Winter is icummen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop
And how the wind doth ramm!Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American expatriate poet, critic, intellectual
“Ancient Music” l. 1-4 (1902)
Parody of Anglo-Saxon poem, "Cuckoo Song." Full text.
The first thing I want to teach is disloyalty. … This will beget independence — which is loyalty to one’s best self and principles, and this is often disloyalty to the general idols and fetishes.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook [ed. Paine (1935)]
Dissatisfaction is a sign of people who are walking on the road and not standing still.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Thoughts and Aphorisms, 8.1 (1886-93) [tr. L. Wiener (1905)]
Always be tactful and well-mannered and teach your subordinates to be the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide.
Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) German field marshal
Lecture to class of cadets (1938)
In B. H. Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, ch. 10 (footnote) (1953)
I attacked the doctrine of eternal pain. I hold it in infinite and utter abhorrence. And if there be a God in this universe who made a hell; if there be a God in this universe who denies to any human being the right of reformation, then that God is not good, that God is not just, and the future of man is infinitely dark. I despise that doctrine, and I have done what little I could to get that horror from the cradle, that horror from the hearts of mothers, that horror from the hearts of husbands and fathers, and sons, and brothers, and sisters. It is a doctrine that turns to ashes all the humanities of life and all the hopes of mankind. I despise it.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“Reply to Rev. Drs. Thomas and Lorimer,” speech, Chicago (26 Nov 1882)
(Source)
You can’t teach an old dogma new tricks.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
In Robert E. Drennan, ed., “Dorothy Parker,” The Algonquin Wits (1968)
Here in America we are descended in blood and spirit from revolutionaries and rebels — men and women who dared to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Columbia University Bicentennial Dinner, New York City (31 May 1954)
And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression.
I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) English physicist, author
“The Science of Second-Guessing”, interview by Deborah Solomon, New York Times (12 Dec 2004)When asked his IQ.
A dissenter is to the absoluteness of power what an exception is to the validity of a formulated scientific rule — both must be dealt with and somehow eliminated.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Ordeal of Change, 15.4 (1964)
In a society of sovereign states, an agreement will be maintained only if all partners consider it in their interest. They must have a sense of participation in the result. The art of diplomacy is not to outsmart the other side but to convince it either of common interests or of penalties if an impasse continues.
Henry Kissinger (1923-2024) German-American diplomat
Years of Upheaval, ch. 6 (1982)
God doth not promise here to man that He
Will free him quickly from his misery;
But in His own time, and when He thinks fit,
Then He will give a happy end to it.Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“God’s Time Must End Our Trouble,” Hesperides, # 252 (1648)
Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Commencement Address, College of William & Mary (2004-05-20)
(Source)
Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
In A. E. Hotchner, Papa Hemingway, Pt. 1, ch. 4 “Havana, 1951-53” (1966)When told Faulkner said Hemingway was not courageous enough to use words a reader might need to look up in the dictionary. Full text.
Cannon and fire-arms are cruel and damnable machines. I believe them to have been the direct suggestion of the devil. Against the flying ball, no valour avails; the soldier is dead ‘ere he sees the means of his destruction.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) German religious reformer
Table Talk, # 820 [tr. W. Hazlitt (1848)]
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
Commencement Address, Stanford University (2005)
(Source)
Diplomacy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone would fall.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, University of Washington, Seattle (16 Nov 1961)
A courageous effort consecrates an unhappy end.
Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) American writer, philosopher, historian, architect
The Conduct of Life, 9.10 (1951)
The true barbarian is he who thinks every thing barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.
In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Despair is a greater deceiver than hope.
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715-1747) French moralist, essayist, soldier
Reflections and Maxims [Réflexions et maximes], #455 (1746) [tr. Stevens (1940)]
When as in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free;
Oh how that glittering taketh me!
The orthodox of all persuasions — Jews and Christians and Muslims, theists and atheists, leftists and rightists — get so wrapped up in their eternal quests, their conversion campaigns, their apocalypses and their utopias, the Rapture and the Revolution, that they forget to ENJOY their infinitesimal time on earth. They forget LIFE, LOVE, LAUGHTER and LIBERTY. Why would anyone make that mistake? God only knows.
Marty Beckerman (b. 1983) American alternative journalist, humorist, author
Dumbocracy, Part III “The Promised Land” (2008)
What do I believe? As an American I believe in generosity, in liberty, in the rights of man. These are social and political faiths that are part of me, as they are, I suppose, part of all of us. Such beliefs are easy to express. But part of me too is my relation to all life, my religion. And this is not so easy to talk about. Religious experience is highly intimate and, for me, ready words are not at hand. I am profoundly aware of the magnitude of the universe, that all is ruled by law, including my finite person. I believe in the infinite wisdom that envelops and embraces me and from which I take direction, purpose, strength.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Essay, This I Believe, Vol. 2 (1952) [ed. E. Murrow]
Here shall the Press the People’s right maintain,
Unaw’d by influence and unbrib’d by gain;
Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw,
Pledg’d to Religion, Liberty, and Law.Joseph Story (1779-1845) American lawyer, jurist, Supreme Court Justice (1811-1845)
Motto of the Salem Register newspaper
For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man — when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back. This you may say and know it and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being taken, if the stumbling-forward ache were not alive, the bombs would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live — for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live — for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can know — fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Grapes of Wrath, ch. 14 (1939)
Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) English physicist, author
“The Science of Second-Guessing”, interview by Deborah Solomon, New York Times (12 Dec 2004)
What comes out of a man is what makes him “unclean.” For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man “unclean.”
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Mark 7:20-23 (NIV)
If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.
Herodotus (c.484-c.420 BC) Greek historian
Histories, Book 2, ch. 173
Pilots take no special joy in walking: pilots like flying. Pilots generally take pride in a good landing, not in getting out of the vehicle.
Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) American astronaut, aviator, educator
(Attributed)
On walking on the moon. In F. French, C. Burgess, In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
The show in general we feel like is a privilege. Even the idea that we can sit in the back of the country and make wise cracks … which is really what we do. We sit in the back and throw spitballs — but never forgetting that it is a luxury in this country that allows us to do that. That is, a country that allows for open satire, and I know that sounds basic and it sounds like it goes without saying. But that’s really what this whole situation is about. It’s the difference between closed and open. The difference between free and … burdened. And we don’t take that for granted here, by any stretch of the imagination.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
The Daily Show (2001-09-20)
(Source)
How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
Speech, accepting the Nobel prize (10 Dec 1954)Full text.
It is easier to suppress the first Desire than to satisfy all that follow it.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (1751)
(Source)
Included in his summary piece, "The Way to Wealth" (1757).
The details vanish in the bird’s-eye view; but so does the bird’s-eye view vanish in the details.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
“The Importance of Individuals,” The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.
Josephine Hart (1942-2011) Irish writer, theatrical producer, television presenter
Damage, ch. 12 (1991)
Corruption comes by degrees.
Juvenal (c.55-127) Roman satirist [Decimus Junius Juvinalis]
Satires, 2.84 [tr. P. Green (1967)]
Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) American lawyer, statesman, politician, orator
Speech, Washington, DC (22 Feb 1899)
Good men should not shrink from hardships and difficulties, nor complain against fate; they should take in good part whatever happens and should turn it to good. Not what you endure, but how you endure, is important.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On Providence,” 2.4 [tr. J. Basore (1928)]
What are we? How are we? Why are we? These questions have haunted Mankind since the dawn of civilization. Those who claim to know the Answers — and feel the need to force their conclusions on others — are responsible for unspeakable bloodshed throughout history; it matters not if their conclusion is Godliness or Atheism. A fundamentalist is a fundamentalist, a butcher is a butcher, and an asshole is an asshole.
Marty Beckerman (b. 1983) American alternative journalist, humorist, author
Dumbocracy, Part III “The Promised Land” (2008)
I profoundly believe that there is on this horizon, as yet only dimly perceived, a new dawn of conscience. In that purer light, people will come to see themselves in each other, which is to say they will make themselves known to one another by their similarities rather than by their differences. Man’s knowledge of things will begin to be matched by man’s knowledge of self. The significance of a smaller world will be measured not in terms of military advantage, but in terms of advantage for the human community. It will be the triumph of the heartbeat over the drumbeat.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, Springfield Illinois (24 Oct 1952)
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” Fortnightly Review (Feb 1881)
A man’s accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail.
John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) American politician and diplomat
(Attributed)In Leonard Mosley, Dulles, ch. 25 (1978)
The first qualification of a diplomat is the ability to keep silent.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Talleyrand (4 Jul 1802)
I reject the idea there are just two sides. I think that with the amount of ideas and thoughts there are, it’s not even going to be consistent with the same person. People can hold liberal and conservative dogma points at the same time. They’re not living their lives via platforms. They’re living their lives. The whole thing is an awfully tired construct.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
“No News Is Good News,” interview by Adam Bulger, The Hartford Advocate (2008-06-12)
(Source)
All things truly wicked start from an innocence.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
A Moveable Feast, ch. 17 (1964)
So the courageous person is the one who endures and fears — and likewise is confident about — the right things, for the right reason, in the right way, and at the right time.
[ὁ μὲν οὖν ἃ δεῖ καὶ οὗ ἕνεκα ὑπομένων καὶ φοβούμενος, καὶ ὡς δεῖ καὶ ὅτε, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ θαρρῶν, ἀνδρεῖος.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 3, ch. 7 (3.7.5) / 1115b.19 (c. 325 BC) [tr. Crisp (2000)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:He is Brave then who withstands, and fears, and is bold, in respect of right objects, from a right motive, in right manner, and at right times.
[tr. Chase (1847), ch. 10]He then who with the right end in view faces what he ought, and fears it, and does so as he ought, and when he ought, and who in a similar manner faces with confidence that which ought to be so faced, -- he is brave.
[tr. Williams (1869), sec. 52]Thus he who faces and fears the right things for the right motive and in the right way and at the right time, and whose confidence is similarly right, is courageous.
[tr. Welldon (1892), ch. 10]He, then, that endures and fears what he ought from the right motive, and in the right manner, and at the right time, and similarly feels confidence, is courageous.
[tr. Peters (1893)]The man, then, who faces and who fears the right things and from the right motive, in the right way and from the right time, and who feels confidence under the corresponding conditions, is brave.
[tr. Ross (1908)]The courageous man then is he that endures or fears the right things and for the right purpose and in the right manner and at the right time, and who shows confidence in a similar way.
[tr. Rackham (1934)]So a person is courageous who endures and fears the things he should, in the way he should, when he should, and is similarly confident.
[tr. Reeve (1948)]The brave man is the man who faces or fears the right thing for the right purpose in the right manner at the right moment.
[tr. J. Thomson (1953)]So he who faces and fears those fearful things which he should, and for the right cause, and in the right manner, and at the right time, and who shows courage in a similar manner, is a brave man.
[tr. Apostle (1975)]The man who faces and fears (or similarly feels confident about) the right things for the right reason and in the right way and at the right time is courageous.
[tr. Thomson/Tredennick (1976)]Hence whoever stands firm against the right things and fears the right things, for the right end, at the right time, and is correspondingly confident, is the brave person.
[tr. Irwin/Fine (1995)]He, then, who endures and fears what he ought and for the sake of what he ought, and in the way he ought and when, and who is similarly confident as well, is courageous.
[tr. Bartlett/Collins (2011)]
Always behind what we imagine are our best deeds stands the devil, patting us paternally on the shoulder and whispering, “Well done!”
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“A Psychological View of Conscience” (1958)
No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Essays, “On Providence,” 4.16 [tr. J. Basore (1928)]
Opinions are like genitals: if you force others to swallow yours, something is seriously wrong with you.
Marty Beckerman (b. 1983) American alternative journalist, humorist, author
Dumbocracy, Introduction (2008)
If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain. It must be unrestricted in the play of its inquiry. If we insist on conclusions before the search is over, we are committed to playing the game of the mind with marked cards.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-10-08), “The Area of Freedom,” University of Wisconsin, Madison
(Source)
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
“Return to Tipasa,” Summer (1954)
The stronger one’s real position, the less one needs to rub in the other side’s discomfiture. It is rarely wise to inflame a setback with an insult. An important aspect of the art of diplomacy consists of doing what is necessary without producing extraneous motives for retaliation, leaving open the option of later cooperation on other issues.
Henry Kissinger (1923-2024) German-American diplomat
Years of Upheaval, ch. 21 (1982)
Nothing is so easy but it is difficult when you do it reluctantly.
Terence (186?-159 BC) African-Roman dramatist [Publius Terentius Afer]
Heuton timoroumenos [The Self-Tormentor], l. 806 [tr. J. Sergeaunt (1912)]
Alt trans: "There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly."
The commander must try, above all, to establish personal and comradely contact with his men, but without giving away an inch of his authority.
Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) German field marshal
(1944), The Rommel Papers, ch. 23 (ed. B. H. Liddell Hart) (1953)
I have no reverence for any book that teaches a doctrine contrary to my reason; no reverence for any book that teaches a doctrine contrary to my heart; and, no matter how old it is, no matter how many have believed it, no matter how many have died on account of it, no matter how many live for it, I have no reverence for that book, and I am glad of it.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“Reply to Rev. Drs. Thomas and Lorimer,” speech, Chicago (26 Nov 1882)
(Source)
Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
(Attributed)
It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to John Taylor (4 Jun 1798)
(Source)
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61)
Markings (1950) [tr. L Sjoberg, W H Auden (1964)]
It don’t take no nerve to do somepin when there ain’t nothin’ else you can do.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Grapes of Wrath [Tom] (1939)
My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) English physicist, author
“The Science of Second-Guessing”, interview by Deborah Solomon, New York Times (12 Dec 2004)
Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.
Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) American playwright, screenwriter
The Little Foxes, Act I (1939)
A modern dictator with the resources of science at his disposal can easily lead the public on from day to day, destroying all persistency of thought and aim, so that memory is blurred by the multiplicity of daily news and judgment baffled by its perversion.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Vol 1 (1956–58)On the spread of the news of the Murder of the Princes in the Tower. Sometimes cited to The Second World War (1948-53)
“It is destiny” — phrase of the weak human heart; dark apology for every error. The strong and the virtuous admit no destiny.
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) English novelist and politician
The Last of the Barons, 8.6 (1843)
We declared war on terror — it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Commencement Address, College of William & Mary (2004-05-20)
(Source)
When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
Death in the Afternoon, ch. 16 (1932)
And were an epitaph to be my story,
I’d have a short one ready for my own.
I would have written of me on my stone:
I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942)
Initially read before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard (20 Jun 1941)
There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“The Soul of Man under Socialism,” Fortnightly Review (Feb 1891)
Our desires always increase with our possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed, impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Adventurer, # 67 (26 Jun 1753)
When one professes [courage] too openly, by words or bearing, there is reason to mistrust it.
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) American military leader and author
Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman, ch. 25 (1875)
If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
James 1:27 [NRSV (2021 ed.)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
[KJV (1611)]Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
[JB (1966)]What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.
[GNT (1976)]Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
[NJB (1985)]True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.
[CEB (2011)]Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
[NIV (2011 ed.)]
In my experience, at least of late years, all that depresses a man’s spirits is the sense of remissness — duties neglected, unfaithfulness — or shamming, impurity, falsehood, selfishness, inhumanity, and the like.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (28 Aug 1854)
Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714) English writer, religious philosopher
An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, Genesis 3 (1708-10)
Full text.
Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Radio address (29 Sep 1952)
Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer! (There is no beer in heaven, so let us drink it here.)
Martin Luther (1483-1546) German religious reformer
(Attributed)
Democracy stands between two tyrannies: the one which it has overthrown and the one into which it will develop.
Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) American educator, novelist, poet
Maxims for a Modern Man, #642 (1965)
(Source)
Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice. If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like. But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice — you will be blessed by God in what you do.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
James 1:22-25 [GNT (1976)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
[KJV (1611)]But you must do what the word tells you, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves. To listen to the word and not obey is like looking at your own features in a mirror and then, after a quick look, going off and immediately forgetting what you looked like. But the man who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and makes that his habit -- not listening and then forgetting, but actively putting it into practice -- will be happy in all that he does.
[JB (1966)]But you must do what the Word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves. Anyone who listens to the Word and takes no action is like someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and, once he has seen what he looks like, goes off and immediately forgets it. But anyone who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and keeps to it -- not listening and forgetting, but putting it into practice -- will be blessed in every undertaking.
[NJB (1985)]You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves. Those who hear but don’t do the word are like those who look at their faces in a mirror. They look at themselves, walk away, and immediately forget what they were like. But there are those who study the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continue to do it. They don’t listen and then forget, but they put it into practice in their lives. They will be blessed in whatever they do.
[CEB (2011)]Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -- he will be blessed in what he does.
[NIV (2011 ed.)]But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves[a] in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act -- they will be blessed in their doing.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
Wealth is not a crime; poverty is not a virtue — although the virtuous have generally been poor. There is only one good, and that is human happiness; and he only is a wise man who makes himself and others happy.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1886-11-14), “A Lay Sermon,” American Secular Union annual congress, Chickering Hall, New York City
(Source)
There’s no point in burying the hatchet if you’re going to put up a marker on the site.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
There are only two classes in society: those who get more than they earn, and those who earn more than they get.
Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948) English journalist, editor, author
Platitudes in the Making (1911)
Always assume your guest is tired, cold and hungry, and act accordingly.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Navajo proverb
To do two things at once is to do neither.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 7 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
What is the fear of the “gay agenda” that has so upset people? Do people think that if gay people are given a place at the table, they’ll be so convincing we’ll all end up blowing them? What is the issue? “You know, I’m straight, but you’ve made such a convincing argument …”
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Stand-up comedy performance at RIT (2005)
Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
A Moveable Feast (1964)
Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it a charm.
[Nur Taten geben dem Leben Stärke, nur Maß ihm Reiz.]
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
Titan, Jubilee 35, cycle 145 (1803) [tr. Brooks (1863)]
(Source)
Often only the first part is given as a quotation (or even just as a "German proverb").
(Source (German)). Alternate translations:Only deeds give strength to life, and only measure gives it charm.
[Source (1858)]Only deeds give strength to life, only moderation gives it charm.
[Source (1896)]
The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.
Paul Valéry (1871-1945) French poet, critic, author, polymath
Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci (1895)
It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) American novelist
“On the Disadvantages of Democracy,” The American Democrat (1838)
What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, ch. 1 (1931)
Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives us no concern — why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners, “On the Fear of Death” (1821-1822)
Full text.
Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke.
Lynda Barry (b. 1956) American cartoonist, author, teacher
(Attributed)
My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not signed.
Christopher Morley (1890-1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist, poet
(Attributed)
Our very defects are … shadows of our virtues.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1831, undated)
Most people imagine that the rich are in heaven, but, as a rule, it is only a gilded hell. There is not a man in the city of New York with genius enough, with brains enough, to own five millions of dollars. Why? The money will own him. He becomes the key to a safe. That money will get him up at daylight; that money will separate him from his friends; that money will fill his heart with fear; that money will rob his days of sunshine and his nights of pleasant dreams. He cannot own it. He becomes the property of that money. And he goes right on making more. What for? He does not know. It becomes a kind of insanity. No one is happier in a palace than in a cabin.
When I hear somebody sigh that “Life is hard,” I am always tempted to ask, “Compared to what?”
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (25 Jul 1839)
The slaves of custom are the sport of time.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Book 6, ch. 3, “Innovation” (1605)
A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
Writers at Work, Fourth Series, “On Publishing” [ed. G. Plimpton] (1977)
For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) English physicist, author
British Telecom advertisement (1993)