending;
But let her judge shrewdly the loves of women
And respect the bed where no war rages.
[tr. Vellacott (1963)]Lady Restraint, befriend me (for it is the gods' greatest gift),
May Aphrodite never drive me to fight with my husband,
Striking my spirit with love of another man,
But do me the honor of making my marriage peaceful,
And decide shrewdly about women's loves.
[tr. Podlecki (1989)]May moderation attend me, fairest gift of the gods! May Aphrodite never cast contentious wrath and insatiate quarreling upon me and madden my heart with love for a stranger's bed. But may she honor marriages that are peaceful and wisely determine whom we are to wed!
[tr. Kovacs (Loeb) (1994)]I hope that wisdom, the most treasured gift the gods have given us, protects me from that misfortune!
And, Lady Aphrodite, don’t plant into my heart improper love and then send me all the curses that go with it: Hatred, jealousy, endless fights. Instead, dear Lady, protect marriage and grant honour to all the peace-loving couples.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]But I pray that composure be my friend,
the finest gift of the gods.
Dreaded Kypris, never hit me with quarrelsome angers
and insatiable strife,
after stinging my heart for another bed,
but honoring a match free of conflict, wisely discern
women’s love.
[tr. Luschnig (2007)]I pray that moderation,
the gods’ most beautiful gift,
will always guide me.
I pray that Aphrodite
never packs my heart with jealousy
or angry quarreling.
May she never fill me with desire
for sex in other people’s beds.
May she bless peaceful unions,
using her wisdom to select
a woman’s marriage bed.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]May self-control favor me, the gods' fairest gift; may fearful Aphrodite not strike me with angry quarrels and insatiable strife, stunning my heart with lust for someone else's bed; may she respect all peaceful marriage-beds when judging with her sharp mind where women make love.
[tr. Ewans (2022)]May I find favor with moderation [sōphrosunē], heaven’s fairest gift. And may deina Aphrodite never fasten on me a disputatious temper, or insatiable [without koros] quarrels, smiting my thūmos with a mad desire for unlawful loves. May she reverence peaceful unions, and sagaciously decide the marriages of women.
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]
And the important thing was that you never let down doing the best that you were able to do — it might be poor because you might not have very much within you to give, or to help other people with, or to live your life with. But as long as you did the very best that you were able to do, then that was what you were put here to do and that was what you were accomplishing by being here.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1951-12), “This I Believe: Growth that Starts from Thinking,” on Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe, CBS Radio
(Source)
(Source (Audio); start 3:04), The essay was read without a script.
Collected in Edward P. Morgan (ed.), This I Believe (1952).
Honest people will lead a full, happy life. But if you are a hurry to get rich, you are going to be punished.
אִ֣ישׁ אֱ֭מוּנוֹת רַב־בְּרָכ֑וֹת וְאָ֥ץ לְ֝הַעֲשִׁ֗יר לֹ֣א יִנָּקֶֽה׃
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 20. Proverbs 28:20 (Prov 28:20) [GNT (1992 ed.)]
(Source)
(Source (Hebrew)). Alternate translations:A faithful man shall abound with blessings:
but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
[KJV (1611)]A trustworthy man will be overwhelmed with blessings, but he who tries to get rich quickly will not go unpunished.
[JB (1966)]A trustworthy person will be overwhelmed with blessings, but no one who tries to get rich quickly will go unpunished.
[NJB (1985)]Reliable people will have abundant blessings,
span class="tab">but those with get-rich-quick schemes won't go unpunished.
[CEB (2011)]The faithful will abound with blessings,
but one who is in a hurry to be rich will not go unpunished.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]A dependable man will receive many blessings,
But one in a hurry to get rich will not go unpunished.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]
No word has received more different significations and has struck minds in so many ways as has liberty.
[Il n’y a point de mot qui ait reçu plus de différentes significations, & qui ait frappé les esprits de tant de manieres, que celui de liberté.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 11, ch. 2 (11.2) (1748) tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Other translations:There is no word that has admitted of more various significations, and has made more different impressions on human minds, than that of Liberty. [tr. Nugent (1750)]There is no word that has received more different meanings, and which has struck minds in so many ways, as that of freedom.
[tr. Stewart (2018)]
To love is to act.
[Aimer, c’est agir.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Journal (1885-05-19)
(Source)
Last words of his diary, written days before his death on May 22. (I have seen it identified as two days, three days, and two weeks).
While identified with his diary, the "manuscript" is a single page of watermarked paper.
If you have formed the habit of checking on every new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information: french-fried potatoes are out.
Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I
may have spoken well
at times, is not natural.
A wonder is what it is.Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Poem (1980), “A Warning To My Readers,” A Part, ch. 3
(Source)
All buildings are but monuments of death,
All clothes but winding-sheets for our last knell,
All dainty fattings for the worms beneath,
All curious musique, but our passing bell;
Thus death is nobly waited on, for why?
All that we have is but death’s livery.James Shirley (1596–1666) English poet, playwright
Poem (1639), “Fatum Supremum,” Facetiae: Wits Recreations, Epigram 170 (1640)
(Source)
The piece is also known as "The Passing Bell." The connection of this epigram to Shirley seems faint; he is labeled (probably) as a co-author of another part of this book (with John Mennes the clear lead author of the collection). However, he was labeled as the author in the influential 19th Century Hoyt, Cyclopædia of Practical Quotations, English and Latin (1882), and the attribution was picked up and carried on from there in other books of quotations. Hoyt, in turn, may have cross-attributed a reference to Shirley in Dodd, The Epigrammatists (1870).
Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind, that we may suppose her thoughts are wholly intent on the equity of a cause, without being diverted or prejudiced by objects foreign to it.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1713-07-04), The Guardian, No. 99
(Source)
HORATIO: Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 5, sc. 2, l. 396ff (5.2.396-397) (c. 1600)
(Source)
After Hamlet's death words.
The one requirement for a really satisfying fit of hysterics is a sympathetic audience.
Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher No. 13, The Castlemaine Murders, ch. 2 (2003)
(Source)
I had no idea that such individuals exist outside of stories.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 1, ch. 2 [Watson], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)
(Source)
Watson to Holmes, comparing him to Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin (a comparison that Holmes sniffs at).
Published in novel form 1888-07.
Self-interest will set all sorts of virtues and vices in motion.
[L’intérêt met en œuvre toutes sortes de vertus et de vices.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶253 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
(Source)
Present in the 1st (1665) edition. In the manuscript form it reads "L’intérêt donne toutes sortes de vertus et de vices."
See also ¶¶ 171, 305.
(Source (French)). Other translations:Interest is the Thing that puts Men upon Exercising their Vertues and Vices of All Kinds.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶254]Interest puts in motion all the virtues and vices.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶258; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶238]The virtues and vices are all set in motion by interest.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶225]Interest brings into play every sort of virtue and of vice.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶265]Interest sets at work all sorts of virtues and vices.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶253]Selfishness brings into play all manner of vices and virtues.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶261]Selfishness makes use of virtues and vices of every kind.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶253]Self-interest turns to account all kinds of virtues and vices.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶253]Self-interest sets in motion virtues and vices of all kinds.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶253]Self-interest puts in motion every kind of virtue and of vice.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶253]
Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote.
In this world we never will be perfectly civilized as long as a gallows casts its shadow upon the earth. As long as there is a penitentiary, within the walls of which a human being is immured, we are not a perfectly civilized people. We shall never be perfectly civilized until we do away with crime.
And yet, according to this Christian religion, God is to have an eternal penitentiary; he is to be an everlasting jailer, an everlasting turnkey, a warden of an infinite dungeon, and he is going to keep prisoners there forever, not for the purpose of reforming them — because they are never going to get any better, only worse — but for the purpose of purposeless punishment. And for what? For something they failed to believe in this world. Born in ignorance, supported by poverty, caught in the snares of temptation, deformed by toil, stupefied by want — and yet held responsible through the countless ages of eternity! No man can think of a greater horror; no man can dream of a greater absurdity.Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado
(Source)
Published as its own book in 1884.
Could it be otherwise here? Could any one sect obtain a working majority at the polls and take over the country? Perhaps not — but a combination of a dynamic evangelist, television, enough money, and modern techniques of advertising and propaganda might make Billy Sunday’s efforts look like a corner store compared to Sears Roebuck. Throw in a depression for good measure, promise a material heaven here on earth, add a dash of anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Negroism, and a good large dose of anti-“furriners” in general and anti-intellectuals here at home and the result might be something quite frightening — particularly when one recalls that our voting system is such that a minority distributed as pluralities in enough states can constitute a working majority in Washington.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Essay (1952-10), “Concerning Stories Never Written,” Revolt in 2100, Postscript (1953)
(Source)
I’m not saying that everything is survivable. Just that everything except the last thing is.
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.
Bertrand de Jouvenel (1903–1987) French philosopher, political economist, futurologist
(Attributed)
Sometimes attributed to his On Power (1949), but not found there.
The quotation is well-established in 1949, cited in the Congressional Record (1949-06-15) and Reader's Digest (1949-05).
Variants are sometimes attributed to Edward R. Murrow, withiout citation, including "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves" and "A nation of sheep will soon have a government of wolves."
I have also seen the quote (and variants) misattributed to Agatha Christie (including to her memoir An Autobiography (1977), which does not have the text. This connection may be because SF author J. T. McIntosh quotes "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves" in his novella (1955-09), "The Man Who Cried 'Sheep!'" ch. 5, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Vol. 9, No. 3. Christie's 1925 fantasy "The Fourth Man" also appears in that same issue of MFSF, two page after the quote in McIntosh's story.
The United States has very large power in the world today. And the partner of power — the corollary — is responsibility. It is our high task to use our power with a sure hand and a steady touch — with the self-restraint that goes with confident strength. The purpose of our power must never be lost in the fact of our power — and the purpose, I take it, is the promotion of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York City
(Source)
The longer I live, the more urgent it seems to me to endure and transcribe the whole dictation of existence up to its end, for it might just be the case that only the very last sentence contains that small and possibly inconspicuous word through which everything we had struggled to learn and everything we had failed to understand will be transformed suddenly into magnificent sense.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1963) German poet
Letter (1913-12-21) to Ilse Erdman [tr. Baer (2005)]
(Source)
Collected in The Poet's Guide to Life [Letters on Life], "On Life and Living" [ed. Baer (2005)]
Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the posies that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead; the dead are gone, either to a place where they hear them not, or where, if they do, they will despise them.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 277 (1822)
(Source)
In the life of the artist there need be no hour without its pleasure. I take the author, with whose career I am best acquainted; and it is true he works in a rebellious material, and that the act of writing is cramped and trying both to the eyes and the temper; but remark him in his study, when matter crowds upon him and words are not wanting — in what a continual series of small successes time flows by; with what a sense of power as of one moving mountains, he marshals his petty characters; with what pleasures, both of the ear and eye, he sees his airy structure growing on the page; and how he labours in a craft to which the whole material of his life is tributary, and which opens a door to all his tastes, his loves, his hatreds, and his convictions, so that what he writes is only what he longed to utter. He may have enjoyed many things in this big, tragic playground of the world; but what shall he have enjoyed more fully than a morning of successful work? Suppose it ill paid: the wonder is it should be paid at all. Other men pay, and pay dearly, for pleasures less desirable.
For the Scepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-19), “The Hero as Man of Letters,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)
The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 5 (1841).
A man by himself is in bad company.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 262 (1955)
(Source)
Every time a man laffs he takes a kink out ov the chain ov life, and thus lengthens it.
[Every time a man laughs he takes a kink out of the chain of life, and thus lengthens it.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-07 (1871 ed.)
(Source)
In truth, in such a vast number of citizens, there is a great multitude of those men, who either, from fear of punishment, because they are conscious of their own misdeeds, are anxious for fresh changes and revolutions in the republic; or who, on account of some innate insanity of mind, feed upon the discords and seditions of the citizens; or else who, on account of the embarrassment of their estates and circumstances, had rather burn in one vast common conflagration, than in one which consumed only themselves.
[Etenim in tanto civium numero magna multitudo est eorum qui aut propter metum poenae, peccatorum suorum conscii, novos motus conversionesque rei publicae quaerant, aut qui propter insitum quendam animi furorem discordiis civium ac seditione pascantur, aut qui propter implicationem rei familiaris communi incendio malint quam suo deflagrare.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Pro Sestio [For Publius Sestius], ch. 46 / sec. 99 (56-02 BC) [tr. Yonge (1891)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:For in so great a number of citizens there is a great multitude of those who either seek after revolutions and changes of government, on account of their fear of punishment, being conscious of their misdeeds, or who from a certain innate frenzy of mind take delight in civil broils and seditions, or who, on account of pecuniary embarrassments, prefer rather to perish in one common conflagration than in one by themselves.
[tr. Hickie (1888)]For, in so large a body of citizens, there are great numbers of men who, either from fear of punishment, being conscious of their crimes, seek to cause revolution and changes of government; or who, owing to a sort of inborn revolutionary madness, batten on civil discord and sedition; or who, on account of embarrassment in their finances, prefer a general conflagration to their own ruin.
[tr. Gardner (Loeb) (1958)]
It’s common for Men to give 6 pretended Reasons instead of one real one.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)
(Source)
The noblest monument to peace and to neighborly economic and social friendship in all the world is not a monument in bronze or stone, but the boundary which unites the United States and Canada — 3,000 miles of friendship with no barbed wire, no gun or soldier, and no passport on the whole frontier. Mutual trust made that frontier.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1936-08-14), Chautauqua, New York
(Source)
The film recording of the speech shows minor variations from the official text above:The noblest monument to peace, the noblest monument to economic and social friendship in all the world is not a monument in bronze or stone, but the boundary which unites the United States and Canada -- 3,000 miles of friendship, with no barbed wire, no guns, no soldiers, and no passports on the whole frontier. What made it? Mutual trust.
I only quote others the better to quote myself.
[Je ne dis les autres, sinon pour d’autant plus me dire.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 25 (1.25), “Of the Education of Children [De l’institution des enfans]” (1579) [tr. Screech (1987), 1.26]
(Source)
This essay was in the 1st (1588) edition, but this passage was added as of the 3rd (1595) ed. Some translators use the 1588 sequence of chapters, not the 1595, and so identify this as ch. 26.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:I never spake of others, but that I may the more speake of my selfe.
[tr. Florio (1603)]Neither have I said so much of others, but to get a better opportunity to explain myself.
[tr. Cotton (1686); Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
[tr. Hazlitt/Wight (1879)]I do not quote others, save the more fully to express myself.
[tr. Ives (1925), 1.26]I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.
[tr. Frame (1943), 1.26]I only quote others to make myself more explicit.
[tr. Cohen (1958), 1.26]
BAD ANGEL: Now, Faustus, let shine eyes with horror stare
Into that vast perpetual torture-house.
There are the Furies tossing damned souls
On burning forks; their bodies broil in lead.
There are live quarters broiling on the coals,
That ne’er can die. This ever-burning chair
Is for o’er-tortured souls to rest them in.
These, that are fed with sops of flaming fire,
Were gluttons, and loved only delicates,
And laughed to see the poor starve at their gates.
But yet all these are nothing; thou shalt see
Ten thousand tortures that more horrid be.Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 4 (sc. 19), l. 2018ff (5.4.2018-2029) (1594; 1616 “B” text)
(Source)
This Dante-like scene with the Bad Angel was added in the "B" text.
We all practice some form of censorship. I practiced it simply by the books I had in the house when my children were little. If I am given a budget of $500 I will be practicing a form of censorship by the books I choose to buy with that limited amount of money, and the books I choose not to buy. But nobody said we were not allowed to have points of view. The exercise of personal taste is not the same thing as imposing personal opinion.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
(Source)
SLARTIBARTFAST: I’d far rather be happy than right any day.
ARTHUR: And are you?
SLARTIBARTFAST: No, that’s where it all falls down, of course.
ARTHUR: Pity, It sounded like quite a good lifestyle otherwise.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
Song (1964), “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” v. 4
(Source)
Tell the innocent visitor from another world that two people were killed at Serajevo, and that the best that Europe could do about it was to kill eleven million more.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Peace with Honour, ch. 16 “Patriotism and Pledges,” sec. 5 (1934)
(Source)
CHORUS: Never, oh goddess, let fly at me an inescapable arrow
from your golden bow, after you drench it in desire.[ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: μήποτ᾽, ὦ δέσποιν᾽, ἐπ᾽ ἐμοὶ χρυσέων
τόξων ἀφείης ἱμέρῳ
χρίσασ᾽ ἄφυκτον οἰστόν.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 633ff, Second Stasimon, Strophe 1 (431 BC) [tr. Luschnig (2007)]
(Source)
Addressing Aphrodite/Venus.
(Source (Greek)). Other translations:Thy wrath, O Venus, still forbear,
Nor at my tender bosom aim
That venom'd arrow, ever wont to inspire,
Wing'd from thy golden bow, the pangs of keen desire.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]But, never from thy golden bow,
May I beneath the shaft expire!
Whose creeping venom, sure and slow,
Awakes an all-consuming fire:
Ye racking doubts! ye jealous fears!
With others wage internal war;
Repentance! source of future tears,
From me be ever distant far!
[tr. Byron (1807)]Ne'er from thy golden bow, Queen of soft joy,
Steep'd in desire thy shafts 'gainst me employ!
[tr. Potter (1814)]Oh never, queen, I pray,
Drive from thy golden bow into my heart
The escapeless passion-poisoned dart.
[tr. Webster (1868)]Never, O never, lady mine, discharge at me from thy golden bow a shaft invincible, in passion’s venom dipped.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]Never, O my mistress, mayest thou send forth against me from thy golden bow thy inevitable shaft, having steeped it in desire.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]Not upon me, O Queen, do thou aim from thy bow all-golden
The arrow desire-envenomed that none may avoid -- not on me!
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]Loose not on me, O Holder of man's heart,
Thy golden quiver,
Nor steep in poison of desire the dart
That heals not ever.
[tr. Murray (1906)]O goddess, never on me let loose the unerring
Shaft of your bow in the poison of desire.
[tr. Warner (1944)]Never, Queen Aphrodite,
Loose against me from your golden bow,
Dipped in sweetness of desire,
Your inescapable arrow!
[tr. Vellacott (1963)]Mistress, never use me as a target, shooting golden arrows
Tipped with desire, unerring in aim.
[tr. Podlecki (1989)]Never, o goddess, may you smear with desire one of your ineluctable arrows and let it fly against my heart from your golden bow!
[tr. Kovacs (Loeb) (1994)]Oh never, my lady, may you fire at me from your golden bow the unerring arrow you have poisoned with desire!
[tr. Davie (1996)]Oh, Lady Aphrodite!
I sincerely hope you don’t shoot any of your unfailing golden arrows, dipped in lust, at me!
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]Goddess, I pray you never strike me
with one of those poisoned arrows
shot from your golden bow.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]Mistress, never shoot me from your golden bow an inescapable arrow anointed with desire.
[tr. Ewans (2022)]Never, mistress, discharge at me from your golden bow a shaft inescapable, in passion’s venom dipped.
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]Never, o goddess, may you smear with desire one of your inescapable arrows and let it fly against my heart from your golden bow!
[tr. Kovacs / Zhang / Rogak]
Perhaps that’s what we all had to do — think out for ourselves what we could believe and how we could live by it. And so I came to the conclusion that you had to use this life to develop the very best that you could develop.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1951-12), “This I Believe: Growth that Starts from Thinking,” on Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe, CBS Radio
(Source)
(Source (Audio); start 1:54). The essay was read without a script. The official transcript gives "what we all must do," but the audio clearly says, "what we all had to do."
Collected in Edward P. Morgan (ed.), This I Believe (1952).
If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
Speech (1955-11), “The Value of Science,” National Academy of Sciences Autumn Meeting, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
(Source)
Reprinted in What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988).
Feyman used this general construction on multiple occasions, e.g., in a speech (1964-09), "What Is and What Should Be the Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society," Galileo Symposium, Florence, Italy (reprinted in The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, ch. 4 (1999) [ed. Jeffrey Robbins]):In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar -- ajar only.
We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war, which has cost a vast treasure of blood and money, is almost over. But I see in the future a crisis approaching which fills me with anxiety. As a result of the war, corporations have become enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its rule by preying upon the prejudice of the people, until all wealth is concentrated in a few hands, and the Republic destroyed. I feel at this time more anxiety for the future of my country than at any time in the past, even in the midst of war.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Spurious)
Variants:I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country [...] corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of the rebellion.The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace, and it conspires against it in times of adversity. It’s more despotic than monarchy. It’s more insolent than autocracy. It’s more selfish than bureaucracy. [...] Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed.
This is most often cited as being from a letter (1864-11-21) to Colonel William F. Elkins, a personal friend of Lincoln's. Other attributions included a message from Lincoln to Congress, or from other speeches, or in one case to a message from Lincoln from beyond the grave during a seance. It may be traceable to a pamphlet by the Caldwell Remedy Company (1888-05-10). It came to wide prominence during the 1896 presidential election, when the powers of corporations, trusts, and robber barons were under wide populist attack.
The quotation was researched and rejected by Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln's personal secretaries, as well as by his son, Robert Todd Lincoln. Further, Lincoln worked as a corporate lawyer on a number of occasions, and never seemed particularly concerned about corporations or their concentration of wealth. Nevertheless, the spurious quotation and variants regularly pop up in essays, speeches, and opinion pieces even today.
For more information about this quotation and its background (including much of the information above), see:
- Thomas F Schwartz, "Lincoln Never Said That," For the People (newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association), Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 1999).
- Did Abraham Lincoln Warn of the Tyranny of Capitalism? | Snopes.com.
- Essay (1939-11-06), "Sources of Traditional Quotations," Lincoln Lore," No. 552 (Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation).
- Getting Wrong with Lincoln | Origins.
CALVIN: Dad, are you vicariously living through me in the hope that my accomplishments will validate your mediocre life, and in some way compensate for all the opportunities you botched?
BALLOT, n. A simple device by which a majority proves to a minority the folly of resistance. Many worthy persons of imperfect thinking apparatus believe that majorities govern through some inherent right; and minorities submit, not because they must, but because they ought.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Ballot,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-04-23)
(Source)
Not collected in later books.
Blessed are the forgetful: for they “get the better” even of their blunders.
[Selig sind die Vergesslichen: denn sie werden auch mit ihren Dummheiten “fertig”.]
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Beyond Good and Evil], Aphorism 217 (1886) [tr. Zimmern (1906)]
(Source)
Quoted by Mary Svevo (Kirsten Dunst) in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). The character says she found it in Bartlett's.
(Source (German)). Other translations:Blessed are the forgetful: for they get over their stupidities.
[tr. Kaufmann (1966)]Blessed are the forgetful: for they shall "have done" with their stupidities too.
[tr. Hollingdale (1973, 1990)]Blessed are the forgetful, for they are "done" with their stupidities as well.
[tr. Johnston]
If you tell children that they ought to be affectionate, you run the risk of producing cant and humbug. But if you make them happy and free, if you surround them with kindness, you will find that they become spontaneously friendly with everybody, and that almost everybody responds by being friendly with them. A trustful affectionate disposition justifies itself, because it gives irresistible charm, and creates the response which it expects. This is one of the most important results to be expected from the right education of character.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)
(Source)
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms — hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American humorist, cartoonist, writer
Essay (1958-12-07), “State of the Nation’s Humor: ‘On the Brink of Was,'” New York Times Magazine
(Source)
If your enemies are starving, feed them some bread;
if they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
By doing this, you will heap burning coals on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 20. Proverbs 25:21ff (Prov 25:21-22) [CEB (2011)]
(Source)
See Romans 12:19-21.
Alternate translations:If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat;
and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,
and the Lord shall reward thee.
[KJV (1611)]If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink.
By this you heap red-hot coals on his head, and Yahweh will reward you.
[JB (1966)]If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink.
By this you will be heaping red-hot coals on his head, and Yahweh will reward you.
[NJB (1985)]If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a drink. 22 You will make them burn with shame, and the Lord will reward you.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat,
and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink,
for you will heap coals of fire on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
If he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
You will be heaping live coals on his head,
And God will reward you.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]
We do not need to fear ideas, but the censorship of ideas. We do not need to fear criticism, but the silencing of criticism. We do not need to fear excitement or agitation in the academic community, but timidity and apathy. We do not need to fear resistance to political leaders, but unquestioning acquiescence in whatever policies those leaders adopt.
Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review
(Source)
Reprinted in Freedom and Order, Part 6 (1966).
Political virtue is a renunciation of oneself, which is always a very painful thing. One can define this virtue as love of the laws and the homeland. This love, requiring a continuous preference of the public interest over one’s own, produces all the individual virtues; they are only that preference.
[La vertu politique est un renoncement à soi-même, qui est toujours une chose très-pénible. On peut définir cette vertu, l’amour des loix & de la patrie. Cet amour, demandant une préférence continuelle de l’intérêt public au sien propre, donne toutes les vertus particulieres: elles ne sont que cette préférence.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 5 (4.5) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Other translations:Virtue is a self-renunciation which is always arduous and painful. This virtue may be defined, the love of the laws and of our country. As this love requires a constant preference of public to private interest, it is the source of all the particular virtues; for they are nothing more than this very preference itself.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]Virtue is a self-renunciation, which is very arduous and painful. This virtue may be defined as the love of the laws and of our country. As such love requires a constant preference of public to private interest, it is the source of all private virtues [....]
[E.g. (1904)]Virtue is self-renunciation, which is always a very hard thing. This virtue may be defined as love of the laws and of the homeland. As this love requires a continual preference for the public interest over one’s own, it confers all the separate virtues: they are nothing more than this preference.
[tr. Stewart (2018)]
“Their vanity is full of phantoms, which move as in a sublime night, armed with helm and cuirass, spurs on their heels and sceptres in their hands, saying in a grave voice, ‘We are the ancestors!’ The canker-worms eat the roots, and panoplies eat the people. Why not? Are we to change the laws? The peerage is part of the order of society. Do you know there is a duke in Scotland who can ride ninety miles without leaving his own estate? Do you know that the Archbishop of Canterbury has a revenue of forty thousand pounds a year? Do you know that her majesty has seven hundred thousand pounds sterling from the civil list, besides castles, forests, domains, fiefs, tenancies, feeholds, prebendaries, tithes, rent, confiscations, and fines, which bring in over a million sterling? Those who are not satisfied are hard to please.”
Yes,” murmured Gwynplaine, sadly; “the paradise of the rich is made out of the hell of the poor.”Leur vanité est pleine de fantômes qui s’y promènent comme dans une nuit sublime, armés, casqués, cuirassés, éperonnés, le bâton d’empire à la main, et disant d’une voix grave : Nous sommes les aïeux ! Les scarabées mangent les racines, et les panoplies mangent le peuple. Pourquoi pas ? Allons-nous changer les lois ? La seigneurie fait partie de l’ordre. Sais-tu qu’il y a un duc en Écosse qui galope trente lieues sans sortir de chez lui ? Sais-tu que le lord archevêque de Canterbury a un million de Francs de revenu ? Sais-tu que sa majesté a par an sept cent mille livres sterling de liste civile, sans compter les châteaux, forêts, domaines, fiefs, tenances, alleux, prébendes, dîmes et redevances, confiscations et amendes, qui dépassent un million sterling ? Ceux qui ne sont pas contents sont difficiles.
— Oui, murmura Gwynplaine pensif, c’est de l’enfer des pauvres qu’est fait le paradis des riches.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
The Man Who Laughs [L’Homme qui rit], Part 2, Book 2, ch. 11 (1869) [tr. (1888)]
(Source)
We are being very careful with our children. They’ll never have to pay a psychiatrist twenty-five dollars an hour to find out why we rejected them. We’ll tell them why we rejected them. Because they’re impossible, that’s why.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
(Source)
The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war, but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful.
When a nation once loses its regard to justice; when they do not look up it as something venerable, holy and inviolable; when any of them dare presume to lessen, affront or terrify those who have the distribution of it in their hands; when a judge is capable of being influenced by any thing that is foreign to its own merits, we may venture to pronounce that such a nation is hastening to its ruin.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1713-07-04), The Guardian, No. 99
(Source)
First our pleasures die — and then
Our hopes, and then our fears — and when
These are dead, the debt is due,
Dust claims dust — and we die too.Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English poet
Poem (1820), “Death,” st. 3, Posthumous Poems (1824)
(Source)
HAMLET: O, I die, Horatio!
The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit.
I cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophesy th’ election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice.
So tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited — the rest is silence.
[Dies.]William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 5, sc. 2, l. 389ff (5.2.389-395) (c. 1600)
(Source)
Just before Fortinbras and the English ambassadors enter.
In the First Folio, Hamlet moans, "O, O, O, O!" just before dying.
The first thing a cult does is tell you everyone else is lying.
James Randi (1928-2020) Canadian-American stage magician ("The Amazing Randi") and scientific skeptic. [b. Randall James Hamilton Zwinge]
(Attributed)
Very widely quoted and attributed to Randi. I cannot, however, find any evidence showing Randi actually said this, though it is plausible.
But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
An Experiment in Criticism, Epilogue (1961)
(Source)
Closing words.
History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power have destroyed treasures of immeasurable value which truly belong to us all. We must not let that happen again.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
Cosmos, ep. 13 “Who Speaks for Earth?” PBS TV (1980)
(Source)
(Source (Video); dialog verified). Referring to the destruction of the Library at Alexandria. This text is not in the Cosmos book (it would fit in roughly here).
Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operations, to scientific advancement, and the like.
William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American jurist, US Supreme Court justice (1939–75)
Points of Rebellion, ch. 1 “How America Views Dissent” (1969)
(Source)
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
(Spurious)
This quotation only begins being associated with Douglass in the early 1990s. It may be related to some of his writings, but not clearly. For more information about the quote's origins and associations see Happy 200th Birthday to Frederick Douglass.
At least let no one argue that, because an abuse cannot be suppressed without injuring those who profit from it, the fact that it has existed for a time gives it the right to last forever.
[À moins qu’on ne prétende que, parce qu’un abus ne peut être détruit sans froisser ceux qui en profitent, il suffit qu’il existe un moment pour qu’il doive durer toujours.]
Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) French philosopher, economist, politician
Economic Sophisms [Sophismes Économiques], 1st Series, ch. 20 “Human Labor, National Labor [Travail Humain, Travail National]” (1845) [tr. Goddard (1964)]
(Source)
See Heinlein (1939).
(Source (French)). Other translations:It is a rather singular argument to maintain that, because an abuse which has been permitted a temporary existence, cannot be corrected without wounding the interests of those who have profited by it, it ought, therefore, to claim perpetual duration.
[tr. McCord (1848)]At all events, let no one pretend that because an abuse cannot be done away with, without inconvenience to those who profit by it, what has been suffered to exist for a time should be allowed to exist for ever.
[tr. Stirling (1873)]
The shortest unit of time in the multiverse is the New York Second, defined as the period of time between the traffic lights turning green and the cab behind you honking.
If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could do us no harm.
[Si nous ne nous flattions point nous-mêmes, la flatterie des autres ne nous pourroit nuire.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶152 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
(Source)
Present in the 1st (1665) edition, where it ended with "... ne nous feroit jamais de mal." See also maxim ¶158.
(Source (French)). Other translations:If we did not Flatter our selves, all the Flatteries of other People could never hurt us.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶153]Did we not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never hurt us.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶144; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶146]Were we not to flatter ourselves, the flattery of others would never hurt us.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶127]If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others would be very harmless.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶155]If we never flattered ourselves the flattery of others would not hurt us.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶152]Did we not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could not harm us.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶152]Flattery would do us no harm if we did not flatter ourselves.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶152]If we never flattered ourselves, we would be immune to the flattery of others
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶152]If we never flattered ourselves the flattery of others could do us no harm.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶152]If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶152]
We have made great advances in understanding the problem of national security in the modern world. We no longer think in terms of American resources alone. For the most part we now understand the need for a great international system of security, and we have taken the lead in building it.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York City
(Source)
I believe in the religion of humanity. It is far better to love our fellow-men than to love God. We can help them. We cannot help him. We had better do what we can than to be always pretending to do what we cannot.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado
(Source)
Published as its own book in 1884.
Clothes make the man, but they do not improve the woman.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Inscription (1908-02), Eve’s Diary (1906-06)
(Source)
Handwritten inscription in the front of a first edition of Eve's Dairy. The book was banned in several locations for including illustrations (by Lester Ralph) showing a naked Eve.
See also Twain for more information.
Of governments, that of the mob is the most sanguinary, that of soldiers the most expensive, and that of civilians the most vexatious.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 411 (1820)
(Source)
The book, the statue, the sonata, must be gone upon with the unreasoning good faith and the unflagging spirit of children at their play. Is it worth doing? — when it shall have occurred to any artist to ask himself that question, it is implicitly answered in the negative. It does not occur to the child as he plays at being a pirate on the dining-room sofa, nor to the hunter as he pursues his quarry; and the candour of the one and the ardour of the other should be united in the bosom of the artist.
The solemn ritual continued. The pastor gave his final blessing. The coffin was lowered into the grave and earth cast on it; the most final sound in the world, Phryne thought, clods thudding hollowly on the lid.
Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher No. 11, Away with the Fairies, ch. 18 (2001)
(Source)
When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
“His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.”Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Franco-British writer, historian [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc]
Poem (1923), “Epigram 1: On His Books,” Sonnets and Verse
(Source)
Sometimes called "An Author's Hope."
“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion, bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?”
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 2, ch. 7 [Holmes], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)
(Source)
Is not every true Reformer, by the nature of him, a Priest first of all? He appeals to Heaven’s invisible justice against Earth’s visible force; knows that it, the invisible, is strong and alone strong. He is a believer in the divine truth of things; a seer, seeing through the shows of things; a worshipper, in one way or the other, of the divine truth of things; a Priest, that is. If he be not first a Priest, he will never be good for much as a Reformer.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-15), “The Hero as Priest,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)
The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 4 (1841).
Much of man’s thinking is propaganda of his appetites.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 261 (1955)
(Source)
The man who wont beleave enny thing he kant see, aint so wize az a mule, for they will kick at a thing in the dark.
[The man who won’t believe anything he can’t see, ain’t so wise as a mule, for they will kick at a thing in the dark.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-06 (1871 ed.)
(Source)
For men ought not to be so elated by the dignity of the affairs which they have undertaken to manage, as to have no regard to their ease; nor ought they to dwell with fondness on any sort of ease which is inconsistent with dignity.
[Neque enim rerum gerendarum dignitate homines ecferri ita convenit ut otio non prospiciant, neque ullum amplexari otium quod abhorreat a dignitate.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Pro Sestio [For Publius Sestius], ch. 45 / sec. 98 (56-02 BC) [tr. Yonge (1891)]
(Source)
Part of Cicero's discussion of otium cum dignitate ("peace with dignity"), an idealized active private life after retiring from public service. See here for more.
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:For neither is it fitting that men be so carried away by political freedom as to make no provision for tranquility, nor to accept any tranquility which is inconsistent with freedom.
[tr. Hickie (1888)]For just as it ill befits men to be so carried away by the dignity of a public career that they are indifferent in peace, so too it is unfitting for them to welcome a peace which is inconsistent with dignity.
[tr. Gardner (Loeb) (1958)]
Wars bring scars.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)
(Source)
Our understanding is conducted solely by means of the word: anyone who falsifies it betrays public society. It is the only tool by which we communicate our wishes and our thoughts; it is our soul’s interpreter: if we lack that, we can no longer hold together; we can no longer know each other. When words deceive us, it breaks all intercourse and loosens the bonds of our polity.
[Nostre intelligence se conduisant par la seule voye de la parolle, celuy qui la faulse, trahit la societé publique. C’est le seul util, par le moyen duquel se communiquent noz volontez & noz pensees : c’est le truchement de nostre ame : s’il nous faut, nous ne nous tenons plus, nous ne nous entreconnoissons plus. S’il nous trompe, il rompt tout nostre commerce, & dissoult toutes les liaisons de nostre police.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 18 (2.18), “Of Giving the Lie [Du Démentir]” (1578–79) [tr. Screech (1987)]
(Source)
This essay (and this passage) appeared in the 1st (1580) edition.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Our intelligence being onely conducted by the way of the Worde: Who so falsifieth the same, betraieth publike society. It is the onely instrument, by meanes wherof our wils and thoughts are communicated: it is the interpretour of our souls: If that faile us we hold our selves no more, we enterknow one another no longer. If it deceive us, it breaketh all our commerce, and dissolveth all bonds of our policie.
[tr. Florio (1603)]Our intelligence being by no other canal to be conveyed to one another but by words, he, who falsifies them, betrays public society: it is the only tube through which we communicate our thoughts and wills to one another; it is the interpreter of the soul, and, if it fails us, we no longer know, nor have any farther tie upon another: if that deceive us, it breaks all our correspondence, and dissolves all the bands of our government.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]Our intelligence being by no other way communicable to one another but by a particular word, he who falsifies that betrays public society. ’Tis the only way by which we communicate our thoughts and wills; ’tis the interpreter of the soul, and if it deceive us, we no longer know nor have further tie upon one another; if that deceive us, it breaks all our correspondence, and dissolves all the ties of government.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]Our intelligence being conducted solely by the way of the word, he who falsifies that betrays all society. It is the only instrument by means of which our desires and our thoughts are exchanged; it is the interpreter of our souls; if it fails us, we no longer have any hold upon one another, we no longer mutually know one another. If it deceives us, it severs all our intercourse and dissolves all the ties of our government.
[tr. Ives (1925)]Our intercourse being carried on solely by means of the word, he who falsifies that is a traitor to society. It is the only instrument by which our thoughts and wills are communicated, it is the interpreter of our soul. If it fails us, we no longer hold together, we no longer know one anther. If it deceives us, it breaks up all our intercourse and dissolves all the ties of our government.
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]Since mutual understanding is brought about solely by way of words, he who breaks his word betrays human society. It is the only instrument by means of which our wills and thoughts communicate, it is the interpreter of our soul. If it fails us, we have no more hold on each other, no more knowledge of each other. If it deceives us, it breaks up all our relations and dissolves all the bonds of our society.
[tr. Frame (1943)]
SARAH JANE: I mean, well, whatever’s in that Tower, it’s got enormous powers and, well, what can we do against it?
THE DOCTOR: What I’ve always done, Sarah Jane. Improvise.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
20xS1 “The Five Doctors,” Part 2 (1983-11-23) [w. Terrance Dicks]
(Source)
(Source (Video); dialog confirmed). This 20th Anniversary special feature was originally broadcast as a feature-length TV movie. For later releases, it was broken into four parts/episodes.
We find what we are looking for. If we are looking for life and love and openness and growth, we are likely to find them. If we are looking for witchcraft and evil, we’ll likely find them, and we may get taken over by them.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
(Source)
“Oh, all right,” said the old man. “Here’s a prayer for you. Got a pencil?”
“Yes,” said Arthur.
“It goes like this. Let’s see now: ‘Protect me from knowing what I don’t need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don’t know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen.’ That’s it. It’s what you say silently inside yourself anyway, so you may as well have it out in the open.”
“Hmmmm,” said Arthur. “Well, thank you –”
“There’s another prayer that goes with it that’s very important,” continued the old man, “so you’d better jot this down, too.”
“Okay.”
“It goes, ‘Lord, lord, lord …’ It’s best to put that bit in, just in case. You can never be too sure. ‘Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer. Amen.’ And that’s it. Most of the trouble people get into in life comes form leaving out that last part.”Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 5, Mostly Harmless, ch. 9 (1992)
(Source)
Ironically, most quotations of the above prayer leave out the "very important" second part.
The values communicated by status-insecure parents are such that their children learn to put personal success and the acquisition of power above all else. They are taught to judge people for their usefulness rather than their likableness. Their friends, and even future marriage partners, are selected and used in the service of personal advancement; love and affection take second place to knowing the right people. They are taught to eschew weaknesses and passivity, to respect authority, and to despise those who have not made the socio-economic grade. Success is equated with social esteem and material advantage, rather than with more spiritual values.
Norman F. Dixon (1922-2013) British cognitive psychologist, author, military engineer
On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, Part 2, ch. 22 “Authoritarianism” (1976)
(Source)
I have known some pacifists who wished history taught without reference to wars, and thought that children should be kept as long as possible ignorant of the cruelty in the world. But I cannot praise the “fugitive and cloistered virtue” that depends upon absence of knowledge. As soon as history is taught at all, it should be taught truthfully. If true history contradicts any moral we wish to teach, our moral must be wrong, and we had better abandon it. I quite admit that many people, including some of the most virtuous, find facts inconvenient, but that is due to a certain feebleness in their virtue. A truly robust morality can only be strengthened by the fullest knowledge of what really happens in the world.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)
(Source)
The nation that complacently and fearfully allows its artists and writers to become suspected rather than respected is no longer regarded as a nation possessed with humor or depth.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American humorist, cartoonist, writer
Essay (1958-12-07), “State of the Nation’s Humor: ‘On the Brink of Was,'” New York Times Magazine
(Source)
The Gluttons dig their own graves with their teeth.
[Le gourmans, sont leurs fosses avec leurs dents.]
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “Proverbs in French” (1659) [compiler]
(Source)
CALVIN: No one recognizes my hints to smother me with affection.
AUTHENTIC, adj. Indubitably true — in someone’s opinion.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Authentic,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-04-09)
(Source)
Not collected in later books.
Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
(Attributed)
Widely quoted and attributed to Milne, but I can find no instance of it with an actual, proven citation.
Ross Webber in Management: Basic Elements of Managing Organizations (1979) gives the following:In A. A. Milne's childhood classic Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin tells his group of stuffed-animal friends that before they can search for the North Pole they ought to get organized. Pooh asks what getting organized means, and Christopher replies, "Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up."
All well and good, and Christopher Robin does organize such an expedition ("expotition") to the North Pole in that book -- but never says anything of the sort. It is possible that the line derives from a Disney animated adaptation, but could not confirm this.
Samuel told the people who were asking him for a king everything that the Lord had said to him. “This is how your king will treat you,” Samuel explained.
“He will make soldiers of your sons; some of them will serve in his war chariots, others in his cavalry, and others will run before his chariots. He will make some of them officers in charge of a thousand men, and others in charge of fifty men. Your sons will have to plow his fields, harvest his crops, and make his weapons and the equipment for his chariots.
“Your daughters will have to make perfumes for him and work as his cooks and his bakers.
“He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your grapes for his court officers and other officials. He will take your servants and your best cattle and donkeys, and make them work for him. He will take a tenth of your flocks. And you yourselves will become his slaves.
“When that time comes, you will complain bitterly because of your king, whom you yourselves chose, but the Lord will not listen to your complaints.”
The people paid no attention to Samuel, but said, “No! We want a king.”The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 9: 1 Samuel 8:10ff (1 Sam. 8:10-19) [GNT (1992 ed.)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:
He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us.
[KJV (1611)]All that Yahweh had said Samuel repeated to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "These will be the rights of the king who is to reign over you.
"He will take your sons and assign them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot. He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty; he will make them plough his ploughland and harvest his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots.
"He will also take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers.
"He will take the best of your fields, of your vineyards and olive groves and give them to his officials. He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his eunuchs and his officials. He will take the best of your manservants and maidservants, of your cattle and your donkeys, and make them work for him. He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
"When that day comes, you will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day God will not answer you."
The people refused to listen to the words of Samuel. They said, 'No! We want a king."
[JB (1966)]Everything that Yahweh had said, Samuel then repeated to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "This is what the king who is to reign over you will do.
"He will take your sons and direct them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot. He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty; he will make them plough his fields and gather in his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots.
"He will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers.
"He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his officials. He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his courtiers and his officials. He will take the best of your servants, men and women, of your oxen and your donkeys, and make them work for him. He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
"When that day comes, you will cry aloud because of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day Yahweh will not hear you."
The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel. They said, "No! We are determined to have a king."
[NJB (1985)]Then Samuel explained everything the Lord had said to the people who were asking for a king. “This is how the king will rule over you,” Samuel said:
“He will take your sons, and will use them for his chariots and his cavalry and as runners for his chariot. He will use them as his commanders of troops of one thousand and troops of fifty, or to do his plowing and his harvesting, or to make his weapons or parts for his chariots.
"He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, or bakers.
"He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves and give them to his servants. He will give one-tenth of your grain and your vineyards to his officials and servants. He will take your male and female servants, along with the best of your cattle and donkeys, and make them do his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and then you yourselves will become his slaves!
"When that day comes, you will cry out because of the king you chose for yourselves, but on that day the Lord won’t answer you.”
But the people refused to listen to Samuel and said, “No! There must be a king over us."
[CEB (2011)]So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you:
"He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots, and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.
"He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
"He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves and the best of your cattle and donkeys and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.
"And on that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.”
But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! We are determined to have a king over us."
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]Samuel reported all God’s words to the people, who were asking him for a king. He said, “This will be the practice of the king who will rule over you:
"He will take your sons and appoint them as his charioteers and riders, and they will serve as outrunners for his chariots. He will appoint them as his chiefs of thousands and of fifties; or they will have to plow his fields, reap his harvest, and make his weapons and the equipment for his chariots.
"He will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers.
"He will seize your choice fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his courtiers. He will take a tenth part of your grain and vintage and give it to his eunuchs and courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, your choice young men, and your donkeys, and put them to work for him. He will take a tenth part of your flocks, and you shall become his slaves.
"The day will come when you cry out because of the king whom you yourselves have chosen; and God will not answer you on that day.”
But the people would not listen to Samuel’s warning. “No,” they said. “We must have a king over us."
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]
There need not be much integrity for a monarchical or despotic government to maintain or sustain itself. The force of the laws in the one, and the prince’s ever-raised arm in the other, can rule or contain the whole. But in a popular state there must be an additional spring, which is virtue.
[Il ne faut pas beaucoup de probité, pour qu’un gouvernement monarchique, ou un gouvernement despotique, se maintiennent ou se soutiennent. La force des loix dans l’un, le bras du prince toujours levé dans l’autre, reglent ou contiennent tout. Mais, dans un état populaire, il faut un ressort de plus, qui est la VERTU.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 3, ch. 3 (3.3) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]
(Source)
In his Preface, Montesquieu clarifies:For the understanding of the first four books of this work, it must be noted that what I call virtue in the republic is love of the homeland, in other words love of equality. It is not a moral virtue, nor a Christian virtue, it is political virtue; and this virtue is what drives republican government, as honor is what drives monarchy. I have therefore called political virtue love of the homeland and of equality.
(Source (French)). Other translations:There is no great share of probity necessary to support a monarchical or despotic government: the force of laws, in one, and the prince’s arm, in the other, are sufficient to direct and maintain the whole. But, in a popular state, one spring more is necessary, namely, virtue.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]It does not take much probity for a monarchical or despotic government to maintain or sustain itself. The force of the laws in the first, and the ever-threatening arm of the prince in the second, determine or contain everything. But a popular state needs to be driven by something more, which is VIRTUE.
[tr. Stewart (2018)]
A preoccupation with the so-called bottom line of profit and loss statements, coupled with a lust for expansion, is creating an environment in which fewer businessmen honor traditional values; where responsibility is increasingly disassociated from the exercise of power; where skill in financial manipulation is valued more than actual knowledge and experience in the business; where attention and effort is directed mostly to short-term considerations, regardless of longer range consequences.
Hyman Rickover (1900-1986) Polish-American naval engineer, admiral [b. Chaim Gdala Rykower]
Speech (1982-01-28), Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, 97th Congress, 2nd Session
(Source)
Look, examine, reflect. You hold capital punishment up as an example. Why? Because of what it teaches. And just what is it that you wish to teach by means of this example? That thou shalt not kill. And how do you teach that “thou shalt not kill”? By killing.
[Voyez, examinez, réfléchissez. Vous tenez à l’exemple [de la peine de mort]. Pourquoi? Pour ce qu’il enseigne. Que voulez-vous enseigner avec votre exemple? Qu’il ne faut pas tuer. Et comment enseignez-vous qu’il ne faut pas tuer? En tuant.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Speech (1848-09-15), “Plaidoyer contre la peine de mort [An argument against the death penalty],” Assemblée Constituante, Paris
(Source)
(Source (French)).
I have been unable to find the origin of the English translation that is widely used for this quotation (let alone an English record of the entire speech).
I do have a compulsion to read in out-of-the-way places, and it is often a blessing; on the other hand, it sometimes comes between me and what I tell the children is “my work.” As a matter of fact, I will read anything rather than work. And I don’t mean interesting things like the yellow section of the telephone book or the enclosures that come with the Bloomingdale bill about McKettrick classics in sizes 12 to 20, blue, brown, or navy @ 12.95 (by the way, did you know that colored facial tissue is now on sale at the unbelievably low price of 7.85 a carton? ). The truth is that, rather than put a word on paper, I will spend a whole half hour reading the label on a milk-of-magnesia bottle. “Philips’ Milk of Magnesia,” I read with the absolute absorption of someone just stumbling on Congreve, “is prepared only by the Charles H. Philips Co., division of Sterling Drug, Inc. Not to be used when abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or other symptoms of appendicitis are present, etc.”
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “Introduction,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
(Source)
People who live at the lower ends of watersheds cannot be isolationists — or not for long. Pretty soon they will notice that water flows, and that will set them to thinking about the people upstream who either do or do not send down their silt and pollutants and garbage. Thinking about the people upstream out to cause further thinking about the people downstream. Such pondering on the facts of gravity and the fluidity of water shows us that the golden rule speaks to a condition of absolute interdependency and obligation. People who live on rivers — or, in fact, anywhere in a watershed — might rephrase the rule in this way: Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1997), “Watershed and Commonwealth,” Citizenship Papers (2003)
(Source)
See Matthew 7:12.
LUCIUS: From hence, let fierce contending nations know,
What dire effects from civil discord flow.Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 106ff (1713)
(Source)
After Cato's suicide during the civil war against Julius Caesar.
MEMBRILLO: All day long, Manny, I sort through pure sadness. I find evidence, and I piece together stories. But none of my stories end well — they all end here. And the moral of every story is the same: we may have years, we may have hours, but sooner or later, we push up flowers.
Tim Schafer (b. 1967) American video game designer.
Grim Fandango, “Year 2,” computer game (1998)
(Source)
(Source (Video); dialog confirmed). To Manny, in the morgue.
MALCOLM: Be comforted.
Let’s make us med’cines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.MACDUFF: He has no children. All my pretty ones?
Did you say “all”? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?MALCOLM: Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF: I shall do so,
But I must also feel it as a man.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 252ff (4.3.252-261) (1606)
(Source)
Macduff, learning his family and household have been killed on Macbeth's orders.
In the jungles of central Klatch there are, indeed, lost kingdoms of mysterious Amazonian princesses who capture male explorers for specifically masculine duties. These are indeed rigorous and exhausting and the luckless victims do not last long.*
* This is because wiring plugs, putting up shelves, sorting out the funny noises in attics, and mowing lawns can eventually reduce even the strongest constitution.
And yet I am held responsible for my belief. Then why does not God give me the evidence? They say he has. In what? In an inspired book. But I do not understand it as they do. Must I be false to my understanding? They say: “When you come to die you will be sorry if you do not.” Will I be sorry when I come to die that I did not live a hypocrite? Will I be sorry that I did not say I was a Christian when I was not? Will the fact that I was honest put a thorn in the pillow of death? Cannot God forgive me for being honest? They say that when he was in Jerusalem he forgave his murderers, but now he will not forgive an honest man for differing from him on the subject of the Trinity.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado
(Source)
Published as its own book in 1884.
Fortune nor home not more the man can cheer,
Who lives a prey to covetise or fear,
Than may a picture’s richest hues delight
Eyes that with dropping rheum are thick of sight,
Or warm soft lotions soothe a gout-racked foot,
Or aching ears be charmed by twangling lute.
On minds unquiet joy has lost its power;
In a foul vessel everything turns sour.[Qui cupit aut metuit, iuvat ilium sic domus et res,
Ut lippum pictae tabulae, fomenta podagrum,
Auriculas citbarae collecta sorde dolentes.
Sincerumst nisi vas, quodcumque infundis acescit
Sperne voluptate.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 “To Lollius,” l. 51ff (1.2.51-54) (14 BC) [tr. Martin (1881)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:The wisshinge, and the tremblinge chuffe his house and good doth please,
As portraytures the poreblind eyes, as bathes, the gowtie ease.
As musicke dothe delite the eares with matter stuffde, and sore.
The vessels sowers what so it takes if it be fowle before.
[tr. Drant (1567)]Who fears, or covets: House to him and Ground,
Are Pictures to blind men, Incentives bound
About a gouty Limb, Musick t'an ear
Dam'd up with filth. A vessel not sincere
Sowres whatsoe're you put into't.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]He that desires or fears, diseas'd in mind,
Wealth profits him as Pictures do the blind;
Plaisters the Gouty Feet; and charming Airs
And sweetest sounds the stuft and troubled Ears:
The musty Vessels sour what they contain.
[tr. Creech (1684)]Houses and riches gratify the breast
For lucre lusting, or with fear deprest,
As pictures, glowing with a vivid light,
With painful pleasure charm a blemisht sight;
As chafing soothes the gout, or music cheers
The tingling organs of imposthum'd ears.
Your wine grows acid when the cask is foul.
[tr. Francis (1747)]Who frets or covets, wealth can please no more
Than pictures him whose eyes with rheum run o'er --
Than furst an flannels can the cripple cheer,
Or warbling music charm an aching ear.
Life's every relish lies beyond his power,
As in the tainted vessel all turns sour.
[tr. Howes (1845)]To him that is a slave to desire or to fear, house and estate do just as much good as paintings to a sore-eyed person, fomentations to the gout, music to ears afflicted with collected matter. Unless the vessel be sweet, whatever you pour into it turns sour.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]Who fears or hankers, land and country-seat
Soothe just as much as tickling gouty feet,
As pictures charm an eye inflamed and blear,
As music gratifies an ulcered ear.
Unless the vessel whence we drink is pure,
Whate'er is poured therein turns foul, be sure.
[tr. Conington (1874)]A house and wealth afford like pleasure to him who is covetous or fearful, as paintings do to a person with defective sightk, fomentations to a gouty man, or music to those whose ears suffer from accumulated dirt. Except a jar be clean, whatever you may pour in turns sour.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]If a mind is bound by greed or harassed by fears, his house, his home and all his possessions will give him no more pleasure than paintings do to the blind, warm blankets the feverish or music the deaf. In an unclean pitcher sweet milk soon turns sour.
[tr. Dana/Dana (1911)]To one with fears or cravings, house and fortune give as much pleasure as painted panels to sore eyes, warm wraps to the gout, or citherns to ears that suffer from secreted matter. Unless the vessel is clean, whatever you pour in turns sour.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]His house and estate are as much of a pleasure to him
Who wants something more (or is deathly afraid he won't get it)
As dazzling canvases are to a man with sore eyes,
Or nice wram robes to a man who suffers from gout,
Or the music of mournful guitars to infected ears.
If the vase isn't clean, whatever you put in turns sour.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]A man who desires or fears enjoys his good as much
as a sore-eyed man likes art, a man with gout
fine shoes, someone with wax-plugged hears a cithara.
Anything you pour into a dirty pot gets spoiled.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]A miser, or a man endlessly
Greedy, enjoys his mansion, his rolling meadows, as much
As a sore-eyed man takes pleasure in paintings, a gouty man relishes
Hot cloths, a man with pus-filled ears loves music.
If the cup isn't clean, everything you drink is dirty.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]If your life is governed
By cravings for what you lack, or else by fear
Of losing what you have, then what you have,
Your house and your possessions, give you as much
Pleasure as a picture gives a blind man,
Or an elegant pair of shoes gives a man with gout,
Or music gives to an ear stuffed up with wax.
A glass that isn't clean will guarantee
That whatever you pour into it will sour.
[tr. Ferry (2001)]A man with fear or desire has as much pleasure from his house
and possessions as sore eyes from a picture, gouty feet
from muffs, or ears from a lyre when aching with lumps of dirt.
When a jar is unclean, whatever you fill it with soon goes sour.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]House and fortune grant
As much pleasure to one who’s full of fear and craving
As painting to sore eyes, poultice to gouty joint,
Or lute to ears that ache from accumulated wax.
Unless the jar is clean whatever you pour in sours.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)
Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight. There is a strong family resemblance about misdeeds, and if you have all the details of a thousand at your finger ends, it is odd if you can’t unravel the thousand and first.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 1, ch. 2 [Holmes], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)
(Source)
But his [Shakespeare’s] laughter seems to pour from him in floods; he heaps all manner of ridiculous nicknames on the butt he is bantering, tumbles and tosses him in all sorts of horse-play; you would say, with his whole heart laughs. And then, if not always the finest, it is always a genial laughter. Not at mere weakness, at misery or poverty; never. No man who can laugh, what we call laughing, will laugh at these things. It is some poor character only desiring to laugh, and have the credit of wit, that does so. Laughter means sympathy; good laughter is not “the crackling of thorns under the pot.” Even at stupidity and pretension this Shakspeare does not laugh otherwise than genially. Dogberry and Verges tickle our very hearts; and we dismiss them covered with explosions of laughter: but we like the poor fellows only the better for our laughing; and hope they will get on well there, and continue Presidents of the City-watch. Such laughter, like sunshine on the deep sea, is very beautiful to me.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-12), “The Hero as Poet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)
The spelling of Shakespeare's name is as used by Carlyle (and is one of the variants Shakespeare actually used).
The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 3 (1841).
Whenever a minister haz preached a sermon that pleazes the whole congregashun, he probably haz preached one that the Lord wont endorse.
[Whenever a minister has preached a sermon that pleases the whole congregation, he probably haz preached one that the Lord won’t endorse.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-06 (1871 ed.)
(Source)
Lying is a villainous vice, and an ancient writer depicts it as most shameful when he says that to lie is to manifest contempt of God together with fear of man. It is not possible to represent more fully the horror, the vileness, the outrageousness of it. For what can be conceived more villainous than to be cowardly with respect to men, and audacious with respect to God?
[C’est un vilain vice, que le mentir; & qu’un ancien peint bien honteusement, quand il dit, que c’est donner tesmoignage de mespriser Dieu, & quand & quand de craindre les hommes. Il n’est pas possible d’en representer plus richement l’horreur, la vilité & le desreiglement: Car que peut on imaginer plus vilain, que d’estre couart à l’endroit des hommes, & brave à l’endroit de Dieu?]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 18 (2.18), “Of Giving the Lie [Du Démentir]” (1578–79) [tr. Ives (1925)]
(Source)
This essay (and passage) appeared in the 1st (1580) edition, and was expanded in each succeeding edition.
The ancient writer mentioned is Plutarch in his Life of Lysander.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:To ly is a horrible-filthy vice; and which an auncient writer setteth forth very shamefully, when he saith, that whosoever lieth, witnesseth that he contemneth God and therewithal feareth men. It is impossible more richly to represent the horrour, the vilenesse and the disorder of it: For, What can be imagined so vile, and base, as to be a coward towardes men, and a boaster towardes God?
[tr. Florio (1603)]Lying is a base vice; a vice that one of the ancients paints in the most odious colours when he says, "That it is too manifest a contempt of God, and a fear of man." It is not possible more copiously to represent the horror, baseness, and irregularity of it; for what can be imagined more vile, than a man, who is a coward towards man, so courageous as to defy his Maker?
[tr. Cotton (1686)]Lying is a base vice; a vice that one of the ancients portrays in the most odious colors when he says, “that it is to manifest a contempt of God, and withal a fear of men.” It is not possible more fully to represent the horror, baseness, and irregularity of it; for what can a man imagine more hateful and contemptible than to be a coward toward men, and valiant against his Maker?
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]Lying is a base vice, and painted in its most shameful colours by one of the ancients, who says that to lie is to give proof that you despise god and at the same time are afraid of men. It is impossible to state its horror, its vileness, and its outrageousness more felicitously. For what baser thing can we imagine than to be a coward toward men and act the brave fellow toward God?
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]Lying is an ugly vice, which an ancient paints in most shameful colors when he says that it is giving evidence of contempt for God, and at the same time of fear of men. It is not possible to represent more vividly the horror, the vileness, and the profligacy of it. For what can you imagine uglier than being a coward toward men and bold toward God?
[tr. Frame (1943)]Lying is a villein's vice, a vice which an Ancient paints full shamefully when he says that it gives testimony to contempt for God together with fear of men. It is not possible to show more richly the horror of it, its vileness and its disorderliness. For what can one imagine more serf-like than to be cowardly before men and defiant towards God?
[tr. Screech (1987)]
Many years ago, when A Wrinkle in Time was being rejected by publisher after publisher, I wrote in my journal, “I will rewrite for months or even years for an editor who sees what I am trying to do in this book and wants to make it better and stronger. But I will not, I cannot diminish and mutilate it for an editor who does not understand it and wants to weaken it.”
Now, the editors who did not understand the book and wanted the problem of evil soft peddled had every right to refuse to publish the book, as I had, sadly, the right and obligation to try to be true to it. If they refused it out of honest conviction, that was honorable. If they refused it for fear of trampling on someone else’s toes, that was, alas, the way of the world.Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
(Source)
Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 4, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, ch. 11 [Arthur] (1984)
(Source)
It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself.
[C’est effrayant de penser qu’on marque ses enfants rien que par ce qu’on est.]
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist
Les Belles Images, ch. 3 (1966) [tr. O’Brian (1968)]
(Source)
CHORUS: Visitations of love that come
Raging and violent on a man
Bring him neither good repute nor goodness.
But if Aphrodite descends in gentleness
No other goddess brings such delight.[ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: ἔρωτες ὑπὲρ μὲν ἄγαν ἐλθόντες οὐκ εὐδοξίαν
οὐδ᾽ ἀρετὰν παρέδωκαν ἀνδράσιν: εἰ δ᾽ ἅλις ἔλθοι
Κύπρις, οὐκ ἄλλα θεὸς εὔχαρις οὕτως.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 627ff, Second Stasimon, Strophe 1 (431 BC) [tr. Vellacott (1963)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Other translations:Th' immoderate Loves in their career,
Nor glory nor esteem attends,
But when the Cyprian Queen descends
Benignant from her starry sphere.
No Goddess can more justly claim
From man the grateful prayer.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]When fierce conflicting passions urge
The breast where love is wont to glow,
What mind can stem the stormy surge
Which rolls the tide of human woe?
The hope of praise, the dread of shame,
Can rouse the tortur’d breast no more;
The wild desire, the guilty flame,
Absorbs each wish it felt before.
But if Affection gently thrills
The soul, by purer dreams possest,
The pleasing balm of mortal ills
In love can sooth the aching breast:
If thus thou comest in disguise,
Fair Venus! from thy native heaven,
What heart, unfeeling, would despise
The sweetest boon the Gods have given?
[tr. Byron (1807)]When with a wild impetuous sway
The Loves come rushing on the breast,
Each virtuous thought is rent away,
Each breath of fame supprest.
But when, confess'd her gentle reign,
Enchanting Venus deigns t'appear,
Of all the pow'rs of heav'n most dear,
She leads the Graces in her train.
[tr. Potter (1814)]The wild loves that force eager way
Nor worth nor fame on man confer,
But if come Cypris with meet sway
There is no gracious god like her.
[tr. Webster (1868)]When in excess and past all limits Love doth come, he brings not glory or repute to man; but if the Cyprian queen in moderate might approach, no goddess is so full of charm as she.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]The loves, when they come too impetuously, have given neither good report nor virtue among men, but if Venus come with moderation, no other Goddess is so benign.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]Love bringeth nor glory nor honour to men when it cometh restraining
Not its unscanted excess: but if Kypris, in measure raining
Her joy, cometh down, there is none other Goddess so winsome as she.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]Alas, the Love that falleth like a flood,
Strong-winged and transitory:
Why praise ye him? What beareth he of good
To man, or glory?
Yet Love there is that moves in gentleness,
Heart-filling, sweetest of all powers that bless.
[tr. Murray (1906)]When love is in excess
It brings a man no honor
Nor any worthiness.
But if in moderation Cypris comes,
There is no other power at all so gracious.
[tr. Warner (1944)]When the Loves descend in full force they never enhance
Men’s fame or virtue, but if Aphrodite approaches
With reserve, there is no more gracious goddess.
[tr. Podlecki (1989)]Loves that come to us in excess bring no good name or goodness to men. If Aphrodite comes in moderation, no other goddess brings such happiness.
[tr. Kovacs (Loeb) (1994)]When passions come upon men in strength beyond due measure, their gift is neither one of glory nor of greatness. But if the Cyprian tempers her visit, no other goddess is so gracious.
[tr. Davie (1996)]When Aphrodite arrives in the hearts of people, with no fuss and with no exaggerated madness, she is a very enjoyable visitor but, alas, overwhelming lust brings neither honour nor glory to any one.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]Love coming on too strong
does not give glory or virtue
to men. But if Kypris comes in moderation,
no other goddess is so gracious.
[tr. Luschnig (2007)]Erotic love with too much passion
brings with it no fine reputation,
and nothing virtuous to men.
But if Aphrodite comes in smaller doses,
no other god is so desirable.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]Excess of passion brings no glory or honour to men.
[ed. Yeroulanos (2016)]Love that comes in great excess does not grant reputation or excellence; but if Aphrodite comes more gently, there is no other god who gives such great pleasure.
[tr. Ewans (2022)]When loves come excessive and past all limit, they bring neither good repute nor high ideals [aretē] to men; but if Aphrodite approaches in moderate strength, no goddess is so full of charm as she.
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]
Truly, I live in dark times!
The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead
Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs
Has simply not yet had
The terrible news.
–
What kind of times are they, when
A talk about trees is almost a crime
Because it implies silence about so many horrors?
That man there calmly crossing the street
Is already perhaps beyond the reach of his friends
Who are in need?[Wirklich, ich lebe in finsteren Zeiten!
Das arglose Wort ist töricht. Eine glatte Stirn
Deutet auf Unempfindlichkeit hin. Der Lachende
Hat die furchtbare Nachricht
Nur noch nicht empfangen.
–
Was sind das für Zeiten, wo
Ein Gespräch über Bäume fast ein Verbrechen ist
Weil es ein Schweigen über so viele Untaten einschließt!
Der dort ruhig über die Straße geht
Ist wohl nicht mehr erreichbar für seine Freunde
Die in Not sind?]Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
Poem (1938 ca.), “To Those Born Later [An die Nachgeborenen],” sec. 1, Svendborger Gedichte (1939) [tr. Willet / Manheim / Fried (1976)]
(Source)
Also translated as "To Those Who Follow in Our Wake" and "To Later Generations." Written while Brecht had left Germany for Denmark ("crossing the street").
An audio recording of the poem by Brecht.
(Source (German)). Other translations:Truly, I live in dark times
The innocent word is suspect.
An unwrinkled forehead
suggests insensitivity.
He who laughs
simply has not heard
the terrible news.
-
What times are these when
a conversation about trees
is almost a crime
because it includes
so much silence
about so many outrages!
[tr. Lettau (1978)]Truly, I live in dark times!
An artless word is foolish. A smooth forehead
Points to insensitivity. He who laughs
Has not yet received
The terrible news.
-
What times are these, in which
A conversation about trees is almost a crime
For in doing so we maintain our silence about so much wrongdoing!
And he who walks quietly across the street,
Passes out of the reach of his friends
Who are in danger?
[tr. Horton (2008)]Really, I live in dark times!
Innocent words are foolish. A smooth brow
Betrays insensitivity. Anyone left laughing
Simply has not yet heard
The terrible news.
-
What are these for times, where
A discussion about trees is almost a crime
Because it involves a silence about so many misdeeds!
He there peacefully crossing the street
Is probably no longer reachable for his friends
Who are in need?
[tr. Rienas (2009)]Really, I live in dark times!
Innocent words are foolish. An unfurrowed brow
Indicates apathy. He who laughs
Just hasn’t yet received
The terrible news.
-
What times are these, in which
A conversation about trees is almost a crime
Because it implies silence about so many misdeeds!
He who quietly crosses the street
Is probably no longer within reach of his friends
Who are in need?
[tr. Renaud (2016)]Truly, I live in dark times!
Innocent words are foolish. A smooth forehead
shows insensitivity. The guy laughing
has just not received
the terrible news yet.
-
What kind of times are these, where
talking about trees is almost a crime
when it means silence about so many atrocities!
That man calmly crossing the street
is probably no longer reachable by his friends
who need help.
As long as we are not actually destroyed, we can work to gain greater understanding of other peoples and to try to present to the peoples of the world the values of our own beliefs. We can do this by demonstrating our conviction that human life is worth preserving and that we are willing to help others to enjoy benefits of our civilization just as we have enjoyed it. (20 December 1961)
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1951-12-20), “My Day”
(Source)
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
[Ἀλλήλων τὰ βάρη βαστάζετε καὶ οὕτως ἀναπληρώσετε τὸν νόμον τοῦ Χριστοῦ.]
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Galatians 6: 2 [KJV (1611)]
(Source)
See Thomas à Kempis (c. 1420).
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:You should carry each other's troubles and fulfil the law of Christ.
[JB (1966)]Carry each other's burdens; that is how to keep the law of Christ.
[NJB (1985)]Help carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will obey the law of Christ.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.
[CEB (2011)]Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
Some men improve the world only by leaving it.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
(Spurious)
Not found in Wilde's writing; its earliest appearance is around AD 2000. Nor is a related quotation authentic to Wilde: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; other whenever they go," which first shows up in 1908, after Wilde's death.
Note that the orator Robert Ingersoll, discussing suppression of thought and mob mentality, wrote in his lecture "Plea for Individuality and Arraignment of the Church" (1873-12-21) (emphasis mine):It is mortifying to feel that you belong to a mental mob and cry "crucify him," because others do; that you reap what the great and brave have sown, and that you can benefit the world only by leaving it.
That is the earliest reference I can find to that phrasing, but it is unclear if the phrase was borrowed from Ingersoll and put into the mouth of Wilde.
And as for the argument that criticism [of government foreign policy] may give aid and comfort to some enemy, that is a form of blackmail unworthy of those who profess it. If it is to be accepted, we will have an end to genuine discussion of foreign policies, for it will inevitably be invoked to stop debate and criticism whenever that debate gets acrimonious or the criticism cuts too close to the bone. And to the fevered mind of the FBI, the CIA, and some Senators, criticism always gives aid and comfort to the enemy or cuts too close to
the bone.Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review
(Source)
Reprinted in Freedom and Order, Part 6 (1966).
Sections of the essay (including this portion) were read into the Congressional Record, Senate Proceedings (1969-06-26), as part of a speech by former Senator Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) at the commencement of Fairleigh Dickinson University (1969-06-07); Morse's speech was read in by Senator Gary Hart (D-Colo.).
When the savages of Louisiana want some fruit, they cut down the tree at the base and gather the fruit. That is how a despotic government works.
[Quand les sauvages de la Louisiane veulent avoir du fruit, ils coupent l’arbre au pied, & cueillent le fruit. Voilà le gouvernement despotique.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 5, ch. 13 (5.13) (1748) [tr. Stewart (2018)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Other translations:When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit, they cut the tree to the root, and gather the fruit. This is an emblem of despotic government.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]When the savages of Louisiana want fruit, they cut down the tree and gather the fruit. There you have despotic government.
[tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]
Another principle for successful application of a sophisticated technology is to resist the human inclination to hope that things will work out, despite evidence or suspicions to the contrary. This may seem obvious, but it is a human factor you must be conscious of and actively guard against. It can affect you in subtle ways, particularly when you have spent a lot of time and energy on a project and feel personally responsible for it, and thus somewhat possessive. It is a common human problem and it is not easy to admit what you thought was correct did not turn out that way.
Hyman Rickover (1900-1986) Polish-American naval engineer, admiral [b. Chaim Gdala Rykower]
Essay (1979-05-24), Statement before the Subcommittee on Energy Research and Production, Committee on Science and Technology, US House of Representatives
(Source)
When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.
[Quand la dictature est un fait, la révolution devient un droit.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
(Attributed)
While in keeping with his opposition to the regime of Napoleon III, I have been unable to find any primary source or citation in English or French for this quotation (that Time Magazine (1957-06-03) used the quote doesn't really count).
You can’t sleep until noon with the proper élan unless you have some legitimate reason for staying up until three (parties don’t count).
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “Introduction,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
(Source)
The folly at the root of this foolish economy began with the idea that a corporation should be regarded, legally, as “a person.” But the limitless destructiveness of this economy comes about precisely because a corporation is not a person. A corporation, essentially, is a pile of money to which a number of persons have sold their moral allegiance. Unlike a person, a corporation does not age. It does not arrive, as most persons finally do, at a realization of the shortness and smallness of human lives; it does not come to see the future as the lifetime of the children and grandchildren of anybody in particular.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (2000), “The Total Economy,” Citizenship Papers (2003)
(Source)
CATO: Forbear, Sempronius! — see they suffer death,
But in their deaths remember they are men.
Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 60ff (1713)
(Source)
In response to Sempronius' plans to torture the captured rebel soldiers before their execution, as an example to others.
SIR THOMAS MORE: Say now the king
(As he is clement, if th’ offender mourn)
Should so much come to short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whether would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, any where that not adheres to England, —
Why, you must needs be strangers. Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the claimants
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountanish inhumanity.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Sir Thomas More, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 105ff (c. 1592)
(Source)
Quelling rioting Englishmen who were demanding the expulsion of Flemish immigrants, telling them to consider what they themselves might do, and the conditions they might face, if they were forced to leave England.
The play was written by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, with revisions and edits by multiple writers. This particular scene and monologue are in what is considered to be Shakespeare's own hand.
You live through time, that little piece of time that is yours, but that piece of time is not only your own life, it is the summing-up of all the other lives that are simultaneous with yours. It is, in other words, History, and what you are is an expression of History, and you do not live your life, but somehow, your life lives you, and you are, therefore, only what History does to you.
Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989) American poet, novelist, literary critic
Band of Angels, ch. 6 (1955)
(Source)
This is sometimes cited to Warren's World Enough and Time (1950), but is not found there.
Often seen edited down:You live through that little piece of time that is yours, but that piece of time is not only your own life, it is the summing-up of all the other lives that are simultaneous with yours. [...] What you are is an expression of History.
Note that the narrator continues:That is what I have heard said, but we have to try to make sense of what we have lived, or what has lived us, and there are so many questions that cry for an answer, as children gather about your knee and cry for a sweetmeat. No, it would be better to change the comparison and say it is like children gathering about your knee to cry for a story, a bedtime story, and if you can tell the right story, then these children, then these questions, will sleep, and you can, too.
There were times that called for mindless, terror-filled panic, and times that called for measured, considered, thoughtful panic.
And the freedom of the mind, my friends, has served America well. The vigor of our political life, our capacity for change, our cultural, scientific, and industrial achievements, all derive from free inquiry, from the free mind — from the imagination, resourcefulness, and daring of men who are not afraid of new ideas. Most all of us favor free enterprise for business. Let us also favor free enterprise for the mind. For, in the last analysis, we would fight to the death to protect it.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York City
(Source)
In his infinite goodness, God invented rheumatism and gout and dyspepsia, cancers and neuralgia, and is still inventing new diseases. Not only this, but he decreed the pangs of mothers, and that by the gates of love and life should crouch the dragons of death and pain. Fearing that some might, by accident, live too long, he planted poisonous vines and herbs that looked like food. He caught the serpents he had made and gave them fangs and curious organs, ingeniously devised to distill and deposit the deadly drop. He changed the nature of the beasts, that they might feed on human flesh. He cursed a world, and tainted every spring and source of joy. He poisoned every breath of air; corrupted even light, that it might bear disease on every ray; tainted every drop of blood in human veins; touched every nerve, that it might bear the double fruit of pain and joy; decreed all accidents and mistakes that maim and hurt and kill, and set the snares of life-long grief, baited with present pleasure, — with a moment’s joy. Then and there he foreknew and foreordained all human tears. And yet all this is but the prelude, the introduction, to the infinite revenge of the good God. Increase and multiply all human griefs until the mind has reached imagination’s farthest verge, then add eternity to time, and you may faintly tell, but never can conceive, the infinite horrors of this doctrine called “The Fall of Man.”
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado
(Source)
Published as its own book in 1884.
Religion has treated knowledge sometimes as an enemy, sometimes as a hostage; often as a captive and more often as a child; but knowledge has become of age and religion must either renounce her acquaintance , or introduce her as a companion and respect her as a friend.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 141 (1822)
(Source)
Just now, when every one is bound, under pain of a decree in absence convicting them of lèse-respectability, to enter on some lucrative profession, and labour therein with something not far short of enthusiasm, a cry from the opposite party, who are content when they have enough, and like to look on and enjoy in the meanwhile, savours a little of bravado and gasconade. And yet this should not be. Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself.
Let the man who has acquired Enough not ask for more.
A house and acreage, a pile of bronze and gold coins,
Have never been able to lower the sick man’s fever
Or drive out his worries. The proprietor must be well
If he plans to enjoy the good things he’s gathered together.[Quod satis est cui contingit, nihil amplius optet.
Non domus et fundus, non aeris acervus et auri
Aegroto doniini deduxit corpore febres,
on animo curas; valeat possessor oportet,
Si conpertatis rebus bene cogitat uti.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 “To Lollius,” l. 46ff (1.2.46-50) (14 BC) [tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:He that hath once sufficient, let him wishe for no more:
Not howse nor grove, nor yet of gould, or silver ample store
Can rid the owners crasie corpes fro fellon shaking fever.
Nor can the mynd of man from carke, (for al their vigor) sever:
That owner needes must healthfull bee, and other men excel,
Which hauing riches competent, doth cast to use theim well.
[tr. Drant (1567)]Let him that has enough, desire no more.
Not House and Land, nor Gold and Silver Oare,
The Body's sickness, or the Mind's dispel,
To rellish wealth, the palat must be well.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]He that hath got enough desires no more:
Did ever Lands, or heaps of Silver ease
The feav'rish Lord? Or cool the hot Disease?
Or free his Mind from Cares? He must have health,
He must be well, that would enjoy his wealth.
[tr. Creech (1684)]Blest with a competence, why wish for more?
Nor house, nor lands, nor heaps of labour'd ore
Can give their feverish lord one moment's rest,
Or drive one sorrow from his anxious breast:
The fond possessor must be blest with health,
Who rightly means to use his hoarded wealth.
[tr. Francis (1747)]Nathless who's rich, that is not satisfied? --
Who poor, but he whose wants are unsupplied?
Never did house, or land, or god afford
An hour's short respite to their sickening lord,
Sooth with soft balm the fever's throbbing smart,
Or pluck one rooted sorrow from the heart.
If health be wanting, riches quickly cloy;
'Tis vain to hoard, unless we can enjoy.
[tr. Howes (1845)]He, that has got a competency, let him wish for no more. Not a house and farm, nor a heap of brass and gold, can remove fevers from the body of their sick master, or cares from his mind. The possessor must be well, if he thinks of enjoying the things which he has accumulated.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]Having got
What will suffice you, seek no happier lot.
Not house or grounds, not heaps of brass or gold
Will rid the frame of fever's heat and cold.
Or cleanse the heart of care. He needs good health,
Body and mind, who would enjoy his wealth.
[tr. Conington (1874)]If you've enough, how vain to wish for more!
Nor house, nor lands, nor brass, nor golden store
Can of its fire the fevered frame relieve,
Or make the care-fraught spirit cease to grieve.
Sound, mind and body both, should be his health
To true account who hopes to turn his wealth.
[tr. Martin (1881)]If a sufficiency belong to any one, let him desire no more. A house and farm, a heap of brass and gold, have never removed fever from the sickly body of their possessor, nor cares from his mind. It is a necessity that their owner be sound in body and mind if he contemplate making a good use of his accumulated substance.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]But after all, enough is enough, and he who has enough is wise if he does not ask for more. A house, a farm, and a store of gold, these never drove the fever from their owner's aching body, or took the burden of care from his mind. Verily, the man of wealth must have good health if he would enjoy the fruit of all his labors.
[tr. Dana/Dana (1911)]He, to whose lot sufficient falls, should covet nothing more. No house or land, no pile of bronze or god, has ever freed the owner's sick body of fevers, or his sick mind of cares. The possessor must be sound in health, if he thinks of enjoying the stores he has gathered.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]But anyone who has enough should want no more.
No house and farm, no heap of copper and gold
can drive a fever from its owner's weakened flesh
Or his worries from his soul. He must be well
if he wants good use from everything he's gathered.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]But having enough we should never want more. No house
In town, no land, no piles of gold and bronze,
Have ever freed a man's mind, or eased the fevers
Racking his body. To enjoy treasure you must be sound
In mind, stable in body.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]The man who has enough should be satisfied
With what he has. Prosperity is never
Going to be able to cure a body that's sick
Or a mind that's sick. You've got to be well if you want
To enjoy the things you own.
[tr. Ferry (2001)]But when one is blest with enough, one shouldn't long for more.
Possessing a house or farm or a pile of bronze and gold
has never been known to expel a fever from an invalid's body
or a worry from his mind. Unless the owner has sound health
he cannot hope to enjoy the goods he has brought together.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]But he who’s handed enough, shouldn’t long for more.
Houses and land, piles of bronze and gold, have never
Freed their owner’s sick body from fever, or his spirit
From care: if he wants to enjoy the goods he’s gathered
Their possessor must be well.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.
She felt that the day should not be bounced in on with rude energy, but carefully and delicately seduced into being, and children and animals were sadly impervious to reason on this matter.
Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher No. 11, Away with the Fairies, ch. 1 (2001)
(Source)
FAUSTUS. Come, I think hell’s a fable.
MEPHISTOPHILES: Ay, think so still, till experience change thy mind.
Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 2, sc. 1 (sc. 5), l. 573ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)
(Source)
The "B" text (1594; 1616) as a slight variance in Faust's line:FAUSTUS: I think hell's a mere fable.
MEPHISTOPHILES: Aye, think so still, till experience change thy mind.
I’m not going to tell you much more of the case, Doctor. You know a conjurer gets no credit once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 1, ch. 4 [Holmes], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)
(Source)
Can the man say, Fiat lux, Let there be light; and out of chaos make a world? Precisely as there is light in himself, will he accomplish this.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-12), “The Hero as Poet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)
Talking about Shakespeare and his creativity.
The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 3 (1841).
We are unified both by hating in common and by being hated in common.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 243 (1955)
(Source)
What is the law? A thing that ought neither to be swayed by favor, nor be shattered by force, nor be corrupted by power.
[Quod enim est ius civile? Quod neque inflecti gratia neque perfringi potentia neque adulterari pecunia debeat.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Pro Caecina [For Aulus Caecina], ch. 26 / sec. 73 (c. 69 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2013)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:For, indeed, what is the civil law? A thing which can neither be bent by influence, nor broken down by power, nor adulterated by corruption.
[tr. Yonge (1856)]How may we describe it? The law is that which influence cannot bend, nor power break, nor wealth corrupt.
[tr. Grose Hodge (Loeb) (1927)]
I dont know ov enny thing more remorseless, on the face ov the earth, than 7 per cent interest.
[I don’t know of anything more remorseless on the face of the earth than 7 percent interest.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-03 (1871 ed.)
(Source)
The first sign of corrupt morals is the banishing of truth.
[Le premier traict de la corruption des mœurs, c’est le bannissement de la verité]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 18 (2.18), “Of Giving the Lie [Du Démentir]” (1578–79) [tr. Screech (1987)]
(Source)
This essay (and this passage) appeared in the 1st (1580) edition, and was expanded in each succeeding edition.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:The first part of customs-corruption, is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Florio (1603)]The first step to the corruption of manners is banishing of truth.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]The first thing done in the corruption of manners is banishing truth.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]The first feature of corruption of morals is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Ives (1925)]The first feature in the corruption of morals is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]The first stage in the corruption of morals is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Frame (1943)]
HUCKLE: As far as we know, the sea was calm and empty.
THE DOCTOR: It may be calm, but it’s never empty.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
13×01 “Terror of the Zygons,” Part 1 (1975-08-30) [w. Robert Banks Stewart]
(Source)
(Source (Video); dialog confirmed)
The writer whose words are going to be read by children has a heavy responsibility. And yet, despite the undeniable fact that the children’s minds are tender, they are also far more tough than many people realize, and they have an openness and an ability to grapple with difficult concepts which many adults have lost. Writers of children’s literature are set apart by their willingness to confront difficult questions.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
(Source)
It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
[Il n’est pas mauvais que les enfants remettent de temps en temps, avec politesse, les parents à leur place.]
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) French writer
My Mother’s House [La Maison de Claudine], “The Priest on the Wall [Le curé sur le mur]” (1922) [tr. Troubridge/McLeod (1949)]
(Source)
Kindness is invincible, if it be sincere and not hypocritical or a mere facade. For what can the most insulting of people do to you if you are consistently kind to him, and, when the occasion allows, gently advise him and quietly put him on the proper course at the very time when he is attempting to do you a mischief. “No, my son, we were born for something other than this; it is not I who am harmed, it is you, my son, who are causing harm to yourself.”
[τὸ εὐμενὲς ἀνίκητον, ἐὰν γνήσιον ᾖ καὶ μὴ σεσηρὸς μηδὲ ὑπόκρισις. τί γάρ σοι ποιήσει ὁ ὑβριστικώτατος, ἐὰν διατελῇς εὐμενὴς αὐτῷ καί, εἰ οὕτως ἔτυχε, πρᾴως παραινῇς καὶ μεταδιδάσκῃς εὐσχολῶν παῤ αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν ὅτε κακοποιεῖν σε ἐπιχειρεῖ: ῾μή, τέκνον: πρὸς ἄλλο πεφύκαμεν. ἐγὼ μὲν οὐ μὴ βλαβῶ, σὺ δὲ βλάπτῃ, τέκνον.᾿]
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 11, ch. 18 (11.18) (AD 161-180) [tr. Hard (1997 ed.)]
(Source)
Marcus' 9th point to remember when aggravated by another's actions. Graves comments, "The good Emperor, I am afraid, had too good an opinion of human nature in general."
Hard uses the same translation in their 2011 edition.
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:Meekness is a thing unconquerable, if it be true and natural, and not affected or hypocritical. For how shall even the most fierce and malicious that thou shalt conceive, be able to hold on against thee, if thou shalt still continue meek and loving unto him; and that even at that time, when he is about to do thee wrong, thou shalt be well disposed, and in good temper, with all meekness to teach him, and to instruct him better? As for example; My son, we were not born for this, to hurt and annoy one another; it will be thy hurt not mine, my son.
[tr. Casaubon (1634)]Gentleness and Good Humour are invincible, provided they are of the right Stamp, without any thing of Hypocrisy, or Grimace. This is the way to Disarm the most Barbarous, and Savage: A constancy in Obliging Behaviour, will make the most Outragious Person asham'd of his Malice : The worst Body imaginable can't find in his heart to do you any Mischief, if you continue kind and unmov'd under ill Usage, if you strike in with the right opportunity for Advice; If when he is going to do you an ill Turn, you endeavour to recover his Understanding, and retrieve his Temper in such gentle Language as this. Prethee Child be quiet, Men were never made to worry one another; In earnest if you go on, my dear Friend, you'l have the worst on't; As for my part, I'm proof against every Thing, but my own Folly.
[tr. Collier (1701)]Meekness is invincible, where it is genuine, and sincere without hypocrisy. For, what can the most insolent do to you, if you steadfastly persist in kindness to him, and, upon occasion, mildly admonish and instruct him thus, at the very time he is attempting to do you an injury? “Don’t do so, my son! Nature formed us for a quite different conduct. You cannot hurt me; you hurt yourself, my son!”
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]Consider that benevolence is invincible, if it be genuine, without affectation or hypocrisy. For what can the most brutishly injurious person do to you, if you persevere in your kindness to them, and when an opportunity offers, tenderly admonish him, and at the very time when he is going to do you an injury, thus calmly instruct him: "Forbear, my son, we were formed by nature for quite a different purpose; you cannot injure me, but you hurt yourself my son."
[tr. Graves (1792)]Consider that a good disposition is invincible if it be genuine, and not an affected smile and acting a part. For what will the most violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a kind disposition towards him, and if, as opportunity offers, thou gently admonishest him and calmly correctest his errors at the very time when he is trying to do thee harm, saying, Not so, my child: we are constituted by nature for something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but thou art injuring thyself, my child.
[tr. Long (1862)]Gentleness is invincible, provided it is of the right stamp, without anything of hypocrisy or malice. This is the way to disarm the most insolent, if you continue kind and unmoved under ill usage, if you strike in with the right opportunity for advice. If when he is going to do you an ill turn you endeavour to recover his undertsanding, and retrieve his temper by such language as this: I pray you, child, be quiet, men were never made to worry one another. I shall not be injured, but you are injuring yourself, child.
[tr. Collier/Zimmern (1887)]Kindness is invincible if only it is honest, not fawning or insincere. What can the most aggressive do, if you keep persistently kind, and as ocasion offers gently remonstrate, and seize the moment when he is bent on mischief, for trying quietly to convert him to a better frame of mind. "Not so, my son, we are made for other ends; you cannot hurt me, you hurt yourself, my son."
[tr. Rendall (1898)]Meekness is invincible if it be genuine, without simper or hypocrisy. For what can the most insolent of men do to you, if you persist in civility towards him; and, if occasion offers, admonish him gently and deliberately, shew him the better way at the very moment that he is endeavouring to harm you? “Nay, my son; we were born for something better. No hurt can come to me; it is yourself you hurt, my son.”
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]Kindness is irresistible, be it but sincere and no mock smile or a mask assumed. For what can the most unconscionable of men do to thee, if thou persist in being kindly to him, and when a chance is given exhort him mildly and, at the very time when he is trying to do thee harm, quietly teach him a better way thus: Nay, my child, we have been made for other things. I shall be in no wise harmed, but thou art harming thyself, my child.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]Gentleness is invincible, if it be genuine and not sneering or hypocritical. For what can the most insolent do to you, if you continue gentle to him, and, if opportunity allows, mildly admonish him and quietly show him a better way at the very moment when he attempts to do you injury: "No, my child; we came into the world for other ends. It is not I that am harmed, but you are harmed, my child."
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]Kindness is irresistible, so long as it be genuine and without false smiles or duplicity. The most consummate impudence can do nothing, if you remain persistently kind to the offender, give him a gentle word of admonition when opportunity offers, and at the moment when he is about to vent his malice upon you bring him round quietly with "No, my son; it was not for this that we were made. I shall not be hurt; it is yourself you are hurting."
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]Kindness is invincible, provided it’s sincere -- not ironic or an act. What can even the most vicious person do if you keep treating him with kindness and gently set him straight -- if you get the chance -- correcting him cheerfully at the exact moment that he’s trying to do you harm. "No, no, my friend. That isn’t what we’re here for. It isn’t me who’s harmed by that. It’s you."
[tr. Hays (2003)]Kindness is invincible — if it is sincere, not fawning or pretense. What can the most aggressive man do to you if you continue to be kind to him? If, as opportunity arises, you gently admonish him and take your time to re-educate him at the very moment when he is trying to do you harm? "No, son, we were born for other purposes than this. There is no way that I can be harmed, but you are harming yourself, son."
[tr. Hammond (2006)]Kindness is unconquerable, so long as it is without flattery or hypocrisy. For what can the most insolent man do to you, if you continue to be kind to him and, if you have the chance, gently advise and calmly show him what is right at the very moment he is trying to harm you, saying: "No, my son. We were born for something else. I am certainly not harmed, but you bring harm to yourself?"
[tr. Needleman/Piazza (2008)]
In fact the whole antithesis between self and the rest of the world, which is implied in the doctrine of self-denial, disappears as soon as we have any genuine interest in persons or things outside ourselves. Through such interests a man comes to feel himself part of the stream of life, not a hard separate entity like a billiard-ball, which can have no relation with other such entities except that of collision.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 17 “The Happy Man” (1930)
(Source)
CALVIN: I think grown-ups just act like they know what they’re doing.
ADAM’S APPLE, n. A protuberance on the throat of a man, thoughtfully provided by Nature to keep the rope in place.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Adam’s Apple,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-05-05)
(Source)
Not collected in later books.
Popular revolt against materially strong rulers, on the other hand, may engender an almost irresistible power even if it foregoes the use of violence in the face of materially vastly superior forces. To call this “passive resistance” is certainly an ironic idea; it is one of the most active and efficient ways of action ever devised, because it cannot be countered by fighting, where there may be defeat or victory, but only by mass slaughter in which even the victor is defeated, cheated of his prize, since nobody can rule over dead men.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Human Condition, Part 5, ch. 28 “Power and the Space of Appearance” (1958)
(Source)
Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn’t any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I’m not at the bottom,
I’m not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
When We Were Very Young, “Halfway Down,” st. 1 (1924)
(Source)
MEDEA: I shall never accept the favors of friends of yours,
Nor take a thing from you, so you need not offer it.
There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.[ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: οὔτ᾽ ἂν ξένοισι τοῖσι σοῖς χρησαίμεθ᾽ ἂν
οὔτ᾽ ἄν τι δεξαίμεσθα, μηδ᾽ ἡμῖν δίδου:
κακοῦ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς δῶρ᾽ ὄνησιν οὐκ ἔχει.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 616ff (431 BC) [tr. Warner (1944)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Other translations:No use I of thy friends
Will make, nor aught accept; thy presents spare.
For nothing which the wicked man can give
Proves beneficial.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]I shall not use thy friends, nor will accept
Aught of thy treasures: give not me; the gifts
Of a bad man can bring no good with them.
[tr. Potter (1814)]Guest-friends of thine shall never profit me.
Nor will I aught of thee: proffer me nothing,
For there's no service in a bad man's gift.
[tr. Webster (1868)]I will have naught to do with friends of thine, naught will I receive of thee, offer it not to me; a villain's gifts can bring no blessing.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]I will neither use thy friends, nor will I receive aught; do not give to me, for the gifts of a bad man bring no assistance.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]Thy friends! — nothing will I of friends of thine.
No whit will I receive, nor offer thou.
No profit is there in a villain's gifts.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]The gifts of a bad man bring no good with them.
[tr. Morgan; Bartlett's (1903)]I will not seek thy friends. I will not take
Thy givings. Give them not. Fruits of a stem
Unholy bring no blessing after them.
[tr. Murray (1906)]Nothing would induce me to have dealings with your friends,
Nor to take any gift of yours; so offer none.
A lying traitor's gifts carry no luck.
[tr. Vellacott (1963)]I wouldn’t have any dealings with your friends,
Nor take what you gave, don’t bother offering.
“The gifts of an evil giver bring no gain.”
[tr. Podlecki (1989)]I will accept no help from your friends nor will I take anything from you, so do not offer it. The gifts of a base man bring no benefit.
[tr. Kovacs (Loeb) (1994)]I would not on any terms resort to friends of yours or accept anything from you; make me no such offer; gifts from wicked people bring only harm.
[tr. Davie (1996)]I need neither your money nor your friends. Gifts from an evil man are of no use at all to anyone.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]We will not be making use of your friends;
I will not take anything from you; don’t give me anything.
The gift of a bad man brings no pleasure.
[tr. Luschnig (2007)]I’ll accept no assistance from your friends,
nor anything from you. Don’t make the offer.
Gifts from a worthless man are without value.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]I would not use your friends nor take a thing from you, so do not give; the gifts of a bad man can do great harm.
[tr. Ewans (2022)]Neither would I make use of your xenoi, nor would I accept anything from you; cease to offer it. Gifts from a kakos man bring no benefit.
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]I will accept no help from your friends nor will I take anything from you, so do not offer it. The gifts of a dishonourable man bring no benefit.
[tr. Kovacs / Zhang / Rogak]
A consciousness of the fact that war means practically total destruction is the reason, I think, for the rising tide to prevent what seems such a senseless procedure. I understand that it is perhaps difficult for some people, whose lives have been lived with a sense of the need for military development, to envisage the possibility of being no longer needed. But the average citizen is beginning to think more and more of the need to develop machinery to settle difficulties in the world without destruction or the use of atomic bombs.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1961-12-20), “My Day”
(Source)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this.
[Ὁ δὲ καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματός ἐστιν ἀγάπη χαρὰ εἰρήνη, μακροθυμία χρηστότης ἀγαθωσύνη, πίστις πραΰτης ἐγκράτεια· κατὰ τῶν τοιούτων οὐκ ἔστιν νόμος.]
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Galatians 5: 22-23 [CEB (2011)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
[KJV (1611)]What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course.
[JB (1966)]On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these.
[NJB (1985)]But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Norwegian poet and playwright
(Attributed)
Widely cited to Ibsen, but I cannot find any actual citations for its origin. The furthest I was able to track back is a 1941 issue of Readers Digest.
The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance. Like music, also, it is fulfilled in each moment of the course. You do not play a sonata in order to reach the final chord, and if the meaning of things were simply in ends, composers would write nothing but finales.
Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
The Wisdom of Insecurity, ch. 7 “The Transformation of Life” (1951)
(Source)
And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.
William Gibson (b. 1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and essayist
Count Zero, ch. 2 (1986)
(Source)
My opinions indeed on Religious Subjects ought not to be of any consequence to any but myself.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1820-07-08) to Simon Miller
(Source)
The point is that when a nation silences criticism and dissent, it deprives itself of the power to correct its errors. The process of silencing need not be as savage as in Nazi Germany or in South Africa today; it is enough that an atmosphere be created where men prefer silence to protest. As has been observed of book-burning, it is not necessary to burn books, it is enough to discourage men from writing them.
Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review
(Source)
Reprinted in Freedom and Order, Part 6 (1966).
Sections of the essay (including this portion) were read into the Congressional Record, Senate Proceedings (1969-06-26), as part of a speech by former Senator Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) at the commencement of Fairleigh Dickinson University (1969-06-07); Morse's speech was read in by Senator Gary Hart (D-Colo.).
Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in the one who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in the one who commands; he does not have to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason; he has only to want.
[L’extrême obéissance suppose de l’ignorance dans celui qui obéit; elle en suppose même dans celui qui commande: il n’a point à délibérer, à douter, ni à raisonner; il n’a qu’à vouloir.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 3 (4.3) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Other translations:Excessive obedience supposes ignorance in the person that obeys: the same it supposes in him that commands; for he has no occasion to deliberate, to doubt, to reason; he has only to will.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in him who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in him who commands: he has no need to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason, he has only to will.
[tr. Stewart (2018)
Sit down before fact with an open mind. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you learn nothing. Don’t push out figures when the facts are going in the opposite direction.
Hyman Rickover (1900-1986) Polish-American naval engineer, admiral [b. Chaim Gdala Rykower]
Speech (1954-03-16), “Administering a Large Military Development Project,” US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
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For, to make deserts, God, who rules mankind,
Begins with kings, and ends the work by wind.[Car pour faire un désert, Dieu, maître des vivants,
Commence par les rois et finit par les vents.]Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Poem (1876), “The Vanished City [La Ville Disparue],” Legend of the Ages: New Series [La Légende des siècles: La Nouvelle Série], No. 4 (1877) [tr. Carrington (1885)]
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Violence breeds violence. Acts of violence committed in “justice” or in affirmation of “rights” or in defense of “peace” do not end violence. They prepare and justify its continuation.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1999), “The Failure of War,” Citizenship Papers (2003)
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MARCUS: Oh Portius, is there not some chosen curse,
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heav’n
Red with uncommon wrath to blast the man,
Who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin?Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 20ff (1713)
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Of Julius Caesar and his overthrow of the Roman Republic.
CALISTA: That I must die! it is my only Comfort;
Death is the Privilege of human Nature,
And Life without it were not worth our taking;
Thither the Poor, the Pris’ner, and the Mourner,
Fly for Relief, and lay their Burthens down.Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) English poet and dramatist
The Fair Penitent, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 137ff (1703)
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SIR THOMAS MORE: Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding tooth ports and costs for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silent by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? I’ll tell you. You had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an aged man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Sir Thomas More, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 55ff (c. 1592)
(Source)
Quelling rioting Englishmen who were demanding the expulsion of Flemish immigrants, noting that being part of pitiless mob violence makes one a target for future violence by others.
The play was written by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, with revisions and edits by multiple writers. This particular scene and monologue are in what is considered to be Shakespeare's own hand.
“I’ve never seen Death actually at work.”
“Not many have,” said Albert. “Not twice, at any rate.”
The anatomy of patriotism is complex. But surely intolerance and public irresponsibility cannot be cloaked in the shining armor of rectitude and righteousness. Nor can the denial of the right to hold ideas that are different — the freedom of man to think as he pleases. To strike freedom of the mind with the fist of patriotism is an old and ugly subtlety.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York City
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True eloquence consists in saying all that need be said and no more.
[La véritable éloquence consiste à dire tout ce qu’il faut, et à ne dire que ce qu’il faut.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶250 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
(Source)
Present in the 1st (1665) edition. In manuscript it begins "L’éloquence est de ne dire que ce qu’il faut ..."
(Source (French)). Other translations:True Eloquence consists in saying whatever is requisite, and in not saying any more then what is requisite.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶45]True Eloquence consists in Saying all that is Fit to be Said; and Leaving Out all that is not Fit to be Said.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶251]True eloquence consists in saying all that is proper, and nothing more.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶110]; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶236]True eloquence consists in saying what is proper, but nothing more.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶97]True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶262]True eloquence consists in saying all that should be, not all that could be said.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶250]True eloquence lies in saying everything one should say, but nothing that one should not.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶258]True eloquence consists in saying the right thing, and nothing more.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶250]True eloquence means saying all that is necessary and only what is necessary.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶250]True eloquence consists in saying all that is required and only what is required.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶250]True eloquence consists in saying, on the one hand all that we ought to say, on the other omitting what we ought not.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶250]
But when thoughts and words are collected and adjusted, and the whole composition at last concluded, it seldom gratifies the author, when he comes coolly and deliberately to review it, with the hopes which had been excited in the fury of the performance: novelty always captivates the mind; as our thoughts rise fresh upon us, we readily believe them just and original, which, when the pleasure of production is over, we find to be mean and common, or borrowed from the works of others, and supplied by memory rather than invention.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1754-03-02), The Adventurer, No. 138
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We are told by the Bible and by the churches that through this fall of man
“Sin and death entered the world.”
According to this, just as soon as Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit, God began to contrive ways by which he could destroy the lives of his children. He invented all the diseases — all the fevers and coughs and colds — all the pains and plagues and pestilences — all the aches and agonies, the malaria and spores; so that when we take a breath of air we admit into our lungs unseen assassins; and, fearing that some might live too long, even under such circumstances, God invented the earthquake and volcano, the cyclone and lightning, animalcules to infest the heart and brain, so small that no eye can detect — no instrument reach. This was all owing to the disobedience of Adam and Eve!Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado
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Published as its own book in 1884.
All the best sands of my life are somehow getting into the wrong end of the hourglass. If I could only reverse it! Were it in my power to do so, would I?
Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) American writer, poet, critic, editor
“Leaves from a Notebook,” Ponkapog Papers (1903)
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We learn more quickly and bring back to mind more readily
The things we laugh at than those we respect and revere.[Discit enim citius, meminitque libentius ilud
Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat et veneratur.]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 1 “To Augustus,” l. 262ff (2.1.262-263) (14 BC) [tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]
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On why he declines to write epic poetry: because he doubts his talents, and the public will remember only if it's a bad poem. Which is especially problematic if the poem is about someone (like Augustus) still alive.
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:A man may soner beare awaye and rather kepe in mynde
The thinge deryded, then that is prayse worthie in his kynde.
[tr. Drant (1567)]For Readers so malicious now are growne,
What's bad they'll con, what's good they let alone.
[tr. W. P.; ed. Brome (1666)]For what's derided by the Censuring Crowd,
Is thought on more than what is just and Good.
[tr. Creech (1684)]For quickly we discern,
With ease remember, and with pleasure learn,
Whate'er may ridicule and laughter move,
Not what deserves our best esteem and love.
[tr. Francis (1747)]For sooner caught and steadier to abide
On memory's tablet that which we deride,
Than what revere.
[tr. Howes (1845)]For one learns sooner, and more willingly remembers, that which a man derides, than that which he approves and venerates.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]For easier 'tis to learn and recollect
What moves derision than what claims respect.
[tr. Conington (1874)]For we learn quicker, gladlier recollect
What makes us laugh, than what commands respect.
[tr. Martin (1881)]The subject of our zeal sooner hears of, and is more inclined to remember, that which any one laughs at in the production than what he approves of and eulogizes.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]For a man learns more quickly and remembers more easily that which he laughs at, than that which he approves and reveres.
[E.g. (1907)]For one sooner learns
And easier remembers such concerns
As men deride that those men favor lend
And venerate.
[tr. A. F. Murison (1931); ed. Kramer, Jr. (1936)]For we all more quickly learn and easily remember
the poems we scorn than those we approve of and respect.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]And writers of foolish poems often find
They're vividly and scornfully remembered.
[tr. Ferry (2001)]For a thing that causes merriment is always sooner learnt
and longer remembered than what commands respect and approval.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]Men remember more quickly, with greater readiness,
Things they deride, than those they approve and respect.
[tr. Kline (2015)]
Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed, than night can happen before the sun is set.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 468 (1820)
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