The drama of life begins with a wail and ends with a sigh.
Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Naked Truth and Veiled Allusions (1901)
Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
Poem title (1942)
I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, Postscript (1967)
Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790)
It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Oedipus at Colonus, l. 1143
If public opinion were determined by a throw of the dice, it would in the long run be half the time right.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 8, “Epigrams” (1911)Full text.
There is never a deed so foul that something couldn’t be said for the guy; that’s why there are lawyers.
Melvin Belli (1907-1996) American lawyer
Quoted in Los Angeles Times (18 Dec 1981)
The rule of law can be wiped out in one misguided, however well-intentioned, generation.
William T. Gossett (1905-1998) American lawyer, reformer
Speech (11 Aug 1969)
A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing out and you can’t do anything about it. Then you understand the horror of war. Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar. And still, there are things worth fighting for.
Norman Schwarzkopf (1934-2012) American military leader
Interview, US News & World Report (1 Oct 1990)
Spiritual leadership should remain spiritual leadership and the temporal power should not become too important in any church.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Letter to Cardinal Spellman (23 Jul 1949)Full text.
It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense, either by sumptuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries. They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of the subject never will.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, Book II, ch. iii, sec. 36 (1776)
“My mother said violence never solves anything.”
“So?” Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. “I’m sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Starship Troopers, ch. 2 (1959)
When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, Part V “As Far as Thought Can Reach” [The He-Ancient] (1921)Full text.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) American poet
“The New Colossus” (1883)
The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts], No. 16 (1746)
It is far more important to love your wife than to love God, and I will tell you why. You cannot help him, but you can help her. You can fill her life with the perfume of perpetual joy. It is far more important that you love your children than that you love Jesus Christ. And why? If he is God you cannot help him, but you can plant a little flower of happiness in every footstep of the child, from the cradle until you die in that child’s arms. Let me tell you to-day it is far more important to build a home than to erect a church. The holiest temple beneath the stars is a home that love has built. And the holiest altar in all the wide world is the fireside around which gather father and mother and the sweet babes.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do to Be Saved?” Sec. 2 (1880)
No man lives in the external truth among salts and acids, but in the warm, phantasmagoric chamber of his brain, with the painted windows and the storied wall.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“The Lantern-bearers,” Across the Plains (1892)
Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-American writer, Nobel laureate (b. Icek-Hersz Zynger)
New York Times (3 Dec 1978)
Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 8, “Epigrams” (1911)Full text.
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) French statesman and soldier
(Attributed)Alt. trans.: "Since a politician never believes what he says, he is absolutely nonplussed when he is taken at his word."
In the past it never occurred to me that every casual remark of mine would be snatched up and recorded. Otherwise I would have crept further into my shell.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Letter to Carl Seelig (25 Oct 1953) [Einstein Archive 39-053]
Life is half delicious yogurt, half crap, and your job is to keep the plastic spoon in the yogurt.
Scott Adams (b. 1957) American cartoonist
Dilbert Blog, “Sleepless in California” (21 Jul 2006)
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)
I want to be able to sit down with anyone who may have a new idea and not be afraid of contamination by association. In a democracy you must be able to meet with people and argue your point of view–people whom you have not screened beforehand. That must be part of the freedom of people in the United States.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
(Attributed)Quoted in J. Lash, <i>Eleanor: The Years Alone</i> (1972)
You had better be the emperor of one loving and tender heart, and she the empress of yours, than to be king of the world. The man who has really won the love of one good woman in this world, I do not care if he dies in the ditch a beggar, his life has been a success.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)
(Source)
All who have meant good work with their whole hearts, have done good work, although they may die before they have the time to sign it. Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind. And even if death catch people, like an open pitfall, and in mid-career, laying out vast projects, and planning monstrous foundations, flushed with hope, and their mouths full of boastful language, they should be at once tripped up and silenced: is there not something brave and spirited in such a termination? and does not life go down with a better grace, foaming in full body over a precipice, than miserably straggling to an end in sandy deltas?
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Aes Triplex” (1878)
Scrutamini scripturas (Let us look at the scriptures). These two words have undone the world.
John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, legal scholar, antiquarian, polymath
Table Talk, “Bible, Scripture” (1686)
Bravery and Courage: If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows not fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened. The courageous man is the man who forces himself, in spite of his fear, to carry on. Discipline, pride, self-respect, self-confidence, and the love of glory are attributes which will make a man courageous even when he is afraid.
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
War As I Knew It (1947)
“Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?”
“So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober. Which accounts for my talking so much”
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Gaudy Night, ch. 15 [Harriet and Peter] (1936)
If you have done terrible things, you must endure terrible things; for thus the sacred light of injustice shines bright.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Ajax, l. 11
The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide — as, I think, he will. Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips, and guns — or dollars. Take your choice — there is no other — and your time is running out.
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
Atlas Shrugged (1957)
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” “Education” (1903)
(Source)
The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, “I don’t know”, then it becomes possible to get at the truth.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, ch. 18 [Gwen Novak] (1985)
What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can be flourishing and happy if the greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, Book I, ch. viii (1776)
To choose this or that is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil. We always choose the good, and nothing can be good for us without being good for all.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
Existentialism and Human Emotions (1957)
So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Lay Morals and Other Essays, ch. 4 “Lay Morals” (1911)
(Source)
The most intolerant advocate is he who is trying to convince himself.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 8, “Epigrams” (1911)Full text.
If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion’s sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Interview, The Sunday Union, New Haven, Conn. (10 Apr 1881)
(Source)
To oppose one class perpetually to another — young against old, manual labour against brain-worker, rich against poor, woman against man — is to split the foundations of the State; and if the cleavage runs too deep, there remains no remedy but force and dictatorship. If you wish to preserve a free democracy, you must base it — not on classes and categories, for this will land you in the totalitarian State, where no one may act or think except as a member of a category. You must base it upon the individual Tom, Dick and Harry, and the individual Jack and Jill — in fact, upon you and me.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
“Are Women Human?”, Address to a Women’s Society, conclusion (1938)Full text.
And this actually makes sense, in the way Agathon puts it: “As you might expect, many improbable things do happen.”
[ἔστιν δὲ τοῦτο καὶ εἰκὸς ὥσπερ Ἀγάθων λέγει, εἰκὸς γὰρ γίνεσθαι πολλὰ καὶ παρὰ τὸ εἰκός.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Poetics [Περὶ ποιητικῆς, De Poetica], ch. 18 / 1456a (c. 335 BC) [tr. Whalley (1997)]
(Source)
Original Greek. Alternate translations:Such an event is probable in Agathon’s sense of the word: "It is probable," he says, "that many things should happen contrary to probability."
[tr. Butcher (1895)]This is probable, however, only in Agathon's sense, when he speaks of the probability of even improbabilities coming to pass.
[tr. Bywater (1909)]And there is a probability about such a results, for, as Agathon says, the improbable has a tendency to occur.
[tr. Margoliouth (1911)]And this, as Agathon says, is a likely result, since it is likely that many quite unlikely things should happen.
[tr. Fyfe (1932)]This is even probable, as Agathon says; for it is probable that many things will happen even against probability.
[tr. Janko (1987), sec. 4.3.7]And this actually makes sense, in the way Agathon puts it: "As you might expect, many improbable things do happen."
[tr. Whalley (1997)]And this is even likely in the sense in which Agathon speaks of it, since it is likely that many things happen contrary to what is likely.
[tr. Sachs (2006)]This is not improbable, since, as Agathon remarks, it is probable that many improbable things should happen.
[tr. Kenny (2013)]
The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv’d them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas’d them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) American revolutionary, statesman
Essay (written as “Candidus”), The Boston Gazette (14 Oct 1771)
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Letter (24 Mar 1954)Quoted in Dukas & Hoffman (eds), Albert Einstein: the Human Side (1981)
People are so conditioned to take sides that a balanced analysis looks to them like hatred.
Scott Adams (b. 1957) American cartoonist
Dilbert [Dilbert] (26 Mar 2005)
As neither reason requires nor religion permits the contrary, every man living in or out of a state of civil society has a right peaceably and quietly to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience.
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) American revolutionary, statesman
“The Rights of the Colonists” (20 Nov 1772)Full text.
AGATHA: I hardly know him!
CASTLE: What’s to know? His family is powerful, his spark burns strong, he’s already taken with you —
AGATHA: But —
CASTLE: — and you cannot deny that he has a magnificent Death Ray.
AGATHA: … that’s … that’s hardly a basis for stable relationship.Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
Girl Genius, “Back in the Castle” [with Kaja Foglio] (29 Aug 2008)
To seem to not be affected by the joy of our companions is but want of politeness; but to not wear a serious countentance when they tell us their afflictions, is real and gross inhumanity.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, sec. 1, ch. ii (1759)
Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes all the pressure off the second.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
(Attributed)Quoted in Vogue (15 Mar 1963)
I do not believe that I am now dreaming, but I cannot prove that I am not. I am, however, quite certain that I am having certain experiences, whether they be those of a dream or those of waking life.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948)
The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1923-04-07), “Weekly Article: Helping Girls With Their Income Tax”
(Source)
Collected by Rogers in The Illiterate Digest (1924).
The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“The Life and Writings of Addison,” Edinburg Review (1843)
(Source)
Review of Lucy Aikin, The Life of Joseph Addison (1843).
It is important to realize that any lock can be picked with a big enough hammer.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Sun System & Network Admin Manual
Then, do not have one mind, and one alone
that only your opinion can be right.
Whoever thinks that he alone is wise,
his eloquence, his mind, above the rest,
come the unfolding, shows his emptiness.[μή νυν ἓν ἦθος μοῦνον ἐν σαυτῷ φόρει,
ὡς φὴς σύ, κοὐδὲν ἄλλο, τοῦτ᾽ ὀρθῶς ἔχειν.
ὅστις γὰρ αὐτὸς ἢ φρονεῖν μόνος δοκεῖ,
ἢ γλῶσσαν, ἣν οὐκ ἄλλος, ἢ ψυχὴν ἔχειν,
οὗτοι διαπτυχθέντες ὤφθησαν κενοί.]Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Antigone, l. 705ff [Haemon] (441 BC) [tr. Wyckoff]
(Source)
Original Greek. Alt. trans.:Then cleave not solely to this principle --
Thy words, no other man's, are free from error.
For whoso thinks that he alone is wise,
That his discourse and reason are unmatched,
He, when unwrapt, displays his emptiness.
[tr. Donaldson (1848)]Therefore, my father, cling not to one mood,
And deem not thou art right, all others wrong.
For whoso thinks that wisdom dwells with him,
That he alone can speak or think aright,
Such oracles are empty breath when tried.
[tr. Storr (1859)]Do not, then, bear one mood only in yourself: do not think that your word and no other, must be right. For if any man thinks that he alone is wise -- that in speech or in mind he has no peer -- such a soul, when laid open, is always found empty.
[tr. Jebb (1891)]Oh, do not, then, retain thy will
And still believe no sense but thine
Can judge aright; the man who proudly thinks
None but himself or eloquent or wise,
By time betrayed is branded for an idiot.
[tr. Werner (1892)]Wear not, then, one mood only in thyself; think not that thy word, and thine alone, must be right. For if any man thinks that he alone is wise, -- that in speech, or in mind, he hath no peer, -- such a soul, when laid open, is ever found empty.
[tr. Jebb (1917)]I beg you, do not be unchangeable:
Do not believe that you alone can be right.
The man who thinks that,
The man who maintains that only he has the power
To reason correctly, the gift to speak, to soul ––
A man like that, when you know him, turns out empty.
[tr. Fitts/Fitzgerald (1939), ll. 564 ff]Therefore I say,
Let not your first thought be your only thought.
Think if there cannot be some other way.
Surely, to think your own the only wisdom,
And yours the only word, the only will,
Betrays a shallow spirit, an empty heart.
[tr. Watling (1947), ll. 602 ff]And now, don't always cling to the same anger,
Don't keep saying that this, and nothing else, is right.
If a man believes that he along has a sound mind,
And no one else can speak or think as well as he does,
Then, when people study him, they'll find an empty book.
[tr. Woodruff (2001)]So, don’t be so single-minded. You said it yourself quite rightly: he who thinks that he’s the only one with a brain or a tongue or a soul, if you open him up you’ll find that he’s a hollow man.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]So don’t let your mind dwell on just one thought,
that what you say is right and nothing else.
A man who thinks that only he is wise,
that he can speak and think like no one else,
when such men are exposed, then all can see
their emptiness inside.
[tr. Johnston (2005), ll. 799 ff]Do not wear one and only one frame of mind in yourself,
that what you say, and nothing else, is right.
Whoever imagines that he and he alone has sense
or has a tongue or an essence that no other has,
these men, when unfolded, are seen to be empty.
[tr. Tyrell/Bennett]
Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Letter to a Member of the National Assembly” (1791)Full text.
Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good as someone else.
William Saroyan (1908-1981) American writer
The Resurrection of a Life (1935)
I believe that you must apply to all groups the right to all forms of thought, to all forms of expression.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Speech, Chicago Civil Liberties Committee (1940)
The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests, or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it. He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it.
If those two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously, and is very likely to be happy and successful. If they are opposite or different, the game will go on miserably, and the society must be at all times in the highest degree of disorder.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
I wanted the hurtling moons of Barsoom. I wanted Storisende and Poictesme, and Holmes shaking me awake to tell me, “The game’s afoot!” I wanted to float down the Mississippi on a raft and elude a mob in company with the Duke of Bilgewater and the Lost Dauphin.
I wanted Prester John, and Excalibur held by a moon-white arm out of a silent lake. I wanted to sail with Ulysses and with Tros of Samothrace and eat the lotus in a land that seemed always afternoon. I wanted the feeling of romance and the sense of wonder I had known as a kid. I wanted the world to be what they had promised me it was going to be — instead of the tawdry, lousy fouled-up mess it is.
I had had one chance — for ten minutes yesterday afternoon. Helen of Troy, whatever your true name may be — And I had known it … and I had let it slip away.
Maybe one chance is all you ever get.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Glory Road, ch. 3 (1963)
Writers must fortify themselves with pride and egotism as best they can. The process is analogous to using sandbags and loose timbers to protect a house against flood. Writers are vulnerable creatures like anyone else. For what do they have in reality? Not sandbags, not timbers. Just a flimsy reputation and a name.
Brian Aldiss (1925-2017) English writer, editor
Bury My Heart at W.H. Smith’s, “Apéritif” (1990)
Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love, and respect. — If, we strive to become, then, what we strive to appear, manners may often be rendered useful guides to the performance of our duties.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Sermon (1809 pub.), “On the Judgments We Form of Others”
(Source)
Sermon on Leviticus 19:15.
Standing in the presence of the Unknown, all have the same right to think, and all are equally interested in the great question of origin and destiny. All I claim, all I plead for, is liberty of thought and expression. That is all.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)
A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts] (1746)Alt trans.: "The first step towards philosophy is incredulity."
I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the Middle of the Winter.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Spectator #269 (8 Jan 1712)
Some white people hate black people, and some white people love black people, some black people hate white people, and some black people love white people. So you see it’s not an issue of black and white, it’s an issue of Lovers and Haters.
Eden Ahbez (1909–1995) American songwriter
(Attributed)Quoted by Joe Romersa (1992)
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) American transcendentalist, teacher, writer
Table Talk, Bk. 1, “Quotation” (1877)
In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.
Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“The Fear of Dying” (1857)
Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one’s arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.
Hyman Rickover (1900-1986) US Navy Admiral
(Attributed)Quoted in T. Rockwell, The Rickover Effect (1992).
As you know, the best way to solve a problem is to identify the core belief that causes the problem; then mock that belief until the people who hold it insist that you heard them wrong.
Scott Adams (b. 1957) American cartoonist
“DNRC Newsletter” #58 (11 Nov 2004)
Just as we teach children to avoid being destroyed by motor cars if they can, so we should teach them to avoid being destroyed by cruel fanatics, and to this end we should seek to produce independence of mind, somewhat sceptical and wholly scientific, and to preserve, as far as possible, the instinctive joy of life that is natural to healthy children. This is the task of a liberal education: to give a sense of the value of things other than domination, to help create wise citizens of a free community, and through the combination of citizenship with liberty in individual creativeness to enable men to give to human life that splendour which some few have shown that it can achieve.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Power: A New Social Analysis, ch. 18 “The Taming of Power” (1938)
Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“In the Clearing” (1962)
Hell is a city much like London —
A populous and smoky city.Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English poet
Peter Bell the Third, Pt. III, st. 1 (1819)Full text.
The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
Murder on the Orient Express [Poirot] (1934)
People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those, who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous, more or less.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letter to Charles James Fox (8 Oct 1777)
Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Ajax, l. 362
From there to here,
from here to there,
funny things are everywhere.Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) American author, illustrator [pseud. of Theodor Geisel]
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960)
In modern America, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events of the day finds it difficult to concoct a situation so bizarre that it may not actually come to pass while his article is still on the presses.
Calvin Trillin (b. 1935) American journalist, humorist, novelist
Uncivil Liberties, Introduction (1982)
Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.
Lemony Snicket (b. 1970) American author, screenwriter, musician (pseud. for Daniel Handler)
The Slippery Slope, ch. 1 (2003)
People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
Speech, Democratic National Committee Convention, Denver (27 Aug 2008)Full text.
I don’t invent characters because the Almightly has already invented millions. … Just like experts at fingerprints do not create fingerprints but learn how to read them.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-American writer, Nobel laureate (b. Icek-Hersz Zynger)
Interview with Richard Burgin, New York Times Magazine (26 Nov 1978)
Action and becoming are one.
Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328?) German theologian, philosopher, mystic [a.k.a. Johannes Eckhart von Hochheim; Eckhart; Eckehart]
Sermons #18 [tr. Blakney (1941)]
But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and shew them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, Book I, ch. ii, sec. 2 (1776)
How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
The Cat Who Walked Through Walls (1985)
What do we find God ‘doing about’ this business of sin and evil? … God did not abolish the fact of evil; He transformed it. He did not stop the Crucifixion; He rose from the dead.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Creed or Chaos? (1940)
NARRATOR: The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices — to be found in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own — for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to … the Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Twilight Zone, 1×02 “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (4 Mar 1960)
And do you know, it is a splendid thing to think that the woman you really love will never grow old to you. Through the wrinkles of time, through the mask of years, if you really love her, you will always see the face you loved and won. And a woman who really loves a man does not see that he grows old; he is not decrepit to her; he does not tremble; he is not old; she always sees the same gallant gentleman who won her hand and heart. I like to think of it in that way; I like to think that love is eternal. And to love in that way and then go down the hill of life together, and as you go down, hear, perhaps, the laughter of grandchildren, while the birds of joy and love sing once more in the leafless branches of the tree of age.
Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Letter to Cardinal Spellman (23 Jul 1949)Full text.
Whenever you write, whatever you write, never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.
Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
(Attributed)
You are confounded at my violence and passion, and I am enraged at your cold insensibility and want of feelings.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, sec. 1, ch. iv (1759)
Every generation of humans believed it had all the answers it needed, except for a few mysteries they assumed would be solved at any moment. And they all believed their ancestors were simplistic and deluded. What are the odds that you are the first generation of humans who will understand reality?
Scott Adams (b. 1957) American cartoonist
God’s Debris [The Avatar] (2001)
The object of preaching is, constantly to remind mankind of what mankind are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.
Don’t join too many gangs. Join few if any.
Join the United States and join the family —
But not much in between, unless a college.Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“Build Soil” (1932)
In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Education, Especially in Early Childhood” (1926)
My creed is that public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation with full recognition that every human being is entitled to courtesy and consideration, that constructive criticism is not only to be expected but sought, that smears are not only to be expected but fought, that honor is to be earned but not bought.
Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1965) American politician (US Senator, Maine)
Speech (11 Nov 1953)
If people really want to go, and really try all their lives, I think they will get in; for I don’t believe there are any locks on that door, or any guards at the gate. I always imagine it is as it is in the picture, where the shining ones stretch out their hands to welcome poor Christian as he comes up from the river.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American writer
Little Women, ch. 13 [Beth] (1868)
Your friend insults the homeless by giving them no credit for having made the decisions that shaped their lives, and demeans them further by declaring them powerless to alter their situations. There’re many ways, my dear, to victimize people. The most insidious way is to persuade them that they’re victims.
Tom Robbins (b. 1932) American novelist
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994)
LORD NORTHCLIFFE: The trouble with you, Shaw, is that you look as if there were famine in the land.
SHAW: The trouble with you, Northcliffe, is that you look as if you were the cause of it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)Exchange with Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe. Likely apocryphal.
All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, Book III, ch. iv, sec. 10 (1776)
All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Way of All Flesh, ch. 19 (1903)
Full text.
Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more. All the wealthy, unhappy people you’ve ever met take sleeping pills;
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Starship Troopers, ch. 4 (1959)
To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts], ch. 5 (1746)
If a person’s religious ideas correspond not with your own, love him nevertheless. How different would yours have been, had the chance of birth placed you in Tartary or India!
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English poet
Declaration of Rights, article 25 (1812)