All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put the past together again. So let’s remember: Don’t try to saw sawdust.
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer, lecturer
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1944)
1. Don’t, don’t nag.
2. Don’t try to make your partner over.
3. Don’t criticize.
4. Give honest appreciation.
5. Pay little attentions.
6. Be courteous.
7. Read a good book on the sexual side of marriage.Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer, lecturer
How to Win Friends and Influence People, “Seven Rules for Making Your Home Life Happier” (1936)
You can make more friends in two months by becoming more interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer, lecturer
(Attributed)
The most important thing in life is not simply to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence, and makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool.
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer, lecturer
(Attributed)
I got wht I have now through knowing the right time to tell terrible people when to go to hell.
Leslie Caron (b. 1931) French dancer and actress
(Attributed)
You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover’s arms can only come later when you’re sure they won’t laugh if you trip.
Jonathan Carroll (b. 1949) American writer
Outside the Dog Museum (1991)
Marriage is a lot like life, only with more fun parts …. The only secret is showing up every day with an open heart.
Jon Carroll (b. 1943) American journalist
San Francisco Chronicle, “New Ideas on the Culture War” (6 Jul. 1999)
“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, “I shall never, never forget!”
“You will, though,” the Queen said, “if you don’t make a memorandum of it.”Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Through the Looking Glass (1872)
“Tut, tut, child,” said the Duchess. “Everything’s got a moral if only you can find it.”
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
I don’t think they play at all fairly, and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can’t hear oneself speak — and they don’t seem to have any rules in particular; at least, if there are, nobody attends to them — and you’ve no idea how confusing it is
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked.
“Where do you want to go?” was his response.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
I am amazed at radio DJ’s today. I am firmly convinced that AM on my radio stands for Absolute Moron. I will not begin to tell you what FM stands for.
Jasper Carrott (b. 1945) English comedian [b. Bob Davies]
(Attributed)
If it weren’t for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we’d still be eating frozen radio dinners.
Johnny Carson (1925-2005) American talk show host
(Attributed)
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life — so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
Matt Cartmill (b. 1943) American biological anthropologist
(Attributed)
If biologists don’t want to see the theory of evolution evicted from the public schools because of its religious content, they need to accept the limitations of science and stop trying to draw vast, cosmic conclusions from the plain facts of evolution. Humility isn’t just a cardinal virtue in Christian doctrine; it’s also a virtue in the practice of science.
Matt Cartmill (b. 1943) American biological anthropologist
Duke Magazine, “Contemplating a Cosmic Convergence” (Jul. 2000)
http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/alumni/dm29/cosmic.html
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.
George Washington Carver (1864?-1943) American chemist, educator
Address in New York City (1923)
Don’t be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters.
Pablo Casals (1876-1973) Spanish cellist, conductor, composer
“Salute to Life” (1969)
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
M. Kathleen Casey (contemp.) American sociologist
(Attributed)
CAPRICE: Wait a minute! Wait. Wait. I’m having a thought. Oh yes. Oh yes. I’m going to have a thought. It’s coming. It’s coming. … It’s gone.
Jim Cash (1940-2000) American screenwriter
Dick Tracy (1990)
In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.
Cassius Longinus (c. 86-42 BC) Roman general and tyrannicide [Gaius Cassius Longinus]
(Attributed)
Man is free, but not if he does not believe it.
Giovanni Giacamo Casanova de Seingalt (1725-1798) Italian adventurer, libertine, autobiographer
(Attributed)
We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
Carlos Castañeda (1931-1999) Peruvian-American writer, mystic, anthropologist
The Teachings of Don Juan (1968)
Also attributed to Journey to Ixtlan (1972).
Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you… Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think is necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question … Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.
Carlos Castañeda (1931-1999) Peruvian-American writer, mystic, anthropologist
The Teachings of Don Juan (1968)
Modern man has left the realm of the unknown and the mysterious, and has settled down in the realm of the functional. He has turned his back to the world of the foreboding and the exulting and has welcomed the world of boredom.
Carlos Castañeda (1931-1999) Peruvian-American writer, mystic, anthropologist
The Fire from Within (1984)
The fruits of forcing consciences are: if they die rather than recant, you are murderers; if they recant, they lie and their soul perishes.
Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563) Savoyard teacher, theologian, preacher [Sebastien Châtaillon]
Advice to a Desolate France (1562)
Why is our age still in darkness? Instead of working toward the golden age, we dispute, spilling the blood of the weakest. What is more absurd, we do it in Christ’s name who said to turn the other cheek, return good for evil and leave the weeds in the wheat field until the harvest.
Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563) Savoyard teacher, theologian, preacher [Sebastien Châtaillon]
Latin Bible, Preface (1551)
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.
Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563) Savoyard teacher, theologian, preacher [Sebastien Châtaillon]
Contra Libellum Calvini (1554)
on John Calvin's role in execution of Servetus
I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
[Moi, je serai autocrate: c’est mon metier. Et le bon Dieu me pardonnnera: c’est son metier.]
Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great; b. Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst]
(Attributed)
I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.
Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great; b. Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst]
Letter to Baron F. M. Grimm (1878)
I praise loudly, I blame softly.
Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great; b. Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst]
Letter (23 Aug. 1794)
After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.
Cato the Elder (234-149 BC) Roman politician and orator [Marcus Portius Cato]
(Attributed)
in Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Marcus Cato," ch. 19, sec. 4
The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.
Cato the Elder (234-149 BC) Roman politician and orator [Marcus Portius Cato]
(Attributed)
attributed in Bacon's Apothegms, #247
There’s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?
Dick Cavett (b. 1936) American writer and critic
(Attributed)
on TV violence
I can pardon everyone’s mistakes but my own.
Cato the Elder (234-149 BC) Roman politician and orator [Marcus Portius Cato]
(Attributed)
As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.
Dick Cavett (b. 1936) American writer and critic
Playboy, interview by Harold Ramis (Mar. 1971)
Tell me what company thou keepst, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 2, Book 3, ch. 23 (1615)
Those two fatal words, Mine and Thine.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 2, ch. 11 (1605) [tr. Motteux & Ozell (1743)]
(Source)
Alt trans.:
- "Oh happy age, which our first parents called the age of gold! not because gold, so much adored in this iron-age, was then easily purchased, but because those two fatal words, mine and thine, were distinctions unknown to the people of those fortunate times." [Full version of the above]
- "Happy the age, happy the time, to which the ancients gave the name of golden, not because in that fortunate age the gold so coveted in this our iron one was gained without toil, but because they that lived in it knew not the two words 'mine' and 'thine'!" [tr. Ormsby (1885)]
- "Happy age, and happy days were those, to which the ancients gave the name of golden; not, that gold, which in these our iron-times, is so much esteemed, was to be acquired without trouble, in that fortunate period; but, because people then, were ignorant of those two words MINE and THINE." [tr. Smollett (1976), as Part 1, Book 1, ch. 3]
The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 1, ch. 4 (1605)
The real value of freedom is not to the minority that wants to talk, but to the majority, that does not want to listen.
Zechariah Chafee, Jr. (1855-1987) American legal scholar, libertarian
The Blessings of Liberty (1956)
The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
The Long Goodbye (1953)
Fashion passes, style remains.
Coco Chanel (1883-1971) French dress designer [Gabrielle Chanel]
(Attributed)
It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
Farewell, My Lovely, ch. 13 (1940)
A market is the combined behavior of thousands of people responding to information, misinformation and whim.
Kenneth Chang (contemp.) American journalist
(Attributed)
How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.
Coco Chanel (1883-1971) French dress designer [Gabrielle Chanel]
This Week (20 Aug. 1961)
Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.
William E. Channing (1780-1842) American moralist, author, cleric, Unitarian theologian
(Attributed)
Neutral men are the devil’s allies.
The final delusion is the belief that one has lost all delusions.
Maurice Chapelain (1906-1992) French writer
Main courante (1957)
We may draw good out of evil; we must not do evil, that good may come.
Maria Weston Chapman (1806-1885) American abolitionist, editor
“How Can I Help to Abolish Slavery,” speech, New York (1855)
Old truths must be constantly re-stated if they are not to be forgotten. To Homer, the dawn was “rosy-fingered”; to Shakespeare, it was “in russet mantle clad”; to Housman, “the ship of sunrise burning”. The scientist can explain exactly why the sky looks as it does in the early morning, the physiologist why we perceive as we do. Yet no one suggests that there is no dawn at all, or that its appearance has changed over the centuries, or that any one of these percipients was mad or deceitful. Why should our knowledge of the Creator be less capable of variety and development than our knowledge of any aspect of Creation?
Raymond Chapman (1924-2013) English author, academic [pseud. Simon Nash]
The Ruined Tower (1961)
I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.
Charles V (1500-1558) Holy Roman Emperor
(Attributed)
Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.
Émile-Auguste Chartier (1868-1951) French philosopher, journalist, pacifist (a.k.a. Alain)
Propos sur la eligion, No. 74 (1938)
When he said we were trying to make a fool of him, I could only murmur that the Creator had beat us to it.
Ilka Chase (1905-1978) American actress, writer
(Attributed)
quoted in Cooper & Hartman, "Mrs. Crankhurst" (1980); http://www.bartleby.com/66/29/11429.html
Democracy is not an easy form of government, because it is never final; it is a living, changing organism, with a continuous shifting and adjusting of balance between individual freedom and general order.
Ilka Chase (1905-1978) American actress, writer
Past Imperfect (1942)
ANONYMOUS ACTRESS: I enjoyed your book. Who wrote it for you?
CHASE: Darling, I’m so glad you liked it. Who read it to you?Ilka Chase (1905-1978) American actress, writer
(Attributed)
Regarding her autobiography, Past Imperfect (1942)
The theater is a baffling business, and a shockingly wasteful one when you consider that people who have proven their worth, who have appeared in or been responsible for successful plays, who have given outstanding performances, can still, in the full tide of their energy, be forced, through lack of opportunity, to sit idle season after season, their enthusiasm, their morale, their very talent dwindling to slow gray death. Of finances we will not even speak; it is too sad a tale.
Ilka Chase (1905-1978) American actress, writer
Past Imperfect (1942)
You can always spot a well-informed man — his views are the same as yours.
Ilka Chase (1905-1978) American actress, writer
(Attributed)
One is not superior merely because one sees the world as odious.
François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) French writer, politican, diplomat
(Attributed)
Man is what he believes.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
(Attributed)
You will not become a saint through other people’s sins.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
(Attributed)
We fret ourselves to reform life, in order that posterity may be happy, and posterity will say as usual: “In the past it used to be better, the present is worse than the past.”
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
Notebooks
Nothing better forges a bond of love, friendship or respect than common hatred toward something.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
Notebooks, Notebook I, vol. 17, p. 52,
http://www.bartleby.com/66/57/11757.html
He was a rationalist, but he had to confess that he liked the ringing of church bells.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
Notebooks
Any idiot can face a crisis, it is the day-to-day living that wears you out.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
(Attributed)
I bid you strike at the passions; and if you do, you too will prevail. If you can once engage people’s pride, love, pity, ambition (or whichever is their prevailing passion) on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #105 (8 Feb 1746)
(Source)
Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be a much better thing than experience, which they call coldness. They are but half mistaken; for though spirit without experience is dangerous, experience without spirit is languid and defective.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #298 (15 Jan 1758)
(Source)
Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one. If you are asked what o’clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #142 (22 Feb 1748)
(Source)
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #226 (24 May 1750)
(Source)
Either a good or a bad reputation outruns and gets before people wherever they go.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to Solomon Dayrolles (23 Dec 1848)
(Source)
I recommend to you to take care of the minutes; for hours will take care of themselves.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #131 (6 Nov 1747)
(Source)
Good manners are the settled medium of social, as specie is of commercial, life; returns are equally expected for both.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #304 (25 Dec 1758)
(Source)
It is the test of a good religion whether you can make a joke about it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
(Attributed)
The dispute that goes on between Macbeth and his wife about the murder of Duncan is almost word for word a dispute which goes on at any suburban breakfast table about something else. It is merely a matter of changing ‘Infirm of purpose, give me the daggers’ into ‘Infirm of purpose, give me the postage stamps.’
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Chesterton on Shakespeare
ed. Dorothy Collins (1972)
A man has been lucky in marrying the women he loves. But he is luckier in loving the woman he marries.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Brave New Family
ed. Alvaro de Silva (1990)
Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.
If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in frightful danger of seeing it for the first time.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1906)
We’re all really dependent in nearly everything, and we all make a fuss about being independent in something.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922)
Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment, I am firmly of the opinion that I was born on the 29th of May, 1874, on Campden Hill, Kensington ….
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Autobiography (1936)
JACKSON: Truth is one’s own conception of things.
CHESTERTON: The Big Blunder. All thought is an attempt to discover if one’s own conception is true or not.Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Platitudes Undone
commentary on Holbrook Jackson's Platitudes in the Making (1997)
“My Country, right or wrong” is a thing no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.”
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Defendant, ch. 16 “A Defence of Patriotism”
(Source)
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
A Short History of England (1917)
For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value in any of them is that they bear the image of the king.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
(Attributed)
Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
(Attributed)
The new school of art and thought does indeed wear an air of audacity, and breaks out everywhere into blasphemies, as if it required any courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
G.F. Watts (1906)
The obvious effect of frivolous divorce will be frivolous marriage. If people can be separated for no reason they will feel it all the easier to be united for no reason.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Superstition of Divorce (1920)
We are learning to do a great many clever things. … The next great task will be to learn not to do them.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Varied Types (1908)
The one really rousing thing about human history is that, whether or no the proceedings go right, at any rate, the prophecies always go wrong. The promises are never fulfilled and the threats are never fulfilled. Even when good things do happen, they are never the good things that were guaranteed. And even when bad things happen, they are never the bad things that were inevitable. You may be quite certain that, if an old pessimist says the country is going to the dogs, it will go to any other animals except the dogs; if it be to the dromedaries or even the dragons. … It was as if one weather prophet confidently predicted blazing sunshine and the other was equally certain of blinding fog; and they were both buried in a beautiful snow-storm and lay, fortunately dead, under a clear and starry sky.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Illustrated London News, column (17 April 1926)
Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Autobiography (1936)
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
What’s Wrong with the World (1910)
If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
(Attributed)
America has never been quite normal.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Sidelights on New London and Newer York (1932)
This man’s spiritual power has been precisely this, that he has distinguished between custom and creed. He has broken the conventions, but he has kept the commandments.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Manalive (1912)
The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
(Attributed)
It’s not the world that’s gotten so much worse, but the news coverage that’s gotten so much better.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
(Attributed)
Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Charles Dickens, Ch. 11 (1906)
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found it without it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
(Attributed)
The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
A Miscelleny of Men, “The Angry Author: His Farewell (1912)
People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
“The New Generations and Morality,” The Illustrated London News (9 Mar 1929)
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, Ch. 4, “The Ethics of England” (1908)
Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
“Our Note Book,” Illustrated London News (5 May 1928)
Often misattributed to Oscar Wilde (and as "Morality, like art ..."). For more info, see here.
The wise old fairy tales never were so silly as to say that the prince and the princess lived peacefully ever afterwards. The fairy tales said that the prince and the princess lived happily, and so they did. They lived happily, although it is very likely that from time to time they threw the furniture at each other. Most marriages, I think, are happy marriages; but there is no such thing as a contented marriage. The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a perpetual crisis.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Chesterton on Dickens (1911)
CONJURER: Doctor, there are about a thousand reasons why I should not tell you how I really did that trick. But one will suffice, because it is the most practical of all.
DOCTOR: Well? And why shouldn’t you tell me?
CONJURER:”Because you wouldn’t believe me if I did.Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Magic (1913)
The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Man Who Was Thursday (1907)
I don’t believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make. When one’s hostess starts in with self-deprecations such as “Oh, I don’t know how to cook …,” or “Poor little me …,” or “This may taste awful …,” it is so dreadful to have to reassure her that everything is delicious and fine, whether it is or not. Besides, such admissions only draw attention to one’s shortcomings (or self-perceived shortcomings) and make the other person think, “Yes, you’re right, this really is an awful meal!” Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed — eh bien, tant pis!
Julia Child (1912-2004) American chef and writer
My Life In France, “Le Cordon Bleu,” sec. 2 (2006)
(Source)
"Oh well, too bad."
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
Noam Chomsky (b. 1928) American linguist and activist
The Common Good (1998)
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
Noam Chomsky (b. 1928) American linguist and activist
The Late Show, TV interview with John Pilger, BBC2 (25 Nov 1992)
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
(Attributed)
Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Ch. 11 (Poirot) (1911)
Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
(Attributed)
You meet a thousand times in life with those who, in dealing with any religious question, make at once their appeal to reason, and insist on forthwith rejecting aught that lies beyond its sphere — without, however, being able to render any clear account of the nature and proper limits of the knowledge thus derived, or of the relation in which such knowledge stands to the religious needs of men. I would invite you, therefore, to inquire seriously whether such persons are not really bowing down before an idol of the mind, which, while itself of very questionable worth, demands as much implicit faith from its worshipers as divine revelation itself.
Theodor Christlieb (1833-1889) German theologian
(Attributed)
Granting that you and I argue. If you get the better of me, and not I of you, are you necessarily right and I wrong? Or if I get the better of you and not you of me, am I necessarily right and you wrong? Or are we both partly right and partly wrong? Or are we both wholly right and wholly wrong? You and I cannot know this, and consequently we all live in darkness.
Chuang Tzu (369-286 BC) Chinese Taoist philosopher [Zhuang Zhou (莊周), Zhuangzi ( 莊子)]
On Leveling All Things
There is no such thing as a moral dress. It’s people who are moral or immoral.
Jennie Jerome Spencer-Churchill (1854-1921) American-British socialite [Lady Randolph Churchill]
Quoted in London Daily Chronicle (16 Feb 1921)
In response to a Philadelphia clergyman dictating that for a gown to be "moral" it must be cut no more than 7½" off the ground or 3" below the neck.
Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light.
Jennie Jerome Spencer-Churchill (1854-1921) American-British socialite [Lady Randolph Churchill]
Small Talk on Big Subjects, “Friendship” (1916)
My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
House of Commons speech (4-Nov-1952)
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
If you’re going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Spurious)
Also sometimes given as "If you're going through hell, don't stop."Not found in any of Churchill's written works or directly attributed to him in any reliable source. See here for more information.
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
on Sir Stafford Cripps
Responsibility is the price of greatness.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (22 Oct 1945)
(Source)
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed, 1949)Comment on his 75th birthday, when asked whether he was afraid of death. Quoted in the NY Times Magazine (1 Nov 1964).
Sometimes quoted as, "I am ready to meet my Maker. ..."
WOMAN: There are two things I don’t like about you, Mr. Churchill — your politics and your mustache.
CHURCHILL: My dear madam, pray do not disturb yourself. You are not likely to come into contact with either.Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Exchange with anonymous woman
Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
The only wise and safe course is to act from day to day in accordance with what one’s own conscience seems to decree.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
The Second World War: The Gathering Storm, 1.12 (1948)
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
If Hitler invaded hell I would at least make a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
The Grand Alliance, vol. 3, ch. 20 (regarding the alliance with the USSR) (1950)
It is vain to imagine that the mere perception or declaration of right principles, whether in one country or in many countries, will be of any value unless they are supported by those qualities of civic virtue and manly courage
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech at Bristol University (2 Jul. 1938)
Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
The Story of the Malakand Field Force, ch. 10 (1898)Sometimes quoted as "There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result."
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Of course I’m an optimist. What’s the point of being anything else?
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(1941)
In War: Resolution.
In Defeat: Defiance.
In Victory: Magnanimity.
In Peace: Goodwill.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
The Second World War, Vol. 1: The Gathering Storm, Epigram, “Moral of the Work,” (1948)
(Source)
The most famous use of the quote, though it can be found as far back as 21 Jan 1921 in Churchill's own hand, and Edward Marsh, his private secretary, suggested it dated back to just after WW I, as a possible war memorial.More information here: CHURCHILL, Sir Winston Spencer (1874-1965). Autograph sentiment signed and dated, 21 January 1921, 'In War - Resolution , In Defeat - Defiance , In Victory - Magnanimity , In Peace - Goodwill', one page, 4°, in a commonplace book further inscribed and signed 'To Nell from Winston S. Churchill 21.1.21', and with one other inscription, contemporary marbled calf, front cover panelled in gilt and blind. Provenance: Roy A. Dalton; and by descent..
You can always trust the Americans. in the end they will do the right thing, after they have eliminated all the other possibilities.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
But it’s no show just to protect the serious, the solemn, and the high-minded. We must protect the flippant, the zany, the heretical, and the downright queer. The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
John Ciardi (1916-1986) American poet, writer, critic
(Attributed)
The day will happen whether or not you get up.
John Ciardi (1916-1986) American poet, writer, critic
(Attributed)
Every evil in the bud is easily crushed: as it grows older, it becomes stronger.
[Omne malum nascens facile opprimitur; inveteratum fit pleurumque robustius.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 5, ch. 11 / sec. 31 (5.11/5.31) (43-01-01 BC) [ed. Hoyt (1896)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:Every evil is easily crushed at its birth; when it has become of long standing, it usually gets stronger.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]Every evil at its birth is easily suppressed; but if it be of long standing, it will offer a stouter resistance.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]Every evil is easily crushed at its birth; become inveterate it as a rule gathers strength.
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]Every evil is easily nipped in the bud; with age it usually gets stronger.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]
Write me every day about these points and anything else. When you have nothing to write, write and say so.
[De omnibus cotidie scribas. Ubi nihil erit quot scribas id ipsum scirbito.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 4, Letter 8, sec. 4 (4.8.4) (55 BC) [tr. Winstedt (Loeb) (1912), 8a]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:Write me word on these points and all others every day. When there is nothing for you to write, write and say so.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1900), 8b]Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)
Wise men are instructed by reason; men of understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts by nature.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Ad Atticum
What is so advantageous to the people as liberty? which is sought out and preferred to everything, not only by men, but even by the beasts.
[Quid tam populare quam libertas? Quam non solum ab hominibus verum etiam a bestiis expeti atque omnibus rebus anteponi videtis.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Lege Agraria [On the Agrarian Law], Oration 2 “Contra Rullum,” sec. 9 (63 BC) [tr. Yonge (1856)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:What is so beneficial to the people as liberty, which we see not only to be greedily sought after by men, but also by beasts, and to be preferred to all things.
[Source (1884)]
If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains. If you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
(Attributed)
Widely attributed to Cicero, but no actual citations found. Sometimes the clauses are reversed:If you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains. If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains.
For it is the part of a wise man to resolve beforehand that whatever can happen to a man should be borne calmly if it should befall him. It needs altogether great judgment to provide against such evil happening and no less courage to bear it with fortitude if it should befall.
[Est enim sapientis, quidquid homini accidere possit, id praemeditari ferendum modice esse, si evenerit. Majoris omnino est consilii providere ne quid tale accidat, animi non minoris fortiter ferre si evenerit.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 11, ch. 3 / sec. 7 (11.3/11.7) (43-02 BC) [tr. Ker (1926)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:It is the mark of a wise man ever to consider, reflect, that whatever may happen to him should be borne with patience. It is, however, a mark of greater wisdom to take every precaution against the occurrence of any thing unpleasant, of a reverse of fortune; but it is an indication of a mind in no wise inferior bravely and manfully to submit to any change of fortune, however unpleasant, untoward, unfavorable, unpropitious.
[Source (1869)]For it is the part of a wise man to resolve beforehand that whatever can happen to a brave man is to be endured with patience if it should happen. It is indeed a proof of altogether greater wisdom to act with such foresight as to prevent any such thing from happening; but it is a token of no less courage to bear it bravely if it should befall one.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]
The safety of the people is the supreme law.
[Salus populi suprema lex esto.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Legibus [On the Laws], Book 3, ch. 3 / sec. 8 (3.3/3.8) [Marcus] (c. 51 BC) [tr. Barham (1842)]
(Source)
Cicero gives this in his outline of how government ought to be constituted, in particular how the consuls should have ultimate authority over the law and the army. (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:The safety of the people shall be their highest law.
[tr. Keyes (1928)]The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
[tr. Rudd (1998)]For them let the safety of the people be the highest law.
[tr. Zetzel (1999)]Let the safety of the people be the highest law.
[tr. Fott (2013)]
Other, more general translations:The phrase (in Latin) was used frequently during the Enlightenment as a core statement around the purpose of government, most famously in John Locke's Second Treatise,, ch. 13, sec. 158.
- "The good of the people is the chief law."
- "Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law."
More information about this quote and its uses: Salus populi suprema lex esto - Wikipedia
Since Tyrannio has arranged my books, the house seems to have acquired a soul.
[Postea vero quam Tyrannio mini libros disposuit, mens addita videtur meis aedibus.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 4, Letter 8, sec. 2 (4.8.2) (56 BC) [tr. Winstedt (1912)]
(Source)
This seems to be the origin of the popular (mis)quote from Cicero: "A room without books is like a body without a soul."
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:Moreover, since Tyrannio has arranged my books for me, my house seems to have had a soul added to it.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1900)]
The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn’t want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
(Spurious)
(Source)
One of several related paraphrases of this "quote" from Taylor Caldwell's novel about Cicero, A Pillar of Iron, ch. 51 (1965):Antonius heartily agreed with him [sc. Cicero] that the budget should be balanced, that the Treasury should be refilled, that public debt should be reduced, that the arrogance of the generals should be tempered and controlled, that assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, that the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence, and that prudence and frugality should be put into practice as soon as possible.
See here and here for more discussion.
Unchanging consistency of standpoint has never been considered a virtue in great statesmen.
[Numquam enim in praestantibus in re publica gubernanda viris laudata est in una sententia perpetua permansio.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Familiares [Letters to Friends], Book 1, Letter 9, sec. 21 (1.9.21), to P. Lentulus Spinther (54 BC) [tr. Shackleton Bailey (1978), # 20]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:Neither shall you ever finde, that wise men, and such as are expert in the affaires of the Common-wealth, praise him, that doth alwayes proceed, after one and the selfe same order.
[tr. Webbe (1620)]In conformity to this notion, the most judicious reasoners on the great art of government, have universally condemned an inflexible perseverance in one uniform tenor of measures.
[tr. Melmoth (1753), 2.17]Obstinately to hold to one unvarying opinion has never been accounted among the merits of those eminent men who have guided the helm of State.
[tr. Jeans (1880), 2.39]For the persistence in the same view has never been regarded as a merit in men eminent for their guidance of the helm of state.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1899), # 152]For never has an undeviating persistence in one opinion been reckoned as a merit in those distinguished men who have steered the ship of state.
[tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928)]Persistence in a single view has never been regarded as a merit in political leaders.
[Common translation, e.g.]
Peace indeed is both sweet in name and wholesome in reality; but there is all the difference in the world between peace and slavery. Peace is the calmness of freedom, slavery the worst of all evils, to be kept off at the cost not only of war, but even of life itself.
[Et nomen pacis dulce est et ipsa res salutaris; sed inter pacem et servitutem plurimum interest. Pax est tranquilla libertas, servitus postremum malorum omnium, non modo bello sed morte etiam repellendum.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 2, ch. 44 / sec. 113 (2,44/2.113) (44-10-24 BC) [tr. King (1877)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:And the name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself wholesome, but between peace and servitude the difference is great. Peace is tranquil liberty, servitude the last of all evils, one to be repelled, not only by war but even by death.
[tr. Ker (1926)]The name of peace is sweet, the thing itself is most salutary. But between peace and slavery there is a wide difference. Peace is liberty in tranquility; slavery is the worst of all evils, -- to be repelled, if need be, not only by war, but even by death.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]Peace indeed is both sweet in name and wholesome in reality; but there is all the difference between peace and slavery. Peace is the calmness of freedom, slavery the worst of all evils, to be kept off at the cost not only of war, but even of life itself.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]Even the name of peace is sweet, and peace itself a blessing; but there is all the difference in the world between peace and servitude. Peace is the quiet enjoyment of freedom, whereas servitude is the greatest of all evils, something to be resisted not just with war, but even with death.
[tr. Berry (2006)]There is sweetness in the name of peace, and living in peace is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and slavery. Slavery is the worst of all evils and must be driven off by war -- or even by death.
[tr. McElduff (2011)]
Each man must use his own judgement.
[Suo cuique iudicio est utendum.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Natura Deorum, Book 3, ch. 1 [tr. Rackham (1933)]
(Source)
Somehow or other no statement is too absurd for some philosophers to make.
[Sed nescio quo modo nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Divinatione [On Divination], Book 2, ch. 58 (2.58) / sec. 119 (45 BC) [tr. Falconer (1923)]
(Source)
Everybody knows that the first law of history is not daring to say anything false; that the second is daring to say everything that is true; that there should be no suggestion of partiality, none of animosity when you write.
[Nam quis nescit primam esse historiae legem, ne quid falsi dicere audeat? Deinde ne quid veri non audeat? Ne quae suspicio gratiae sit in scribendo? Ne quae simultatis?]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Oratore [On the Orator, On Oratory], Book 2, ch. 15 (2.15) / sec. 62 (55 BC) [tr. May/Wisse (2001)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:For, is there a Man ignorant, that the first Rule of History is, that an Historian shall not dare to advance a Falsity; the next, that there is no Truth but what he shall dare to tell? That in Writing, he shall be free of all Prepossession; of all Pique?
[tr. Guthrie (1755)]For, is there a man ignorant that the first rule of history is that an historian shall not dare to advance a falsehood; the next, that there no truth but what he shall dare to tell? That the writer should be actuated neither by favour, or by prejudice?
[Source (1808)]For who is ignorant that it is the first law in writing history, that the historian must not dare to tell any falsehood, and the next, that he must be bold enough to tell the whole truth? Also, that there must be no suspicion of partiality in his writings, or of personal animosity?
[tr. Watson (1860)]Who need be informed that the first law of history is, to have the honesty to state no falsehood, the next, the courage to suppress no truth, and to avoid all suspicion of undue bias or personal animosity?
[tr. Calvert (1870)]Who does not recognise that the first law of history is that we shall never dare to say what is false; the second that we shall never fear to say what is true; that everything we write shall be free from any suspicion of favoritism or flattery?
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]For who does not know history's first law to be that an author must not dare to tell anything but the truth ? And its second that he must make bold to tell the whole truth? That there must be no suggestion of partiality anywhere in his writings? Nor of malice?
[tr. Sutton/Rackham (1940)]The first law for the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall suppress nothing that is true. Moreover, there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his writing, or of malice.
[Bartlett's]
By doubting we come at truth.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
(Attributed)
Widely attributed, but no citation found.
All men make mistakes; but it is fools who persist in them.
[Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 12, ch. 2 / sec. 5 (12.2/12.5) (43-03 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2012)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:Every man may err, but no man who is not a fool may persist in error.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]Any man is liable to a mistake; but no one but a downright fool will persist in error.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]Every man is liable to err; it is the part only of a fool to persevere in error.
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.
[ed. Guterman (1966)]Of any man at all it is to err, to persist in error is of none except unthinking.
[tr. Wiseman]
Thus in all things the greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.
[Sic omnibus in rebus, voluptatibus maximis fastidium finitimum est.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Oratore [On the Orator, On Oratory], Book 3, ch. 25 (3.25) / sec. 100 (55 BC) [tr. Rackham (1942)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Thus, generally speaking, Loathing borders upon the most pleasing Sensations.
[tr. Guthrie (1755)]Thus, generally speaking, satiety borders upon the most pleasing sensations.
[Source (1808)]In all other things, loathing still borders upon the most exquisite delights.
[tr. Watson (1860)]The extremes of gratification and disgust are separated by the finest line of demarcation.
[tr. Calvert (1870)]In everything we do, all our keenest pleasures end in satiety.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]In everything else, then, the greatest pleasure borders on aversion.
[tr. May/Wisse (2001)]
Where is there dignity unless there is also honesty?
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Ad Atticum
Among Christians so much prominence has been given to the disciplinary effects of sorrow, affliction, bereavement, that they have been in danger of overlooking the other and more obvious side: that by every joy, by every favor, by every sign of prosperity
Francis Edward Clark (1851-1927) American clergyman
(Attributed)
For he that makes any thing his chiefest good, wherein justice or virtue does not bear a part, and sets up profit, not honesty, for the measure of his happiness; as long as he acts in conformity with his own principles, and is not overruled by the mere dictates of reason and humanity, can never do the offices of friendship, justice, or liberality: nor can he ever be a man of courage, who thinks that pain is the greatest evil; or he of temperance, who imagines pleasure to be the sovereign good.
[Nam qui summum bonum sic instituit, ut nihil habeat cum virtute coniunctum, idque suis commodis, non honestate metitur, hic, si sibi ipse consentiat et non interdum naturae bonitate vincatur neque amicitiam colere possit nec iustitiam nec liberalitatem; fortis vero dolorem summum malum iudicans aut temperans voluptatem summum bonum statuens esse certe nullo modo potest.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Officiis [On Duties; On Moral Duty; The Offices], Book 1, ch. 2 (1.2) / sec. 5 (44 BC) [tr. Cockman (1699)]
(Source)
Attacking the Epicurean "highest good" of avoiding pain and seeking personal detachment; Cicero supported the Stoic virtues of courage and moderation.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:He who teaches that to be the chief good which hath no connection with virtue, which is measured by personal advantage, and not by honor; if he be consistent with himself, and not sometimes overcome by the benignity of nature, can neither cultivate friendship nor practice justice nor liberality. That man cannot be brave who believes pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who believes pleasure the supreme good.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]For if a man should lay down as the chief good, that which has no connexion with virtue, and measure it by his own interests, and not according to its moral merit; if such a man shall act consistently with his own principles, and is not sometimes influenced by the good ness of his heart, he can cultivate neither friendship, justice, nor generosity. In truth, it is impossible for the man to be brave who shall pronounce pain to be the greatest evil, or temperate who shall propose pleasure as the highest good.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]For he who so interprets the supreme good as to disjoin it from virtue, and measures it by his own convenience, and not by the standard of right, -- he, I say, if he be consistent with himself, and be not sometimes overcome by natural goodness, can cultivate neither friendship, nor justice, nor generosity; nor can he possibly be brave while he esteems pain as the greatest of evils, or temperate while he regards pleasure as the supreme good.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]He who severs the highest good from virtue and measures it by interest and not by honour, if he were true to his principles and did not at times yield to his better nature, could not cultivate friendship, justice or liberality; and no one can be brave who declares pain the greatest evil, or temperate who maintains pleasure to be the highest good.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]For he who posits the supreme good as having no connection with virtue and measures it not by a moral standard but by his own interests -- if he should be consistent and not rather at times over-ruled by his better nature, he could value neither friendship nor justice nor generosity; and brave he surely cannot possibly be that counts pain the supreme evil, nor temperate he that holds pleasure to be the supreme good.
[tr. Miller (1913)]Take, for example, the man who has established the kind of highest good that has nothing to do with virtue, that is, measured by the individual's convenience, not by his morality. If that man is consistent and is not in the meantime overcome by natural goodness, he cannot cultivate friendship, or justice, or openness of character. In fact, a man of courage who considers pain the greatest evil, or a temperate man who declares indulgence to be the greatest good, is surely an impossible contradiction.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.
[Source]
We find comfort among those who agree with us — growth among those who don’t.
Frank A. Clark (1911-1991) American writer
(Attributed)
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
Profiles of the Future, “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination” (Clarke’s First Law) (1962; rev. 1973)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
Profiles of the Future, “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination” (Clarke’s Third Law) (1962; rev. 1973)
Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
(Attributed)
also attrib. Abraham Maslow
But the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
“Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination,” Profiles of the Future (1962)
Also known as Clarke's Second Law.
The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
(Attributed)
Look, Dave … I can see you’re really upset about this …. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly …. Take a stress pill, and think things over.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
2001: A Space Odyssey [HAL 9000] (1968) [with Stanley Kubrick]
The art of power and its minions is the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments.
Henry Clay (1777-1853) American politician
Speech, US Senate (14 Mar. 1834)
The thing about change is that it’s not permanent.
Tracy Clavin (contemp.) American educator
(Attributed)
The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they’re going to be when you kill them.
William Clayton (contemp.)
(Attributed)
Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
Henry Clay (1777-1853) American politician
(Attributed)
You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998) American activist
Speech (1968)
If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
John Cleese (b. 1939) English comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer
(Attributed)
The great mistake most people make is the assumption that most people are sane. I know very few people who are sane — and only one man in my life who was really grown up. All the other people are terribly recognizable as kids who have learned grown-up ways of behaving.
John Cleese (b. 1939) English comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer
(Attributed)
If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call in question and discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it — the life of that man is one long sin against mankind.
William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) English mathematician and philosopher
“The Ethics of Belief,” Part 1 “The Duty of Inquiry,” Contemporary Review (Jan 1877)
(Source)
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
First Inaugural Address (20 Jan. 1993)
The last time I checked, the Constitution said, “of the people, by the people and for the people.” That’s what the Declaration of Independence says.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
Speech (17 Oct. 1996)
inadvertently quoting the Gettysburg Address
A father is a man who expects his children to be as good as he meant to be.
Carolyn Coats (contemp.) American writer
Things Your Dad Always Told You But You Didn’t Want to Hear (1981)
Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best.
Carolyn Coats (contemp.) American writer
(Attributed)
I feel there is an angel within me whom I am constantly shocking.
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French writer, filmmaker, artist
(Attributed)
Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French writer, filmmaker, artist
New York World-Telegram & Sun (21 Aug. 1960)
The course of a river is almost always disapproved of by its source.
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French writer, filmmaker, artist
(Attributed)
We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French writer, filmmaker, artist
Comment (1955)
On his election to Académie Française. Alt. trans.: "Of course I believe in luck. How else does one explain the successes of one's enemies?"
You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.
Paulo Coelho (b. 1947) Brazilian spiritual writer
(Attributed)
Moralism is historically one of America’s great defects. Moralism is intolerant of ambiguity; it perceives reality in extreme terms of good and evil and regards more sophisticated judgments as soft and unworthy. The temptation to moralize is strong; it is emotionally satisfying to have enemies rather than problems, to seek out culprits rather than flaws in the system. God knows it is emotionally satisfying to be righteous with that righteousness that nourishes itself on the blood of sinners. But God also knows that what is emotionally satisfying can be spiritually devastating.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924-2006) American minister, social activist
The Courage to Love, Introduction (1982)
Clearly it is not Scripture that creates hostility to homosexuality, but rather hostility to homosexuality that prompts certain Christians to retain a few passages from an otherwise discarded law code. The problem is not how to reconcile homosexuality with scriptural passages, but rather how to reconcile the rejection and punishment of homosexuals with the love of Christ.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924-2006) American minister, social activist
The Courage to Love, ch. 5 (1982)
(Source)
Tolerance implies a respect for another person, not because he is wrong or even because he is right, but because he is human.
John Cogley (1916-1976) American religion journalist, editor
Commonweal, column
You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.
Edwin L. Cole (1922-2002) American minister and writer
(Attributed)
quoted in Don
There is one art of which man should be master, the art of reflection.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
(Attributed)
Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
(Attributed)
In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Comment (1830-10-05), “Table Talk”
(Source)
To be beloved is all I need,
And whom I love, I love indeed.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
“The Pains of Sleep,” l. 51-52 (1803)
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Lyrical Ballads, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” 615-618 (1798)
He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Aids to Reflection (1825)
No man does anything from a single motive.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Bibliographica Literia, ch. 11 (1817)
Be happy. It is a way of being wise.
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) French writer
(Attributed)
As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) French writer
Break of Day (1961)
The abuse of a thing is no argument against the use of it.
Jeremy Collier (1650-1726) English clergyman
Immorality of the English Stage (1704)
Life is a buffet and only the suckers are starving.
Joan Collins (b. 1933) English actress, author
(Attributed)
Half of our mistakes in life arise from feeling where we ought to think, and thinking where we ought to feel.
John Churton Collins (1848-1908) American literary academic
(Attributed)
I don’t know where my songs come from
Judy Collins (b. 1939) American folk singer, film maker
Interview in Empire:ZINE, by T. Fennel Crenshaw (1998)
Friendship, of itself a holy tie,
Is made more sacred by adversity.John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
The Hind and the Panther, Part 3, l. 47 (1687)
(Source)
The actual lines read:For friendship of it self, an holy tye,
Is made more sacred by adversity.
Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 102 (1822)
(Source)
Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but — live for it.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 25 (1820)
(Source)
It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies, seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 286 (1820)
(Source)