For I don’t care too much for money,
For money can’t buy me love.John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
“Can’t Buy Me Love” (song) (1964) [with Paul McCartney]
One must always have in mind one simple fact — there is no literate population in the world that is poor, and there is no illiterate population that is anything but poor.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Interview with John Newark (1990)
Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)
For us who live in cities Nature is not natural. Nature is supernatural. Just as monks watched and strove to get a glimpse of heaven, so we watch and strive to get a glimpse of earth. It is as if men had cake and wine every day but were sometimes allowed common bread.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News, “The Silly Season and Serious Discussion” (31 Aug 1907)
“Peace upon earth!” was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We’ve got as far as poison gas.Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist, poet
“Christmas, 1924”
Civil liberties had their origin and must find their ultimate guaranty in the faith of the people. If that faith should be lost, five or nine men in Washington could not long supply its want.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Douglas v. Jeannette 319 U.S. 157, 181 (1943) [concurring]
(Source)
I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
(Misattributed)
(Source)
While this appeared in her regular syndicated column (29 Jun 1997), Ivins was actually quoting a comment previously made by Texas state representative Craig Washington on the floor of the Texas Senate. It is frequently misattributed to Ivins herself.
Variant: "I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag."
Repeating mistakes is more likely than profiting from them.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
The Sayings of Chairman Malcolm, “Fact and Comment” (1978)
In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure. … I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Inaugural Address (4 Mar 1929)
Seven months before the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.
[A pessimist] is a man who thinks everybody as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
An Unsocial Socialist, ch. 5 (1887)
If I solve my dispute with my neighbor by killing him, I have certainly solved the immediate dispute. If my neighbor was a scoundrel, then the world is no doubt better for his absence. But in killing my neighbor, though he may have been a terrible man who did not deserve to live, I have made myself a killer — and the life of my next neighbor is in greater peril than the life of the last. In making myself a killer I have destroyed the possibility of neighborhood.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
“A Statement Against the War in Vietnam,” speech, University of Kentucky (10 Feb 1968) Full text.Full text.
Neither earth nor ocean
produces a creature as savage and monstrous
as woman.Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba, l. 1180 [tr. Arrowsmith (1956)]
Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations, Book 4, #49 [tr. Long]
(Source)
Alt. trans. [Staniforth (1964)]: "Here is a rule to remember in the future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune,' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'"
Various fresh ideas gained acceptance … when they could be presented not as something radically new, but as the revival in modern terms of a time-honored principle or practice that had been forgotten.
B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, military historian (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Strategy, Preface (1954)
When Jerry Falwell, reflecting a widespread sentiment among conservative Christians, says America should hunt terrorists down and “blow them all away in the name of the Lord” (emphasis added), he is expressing the Constantinian mindset. When Pat Robertson declares that the United States should assassinate President Chavez of Venezuela, he also is expressing the Constantinian mindset. And when Christians try to enforce their holy will on select groups of sinners by power of law, they are essentially doing the same thing, even if the violent means of enforcing their will is no longer available to them.
Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd (b. 1957) American evangelical pastor, Christian theologian, author.
The Myth of a Christian Nation (2007)
When I deal with a crook, I don’t care whether he is a Republican crook or a Democratic crook. But I will always tend to hit the Republican crook a little harder because I feel a little responsible for him. It is the duty of all Americans to protest against dishonest public servants.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York City (18 Jan 1911)
A few timid people who fear progress have tried to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it “Fascism.” Sometimes “Communism.” Sometimes “Regimentation.” Sometimes “Socialism.” But in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical. I believe in practical explanations and in practical policies. I believe what we are doing today is a necessary fulfillment of what Americans have always been doing, a fulfilment of old and tested American ideals.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Fireside Chat #5, “Report on Recovery” (27 Jun 1934)
Misfortunes one can endure — they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one’s own faults — ah! — there is the sting of life.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
Lady Windermere’s Fan, Act 1 (1892)
Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By “patriotism” I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)
(Source)
The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion — it is an evil government.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 147 (1955)
(Source)
I have pledged myself and my colleagues in the cabinet to a continuous encouragement of initiative, responsibility and energy in serving the public interest. Let every public servant know, whether his post is high or low, that a man’s rank and reputation in this Administration will be determined by the size of the job he does, and not by the size of his staff, his office or his budget. Let it be clear that this Administration recognizes the value of dissent and daring — that we greet healthy controversy as the hallmark of healthy change. Let the public service be a proud and lively career. And let every man and woman who works in any area of our national government, in any branch, at any level, be able to say with pride and with honor in future years: “I served the United States Government in that hour of our nation’s need.”
Men, some to Bus’ness, some to Pleasure take;
But ev’ry Woman is at heart a Rake.Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
Moral Essays, 2.215 (1731-35)
No occurrences are so unfortunate that the shrewd cannot turn them to some advantage, nor so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn them to their own disadvantage.
[Il n’y a point d’accidents si malheureux dont les habiles gens ne tirent quelque avantage, ni de si heureux que les imprudents ne puissent tourner à leur préjudice.]François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶59 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)
Present in the original 1665 edition. In manuscript, this was originally drafted as:One could say that there are no lucky or unfortunate accidents, because clever people know how to take advantage of bad ones, and the imprudent very often turn the most advantageous harm to themselves.
[On pourrait dire qu’il n’y a point d’heurcux ni de malheureux accidents, parce que les habiles gens savent profiter des mauvais, et que les imprudents tournent bien souvent à leur préjudice les plus avantageux.]
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:It may be affirm'd that either there are not any happy or unhappy accidents, or that all accidents are both happy and unhappy, inasmuch as the prudent know how to make their advantages of the bad, and the imprudent many times turn the most advantageous emergencies to their own prejudice.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶128]There is no accident so exquisitely unfortunate, but wise Men will make some advantage of it; nor any so entirely fortunate, but Fools may turn it to their own prejudice.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶60]No accidents are so unlucky, but that the prudent may draw some advantage from them: nor are there any so lucky, but what the imprudent may turn to their prejudice.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶8; [ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶58]No accidents are so unlucky, but what the prudent may draw some advantages from; nor are there any so lucky, but what the imprudent may turn to their prejudice.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶5]There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from; and none, however fortune, that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶60]There are no accidents so unfortunate from which skillful men will not draw some advantage, nor so fortunate that foolish men will not turn them to their hurt.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]A clever man reaps some benefit from the worst catastrophe, and a fool can turn even good luck to his disadvantage.
[tr. Heard (1917)]No event is so disastrous that the adroit cannot derive some benefit from it, nor so auspicious that fools cannot turn it to their detriment.
[tr. Stevens (1939)]There is no accident so disastrous that a clever man cannot derive some profit from it: nor any so fortunate that a fool cannot turn it to his disadvantage.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]There are no experiences so disastrous that thoughtful men cannot derive some profit from them, nor so happy that the thoughtless cannot use them to their harm.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959)]There are no accidents so unfortunate that clever men may not draw some advantage from them, nor so fortunate that imprudent men may not turn them to their own detriment.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]
Peace implies reconciliation.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Conciliation with America,” speech, House of Commons (22 Mar 1775)
Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)
Often quoted by Andrew Jackson, to whom it is also attributed.
I believe that ignornance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth. I believe that the people is not dumb. Ignorant, bigoted, and mean-minded, maybe, but not stupid. I just think it helps, anything and everything, if the people know. Know what the hell is going on. What they do about it once they know is not my problem.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? “Pitfalls of Reporting in the Lone Star State” (1991)
Her journalistic credo. Full text. Originally printed in the Houston Journalism Review.
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard [ed. E. Hubbard II] (1927)
The secret to being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Parents and Children, “Children’s Happiness” (1914)
The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the nation all the time, loyalty to the government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“The Czar’s Soliloquy,” North American Review (Mar 1905)
Sometimes paraphrased: "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."
We have become blind to the alternatives to violence. This involves us in a sort of official madness, in which, while following what seems to be a perfect logic of self-defense and deterrence, we commit one absurdity after another: We seek to preserve peace by fighting a war, or to advance freedom by subsidizing dictatorships, or to “win the hearts and minds of the people” by poisoning their crops and burning their villages and confining them in concentration camps; we seek to uphold the “truth” of our cause with lies, or to answer conscientious dissent with threats and slurs and intimidations. … I have come to the realization that I can no longer imagine a war that I would believe to be either useful or necessary. I would be against any war.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
“A Statement Against the War in Vietnam,” speech, University of Kentucky (10 Feb 1968)
Full text.
I suspect that Woman will be the last thing civilized by Man.
George Meredith (1828-1909) English novelist and poet
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, ch. 1 (1859)
The miser has lived poor to die rich; and if the prodigal quits life in debt to others, the miser quits it, still deeper in debt to himself.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words, 2.131 (1824)
How many ideas have there been in the history of man which were unthinkable ten years before they appeared?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist
The Brothers Karamazov, 6.2(f) [Father Zossima] (1880) [tr. Garnett (1912)]
Tragically, the history of the church has been largely a history of believers refusing to trust the way of the crucified Nazarene and instead giving in to the very temptation he resisted. It’s the history of an institution that has frequently traded its holy mission for what it thought was a good mission. It is the history of an organization that has frequently forsaken the slow, discrete, nonviolent, sacrificial way of transforming the world for the immediate, obvious, practical, and less costly way of improving the world. It is a history of a people who too often identified the kingdom of God with a “Christian” version of the kingdom of the world.
Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd (b. 1957) American evangelical pastor, Christian theologian, author.
The Myth of a Christian Nation (2007)
We do not intend that this Republic shall ever fail as those republics of olden times failed, in which there finally came to be a government by classes, which resulted either in the poor plundering the rich or in the rich exploiting and in one form or another enslaving the poor; for either event means the destruction of free institutions and of individual liberty.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Union League Club, Philadelphia (30 Jan 1905)
When a rebel army took over a Korean town, all fled the Zen temple except the abbot. The rebel general burst into the temple, and was incensed to find that the master refused to greet him, let alone receive him as a conqueror.
“Don’t you know,” shouted the general, “that you are looking at one who can run you through without batting an eye?”
“And you,” said the abbot, “are looking at one who can be run through without batting an eye.”
The general’s scowl turned into a smile. He bowed low and left the temple.(Other Authors and Sources)
Zen Koan
In Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto, and Taigan Takayama, Zen Poems of China and Japan: The Crane's Bill (1973)
Nationalism appeals to our tribal instincts, to passion and to prejudice, and to our nostalgic desire to be relieved from the strain of individual responsibility which it attempts to replace by a collective or group responsibility.
Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994) Austrian-British philosopher
The Open Society and Its Enemies, 2.12.3 (1945)
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 128 (1955)
(Source)
It may be different elsewhere. But a democratic society — in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, Amherst College (26 Oct 1963)
It was a time when a man with a policy would have been fatal to the country. I have never had a policy; I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day as each day came.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Remark to John M. Palmer
In Emanuel Hertz, ed., Lincoln Talks: A Biography in Anecdote, "Father Abraham" (1939)
I am the President of the most powerful nation in the world. I take orders from nobody, except photographers.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Remark to foreign dignitaries
In David Binder, "George Tames, Photographer, Dies at 75," New York Times (24 Feb 1994)
Money to get power, power to protect money.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Medici Family Motto (15th C)
Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Sydney Morning Herald (22 May 1982)
To play well the scenes in which we are ‘on’ concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The World’s Last Night (1960)
Administrivia: 10,000 quotations, huzzah!
Sometime over the last week, WIST gained its 10,000th quotation. There’s a count kept in the sidebar, but it’s a bit deceptive because it includes Administrative posts (such as this), of which (prior to this one) there have ben 81. It appears that this Samuel Pepys quote was the official 10,000th.
It’s remarkable how quickly the numbers grow when you plug in five quotes every weekday, 25 a week. Though the numbers don’t always go just upward — I do periodic reviews through the collection, and occasionally come upon duplicates that need to be cleaned up.
It’s taken 24 years (!) to get to this point. At the current load rate, though, it will only take about 15 years further to get to 20,000. Best get a move on, then!
The worst policy is one made in secrecy by the experts.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
In Michael Leapman, Times (London) (17 Jun 1971)
To photograph is to confer importance.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
On Photography, ch. 2 (1977)
Peace is more the product of our day-to-day living than of a spectacular program, intermittently executed.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Columbia University (23 Mar 1950)
Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
(Attributed)
I believe politics is the finest form of entertainment in the state of Texas: better than the zoo, better than the circus, rougher than football, and even more aesthetically satisfying than baseball. Becoming a fan of this arcane art form will yield a body endless joy — besides, they make you pay for it whether you pay attention or not.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Good morning, Fort Worth! Glad to be here,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (1 Mar 1992)
The Prodigal robs his Heir, the Miser himself.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #4722 (1732)
(Source)
The more a mind receives, the more does it expand.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Letters to Lucilius [Epistulae morales ad Lucilium], letter 101 “On the Approaches to Philosophy”, sec.10 [tr. Gummere (1918)]
To deride patriotism marks impoverished blood, but to extol it as an ideal or an impulse above truth and justice, at the cost of the general interests of humanity, is far worse.
John Morley (1838-1923) English statesman, journalist, writer [John, Viscount Morley]
Notes on Politics and History, ch. 5 (1913)
The God of Hell should be held in loathing, contempt and scorn. A God who threatens eternal pain should be hated, not loved — cursed, not worshiped. A heaven presided over by such a God must be below the lowest hell. I want no part in any heaven in which the saved, the ransomed and redeemed will drown with shouts of joy the cries and sobs of hell — in which happiness will forget misery, where the tears of the lost only increase laughter and double bliss.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Great Infidels” (1881)
(Source)
The rule, acknowledged or not, seems to be that if we have great power we must use it. We would use a steam shovel to pick up a dime. We have experts who can prove there is no other way to do it.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
“The Loss of the Future,” The Long-Legged House (1969)
The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Strength to Love, ch. 2 “Transformed Nonconformist,” sec. 3 (1963)
(Source)
A really new idea affronts current agreement — it wouldn’t be a new idea if it didn’t — and the group, impelled as it is to agreement, is instinctively hostile to that which is divisive.
William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte, Jr. (1917-1999) American sociologist, journalist, and civic planner
The Organization Man, ch. 5 (1956)
There are families in which the father will say to his child, “You’ll get a thick ear if you do that again,” while the mother, her eyes brimming over with tears, will take the child to her arms and murmur lovingly, “Now, darling, is it kind to Mummy to do that?” And who would maintain that the second method is less tyrannous than the first?
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool” (1947)
To be sure, a version of the kingdom of the world that effectively carries out law, order, and justice is indeed closer to God’s will for the kingdom of the world. Decent, moral people should certainly encourage this as much as possible, whatever their religious faith might be. But no version of the kingdom of the world is closer to the kingdom of God than others because it does its job relatively well. For God’s kingdom looks like Jesus, and no amount of sword-wielding, however just it might be, can ever get a person, government, nation, or world closer to that. The kingdom of God is not an ideal version of the kingdom of the world; it’s not something that any version of the kingdom of the world can aspire toward or be measured against. The kingdom of God is a completely distinct, alternative way of doing life.
Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd (b. 1957) American evangelical pastor, Christian theologian, author.
The Myth of a Christian Nation (2007)
The distinguishing feature of our American governmental system is the freedom of the individual; it is quite as important to prevent his being oppressed by many men as it is to save him from the tyranny of one.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Thomas H. Benton, ch. 6 (1886)
Full text.
A Mob’s a Monster; Heads enough, but no Brains.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Nov 1747)
Women commend a modest Man, but like him not.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #5805 (1732)
(Source)
By “nationalism” I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labeled “good” or “bad.” But secondly — and this is much more important — I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)
(Source)
To find the cause of our ills in something outside ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but in the Jews, and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is a prescription likely to find a wide acceptance.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 126 (1955)
(Source)
I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty … an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Remarks, Amherst College (1963)
It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.
Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994) Austrian-British philosopher
Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography (1976)
We are more apt to persecute the unfortunates than the scoundrels; the scoundrels may retaliate.
Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) American educator, novelist, poet
Maxims for a Modern Man, #952 (1965)
(Source)
It is pretty to see what money will do.
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) English diarist, naval administrator
Diary (1667-03-21)
Mr. David Stockman has said that supply-side economics was merely a cover for the trickle-down approach to economic policy — what an older and less elegant generation called the horse-and-sparrow theory: If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
“Recession Economics,” New York Review of Books (1982-02-04)
(Source)
He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself ….
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Transposition and Other Addresses (1949)
Soft is stronger than hard, water than rock, love than violence.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Reflections, #363 [ed. Michels (1974)]
Nature, red in tooth and claw.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
In Memorium A. H. H., 56 (1850)
There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
Veto Mesage Regarding the Bank of the United States [2] (10 July 1832)
I am not anti-gun. I’m pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We’d turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don’t ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of Guns,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (9 Mar 1993)
(Source)
Oh words, what crimes are committed in your name!
Eugène Ionesco (1912-1994) Romanian-French dramatist
Jacques, or the Submission [Jacques] (1955)
Many irons on the Fire, some must cool.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Scottish Proverb
(Source)
In James Kelly, A Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs, M.93 (1721)
The noble kind of patriotism … aims at ends that are worthy of the whole of mankind.
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Alsatian philosopher, physician, philanthropist, polymath
The Philosophy of Civilization: The Decay and Restoration of Civilization, ch. 4 (1923) [tr. Campion (1923)]
According to the theologians, God, the Father of us all, wrote a letter to his children. The children have always differed somewhat as to the meaning of this letter. In consequence of these honest differences, these brothers began to cut out each other’s hearts. In every land, where this letter from God has been read, the children to whom and for whom it was written have been filled with hatred and malice. They have imprisoned and murdered each other, and the wives and children of each other. In the name of God every possible crime has been committed, every conceivable outrage has been perpetrated. Brave men, tender and loving women, beautiful girls, and prattling babes have been exterminated in the name of Jesus Christ.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“Heretics and Heresies” (1874)
(Source)
The line that connects the bombing of civilian populations to the mountain removed by strip mining … to the tortured prisoner seems to run pretty straight. We’re living, it seems, in the culmination of a long warfare — warfare against human beings, other creatures and the Earth itself.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Commencement Address, Lindsey Wilson College (14 May 2005)
Without necessity, nothing budges, the human personality least of all. It is tremendously conservative, not to say torpid. Only acute necessity is able to rouse it. The developing personality obeys no caprice, no command, no insight, only brute necessity.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
The Development of Personality, Title Essay (1934) [tr. Hull (1954)]
I can’t for the life of me imagine that God will say, “I will punish you because you are black, you should have been white; I will punish you because you are a woman, you should have been a man; I will punish you because you are homosexual, you ought to have been heterosexual.” I can’t for the life of me believe that is how God sees things.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
For the Bible Tells Me So [film-maker Daniel Karslake] (2007)
Call them rules or call them limits, good ones, I believe, have this in common: they serve reasonable purposes; they are practical and within a child’s capability; they are consistent; and they are an expression of loving concern.
Fred Rogers (1928-2003) American educator, minister, songwriter, television host ["Mister Rogers"]
Mister Rogers Talks with Parents, ch. 6 (1983)
Not everything about the kingdom of the world is bad. Insofar as versions of the kingdom of the world use their power of the sword to preserver and promote law, order, and justice, they are good. But the kingdom of the world, by definition, can never be the kingdom of God. It doesn’t matter that we judge it good because it stands for the principles we deem important — “liberty and justice for all,” for example. No version of the kingdom of the world, however comparatively good it may be, can protect its self-interests while loving its enemies, turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, or blessing those who persecute it. Yet [that] is precisely what kingdom-of-God citizens are called to do. It’s what it means to be Christian. By definition, therefore, you can no more have a Christian worldly government than you can have a Christian petunia or aardvark. A nation may have noble ideals and be committed to just principles, but it’s not for this reason Christian.
Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd (b. 1957) American evangelical pastor, Christian theologian, author.
The Myth of a Christian Nation (2007)
No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to where our legislation shall stop in interfering between man and man, between interest and interest. All that can be said is that it is highly undesirable on the one hand, to weaken individual initiative, and on the other hand, that in a constantly increasing number of cases we shall find it necessary in the future to shackle cunning as in the past we have shackled force.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Minnesota State Fair (2 Sep 1901)
New York, New York — a helluva town,
The Bronx is up, but the Battery’s down,
And people ride in a hole in the ground:
New York, New York — it’s a helluva town.Betty Comden (1917-2006) Actress, comedian, screenwriter, lyricist
“New York, New York” (song) [with Adolph Green] (1945)
Of all the tyrannies on humankind,
The worst is that which persecutes the mind.John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
The Hind and the Panther, 1.240 (1687)
What is nationalism? It is an ignoble patriotism.
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Alsatian philosopher, physician, philanthropist, polymath
The Philosophy of Civilization: The Decay and Restoration of Civilization, ch. 3 (1923) [tr. Campion (1923)]
There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 4 (1964)
Too often in the past, we have thought of the artist as an idler and dilettante and of the lover of arts as somehow sissy and effete. We have done both an injustice. The life of the artist is, in relation to his work, stern and lonely. He has labored hard, often amid deprivation, to perfect his skill. He has turned aside from quick success in order to strip his vision of everything secondary or cheapening. His working life is marked by intense application and intense discipline.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
“The Arts in America” (1962)
If I can’t love Hitler, I can’t love at all.
A. J. Muste (1885-1967) Dutch-American minister, labor and civil rights activist, pacifist [Reverend Abraham Johannes Muste]
Statement, Quaker meeting (1940)
Recalled on his death, New York Times (12 Feb 1967)
A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away.
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées, #1809 (1838) [tr. Auster (1983)]
There, London’s voice: “Get Money, Money still!
And then let Virtue follow, if she will.”Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
Imitations of Horace, 1.1(Epistle).79 (1733-38)
Do not be alarmed by simplification; complexity is often a device for claiming sophistication, or for evading simple truths.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Age of Uncertainty (BBC TV) (1977)
There are many different ways of bringing people into his Kingdom, even some ways that I specially dislike! I have therefore learned to be cautious in my judgment.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Final Interview of C. S. Lewis,” Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Decision (Sep 1963)
Full text.
PA JOAD: We sure are takin’ a beatin’.
MA JOAD: I know. That’s what makes us tough. Rich fellas come up an’ th’ die an’ their kids ain’t no good, and they die out, but we keep a-comin’. We’re the people that live. They can’t wipe us out. They can’t lick us. We’ll go on forever, Pa, ’cause we’re the people.John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Grapes of Wrath (film) [Nunnally Johnson, screenwriter] (1940)
You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, yet she wil still hurry back.
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Epistles, 1.10
Corporations have neither bodies to kick nor souls to damn.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
(Spurious)
Popularly attributed to Jackson, but no published source found. Edward Thurlow (1731-1806) has been credited with the similar "Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like" and "It has no soul to damn and no body to kick."
Me, I think government is a tool, like a hammer. You can use a hammer to build with or you can use a hammer to destroy with. Whether government is good or bad depends on what you use it for and how well you use it. On the whole, it’s a poor idea to put people in charge of government who don’t believe in using it.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Good morning, Fort Worth! Glad to be here,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (1992-03-01)
(Source)
Responding to Ronald Reagan's famous quip, "Government is not the solution; government is the problem." Collected in Nothin' But Good Times Ahead (1993).
Ivins reworked this in the introduction to her book You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You, (1998):Personally, I think government is a tool, like a hammer. You can use a hammer to build or you can use a hammer to destroy; there is nothing intrinsically good or evil about the hammer itself. It is the purposes to which it is put and the skill with which it is used that determine whether the hammer's work is good or bad.
I don’t think writers choose their genre, the genre chooses us. I wrote out of a wish to create order out of disorder. The liking of pattern.
P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
Interview with Jake Kerridge (Sep 2009)
Herein is not only a great vanity, but a great contempt of God’s gifts, that the sweetness of man’s breath, being a good gift of God, should be willfully corrupted by this stinking smoke.
King James I (1566-1625) King of Great Britain
“A Counterblaste to Tobacco” (1604)
