Shy and unready men are great betrayers of secrets; for there are few wants more urgent for the moment than the want of something to say.
Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
The Statesman: An Ironical Treatise on the Art of Succeeding, ch. 18 (1836)
Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
“A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” letter to the Virginia Assembly (20 Jun 1785)
On a proposed law to have the state financially support "Teachers of the Christian Religion."Full text.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
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 Majus, Pt 4, ch. 1 (c. 1270 (pub. 1733))
The world looks with some awe upon a man who appears unconcernedly indifferent to home, money, comfort, rank, or even power and fame. The world feels not without a certain apprehension, that here is some one outside its jurisdiction; someone before whom its allurements may be spread in vain; some one strangely enfranchised, untamed, untrammelled by convention, moving independent of the ordinary currents of human action.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, Oxford High School for Boys (3 Oct 1936)
At the unveiling of a monument to T. E. Lawrence.
You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) American political activist
In Benny Avni, “An Interview with Abbie Hoffman” (1986), Tikkun (Jul-Aug 1989)
(Source)
Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?
I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds.
Open your doors and look abroad.
From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before.
In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across a hundred years.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]
The Gardener, #85 (1915)
(Source)
You saw his weakness; that he’ll never forgive.
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) German poet, playwright, critic [Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller]
William Tell, 3.1 (1804) [tr. Martin (1894)]
So soon as a fashion is universal, it is out of date.
[Sobald eine Mode allgemein geworden ist, hat sie sich überlebt.]
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 280 (1880) [tr. Wister (1883)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:As soon as fashion has caught on, it has outlived itself.
[tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]
I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Atheism,” Essays, No. 16 (1625)
(Source)
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, sec. 75 (1951)
Vice is detestable; I banish all its appearances from my coteries; and I would banish its reality, too, were I sure I should then have any thing but empty chairs in my drawing-room.
Frances Burney (1752-1840) English novelist, diarist, playwright [Fanny Burney, Madame d’Arblay]
Camilla, Book 5, ch. 6 (1796)
No man is crushed by hostile Fortune who is not first deceived by her smiles.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On Consolation to Helvia,” 5.5 [tr. Basore (1932)]
Strive to be patient; bear with the faults and frailties of others, for you, too, have many faults which others have to bear. If you cannot mould yourself as you would wish, how can you expect other people to be entirely to your liking?
[Stude patiens esse in tolerando aliorum defectus, et qualescumque infirmitates, quia et tu multa habes, quæ ab aliis oportet tolerari. Si non potes te talem facere qualem vis, quomodo poteris alium habere ad beneplacitum tuum?]
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471) German-Dutch priest, author
The Imitation of Christ [De Imitatione Christi], Book 1, ch. 16, v. 2 (1.16.2) (c. 1418-27) [tr. Sherley-Price (1952)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Study always that thou mayest be patient in suffering of other men’s defaults, for thou hast many things in thee that others do suffer of thee: and if thou canst not make thyself to be as thou wouldst, how mayest thou then look to have another to be ordered in all things after thy will?
[tr. Whitford/Raynal (1530/1871)]Study always to be patient in bearing other men's defects, for you have many in yourself that others suffer from you, and if you cannot make yourself be as you would, how may you then look to have another regulated in all things to suit your will?
[tr. Whitford/Gardiner (1530/1955)]Endeavour thy selfe patiently to bear with any faults and infirmities of others, for that thou thy selfe hast many things that must be borne withall by others. If thou canst not make thy selfe such a one as thou wouldst be, how canst thou expect to have another to thy liking in all things?
[tr. Page (1639), 1.16.6-7]Remember, that You also have many Failings of your own, by which the Patience of other People will have its turn of being exercised. And if you do (as certainly you cannot but) see this, think how unreasonable it is, to expect you should make others in all particulars, what you would have them to be; when you cannot so much as make your self, what you are sensible you ought to be.
[tr. Stanhope (1696; 1706 ed.)]Endeavor, to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others; for thou haft many faults and imperfections of thy own, that require a reciprocation of forbearance. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou wishest to be, how canst thou expect to mould another in conformity to thy will?
[tr. Payne (1803), 1.16.3]Endeavour to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, of what sort soever they be; for that thyself also hast many [failings] which must be borne with by others. If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldest, how canst thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking?
[ed. Parker (1841)]Endeavour to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others, whatever they may be; for thou hast many faults and imperfection of thy own, that require forbearance from others. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou wishest to be, how canst thou expect to mould another in conformity to thy will?
[tr. Dibdin (1851)]Endeavour to be patient in bearing with defects and infirmities in others, of what kind soever; because thou also hast many things which others must bear with. If thou canst not make thyself such as thou wouldst, how canst thou expect to have another according to thy liking?
[ed. Bagster (1860)]Endeavour to be patient in bearing with other men’s faults and infirmities whatsoever they be, for thou thyself also hast many things which have need to be borne with by others. If thou canst not make thine own self what thou desireth, how shalt thou be able to fashion another to thine own liking.
[tr. Benham (1874)]Endeavour to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, of what sort soever they be; for that thyself also hast many failings which must be borne with by others. If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldst, how canst thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking?
[tr. Anon. (1901)]Try to bear patiently with the defects and infirmities of others, whatever they may be, because you also have many a fault which others must endure. If you cannot make yourself what you would wish to be, how can you bend others to your will?
[tr. Croft/Bolton (1940)]Try to be patient in bearing with others’ failings and all kinds of weaknesses, for you too have many which must be put up with by others. If you cannot mould yourself exactly as you would, how can you get another to be satisfying to you?
[tr. Daplyn (1952)]Yes, you do well to cultivate patience in putting up with the shortcomings, the various disabilities of other people; only think how much they have to put up with in you! When you make such a failure of organizing your own life, how can you expect everybody else to come up to your own standards?
[tr. Knox-Oakley (1959)]Try to be patient in bearing with the failings and weaknesses of other people, whatever they may be. You too have many faults, which others have to endure. If you cannot make yourself the kind of person you wish, how can you expect to have someone else to your liking?
[tr. Knott (1962)]Seek always to be tolerant of the shortcomings and failings of others. They also have much to tolerate in you. If you are unable to mould yourself as you wish, how can you expect others to conform to your liking?
[tr. Rooney (1979)]Take pains to be patient in bearing all the faults and weaknesses of others, for you too have many flaws that others must put up with. If you cannot make yourself as you would like to be, how can you expect to have another person entirely to your liking?
[tr. Creasy (1989)]
My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.
Tom Stoppard (b. 1937) Czech-English playwright and screenwriter
Lord Malquist and Mr Moon, ch. 2 “A Couple of Deaths and Exits” (1966)
Thou knowest the errors of unripened age,
Weak are its counsels, headlong is its rage.[οἶσθ᾽ οἷαι νέου ἀνδρὸς ὑπερβασίαι τελέθουσι:
κραιπνότερος μὲν γάρ τε νόος, λεπτὴ δέ τε μῆτις.]Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 23, l. 589ff (23.589-590) [Antilochus to Menelaus] (c. 750 BC) [tr. Pope (1715-20)]
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:You, more in age
And more in excellence, know well, the outrays that engage
All young men’s actions; sharper wits, but duller wisdoms, still
From us flow than from you.
[tr. Chapman (1611), l. 505ff]Thou know’st how rash is youth, and how propense
To pass the bounds by decency prescribed,
Quick, but not wise.
[tr. Cowper (1791), l. 729ff]Thou knowest of what sort are the errors of a youth; for his mind is indeed more volatile, and his counsel weak.
[tr. Buckley (1860)]Thou know’st the o’er-eager vehemence of youth,
How quick in temper, and in judgement weak.
[tr. Derby (1864)]Thou dost know
The faults to which the young are ever prone;
The will is quick to act, the judgment weak.
[tr. Bryant (1870)]Thou knowest how a young man's transgressions come about, for his mind is hastier and his counsel shallow.
[tr. Leaf/Lang/Myers (1891)]You know how easily young men are betrayed into indiscretion; their tempers are more hasty and they have less judgement.
[tr. Butler (1898)]Thou knowest of what sort are the transgressions of a man that he is young, for hasty is he of purpose and but slender is his wit.
[tr. Murray (1924), l. 589-90]It is easy for a youngster to go wrong from hastiness and lack of thought.
[tr. Graves, The Anger of Achilles (1959)]You know a young man may go out of bounds:
his wits are nimble, but his judgment slight.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1974)]Well you know how the whims of youth break all the rules.
Our wits quicker than wind, our judgment just as flighty.
[tr. Fagles (1990)]
There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk “his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor” on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are merely overgrown children, can never be anything else.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Stranger in a Strange Land, “His Maculate Origin,” ch. 8 (1991 ed.)
See Jefferson.
ANDREA: Unhappy the land that has no heroes! …
GALILEO: No, Unhappy the land that needs heroes.[ANDREA: Unglücklich das Land, das keine Helden hat! …
GALILEO: Nein, Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat.]Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
Life of Galileo [Leben des Galilei], sc. 13 (1939)
Alternate translation:
ANDREA: Unhappy the land that breeds no heroes.
GALILEO: No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.
[tr. Laughton (1961); cited as sc. 12]
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (13 May 1940)
(Source)
Churchill's first speech in the House after becoming prime minister. Often paraphrased, "I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears..." Audio records of the speech omit the "It is" in the beginning of the "Victory" section.
I hope your rambles have been sweet and your reveries spacious.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet
Letter to Dr. & Mrs. J.G. Holland (Autumn 1876)
Full text.
The day of fortune is like a harvest day,
We must be busy when the corn is ripe.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Torquato Tasso, 4.4 (1790)
Be neither too early in the Fashion, nor too long out of it, nor at any time too precisely in it.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 498 (1725)
(Source)
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Death,” Essays, No. 2 (1625)
(Source)
The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American’s hatred for a fellow American (for Hoover or Roosevelt) is far more virulent than any antipathy he can work up against foreigners. […] Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 73 (1951)
(Source)
Complaint against fortune is often a mask’d apology for indolence.
Fulke Greville (1554-1628) 1st Baron Brooke; Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman
Maxims, Characters, and Reflections (1756)
To understand is not only to pardon, but in the end to love.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Morals, 15.3 (1929)
Most fools think they are only ignorant.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Oct 1748)
All the inducements of early society tend to foster immediate action; all its penalties fall on the man who pauses; the traditional wisdom of those times was never weary of inculcating that “delays are dangerous,” and that the sluggish man — the man “who roasteth not that which he took in hunting” — will not prosper on the earth, and indeed will very soon perish out of it. And in consequence an inability to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
Physics and Politics, ch. 5 “The Age of Discussion” (1869)
Full text.
Goe not for every griefe to the Physitian, nor for every quarrell to the Lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 290 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Elsie Venner, ch. 2 (1891)
(Source)
Often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Shy and proud men … are more liable than any others to fall into the hands of parasites and creatures of low character. For in the intimacies which are formed by shy men, they do not choose, but are chosen.
Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
The Statesman: An Ironical Treatise on the Art of Succeeding, ch. 4 (1836)
For it seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.
[Nam mihi lex esse non videtur, quae justa non fuerit.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On Free Choice of the Will [De Libero Arbitrio Voluntatis], Book 1, ch. 4, sec. 11 / 33 (1.4.11.22) (AD 388) [tr Williams (1993)]
(Source)
More discussion about this and parallel quotations from other notables: An unjust law is no law at all - Wikipedia.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:A law which is not just does not seem to me to be a law.
[tr. Mark Pontifex (1955)]For I think that a law that is not just is not a law.
[tr. Benjamin/Hackstaff (1964)]For I think a law that is not just, is not actually a law.
[E.g.]
The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well-meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting usurpers, that without a legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political prosperity.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Letter to F.L. Schaeffer (3 Dec 1821)
Some people’s faults are becoming, other people’s virtues prove drawbacks.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #442 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
There is none so blind as they that won’t see.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation, Dialogue 3 (1738)
I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) [Dissent]
BERNARD. It’s one of those irregular verbs, isn’t it: I have an independent mind, you are eccentric, he is round the twist.
Jonathan Lynn (b. 1943) English actor, comedy writer, director
Yes, Prime Minister, S1E7 “The Bishop’s Gambit” (1986) [with Antony Jay]
The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they’re too damn greedy.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
(Attibuted)
Remark to columnist Mark Sullivan (c. 1929). Spencer Howard, an archivist at the Hoover Presidential Library, says Sullivan's son recalled Hoover saying this to his father at least once in the early 1930s.
The mischief of flattery is not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honor may be gained without the toil of merit.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #155 (10 Sep 1751)
(Source)
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent, or arrogant Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations — all take their seats at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war. Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 18 “With Buller to the Cape” (1930)
Let this be my last word, that I trust in thy love.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]
Stray Birds (1916)
Full text.
Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) Greek writer and philosopher
The Saviors of God [Salvatores Dei], “The March: First Step” (1923) [tr. Friar [1960])
It’s a delightful thing to think of perfection; but it’s vastly more amusing to talk of errors and absurdities.
Frances Burney (1752-1840) English novelist, diarist, playwright [Fanny Burney, Madame d’Arblay]
Camilla, Book 3, ch. 12 (1796)
What is called fashion is the tradition of the moment.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe, 392 [tr. Saunders (1892)]
Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.
[Audacter calumniare, semper aliquid haeret.]
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning] (1605)
Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, Sec. 69 (1951)
Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence … Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation …
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
(Source)
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) American lyrical poet
“There Will Come Soft Rains,” Flame and Shadow (1920)
He must be a thorough fool, who can learn nothing from his own folly.
Julius Hare (1795-1855) English cleric, theologian
Guesses at Truth: First Series (1827) [with A.W. Hare]
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
Physics and Politics, ch. 5 “The Age of Discussion” (1869)
Full text.
Hell is full of good meanings and wishings.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 170 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
It’s the strange thing about this church: it is obsessed with sex, absolutely obsessed. Now they will say, we with our permissive society and our rude jokes are obsessed — no, we have a healthy attitude: we like it, it’s fun, it’s jolly. Because it’s a primary impulse, it can be dangerous and dark and difficult. It’s a bit like food in that respect, only even more exciting. The only people who are obsessed with food are anorexics and the morbidly obese, and that in erotic terms is the Catholic church in a nutshell.
Stephen Fry (b. 1957) British actor, writer, comedian
The Intelligence Squared Debate, BBC World (7 Nov 2009)
Full video.
We try to make virtues out of the faults we have no wish to correct.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #251 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
That is as well said as if I had said it myself.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation, Dialogue 2 (1738)
Deep-seated preferences cannot be argued about — you cannot argue a man into liking a glass of beer — and therefore, when differences are sufficiently far reaching, we try to kill the other man rather than let him have his way. But that is perfectly consistent with admitting that, so far as appears, his grounds are just as good as ours.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Natural Law,” Collected Legal Papers (1921)
VENKMAN: This city is headed for a disaster of Biblical proportions.
MAYOR: What do you mean, “Biblical”?
RAY: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling!
EGON: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes …
WINSTON: The dead rising from the grave!
VENKMAN: Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
Our century is probably more religious than any other. How could it fail to be, with such problems to be solved? The only trouble is that it has not yet found a God it can adore.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) French Jesuit priest, paleontologist, philosopher
Le Phénomène Humain [The Phenomenon of Man] (1955)
A Degree of Fear sharpeneth, the Excess of it stupifieth.
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“Fear,” Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750)
(Source)
Congress should not establish a religion and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Annals of Congress (15 Aug 1789)
You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
(Attributed)
At first you can stand the spotlight in your eyes. Then it blinds you. Others can see you, but you cannot see them.
Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) American aviator and author
Interview, New York Times (1932)
Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
(Attributed)
Quoted in the New York Times (17 Oct 1964)
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 9 “Education at Bangalore” (1930)
If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]
Stray Birds (1916)
Full text.
The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Polite Conversation, Dialog 2 (1738)
Borrowed / popularized from William Bullein, Government of Health, folio 50 (1558): "The first was called doctor diet, the seconde doctor quiet, the thirde doctor merry-man." (1558)
I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains — but if I have no love, I am nothing.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
1 Corinthians 13:2 [GNT (1976)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
[KJV (1611)]If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all.
[JB (1966)]And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains -- if I am without love, I am nothing.
[NJB (1985)]If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but I don’t have love, I’m nothing.
[CEB (2011)]And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society. The frustrated, oppressed by their shortcomings, blame their failure on existing restraints. Actually, their innermost desire is for an end to the “free for all.” They want to eliminate free competition and the ruthless testing to which the individual is continually subjected in a free society.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part II, sec. 28 (1951)
I make the most of all that comes,
And the least of all that goes.Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) American lyrical poet
“The Philosopher,” st. 4
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Strength to Love, ch. 4 “Love in Action,” sec 3 (1963)
(Source)
A fellow who is always declaring he’s no fool usually has his suspicions.
Wilson Mizner (1876-1933) American screenwriter and wit
(Attributed)
Where the drink goes in, there the wit goes out.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 187 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step. What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing (as upon a former occasion I phrased it) a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
Physics and Politics, ch. 2 “The Use of Conflict” (1869)Full text.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, be of good cheer.
For they are out there, and we are in here.(Other Authors and Sources)
Motto of the Playboy Mansion
Originated by Robert Culp (1930-2010), per H. Hefner.
I am unalterably opposed to communism because it exalts the state over the individual and the family, and because of the lack of freedom of speech, of protest, of religion, and of the press, which is the characteristic of totalitarian states. The way of opposition to communism is not to imitate its dictatorship, but to enlarge individual freedom, in our own countries and all over the globe. There are those in every land who would label as Communist every threat to their privilege. But as I have seen on my travels in all sections of the world, reform is not communism. And the denial of freedom, in whatever name, only strengthens the very communism it claims to oppose.
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
(Source)
For it is the characteristic of folly, to have eyes for the faults of others, and blindness for its own.
[Est enim proprium stultitiae aliorum vitia cernere, oblivisci suorum.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 3, ch. 30 (3.30) / sec. 73 (45 BC) [tr. Otis (1839)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:For it is the property of Folly, to look upon other mens Failings, and to forget their own.
[tr. Wase (1643)]For it is the peculiar characteristic of folly to discover the vices of others, forgetting its own.
[tr. Main (1824)]For it is the peculiar characteristic of folly to perceive the vices of others, but to forget its own.
[tr. Yonge (1853)]It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.
[Source (1882)]It is the property of folly to see the faults of others, to forget its own.
[tr. Peabody (1886)]This is just how foolish people behave: they observe the faults of others and forget their own.
[tr. Graver (2002)]It is a trait of fools to perceive the faults of others but not their own.
And he gave it for his opinion, that whosoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Gulliver’s Travels, ch. 6 “Voyage to Brobdingnag” (1726)
Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Brown v. United States, 256 U.S. 335, 343 (1921)
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) French Jesuit priest, paleontologist, philosopher
(Misattributed)
Sometimes paraphrased: "We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey."
Not actually found in Teilhard's works. Sometimes cited to Le Phénomène Humain [The Phenomenon of Man] (1955) [tr. Wall (1959)], but it is not present there.
The best credit seems to be to Wayne Dyer. Also sometimes cited to Stephen Covey, who used the phrase but credited it to Teilhard (without citation). For more discussion, see You Are Not a Human Being Having a Spiritual Experience. You Are a Spiritual Being Having a Human Experience – Quote Investigator.
Fear: A club used by priests, presidents, kings and policemen to keep the people from recovering stolen goods.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Roycroft Dictionary (1914)
(Source)
Singing is loving.
[Cantare Amantis est]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
(Attributed)
Alt. trans.:
- "Singing is characteristic of a loving person."
- "Singing is what the lover does."
- "Singing belongs to one who loves."
Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Letter to Edward Livingston (10 Jul 1822)
DEATH: When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I’ll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 3. Dream Country, # 20 “Façade” (1990)
(Source)
There is nothing upon the face of the earth so insipid as a medium. Give me love or hate! A friend that will go to jail for me, or an enemy that will run me through the body!
Frances Burney (1752-1840) English novelist, diarist, playwright [Fanny Burney, Madame d’Arblay]
Camilla, Book 3, ch. 12 (1796)
Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Speech, Republican National Convention, Chicago (27 Jun 1944)
The mode of flattery … best adapted to the purposes of a statesman is the flattery of listening.
Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
The Statesman: An Ironical Treatise on the Art of Succeeding, ch. 31 (1836)
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and the glory of the climb.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
“Painting as a Pastime,” The Strand Magazine (Dec 1921/Jan 1922)
Knowledge is partial, because our intellect is an instrument, it is only a part of us, it can give us information about things which can be divided and analysed, and whose properties can be classified part by part. But Brahma is perfect, and knowledge which is partial can never be a knowledge of him.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]
Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life (1916)
We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don’t, it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions.
Jessamyn West (1902-1984) American writer, Quaker
The Quaker Reader, Introduction (1962)
MAL: It’s my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sumbitch or another.
Ben Edlund (b. 1968) American cartoonist, writer, producer
Firefly, 1×07 “Jaynestown” (18 Oct 2002)
Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that neither the state nor nation shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistical dogmas. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) American military leader, US President (1869-77)
Speech to veterans of the Army of Tennessee (30 Sep 1875)
Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Book 6, ch. 3, Antitheses #6 “Riches” (1605)
(Source)
There is all the difference in the world between departure from recognized rules by one who has learned to obey them, and neglect of them through want of training or want of skill or want of understanding. Before you can be eccentric, you must know where the circle is.
Ellen Terry (1848-1928) English stage actress
Ellen Terry’s Memoirs, 2nd ed., ch. 5 (1932)
National budgets are a nation’s theology walking.
Joan D. Chittister (b. 1936) American Benedictine nun, author and lecturer
“From Where I Stand,” column, National Catholic Reporter (17 Feb 2005)
(Source)
The wisest thing to do with a fool is to encourage him to hire a hall and discourse to his fellow citizens. Nothing chills nonsense like exposure to the air.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) US President (1913-20), educator, political scientist
Constitutional Government in the United States, ch. 2 (1908)
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what other people say you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
“Shakespeare — The Man,” Prospective Review (Jul 1853)
Full text.
Good words are worth much, and cost little.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 155 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
For me, to be a feminist is to answer the question: “Are women human?” with a yes. It is not about whether women are better than, worse than, or identical with men. It’s certainly not about trading personal liberty — abortion, divorce, sexual self-expression — for social protection as wives and mothers, as pro-life feminists propose. It’s about justice, fairness and access to the broad range of human experience. It’s about women consulting their own well-being and being judged as individuals rather than as members of a class with one personality, one social function, one road to happiness. It’s about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, “the family,” men.
Katha Pollitt (b. 1949) American poet, feminist, essayist, critic
Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, Introduction (1994)
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterward.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
Physics and Politics, Part 2, ch. 3 (1872)
I am very imperfect. Before you are gone you will have discovered a hundred of my faults, and if you don’t, I will help you to see them.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Remark (1942)
To Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, ch. 38 (1950)
Ubi saeva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit
[Where savage indignation can lacerate his heart no more.]
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Epitaph
Inscribed on his grave, St. Patrick's, Dublin.