1st Moral – Advice iz good only az corroborating testimony.
2nd Moral – If yu put yureself into the hands ov yure frends, yu must expekt that the kindness ov their hearts iz no protekshun aginst the willfullness ov their judgments.
3rd Moral – Advice iz like a doktor’s pills: it iz often advisabel tew receive them without taking them.
4th Moral – One man kan alwus milk a cow better than 4 kan.[1st Moral – Advice is good only as corroborating testimony.
2nd Moral – If you put yourself into the hands of your friends, you must expect that the kindness of their hearts is no protection against the willfulness of their judgments.
3rd Moral – Advice is like a doctor’s pills: it is often advisable to receive them without taking them.
4th Moral – One man can always milk a cow better than four can.]Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings on Ice and Other Things, ch. 6 “Josh Billings: Hiz Shade Tree” (1868)
(Source)
This sad little lizard told me that he was a Brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is in short supply.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough for Love (1973)
It is a man’s task to execute, within the time that God allots to him on Earth, a human mission to do God’s will by working for the coming of God’s Kingdom in Earth as it is in Heaven.
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) English historian
A Study of History, 10.39 (1954)
There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Quoted in Leslie Carpenter, “Whip from Texas,” Collier’s (1951-02-17)
(Source)
When asked, as a freshman US Senator, about favoritism among his staff.
Old men, young men, take ’em as they come,
Harbor rats and alley cats and every type of scum,
Poor men, rich men, leaders of the land,
See them with their trousers off, they’re never quite as grand.
All it takes is money in your hand!Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist
Les Misérables, “Lovely Ladies” [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]
Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, ch. 26 (1759)
(Source)
The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.
Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) British painter, critic
(Attributed)
In Samuel Arthur Bent, Short Sayings of Great Men (1882).
I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the time he killed himself.
Johnny Carson (1925-2005) American talk show host
“The Tonight Show” (20 Nov 1984)
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy!
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy.
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I lose all father now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age!
Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry:
For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio, Epigram 45, “On My First Son,” ll. 1-12 (1616)
There are none more abusive to others than they that lie most open to it themselves; but the humor goes round, and he that laughs at me today will have somebody to laugh at him tomorrow.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On Anger [De ira]“
One Month in the School of Affliction will teach thee more than the great Precepts of Aristotle in seven years; for thou canst never judge rightly of human Affairs, unless thou hast first felt the Blows, and found out the Deceits of Fortune.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, #2749 (1731 ed.)
(Source)
Some find activity only in repose, and others repose only in movement.
[Les uns ne peuvent trouver d’activité que dans le repos, el les autres de repos que dans le mouvement.]
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 4 “De la Nature des Esprits [On the Nature of Minds]” ¶ 19 (1850 ed.) [tr. Calvert (1866)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translation:There are some who can only find activity in repose, and others who can only find repose in movement.
[tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 2, ¶ 11]
He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars;
General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer:
For art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, ch. 3, plate 55, l. 60 (c. 1803–20)
(Source)
Someone sends me a clipping from Columnist Lyons with this honey: “They are telling this of Lord Beaverbrook and a visiting Yankee actress. In a game of hypothetical questions, Beaverbrook asked the lady: ‘Would you live with a stranger if he paid you one million pounds?’ She said she would. ‘And if be paid you five pounds?’ The irate lady fumed: ‘Five pounds. What do you think I am?’ Beaverbrook replied: ‘We’ve already established that. Now we are trying to determine the degree.'”
Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964) Anglo-Canadian business tycoon, publisher, politician, writer
“As O. O. McIntyre Sees It,” syndicated column (2 Jan 1937)
This anecdote has been attributed to a number of people, including Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw, usually in a bawdier form, e.g.:SHAW: [To a woman seated by him at a dinner party.] Madam, if I gave you a million pounds, would you sleep with me?
WOMAN: I think I would.
SHAW: Would you do it for five?
WOMAN: Sir, what kind of woman do you think I am?
SHAW: I thought we had established that, and were merely haggling over the price.
The above, attributing the exchange to Lord Beaverbrook, is the earliest version found. See here and here for more discussion and research into its origins.
A small and temporary improvement may really be the worst enemy of a great and permanent improvement, unless the first is made on the lines and in the direction of the second.
John Morley (1838-1923) English statesman, journalist, writer [John, Viscount Morley]
On Compromise, ch. 5 (1877)
Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason.
John Wesley (1703-1791) English cleric, Christian theologian and evangelist, founder of Methodism
Letter to Joseph Benson (5 Oct 1770)
Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Idler, #58 (26 May 1759)
(Source)
All people believe their suffering is greater than others.
Erica Jong (b. 1942) American writer, poet
How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
The mind ought sometimes to be amused, that it may better return to thought, and to itself.
Phaedrus (15 BC-AD 50) Roman fabulist, poet
(Atributed)
Quoted in Henry Southgate, Things a Lady Would Like to Know Concerning Domestic Management (1875).
A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
John Barrymore (1882-1942) American actor
(Attributed)
Quoted in Gene Fowler, Good Night, Sweet Prince (1943).
It is always easier to hear an insult and not retaliate than have the courage to fight back against someone stronger than yourself; we can always say we’re not hurt by the stones others throw at us, and it’s only at night — when we’re alone and our wife or our husband or our school friend is asleep — that we can silently grieve over our own cowardice.
Paulo Coelho (b. 1947) Brazilian spiritual writer
The Devil and Miss Prym (2000)
I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take an active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to James Monroe (11 Jun 1823)
(Source)
The deepest thing in any one is the conviction of the bad luck that follows boasting.
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) American expatriate author, feminist
Mrs. Reynolds and Five Earlier Novelettes, Part 1 (written 1940-1943) (1952)
“Thalaba,” Mr. Southey’s second poem, is written in open defiance of precedent and poetry. Mr. S. wished to produce something novel, and succeeded to a miracle. “Joan of Arc” was marvelous enough, but “Thalaba” was one of those poems “which,” in the words of Porson, “will be read when Homer and Virgil are forgotten, but — not till then.”
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
“English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” footnote to l. 205 (1809)
(Source)
When one of his earlier works was harshly criticized in the Edinburgh Review, Byron wrote this poem satirizing such critics (and the poetry they like). He refers to Robert Southey's "Thalaba," bringing in a phrase used by classical scholar Richard Porson to refer to Southey's poem "Madoc". Except ...
... Porson doesn't include the "but not till then" phrase in his original comment. A man of subtle but biting humor, it seems likely he intended that as a subversive but deniable reading of "when Homer and Virgil are forgotten". Believing that, multiple writers of the time in turn criticized Byron for crudely spelling out Porson's bon mot (examples: Timbs (1862), Powell/Rogers (1903)).
He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
(Attributed)
Quoted in The Millennial Harbinger, #8 (Aug 1860).
Ever’thing we do — seems to me is aimed right at goin’ on. Seems that way to me. Even gettin’ hungry — even bein’ sick; some die, but the rest is tougher. Jus’ try to live the day, jus’ the day. … Jus’ live the day. Don’t worry yaself.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Grapes of Wrath, ch. 28 [Ma Joad] (1939)
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-08-06), Signing of the Voting Rights Act, Washington, D.C.
(Source)
(Source (Video) at 15:15)
I dreamed a dream in times gone by,
When hope was high, and life worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
Then I was young and unafraid,
And dreams were made and used and wasted.
There was no ransom to be paid,
No song unsung, no wine untasted.
But the tigers come at night,
With their voices soft as thunder,
As they tear your hope apart,
And they turn your dream to shame.Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist
Les Misérables “I Dreamed a Dream” [Fantine] [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]
Remorse is the poison of life.
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) British novelist [pseud. Currer Bell]
Jane Eyre, ch. 14 (1847)
ABSTAINER, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A Total Abstainer is one who abstains from everything, but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.
When I reached intellectual maturity, and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; a Christian or a freethinker, I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until at last I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure that they had attained a certain “gnosis” — had more or less successfully solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. And, with Hume and Kant on my side, I could not think myself presumptuous in holding fast by that opinion. […] So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of “agnostic”. It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the “gnostic” of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant; and I took the earliest opportunity of parading it at our Society, to show that I, too, had a tail, like the other foxes.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Agnosticism” (1889)
As he brews, so shall he drink.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Every Man in His Humour, Act 2, sc. 1 (1598)
I hold that in this country there must be complete severance of Church and State; that public moneys shall not be used for the purpose of advancing any particular creed; and therefore that the public schools shall be non-sectarian and no public moneys appropriated for sectarian schools.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, New York City (12 Oct 1915)
We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1926)
A wound from a tongue is worse than a wound from a sword; for the latter affects only the body, the former, the spirit, the soul.
Pythagoras (c.570 BC - c.495 BC) Greek mathematician and philosopher
(Attributed)
Cited in James Comper Gray, The Biblical Museum, Vol. 5 (1878)
Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.
(Other Authors and Sources)
French proverb
Poetry fettered fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed, or flourish, in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish!
William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, “To the Public,” Plate 1 (c. 1803–20)
I shudder as I tell the tale.
[Horresco réferens]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 2, l. 204 (2.204) [Aeneas] (29-19 BC) [tr. Fairclough (1916)]
(Source)
Telling Dido of the terrible deaths of the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:I shake to mention.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]I shudder at the relation.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]I quail,
E'en now, at telling of the tale
[tr. Conington (1866)]I shudder as I tell.
[tr. Cranch (1872)]I shudder as I recall.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]I tremble in the tale.
[tr. Morris (1900)]The tale I shudder to pursue
[tr. Taylor
(1907)]I shudder as I tell.
[tr. Williams (1910)]I shudder even now,
Recalling it.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]Telling it makes me shudder.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]I shudder
to tell what happened.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971)]I shiver to recall it.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981)]I shudder at the memory of it.
[tr. West (1990)]I shudder to tell it.
[tr. Kline (2002)]I shudder to recall them.
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]I cringe to recall it now.
[tr. Fagles (2006)]I shudder at the telling.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]
The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.
Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 25 (1974)
Where passion rules, how weak does reason prove!
John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
The Rival Ladies, 2.1 (1664)
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Idler, #58 (26 May 1759)
(Source)
I myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself. When Anne Sexton admonished me, “We are all writing God’s poem,” I took it to mean there should be no competition between writers because we are all involved in a common project, a common prayer. But to Gore’s and Norman’s generation, particularly those male writers who served in the Second World War, the prizefighter paradigm remains.
Erica Jong (b. 1942) American writer, poet
“Into the lion’s den,” The Guardian (26 Oct 2000)
(Source)
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
(Source)
You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.
Woody Allen (b. 1935) American comedian, writer, director [b. Allan Steward Konigsberg]
Interiors (1978)
All of you young people who served in the war, you are a lost generation. … You have no respect for anything. You drink yourselves to death.
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) American expatriate author, feminist
(Attributed)
Quoted by Ernest Hemingway in A Moveable Feast, ch. 3 (1964). Also served as the epigraph for The Sun Also Rises (1926).
I’m not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.
Michael Jordan (b. 1963) American basketball pro
Newsweek (24 Jan 1994)
Administrivia: Doing the Numbers: 3/2013
Another year, another “State of the WIST” post. I last ran this report last February.
Despite vacations and illness and other vagaries of schedule, I managed to keep a pretty steady increase over the course of the year.
Broken out into a graph (and normalizing the timeframe):
I actually upped the number of new authors this year, consciously (I have a large backlog of quotations from authors I haven’t yet entered into the system). Another project I’ve had (aside from a slow sweep through the database, eliminating duplicate quotations, trying to source things, etc.) is to go through the authors and note ones who have died. (Any deceased that aren’t noted as such, please do let me know.)
Of the authors I do have, who are the most quoted in WIST?
No adds or drops from the Top 10, just a reshuffle (all of these had absolute number increases, but just shifted in the quantity rank). That I had (still have) a long list of TR and Jefferson quotes that I’m running through here is the main reason why (yes, Shakespeare is losing his top ranking by the time I do this again next year).
I’m still amazed by how tightly most of these are clustered. The Top 10 Authors are listed in the sidebar.
There was a bit more ranking movement on the Top Ten most visited quotations (also referenced in the sidebar):
- ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, l. 179 (3,316 from 1,351)
- ↓ Robert Frost, “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree(1942) (2,944 from 2,209)
- ♥ James Baldwin, “In Search of a Majority,” Speech, Kalamazoo College (Feb 1960) (2,138)
- ↑ Bertrand Russell, “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933) (1,842 from 1,005)
- – John Steinbeck, Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962) (1,769 from 1,018)
- ↑ Thomas Campbell, “Hallowed Ground” (1825) (1,764 from 865)
- ↓ Seneca the Younger, Moral Essays, “On Tranquility of Mind [De Tranquillitate Animi],” 17.10 [tr. W. Langsdorf (1900)] (1,448 from 1,054)
- – Albert Einstein, (Spurious / Synthetic) (1,354 from 845)
- ↓ Michel de Montaigne, “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die,” Essays (1588) [tr. D. Frame (1958)] (1,317 frm 1,087)
- ♥ Molly Ivins, “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of Guns,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (9 Mar 1993) (919)
Two new quotes this year on the Top 10, the Baldwin and the Ivins (the latter, I suspect, as guns have been much in the news this year). The two losers were already on the bottom last year, Teddy Roosevelt and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Einstein quote was identified as a synthesis of several others of his written statements.
Google Analytics tells me that traffic is about where it was in visitors per day — 83 — but has jumped a lot in page views — 254 vs 116 last year.
Interestingly, 13% of my visitors are from a mobile platform, which really makes me think I need to figure out how to do a mobile-friendly version of the site (difficult because the the customization I’ve done in the core template files — which is a reason I’ve not changed the overall theme here, either).
And that’s probably enough numbers for now. Back tomorrow with … letters!
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“What Is Man?” (1906)
We were one of those wretched traveling families you see getting on planes — the kind where you don’t actually see the people, just this mound of baby equipment shuffling slowly down the aisle toward you. This sight is always hugely popular with the other passengers, some of whom will yank open the emergency exits and dive out of the plane. Because they know what babies do on planes: They stand on their parents’ laps and stick their heads up over the seats, so they can get maximum range when they shriek. On a baby-intensive airplane, you see shrieking baby heads constantly popping up all over, like prairie dogs from hell.
Dave Barry (b. 1947) American humorist
Boogers Are My Beat (2003)
It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.
Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
(Attributed)
Alt trans.: "'Tis easy for any man who has his foot unentangled by sufferings both to exhort and to admonish him that is in difficulties."
We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden, “Economy” (1854)
We who hold public office are enjoined by our Constitution against enacting laws to tell the people when or where or how to pray.
All our experience and all our knowledge proves that injunction is good. for, if government could ordain the people’s prayers, government could also ordain its own worship — and that must never be.
The separation of church and state has served our freedom well because men of state have not separated themselves from church and faith and prayer.Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1964-02-05), Presidential Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C.
(Source)
This was at the 12th Annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast.
In the Proceedings of the Illinois State AFL-CIO Convention (1968), there is (a) a reference to a note that the state president of the AFL/CIO, Reuben G. Soderstrom, attending the 16th such Prayer Breakfast, and then (b) a passage on the next page "U. S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's statement to a tremendous audience contained the following comment:"Our Constitution separates church and state. We know that separation is a source of our system's strength, but the conscience of our nation does not call for separation between men of state and faith in the Supreme Being.
Johnson does not appear to have included this text in his speech at the 16th Presidential Prayer Breakfast, nor does he appear to have gone to the 1968 Illinois AFL/CIO convention. Is this an odd paraphrase of the comments from four years earlier? Did Johnson speak the above in another venue that was also quoted in the Illinois AFL/CIO Convention proceedings? Is this paraphrase actually what he said in 1964, regardless of the written record of his comments?
While that shorter quote, or further paraphrases of it, are easy to find in quotation collections online, I can find no citation associated with it.
Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies;
Even the darkest night will end,
And the sun will rise.They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the plough-share,
They will put away the sword,
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward!Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist
Les Misérables, “Epilogue (Finale)” [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]
Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle. That principle is of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; as old as the writer who said, “Try all things, hold fast by that which is good”; it is the foundation of the Reformation, which simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him, it is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of modern science. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable. That I take to be the agnostic faith, which if a man keep whole and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the face, whatever the future may have in store for him.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Agnosticism” (1889)
The dignity of truth is lost
With much protesting.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Catiline: His Conspiracy, Act 3, sc. 2 (1611)
Fundamentally, our opponents who say they are for prosperity differ from us in wishing to see the prosperity come to the big man first and then drip down through to the little man. Now, I am just as anxious to see the big man prosper as they are, but I do not believe he can prosper in any really enduring manner unless under conditions which ensure to the small men their fair chance.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Progressive Principles, ch. 2 “A Charter of Business Prosperity” (1913)
(Source)
Quite often, people who mean well will inquire of me whether I ever ask myself, in the face of my diseases, “Why me?” I never do. If I ask “Why me?” as I am assaulted by heart disease and AIDS, I must ask “Why me?” about my blessings, and question my right to enjoy them. The morning after I won Wimbledon in 1975 I should have asked “Why me?” and doubted that I deserved the victory. If I don’t ask “Why me?” after my victories, I cannot ask “Why me?” after my setbacks and disasters.
Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) American athlete
Days of Grace, ch. 10 (1993)
Often paraphrased (or used elsewhere by Ashe) as "If I were to say 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life."
I do not waste my time in answering abuse; I thrive under it like a field that benefits by the manure that is carted onto it.
Henry Du Pré Labouchère (1831-1912) English politician, writer, publisher
(Attributed)
In Algar Labouchere Thorold, The Life of Henry Labouchere (1913).
Bring me my Bow of burning gold,
Bring me my Arrows of desire,
Bring me my Spear — O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Milton: A Poem, preface, st. 3 (1804-08)
Munny will buy a pretty good dog, but it wont buy the wag ov hiz tale.
[Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.]Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Trump Kards (1874)
(Source)
There is no question in my mind that it is time for the country to become fairly radical for a generation. History shows that where this occurs occasionally, nations are saved from revolution.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Letter to John A. Kingsbury (May 1930)
The God whom I adore is not the God of darkness, he has not given me understanding in order to forbid me to use it; to tell me to submit my reason
is to insult the giver of reason.Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) French philosopher and writer
Emile, ch. 4 “The Creed of a Savoyard Priest” (1762) [tr. Foxley (1911)]
(Source)
It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Idler, #11 (24 Jun 1758)
(Source)
Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives. Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone. I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill — I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff — maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
(Source)
Out of sight, out of mind.
Desiderius Erasmus (1465-1536) Dutch humanist philosopher and scholar
Adagia (1500)
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!
Hence we see good men in all religions, and as many in one as another. It is then a matter of principle with me to avoid disturbing the tranquility of others by the expression of any opinion on the innocent questions on which we schismatize, & think it enough to hold fast to those moral precepts which are of the essence of Christianity, & of all other religions. No where are these to be found in greater purity than in the discourses of the great reformer of religion whom we follow.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to James Fishback [draft] (27 Sep 1809)
(Source)
In the final version of the letter, this passage read:We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus, & no where will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses. it is then a matter of principle with me to avoid disturbing the tranquility of others by the expression of any opinion on the innocent questions on which we schismatise.
Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
Michael Jordan (b. 1963) American basketball pro
Speech, Hall of Fame induction (12 Sep 2009)
(Source)
Poor men’s reasons are not heard.
(Other Authors and Sources)
German proverb
Ability is of little account without opportunity.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)
Quoted in The Homiletic Review (Nov 1895)
Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (18 Oct 1855)
The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Proclamation 3489, “Commemoration of the Beginnings of the Office of the Presidency of the United States” (1964-04-30)
(Source)
On the 175th anniversary of George Washington taking the first oath of office as President.
Do you hear the people sing,
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again.
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums,
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes.Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist
Les Misérables, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]
Our greatest advantage in coping with tribes so powerful is that they do not act in concert. Seldom is it that two or three states meet together to ward off a common danger. Thus, while they fight singly, all are conquered.
Tacitus (c.56-c.120) Roman historian, orator, politician [Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
The Life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola
One reason why I don’t drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time.
Nancy Astor (1879-1964) American socialite and English politician [Nancy Witcher Langhorne; Viscountess Astor; Lady Astor]
(Attributed)
No matter how I probe and prod
I cannot quite believe in God.
But oh! I hope to God that he
Unswervingly believes in me.E. Y. "Yip" Harburg (1896-1981) American lyricist [Edgar Yipsel Harburg, b. Isidore Hochberg]
“The Agnostic” (1965)
Sir, calumnies are answer’d best with silence.
The three great classes of the American community are the farmers, the wage-workers, and the business men, big and little, wholesale and retail. It is essential that all three shall prosper. It is essential that there shall be a more equitable division of prosperity than has been the case in the past. This prosperity can only be lasting if it is based on justice, and it cannot be based on justice unless the small man, the farmer, the mechanic, the wage-worker generally, the clerk on a salary, the small business man, the retail dealer, have their rights guaranteed. If these men have their rights guaranteed, then they will prosper, and the prosperity will extend to the big men.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Progressive Principles, ch. 2 “A Charter of Business Prosperity” (1913)
(Source)
For truly such close communications with tyranny corrupt good constitutions.
Demosthenes (384-322 BC) Greek orator and statesman
Second Philippic, Sec. 21 (344 BC) [tr. Vince (1930)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.: "For those close and intimate alliances with despots are never safe to free states."
It is better a man should be abused than forgotten.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
(Attributed)
Quoted in Hester Lynch Piozzi, The Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson (1786).
Mr. Bettenham said that virtuous men were like some herbs and spices, that give not out their sweet smell till they be broken or crushed.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
Apothegms (1625)
And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Milton: A Poem, preface, st. 1-2 (1804-08)
Fortune favors the bold.
[Audentis Fortuna iuvat]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 10, l. 284 (10.284) [Turnus] (29-19 BC) [tr. West (1990)]
(Source)
The Rutulian prince exhorting his men to meet Aeneas' Trojans on the beach as they land. Not a sentiment invented by Virgil. See also Terence.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Fortune assists the bold.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]Fortune befriends the bold.
[tr. Dryden (1697)]Fortune assists the daring.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]Fair fortune aids the bold.
[tr. Conington (1866)]Fortune assists the bold.
[tr. Cranch (1872), l. 380]Fortune aids daring.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]For Fortune helpeth them that dare.
[tr. Morris (1900)]Fair Fortune aids the bold.
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 37, l. 342]Fortune will help the brave.
[tr. Williams (1910)]Fortune aids the daring.
[tr. Fairclough (1918)]And luck helps men who dare.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]Fortune always fights for the bold.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]For fortune
helps those who dare.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), ll. 395-96]Fortune
favors men who dare!
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981), ll. 392-93]Fortune favours the brave.
[tr. Kline (2002)]Fortune speeds the bold!
[tr. Fagles (2006), l. 341]
Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare;
At whatever time the deed took place — MACAVITY WASN’T THERE!T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” (1939)
Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism; as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words, 1.440 (1823)
LEXICOGRAPHER — A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land — and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash — in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment. I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV. Even though I was a believer. Perhaps because I was a believer.
Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
(Source)
Alienation is a form of living death. It is the acid of despair that dissolves society.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
The Trumpet of Conscience (1967)
‘Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog’s honest bark
Bay deep-mouth’d welcome as we draw near home;
‘Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
Our coming, and look brighter when we come.
Is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to that task.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)
I can remember a game, we were down with about 5 to 10 points, I go off about 25 points, we come back and win the game, we’re walking off the floor. Tex [Winter] looks at me and says “There’s no ‘I’ in team!” I looked at Tex and say, “There’s not, but there’s an ‘I’ in win!”
The older I get the more I admire and crave competence, just simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
Before we proceed further let us get one thing clear. Are we talking about the Indians in India who have multiplied alarmingly under benevolent British rule, or are we talking about the Indians in America who, I understand, are now almost extinct?
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
When told by Mrs. Ogden Reid of the New York Herald Tribune that "The Indians have suffered years under British oppression."
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet
“A Psalm of Life”, 3, Voices of the Night (1839)
Down with the debunking biographer. It now seems to be quite a thing to pull down the mighty from their seats and roll them in the mire. This practice deserves pronounced condemnation. Hero worship is a tremendous force in uplifting and strengthening. Humanity, let us have our heroes. Let us continue to believe that some have been truly great; that it lies within human ability to overcome temptations and trials; that it is sublime to suffer and be strong. Petty biographers with inferior souls and jealous hearts would rob us of these happy privileges. Sensationalism is alright for yellow journalism, but in biography we wish to see our famous men and women as they were and feel the power of the strength and beauty of their lives. Down with the debunking biographer.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Editorial, Southwest Texas State Teachers College College Star, San Marcos (1929-07-17)
Quoted, in parts, in William C. Pool, Emmie Craddock, David Eugene Conrad, Lyndon Baines Johnson: The Formative Years, ch. 6 (1965) and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, ch. 2 (1976).
Drink with me to days gone by,
Sing with me the songs we knew.
Here’s to pretty girls
Who went to our heads,
Here’s to witty girls
Who went to our beds.
Here’s to them,
And here’s to you.Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist
Les Misérables, “Drink with Me” [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]
You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.
Woody Allen (b. 1935) American comedian, writer, director [b. Allan Steward Konigsberg]
Interiors (1978)
True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Cynthia’s Revels, Act 3, sc. 2 (1600)
We’re the most captive nation of slaves that ever came along. The moral timidity of the average American is quite noticeable. Everybody’s afraid to be thought in any way different from everyone else.
Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
What I’ve Learned (2008)
I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property as well as human welfare. Normally, and in the long run, the ends are the same; but whenever the alternative must be faced, I am for men and not for property, as you were in the Civil War. I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends; but I rank dividends below human character.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)