Go where we will, we discover infinite change in particulars only, not in generals.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden,”Conclusion” (1854)
The United States is a generically religious society. That is, in the United States it’s not important which religion you adhere to, as long as you have one.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
Speech receiving the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), Frankfurt (12 Oct 2003)Full text.
He who goes against the fashion is himself its slave.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Arts and Letters” (1931)
Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done. One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
The Rolling Stones (1952)
ULYSSES: Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devoured
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon
As done. Perseverance, dear my lord,
Keeps honor bright. To have done is to hang
Quite out of fashion like a rusty mail
In monumental mock’ry.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Troilus and Cressida, Act 3, sc. 3, l. 153ff (3.3.153-158) (1602)
(Source)
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!
Anatole France (1844-1924) French poet, journalist, novelist, Nobel Laureate [pseud. of Jaques-Anatole-François Thibault]
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, Part 2, ch. 4 (1881) [tr. L. Hearn (1890)]
(Source)
As a United States Senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. I am not proud of the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled from this side of the aisle. I am not proud of the obviously staged, undignified countercharges that have been attempted in retaliation from the other side of the aisle. I don’t like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity.
Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1965) American politician (US Senator, Maine)
“Declaration of Conscience,” Congressional Record, vol. 96, 81st Congress, 2d. sess. (1 Jun 1950)Full text.
The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.
[ho de anexetastos bios ou biôtos anthrôpôi]
Socrates (c.470-399 BC) Greek philosopher
In Plato, Apology, sec. 38
Var. trans:
- The unexamining life is not worth living for a human being.
- The life which is unexamined is not worth living.
- An unexamined life is not worth living.
- The unexamined life is not the life for man.
- The unexamined life is not worth living for man.
- If I tell you that I would be disobeying the god and on that account it is impossible for me to keep quiet, you won’t be persuaded by me, taking it that I am ironizing. And if I tell you that it is the greatest good for a human being to have discussions every day about virtue and the other things you hear me talking about, examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not livable for a human being, you will be even less persuaded.
Never underestimate your power to change yourself.
Never overestimate your power to change others.
H. Jackson "Jack" Brown, Jr. (b. 1940) American writer
Life’s Little Instruction Book, #284, 285 (1991)
(Source)
Material Poverty provides the incentive to change precisely in situations where there is little margin for experiments. Material Prosperity removes the incentive just when it might be safe to take a chance.
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
The End of Laissez-Faire, ch. 5 (1926)
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
Among My Books, “Dryden” (1870)
The hypocrite’s crime is that he bears false witness against himself.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
On Revolution, 2.5 (1963)
As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin with an individual; it might be any one of us. Nobody can afford to look around and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Approaching the Unconscious: Healing the Split,” Man and His Symbols (1964)
The “fog of war” works both ways. The enemy is as much in the dark as you are. BE BOLD!!!!!
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
Notebook (1921-22)In M. Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1885-1940 (1972)
The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use, we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
Broca’s Brain, ch. 2 (1979)
Sure things seldom are.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
The Sayings of Chairman Malcolm: The Capitalist’s Handbook, “More Definitions” (1978)
Money is a needful and precious thing, — and, when well used, a noble thing, — but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.
Ah, you flavour everything; you are the vanille of society.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 9 (1855)
(Source)
To preach long, loud, and Damnation, is the way to be cried up. We love a man that damns us, and we run after him again to save us.
John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, legal scholar, antiquarian, polymath
Table Talk, “Damnation” (1686)
And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.
[Und ich habe, mein Lieber, wieder bei diesem kleinen Geschäft gefunden, dass Missverständnisse und Trägheit vielleicht mehr Irrungen in der Welt machen als List und Bosheit. Wenigstens sind die beiden letzteren gewiss seltener.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [The Sorrows of Young Werther], “Letter from May 4th” (1774)
Alt. trans.: "Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."
They have a Right to censure that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.
William Penn (1644-1718) English writer, philosopher, politician, statesman
Some Fruits of Solitude, # 46 (1693)
We play out our days as we play out cards, taking them as they come, not knowing what they will be, hoping for a lucky card and sometimes getting one, often getting just the wrong one.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, “The World,” ii (1912)Full text.
Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but principally by catchwords; and the little rift between the sexes is astonishingly widened by simply teaching one set of catchwords to the girls and another to the boys.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Virginibus Puerisque” (1881)
(Source)
There are many scapegoats for our blunders, but the most popular one is Providence.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook 4 Jul 1898 [ed. Paine (1935)]
I can imagine no greater disservice to the country than to establish a system of censorship that would deny to the people of a free republic like our own their indisputable right to criticize their own public officials. While exercising the great powers of the office I hold, I would regret in a crisis like the one through which we are now passing to lose the benefit of patriotic and intelligent criticism.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) US President (1913-20), educator, political scientist
Letter to Arthur Brisbane (25 Apr 1917)Three weeks after the US entered WW I.
Stop the War and Stop the Genocide, read the banners being waved in the demonstrations in Rome and here in Bari. For Peace. Against War. Who is not? But how can you stop those bent on genocide without making war?
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
“Why Are We in Kosovo?”, New York Times (2 May 1999)
How it infuriates a bigot, when he is forced to drag out his dark convictions!
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Other People” (1931)
I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) US President (1913-20), educator, political scientist
Comment (1914)Quoted in "Woodrow Wilson in His Own Words," <i>New York Times Magazine</i> (10 Jun 1956)
Most books are propaganda, direct or indirect.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Review of The Civil War in Spain by F. Jellinek (8 Jul 1938)
Do Business, but be not a Slave to it.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #1304 (1732)
(Source)
I don’t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren’t that desperate for victory. I don’t want to see the Republican party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican Party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people.
Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1965) American politician (US Senator, Maine)
“Declaration of Conscience,” Congressional Record, vol. 96, 81st Congress, 2d. sess. (1 Jun 1950)Full text.
Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.
Socrates (c.470-399 BC) Greek philosopher
In Plato, Phaedrus, 279 (Socrates’ Prayer)
That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed with profit.
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) American transcendentalist, teacher, writer
Table Talk, Bk. 1, “Books” (1877)
In the final result, it mattered not one whit whether the movement was in favor of one class or of another. The outcome was equally fatal, whether the country fell into the hands of a wealthy oligarchy which exploited the poor or whether it fell under the domination of a turbulent mob which plundered the rich. In both cases there resulted violent alternations between tyranny and disorder, and a final complete loss of liberty to all citizens — destruction in the end overtaking the class which had for the moment been victorious as well as that which had momentarily been defeated. The death-knell of the Republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“The Square Deal,” Labor Day speech, New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse (7 Sep 1903)Full text.
Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 304 (Minos)
Burn old wood, read old books, drink old wines, have old friends.
[Quemad viejos leños, leed viejos libros, bebed viejos vinos, tened viejos amigos.]
Alfonso X (1221–1284) Spanish King of Castile and Leon
(Attributed)Quoted in L. F. Betancourt, Aire puro para el amor y la amistad.
With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Letter to Heinrich Zangger (Dec 1919) [Einstein Archive 39-726]
We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us insists on being innocent at all cost, even if has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself!
Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
The Fall (1956) [tr. J. O’Brien]
Never say anything in a national campaign that anyone might remember.
Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005) American politician, poet, activist
“McCarthy’s First Law of Politics”Quoted in John Leo, "Wit is the Opiate of Politics," US News & World Report (26 Nov 1990)
It takes two flints to make a fire.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American writer
Little Women, pt. 2, ch. 16 [Laurie] (1869)
Poverty, sir, is no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Sydney Smith: His Wit and Wisdom (1900) [ed. J. Potter Briscoe]
(Source)
In the Edinburgh Review (1855-07) coverage of Lady Holland's A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith (1855), the reviewer notes that Smith himself attributed this phrase to "a fellow-passenger in a stage coach."
MORBIUS: Guilty! Guilty! My evil self is at that door, and I have no power to stop it!
Cyril Hume (1900-1966) American screenwriter, author
Forbidden Planet [with Fred McLeod Wilcox] (1956)
HAMLET: Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 147ff (3.1.147-148) (c. 1600)
(Source)
It is all-essential to the continuance of our healthy national life that we should recognize this community of interest among our people. The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us, and therefore in public life that man is the best representative of each of us who seeks to do good to each by doing good to all; in other words, whose endeavor it is not to represent any special class and promote merely that class’s selfish interests, but to represent all true and honest men of all sections and all classes and to work for their interests by working for our common country.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“The Square Deal,” Labor Day speech, New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse (7 Sep 1903)Full text
Is there any religion whose followers can be pointed to as distinctly more amiable and trustworthy than those of any other? If so, this should be enough. I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, “Religion” (1912)Full text.
All error, not merely verbal, is a strong way of stating that the current truth is incomplete. The follies of youth have a basis in sound reason, just as much as the embarrassing questions put by babes and sucklings. Their most antisocial acts indicate the defects of our society. When the torrent sweeps the man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Crabbed Age and Youth” (1881)
(Source)
Every one thinks his sacke heaviest.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 748 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
A hero is made by folklore, sacred texts, and history books, but the celebrity is the creature of gossip, of public opinion, of magazines, newspapers, and the ephemeral images of movie and television screen. The passage of time, which creates and establishes the hero, destroys the celebrity. One is made, the other unmade, by repetition. The celebrity is born in the daily papers and never loses the mark of his fleeting origin.
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004) American historian, professor, attorney, writer
The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 5.4 (1961)
All modern wars, even when their aims are the traditional ones, such as territorial aggrandizement or the acquisition of scarce resources, are cast as clashes of civilizations — culture wars — with each side claiming the high ground, and characterizing the other as barbaric. The enemy is invariably a threat to “our way of life,” an infidel, a desecrator, a polluter, a defiler of higher or better values. The current war against the very real threat posed by militant Islamic fundamentalism is a particularly clear example.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
Speech receiving the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), Frankfurt (12 Oct 2003)Full text.
How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Myself” (1931)
A government of laws, and not of men.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
“Novanglus” #7, Boston Gazette (6 Mar 1775)
Adams credited the line to James Harrington (1611-77), who wrote of "the empire of laws and not of men" (The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)). Adams later used the term in the Massachusetts Constitution, Bill of Rights, article 30 (1780).
Today some would say that those struggles are all over — that all the horizons have been explored — that all the battles have been won — that there is no longer an American frontier. But I trust that no one in this vast assemblage will agree with those sentiments. For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won — and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier — the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and paths, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
“The New Frontier,” Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles (15 Jul 1960)
I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Presidential nomination acceptance speech, Chicago (2 Jul 1932)
We must act upon the motto of all for each and each for all. There must be ever present in our minds the fundamental truth that in a republic such as ours the only safety is to stand neither for nor against any man because he is rich or because he is poor, because he is engaged in one occupation or another, because he works with his brains or because he works with his hands. We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“The Square Deal,” Labor Day speech, New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse (7 Sep 1903)Full text.
Every segment of our population and every individual has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
State of the Union Message (5 Jan 1949)
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is [its] inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.
Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005) American politician, poet, activist
(Attributed)
Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)
What house, bloated with luxury, ever became prosperous without a woman’s excellence?
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 679
Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
Column, Chicago Daily News (20 Feb 1958)
Those who knowingly allow the King to err deserve the same punishment as traitors.
[Los que dejan al rey errar a sabiendas, merecen pena como traidores.]
Alfonso X (1221–1284) Spanish King of Castile and Leon
(Attributed)Quoted in Vicente Vega, Diccionario ilustrado de frases célebres y citas literarias (1952)
We all have the same God, we just serve him differently. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names, but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways forms and times. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. When you believe in God, you should believe that all people are part of one family. If you love God, you can’t love only some of his children.
Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) American boxer, activist [b. Cassius Clay]
The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey [written with Hana Yasmeen Ali] (2004)
The best way to kill a new idea is to put it in an old-line agency.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1964)
(Source)
On assigning his War on Poverty programs to a new office (the Office of Economic Opportunity), reporting directly to the White House, rather than spreading it through existing federal programs and departments like Labor; Agriculture; or Health, Education, and Welfare.
Quoted in Rowland Evans, Jr., and Robert Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power, ch. 19 "The Great Society" (1966).
Capitalism justified itself and was adopted as an economic principle on the express ground that it provides selfish motives for doing good, and that human beings will do nothing except for selfish motives.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism Fascism, ch. 66 (1928)
When I play with my cat, who can say that it is not she amusing herself with me more than I with her?
[Quand je me jouë à ma chatte, qui sçait, si elle passe son temps de moy plus que je ne fay d’elle?]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
“Apology for Raymond Sebond [Apologie de Raimond de Sebonde]” (1588–1592), Essays, Book 2, ch. 12 (1595) [tr. Ives (1925)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:When I am playing with my Cat, who knowes whether she have more sporte in dallying with me, then I have in gaming with hir?
[tr. Florio (1603)]When I play with my cat, who knows whether puss is not more diverted with me than I am with puss?
[tr. Cotton (1686)]When I play with my cat who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me.
[tr. Frame (1943)]When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?
[tr. Screech (1987)]
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety. It shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American writer
Little Women, ch. 36 (1869)
He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 11 (1855)
(Source)
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal — that you can gather votes like box tops — is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Comment, after his presidential nomination acceptance speech, Chicago (18 Aug 1956)
The chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own advantage openly, frankly, and honestly, whereas under the latter he does so hypocritically and under false pretences.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks, #397 (1956)
People believe what they want to believe about celebrities. Usually it makes them feel better to believe something negative. That’s called human nature.
Liz Smith (1923-2017) American entertainment journalist [Mary Elizabeth Smith]
“Brooks Won’t Go the Elvis Route,” San Francisco Chronicle (8 Aug 1997)
We can see nothing face to face; our utmost seeing is but a fumbling of blind finger-ends in an overcrowded pocket.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Ramblings In Cheapside (1890)
We do not go to cowards for tender dealing; there is nothing so cruel as panic; the man who has least fear for his own carcase, has most time to consider others.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Aes Triplex” (1878)
The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, Fresno, California (11 Oct 1956)
Politics has got so expensive it takes lots of money to even get beat with nowadays.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1931-06-28), “Daily Telegram: The First Good News of the 1932 Campaign! Mr. Rogers Says He Will Not Run for Anything”
(Source)
Written in Santa Monica, California.
People do these things to other people. Not just in Nazi concentration camps and in Abu Ghraib when it was run by Saddam Hussein. Americans, too, do them when they have permission. When they are told or made to feel that those over whom they have absolute power deserve to be mistreated, humiliated, tormented. They do them when they are led to believe that the people they are torturing belong to an inferior, despicable race or religion. For the meaning of these pictures is not just that these acts were performed, but that their perpetrators had no sense that there was anything wrong in what the pictures show.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
“Regarding the Torture of Others,” New York Times (23 May 2004)
On the photos of Iraqi prisoners tortured by Americans in Abu Ghraib.
The vitality of a new movement in Art must be gauged by the fury it arouses.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Arts and Letters” (1931)
It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
Utilitarianism, ch. 2
As the flood spreads wider and wider, the water becomes shallower and dirtier. The Revolution evaporates, leaving behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. The chains of tormented mankind are made out of red tape.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech-Austrian Jewish writer
In G. Janouch, Conversations with Kafka [tr. G. Rees (1953)]
To persevere in one’s duty and be silent is the best answer to calumny.
George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
Letter to Gov. William Livingston (7 Dec 1779)
CATO: The soul, secur’d in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 124ff (1713)
(Source)
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
Socrates (c.470-399 BC) Greek philosopher
In Plato, Phaedo, 91
Watch out w’en you’er gittin all you want. Fattenin’ hogs ain’t in luck.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) American writer
“Plantation Proverbs,” Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1880).
It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Speech (22 Oct 1928)
The tendency of bureaucracy [is] to find purpose in whatever it is doing.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
“Foreign Policy: The Plain Lessons of a Bad Decade,” Foreign Policy (Dec 1970)
If my body is enslaved, still my mind is free.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 677
I saw a quote recently that I believe in: “News is what somebody somewhere doesn’t want you to know. All the rest is advertising.”
Dan Rather (b. 1931) American broadcast journalist
“What I’ve Learned,” Esquire (Aug 2005)Full article.
People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Parents and Children, “Family Affection” (1914)
Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 3, ch. 4 (1949)
Strip the phoney tinsel off Hollywood and you’ll find the real tinsel underneath.
Oscar Levant (1906-1972) American pianist, composer, actor, wit
(Attributed)
Love is a great beautifier.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American writer
Little Women, pt. 2, ch. 1 (1869).
Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy, Lecture 9 “On the Conduct of Understanding” (1849)
(Source)
Based on a lecture in a series given at the Royal Institution (1804-1806).
Even cowards gain courage from companionship.
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 13, l. 235 (13.235) (c. 750 BC) [tr. Butler (1898)]
(Source)
Poseidon, appearing as Thoas, talking with Idomeneus. Alt. trans.:
- "We find, / That virtue co-augmented thrives in men of little mind." [tr. Chapman (1611), ll. 218-19]
- "Not vain the weakest, if their force unite." [tr. Pope (1715-20)]
- "Union much / Emboldens even the weakest." [tr. Cowper (1791), ll. 292-93]
- "For useful is the valour of men, even the very pusillanimous, if combined." [tr. Buckley (1860)]
- "E’en meaner men, united, courage gain." [tr. Derby (1864)]
- "Ay, and very cowards get courage from company." [tr. Leaf/Lang/Myers (1891)]
- "Prowess comes from fellowship even of right sorry folk." [tr. Murray (1924)]
- "Even the poorest fighters turn into brave men when they stand side by side." [tr. Rieu (1950)]
- "The worst cowards, banded together, have their power." [tr. Fagles (1990), l. 281]
The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
(Attributed)
A cock has great influence on his own dunghill.
[In sterculino plurimum gallus potest.]
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 357
God’s merits are so transcendent that it is not surprising his faults should be in reasonable proportion.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, “Rebelliousness”(1912)Full text.
It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste is like a miser. It is better to live and be done with it, then to die daily in the sick-room.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Aes Triplex” (1878)
Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide.
John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, legal scholar, antiquarian, polymath
Table Talk, “Judgments” (1686)
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles your soul.
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) American general
“War Is No Longer a Medium of Practical Settlement of International Differences,” address at American Legion dinner, Los Angeles (26 Jan 1955)
No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of man to believe or disbelieve.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, “The Hero as Priest” (1841)
The discovery of the good taste of bad taste can be very liberating. The man who insists on high and serious pleasures is depriving himself of pleasure; he continually restricts what he can enjoy; in the constant exercise of his good taste he will eventually price himself out of the market, so to speak. Here Camp taste supervenes upon good taste as a daring and witty hedonism. It makes the man of good taste cheerful, where before he ran the risk of being chronically frustrated. It is good for the digestion.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
“Notes on ‘Camp,'” Note 54 (1964)
Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there isn’t a God.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Other People” (1931)