The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people — faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but will also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment — faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor, and ultimately recognize right.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Profiles in Courage (1956; 1964 ed.)
I wonder how many men, hiding their youngness, rise as I do, Saturday mornings, filled with the hope that Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck will be there waiting as our one true always and forever salvation?
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
“Why Cartoons Are Forever”, Los Angeles Times (3 Dec 1989)
Administrivia: Doing the Numbers: 3/2014
Another year, another “State of the WIST” post. I last ran this report a year ago. Let’s start with the raw count:
So, yeah, nice, steady progress. Generally speaking I post five quotes a day, every weekday. Sometimes something gets in the way, but by and large it’s been a workable schedule.
Broken out into a graph (and normalizing the timeframe):
I’ve been making a conscious effort to increase the number of authors (or not shy away from adding a one-off by a new author). That makes for better diversity.
Of the authors I do have, who are the most quoted in WIST?
A lot of this is based on blocks of quotes I go through in a given year. A lot of Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Johnson have been popping up the last twelve months, with Johnson being on the Top Ten list for the first time in quite a while — looking at the backlog, he may end up on top by this time next year. Ben Franklin has also clawed his way back onto the leader board.
“Losers” (dropping off the Top Ten) were Bertrand Russell and Winston Churchill.
The Top Ten Author list is shown “live” in the sidebar — as is the Top Ten Visited Quotations. That list shows less movement, since it is cumulative over all time:
- – Aeschylus, Agamemnon, l. 179 (4,520 from 3,316)
- – Robert Frost, “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree(1942) (3,671 from 2,944)
- – James Baldwin, “In Search of a Majority,” Speech, Kalamazoo College (Feb 1960) (2,411 from 2,138)
- ↑ John Steinbeck, Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962) (2,357 from 1,769)
- ↑ Thomas Campbell, “Hallowed Ground” (1825) (2,206 from 1,764)
- ↓ Bertrand Russell, “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933) (2,002 from 1,842)
- – Seneca the Younger, Moral Essays, “On Tranquility of Mind [De Tranquillitate Animi],” 17.10 [tr. W. Langsdorf (1900)] (1,689 from 1,448)
- – Albert Einstein, (Spurious / Synthetic) (1,572 from 1,354)
- – Michel de Montaigne, “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die,” Essays (1588) [tr. D. Frame (1958)] (1,473 from 1,317)
- – Molly Ivins, “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of Guns,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (9 Mar 1993) (1,361 from 919)
Unfortunately, I can’t track the most popular items in the last year, but for the last 60 days, per Google Analytics:
- John Kennth Galbraith, “Stop the Madness,” Interview with Rupert Cornwell, Toronto Globe and Mail (6 Jul 2002) – 152 Views
- Robert Frost, “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942) – 36 Views
- T. H. Huxley, “A Liberal Education and Where to Find It” (1868) – 30 Views
- Thomas Campbell, “Hallowed Ground” (1825) – 30 Views
- Molly Ivins, “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of Guns,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (9 Mar 1993) – 27 Views
So some overlap there.
Google Analytics shows me my traffic is way down this year — 25 visitors/day vs 83 (21 o them unique), with 34 pageviews/day vs 254. That’s a bit disappointing, though it’s not going to stop me from continuing the site by any means. I’d love to drive more traffic here — not just for the egoboo but because I’d like to think it’s a valuable resource. The question is how. (Suggestions are welcome.)
Over 90% of my traffic is from English-speaking space, about 70% from the US. Though I do get hits from UK, Canada, France, India, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Romania and Germany in the top ten. Chrome and IE are the top contenders for browser, and 71% of visitors are on Windows; the next biggest OS is iOS, so a lot of iPhone/iPad viewers out there. One of these years, after I hit the lottery, I’ll craft a mobile version of WIST that can deal with all of the realignment of fields I do to make all these beautiful quotations …
Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.
Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.540-c.480 BC) Greek philosopher [Ἡράκλειτος, Herákleitos, Heracleitus]
(Attributed)
In three moments a laborer will remove an obstructing rock, but three moons will pass without two wise men agreeing on the meaning of a vowel.
Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) English author [Ernest Brammah Smith]
“A Celestial Laureate” in The Living Age (12 Apr 1919)
The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Character,” Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883)
A dogmatical spirit inclines a man to be censorious of his neighbors. Every one of his opinions appears to him written, as it were, with sunbeams, and he grows angry that his neighbors do not see it in the same light. He is tempted to disdain his correspondents as men of low and dark understandings because they do not believe what he does.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) English theologian and hymnodist
The Improvement of the Mind, ch. 1 (1741)
Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay in this town, a great republican. One day when I was at her house, I put on a very grave countenance, and said to her, “Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind are upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable proof, Madam, that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, well-behaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire that he may be allowed to sit down and dine with us.” I thus, Sir, shewed her the absurdity of the levelling doctrine. She has never liked me since. Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (12 Jul 1763)
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.
Jesse Olney (1798-1872) American geographer, educator, politician
In Godwin, The National Preceptor, Lesson 85 “Select Sentences,” rule #19 (1830)
It amounts to this — Literature is not a mere Science, to be studied; but an Art, to be practised.
Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944). British poet, novelist, scholar, critic
On the Art of Writing, Lecture 12 “On Style,” Cambridge University (28 Jan 1914)
(Source)
We may see the small value God has for riches by the people he gives them to.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“Thoughts on Various Subjects.” Miscellenies in Prose and Verse [pub. with Jonathan Swift], Vol. 2 (1727)
(Source)
May be quoting his friend, Dr. John Arbuthnot. The sentiment seems inspired by La Bruyere.
Through laziness and cowardice a large part of mankind, even after nature has freed them from alien guidance, gladly remain immature. It is because of laziness and cowardice that it is so easy for others to usurp the role of guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor!
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German philosopher
“An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment? Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?]” (1784)
(Source)
Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
The Red Box, ch. 11 [Wolfe] (1937)
And not a girl goes walking
Along the Cotswold lanes
But knows men’s eyes in April
Are quicker than their brains.John Drinkwater (1882-1937) English poet and dramatist
“Cotswald Love”
The Americans are a good-natured people, kindly, helpful to one another, disposed to take a charitable view even of wrongdoers […] Even a mob lynching a horse thief in the West has consideration for the criminal, and will give him a good drink of whiskey before he is strung up.
James Bryce (1838-1922) British politician, diplomat, jurist, historian
The American Commonwealth (1888)
I think that in discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments and demonstrations.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and mathematician
The Authority of Scripture in Philosophical Controversies
An individual is the end product of the decisions he has made. He who fails to make decisions, for the consequences of which he is responsible, is not a person. The ego, the self, the personality — call it what you will — comes into being and grows through the process of making responsible decisions.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry, Epilogue (1963)
In the old times, women did not get their lives written, though I don’t doubt many of them were much better worth writing than the men’s.
Rewriting is like scrubbing the basement floor with a toothbrush.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Pete Murphy
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantage. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon it entirely.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, 1.2 (1776)
I used to be very revolutionary, but now I think that nothing can be gained by brute force. People must be drawn to good by goodness.
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator
Doctor Zhivago [До́ктор Жива́го], Part 2, ch. 8 “Arrival,” sec. 5 [Yury] (1955) [tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), US ed.]
(Source)
Alternate translations:I used to be very revolutionary-minded, but now I think that nothing can be gained by violence. People must be drawn to good by goodness.
[tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), UK ed.]I used to be in a very revolutionary mood, but now I think that we'll gain nothing by violence. People must be drawn to the good by the good.
[tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky (2010)]
Age is always advancing, and I’m fairly sure it’s up to no good.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
White Night (2007)
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott Adams (b. 1957) American cartoonist
The Dilbert Principle (1996)
Sometimes misquoted as "Design is knowing which ones to keep." Sometimes misattributed to Douglas Adams or Ricky Gervais. More information here.
The churches used to win their arguments against atheism, agnosticism, and other burning issues by burning the ism-ists, which is fine proof that there is a devil but hardly evidence that there is a God.
Ben Lindsey (1869-1943) American jurist and social reformer [Benjamin Barr Lindsey]
The Revolt of Modern Youth (1925)
The voters selected us, in short, because they had confidence in our judgement and our ability to exercise that judgement from a position where we could determine what were their own best interest, as a part of the nation’s interest.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Profiles in Courage (1956)
Beware, Charlie, old men only lie in wait for people to ask them to talk. Then they rattle on like a rusty elevator wheezing up a shaft.
Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
“J.B. Runs Things,” Elbert Hubbard’s Selected Writings, Part 14 (1923)
I do not love strife, because I have always found that in the end each remains of the same opinion.
Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great; b. Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst]
(Attributed)
Quoted in Katherine Anthony, Catherine the Great (1926).
And if you seek a preservative against these snares, I say, strive earnestly to learn something, not only of the results, but of the methods of science, and then apply those methods to all statements which offer themselves for your belief. If they will not stand that test, they are nought, let them come with what authority they may.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Science and Religion,” lecture (Dec 1858)
(Source)
Quoted in The Government School of Mines, The Builder (Jan 1859)
Anger is a normal emotion if it is expressed when felt. Then it is over with. If one keeps a lid on it, it develops into resentment or hate. Sooner or later, resentment and hate explode, destroying others, or they are held in, destroying oneself.
Bernie Siegel (b. 1932) American writer and physician
Love, Medicine and Miracles (1986)
All skill ought to be exerted for universal good; every man has owed much to others, and ought to repay the kindness that he has received.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, ch. 6 (1759)
Most men give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.
William Rounseville Alger (1822-1905) American writer, minister, translator
(Attributed)
In Raphael Lewin, ed., The New Era, vol. 2 (1872).
You don’t always have to go so far as to murder your darlings — those turns of phrase or images of which you felt extra proud when they appeared on the page — but go back and look at them with a very beady eye. Almost always it turns out that they’d be better dead. (Not every little twinge of satisfaction is suspect — it’s the ones which amount to a sort of smug glee you must watch out for.)
Diana Athill (1917-2019) British literary editor, novelist, memoirist
In “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction,” The Guardian (20 Feb 2010)
(Source)
See Quiller-Couch.
What is really desired, under the name of riches, is, essentially, power over men; in its simplest sense, the power of obtaining for our own advantage the labor of servant, tradesman, and artist; in wider sense, authority of directing large masses of the nation to various ends (good, trivial, or hurtful, according to the mind of the rich person).
John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker
Unto This Last, ch. 2 (1860)
A man who himself does not believe what he tells another … has even less worth than if he were a mere thing. For a thing, as something real and given, has the property of being serviceable. … But the man who communicates his thoughts to someone in words which yet (intentionally) contain the contrary of what he thinks on the subject has a purpose directly opposed to the natural purposiveness of the power of communicating one’s thoughts, and therefore renounces his personality and makes himself a mere deceptive appearance of man, not man himself.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German philosopher
Metaphysics of Morals [Metaphysik der Sitten], “The Doctrine of Virtue [Tugendlehre]” (1797) [tr. Gregor (1964)]
We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.
Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
The Rubber Band ch. 18 [Wolfe] (1937)
We always say, one day we will laugh at this. I always try to make sure that this one day is today.
Jacob Aagaard (b. 1973) Danish-Scottish chess grandmaster, author
“Are chess players intelligent?” Quality Chess Blog (6 Oct 2010)
(Source)
We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to no one in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it.
Dave Barry (b. 1947) American humorist
Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead (1985)
There should be no articles of faith in science, unless it be the faith that no discovery, no law, is so absolute that it cannot be superseded.
Anthony Storr (1920-2001) English psychiatrist and author
Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners and Madmen, ch. 10 (1996)
(Source)
One grows or dies. There is no third possibility.
Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), German author
Aphorisms, #147 [tr. O’Brien (1967)]
George’s first voyage was on a slaver, and he wished himself dead many a time before it was over, — and ever after would talk like a man beside himself, if the subject was named. He declared that the gold made in it was distilled from human blood, from mothers’ tears, from the agonies and dying groans of gasping, suffocating men and women, and that it would sear and blister the soul of him that touched it; in short, he talked as whole-souled, unpractical fellows are apt to talk about what respectable people sometimes do. Nobody had ever instructed him that a slaveship, with a procession of expectant sharks in its wake, is a missionary institution, by which closely. packed heathens are brought over to enjoy the light of the Gospel.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
The Minister’s Wooing, ch. 1 “Pre-Railroad Times” (1859)
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
[Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.]
Alphonse Karr (1808-1890) French journalist and novelist
Les Guêpes, vi (Jan 1849)
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Philippians 2:4 (KJV)
(Source)
Alternate translations:
- "Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." (NASB)
- "Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." (NIV, NRSV)
But revolutions are made by fanatical men of action with one-track minds, geniuses in their ability to confine themselves to a limited field. They overturn the old order in a few hours or days, the whole upheaval takes a few weeks or at most years, but the fanatical spirit that inspired the upheavals is worshipped for decades thereafter, for centuries.
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator
Doctor Zhivago [До́ктор Жива́го], Part 2, ch. 14 “Return to Varykino,” sec. 14 (1955) [tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), US ed.]
(Source)
Alternate translations:But revolutions are made by fanatical men of action with one-track minds, men who are narrow-minded to the point of genius. They overturn the old order in a few hours or days; the whole upheaval takes a few weeks or at most years, but for decades thereafter, for centuries, the spirit of narrowness which led to the upheaval is worshipped as holy.
[tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), UK ed., "Again Varykino"]Revolutions are produced by men of action, one-sided fanatics, geniuses of self-limitation. In a few hours or days they overturn the old order. The upheavals last for weeks, for years at the most, and then for decades, for centuries, people bow down to the spirit of limitation that led to the upheavals as to something sacred.
[tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky (2010), "In Varykino Again"]
Life would be unbearably dull if we had answers to all our questions.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Death Masks (2003)
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist.
John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian, politician, writer
Speech (1877-02-28), “The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” Bridgenorth Institute
(Source)
What I’ve come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion, everyday acts of compassion. In South Africa they have a phrase called ubuntu. Ubuntu comes out of a philosophy that says, the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.
Chris Abani (b. 1966) Nigerian author.
“Chris Abani muses on humanity,” TED Africa Conference (2008)
(Source)
Endeavor to make thy own Company pleasant to thee.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 99 (1725)
(Source)
When man comes to the realization that he is not the “favorite” of God; that he was not specifically created, that the universe was not made for his benefit, and that he is subject to the same laws of nature as all other forms of life, then, and not until then, will he understand that he must rely upon himself, and himself alone, for whatever benefits he is to enjoy; and devote his time and energies to helping himself and his fellow men to meet the exigencies of life and to set about to solve the difficult and intricate problems of living.
Joseph Lewis (1889-1968) American activist, publisher, educator
“An Atheist Manifesto” (1954)
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Letter to a Navy friend (1945)
(Source)
Letter to a past PT-boat crew mate, responding to a question about his experiences at the United Nations founding in San Francisco (Jun 1945). Quoted in Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, ch. 4, sec. 4 (1965).
When you tell a story in the kitchen to a friend, it’s full of mistakes and repetitions. It’s good to avoid that in literature, but still, a story should feel like a conversation. It’s not a lecture.
Isabel Allende (b. 1942) Chilean-American writer
In Meredith Maran, ed., Why We Write, ch. 1 (2013)
For, you see, each day I love you more,
Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.[Car, vois-tu, chaque jour je t’aime davantage,
Aujourd’hui plus qu’hier et bien moins que demain.]Rosemonde Gérard (1871-1953) French poet and playwright [Louise-Rose-Étiennette Gérard]
“The Eternal Song [L’éternelle chanson],” IX, The Reed Pipes [Les Pipeaux] (1890)
(Source)
Love is the only gold.
In that film Love Story, there’s a line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. Love means saying you’re sorry every day for some little thing or other.
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
Interview with Sam Geller, “The Art of Fiction, No. 203,” The Paris Review (Spring 2010)
(Source)
To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“A Word to Husbands,” Marriage Lines: Notes of a Student Husband (1964)
(Source)
Marriage is the best state for man in general; and every man is a worse man, in proportion as he is unfit for the married state.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (22 Mar 1776)
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Be brief, be pointed, let your matter stand
Lucid in order, solid and at hand;
Spend not your words on trifles but condense;
Strike with the mass of thought, not drops of sense;
Press to close with vigor, once begun,
And leave, (how hard the task!) leave off, when done.Joseph Story (1779-1845) American lawyer, jurist, Supreme Court Justice (1811-1845)
“Advice to a Young Lawyer”, The American Jurist and Law Magazine, Vol. 5 (1831)
Mostly, when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggests cutting to speed the pace, and that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings).
The wise man does not deem himself undeserving of any of the gifts of Fortune. He does not love riches, but he would rather have them; he does not admit them to his heart, but to his house, and he does not reject the riches he has, but he keeps them and wishes them to supply ampler material for exercising his virtue.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On the Happy Life” [De Vita Beata]“, 21.4 [tr. Basore (1932)]
By a lie a man throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German philosopher
Metaphysics of Morals [Metaphysik der Sitten], “The Doctrine of Virtue [Tugendlehre]” (1797) [tr. Gregor (1964)]
The measure of leadership is not the quality of the head, but the tone of the body. The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.
Max De Pree (1924-2017) American businessman and writer
Leadership Is An Art (1987)
We [Americans] cheerfully assume that in some mystic way love conquers all, that good outweighs evil in the just balances of the universe and that at the eleventh hour something gloriously triumphant will prevent the worst before it happens.
Brooks Atkinson (1894-1984) American drama critic and journalist
Once Around the Sun, “January 1” (1951)
(Source)
I like the scientific spirit — the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine — it always keeps the way beyond open.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
Remark to the author (4 May 1888), Horace Traubel, Walt Whitman’s Camden Conversations [ed. W. Teller (1973)]
Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, 4.7 (1952 ed.)
A man builds a house in England with the expectation of living in it and leaving it to his children; while we shed our houses in America as easily as a snail does his shell. We live a while in Boston, and then a while in New York, and then, perhaps, turn up at Cincinnati. Scarcely any body with us is living where they expect to live and die. The man that dies in the house he was born in is a wonder. There is something pleasant in the permanence and repose of the English family estate, which we, in America, know very little of.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands (1854)
Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom. … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.
[Prima sapientiae clavis definitur, assidua scilicet seu frequens interrogatio … Dubitando enim ad inquisitionem venimus; inquirendo veritatem percipimus.]
Peter Abelard (1079-1142) French philosopher, theologian, logician [Pierre Abélard]
Sic et Non, Prolog [tr. Graves (1918)]
If the people cannot govern themselves, they must be governed by somebody.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Annajanska (1919)
CAESAR: Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights:
Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.
Discussing a problem with yourself is almost never a good way to secure a divergent viewpoint.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Ghost Story, ch. 21 (2011)
Liberty, next to religion, has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian, politician, writer
Speech (1877-02-28), “The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” Bridgenorth Institute
(Source)
You can’t say, “I won’t write today,” because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then … you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer.
Dorothy Catherine "D. C." Fontana (1939-2019) television screenwriter, story editor
(Attributed)
A wize man never enjoys himself so mutch, nor a phool so little, az when alone.
[A wise man never enjoys himself so much, nor a fool so little, as when alone.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Koarse Shot” (1874)
If we did a good act merely from the love of god, and a belief that it is pleasing to him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? It is idle to say as some do, that no such being exists. We have the same evidence of the fact as of most of those we act on, to wit, their own affirmations, and their reasonings in support of them. I have observed indeed generally that, while in protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in Catholic countries they are to Atheism. Diderot, Dalembert, D’Holbach Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue then must have had some other foundation than the love of god.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Thomas Law (13 Jun 1814)
(Source)
Today the challenge of political courage looms larger than ever before. … Our political life is becoming so expensive, so mechanized and so dominated by professional politicians and public relations men that the idealist who dreams of independent statesmanship is rudely awakened by the necessities of election and accomplishment.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Profiles in Courage, Introduction (1956)
Erotica is using a feather; pornography is using the whole chicken.
Isabel Allende (b. 1942) Chilean-American writer
(Attributed)
Widely attributed, but without citation. See Pratchett.
In fact we say that an intention is good, that is, right in itself, but that an action does not bear any good in itself but proceeds from a good intention. Whence when the same thing is done by the same man at different times, by the diversity of his intention, however, his action is now said to be good, now bad.
Bonam quippe intentionem, hoc est, rectam in se dicimus, operationem vero non quod boni aliquid in se suscipiat, sed quod ex bona intentione procedat. Unde et ab eodem homine cum in diversis temporibus idem fiat, pro diversitate tamen intentione eius operatio modo bono modo mala dicitur.
Peter Abelard (1079-1142) French philosopher, theologian, logician [Pierre Abélard]
Ethics [Ethica], Book 1 [tr. Luscombe (1971)]
We ought in fairness to fight our case with no help beyond the bare facts: nothing, therefore, should matter except the proof of those facts. Still, as has been already said, other things affect the result considerably, owing to the defects of our hearers.
[δίκαιον γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἀγωνίζεσθαι τοῖς πράγμασιν, ὥστε τἆλλα ἔξω τοῦ ἀποδεῖξαι περίεργα ἐστίν: ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως μέγα δύναται, καθάπερ εἴρηται, διὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀκροατοῦ μοχθηρίαν.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Rhetoric [Ῥητορική; Ars Rhetorica], Book 3, ch. 1, sec. 5 (3.1.5) / 1404a (350 BC) [tr. Roberts (1924)]
(Source)
On style vs. substance in shaping judgment. (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:For justice would be to contend with the facts only, so that every thing else beside the mere demonstration is superfluous; nevertheless, it [style] is of great influence, as has been said, owing to the corruption of the hearers.
[Source (1847)]Our facts ought to be our sole weapons, making everything superfluous which is outside the proof; owing to the infirmities of the hearer, however, style, as we have said, can do much.
[tr. Jebb (1873)]For justice should consist in fighting the case with the facts alone, so that everything else that is beside demonstration is superfluous; nevertheless, as we have just said, it [style] is of great importance owing to the corruption of the hearer.
[tr. Freese (1926)]Although [...] in justice, litigants should appeal only to the facts to contest the case, so that everything apart from demonstration is superfluous, it remains the case, as I have aid, that, thanks to the audience's moral weakness, delivery is very effective.
[tr. Waterfield (2018)]
The present state of civilized nations and their past history bear witness on the same side. So far as any nation recognises, or has recognised, the great truth, that every dictum, every belief, must be tested and tried to the uttermost, and swept ruthlessly away if it be not in accordance with right reason, so far is that nation prosperous and healthy; and so far as a nation has allowed itself to be hood-winked and fettered, and the free application of its intellect, as the criterion of all truth, restricted, so far is it sinking and rotten within. There is one restriction, and only one, so far as I know, placed upon our supreme arbiter. It is, that it shall be actuated by an uncompromising and unswerving love of truth. With that, the human intellect is the nearest in personification of the Divine; without that, it is, in my apprehension, the worst of conceivable devils.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Science and Religion,” lecture (Dec 1858)
(Source)
Quoted in The Government School of Mines, The Builder (Jan 1859)
DESDEMONA: Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?
I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Othello, Act 4, sc. 2, l. 37ff (4.2.37-39) (1603)
(Source)
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (21 Mar 1776)
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Computer Science is a terrible name for this business. First of all, it’s not a science … and it’s not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not really about microscopes and Petri dishes … and geometry is not really about using surveying instruments. … Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments: when some field is just getting started and you don’t really understand it very well, it’s very easy to confuse the essence of what you’re doing with the tools that you use.
Hal Abelson (b. 1947) American mathematician, computer scientist, academic
Lecture, “Introduction to the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs,” MIT (2006)
(Source)
Style, for example, is not — can never be — extraneous Ornament. You remember, may be, the Persian lover whom I quoted to you out of Newman: how to convey his passion he sought a professional letter-writer and purchased a vocabulary charged with ornament, wherewith to attract the fair one as with a basket of jewels. Well, in this extraneous, professional, purchased ornamentation, you have something which Style is not: and if you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”
Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944). British poet, novelist, scholar, critic
On the Art of Writing, Lecture 12 “On Style,” Cambridge University (28 Jan 1914)
(Source)
The writing advice "murder your darlings" or "kill your darlings" has been widely attributed to other writers, including William Faulkner, Allen Ginsburg, Oscar Wilde, and G.K. Chesterton. More information here.
In my eyes riches have a certain place, in yours they have the highest; in fine, I own my riches, yours own you.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On the Happy Life” [De Vita Beata]“, 22.5 [tr. Basore (1932)]
Apart from moral conduct, all that man thinks himself able to do in order to become acceptable to God is mere superstition and religious folly. If once a man has come to the idea of a service which is not purely moral, but is supposed to be agreeable to God himself, or capable of propitiating him, there is little difference between the several ways of serving him. For all these ways are of equal value. … Whether the devotee accomplishes his statutory walk to the church, or whether he undertakes a pilgrimage to the sanctuaries of Loretto and Palestine, whether he repeats his prayer-formulas with his lips, or like the Tibetan, uses a prayer-wheel … is quite indifferent. As the illusion of thinking that a man can justify himself before God in any way by acts of worship is religious superstition, so the illusion that he can obtain this justification by the so-called intercourse with God is religious mysticism. Such superstition leads inevitably to sacerdotalism which will always be found where the essence is sought not in principles of morality, but in statutory commandments, rules of faith and observances
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German philosopher
Quoted in Karl Hillebrand, Lectures on German Thought, Lecture 5 “The Triumvirate of Goethe, Kant, and Schiller (1787-1800)” (1879)
To assert dignity is to lose it.
Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
The League of Frightened Men, ch. 4 [Wolfe] (1935)
If the headline asks a question, try answering “no.” Is This the True Face of Britain’s Young? (Sensible reader: No.) Have We Found the Cure for AIDS? (No; or you wouldn’t have put the question mark in.) Does This Map Provide the Key for Peace? (Probably not.) A headline with a question mark at the end means, in the vast majority of cases, that the story is tendentious or over-sold. It is often a scare story, or an attempt to elevate some run-of-the-mill piece of reporting into a national controversy and, preferably, a national panic. To a busy journalist hunting for real information a question mark means “don’t bother reading this bit.”
Andrew Marr (b. 1959) Scottish journalist and political commentator
My Trade (2004)
See Betteridge.
America’s greatest enemy is not from without, but from within, and that enemy is hate: hatred of races, peoples, classes and religions. If America ever dies, it will be not through conquest but suicide.
Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) American Catholic archbishop, preacher, televangelist
Preface to Religion (1946)
Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.
Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) French physicist, mathematician, philosopher
Science and Hypothesis, ch. 9 (1905)
He not busy being born
Is busy dying.Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
“It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” (1965)
I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother I was oppressed and broken-hearted, with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity — because as a lover of my country I trembled at the coming day of wrath. It is no merit in the sorrowful that they weep, or to the oppressed and smothering that they gasp and struggle, not to me, that I must speak for the oppressed — who cannot speak for themselves.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Letter to Lord Denman (20 Jan 1853)
On Uncle Tom's Cabin.
What’s important is not just to develop the technology; it’s to develop the processes.
Hal Abelson (b. 1947) American mathematician, computer scientist, academic
(Attributed)
Self-interest sets in motion virtues and vices of all kinds.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #263 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
When it was told that Antony and Dolabella were in a plot against him, Caesar said he did not fear such fat, luxurious men, but rather the pale, lean fellows, meaning Cassius and Brutus.
Plutarch (AD 46-127) Greek historian, biographer, essayist [Mestrius Plutarchos]
“Caesar,” Lives [tr. Dryden (1693)]
Boobs are near the center of the universe, until you turn twenty-five or so. Which is also when young men’s auto insurance rates go down. This is not a coincidence.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Ghost Story, ch. 9 (2011)
Advice to persons about to write History: Don’t. […]
In the Moral Sciences Prejudice is Dishonesty.
A Historian has to fight against temptations special to his mode of life, temptations from Country, Class, Church, College, Party, Authority of talents, solicitation of friends.
The most respectable of these influences are the most dangerous.
The historian who neglects to root them out is exactly like a juror who votes according to his personal likes or dislikes.
In judging men and things Ethics go before Dogma, Politics or Nationality.
The Ethics of History cannot be denominational.
Judge not according to the orthodox standard of a system religious, philosophical, political, but according as things promote, or fail to promote the delicacy, integrity, and authority of Conscience.
Put conscience above both System and Success.
History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian, politician, writer
Letter (1887-04-05) to Mandell Creighton
A Man without a Wife is but half a Man.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Jan 1755)
People who serve you without love get even behind your back.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
Remark to author (18 May 1888), in Horace Traubel, Walt Whitman’s Camden Conversations, ed. W Teller (1973)
The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 13, § 62 (1951)
(Source)
When you feel the story is beginning to pick up rhythm — the characters are shaping up, you can see them, you can hear their voices, and they do things that you haven’t planned, things you couldn’t have imagined — then you know the book is somewhere, and you just have to find it, and bring it, word by word, into this world.
Isabel Allende (b. 1942) Chilean-American writer
In Meredith Maran, ed., Why We Write, ch. 1 (2013)
The World is a very complex system. It is easy to have too simple a view of it, and it is easy to do harm and to make things worse under the impulse to do good and make things better.
Kenneth Ewart Boulding (1910-1993) American economist, educator, poet, philosopher
Speech, Friends Association for Higher Education Conference, Malone College (1986)
