News is a business, but it is also a public trust.
Dan Rather (b. 1931) American broadcast journalist
“From Murrow to Mediocrity?” New York Times (10 Mar 1987)
A mighty lesson we inherit:
Thou art a symbol and a sign
To Mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,
A troubled stream from a pure source.
Machiavelli wrote rules for a short-term success.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) English mathematician and philosopher
Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, 18 July 1939 [rec. Lucien Price] (1954)
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Quoted in Steven Gish, Desmond Tutu: A Biography (2004)
Tutu has used this joke often, though it is not original to him.
Administrivia: Getting Social
I now have Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter buttons after each quotation in the individual quotation pages, so that you can easily share your favorite quotes with your social circles. Enjoy!
Who makes a timid request invites denial.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Hippolytus, l. 590 [tr. Miller (1917)]
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
State of the Union address (3 Dec 1861)
(Source)
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes the toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
“Masters of War” (song) (1963)
We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)
There has been a lot of talk lately about the burdens of the Presidency. Decisions that the President has to make often affect the lives of tens of millions of people around the world, but that does not mean that they should take longer to make. Some men can make decisions and some cannot. Some men fret and delay under criticism. I used to have a saying that applies here, and I note that some people have picked it up, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Mr. Citizen (1960)
Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
“Mental Illness,” The Second Sin (1973)
(Source)
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)
At another year
I would not boggle,
Except when I jog
I joggle.Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“Birthday on the Beach,” You Can’t Get There from Here (1957)
A man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. So long as a man is struggling with obstacles he has an excuse for failure or shortcoming; but when fortune removes them all and gives him the power of doing as he thinks best, then comes the time of trial. There is but one right, and the possibilities of wrong are infinite.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Address on University Education,” opening ceremonies of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (12 Sep 1876)
(Source)
So the pendulum swings, now violently, now slowly; and every institution not only carries within it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Democracy and the Future,” The Atlantic Monthly (1922)
Full text.
This unholy marriage of religion and politics has produced a perverted Christianity based not on love but hate, not on charity but persecution. The Far Righters are definitely not practicing religious fundamentalism, as they claim, but are actually practicing a form of paganism. They worship at the idol of “country” and have substituted the gospel of anti-Communism for the gospel of Christ.
Mark Hatfield (1922-2011) American politician (R-Oregon) and educator
Foreword to John Redekop, The American Far Right (1967)
What’s wan man’s news is another man’s throubles.
[What’s one man’s news is another man’s troubles.]
Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
“The News of a Week,” Observations by Mr. Dooley (1902)
All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.
Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) British sexologist, physician, social reformer [Henry Havelock Ellis]
The Open Court (journal), Vol. 39 [ed. Paul Carus] (1925)
Full text.
Heaven is where those are we love, and those who love us. And I wish to go to no world unless I can be accompanied by those who love me here. Talk about the consolations of this infamous doctrine. The consolations of a doctrine that makes a father say, “I can be happy with my daughter in hell;” that makes a mother say, “I can be happy with my generous, brave boy in hell;” that makes a boy say, “I can enjoy the glory of heaven with the woman who bore me, the woman who would have died for me, in eternal agony.” And they call that tidings of great joy.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do To Be Saved?” Sec. 9 (1880)
(Source)
There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.
Washington Irving (1783-1859) American author [pseud. for Geoffrey Crayon]
“The Adventure Of The German Student”
Negotiating with men’s vanity gives one the best bargain, for one often receives the most substantial advantages in return for very little of substance.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Recollections, 3.3 (1893) [tr. Lawrence (1964)]
Whatever one’s religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts — including the First Amendment and the separation of church and state.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Interview, Look (3 Mar 1959)
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 5, ch. 5 “The Ride of the Rohirrim” [Theoden] (1955)
(Source)
In the Peter Jackson film, the last line is merged with another Theoden line from ch. 6, as he lies dying: "Death! Ride, ride to ruin, and the world's ending!"
I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“The Strenuous Life,” speech, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 Apr 1899)
Full text.
To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
The Doors of Perception (1954)
In whom mercy lacketh … in him all other virtues be drowned.
Thomas Elyot (c. 1490-1546) English diplomat and scholar.
The Boke Named the Gouernour, 3.7 (1531)
Manie things are lost for want of asking.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 968 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
Miracles arise from our ignorance of nature, not from nature itself.
[Les miracles sont, selon l’ignorance en quoy nous sommes de la nature, non selon l’estre de la nature.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 23 “On Custom and Not Easily Changing an Accepted Law [De la Coustume et de Ne Changer Aisément une Loy Receüe]” (1588-1592) (1.23) (1595) [tr. Lowenthal (1935)]
(Source)
The original essay is from 1572; this passage was added in the "C" period, prior to Montaigne's death and the final 1595 edition. The Lowenthal translation is from an edited autobiography, drawing from the Essays and other sources.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Miracles are according to the ignorance wherein we are by nature, and not according to nature's essence.
[tr. Florio (1603), ch. 22]Miracles appear such, according to our ignorance of nature, and not according to the real essence of nature.
[tr. Cotton (1686), ch. 22]Miracles appear to be so, according to our ignorance of nature, and not according to the essence of nature.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877), ch. 22]Miracles exist from our ignorance of nature, not in nature herself.
[tr. Ives (1925)]Miracles arise from our ignorance of nature, not from the essence of nature.
[tr. Frame (1943)]Miraculous wonders depend on our ignorance of Nature, not on the essence of Nature.
[tr. Screech (1987)]
I have always thought that Machiavelli derives his bad name from a too transparent honesty. Less direct minds would have found high-sounding ethical sanctions in which to conceal the real intent. … Machiavelli’s morals are not one bit worse than the practices of the men who rules the world today.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Politics, ch. 7 (1913)
Full text.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
(Attributed)
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) Romanian-American novelist, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate.
Nobel Peace Prize Lecture (1986)
Money often costs too much, and power and pleasure are not cheap.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Wealth,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 3 (1860)
(Source)
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, Preface (1897)
It is by human avarice or human stupidity, not by the churlishness of nature, that we have poverty and overwork.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)
Whenever the press quits abusing me I know I’m in the wrong pew. I don’t mind it because when they throw bricks at me — I’m a pretty good shot myself and I usually throw ’em back at ’em.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Washington (22 Feb 1958)
The speech was held at a dinner in his honor. Text quoted in the New York Times (23 Feb 1958)
The world is not divine sport; it is divine destiny. There is divine meaning in the life of the world; of man, of human persons, of you and of me.
Martin Buber (1878-1965) Austrian-born Jewish philosopher
I and Thou, ch. 3 (1923) [tr. Smith (1958)]
For he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech, Syracue, New York (24 Sep 1847)
Full text.
The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or a temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (14 Jul 1852)
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“The Coming Age of ‘The Origin of Species'” (1880)
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Idea of Progress,” Romanes Lecture (27 May 1920)
(Source)
Come love with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” The Passionate Pilgrim (1599)
To look for meaning in anything is less the act of a naif than of a masochist.
Emile Cioran (1911-1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist [E.M. Cioran]
“Strangled Thoughts” (3), The New Gods (1969) [tr. Howard (1974)]
True love is the joy of life.
John Clarke (d. 1658) British educator
Proverbs: English and Latine [Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina] (1639)
If God made us, he will not destroy us. Infinite wisdom never made a poor investment, Upon all the works of an infinite God, a dividend must finally be declared. Why should God make failures? Why should he waste material? Why should he not correct his mistakes, instead of damning them? The pulpit has cast a shadow over even the cradle. The doctrine of endless punishment has covered the cheeks of this world with tears. I despise it, and I deny it.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do To Be Saved?” Sec. 1 (1880)
(Source)
How convenient it would be to many of our great men and great families of doubtful origin, could they have the privilege of the heroes of yore, who, whenever their origin was involved in obscurity, modestly announced themselves descended from a god.
Washington Irving (1783-1859) American author [pseud. for Geoffrey Crayon]
Knickerbocker’s History of New York, Book 2, ch. 3 (1809)
How can we profess faith in God’s word and then refuse to let it inspire and direct our thinking, our activity, our decisions, and our responsibilities toward one another?
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) Polish-born Catholic Pontiff (1978-2005) [b. Karol Józef Wojtyła]
Homily, Camden Yards, Baltimore (8 Oct 1995)
When streams of unkindness, as bitter as gall,
Bubble up from the heart to the tongue,
And Meekness is writhing in torment and thrall,
By the hands of Ingratitude wrung, —
In the heat of injustice, unwept and unfair,
While the anguish is festering yet,
None, none but an angel or God can declare
“I now can forgive and forget.”Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889) English poet
“Forgive and Forget,” l. 1-8, Ballads for the Times (1851)
The “establishment of religion” clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect “a wall of separation between Church and State.”
We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin’s son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Appendix A “Annals of the Kings and Rulers” (1955)
(Source)
The old idea that words possess magical powers is false; but its falsity is the distortion of a very important truth. Words do have a magical effect — but not in the way that magicians supposed, and not on the objects they were trying to influence. Words are magical in the way they affect the minds of those who use them. “A mere matter of words,” we say contemptuously, forgetting that words have power to mould men’s thinking, to canalize their feeling, to direct their willing and acting. Conduct and character are largely determined by the nature of the words we currently use to discuss ourselves and the world around us.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Words and Their Meanings (1940)
Those very characteristics which are demanded by war — the ability to tolerate uncertainty, spontaneity of thought and action, having a mind open to the receipt of novel, and perhaps threatening, information — are the antitheses of those possessed by people attracted to the controls, and orderliness, of militarism.
Norman F. Dixon (1922-2013) British cognitive psychologist, author, military engineer
On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, ch. 17 (1976)
It always matters to name rubbish as rubbish; … to do otherwise is to legitimize it.
Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) Indian novelist
“Outside the Whale,” Imaginary Homelands (1991)
Most of the miracles we hear of are infinitely less wonderful than the commonest of natural phenomena, when fairly seen.
John Muir (1838-1914) Scottish-American naturalist
My First Summer in the Sierra, ch. 7 “A Strange Experience,” 4 Aug 1869 (1911)
[Machiavelli] has a worse name and more disciples than any political thinker who ever lived.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
Public Opinion, 17.2 (1922)
This family has no outsiders. Everyone is an insider. When Jesus said, “I, if I am lifted up, will draw …” Did he say, “I will draw some”? “I will draw some, and tough luck for the others”? He said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all.” All! All! All! — Black, white, yellow; rich, poor; clever, not so clever; beautiful, not so beautiful. All! All! It is radical. All! Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Bush — all! All! All are to be held in this incredible embrace. Gay, lesbian, so-called “straight;” all! All! All are to be held in the incredible embrace of the love that won’t let us go.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
“And God Smiles,” Sermon, All Saints Church, Pasadena, California (6 Nov 2005)
The Bible passage referenced is John 12:32.
One man with courage makes a majority.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
(Attributed)
Frequently attributed to Jackson (by everyone from Bobby Kennedy to Ronald Reagan), but it has never been found in Jackson's writings, and there is no record from the time of his having said it.
Let us make distinctions, call things by the right names.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (28 Nov 1860)
There is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless marriage: a marriage in which there is love, but on one side only.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
An Ideal Husband, Act 4 (1895)
The only thing I learned out of the whole MacArthur deal is that when you feel there’s something you have to do and you know in your gut you have to do it, the sooner you get it over with, the better off everybody is.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1974)
Far right crusaders would deny that a man is Christian if he does not share their political beliefs. Their “either/or” philosphy extends into the realm of religion, and they counsel that you can accept either the welfare state or Christ — but not both. Far Righters often equate Communism with the devil and America with God. And God, to the Far Righters, is a personification of a white, Protestant, anti-Communist American. They have turned the scriptural tables and created God in their image.
Mark Hatfield (1922-2011) American politician (R-Oregon) and educator
Foreword to John Redekop, The American Far Right (1967)
Beyond all mystery is the mercy of God.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) Polish-American rabbi, theologian, philosopher
God in Search of Man, ch. 16 (1955)
Middle age is when you stop criticizing the older generation and start criticizing the younger one.
Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
Peter’s Quotations (1977)
When I reached intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain “gnosis,” — had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Agnosticism,” The Nineteenth Century (Jun 1889)
Full essay.
A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a common hatred of its neighbours.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
The End of an Age: And Other Essays (1948)
There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as “moral indignation,” which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue. The “indignant” person has for once the satisfaction of despising and treating a creature as “inferior,” coupled with the feeling of his own superiority and rightness.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
Man for Himself, 4.5.C (1947)
I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line — the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war. I have passed unnumbered hours, I shall pass unnumbered hours thinking and planning how war may be kept from this nation.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech, Chautauqua, New York (1936)
Full text. FDR, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, visited the front lines of WWI in France after American troops were in service.
I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was duty.
I acted and behold, duty was joy.Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]
(Attributed)
The question is: Bad as I am, have I the right to think? And I think I have for two reasons: First, I cannot help it. And secondly, I like it.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do To Be Saved?” Sec. 1 (1880)
(Source)
Whenever a man’s friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.
Washington Irving (1783-1859) American author [pseud. for Geoffrey Crayon]
Bracebridge Hall, “Bachelors” (1822)
Sometimes attributed to Mark Twain.
The sweetest Musick is the Sound of her Voice whom we love.
[L’harmonie la plus douce est le son de voix de celle que l’on aime.]
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 3 “Of Women [Des Femmes],” § 10 (3.10) (1688) [Bullord ed. (1696)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:The sweetest Musick, the Sound of her Voice whom we love.
[Curll ed. (1713)]The sweetest Musick the Voice of her whom we love.
[Browne ed. (1752)]The sweetest music is the sound of the voice of the woman we love.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]The sweetest music is the sound of the voice of her whom we love.
[tr. Lee (1903)]No harmony is sweeter than the sound of a loved one's voice.
[tr. Stewart (1970)]
CAESAR: To the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Caesar and Cleopatra, Act 4 (1899)
Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more perfect security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion. Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that neither the state nor nation, or both combined, shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian, Pagan, or Atheistical tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the Church and the State forever Separate.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) American military leader, US President (1869-77)
Address to the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa (25 Sep 1875)
There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 6, ch. 7 “Homeward Bound” [Frodo] (1955)
(Source)
People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years’ War. That made them change their tune all right. What’s the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled — after the Nine Years’ War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We’ve gone on controlling ever since. It hasn’t been very good for truth, of course. But it’s been very good for happiness. One can’t have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World, ch. 16 [Mustapha Mond] (1932)
Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
“A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” l. 27 (1694)
Now, a cautious mountaineer seldom takes a step on unknown ground which seems at all dangerous that he cannot retrace in case he should be stoppd by unseen obstacles ahead. This is the rule of mountaineers who live long.
John Muir (1838-1914) Scottish-American naturalist
Stickeen (1897)
Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Androcles and the Lion, Preface, “Credibility of the Gospels” (1912)
Men must be either caressed or annihilated; they will revenge themselves for small injuries, but cannot do so for great ones; the injury therefore that we do to a man must be such that we need not fear his vengeance.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Prince, ch. 3 (1513) [tr. Ricci (1903)]
A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Address, On Installation as Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town (7 Sep 1986)
A Man that should call everything by its right Name, would hardly pass the Streets without being knock’d down as a common Enemy.
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“Of Caution and Suspicion,” Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)
(Source)
There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1837-09-30)
A good marriage is that in which each appoints the other the guardian of his solitude.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1963) German poet
Letter to Paula Modersohn Becker (12 Feb 1902) [tr. Greene & Norton (1945)]
The dangers of apparent self-sufficiency explain why Our Lord regards the vices of the feckless and dissipated so much more leniently than the vices that lead to worldly success.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)
I fired him because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president. That’s the answer to that. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1974)
On removing General Douglas MacArthur from command on April 11, 1951.
Love Laughs at Locksmiths
George Colman (1762-1836) English dramatist, writer [a.k.a. George Colman the Younger]
Opera title (1806)
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
Speech (2005-06-12), Commencement Address, Stanford University
(Source)
The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest. … You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
“People,” Time (23 Oct 1950)
The row was over Darwinism, but before it ended Darwinism was almost forgotten. What Huxley fought for was something far greater: the right of civilized men to think freely and speak freely, without asking leave of authority, clerical or lay. How new that right is! And yet how firmly held! Today it would be hard to imagine living without it. No man of self-respect, when he has a thought to utter, pauses to wonder what the bishops will have to say about it. The views of bishops are simply ignored. Yet only sixty years ago they were still so powerful that they gave Huxley the battle of his life.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Thomas Henry Huxley,” Baltimore Evening Sun (4 May 1925)
It is becoming impossible for those who mix at all with their fellow-men to believe that the grace of God is distributed denominationally.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)
As soon as you say, “failure is not an option,” you’ve just said, “innovation is not an option.”
Seth Godin (b. 1960) American entrepreneur, author, public speaker
“The Flip Side,” Seth Godin’s Blog (28 Apr 2011)
Full text.
I am not old, — I cannot be old,
Though threescore years and ten
Have wasted away, like a tale that is told,
The lives of other men:
I am not old; though friends and foes
Alike have gone to their graves,
And left me alone to my joys or my woes,
As a rock in the midst of the waves.Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889) English poet
“The Song of Seventy,” A Thousand Lines (1846)
MACBETH: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 5, sc. 5, l. 22ff (5.5.22-31) (1606)
(Source)
I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Letter to Edgar R. Dawson (3 Dec 1937)
Enjoy and give pleasure, without doing harm to yourself or to anyone else — that, I think, is the whole of morality.
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Maxims and Thoughts, 5 (1796) [tr. Merwin (1984)]
Who loves me, loves my dog.
[Qui me amat, amat et canem meam.]
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) French religious, Doctor of the Church, saint
Festo Sancti Michaelis, Sermon 1, sec. 3 [tr. Trench (1853)]
Bernard says this is a common proverb.
The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.
Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 18 (1947) [majority opinion]
(Source)
I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo.
Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrong-doing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World, Foreword to 1946 ed. (1932)
I just finished with nine months of treatment for cancer. First they poison you, then they mutilate you, then they burn you. I’ve had more fun. And when it’s over, you’re so glad that you’re grateful to absolutely everyone. And I am. The trouble is, I’m not a better person. I was in great hopes that confronting my own mortality would make me deeper, more thoughtful. Many lovely people sent books on how to find a more spiritual meaning in life. My response was, “Oh, hell, I can’t go on a spiritual journey — I’m constipated.”
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Cancer, II” The Progressive (Oct 2000)
In a similar vein, Ivins wrote in "Who Needs Breasts, Anyway?", Time (18 Feb 2002): "Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that."
All the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
“Starting from Paumanok” (12) (1860), Leaves of Grass (1855-1892)
