The dullard’s envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.
Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) English parodist, caricaturist, wit, writer [Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm]
Zuleika Dobson, ch. 4 (1911)Full text.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” st. 4 (1923)Full text.
If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 702
We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
Crowley thumped the wheel. Everything had been going so well, he’d had it really under his thumb these few centuries. That’s how it goes, you think you’re on top of the world, and suddenly they spring Armageddon on you.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 2. “Eleven Years Ago” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
The roads of life are strewn with the wreckage of run-down and half-finished loves.
Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970) American Methodist clergyman
Privately published (1960)
It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 661.
A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five-pound note. He or she is a radiating focus of goodwill; and their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been lighted. We need not care whether they could prove the forty-seventh proposition; they do a better thing than that, they practically demonstrate the great Theorem of the Liveableness of Life.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“An Apology for Idlers” (1881)
(Source)
To live is like to love — all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, “Life and Love” (1912)
(Source)
They had once — at Adam’s instigation — tried a health food diet for a while one afternoon. Their verdict was that you could live very well on healthy food provided you had a big cooked lunch beforehand.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 4. “Thursday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)
To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely sober
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “In the World” (1931)
It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of something else.
Maimonides (1135-1204) Spanish Jewish philosopher, scholar, astronomer, physician [Moses ben Maimon, Rambam, רמב״ם]
The Guide for the Perplexed (1190)
The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.
Socrates (c.470-399 BC) Greek philosopher
In Plato, The Republic, Bk. 10, sec. 617
The whiter my hair becomes, the more ready people are to believe what I say.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Interview by Woodrow Wyatt, BBC TV (1959)
Collected in Bertrand Russell's BBC Interviews (1959) [UK] and Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (1960) [US]. Reprinted (abridged) in The Humanist (1982-11/12), and in Russell Society News, #37 (1983-02).
Harriet; I have nothing much in the way of religion, or even morality, but I do recognize a code of behavior of sorts. I do know the worst sin — perhaps the only sin — passion can commit, is to be joyless. It must lie down with laughter or make its bed in hell — there is no middle way.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Gaudy Night, ch. 23 [Wimsey] (1936)
While it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Religion and Science, ch. 9 “Science of Ethics” (1935)
I’m not confused. I’m just well mixed.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
(Attributed)Quoted in the Wall Street Journal (5 Aug 1969)
You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But once you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power — he’s free again.
Alexander Solzhenitsen (1918-2008) Russian novelist, emigre [Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn]
The First Circle, ch. 17 [Bobynin] (1964) [tr. Guybon (1968)]
Prejudice and bigotry thrive on ignorance, but intelligent persons frequently are bigoted because they are uninformed in fields of knowledge that have not come within their range of study. And in this day of specialization, a person may sift scientifically the data in the field of his own cultivation, and be superstitiously gullible in areas outside his specialty. The evils of this situation are enhanced by the fact that personal prestige gained in one field gives weight to unintelligent opinions expressed in another.
Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970) American Methodist clergyman
Preface to Peace, Part I, “Barriers to be Removed,” Rockwell Lecture on Religious Subjects, Rice Institute (25 Apr 1944)Full text.
A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Ajax, l. 581.
America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.
George H. W. Bush (1924-2018) American politician, diplomat, US President (1989-1993)
Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1989)
The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of America is justice, and securing the blessings of liberty.
George Will (b. 1941) American political commentator
“A Land Fit for Heroes,” closing words, Time (11 Mar 1991)
Anger is never without a Reason,
But seldom with a good One.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Jul 1753)
It is not reasonable to deny the power of an infinite being because we cannot comprehend its operations.
John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 4.10.19 (1660)
The prime offense in the authoritarian situation is rebellion against the authority’s rule. Thus disobedience becomes the “cardinal sin”; obedience, the cardinal virtue. Obedience implies the recognition of the authority’s superior power and wisdom; his own right to command, to reward, and to punish according to his own fiats. The authority demands submission not only because oft he fear of its power, but out of the conviction of its moral superiority and right. The respect due the authority carries with it the taboo on questioning it.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics, Part IV, ch. 2a “Authoritarian Conscience” (1947)
Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Hercules Furens, Part 1, l.255 [Amphitryon] [tr. Miller (1917)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.: "Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue."
People don’t have fortunes left them in that style nowadays; men have to work and women to marry for money. It’s a dreadfully unjust world.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American writer
Little Women, pt. 1, ch. 15 [Meg] (1868).
Live always in the best company when you read.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 10 (1855)
(Source)
We must believe in free will -— we have no choice.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-American writer, Nobel laureate (b. Icek-Hersz Zynger)
Interview, “Isaac Singer’s Promised City,” City Journal (Summer 1997)Singer made this ironic statement on numerous occasions.
Put the argument into a concrete shape, into an image — some hard phrase, round and solid as a ball, which they can see and handle and carry home with them — and the cause is half-won.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Eloquence,” Society and Solitude (1870)
When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Spectator #117 (14 Jul 1711)
And his hands would plait the priest’s entrails,
For want of a rope, to strangle kings.[Et ses mains ourdiraient les entrailles du prêtre,
Au défaut d’un cordon pour étrangler les rois.]Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
Poésies Diverses, “Les Éleuthéromanes” (1875)
Alt. trans. "His hands would plait the priest’s guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings."
Derived from a statement attributed (but not confirmed) to Jean Meslier: "I would like — and this would be the last and most ardent of my wishes — I would like the last of the kings to be strangled by the guts of the last priest."
Variant: "Let us strangle the last king with the guts of the last priest."
[Et des boyaux du dernier prêtre / Serrons le cou du dernier roi.]
This version was attributed to Diderot in Jean-François de La Harpe, Cours de Littérature Ancienne et Moderne (1840)
Sometimes paraphrased as, ""Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest," etc.
Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much: — surely that may be his epitaph of which he need not be ashamed.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“A Christmas Sermon,” Across the Plains, ch. 12 (1892)
The Earth, say’st thou? The Human race?
By Me created? Sad its lot?
Nay: I have no remembrance of such place:
Such world I fashioned not.
I believe that courage is morally neutral. I can well imagine wicked people being brave and good people being timid or afraid. I don’t consider it a moral virtue.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
Interview, “The ‘Traitor’ Fires Back” (by David Talbot), Salon (16 Oct 2001)
Ultimately, we’re all dead men. Sadly we cannot choose how. But, we can decide how we meet that end in order that we are remembered as men.
David Franzoni (b. 1947) American screenwriter
Gladiator [Proximo] (2000)
The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
All Trivia, “Last Words,” (1933)
There is only one kind of wisdom that has any social value, and that is the knowledge of one’s own limitations.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Gaudy Night, ch. 17 [Wimsey] (1936)
It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Sceptical Essays, ch. 1, “The Value of Scepticism” (1928)
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“The Figure a Poem Makes,” Collected Poems, Preface, “The Figure a Poem Makes” (1939)
(Source)
To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.
Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) American businessman and statesman
In The Observer [London] (21 Aug 1955)
Regarding his 85th birthday.
Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?
William O. Douglas (1898-1980) US Supreme Court justice (1939-75)
(Attributed)Statement on arrests of protesters for disorderly conduct; recalled on his retirement (12 Nov 1975)
Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
Hard Lines, “Reflections on Ice-Breaking” (1931)
Sins of the mind can be so much more subtly dangerous than sins of the body. The latter, such as lust or intemperance, usually leave their open marks and thereby are likely to induce a sense of shame and a spirit of repentance. But mental sins, such as prejudice or pride, beget no bodily
brakes which serve to check their progress.Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970) American Methodist clergyman
Preface to Peace, Part I, “Barriers to be Removed,” Rockwell Lecture on Religious Subjects, Rice Institute (25 Apr 1944)Full text.
No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 671.
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. Do what you can.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy, Lecture 19 “On the Conduct of the Understanding, Part 2” (1849)
(Source)
Based on a lecture in a series given at the Royal Institution (1804-1806).
No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
The Meaning of It All, “The Uncertainty of Values” (1999)
(Source)
IVANOVA: I’ve always had a hard time getting up when it’s dark outside.
SINCLAIR: But in space, it’s always dark.
IVANOVA: I know. I know.J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author [a/k/a "JMS"]
Babylon 5, 1×13 “Signs and Portents” (8 May 1994)
TEVYE: [to God] Sometimes I wonder, when it gets too quiet up there, if You are thinking, “What kind of mischief can I play on My friend Tevye?”
Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916) Russian-Jewish humorist [pseud. for Sholem Rabinowitz]
Fiddler on the Roof [with Joseph Stein] (1971)
What I’m saying is, if God wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
Contact [Dr. Arroway] (1985)
There’s many a good tune played on an old fiddle.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Way of All Flesh, ch. 61 (1903)
Full text.
The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny — Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.
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.
A peach is not its fuzz, a toad is not its warts, a person is not his or her crankiness. If we can make distinctions, we can be tolerant, and we can get to the heart of our problems instead of wrestling endlessly with their gross exteriors.
Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)Full text.
There are things I can’t force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)
No philosophy, sadly, has all the answers. No matter how assured we may be about certain aspects of our belief, there are always painful inconsistencies, exceptions, and contradictions. This is true in religion as it is in politics, and is self-evident to all except fanatics and the naive.
Steve Allen (1922-2000) American composer, entertainer, and wit.
Essay, in P. Berman, The Courage of Conviction (1985)
A right is not what someone gives you; it’s what no one can take from you.
Ramsey Clark (1927-2021) American lawyer, bureaucrat, statesman
New York Times (2 Oct 1977)
When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-American writer, Nobel laureate (b. Icek-Hersz Zynger)
Interview with R. Burgin, New York Times Magazine (26 Nov 1978)
Many’s a long night I’ve dreamed of cheese — toasted mostly.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Treasure Island, ch. 15 “The Man of the Island” (1883)
Practically, I am, nevertheless, compelled to act as if freedom of the will existed. If I wish to live in a civilized community, I must act as if man is a responsible being. I know that philosophically a murderer is not responsible for his crime; nevertheless, I must protect myself from unpleasant contacts. I may consider him guiltless, but I prefer not to take tea with him.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“What Life Means to Einstein,” Interview with G. Viereck, Saturday Evening Post (26 Oct 1929)
(Source)
Edited as "I am compelled to act as if free will existed, because if I wish to live in a civilized society I must act responsibly. I know that philosophically a murderer is not responsible for his crime, but I prefer not to take tea with him," in Viereck, Glimpses of the Great (1930).
To parents only, death brings an inconsolable sorrow. When the young die and the old live, nature’s machinery is working with the friction that we name grief.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 8, “Epigrams” (1911)Full text.
“Please don’t do that,” said Harriet, feeling as though she were feebly saying, “Drop it, Caesar,” to somebody else’s large and disobedient Alsatian.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Gaudy Night, ch. 12 (1936)
“I don’t keer w’at you do wid me, Brer Fox,” sezee, “so you don’t fling me in dat brier-patch. Roas’ me, Brer Fox” sezee, “but don’t fling me in dat brier-patch,” sezee.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) American writer
Legends of the Old Plantation, “How Mr. Rabbit was too sharp for Mr. Fox” (1886)
If an individual wants to be a leader and isn’t controversial, that means he never stood for anything.
Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) American politician, writer, US President (1967-74)
Dallas Times-Herald (10 Dec 1978)
There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my knees shake with blind affection. My mind begs you to ask it something so it can obey.
William Goldman (1931-2018) American screenwriter, novelist
The Princess Bride [Buttercup] (1973)
The best way to hate is the worst.
‘Tis to find what the hated need,
Never mind of what actual worth,
And wipe that out of the earth.
Let them die of unsatisfied greed.Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“The Vindictives”
As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)
The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in this world for ugly mathematics.
G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) British mathematician [Godfrey Harold Hardy]
A Mathematician’s Apology (1941)
It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
AIDS and Its Metaphors, ch. 4 (1989)
“My friends!” cried the elephant.
“Tell me! Do tell!
Are you safe? Are you sound?
Are you whole? Are you well?”Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) American author, illustrator [pseud. of Theodor Geisel]
Horton Hears a Who! (1954)
No one who errs unwillingly is evil.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 582 [Tyro]
Good men are ever getting in the way of the good. Look back over the changes which have made for social progress, and observe those who opposed them at the time of the change. Religion does not escape condemnation at this point. The prophets of religion have called men to the vision of new horizons and to the struggle toward new social gains. On the other hand, there is scarcely a form of meanness or narrowness that has not had sometime or somewhere the sanction of religion. Religion has promoted both candor and prejudice, both stubbornness and sweet reasonableness, both ruthlessness and gentleness.
Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970) American Methodist clergyman
Preface to Peace, Part I, “Barriers to be Removed,” Rockwell Lecture on Religious Subjects, Rice Institute (25 Apr 1944)Full text.
The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Revolt in 2100, Postscript (1953)
‘Tis not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess.
John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, legal scholar, antiquarian, polymath
Table Talk, “Humility” (1686)
Practice is the best of all instructors.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 439
There are hundreds of millions who believe the Messiah has come. If he did, then it is unfortunately the case that his heroic sacrifice and death have had no effect whatsoever on the very problem his coming might have been expected to address, for history demonstrates, beyond question, that we Christians have been just as dangerous, singly and en masse, as non-Christians.
Steve Allen (1922-2000) American composer, entertainer, and wit.
The Bible, Religion, and Morality (1990)
It is only when we are very happy, that we can bear to gaze merrily upon the vast and limitless expanse of water, rolling on and on with such persistent, irritating monotony, to the accompaniment of our thoughts, whether grave or gay. When they are gay, the waves echo their gaiety; but when they are sad, then every breaker, as it rolls, seems to bring additional sadness, and to speak to us of hopelessness and of the pettiness of all our joys.
Emma, Baroness Orczy (1865-1947) Hungarian-British author, artist [Emma ("Emmuska") Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orczi]
The Scarlet Pimpernel, ch. 21 “Suspense” (1903)
Every man is his own doctor of divinity, in the last resort.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
An Inland Voyage (1878)
A good deed is the best prayer. A loving life is the best religion.
No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
L’Encyclopédie, Vol. 1, “Political Authority” (article) (1751)
Reinventing the wheel is bad not only because it wastes time, but because reinvented wheels are often square. There is an almost irresistible temptation to economize on reinvention time by taking a shortcut to a crude and poorly-thought-out version, which in the long run often turns out to be false economy.
Henry Spencer (b. 1955) Canadian computer scientist, space enthusiast
(Attributed)
Quoted in E. Raymond, The Art of UNIX Programming, ch. 16 (2004)
From your confessor, lawyer and physician,
Hide not your case on no condition.Sir John Harrington (1561-1612) English courtier, writer, inventor (also "John Harington")
“Metamorphosis of Ajax” (1596)
Administrivia: Search problems, changes
A copule of things:
- Yahoo has discontinued its site Search Builder program, in exchange allowing folks to do much more powerful (and complicated) customized search bits. As a result, the old Yahoo search box stopped working, and I’ve removed it until I figure out how to make Yahoo searches work from here again.
- The FastSearch box is also acting persnickety, for reasons I cannot diagnose as yet. I’ve labeled it as “NOT WORKING,” and re-enabled the normal slower-but-more-thorough MT search functionality in the sidebar.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
To find the point where hypothesis and fact meet; the delicate equilibrium between dream and reality; the place where fantasy and earthly things are metamorphosed into a work of art; the hour when faith in the future becomes knowledge of the past; to lay down one’s power for others in need; to shake off the old ordeal and get ready for the new; to question, knowing that never can the full answer be found; to accept uncertainties quietly, even our incomplete knowledge of God; this is what man’s journey is about, I think.
Lillian Smith (1897-1966) American author
The Journey, ch. 15 (1954)
The seasons come and the seasons go, the summer fruit and the winter snow, but here we are, and here we stay — until the time to go away.
Ah, they say, there’s a land that is great, and is grand; there’s no fear, and no pain — we will all live again — and everyone will find the ones they love.Eden Ahbez (1909–1995) American songwriter
Eden’s Island, “The Wanderer” (1960)
In childhood we expect, in youth demand, in manhood hope, and in age beseech.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 8, “Epigrams” (1911)Full text.
Either your pride or mine have to be sacrificed — I can only appeal to your generosity to let it be yours.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Busman’s Honeymoon, “Promalthion” [Wimsey] (1937)
Administrivia: A few election quotations
It’s Election Day here in the US. On my “regular” blog, I’ve pulled some WIST quotations from some past US Presidents about the future before us.
In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
Perhaps we cannot raise the winds. But each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes we can catch it.
E. F. Schumacher (1911-1977) German-English economist, statistician [Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher]
Small is Beautiful (1973)
Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small. And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Annual Message to Congress (6 Jan 1941)Full text.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“Mending Wall” (1914)
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?” sec. “Don’t Be Too Certain!” (1949)
(Source)
Originally given as a speech, "Agnosticism v. Atheism," Rationalist Press Assoc. Annual Dinner, London (1949-05-20), then printed as "Agnosticism v. Atheism," The Literary Guide and Rationalist Review (1949-07), then released as an essay under this title later in 1949.
When men become nervously concerned for orthodoxy it is a sign of some lurking skepticism within their own belief. Faith that is sure of itself does not feel the need of noisily defending its creeds.
Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970) American Methodist clergyman
Preface to Peace, Part I, “Barriers to be Removed,” Rockwell Lecture on Religious Subjects, Rice Institute (25 Apr 1944)Full text.
A fearful man is always hearing things.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 58 (Acrisius)
Alt trans: "To the man who is afraid, everything rustles."
The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody’s business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.
Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Acceptance speech, Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia (27 Jun 1936)
From noise of Scare-fires rest ye free,
From Murders Benedicite.
From all mischances, they may fright
Your pleasing slumbers in the night:
Mercie secure ye all, and keep
The Goblins from ye, while ye sleep.
To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives: it is the only way we can leave the future open. Man, surrounded by facts, permitting himself no surmise, no intuitive flash, no great hypothesis, no risk, is in a locked cell. Ignorance cannot seal the mind and imagination more surely.
Lillian Smith (1897-1966) American author
The Journey, ch. 15 (1954)
No man is genuinely happy, married, who has to drink worse gin than he used to drink when he was single.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Reflections on Monogamy,” Prejudices (1919-27)
