The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“Liberty”
Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
“Trotsky’s Testament,” (27 Feb 1940)
Full text.
The finest fruits of human progress, like all of the nobler virtues of man, are the exclusive possession of small minorities, chiefly unpopular and disreputable.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Notes on Democracy, 1.8 (1926)
No man can go too far in independence or in adaptation with impunity.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Reflections, #245 [ed. Michels (1974)]
Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.
[Eltern verzeihen ihren Kindern die Fehler am schwersten, die sie selbst ihnen anerzogen haben.]
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 107 (1880) [tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:Parents are least ready to forgive in their children faults which result from their own training.
[tr. Wister (1883)]
The all-important distinction between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world entails that a kingdom-of-God citizen must take care never to align any particular version of the kingdom of the world with the kingdom of God. We may firmly believe one version to be better than another, but we must not conclude that this better version is therefore closer to the kingdom of God than the worse version.
Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd (b. 1957) American evangelical pastor, Christian theologian, author.
The Myth of a Christian Nation (2007)
The United States of America has not the option as to whether it will or it will not play a great part in the world … It must play a great part. All that it can decide is whether it will play that part well or badly. And it can play it badly if it adopts the role either of the coward or of the bully. Nor will it help it in the end to avoid either part if it play the other. It must avoid both. Democratic America can be true to itself, true to the great cause of freedom and justice, only if it shows itself ready and willing to resent wrong from the strong, and scrupulously desirous of doing generous justice to both strong and weak.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Outlook (1 Apr 1911)
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
“We and They” (1.3), Debits and Credits (1919-26)
An orator’s life is more convincing than his eloquence.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 507 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 241 (1955)
(Source)
If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, Harvard University (14 Jun 1956)
(Source)
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile,
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag
And smile, smile, smile.George Asaf (1880-1951) British songwriter (pseud. for George Henry Powell)
“Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-bag” (song) (1915)
The fundamental conflicts in human life are not between competing ideas — one of which is true and the other false — but rather, between those that hold power and use it to oppress others, and those who are oppressed by power and seek to free themselves.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
The Manufacture of Madness, Part 1, ch. 4 “The Defense of the Dominant Ethic” (1970)
Nothing but Money
Is sweeter than Honey.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Jun 1735)
Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
“H.L. Mencken,” The Washington Post (14 Sep 1980)
Some people write heavily, some write lightly. I prefer the light approach because I believe there is a great deal of false reverence about. There is too much solemnity and intensity in dealing with sacred matters; too much speaking in holy tones.
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.
You’re never too old to become younger.
Mae West (1892-1980) American film actress
(Attributed)
There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook, 22 Dec 1903 [ed. Paine (1935)]
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.
George Sand (1804-1876) French novelist, feminist [pseud. for Aurore Dupin]
Letter to Lina Calamatta (31 Mar 1862)
Experience has taught me that things are likely to get worse, so these will eventually turn out to be the Good Old Days, and think what a fool you’ll feel like later if you don’t enjoy them now.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Bill of Wrongs (2007)
Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
Diary, Notebook 2 (1935-05-08) [tr. Zarudnaya (1958)]
(Source)
When we lose the right to be different, we lose the right to be free.
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (1862-1948) American statesman, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1910-1916, 1930-1941)
Speech, 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, Boston (17 Jun 1925)
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Stephen Biko (1946-1977) South African civil rights activist
Speech, Cape Town Conference on Inter-Racial Studies (1971)
Reprinted in I Write What I like, "White Racism and Black Consciousness" (1978)
One of the greatest attractions of patriotism — it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what’s more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous. Sweet and decorous to murder, lie, torture for the sake of the fatherland.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Eyeless in Gaza, ch. 17 (1922)
(Source)
Happiness is the only good.
The place to be happy is here.
The time to be happy is now.
The way to be happy is to make others so.Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Note to a fan (26 Mar 1897)
Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Endorsement statement for Charles E. Little, The Dying of the Trees (1997)
If there is no other way of preventing the evil destroying the good, I trust I shall use force and give myself up into God’s hands.
Martin Buber (1878-1965) Austrian-born Jewish philosopher
“The Land and Its Possessors: An Answer to Gandhi,” The Bond (Jerusalem) (1939)
On Gandhi's calling for European Jews to adopt nonviolence against Nazi persecution.
One of the benefits that oppression confers upon the oppressors is that the most humble among them is made to feel superior; thus, a poor white in the South can console himself with the thought that he is not a “dirty nigger” — and the more prosperous whites cleverly exploit this pride. Similarly, the most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist
The Second Sex, Introduction (1950) [tr. Parshley (1952)]
See Johnson.
If there is anything we wish to change in our children, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“The Development of Personality” (1934) [tr. Hull (1954)]
As long as they’re homophobic behind closed doors, and don’t hurt anyone, I’m fine with it.
Eddie Izzard (b. 1962) British comedian
Unrepeatable (1994)
We stand equally against government by a plutocracy and government by a mob. There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with “the money touch,” but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Letter to Sir Edward Grey (15 Sep 1913)
There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomrrow, just you wait and see.
There’ll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow, when the world is free.Nat Burton (1901-1945) American songwriter (b. Nat Schwartz)
“The White Cliffs of Dover” (lyrics) (1941)
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden (11 Dec 1964)
There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Guardian (28 Jul 1989)
Mr. Forster feels anxious because he dreads Theocracy. Now if he expects to see a Theocracy set up in modern England, I myself believe his expectation to be wholly chimerical. But I wish to make it very clear that, if I thought the thing in the least probable, I should feel about it exactly as he does. I fully embrace the maxim (which he borrows from a Christian) that ‘all power corrupts.’ I would go further. The loftier the pretensions of the power, the more meddlesome, inhuman, and oppressive it will be. Theocracy is the worst of all possible governments. All political power is at best a necessary evil: but it is least evil when its sanctions are most modest and commonplace, when it claims no more than to be useful or convenient and sets itself strictly limited objectives. Anything transcendental or spiritual, or even anything very strongly ethical, in its pretensions is dangerous and encourages it to meddle with our private lives. Let the shoemaker stick to his last. Thus the Renaissance doctrine of Divine Right is for me a corruption of monarchy; Rousseau’s General Will, of democracy; racial mysticisms, of nationality. And Theocracy, I admit and even insist, is the worst corruption of all.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Lilies that Fester,” The Twentieth Century (Apr 1955)
The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 458 (1949) [concurring]
(Source)
The past is a kind of screen upon which we project our vision of the future; and it is indeed a moving picture, borrowing much of its form and color from our fears and aspirations.
Carl L. Becker (1873-1945) American historian
“What Are Historical Facts?” Western Political Quarterly (Sep 1955)
Like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and wastful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as willful disobedience — incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature’s discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your ears are boxed.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“A Liberal Education,” Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews (1870)
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
Veto Message Regarding the Bank of the United States (10 Jul 1832)
Government is just a tool, like a hammer. There’s nothing intrinsically good or evil about the hammer; it all depends on what it’s used for and the skill with which it is used.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Wiggy Republicans”, Mother Jones (Sep/Oct 1992)
If your business decisions and motives were published on the front page of a large circulation newspaper the day after you made your decision, and you will still feel comfortable, then do it.
Warren Buffett (b. 1930) American investor and financier
Address to Johns Manville senior management
People who are always praising the past
And especially the times of faith as best
Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages
And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.Stevie Smith (1902-1971) English novelist and poet [b. Florence Margaret Smith]
“The Past” (1957)
It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist
Les Belles Images, ch. 3 (1966) [tr. O’Brian (1968)]
You have no control over your cat! You can’t say to your cat, “Cat, heel! Stay! Wait! Lie down! Roll over!” ‘Cause the cat’s just gonna be sitting there going, “Interesting words … have you finished?” While you’re shouting all this to your cat, your dog’s next to you, going … [mimes obeying all commands] “What the hell are you doing? I’m talking to the cat!” “Oh, I’m sorry!”
Eddie Izzard (b. 1962) British comedian
Unrepeatable (1994)
We can only pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
John Buchan (1875-1940) Scottish novelist, poet, and politician; Governor-General of Canada (1935 -1940)
Speech to the People of Canada on the Coronation of King George VI (12 May 1937)
If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them, become President.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
Speech, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (23 Mar 1990)
The nationalist has a broad hatred and a narrow love.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
Journal (1918) [tr. O’Brien (1948)]
When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths. Self-deception, credulity, and charlatanism are somehow linked together.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State Of Mind, Aphorism 83 (1955)
(Source)
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Interview, BBC Radio 4 (18 Nov 2007)
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 5:38-42
Orthdoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man’s doxy.
William Warburton (1698-1779) English critic and churchman
(Attributed)
In Joseph Priestley, Memoirs, Vol. 1:“I have heard frequent use,” said the late Lord Sandwich, in a debate on the Test Laws, “of the words ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘heterodoxy;’ but I confess myself at a loss to know precisely what they mean.” “Orthodoxy, my Lord,” said Bishop Walburton, in a whisper,—“orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man’s doxy.”
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
New York Times Magazine (7 Jun 1970)
Democracy demands that little men shouldn’t take big ones too serious; it dies when it’s full of little men who think they are big themselves.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Notes on the Way,” Time and Tide (29 Apr 1944)
Grab your coat, and get your hat,
Leave your worry on the doorstep,
Just direct your feet
To the sunny side of the street.Dorothy Fields (1905-1974) American librettist and lyricist
“On the Sunny Side of the Street” (song) (1930)
TOM: I don’t know, maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) American playwright and essayist
The Ride Down Mount Morgan, Act 1 (1991)
(Source)
Nature, as we know her, is no saint.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Experience,” Essays: Second Series (1844)
As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
Inaugural address (4 Mar 1829)
Full text.
Listen, a populist is someone who is for the people and against the powerful, and so a populist is generally the same as a liberal — except we tend to have more fun.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Jan 2007)
Administrivia: Updated to WordPress 3.3
The blogging software underlying WIST, WordPress, has now been updated to the latest-greatest version. Let me know if you spot any problems.
I am quite possibly going to be changing the theme (screen appearance) over the next week or so (hurrah for holiday vacations), so if you pop in here and things look really weird … hopefully that’s why.
Impossible things are simply those which so far have never been done.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
An American Bible [ed. Alice Hubbard] (1918)
You do not become a dissident just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
“The Power of the Powerless,” Living in Truth (1986)
Patriotism is sometimes stimulated by religious enthusiasm, and then it is capable of prodigious efforts. It is in itself a kind of religion: it does not reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and sentiment.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, 1.14 (1835) [tr. Reeve and Brown (1862)]
I know a great many rich men and I have read about a great many others, and I do not envy them. They are no happier than I am. You see, after all, few rich men own their property. The property owns them. It gets them up early in the morning. It will not let them sleep; it makes them suspect their friends. Sometimes they think their children would like to attend a first-class funeral. Why should we envy the rich?
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1896-10-29), “The Chicago and New York Gold Speech,” McKinley League, Carnegie Hall, New York City
The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
Diary in Exile, 1935-04-05 (1958)
(Source)
All things come into being by conflict of opposites.
Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.540-c.480 BC) Greek philosopher [Ἡράκλειτος, Herákleitos, Heracleitus]
In Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 9.1 [tr. Hicks (1925)]
In affairs of importance a man should concentrate not so much on making opportunities as on taking advantages of those that arise.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #453 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
Tew bring up a child in the wa he should go — travel that wa yourself.
[To bring up a child in the way he should go — travel that way yourself.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings: His Sayings, 78 (1865)
In my first year I was taught about the slide rule. They said, “The slide rule is important. Without it you can do nothing. The slide rule is the modern weapon of efficiency. With the slide rule you can get from here to the stars. Buy it, use it – your slide rule!” Within one year it was, “Burn the slide rule. The calculator can add up with none of this fucking sliding the shit around and working out where that bit in the middle goes. Smash it over your head.”
We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Progressive Party Convention, Chicago (17 Jun 1912)
The man who is unable to laugh at his god is a man who does not quite believe in his god. In the Middle Ages, when Christians were really Christians, the burlesque mass flourished, and even bishops took part in it. Today, with not enough faith left in Christendom to make a single martyr, a burlesque mass would end in a lynching — and Jews and Protestants would help pull the rope.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Pertinent and Impertinent,” Smart Set (Jun 1913) [as Owen Hatteras]
(Source)
It is not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.
James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
Interview with Nikki Giovanni (4 Nov 1971), A Dialogue (1973)
Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook, 23 May 1903 [ed. Paine (1935)]
The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 104 (1955)
(Source)
Injustice and oppression will never prevail. Those who are powerful have to remember the litmus test that God gives to the powerful: what is your treatment of the poor, the hungry, the voiceless? And on the basis of that, God passes judgment.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Speech, Boston (2002)
Full text.
Being paid — what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourself to perdition!
Herman Melville (1819-1891) American writer
Moby-Dick, ch. 1 [Ishmael] (1851)
The gracious lesson taught by science to this country is that the history of Nature from first to last is incessant advance from less to more, from rude to finer organization, the globe of matter thus conspiring with the principle of undying hope in man. Nature works in immense time, and spends individuals and races prodigally to prepare new individuals and races.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“The Fortune of the Republic,” lecture, Boston (1878-03-30)
(Source)
Final version of a lecture first given in 1863, and his last public speech.
The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country, than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
To troops who abandoned their lines during the Battle of New Orleans (8 Jan 1815)
This is a column for everyone who ever said, “I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in politics,” or, “There’s nothing I can do about it,” or, “Hey, they’re all crooks anyway.” … I’ve got one word for all of you: Katrina. … This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Oct 2005)
Dwell on the past and you lose an eye. Forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Russian Saying
And I wanted someone who is absolutely and utterly powerful. It’s interesting because at the time, John Byrne had just taken over Superman and had announced that he was making Superman less powerful because he had become too powerful and you couldn’t write interesting stories about people that were too powerful. That started me thinking, “Well, no, actually you can, because what makes a person interesting or not interesting isn’t how powerful they are, but who they are.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
“Alan Moore got to be the Beatles. … I was Gerry and the Pacemakers,” Interview, Los Angeles Times (2008-12-02)
On creating Morpheus, the Sandman.
So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
The Tyrant’s plea, excus’d his devilish deeds.John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
Paradise Lost, 4.383 (1667)
Churches are becoming political organizations … It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes, if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this Government will be destroyed.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Some Mistakes of Moses, Sec. 3 “The Politicians” (1879)
(Source)
There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
The Russian Revolution (1930)
Be not the slave of your own past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1838-06-19)
What we believe to be the motives of our conduct are usually but the pretexts for it.
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) Spanish philosopher and writer [Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo]
The Tragic Sense of Life [Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida], ch. 11 (1913) [tr. Flitch (1921)]
Full text.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra (1925-2015) American baseball player, coach, manager [b. Lawrence Peter Berra]
When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! (2002)
Berra says this is actually part of the directions to drivers going to his house in Montclair, New Jersey; there is a fork in the road, but either branch will get you to the destination.
To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
State of the Union (3 Dec 1907)
Full text.
Pain will force even the truthful to speak falsely.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 232 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
(Spurious)
Frequently attributed to Tennyson, but found as early as in D. E. Macdonnel, A Dictionary of Quotations, in Most Frequent Use, (1809) translated from French: "Le bonheur de l'homme en cette vi ne consiste pas á être sans passions: il consiste à en être le maître."
I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Letter to Alexander Pope (29 Sep 1725)
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 70 (1955)
(Source)
Sometimes, of course, you wish you could whisper in God’s ear, “God, we know that you are in charge. Why don’t you make it slightly more obvious?”
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Wallenberg Lecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (29 Oct 2009)
(Source)
Video at 20:37.
But Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment: “Stay, thou art so fair.” And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, Assembly Hall at Paulskirche, Frankfurt (25 Jun 1963)
He’s a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
For nobody.
Doesn’t have a point of view,
Knows not where he’s going to,
Isn’t he a bit like you
And me?John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
“Nowhere Man” (song) (1965) [with Paul McCartney]
A heavy purse makes a light heart.
John Ray (1627-1705) English naturalist [a.k.a. John Wray]
A Collection of English Proverbs (1678)
Then the shit hit the fan.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Ambassador’s Journal (1969)
Galbraith claims to have coined this phrase (see A Life In Our Times (1981))
[T]hat intimate laughter between fellow professionals, which of all earthly powers is strongest to make men do very bad things before they are yet, individually, very bad men.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
That Hideous Strength (1945)
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #225 (17 May 1750)
(Source)
Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can’t read the want-ad sections. And when they can, they can’t find a job that matches the address. They work hard every day.
I know. I live amongst them. I’m one of them. I know they work. I’m a witness. They catch the early bus. They work every day. They raise other people’s children. They work every day. They clean the streets. They work every day. They drive dangerous cabs. They work every day. They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can’t get a union contract. They work every day.
No, no, they are not lazy! Someone must defend them because it’s right, and they cannot speak for themselves. They work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes. No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day. America, that is not right. We are a better Nation than that. We are a better Nation than that.
Jesse Jackson (b. 1941) American activist, clergyman, politician
“Common Ground and Common Sense,” speech, Democratic National Convention, Atlanta (19 Jul 1988)
Full text.
