The secret of my incredible energy and efficiency in getting work done is a simple one. I have based it very deliberately on a well-known psychological principle and have refined it so that it is now almost too refined. I shall have to begin coarsening it up again pretty soon. The psychological principle is this: anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
“How to Get Things Done,” Chicago Tribune (2 Feb 1930)
Work is love made visible.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Work” (1923)
Full text.
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”
“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”
“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.
“You wish to be anonymous?”
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned — they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides — excuse me — I don’t know that.”
“But you might know it,” observed the gentleman.
“It’s not my business,” Scrooge returned. “It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic
A Christmas Carol, Stave 1 “Marley’s Ghost” (1843)
(Source)
Oh, what more sweet than when, from care set free,
The spirit lays its burden down, and we,
With distant travel spent, come home and spread
Our limbs to rest along the wished-for bed.[O quid solutis est beatius curis,
cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,
desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?]Catullus (c. 84 BC – c. 54 BC) Latin poet [Gaius Valerius Catullus]
Carmina # 31 “To Sirmio,” ll. 7-10 [tr. T. Martin (1861)]
(Source)
Sirmio was the peninsula where his country villa was built, present-day Sirmione on Lago di Garda.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:O, what so sweet as cares redress'd!
When the tir'd mind lays down its load;
When, with each foreign toil oppress'd,
We reach at length our own abode;
On our own wish'd-for couch recline,
And taste the bliss of sleep divine!
[tr. Nott (1795), # 28]Then when the mind its load lays down;
When we regain, all hazards past,
And with long ceaseless travel tired,
Our household god again our own;
And press in tranquil sleep at last
The well-known bed so oft desired.
[tr. Lamb (1821)]Sweetest of sweets to me that pastime seems,
When the mind drops her burden: when -- the pain
Of travel past -- our own cot we regain
And nestle on the pillow of our dreams.
[tr. Calverley (1862)]Oh! what more blessèd than to find
Release from all our cares!
When layeth down the weary mind
The burden that it bears:
When, all our toil of travel o'er,
Our hearth again we tread,
And lay us down in peace once more
On the long-wish'd-for bed.
[tr. Cranstoun (1867)]Days of happiness and bless,
What in life can match with this?
When with lightened heart the mind
Care and sorrow leaves behind,
And our weary wanderings o'er,
We have reached our own loved door,
And so no more abroad to roam,
Taste the dear delights of home.
[tr. Bliss (1872)]Is there a scene more sweet than when
our clinging cares are undercase,
And, worn by alien moils and men,
The long untrodden sill repassed,
We press the kindly couch at last,
And find a full repayment there?
[tr. Hardy (1887)]Oh what more blessèd be than cares resolved,
When mind casts burthen and by peregrine
Work over wearied, lief we hie us home
To lie reposing in the longed-for bed!
[tr. Burton (1893)]O what greater blessing than cares released, when the mind casts down its burden, and when wearied with the toil of travel we reach our hearth, and rest in the long-for bed.
[tr. Smithers (1894)]To think, O joy! that once again
I should be here upon my native soil!
At ease! O guerdon sweet! when, after wars,
With journeyings and vigils sore bestead,
Our own old home we come to, and the bed
So often longed for under alien stars.
[tr. Harman (1897)]Ah , what is more blessed than to put cares away, when the mind lays by its burden, and tired with labour of far travel we have come to our own home and rest on the couch we longed for.
[tr. Warre Cornish (1904)]O what is sweeter than when loosed from care, when the mind throws down its burden, way-worn we reach our own hearth and at last find repose in the bed we have so often longed for.
[tr. Stuttaford (1912)]Oh, what is sweeter than, when toil is past,
To come back home, the mind care-free at last,
The foreign labors done, the rest well-earned,
To seek the welcome couch for which we've yearned?
[tr. Stewart (1915)]What joys so keen as all one's cares to shed,
To ease the burdened mind, no more to roam,
All travel-worn to reach th' ancestral home,
And rest at length in the long looked for bed.
[tr. Symons-Jeune (1923)]Joy beyond joy to loose the cares that chafe
And lay aside the burden of the mind!
Home after toilsome travel, home once more,
Snug in the cosy bed we wearied for.
[tr. MacNaghten (1925)]Can there be more joy than this
To throw off the chains of office and in calm domestic bliss,
Wearied with the strain of travel, once again to rest my head,
Full reward of all my labours, in my dear, my longed-for bed?
[tr. Wright (1926)]After many months of travel, nothing's better than to rest, relaxed and careless; sleep is heaven in our own beloved bed.
[tr. Gregory (1931)]For what can be more blissful than to ease
One's troubles, when the mind puts off its load
And I return, all care-worn, to my hearth
And sleep in the bed I've longed for?
[tr. Hollander (1976)]What could be better? Every care dissolving, shedding the burden of an exhausting journey, back home among the gods of our own household we find at last the couch, the rest we desired!
[tr. C. Martin (1979)]O what freedom from care is more joyful
than when the mind lays down its burden,
and weary, back home from foreign toil,
we rest in the bed we longed for?
[tr. Kline (2001)]What greater bliss than when, cares all dissolved,
the mind lays down its burden, and, exhausted
by our foreign labors we at last reach home
and sink into the bed we've so long yearned for?
[tr. Green (2005)]O what is happier than worries released,
when the mind sets aside its burden, and we
having been exhausted from foreign labor, have come to our home,
and we rest in our longed for bed?
[tr. Wikisource (2018)]
For a faith which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
The Exploration of Space (1951)
On people who fear contact with intelligent non-humans would "destroy the foundations of their religious faith."
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Romans 12:19-21
There was only one catch, and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be gorunded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to, but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to.
Joseph Heller (1923-1999) American novelist
Catch-22, ch. 5 (1961)
The mediaeval university looked backwards: it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge. … The modern university looks forward: it is a factory of new knowledge.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Letter to E. Ray Lankester (11 Apr 1892)
Look into any man’s heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Norwegian poet and playwright
The Pillars of Society, Act 3 [Bernick] (1877)
So many gods, so many creeds;
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author and poet.
“The World’s Need,” Custer and Other Poems (1896)
(Source)
Life is not meaningful … unless it is serving an end beyond itself, unless it is of value to someone else.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) Polish-American rabbi, theologian, philosopher
Man is Not Alone, ch. 19 (1951)
There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning.
Christopher Morley (1890-1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist, poet
Parnassus on Wheels, ch. 10 (1917)
The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Press Interview (1902)
When asked what qualities a politician required.
All people should be loved equally. But you cannot do good to all people equally, so you should take particular thought for those who by the chance of place or time or anything else are, as if by lot, in particularly close contact with you.
[Omnes autem aeque diligendi sunt. Sed cum omnibus prodesse non possis, his potissimum consulendum est, qui pro locorum et temporum vel quarumlibet rerum opportunitatibus constrictius tibi quasi quadam sorte iunguntur.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On Christian Doctrine [De Doctrina Christiana], Book 1, ch. 28 / § 29 (1.28.29) (AD 397) [tr. Green (1995), § 61]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.
[tr. Shaw (1858)]All other men are to be loved equally; but since you cannot be of assistance to everyone, those especially are to be cared for who are most closely bound to you by place, time, or opportunity, as if by chance.
[tr. Robertson (1958)]
“Does it ever get easy?”
“You mean life?”
“Yeah. Does it get easy?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Lie to me.”
“Yes, it’s terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day. No-one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.”Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Lie to Me” (3 Nov 1997)
Where there’s a whip there’s a will, my slugs.
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. 2 “The Land of Shadow” [The Orc-driver] (1955)
(Source)
Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the End of Speech is not Ostentation, but to be understood.
William Penn (1644-1718) English writer, philosopher, politician, statesman
Some Fruits of Solitude, Part 2, “Of Conduct and Speech,” #122 (1682)
(Source)
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
Commencement Address, Stanford University (2005)
(Source)
We are most alive when we’re in love.
John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
Interview, in Naim Attalah, Singular Encounters (1990)
Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
What’s Wrong With The World (1910)
What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn’t necessarily sinful in the others. Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Memoirs, Part 1 “1919-1968, The Road to 24 Sussex Drive” (1993)
Creative minds are rarely tidy.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002) American writer, businessman, government official
Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society (1964)
Sometimes attributed to Jung. Variant: "Creative minds are seldom tidy."
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech, Madison Square Garden, New York City (31 Oct 1936)
Full text.
It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and to make only two people miserable instead of four, besides being very amusing.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Letter to Miss E. M. A. Savage (21 Nov 1884)
Referring to Thomas Carlyle.
It is in their ‘good’ characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self-revelations.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Preface to “Paradise Lost” (1942)
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Interview with Edward R. Murrow on CBS (27 May 1955)
Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 15, § 65 (1951)
(Source)
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
(Spurious)
First cited in the US in 1950, over a decade after his death. No earlier citation is found than that, and no record has been found in Freud's works (translated or original). More discussion here.
The madman thinks the rest of the world crazy.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 386 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best — that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Evolution and Ethics,” The Romanes Lecture, Oxford (1893)
Full text.
I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Norwegian poet and playwright
Letter to Georg Brandes (3 Jan 1882)
I never knu a man trubbled with melankolly, who had plenty to dew, and did it.
[I never knew a man troubled with melancholy, who had plenty to do, and did it.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Puddin and Milk” (1874)
They will avoid the necessity of those overgrown Military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.
George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
“Farewell Address” (17 Sep 1796)
Life is what happens to you
While you’re busy
Making other plans.John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
“Beautiful Boy” (song) (1981)
More analysis on this quote and its predecessors (going back to Allen Saunders in 1957) here.
BESSIE BRADDOCK: Winston, you are drunk, and what’s more you are disgustingly drunk.
WINSTON CHURCHILL: Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Comment (1946)
Version as cited Richard Langworth, Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations. The story was supposedly vouched for by Churchill's bodyguard, but versions of this exchange can be found (with different players) back to 1882. More info here.
The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Baltimore Evening Sun (12 Feb 1923)
Materialism is the belief that if there are other things in life besides money, it takes money to buy them.
Evan Esar (1899-1995) American humorist
20,000 Quips and Quotes (1968)
Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality properly; they are still entangled with the desire for ownership.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
Abinger Harvest: A Miscellany, “My Wood” (1927)
Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
“Education,” The Second Sin (1973)
There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
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. 2 “The Land of Shadow” (1954)
(Source)
One Folk, One Realm, One Leader. Union with the unity of an insect swarm. Knowledgeless understanding of nonsense and diabolism. And then the newsreel camera had cut back to the serried ranks, the swastikas, the brass bands, the yelling hypnotist on the rostrum. And here once again, in the glare of his inner light, was the brown insectlike column, marching endlessly to the tunes of this rococo horror-music. Onward Nazi soldiers, onward Christian soldiers, onward Marxists and Muslims, onward every chosen People, every Crusader and Holy War-maker. Onward into misery, into all wickedness, into death!
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Island (1962)
Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of mankind.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Italian politician, dictator, fascist
“The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism,” International Conciliation (Dec 1935)
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (Jul 1889)
BRUTUS: When love begins to sicken and decay
It useth an enforcèd ceremony.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 4, sc. 2, l. 23ff (4.2.23-24) (1599)
(Source)
It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (14 Mar 1908)
There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an “all Canadian” boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Speech to the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, Winnipeg (9 Oct 1971)
The habit of doing one’s duty drives out fear.
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) French poet, essayist, art critic
Intimate Journals, 116 (1887) [tr. Isherwood (1957)]
The believers and unbelievers who think for themselves will let themselves be burnt alive rather than conform to a creed imposed on them by any power except their own consciences.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, ch. 82 (1928)
Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Marriage and Single Life,” Essays, No. 8 (1625)
(Source)
‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver … ‘Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
All of you, I am sure, have heard many cries about Government interference with business and about “creeping socialism.” I should like to remind the gentlemen who make these complaints that if events had been allowed to continue as they were going prior to March 4, 1933, most of them would have no businesses left for the Government or for anyone else to interfere with — and almost surely we would have socialism in this country, real socialism, not the kind they define.
‘Tis not the dying for a faith that so hard, Master Harry — ’tis the living up to it that is difficult.
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) English novelist
The History of Henry Esmond, 1.6 (1852)
Men are but children of a larger growth;
Our appetites as apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain.John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
All for Love, 4.1 (1678)
We always hesitate to treat a dangerously good man as a lunatic because he may turn out to be a prophet in the true sense: that is, a man of exceptional sanity who is in the right when we are in the wrong.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Getting Married, Preface, “The Gospel of Laodicea” (1908)
A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there was an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man — a man of restless and versatile intellect — who not content with an equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them with aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Reply to Samuel Wilberforce, Oxford Evolution Debate (30 Jun 1860)
As quoted in Leonard Huxley (ed.), Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S (1900).Bp. Wilberforce (1805-1873), during a debate, asked Huxley "whether he was descended from an ape on his grandmother's side or his grandfather's." No precise transcript was made at the time, so there are various accounts of Huxley's answer.
Variants:
- Quoted in Alan L. Mackay, Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977): "If the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape."
- Quoted in Mrs. Isabella Sidgwick, "A Grandmother's Tales," Macmillan's Magazine (Oct 1898): "The Bishop rose, and in a light scoffing tone, florid and he assured us there was nothing in the idea of evolution; rock-pigeons were what rock-pigeons had always been. Then, turning to his antagonist with a smiling insolence, he begged to know, was it through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey? On this Mr Huxley slowly and deliberately arose. A slight tall figure stern and pale, very quiet and very grave, he stood before us, and spoke those tremendous words — words which no one seems sure of now, nor I think, could remember just after they were spoken, for their meaning took away our breath, though it left us in no doubt as to what it was. He was not ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used great gifts to obscure the truth. No one doubted his meaning and the effect was tremendous. One lady fainted and had to carried out: I, for one, jumped out of my seat; and when in the evening we met at Dr Daubeney's, every one was eager to congratulate the hero of the day."
- [After a defense of Darwin's work.] "I would rather be the offspring of two apes than be a man and afraid to face the truth."
We modern Christians are long on talk and short on conduct.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
Born After Midnight
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the confversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, 1.10.2 (1776)
Being considered or labeled mentally disordered — abnormal, crazy, mad, psychotic, sick, it matters not what variant is used — is the most profoundly discrediting classificiation that can be imposed on a person today. Mental illness casts the “patient” out of our social order just as surely as heresy cast the “witch” out of medieval society, That, indeed, is the very purposes of stigma terms.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
The Manufacture of Madness, ch. 12 (1970)
A Good life fears not Life nor Death.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, # 157 (1732)
(Source)
It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (1930s)
Anyone will be glad to admit that he knows nothing about beagling, or the Chinese stock market, or ballistics, but there is not a man or woman alive who does not claim to know how to cure hiccoughs.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
“Stop Those Hiccoughs!”, My Ten Years in a Quandary and How They Grew (1936)
The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Mr. Mencken Sounds Off,” interview, LIFE Magazine (5 Aug 1946)
(Source)
Without the arts, we’re merely primates with car keys.
Susan Barnes-Gelt (contemp.) American civic activist and poltician
In Rocky Mountain News (20 Jul 1997)
Variant (20 Sep 2004): "Without arts and culture - we're no more than primates with car keys!"
‘What do you fear, lady?’ he asked.
‘A cage,’ she said. ‘To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.’
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. 2 “The Passing of the Grey Company” [Aragorn and Eowyn] (1955)
(Source)
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“A Case of Voluntary Ignorance,” Esquire (Sep 1956)
Industry is fortune’s right hand, and frugality her left.
John Ray (1627-1705) English naturalist [a.k.a. John Wray]
A Collection of English Proverbs (1678)
The essence of love is kindness.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Virginibus Puerisque,” sec. 3 (1881)
(Source)
War is not the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (24 Jul 1915)
The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
(Attributed, 1970)
Widely attributed, but unsourced.
Lead us not into the temptation of believing that we have truly forgiven, while rancor lingers.
Katherine Zell (1497-1562) German Protestant reformer, writer, humanitarian [Katharina Schütz Zell]
“Den Psalmen Misere” (1558)
The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
(Attributed)
Leisure is Time for doing something useful; this Leisure the diligent Man will obtain but the lazy Man never.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
“The Way to Wealth” (7 Jul 1757)
Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)
The people can never understand why the President does not use his powers to make them behave. Well all the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Letter to Mary Jane Truman (14 Nov 1947)
What do you mean, funny? Funny peculiar, or funny ha-ha?
Ian Hay (1876-1952) Scottish novelist, playwright, schoolmaster, soldier (pseud. of John Hay Beith)
Housemaster, ch. 3 (1936)
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.
Jules de Goncourt (1830-1870) French writer
Journal (12 Jul 1867) [tr. Baldick (1980)]
We are all born mad. Some remain so.
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) American playwright
Waiting for Godot, Act 1 (1955)
The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Science and Morals” (1886)
Full text.
Truth is a glorious but hard mistress. She never consults, bargains or compromises.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
Of God and Men
You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #5427 (1732)
(Source)
YOUNG MAN (after seeing Churchill leave the bathroom without washing his hands): At Eton they taught us to wash our hands after using the toilet.
CHURCHILL: At Harrow they taught us not to piss on our hands.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Nine-tenths of the value of a sense of humor in writing is not in the things it makes one write but in the things it keeps one from writing. It is especially valuable in this respect in serious writing, and no one without a sense of humor should ever write seriously. For without knowing what is funny, one is constantly in danger of being funny without knowing it.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
LIFE Magazine (8 Mar 1929)
History can suggest to us alternatives that we would never otherwise consider. It can both warn and inspire. It can warn us that it is possible for a whole nation to be brainwashed, for “enlightened” and “educated” people to commit genocide, for a “democratic” country to maintain slavery, for oppressed to turn into oppressors, for “socialism” to be tyrannical and “liberalism” to be imperialist, for whole peoples to be led to war like sheep. It can also show us that apparently powerless underlings can defeat their rulers, that men (for at least moments of time) can live like brothers, that man can make incredible sacrifices on behalf of a cause.
Howard Zinn (1922-2010) American historian, academic, author, social activist
The Politics of History, ch. 17 (1970)
[O]ften when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address. Mind you I don’t think so — the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Arthur Greaves (24 Dec 1930)
I am always ready to learn, though I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (4 Nov 1952)
The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually — their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 4, ch. 8 “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol” [Sam] (1954)
(Source)
The trouble with fiction … is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
The Genius and the Goddess [John Rivers] (1955)
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.
Steven Weinberg (1933-2021) American theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate
The First Three Minutes (1977)
Weak kings are subject to flashes of temper
Ruled by their emotion. So are strong ones.Gavin Ewart (1916-1995) British poet
“The Law Allows Cruel Experiments on Friendly Animals,” The Pleasures of the Flesh (1966)
We are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to “like” one another.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
No Man Is an Island, 9.6 (1955)
The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (28 Oct 1922)
Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Addressing the Press Club in Washington, D.C. (25 Mar 1969)
The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change.
(Other Authors and Sources)
A FORTRAN manual for Xerox computers
In brief, she assumed that, being a man, I was vain to the point of imbecility, and this assumption was correct, as it always is.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“A Popular Virtue,” Prejudices: Second Series (1920)
A Life of Leisure and a Life of Laziness are two things.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, # 240 (1732)
(Source)
We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter (29 Apr 1959)
No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Joint Session of the US Congress (12 Mar 1947)
(Source)
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell (1937-2021) American military leader, politician, diplomat
My American Journey, ch. 2 (2003)
Argument is conclusive … but … it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may never rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment. For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns, his hearer’s mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.
Roger Bacon (c.1220-1292) English philosopher and scientist
Opus Maius, Part 4, ch. 1 (1267)
