Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Lecture (1867), “Eloquence,” Chicago
(Source)
Collected in Letters and Social Aims (1876).
What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.
Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, ch. 2
The profession of book-writing makes horse-racing seem like a solid, stable business.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, Preface (1976)
Steinbeck often used this phrase; it's first quoted in Newsweek (24 Dec 1962)
If others could only see us as we think we are.
Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist
Abe Martin’s Back Country Sayings (1917)
The salvation of America and of the human race depends on the next Election, if we believe the newspapers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1848-10)
Pray for thy Enemy, for if thou beest a good Man thyself, thou canst not but rejoice to see thy worst Enemy become a good Man, too.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 878 (1725)
(Source)
Here’s the way I look at it. President Bush has uranium-tipped bunker busters and I have puns. I think he’ll be okay.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Interview, Rolling Stone (2006-10-31)
(Source)
On political satire.
Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
The Roving Mind (1983)
It is of great advantage that man should know his station, and not erroneously imagine that the whole Universe exists only for him.
Maimonides (1135-1204) Spanish Jewish philosopher, scholar, astronomer, physician [Moses ben Maimon, Rambam, רמב״ם]
The Guide for the Perplexed, 3.12 (AD 1190) [tr. M Friedlander (1904)]
How rare, men with the character to praise
a friend’s success without a trace of envy.Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, l. 818 [tr. R. Fagles (1975)]
Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its essence, to accommodate it to the prejudices of the world.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On the Causes of Methodism,” The Round Table (1817)
Never a possession, always the possessor, with skin as pale as smoke, and eyes tawny and sharp as yellow wine: Desire is everything you have ever wanted. Whoever you are. Whatever you are.
Everything.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 4. Season of Mists, # 21 “A Prologue” (1990-11)
(Source)
The greater the tension, the greater is the potential. Great energy springs from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon,” introduction (1942), Alchemical Studies [tr. R. Hull (1967)]
We are all children of one and the same God and, therefore, absolutely equal.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (2 Feb 1934)
The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Training of Reason” (1918)
In A. C. Benson (ed.), Cambridge Essays on Education (1918)
Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-10-08), “The Area of Freedom,” University of Wisconsin, Madison
(Source)
This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. I would not have believed it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.
Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Fer-de-Lance, ch. 1 [Wolfe] (1934)
He that will have the Kernel, must crack the Shell.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #2348 (1732)
(Source)
I suppose if you had to choose just one quality to have that would be it: vitality.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
In A. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days, 25.2 (1965)
The real existence of an enemy upon whom one can foist off everything evil is an enormous relief to one’s conscience. You can then at least say, without hesitation, who the devil is; you are quite certain that the cause of your misfortune is outside, and not your own attitude.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“General Aspects of Dream Psychology” (1916) [tr. R. Hull (1960)]
Whatever barriers we put up are gone. Even if it’s just momentary. We are judging people by not the color of their skin, but the content of their character. You know, all this talk about “These guys are criminal masterminds. They’ve gotten together and their extraordinary guile and their wit and their skill …” It’s, it’s — it’s a lie. Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters and these policemen and people from all over the country, literally with buckets, rebuilding … that’s extraordinary. And that’s why we have already won … they can’t … it’s light. It’s democracy. They can’t shut that down.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
The Daily Show (2001-09-20)
(Source)
Monologue on "September 11, 2001."
Don’t you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don’t you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out “Don’t you believe in anything?”
“Yes,” I said. “I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
The Roving Mind (1983)
The glorious and the decent way of dying
Is for one’s country. Run, and death will seize
You no less surely. The young coward, flying,
Gets his quietus in the back and knees.
[Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidoque tergo.]Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 3, # 2, l. 13ff (3.2.13-16) (23 BC) [tr. Michie (1963)]
(Source)
The first line is often translated as "It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country." While dulce et decorum is often in the modern era (World War I and beyond) dismissed as murderous, meaningless brainwashing, the rest of the quatrain clarifies that death comes to the courageous and cowardly alike; that dishonorable flight does not ensure safety.
Though it's worth noting that Horace wrote of abandoning his shield and fleeing at the Battle of Philippi.
The ode as a whole is about training young Roman men in discipline and courage.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:It is a sweet, and noble gain,
In Countreys quarrel to be slain.
Death the swift flying man pursues
With ready steps: Nor doth he use
To spare from unavoided wrack,
Youths supple hams, or fearful back.
[tr. Sir T. H.; ed. Brome (1666)]He nobly Bleeds, he bravely Dies,
That falls his Countries Sacrifice;
The flying Youth swift Fate o're takes
It strikes them thro the trembling backs,
And runs too fast for nimble Cowardice.
[tr. Creech (1684)]What joy, for fatherland to die!
Death's darts e'en flying feet o'ertake,
Nor spare a recreant chivalry,
A back that cowers, or loins that quake.
[tr. Conington (1872)]It is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country; death even pursues the man that flies from him; nor does he spare the trembling knees of effeminate youth, nor the coward back.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]For our dear native land to die
Is glorious and sweet;
And death the coward slaves that fly
Pursues with steps as fleet.
Nor spares the loins and backs of those
Unwarlike youths, who shun their foes.
[tr. Martin (1864)]Glorious and sweet it is to die for the dear native land;
Even him who runs away from Death, Death follows fast behind --
Death does not spare the recreant back,
And hamstrings limbs that flee.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country. Death also pursues the runaway, and spares not the legs and trembling back of the unwarlike youth.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]'T is sweet for native land to die,
'T is noble: Death takes them that fly:
For coward back it has no ruth,
Nor spares the flight of dastard youth.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]'Tis sweet and noble -- Death for one's country's sake --
Death overtakes the cowardly fugitive.
Nor spares his flying limbs, and timid
Back, as he runs from the foe dishonour'd.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]'Tis sweet and honourable to die for fatherland.
Death follows even the man who flees.
And of unwarlike youth
Spares not the loins and recreant back.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]Good 'tis and fine, for fatherland to die!
Death tracks him too who shirks; nor will He fail
To smite the coward loins that quail,
The coward limbs that fly!
[tr. Marshall (1908)]'Tis sweet and glorious to die for fatherland. Yet Death o’ertakes not less the runaway, nor spares the limbs and coward backs of faint-hearted youths.
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]To die for Homeland is a sweet
And gracious thing; on flying feet
Death presses hard, nor spares to smite
Poltroons' weak knees and backs affright.
[tr. Mills (1924)]How good, how noble to die for your country.
Death chases those who run from him,
And catches them, sand never spares a coward
Or a womanish boy.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]Sweet and proper it is to die for your country,
But Death would just as soon come after him
Who runs away; Death gets him by the backs
Of his fleeing knees and jumps him from behind.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]Sweet and noble is it to die for one’s country, yet Death pursues even the man who flees, nor does he spare the languid loins and cowardly backs of pusillanimous youth.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]It’s sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.
Yet death chases after the soldier who runs,
and it won’t spare the cowardly back
or the limbs, of peace-loving young men.
[tr. Kline (2015)]It is sweet and proper to die for your country:
Death, too, pursues the runaway man
And does not spare the knees of a peaceful youth
nor a fearful back.
[tr. Wikisource (2021)]
We cannot evade life’s course, but we can school ourselves to be superior to fortune and also to look unflinchingly upon the most painful things.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]
To persevere, trusting in what hopes he has,
Is courage in a man. The coward despairs.Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Heracles, l. 100 [tr. W. Arrowsmith (1956)]
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, does not value gifts and honors as much as he values this — that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not praising one’s own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way. But it is better to honor other religions for this reason. By so doing, one’s own religion benefits, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one’s own religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought “Let me glorify my own religion,” only harms his own religion. Therefore contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others.
Ashoka (c. 269-232 BC) Indian Buddhist emperor [Asoka, Piyadasi]
Edicts, Girnar version (256 BC)
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant Land.William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Milton: A Poem, preface, st. 4 (1804-08)
This is on me.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
(Attributed)
Proposed epitaph for herself. In Robert E. Drennan, ed., "Dorothy Parker," The Algonquin Wits (1968)
Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech, Washington (26 Mar 1964)
Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, Denver, Colorado (5 Sep 1952)
I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn’t have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you’re guilty you’ll get it in the neck and if you’re innocent you can’t possibly be harmed. No matter who you are. There was no such conception of justice until after 1830. There was no such thing as a policeman or a detective in the world before 1830, because the modern conception of the policeman and detective, namely, a man whose only function is to find out who did it and then get the evidence that will punish him, did not exist. … In Paris before the year 1800 — read the Dumas stories — there were gangs of people whose business was to go out and punish wrongdoers. But why? Because they had hurt De Marillac or Richelieu or the Duke or some Huguenot noble, not just because they had harmed society. It is only the modern policeman that is out to protect society.
Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Roundtable discussion of Sherlock Holmes, on Mark Van Doren’s Invitation to Learning (Jan 1942)
Transcribed in M. Van Doren, The New Invitation to Learning: The Essence of the Great Books of All Times (1942)
We credit ourselves for our successes; we blame others for our faults.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Philosophy of Elbert Hubbard [ed. Edward Hubbard II] (1930)
There can be no truer principle than this — that every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, author
Speech, Constitutional Conventnion, Philadelphia (29 Jun 1787)
In good conversation, parties don’t speak to the words, but to the meanings of each other.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Social Aims,” lecture, Boston (1864-12-04), Letters and Social Aims (1875)
Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
Interview with H. G. Wells (Sep 1937)
Full text.
Ah! two desires toss about
The poet’s feverish blood;
One drives him to the world without,
And one to solitude.Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
Stanzas in Memory of the Author of “Obermann” (1852), st. 24.
Liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of every body and everything by the agencies of central government.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World, Revisited, “Over-Population” (1958)
The Many can elect after the Few have nominated.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
Public Opinion, 14.6 (1922)
Eloquence which diverts our minds to itself is harmful to its subject.
[L’eloquence faict injure aux choses, qui nous destourne à soy.]Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 26 “On the Education of Children [De l’institution des enfans]” (1579) (1.26) (1595) [tr. Ives (1925)]
(Source)
First published in the 1580 edition.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:That eloquence offereth injurie unto things, which altogether drawes us to observe it.
[tr. Florio (1603), ch. 25]That eloquence prejudices the subject it would advance, that wholly attracts us to itself.
[tr. Cotton (1686), ch. 25; Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]That sort of eloquence which makes us in love with Ourselves, does an injury to the subject it treats of.
[alt. tr. Cotton (1686), ch. 25]The eloquence that diverts us to itself harms its content.
[tr. Frame (1943)]When eloquence draws attention to itself it does wrong by the substance of things.
[tr. Screech (1987)]
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, ch. 3
Alt. trans.:
- "Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting"
- "The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities .... It is best to win without fighting."
In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence — but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
Speech (1962-12-10), Nobel Prize acceptance, Stockholm
(Source)
As in a game ov cards, so in the game ov life, we must play what is dealt tew us, and the glory consists, not so mutch in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.
[As in a game of cards, so in the game of life, we must play what is dealt to us, and the glory consists, not so much in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Ods and Ens” (1874)
Full text.
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, San Diego State College (6 Jun 1963)
The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles mine.
Stanislaw Lec (1909-1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]
I have not found this generation to be cynical or apathetic or selfish. They are as strong and as decent as any people that I have met. And I will say this, on my way down here I stopped at Bethesda Naval, and when you talk to the young kids that are there that have just been back from Iraq and Afghanistan, you don’t have the worry about the future that you hear from so many that are not a part of this generation but judging it from above.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Commencement Address, College of William & Mary (2004-05-20)
(Source)
I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
Free Inquiry (Spring 1982)
You’ve no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself — and how little I deserve it.
W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) English playwright [William Schwenck Gilbert]
Ruddigore, Act I (1887)
There is … a manly and lawful passion for equality that incites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, 1.3 (1885) [tr. Beeve and Bowen (1862)]
Man’s life seems to me like a long, weary night that would be intolerable if there were not occasionally flashes of light, the sudden brightness of which is so comforting and wonderful, that the moments of their appearance cancel out and justify the years of darkness.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]
All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty.
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
(Attributed)
In C. Province, The Unknown Patton (1983)
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, desires that all religions should reside everywhere, for all of them desire self-control and purity of heart. But people have various desires and various passions, and they may practice all of what they should or only a part of it. But one who receives great gifts yet is lacking in self-control, purity of heart, gratitude and firm devotion, such a person is mean.
Ashoka (c. 269-232 BC) Indian Buddhist emperor [Asoka, Piyadasi]
Edicts, Girnar version (256 BC)
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Zen saying
DREAM: It is a fool’s prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 3. Dream Country, # 19 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1990)
(Source)
Because the story includes William Shakespeare as a character, and is named after Shakespeare's play (which is performed in the story), this line is sometimes misattributed to Shakespeare himself.
See also this later comment by Dream.
‘Tis Education forms the common mind,
Just as the Twig is bent, the Tree’s inclin’d.Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
Moral Essays, 1.101 (1732-35)
Dogs, would you live forever?
[Kerls, wollt ihr ewig leben?]
Frederick II (1712-1786) King of Prussia (a.k.a. Frederick the Great)
(Attributed) (18 Jun 1757)
Rallying call to retreating Prussian troops at the Battle of Kolin.Variants:
- Rogues, would you live forever? [Ihr Racke, wollen sie ewig leben?]
- Rascals, do you want to live forever? [Kerls, wollt ihr denn ewig leben?]
The phrase has been attributed to various commanders since.
In the tragic days of Mussolini, the trains in Italy ran on time as never before and I am told in their way, their horrible way, that the Nazi concentration-camp system in Germany was a model of horrible efficiency. The really basic thing in government is policy. Bad administration, to be sure, can destroy good policy, but good administration can never save bad policy.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, Los Angeles Town Club (11 Sep 1952)
Isn’t egomania always the precondition of all creative work? I have found little to dispel that notion.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) American playwright
Memoirs, ch. 9 (1975)
An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal (26 Dec 1852) [tr. Mrs. H. Ward (1885)]
Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy’s staying alive.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Human, All Too Human, 531 (1878) [tr. M. Faber (1984)]
She’s a Democrat. She must prove she loves America. As opposed to Republicans, who everyone knows love America — they just hate half the people living in it.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
The Daily Show (2008-08-26)
(Source)
On "Michelle Obama's Patriotism."
People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely rickety substance in order to avoid it. I, on the other hand, see coincidence everywhere as an inevitable consequence of the laws of probability, according to which having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
“The Planet that Wasn’t,” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (May 1975)
Full text.
There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it and the rest of us.
Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977)
All Empires have been cemented in blood.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
Cowardice is the unpardonable sin in a man.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Fear God and Take Your Own Part, ch. 6 (1916)
Full text.
We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Characteristics, # 140 (1823)
To do good is difficult. One who does good first does something hard to do. I have done many good deeds, and, if my sons, grandsons and their descendants up to the end of the world act in like manner, they too will do much good. But whoever amongst them neglects this, they will do evil. Truly, it is easy to do evil.
Ashoka (c. 269-232 BC) Indian Buddhist emperor [Asoka, Piyadasi]
Edicts, Kalsi version (256 BC)
We try often, though we fall back often. A brave delight, fit for freedom’s athletes, fills these arenas, and fully satisfies, out of the action in them irrespective of success. Whatever we do not attain, we at any rate attain the experiences of the fight, the hardening of the strong campaign, and throb with currents of attempt at least. Time is ample. Let the victors come after us.
One might say that a nation is politically stable when nothing of radical consequence is determined by its elections.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
The Phantom Public, 12.1 (1930)
There is no end to education. We are all in the Kindergarten of God.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard [ed. E. Hubbard II] (1927)
When I find any officer that answers me with firmness, intelligence, and clearness, I set him down in my list for making of his service on proper occasions.
Frederick II (1712-1786) King of Prussia (a.k.a. Frederick the Great)
“Morning the Fourth: On Private Politics” The Confessions of Frederick the Great [ed. D. Sladen (1915)]
Full text.
The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, American Legion convention, New York City (27 Aug 1952)
For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
“East Coker” (1940), Four Quartets (1943)
I know of nothing grander, better exercise, better digestion, more positive proof of the past, the triumphant result of faith in human kind, than a well-contested American national election.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
“Democratic Vistas” (1871)
Conversashun should be enlivened with wit, not compozed ov it.
[Conversation should be enlivened with wit, not composed of it.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Sollum Thoughts” (1874)
We think that powerful and lifeful movement is impossible without differences — “true conformity” is possible only in the cemetery.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
“Our purposes,” Pravda (first issue) (22 January 1912)
But often, in the world’s most crowded streets,
But often, in the din of strife,
There rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life;
A thirst to spend our fire and restless force
In tracking out our true, original course;
A longing to inquire
Into the mystery of this heart which beats
So wild, so deep in us, to know
Whence our lives come and where they go.
Ninety percent of our lives is governed by emotion. Our brains merely register and act upon what is telegraphed to them by our bodily experience. Intellect is to emotion as our clothes are to our bodies; we could not very well have civilized life without clothes, but we would be in a poor way if we had only clothes without bodies.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) English mathematician and philosopher
(10 Jun 1943), Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead [rec. L. Price (1954)]
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Considerations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romaines et de leur decadence, ch. 8 (1734)
You are eloquent enough if truth speaks through you.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 861 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
It is the rule in war, if ten times the enemy’s strength, surround them; if five times, attack them; if double, engage them; if equal, be able to divide them; if fewer, be able to evade them; if weaker, be able to avoid them.
Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, ch. 3
It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
East of Eden (1952)
More men have been elected between Sundown and Sunup than were ever elected between Sunup and Sundown.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
The Illiterate Digest, “Mr. Ford and Other Political Self-Starters” (1924)
(Source)
Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system.
Henry Kissinger (1923-2024) German-American diplomat
Diplomacy, ch. 1 (1994)
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
(Source)
Everybody wrings their hands about Fox News. You know, “fair and balanced? Why, that’s snide!” Yeah, okay, maybe they’re not fair and balanced, but CNN used to have the slogan “You Can Depend on CNN”. Guess what? I watch it, no you can’t. So what’s the difference?
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Interview, C-SPAN (2004-10-14)
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
In New York Journal-American (11 July 1961)
I would define true courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to incur it.
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) American military leader and author
Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman, ch. 25 (1875)
Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On the Clerical Character” (January/February 1818), Political Essays (1819)
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
“Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport,” Rhode Island (17 Aug 1790)
Full text.
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (9 Mar 1992)
The worst egoist is the person to whom the thought has never occurred that he might be one.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
“Notebook of Aphorisms” (1871)
Every man is to be respected as an absolute end in himself; and it is a crime against the dignity that belongs to him to use him as a mere means to some external purpose.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German philosopher
Eternal Peace (1795)
Do not undertake anything beyond your capacity and at the same time do not harbor the wish to do less than you can. One who takes up tasks beyond his powers is proud and attached. On the other hand, one who does less than he can is a thief.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Letter to Narandas Gandhi (10 Jul 1932)
Education should be constructed on two bases: morality and prudence. Morality, in order to assist virtue, and prudence in order to defend you against the vices of others. In tipping the scales toward morality, you merely produce dupes and martyrs. In tipping it the other way, you produce egotistical schemers.
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Maxims and Thoughts, ch. 5 (1796) [tr. W. Merwin (1984)]
All Religions are equal and good, if only the people that practice them are honest people; and if Turks and heathens came and wanted to live here in this country, we would build them mosques and churches.
[Alle Religionen sind gleich und gut, wenn nur die Leute, die sie praktizeren, ehrliche Leute sind; und wenn Türken und Heiden kämen und wollten das Lande pöpulieren, so wollen wir ihnen Moscheen und Kirchen bauen.]
Frederick II (1712-1786) King of Prussia (a.k.a. Frederick the Great)
Note (1740)
On the question of whether a Catholic should be allowed to be a citizen of a Prussian city.
I have learned that in quiet places reason abounds, that in quiet people there is vision and purpose, that many things are revealed to the humble that are hidden from the great.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
(Attributed)
Quoted in Elizabeth Stevenson Ives and H. Dolson, My Brother Adlai (1956).
Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
Speech, U. of Kansas, Lawrence (18 Mar 1968)
To trust altogether in the justice of our cause, without our own utmost exertions, would be tempting Providence.
George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
Letter to Jonathan Trumbull (7 Aug 1776)