One element in all happiness is to feel that we have deserved it.
[Il entre dans la composition de tout bonheur l’idée de l’avoir mérité.]
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 5 “Des Passions et des Affections de l’Âme [On the Soul],” ¶ 31 (1850 ed.) [tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 4, ¶ 21]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Into the composition of every happiness enters the thought of having deserved it.
[tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 5]It is an element of all happiness to fancy that we deserve it.
[tr. Collins (1928), ch. 5]
Science … commits suicide when it adopts a creed.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“The Darwin Memorial” (1885)
Full text.
In our constant struggle to believe we are likely to overlook the simple fact that a bit of healthy disbelief is sometimes as needful as faith to the welfare of our souls. I would go further and say that we would do well to cultivate a reverent skepticism. It will keep us out of a thousand bogs and quagmires where others who lack it sometimes find themselves. It is no sin to doubt some things, but it may be fatal to believe everything.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Root of the Righteous
You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it.
Robert Anthony (contemp.) American psychologist, author
Beyond Positive Thinking, ch. 11 (1988)
Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.
David Lodge (b. 1935) English author, literary critic
The British Museum is Falling Down, ch. 4 (1965)
The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“Common Places” (1), Literary Examiner (Sep-Dec 1823)
One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double your danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
I can’t quite define my aversion to asking questions of strangers. From snatches of family battles which I have heard drifting up from railway stations and street corners, I gather that there are a great many men who share my dislike for it, as well as an equal number of women who … believe it to be the solution to most of this world’s problems.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
Pluck and Luck, “Ask That Man” (1925)
Sometimes it is too late to win. But it’s never too late to lose.
(Other Authors and Sources)
“Warson’s Truth” (Tom Warson)
The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.
Bret Harte (1836-1902) American author and poet [Francis Bret Harte]
“The Outcasts of Poker Flat” (1869)
‘Tis harder to unlearn than learn.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #5085 (1732)
(Source)
We are truth-speakers, we men of Gondor. We boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt. Not if I found it on the highway would I take it I said. Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take these words as a vow, and be held by them. But I am not such a man. Or I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee.
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. 5 “The Window on the West” [Faramir] (1954)
Faramir, rejecting the One Ring when he learns Frodo and Sam have it. Referring to this vow.
Any man who has once decared the other man to be a fool, a bad fellow, is annoyed when that man ends by showing that he is not.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Human, All Too Human, ch. 90 (1878) [tr Faber (1984)]
Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation — and their ideas from suppression — at the hand of an intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable consequences, and, in general, our society accords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse.
John Paul Stevens (1920-2019) American lawyer, US Supreme Court Justice (1975-2010)
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission 514 U.S. 334, 357 (1995)
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 5:43-45
See Matthew 22:36-40.
Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of ‘touching’ a man’s heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Twelve Types, “Charles II” (1902)
Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Speech, Liberal leadership convention (1968)
He is dangerous who has nothing to lose.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Die natürliche Tochter, 1.3 (1804)
Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful, and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous, and loathed because they impose slavery.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Sceptical Essays, ch. 6 (1928)
Nothing excellent can be done without leisure.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
Journal (15 Jan 1946) [tr. O’Brien (1951)]
Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)
Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me. I’ve got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Remark to reporters (13 Apr 1945)
On having become president the previous day, upon Franklin Roosevelt's death.
There are two kinds of losers: (1) the good loser and (2) those who can’t act.
Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
Peter’s People, ch. 8 (1979)
In the midst of events there is no perspective.
Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
A Distant Mirror (1978)
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
We Bereaved (1929)
Also in The Open Door (1957).
The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitious — fabricated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the boundaries of that province, they must be content with imagination, with hope, and with ignorance.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature” (1885)
Full text.
Credulity, on the other hand, never honors God, for it shows as great a readiness to believe anybody as to believe God Himself. The credulous person will accept anything as long as it is unusual, and the more unusual it is the more ardently he will believe. Any testimony will be swallowed with a straight face if it only has about it some element of the eerie, the preternatural, the unearthly ….
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Root of the Righteous, ch. 34
How long is life to the wretched, how short for the happy!
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 621 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
The enemy held my will in his power and from it he had made a chain and shackled me. My will was perverse and lust had grown from it, and when I gave in to lust habit was born, and when I did not resist the habit it became a necessity. These were the links which together formed what I have called my chain, and it held me fast in the duress of servitude.
[Velle meum tenebat inimicus et inde mihi catenam fecerat et constrinxerat me. Quippe ex voluntate perversa facta est libido, et dum servitur libidini, facta est consuetudo, et dum consuetudini non resistitur, facta est necessitas. Quibus quasi ansulis sibimet innexis (unde catenam appellavi) tenebat me obstrictum dura servitus.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
Confessions, Book 8, ch. 5 / ¶ 10 (8.5.10) (c. AD 398) [tr. Pine-Coffin (1961)]
(Source)
Sometimes paraphrased "Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity."
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:My will the enemy held, and thence had made a chain for me, and bound me. For of a forward will, was a lust made; and a lust served, became custom; and custom not resisted, became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together (whence I called it a chain) a hard bondage held me enthralled.
[tr. Pusey (1838), and ed. Shedd (1860)]My will was the enemy master of, and thence had made a chain for me and bound me. Because of a perverse will was lust made; and lust indulged in became custom; and custom not resisted became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together (whence I term it a “chain”), did a hard bondage hold me enthralled.
[tr. Pilkington (1876)]The enemy held my will , and with me made a chain for me and bound me. For from a perverse will, lust was made; and in obeying lust, habit was formed, and habit not resisted, became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together -- therefore I call it a chain -- was I held shackled with a hard bondage.
[tr. Hutchings (1890)]The enemy held fast my will, and had made of it a chain, and bound me tight therewith. For from a perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and acquiescence in habit produced necessity. These were the links of what I call my chain, and they held me bound in hard slavery.
[tr. Bigg (1897)]The enemy held my will; and of it he made a chain and bound me. Because my will was perverse it changed to lust, and lust yielded to became habit, and habit not resisted became necessity. These were like links hanging one on another -- which is why I have called it a chain -- and their hard bondage held me bound hand and foot.
[tr. Sheed (1943)]The enemy held fast my will, and had made of it a chain, and had bound me tight with it. For out of the perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and habit, not resisted, became necessity. By these links, as it were, forged together--which is why I called it “a chain”--a hard bondage held me in slavery.
[tr. Outler (1955)]The enemy had control of my will, and out of it he fashioned a chain and fettered me with it. For in truth lust is made out of a perverse will, and when lust is served, it becomes habit, and when habit is not resisted, it becomes necessity. By such links, joined one to another, as it were -- for this reason I have called it a chain -- a harsh bondage held me fast.
[tr. Ryan (1960)]The enemy held my will and made a chain out of it and bound me with it. From a perverse will came lust, and slavery to lust became a habit, and the habit, being constantly yielded to, became a necessity. These were like links, hanging each to each (which is why I called it a chain), and they held me fast in a hard slavery.
[tr. Warner (1963)]My willingness the enemy held, and out of it had made me a chain and bound me. Of stubborn will ios a lust made. When a lust is served, a custom is made, and when a custom is not resisted a necessity is made. It was as though link was bound to link (hence what I called a chain) and hard bondage held me bound.
[tr. Blailock (1983)]
Life is hardly more than a fraction of a second. Such a little time to prepare oneself for eternity!!!
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) French painter [Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin]
Intimate Journals of Paul Gauguin (1936) [tr. Brooks (1949)]
Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Spurious)
Anthony Montague-Browne, Churchill's assistant, said that Churchill denied coining this phrase, but wished he had.
Sometimes given as "nothing but rum, buggery, and the lash."
It’s easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
(Attributed)
They do say that when a man starts down hill everybody is ready to help him with a kick, and I suppose it is so.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Letter, San Francisco Alta California (15 Mar 1867)
War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
The Guns of August (1962)
In Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1970), she gave this as "History is the unfolding of miscalculations."
A Little Learning misleadeth, and a great deal often stupifieth the Understanding.
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“False Learning,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)
(Source)
Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.
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. 1 “The Taming of Sméagol” (1954)
(Source)
Frodo recalling the words of Gandalf (approximately) in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Distractions I,” Vedanta for the Western World [ed. Christopher Isherwood] (1945)
When I am dead,
I hope it may be said:
‘His sins were scarlet,
But his books were read’.Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Franco-British writer, historian [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc]
“On His Books” (1923)
Whatever you can lose, reckon of no account.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 191 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
If you would be loved, love and be lovable.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Feb 1755)
Earlier given, "If you'd be beloved, make yourself amiable." (Nov 1744). See Ovid.
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (3 Jun 1922)
May it be to the world what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all.) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which Monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self government. The form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born, with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. These are grounds of hope for others.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Roger Chew Weightman (24 Jun 1826)
(Source)
The last letter he wrote.
From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Franco-British writer, historian [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc]
Verses, “Dedicatory Ode” (1910)
All the lonely people,
where do they all come from?
All the lonely people,
where do they all belong?John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
“Eleanor Rigby” (song) [with Paul McCartney] (1966)
Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce, ch. 9 (1946)
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Memoirs of William Miller, quoted in Life (2 May 1955)
(Source)
To wait an Hour — is long —
If Love be just beyond —
To wait Eternity — is short —
If Love reward the end —Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet
“To Wait an Hour — is long” (1863?)
Logic: an instrument for bolstering a prejudice.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
A Thousand and One Epigrams (1911)
Happiness cannot be the reward of virtue; it must be the the intelligible consequence of it.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Morals, 7.7 (1929)
I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance — that there are a great many people in the world who are just as clever as you are. You learn to put your trust, by and by, in an economy and frugality of the exercise of your powers, both moral and intellectual; and you very soon find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“On Medical Education” (1870)
Whatever a man wants badly and persistently enough will determine the man’s character.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Root of the Righteous, ch. 33 (1955)
Full text.
The judgments which Johnson passed on books were, in his own time, regarded with superstitious veneration, and, in our time, are generally treated with indiscriminate contempt. They are the judgments of a strong but enslaved understanding. The mind of the critic was hedged round by an uninterrupted fence of prejudices and superstitions. Within his narrow limits, he displayed a vigour and an activity which ought to have enabled him to clear the barrier that confined him. How it chanced that a man who reasoned on his premises so ably, should assume his premises so foolishly, is one of the great mysteries of human nature.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“Samuel Johnson,” The Edinburgh Review (Sep 1831)
(Source)
Review of John Croker's 1831 edition of James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson.
I entirely appreciate loyalty to one’s friends, but loyalty to the cause of justice and honor stand above it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Letter to a Senator from Oregon (15 May 1905)
Govern thy Life and Thoughts, as if the whole World were to see the one, and read the other.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 417 (1725)
(Source)
The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Variant: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average voter."Commonly attributed but no citation has been found.
Success is full of promise till men get it; and then it is last year’s nest from which the bird has flown.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
(Attributed)
In Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
Great merit, or great failings, will make you be respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked, in the general run of the world.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #187 (20 Jul 1749)
(Source)
By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars. … Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state?
Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
Speech, US Senate (15 Sep 1981)
A handfull of good life is better then a bushell of learning.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 3 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
The treacherous are ever distrustful.
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 3, ch. 10 “The Voice of Saruman” [Gandalf] (1954)
(Source)
Facts are ventriloquists’ dummies. Sitting on a wise man’s knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Time Must Have A Stop [Bruno Rotini] (1944)
Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.
Germaine Greer (b. 1939) Australian-English feminist, reformer, author, educator
The Female Eunuch, “Love: Security” (1970)
(Source)
Literature is both my joy and my comfort: it can add to every happiness and there is no sorrow it cannot console.
Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, 8.19 [tr. Radice (1963)]
Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, 3.9 (1952)
But among the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
A Miscellany of Men, “The Miser and His Friends” (1912)
(Source)
In a similar vein, in "The Paradise of Thieves," The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914), Chesterton has the character Muscari say:To be clever enough to get all that money,
one must be stupid enough to want it.
Least and last of all should I undertake to criticise works on the Apocalypse. it is between 50. and 60. years since I read it, & I then considered it as merely the ravings of a Maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1825-01-17) to Alexander Smyth
(Source)
On the Book of Revelation.
When you think you’ve lost everything,
you find out you can always lose a little more.Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
“Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” (song) (1997)
Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #227 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
Your job today tells me nothing of your future — your use of your leisure today tells me just what your tomorrow will be.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Speech, Building Dedication, Jamestown High School, New York (1935-11-15)
(Source)
Quoted in Eugene Gerhart, America's Advocate: Robert H. Jackson, ch. 24 (1958).
You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humour while roaring with laughter.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
God in the Dock, “Myth Become Fact” (1970)
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Attributed)
Alternate versions:No source found. The quote is frequently also attributed to Richard Feynman. It is likely based on a similar quote by Ernest Rutherford.
- "If you can't explain something to a six-year-old, you really don't understand it yourself."
- "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
The closest reference to it can be found in Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times (1972):To de Broglie, Einstein revealed an instinctive reason for his inability to accept the purely statistical interpretation of wave mechanics. It was a reason which linked him with Rutherford, who used to state that "it should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid." Einstein, having a final discussion with de Broglie on the platform of the Gare du Nord in Paris, whence they had traveled from Brussels to attend the Fresnel centenary celebrations, said "that all physical theories, their mathematical expressions apart ought to lend themselves to so simple a description 'that even a child could understand them.'"
More discussion of this quotation here.
ERNEST: What is the differnece between literature and journalism?
GILBERT: Oh! journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“Sebastian Melmoth”
Trusting to luck is only another name for trusting to lazyness.
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, ch. 131 “Affurisms: Plum Pits (1)” (1874)
(Source)
I believe four ingredients are necessary for happiness: health, warm personal relations, sufficient means to keep you from want, and successful work.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Redbook Dialogue,” interview by Tommy Robbins, Redbook (1964-09)
(Source)
Reprinted in Russell Society News, #37 (1983-02), p. 25.
Let us have “sweet girl graduates” by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom; and the “golden hair” will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Emancipation — Black and White” (1865)
Full text.
All things being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives. In the long pull we pray only as well as we live.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Pursuit of God (1957)
I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please, as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process.
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“The Disease of Democracy,” Notes on Democracy (1926)
Full text.
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal (1869-12-16) [tr. Ward (1897)]
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech in the House of Commons (4 Jun 1940)
Full text.
There are many persons of combative tendencies, who read for ammunition, and dig out of the Bible iron for balls. They read, and they find nitre and charcoal and sulphur for powder. They read, and they find cannon. They read, and they make portholes and embrasures. And if a man does not believe as they do, they look upon him as an enemy, and let fly the Bible at him to demolish him. So men turn the word of God into a vast arsenal, filled with all manner of weapons, offensive and defensive.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
(Attributed)
In Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
The legislative job of the President is especially important to the people who have no special representatives to plead their cause before Congress — and that includes the great majority. The President is the only lobbyist that 150 million Americans have. The other 20 million are able to employ people to represent them — and that’s all right, it’s the exercise of the right of petition — but someone has to look after the interests of the 150 million that are left.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Press and Union Club, San Francisco (25 Oct 1956)
A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
“Elements of Success,” speech, Spencerian Business College, Washington, D.C. (29 Jul 1869)
(Source)
The first reward of justice is the consciousness that we are acting justly.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) French philosopher and writer
Emile, ch. 4 “The Creed of a Savoyard Priest” (1762) [tr. Foley (1911)]
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (19 Apr 1930)
And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to John Adams (11 Apr 1823)
(Source)
Loyalty is a noble quality, so long as it is not blind and does not exclude the higher loyalty to truth and decency.
B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, military historian (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Why Don’t We Learn from History?, “Blinding Loyalties” (1944)
JULIET: My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 139ff (2.2.139-141) (c. 1594)
(Source)
Whoever is not in the possession of leisure can hardly be said to possess independence. They talk of the dignity of work. Bosh. True work is the necessity of poor humanity’s earthly condition. The dignity is in leisure.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) American writer
Letter to his cousin, Kate Gansevoort Lansing (5 Sep 1877)
Full text.
In the moral sphere, every act of justice or charity involves putting ourselves in the other person’s place and thus transcending our own competitive particularity.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
An Experiment in Criticism (1961)
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Attributed)
In a Nutshell: Six Ways to Make People Like You —
Principle 1: Become genuinely interested in other people
Principle 2: Smile.
Principle 3: Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Principle 4: Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Principle 5: Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
Principle 6: Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely.Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer, lecturer
How to Win Friends and Influence People, 2.6 (1936, rev. 1981)
Give a man health and a course to steer; and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, ch. 3 (1901)
Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Darwiniana: the Origin of Species (1860)
If my fire is not large, it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Pursuit of God, Forward (1957)
It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
(Attributed)
Cited in some cases as the closing argument while defending the British Soldiers accused of killing 5 colonists in the "Boston Massacre" (usually given as "Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials" (Dec 1770)), but I did not find it in accounts of that defense.
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.
Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) English parodist, caricaturist, wit, writer [Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm]
“1880” (1895)
The prime thing that every man who takes an interest in politics should remember is that he must act, and not merely criticize the actions of others. It is not the man who sits by his fireside reading his evening paper, and saying how bad our politics and politicians are, who will ever do anything to save us; it is the man who goes out into the rough hurly-burly of the caucus, the primary, and the political meeting, and there faces his fellows on equal terms. The real service is rendered, not by the critic who stands aloof from the contest, but by the man who enters into it and bears his part as a man should, undeterred by the blood and the sweat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“The Manly Virtues and Practical Politics,” Forum (Jul 1894)
The trick in life is not in getting what you want but in wanting what you get after you get it.
Warren Beatty (b. 1937) American actor
Love Affair (film) [with Robert Towne] (1994).
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (27 Feb 1945)