Idleness is a disease which must be combated; but I would not advise a rigid adherence to a particular plan of study. I myself have never persisted in any plan for two days together. A man ought to read just as inclination leads him: for what he reads as a task will do him little good. A young man should read five hours in a day, and so may acquire a great deal of knowledge.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (9 Jul 1763)
(Source)
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Any system of government will work when everything is going well. It’s the system that functions in the pinches that survives.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Why England Slept, closing words (1940)
A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
Is man ever a creature to be trusted with wholly irresponsible power? And does not the slave system, by denying the slave all legal right of testimony, make every individual owner an irresponsible despot? Can anybody fall to make the inference what the practical result will be? If there is, as we admit, a public sentiment among you, men of honor, justice and humanity, is there not also another kind of public sentiment among the ruffian, the brutal and debased? And cannot the ruffian, the brutal, the debased, by slave law, own just as many slaves as the best and purest? Are the honorable, the just, the high-minded and compassionate, the majority anywhere in this world?
Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.
Douglas R. Hofstadter (b. 1945) American academic, cognitive scientist, author
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, “Hofstadter’s Law” (1979)
We have solved, by fair experiment, the great & interesting question Whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws; & we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely & openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason, & the serious convictions of his own enquiries.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Va. Baptist Associations of Chesterfield (21 Nov 1808)
(Source)
A Pharisee is a man who prays publicly and preys privately.
Don Marquis (1878-1937) American journalist and humorist
(Attributed)
Sometimes misquoted as "A hypocrite is ..."
The move is there, but you must see it.
Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) Russian chess grandmaster
(Attributed)
Quoted in I. A. Horowitz, All About Chess (1971).
A just society must strive with all its might to right wrongs even if righting wrongs is a highly perilous undertaking. But if it is to survive, a just society must be strong and resolute enough to deal swiftly and relentlessly with those who would mistake its good will for weakness.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
First Things, Last Things, ch. 8 “Thoughts on the Present” (1971)
These bare feet, these naked arms, these rags, these shades of ignorance, depths of despair, the gloom can be used for the conquest of the ideal. Look through the medium of the people, and you will discern the truth. This lowly sand that you trample underfoot, if you throw it into the furnace and let it melt and seethe, will become sparkling crystal; and thanks to such as this a Galileo and a Newton will discover the stars.
[Ces pieds nus, ces bras nus, ces haillons, ces ignorances, ces abjections, ces ténèbres, peuvent être employés à la conquête de l’idéal. Regardez à travers le peuple et vous apercevrez la vérité. Ce vil sable que vous foulez aux pieds, qu’on le jette dans la fournaise, qu’il y fonde et qu’il y bouillonne, il deviendra cristal splendide, et c’est grâce à lui que Galilée et Newton découvriront les astres.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Vol. 3 “Marius,” Book 1 “Paris in Microcosm,” ch. 12 “The Future Latent in the People” (1862) [tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]
(Source)
The author speaking, criticizing philosophers and scholars who dismiss the common people, or "mob."
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:These bare feet, these naked arms, these rags, these shades of ignorance, these depths of abjectness, these abysses of gloom may be employed in the conquest of the ideal. This lowly sand which you trample beneath your feet, if you cast it into the furnace, and let it melt and seethe, shall become resplendent crystal, and by means of such as it a Galileo and a Newton shall discover stars.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]These bare feet, these naked arms, these rags, this ignorance, this abjectness, this darkness, may be employed for the conquest of the ideal. Look through the people, and you will perceive the truth; the vile sand which you trample under foot, when cast into the furnace and melted, will become splendid crystal, and by its aid Galileo and Newton discover stars.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]These bare feet, these bare arms, these rags, these ignorances, these abjectnesses, these darknesses, may be employed in the conquest of the ideal. Gaze past the people, and you will perceive truth. Let that vile sand which you trample under foot be cast into the furnace, let it melt and seethe there, it will become a splendid crystal, and it is thanks to it that Galileo and Newton will discover stars.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]Those bare feet and arms, the rags, the ignorance, the abjection, the dark places, all may be enlisted in the service of the ideal. Peer through the heart of the people and you will discover the truth. The common sand that you tread underfoot, let it be cast into the furnace to boil and melt and it will become a crystal as splendid as that through which Galileo and Newton discovered the stars.
[tr. Denny (1976)]These bare feet, bare arms, rags, this benightedness, degradation, darkness may be used for the conquest of the ideal. Look through the populace and you will see the truth. This vile sand you trample underfoot -- let it be thrown into the furnace, let it melt and bubble there. It will turn into clear crystal, and it is thanks to this crystal that Galileo and newton will discover the stars.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]
For the future is like a corridor into which we can see only by the light coming from behind.
Edward Moffat Weyer, Jr. (1904-1998) American anthropologist, explorer
Primative Peoples Today, Introduction (1959)
You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important. Art would not be important if life were not important, and life is important.
James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“An interview with James Baldwin” by Studs Terkel (1961), in Conversations With James Baldwin (1989)
(Source)
Baldwin revisited this theme multiple times.You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people. An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian.
[Interview with Jane Howard, Life Magazine (24 May 1963)]You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.
["James Baldwin Recalls His Childhood," quoting from a television program, New York Times (31 May 1964)]
Here we are the way politics ought to be in America, the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose, and the politics of joy.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Washington, DC (27 Apr 1968)
But the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.
Pericles (c. 495-429 BC) Greek statesman
Pericles’ Funeral Oration
As quoted in Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War.
Never in History has the average American citizen found more need for a saving sense of humor. Beset by threats of destruction by atomic bombs, inflation, mounting taxes, overcrowded cities, witch hunters, propagandists, caterwauling commentators, and the incessant clamor of radio and television commercials, he must laugh occasionally to keep from blowing his top altogether. It’s far too easy to see only the shadows, and ignore the patches of sunlight that remain.
Bennett Cerf (1898-1971) American publisher, humorist
Laughter Incorporated, Foreword (1950)
(Source)
Do not consider yourself to have made any spiritual progress unless you account yourself the least of all men.
[Non reputes te aliquid profecisse, nisi omnibus te inferiorem esse sentias.]
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471) German-Dutch priest, author
The Imitation of Christ [De Imitatione Christi], Book 2, ch. 2, v. 4 (2.2.4) (c. 1418-27) [tr. Sherley-Price (1952)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Moreover, if thou wilt come to the highness of perfection, think not thyself to have profited anything in virtue, till thou canst feel meekly in thy heart that thou hast less meekness and less virtue than hath any other.
[tr. Whitford/Raynal (1530/1871)]Moreover, if you will come to the height of perfection, do not think that you have advanced in virtue until you can feel humbly in your heart that you have less humility and less virtue than anyone else.
[tr. Whitford/Gardiner (1530/1955)]Think not that thou hast profited any thing at all, unlesse thou hast learnt to esteem thy selfe inferiour unto all.
[tr. Page (1639), 2.2.11]No Man ought to esteem himself a Proficient in Goodness, who is not yet arrived to that Pitch of it, which teaches him to think himself the least of all Saints and last of all Men.
[tr. Stanhope (1696; 1706 ed.)]Do not think that thou hast made any progress towards perfection, till thou feelest, that thou art less than the least of all human beings.
[tr. Payne (1803)]Do not think that thou hast made any progress, unless thou esteem thyself inferior to all.
[ed. Parker (1841)]Do not think that thou hast made any progress towards perfection, till thou feelest that thou art "less than the least of all" human beings.
[tr. Dibdin (1851)]Never think thou hast made any progress till thou feel thyself inferior to all.
[ed. Bagster (1860)]Reckon not thyself to have profited in anywise unless thou feel thyself to be inferior to all.
[tr. Benham (1874)]Do not think that thou hast made any progress, unless thou esteem thyself inferior to all.
[tr. Anon. (1901)]Hence, you must not think that you have made any progress until you look upon yourself as inferior to all others.
[tr. Croft/Bolton (1940)]Consider yourself not to have made any progress unless you feel yourself inferior to all men.
[tr. Daplyn (1952)]Never think that you have made any progress, till you have learned to regard all men as your betters.
[tr. Knox-Oakley (1959)]Only when you think yourself of less importance than everybody else may you consider that you have made some progress.
[tr. Knott (1962)]Consider that you have made no progress at all until you recognize that you are lower than everybody else.
[tr. Rooney (1979)]Do not think you have made any progress unless you feel truly humble before God and others.
[tr. Creasy (1989)]
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
“The Duchess and the Bugs”, Lanterns & Lances (1961)
A "response" to an award Thurber received from the Ohioana Library Association in 1953.
A still small voice spake unto me,
“Thou art so full of misery,
Were it not better not to be?”
Then to the still small voice I said;
‘Let me not cast in endless shade
What is so wonderfully made.’Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“The Two Voices,” st. 1-2 (1842)
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
There is no such thing as a value-free concept of deviance; to say homosexuals are deviant because they are a statistical minority is, in practice, to stigmatize them. Nuns are rarely classed as deviants for the same reason, although if they obey their vows they clearly differ very significantly from the great majority of people.
Dennis Altman (b. 1943) Australian sociologist, activist
The Homosexualization of America, ch. 1 (1982)
It is as much the duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same between private individuals.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
First Annual Message to Congress (3 Dec 1861)
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
“Red Wind” (1938)
Have not many of us, in the weary way of life, felt, in some hours, how far easier it were to die than to live?
The martyr, when faced even by a death of bodily anguish and horror, finds in the very terror of his doom a strong stimulant and tonic. There is a vivid excitement, a thrill and fervor, which may carry through any crisis of suffering that is the birth-hour of eternal glory and rest.
But to live, — to wear on, day after day, of mean, bitter, low, harassing servitude, every nerve dampened and depressed, every power of feeling gradually smothered, — this long and wasting heart-martyrdom, this slow, daily bleeding away of the inward life, drop by drop, hour after hour, — this is the true searching test of what there may be in man or woman.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. 38 “The Victory” (1852)
(Source)
I happen to feel that the degree of a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the same topic.
Lisa Alther (b. 1944) American novelist
Kinflicks, ch. 7 [Ginny Babcock] (1976)
You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
Mario Cuomo (1932-2015) American politician
In Fred Barnes, “Meet Mario the Moderate,” New Republic (8 Apr 1985)
This looks to be the first printed source for this maxim of Cuomo's, though he had been using it for a while. An earlier version: "We campaign in poetry, but when we're elected we're forced to govern in prose." Sometimes attributed to Nixon. See here for more discussion.
I have, all my life long, been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (14 Sep 1773)
In James Boswell, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1786)
It is not enough to be a good player; you must also play well.
Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) Russian chess grandmaster
(Attributed)
A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities. The readiness to work springs from trivial, questionable motives.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Working and Thinking on the Waterfront (1969)
The ideals men die for often become the prejudices their descendants kill for.
Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) American educator, novelist, poet
Maxims for a Modern Man, #1439 (1965)
But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state.
[εἰ γὰρ μὴ αὐτάρκης ἕκαστος χωρισθείς, ὁμοίως τοῖς ἄλλοις μέρεσιν ἕξει πρὸς τὸ ὅλον, ὁ δὲ μὴ δυνάμενος κοινωνεῖν ἢ μηθὲν δεόμενος δι᾿ αὐτάρκειαν οὐθὲν μέρος πόλεως, ὥστε ἢ θηρίον ἢ θεός.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 1, ch. 2, sec. 14 / 1253a.27 [tr. Jowett (1885)]
(Source)
Original Greek. Alternate translations:
- "But the man who has not the capability of association, or requires nothing from outside through his own complete resources, is no part of a state; so that he must be either a brute (below the level of man), or a God (above it)." [tr. Bolland (1877)]
- "He that is incapable of society, or so complete in himself as not to want it, makes no part of a city, as a beast or a god." [tr. Ellis (1912)]
- "A man who is incapable of entering into partnership, or who is so self-sufficing that he has no need to do so, is no part of a state, so that he must be either a lower animal or a god." [tr. Rackham (1932)]
- "One who is incapable of participating or who is in need of nothing through being self-sufficient is no part of a city, and so is either a beast or a god." [tr. Lord (1984)]
- "Anyone who cannot live in a community with others, or who does not need to because of his self-sufficiency, is no part of a city, so that he is either a wild beast or a god." [tr. Reeve (2007)]
- "If each person when separated is not sufficient on his own, just as other parts are to the whole while a person who is incapable of joining commonwealth or does not need any part of a state because of self-sufficiency is either a beast or a god." [tr. @sentantiq (2018)]
Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.
Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
The Guns of August (1962)
On the defense of coastline prior to an outbreak of war.
The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is Ferric Oxide, known as rust.
The grizzly bear, whose potent hug,
Was feared by all, is now a rug.
Great Caesar’s bust is on the shelf,
And I don’t feel so well myself.Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943) American poet, humorist
“On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness”
Full text.
God manifests himself to us in the first degree through the life of the universe, and in the second degree through the thought of man. The second manifestation is not less holy than the first. The first is named Nature, the second is named Art.
[Dieu se manifeste à nous au premier degré à travers la vie de l’univers, et au deuxième degré à travers la pensée de l’homme. La deuxième manifestation n’est pas moins sacrée que la première. La première s’appelle la Nature, la deuxième s’appelle l’Art.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
William Shakespeare, Part 1, Book 2, ch. 1 (1864)
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition. And then admit that we just don’t want to do it.
Stephen Colbert (b. 1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian
“Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat,” The Colbert Report (16 Dec 2010)
Full video.
The love of money is the mother of all evil.
Phocylides (b. c. 560 BC) Greek poet
(Attributed)
See Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10
It is reputed that Mr. Disraeli when he was once asked by a new member whether he advised him to take part often in debate replied: — No, I do not think you ought to do so, because it is much better that the House should wonder why you do not speak than why you do. My advice in this matter is very much the same as that given by Mr. Disraeli; it is much better when a member resumes his seat after he has made a speech for the House to have the feeling that they wish he had gone on longer instead of wondering why he did not stop sooner.
Edward Algernon Fitzroy (1869–1943) British politician
Remarks, House of Commons (25 May 1939)
I have some obsession with how God exists. Is He an essential god or an existential god; is He all-powerful or is He, too, an embattled existential creature who may succeed or fail in His vision?
Norman Mailer (1923-2007) American novelist, journalist, playwright, activist
Interview by Steven Marcus (1963)
In G. Plimpton, ed., Writers at Work: Third Series (1967)
Art has to be a kind of confession. I don’t mean a true confession in the sense of that dreary magazine. The effort it seems to me, is: if you can examine and face your life, you can discover the terms with which you are connected to other lives, and they can discover them, too — the terms with which they are connected to other people.
James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
In Studs Terkel, “An interview with James Baldwin” (1961)
Published in Conversations with James Baldwin (1989)
It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Remarks, Dedication of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building (1 Nov 1977)
Cited in the Congressional Register, vol. 123, p. 37287 (4 Nov 1977)
A man who keeps a diary pays,
Due toll to many tedious days;
But life becomes eventful — then,
His busy hand forgets the pen.
Most books, indeed, are records less
Of fulness than of emptiness.William Allingham (1824–1889) Irish poet, diarist
Diary (1864-03-24/28) [eds. Allingham and Radford (1907)]
Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Luke 14:11
Now I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance — a sharp, vindictive glance.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
“My Senegalese Birds and Siamese Cats,” Holiday Magazine
Reprinted in Lanterns & Lances (1961).
Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last — far off — at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.
So runs my dream; but what am I?
An infant crying in the night;
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“In Memoriam A. H. H.” [Arthur Henry Hallam], part 54, st. 5 (1849)
When religion becomes organzied, man ceases to be free. It is not God that is worshiped but the group or the authority that claims to speak in his name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority and not violation of integrity.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) Indian philosopher, statesman
East and West: Some Reflections, Preface (1955)
(Source)
Variants:
- "It is not God that is worshiped but the authority that claims to speak in His name."
- An expanded version in Religion, Science and Culture, ch. 3 "The World Communities of Ideals" (1965) includes an inserted second sentence: "If we think that it is a question of life or death -- what concept of God we accept -- then our hearts are filled with fury."
My experience in government is that when things are noncontroverial, beautifully coordinated, and all the rest, it must be that not much is going on.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
In A. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 25.3 (1965)
There is no bad whiskey, there are only some whiskies that aren’t as good as others.
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
(Attributed)
Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action to ensure our strength tomorrow.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
State of the Union message (9 Jan 1958)
Religions are kept alive by heresies, which are really sudden explosions of faith. Dead religions do not produce them.
Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) British writer and Hispanist [Edward FitzGerald Brenan]
Thoughts in a Dry Season (1978)
How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Taxation No Tyranny (1775)
On American demands for independence.
The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made.
Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) Russian chess grandmaster
(Attributed)
The significant point is that people unfit for freedom — who cannot do much with it — are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a “have” type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a “have-not” type of self. If Hitler had had the talents and the temperament of a genuine artist, if Stalin had had the capacity to become a first-rate theoretician, if Napoleon had had the makings of a great poet or philosopher they would hardly have developed the all-consuming lust for absolute power.
Freedom gives us a chance to realize our human and individual uniqueness. Absolute power can also bestow uniqueness: to have absolute power is to have the power to reduce all the people around us to puppets, robots, toys, or animals, and be the only man in sight. Absolute power achieves uniqueness by dehumanizing others.To sum up: Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Working and Thinking on the Waterfront, Journal entry (28 March 1959)(1969)
A decision is the action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.
Arthur W. Radford (1896-1973) American naval commander
Time (25 Feb 1957)
The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone: the civilized man, to idols of flesh and blood.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone: the civilized man, to idols of flesh and blood. — Shaw, Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists: Idolatry” (1903)
Our nature abhors a moral and intellectual vacuum. Passion and self-interest may be our chief motives, but we hate to admit the fact even to ourselves. We are not happy unless our acts of passion can be made to look as though they were dictated by reason, unless our self-interest can be explained and embellished so as to seem idealistic.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Writers and Readers,” The Olive Tree and Other Essays (1936)
From these things therefore it is clear that the city-state is a natural growth, and that man is by nature a political animal, and a man that is by nature and not merely by fortune citiless is either low in the scale of humanity or above it, like the “clanless, lawless, hearthless” man reviled by Homer, for one by nature unsocial is also ‘a lover of war’ inasmuch as he is solitary, like an isolated piece at draughts.
[ἐκ τούτων οὖν φανερὸν ὅτι τῶν φύσει ἡ πόλις ἐστί, καὶ ὅτι ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον, καὶ ὁ ἄπολις διὰ φύσιν καὶ οὐ διὰ τύχην ἤτοι φαῦλός ἐστιν, ἢ κρείττων ἢ ἄνθρωπος: ὥσπερ καὶ ὁ ὑφ᾽ Ὁμήρου λοιδορηθεὶς “ἀφρήτωρ ἀθέμιστος ἀνέστιος:” ἅμα γὰρ φύσει τοιοῦτος καὶ πολέμου ἐπιθυμητής, ἅτε περ ἄζυξ ὢν ὥσπερ ἐν πεττοῖς.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 1, ch. 2 / 1253a.2 [tr. Rackham (1932)]
(Source)
See Homer. Original Greek. Alternate translations:From these considerations, therefore, it is clear that the State is one of Nature's productions, and that man is by nature a social animal, and that a man who is without a country through natural taste and not misfortune is certainly degraded (or else a being superior to man), like that man reviled by Homer as clanless, lawless, homeless. For he is naturally of this character and desirous of war, since he has no ties, like an exposed piece in the game of backgammon.
[tr. Bolland (1877)]Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is either a bad man or above humanity; he is like the "tribeless, lawless, hearthless one," whom Homer denounces -- the natural outcast is forthwith a lover of war; he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts.
[tr. Jowett (1885)]Hence it is evident that a city is a natural production, and that man is naturally a political animal, and that whosoever is naturally and not accidentally unfit for society, must be either inferior or superior to man: thus the man in Homer, who is reviled for being "without society, without law, without family." Such a one must naturally be of a quarrelsome disposition, and as solitary as the birds.
[tr. Ellis (1912)]From these things it is evident, then, that the city belongs among the things that exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. He who is without a city through nature rather than chance is either a mean sort or superior to man; he is "without clan, without law, without hearth," like the person reproved by Homer; for the one who is such by nature has by this fact a desire for war, as if he were an isolated piece in a game of backgammon.
[tr. Lord (1984)]
You are right, sir, when you tell me that Les Misérables is written for all nations. I do not know whether it will be read by all, but I wrote it for all. It is addressed to England as well as to Spain, to Italy as well as to France, to Germany as well as to Ireland, to Republics which have slaves as well as to Empires which have serfs. Social problems overstep frontiers. The sores of the human race, those great sores which cover the globe, do not halt at the red or blue lines traced upon the map. In every place where man is ignorant and despairing, in every place where woman is sold for bread, wherever the child suffers for lack of the book which should instruct him and of the hearth which should warm him, the book of Les Misérables knocks at the door and says: “Open to me, I come for you.”
[Vous avez raison, monsieur, quand vous me dites que le livre les Misérables est écrit pour tous les peuples. Je ne sais s’il sera lu par tous, mais je l’ai écrit pour tous. Il s’adresse à l’Angleterre autant qu’à l’Espagne, à l’Italie autant qu’à la France, à l’Allemagne autant qu’à l’Irlande, aux républiques qui ont des esclaves aussi bien qu’aux empires qui ont des serfs. Les problèmes sociaux dépassent les frontières. Les plaies du genre humain, ces larges plaies qui couvrent le globe, ne s’arrêtent point aux lignes bleues ou rouges tracées sur la mappemonde. Partout où l’homme ignore et désespère, partout où la femme se vend pour du pain, partout où l’enfant souffre faute d’un livre qui l’enseigne et d’un foyer qui le réchauffe, le livre les Misérables frappe à la porte et dit: Ouvrez-moi, je viens pour vous.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Letter To M. Daelli on Les Misérables (18 Oct 1862)
Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority’s opinion may inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the view of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk, and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom — this kind of openness — that isthe basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society.
Abraham Fortas (1910-1982) American Supreme Court Justice, professor, lawyer
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 508 (1969) [Majority opinion]
Full text.
Words can become idols, and machines can become idols; leaders, the state, power, and political groups may also serve. Science and the opinion of one’s neighbors can become idols, and God has become an idol for many.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
Psychoanalysis and Religion, ch. 5 (1950)
I believe we shall in some manner to be cherished by our Maker — that the One who gave us this remarkable earth has the power still farther to surprise that which He has caused. Beyond that all is silence.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet
Letter to her cousins (Nov 1882)
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story, to vomit the anguish up.
James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“The Precarious Vogue of Ingmar Bergman,” Esquire (Apr 1960)
Republished as "The Northern Protestant" in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961).
We can’t use a double standard — there’s no room for double standards in American politics — for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantee of those practices in our own country.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia (14 Jul 1948)
No matter under what circumstances you leave it, home does not cease to be home. No matter how you lived there — well or poorly.
Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996) Russian-American poet, essayist, Nobel laureate, US Poet Laureate [Iosif Aleksandrovič Brodskij]
New York Times (1 Oct 1972)
On being expelled from the USSR that year.
We are now again in an epoch of wars of religion, but a religion is now called an “ideology.”
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Philosophy and Politics,” lecture, National Book League, London (1946-10-23)
(Source)
Collected in Unpopular Essays (1950).
Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.
Epicurus (341-270 BC) Greek philosopher
Fragments, 68
“To hell with the handkerchief,” said Walter Mitty scornfully. He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1942)
O, yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.
That not a worm is cloven in vain;
That not a moth with vain desire
Is shriveled in a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another’s gain.Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“In Memoriam A. H. H.” [Arthur Henry Hallam],” Part 54, st. 1-3 (1849)
The greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong. If the Government or majorities think an individual is right, no one will interfere with him; but when agitators talk against the things considered holy, or when radicals criticise, or satirize the political gods, or question the justice of our laws and institutions, or pacifists talk against war, how the old inquisition awakens, and ostracism, the excommunication of the church, the prison, the wheel, the torture-chamber, the mob, are called to suppress the free expression of thought.
Harry Weinberger (1888–1944) American lawyer, civil libertarian
“The First Casualties in War,” Letter to the Editor, The Evening Post, New York City (10 Apr 1917)
By ideology I mean a body of systematic and rigid dogma by which people seek to understand the world — and to preserve or transform it.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
“The One Against the Many,” Paths to American Thought, ed. Schlesinger and Morton White (1963)
If all men were just, there would still be some, though not so much, need of government.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
“Fragments on Government” (1854?)
In Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858, Library of America ed. (1989)
Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production, and in the end not even that, since showmanship on the most frankly commercial level contains an element of incessant striving for perfection, if it be only a perfection of detail.
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler [ed. Frank MacShayne] (1976)
The number of those men who know how to use wholly irresponsible power humanely and generously is small.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. 29 “The Unprotected” (1852)
(Source)
I know that my retirement will make no difference in its cardinal principles, that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.
Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911) Hungarian-American newspaper publisher [b. Politzer József]
Retirement speech (10 Apr 1907)
On the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Since Nov 1911, this has been "The Post-Dispatch Platform" on its editorial page.
Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) Canadian economist, writer and humorist
The Garden of Folly, “The Perfect Salesman” (1924)
I met men who invoked the name of the Prince of Peace in their diatribes against war, and who put rifles in the hands of Pinkertons with which to shoot down strikers at their own factories. I met men incoherent with indignation at the brutality of prizefighting, and who, at the same time, were parties to the adulteration of food that killed each year more babies than even red-handed Herod had killed.
Jack London (1876-1916) American novelist
“What Life Means to Me” (1906)
It’s always better to sacrifice your opponent’s men.
Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) Russian chess grandmaster
(Attributed)
Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation. Unlike those anywhere else, the masses in America have never despaired of the present and are not willing to sacrifice it for a new life and a new world.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“The Negro Revolution,” The Temper of Our Time (1967)
(Source)
Frequently misquoted as "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket."
Originally published in the New York Times Magazine (1964-11-29).
I believe that the public temper is such that the voters of the land are prepared to support the party which gives the best promise of administering the government in the honest, simple, and plain manner which is consistent with its character and purposes. They have learned that mystery and concealment in the management of their affairs cover tricks and betrayal. The statesmanship they require consists in honesty and frugality, a prompt response to the needs of the people as they arise, and a vigilant protection of all their varied interests.
Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) American President (1885–1889, 1893–1897)
Letter accepting Democratic nomination for President (8 Aug 1884)
(Source)
Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Sane Society, 3.C (1955)
From the saintly and single-minded idealist to the fanatic is often but a step.
Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992) Austrian-born economist and philosopher
The Road to Serfdom, ch. 4 (1944)
Their mistakes are always due to lack of moderation and taking things too far, contrary to Chilon’s saying. That is, they do everything to excess: they love excessively, they hate excessively, and so on and so forth.
καὶ ἅπαντα ἐπὶ τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ σφοδρότερον ἁμαρτάνουσι, παρὰ τὸ Χιλώνειον （πάντα γὰρ ἄγαν πράττουσιν: φιλοῦσι γὰρ ἄγαν καὶ μισοῦσιν ἄγαν καὶ τἆλλα πάντα ὁμοίως）, καὶ εἰδέναι ἅπαντα οἴονται καὶ διισχυρίζονται （τοῦτο γὰρ αἴτιόν ἐστιν καὶ τοῦ πάντα ἄγαν）
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Rhetoric [Ῥητορική; Ars Rhetorica], Book 2, ch. 12, sec. 14 (2.12.14) / 1389b (350 BC) [tr. Waterfield (2018)]
(Source)
Speaking of youth.
Chilon was one of "the Seven Wise Men" of Greece. His maxim was "Μηδὲν ἄγαν" ["Never go to extremes."] (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 1.41)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:
- "And all their errors are on the side of excess, and too much zeal, contrary to Chilo's rule; for they carry every thing too far. For they are extreme in their friendships, and in their hates, and in all other their actions are similarly excessive." [Source (1847)]
- "And all their errors are on the side of excess and too great earnestness, in contravention of Chilo's rule; for the young carry everything to an excess; for their friendships are in excess, their hatreds are in excess, and they do everything else with the same degree of earnestness." [tr. Buckley (1850)]
- "All their mistakes are on the side of excess or vehemence -- against the maxim of Chilon; they do everything too much; they loe to much, hate too much, and so in all else." [tr. Jebb (1873)]
- "All their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They disobey Chilon's precept by overdoing everything, they love too much and hate too much, and the same thing with everything else." [tr. Roberts (1924)]
- "All their errors are due to excess and vehemence and their neglect of the maxim of Chilon, for they do everything to excess, love, hate, and everything else." [tr. Freese (1926)]
- "And quite all the mistakes they make tend in the direction of excess and vehemence, in violation of the saying of Chilon, for they do all things excessively: they feel friendly affection to excess and hatred to excess, and all else similarly." [tr. Bartlett (2019)]
To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.
[Mettre tout en équilibre, c’est bien; mettre tout en harmonie, c’est mieux.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Quatre-vingt-treize [Ninety-Three], Book 7, ch. 5 (1874)
Admitting Error clears the Score
And proves you Wiser than before.Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943) American poet, humorist
“Of Apology,” A Poet’s Proverbs (1924)
The consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.
David Ogilvy (1911–1999) British advertising executive
Confessions of an Advertising Man (1971)
I have become disconsolate. In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things to go on. My non-violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at teh end of the daily quarrel that neither God nor non-violence is impotent. Impotence is in men. I must try on without losing faith even though I break in the attempt.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Press statement (5 Sep 1939)
On the impending war in Europe.
I conceive of God, in fact, as a means of liberation and not a means to control others.
James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“In Search of a Majority,” Speech, Kalamazoo College (Feb 1960)
To those who say — My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say — To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia (14 Jul 1948)
There are people that, if they don’t know, you can’t tell ’em.
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (1900-1971) American musician
(Attributed)
With what reason canst thou expect that they children should follow thy good instructions, when thou thyself givest them an ill example? Thou dost but as it were beckon to them with they head, and shew them the way to heaven by thy good counsel, but thou takest them by the hand and leadest them in the way to hell by thy contrary example.
John Tillotson (1630-1694) English prelate, Archbishop of Canterbury
Sermon 62 “On the Education of Children”
Collected in The works of Dr. John Tillotson, Vol 3, ed. Thomas Birch (1820). Full text.
More commonly quoted in the paraphrase/modernization by John Charles Ryle, Bp. of Liverpool (1880-1900): "To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but a beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell."
For there is nothing so characteristic of narrowness and littleness of soul as the love of riches.
[Nihil enim est tam angusti animi tamque parvi quam amare divitias.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Officiis [On Duties; On Moral Duty; The Offices], Book 1, ch. 20 (1.20) / sec. 68 (44 BC) [tr. Miller (1913)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:For nothing is a greater sign of a narrow, mean, and sordid spirit, than to dote on riches.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]For there is not a greater symptom of a narrow and little mind, than the love of wealth.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]For nothing so truly characterizes a narrow, grovelling disposition as to love riches.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]For nothing shows so narrow and small a mind as the love of riches.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]Shun the love of money, for there is no surer sign of a narrow, grovelling spirit.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]Nothing is as good an index of a narrow and trivial spirit as the love of wealth.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]
Love is blind, but desire just doesn’t give a good goddam.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
“The Clothes Moth and the Luna Moth”, The New Yorker (19 May 1956)
My doom is, I love thee still.
Let no man dream but that I love thee still.Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
Idylls of the King, “Guinevere” (1859-1885)
Full text.
The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye. We are active; and indeed we know, as something more than a symbolic accident in the evolution of man, that it is the hand that drives the subsequent evolution of the brain. We find tools today made by man before he became man. Benjamin Franklin in 1778 called man “a tool-making animal,” and that is right.
Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) Polish-English humanist and mathematician
The Ascent of Man, ch. 3 (1973)
Ideologies are administered by bureaucracies that control their meaning. They develop systems, they decide what is right- and what is wrong-thinking, who is faithful and who is a heretic; in short, the manipulation of ideologies becomes one of the most important means for the control of people through the control of their thoughts.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
May Man Prevail?, ch. 4 (1961)
Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Message to Congress (4 Jul 1861)
From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist
The High Window (1942)
Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. 28 “Reunion” (1852)
(Source)
ROBIN: Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed.
BATMAN: Roger. Ready to move out.Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (1922-2014) American screenwriter
Batman (movie) (1966)
As Batman and Robin prepare to leave the Batcave in the Batmobile.
Flattery is so necessary to all of us that we flatter one another just to be flattered in return.
Marjorie Bowen (1885-1952) British writer [pseud. of Mrs Gabrielle Margaret V[ere] Long née Campbell; a/k/a Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye, Margaret Campbell]
“The Art of Flattery,” World’s Wonder and Other Essays (1938)
I wouldn’t give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity; I would give my right arm for the simplicity on the far side of complexity.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
(Attributed)
But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.
[Mais la raison est toujours mesquine auprès du sentiment; l’une est naturellement bornée, comme tout ce qui est positif, et l’autre est infini.]
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) French novelist, playwright
A Woman of Thirty [La Femme de trente ans], ch. 3 “At Thirty Years” (1842) [tr. Marriage]
