They say that dogs lick their own genitalia because they can. But I think it’s at least partially because they don’t have the Internet.
Scott Adams (b. 1957) American cartoonist
Dilbert Blog, “My day as a Neanderthal” (25 Oct 2006)
Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) American revolutionary, statesman
Speech, State House of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1 Aug 1776)
There’s birth, there’s death, and in between there’s maintenance.
Tom Robbins (b. 1932) American novelist
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000)
L’amour vient de l’aveuglement,
L’amitiè de la connaissance.[Love comes from blindness,
Friendship from knowledge.]Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy (1618-1693) French soldier, libertine, writer [a.k.a. Roger Bussy-Rabutin]
Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules: Maximes d’Amour, pt. 1 (1665)
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
In America everybody is of opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Unpopular Essays, ch. 10 “Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind” (1950)
I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
The year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing’
The snail’s on the thorn:
God’s in is heaven —
All’s right with the world!Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet
“Pippa Passes”, pt. 1, l. 221 (1841)
Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when widespread, produce social disaster.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Education, Especially in Early Childhood” (1926)
But dreadful is the mysterious power of fate — there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by towered city, or dark, sea-beaten ships.
[ἀλλ᾽ ἁ μοιριδία τις δύνασις δεινά:
οὔτ᾽ ἄν νιν ὄλβος οὔτ᾽ Ἄρης, οὐ πύργος, οὐχ ἁλίκτυποι
κελαιναὶ νᾶες ἐκφύγοιεν.]Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Antigone, l. 951, Strophe 1 (Stasimon 4) [Chorus] (441 BC) [tr. Jebb (1891)]
(Source)
Original Greek. Alt. trans.:Strange are the ways of Fate, her power
Nor wealth, nor arms withstand, nor tower;
Nor brass-prowed ships, that breast the sea
From Fate can flee.
[tr. Storr (1859)]No power in wealth or war
Or tough sea-blackened ships
Can prevail against untiring Destiny!
[tr. Fitts/Fitzgerald (1939), ll. 744-46]There is no tower.
So high, no armory so great,
No ship so swift, as is the power
Of man's inexorable fate.
[tr. Watling (1947)]Mysterious, overmastering, is the power of Fate,
From this, nor wealth nor force of arms
Nor strong encircling city-walls
Nor storm-tossed ship can give deliverance.
[tr. Kitto (1962)]Fate has a terrible power
That nothing escapes, not wealth,
Not warfare, not a fortress tower,
Not even black ships beating against the sea.
[tr. Woodruff (2001)]Fate's power, though, is mighty, and neither Lords of lands nor Ares nor castles nor flighty ships well-beaten by the waves can escape her.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]But the power of fate is full of mystery.
There’s no evading it, no, not with wealth,
or war, or walls, or black sea-beaten ships.
[tr. Johnston (2005)]But the power of fate (whatever it may be) is terrible and wonderful.
Neither wealth nor Ares,
no tower, no dark ships
beaten by the sea can escape it.
[tr. Tyrell/Bennett]
Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science — by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans — teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
The Demon-Haunted World (1995)
Where religion speaks of the heart and soul, and of what happens before we’re born and after we die, and why, then agreeing or disagreeing with it is a matter of personal taste, spirit, and judgment. Where it speaks of the objective, of the real world, of what evidence of our eyes should be accepted or rejected, it is worth no more than anyone else spouting off at a cocktail party.
Graham Ericsson (b. 1947) American writer, aphorist
Into a New Day (2008)
Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (23 Jan 1825)
(Source)
If it’s stupid but works, it isn’t stupid.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Amphibious Warfare Review (Spring 1989)
Just as the mother’s womb holds us for ten months not in preparation for itself but for the region to which we seem to be discharged when we are capable of drawing breath and surviving in the open, so in the span extending from infancy to old age we are ripening for another birth. Another beginning awaits us, another status. We cannot yet bear heaven’s light except at intervals; look unfalteringly, then, to that decisive hour which is the body’s last but not the soul’s.
All that lies about you look upon as the luggage in a posting station; you must push on. At your departure Nature strips you as bare as at your entry. You cannot carry out more than you brought in; indeed, you must lay down a good part of what you brought into life. The envelope of skin, which is your last covering, will be stripped off; the flesh and the blood which is diffused and courses through the whole of it will be stripped off; the bones and sinews which are the structural support of the shapeless and precarious mass will be stripped off.
That day which you dread as the end is your birth into eternity.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Letters to Lucilius [Epistulae morales ad Lucilium], letter 102
A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.
[L’esclave n’a qu’un maître; l’ambitieux en a autant qu’il y a de gens utiles à sa fortune.]
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 8 “Of the Court [De la Cour],” § 70 (8.70) (1688) [tr. Van Laun (1885)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:A Slave has but one Master, an ambitious Man a great many, all those who are useful to him in making his fortune.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]A Slave has but one Master; an ambitious Man has as many as there are People useful to him in making his Fortune.
[Curll ed. (1713)]A purchased Slave has but one Master: An ambitious Man must be a Slave to all who may conduce to his Aggrandizement.
[Browne ed. (1752)]A slave has only one master; an ambitious man is enslaved to all those who may help to further his advancement.
[tr. Stewart (1970)]
Although I came to doubt all revelation, I can never accept the idea that the Universe is a physical or chemical accident, a result of blind evolution. Even though I learned to recognize the lies, the clichés and the idolatries of the human mind, I still cling to some truths which I think all of us might accept some day. There must be a way for man to attain all possible pleasures, all the powers and knowledge that nature can grant him, and still serve God — a God who speaks in deeds, not in words, and whose vocabulary is the Cosmos.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-American writer, Nobel laureate (b. Icek-Hersz Zynger)
Nobel Lecture (8 Dec 1978)Full text.
TINSEL: We are growing serious, and, let me tell you, that’s the very next step to being dull.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Drummer, Act 4, sc. 6 (1716)
(Source)
“Why doesn’t God smite this dictator dead?” is a question a little remote from us. Why, madam, did He not strike you dumb and imbecile before you uttered that baseless and unkind slander the day before yesterday? Or me, before I behaved with such cruel lack of consideration to that well-meaning friend? And why, sir, did He not cause your hand to rot off at the wrist before you signed your name to that dirty little bit of financial trickery?
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
The Man Born to Be King (1943)
Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are shewing you the grounds of it.
William Shenstone (1714-1763) English poet
Essays on Men and Manners, “Of Men and Manners”Full text.
Normal people don’t understand this concept; they believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.
Scott Adams (b. 1957) American cartoonist
The Dilbert Principle (1996)
Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) American poet, biographer
Address to Congress on 150th Anniversary of Lincoln’s birth (12 Feb 1959)Quoted in Congressional Record, vol. 105, p. 2265.
As enunciated today, “progress” is simply a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Heretics, ch. 2 (1905)
All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible.
George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
Dialogues in Limbo (1926)
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
[Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.]
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Dictionnaire philosophique, “Liberty of the Press” (1785-1789)
The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion it will cease to be free for religion — except for the sect that can win political power.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952) [dissent]
Alas, after a certain age, every man is responsible for his face.
[Hélas! après un certain âge tout homme est responsable do son visage.]
Whoever increases his knowledge, multiplies the uses to which he is enabled to turn the gift of his Creator.
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
House Report 181 (19 Jan 1836)Recommending the approval of the Smithsonian Institution by Congress.
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You´re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you´re two months back in the middle of March.
One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, ch. 9 “Fear of Public Opinion” (1930)
Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That’s why he makes so many of them.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)Quoted in J. Morgan, Our President, ch. 6.
All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single thought.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“Rousseau and the Sentimentalists” (1867)
So here I come,
Unwilling to the unwilling well I wot:
For no one loves the bearer of bad tidings.[πάρειμι δ᾽ ἄκων οὐχ ἑκοῦσιν, οἶδ᾽ ὅτι:
στέργει γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἄγγελον κακῶν ἐπῶν.]Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Antigone, ll. 276-277 [Guard] (441 BC) [tr. Donaldson (1848)]
(Source)
Original Greek. Alt. trans:So here I am unwilling and withal
Unwelcome; no man cares to hear ill news.
[tr. Storr (1859)]So here I stand, as unwelcome to you as I am unwilling, I well know. For no man delights in the bearer of bad news.
[tr. Jebb (1891)]And I come
To pour my news, unwilling, into ears
Unwilling to receive it; for I know
None ever loved the messenger of ill.
[tr. Werner (1892)]So here I am,
No happier to be here than you are to have me:
Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.
[tr. Fitts/Fitzgerald (1939)]So here I am,
As much against my will as yours, I’m sure;
A bringer of bad news expects no welcome.
[tr. Watling (1947), ll. 229ff]And therefore I am come
Unwilling and, for certain, most unwelcome:
Nobody loves the bringer of bad news.
[tr. Kitto (1962)]I didn't want to come. And you sure didn't want to see me:
No one loves the man who brings bad news.
[tr. Woodruff (2001)]That’s why I’m now here,
not of my own free will or by your choice.
I know that -- for no one likes a messenger
who comes bearing unwelcome news with him.
[tr. Johnston (2005), ll. 318 ff]So here I am unwilling,
quite sure you people hardly want to see me.
Nobody likes the bearer of bad news.
[tr. Wyckoff]So here I am, unwilling -- I know well -- among the unwilling, for no one cherishes the messenger of evil words.
[tr. Thomas]I do not want to be here. Those here do not want me,
I know. Nobody loves the messenger of bad news.
[tr. Tyrell/Bennett]
Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
Billions and Billions ch. 14 “The Common Enemy” (1997)
The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Nuremberg Trials, Opening Statement (10 Nov 1945)
The Priesthood, have in all ancient Nations, nearly monopolized Learning. Read over again all the Accounts We have of Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians Greeks, Romans, Celts, Teutons, We Shall find that Priests had all the Knowledge, and really governed all Mankind. Examine Mahometanism. Trace Christianity from its first Promulgation, Knowledge has been almost exclusively confined to the Clergy. And even since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting Sect, who would tolerate, A free Inquiry? The blackest Billingate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured countenanced propagated and applauded: But touch a solemn Truth in collission with a dogma of a Sect, though capable of the clearest proof; and you will Soon find you have disturbed a Nest, and the hornets will swarm about your legs and hands and fly into your face and Eyes.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to John Taylor (24 Jan 1815)
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (19 Apr 1930)
Life […] is really a constant suffering, or, at any rate, […] a business that does not cover the costs.
[Da das Leben […] eigentlich ein stetes Leiden, oder wenigstens, […] ein Geschäft ist, welches die Kosten nicht deckt.]
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung [The World as Will and Representation], Vol. 2, ch. 19 “Vom Primat des Willens im Selbstbewußtseyn [On the primacy of the Will in Self-Consciousness],” § 11 (1844 ed.) [tr. Payne (1958)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Usually paraphrased: "Life is a business that does not cover the costs."
We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Letters to Lucilius [Epistulae morales ad Lucilium], letter 95, sec. 2
There are three periods in life: youth, middle age and “how well you look.”
Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) American politician
Quoted in New York Times (16 Dec 1976)
My interests drew me in different directions. On the one hand I was powerfully attracted by science, with its truths based on facts; on the other hand I was fascinated by everything to do with comparative religion. […] In science I missed the factor of meaning; and in religion, that of empiricism.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Memories, Dreams, Reflections [Erinnerungen, Träume, Gedanken] [ed. A. Jaffe (1962)]
Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Tatler, #147
The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. Church by all means, and decent forms of amusement, certainly—but what use is all that if in the very center of his life and occupation he is insulting God with bad carpentry? No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they did, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hand that made Heaven and earth.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Creed or Chaos? (1940)
The Eternal has his designs from all eternity. If prayer is in accord with his immutable wishes, it is quite useless to ask of him what he has resolved to do. If one prays to him to do the contrary of what he has resolved, it is praying that he be weak, frivolous, inconstant; it is believing that he is thus, it is to mock him. Either you ask him a just thing, in which case he must do it, the thing being done without your praying to him for it, and so to entreat him is then to distrust him; or the thing is unjust, and then you insult him. You are worthy or unworthy of the grace you implore: if worthy, he knows it better than you; if unworthy, you commit another crime by requesting what is undeserved.
In a word, we only pray to God because we have made him in our image. We treat him like a pasha, like a sultan whom one may provoke or appease.
[L’Éternel a ses desseins de toute éternité. Si la prière est d’accord avec ses volontés immuables, il est très inutile de lui demander ce qu’il a résolu de faire. Si on le prie de faire le contraire de ce qu’il a résolu, c’est le prier d’être faible, léger, inconstant; c’est croire qu’il soit tel, c’est se moquer de lui. Ou vous lui demandez une chose juste; en ce cas il la doit, et elle se fera sans qu’on l’en prie; c’est même se défier de lui que lui faire instance ou la chose est injuste, et alors on l’outrage. Vous êtes digne ou indigne de la grâce que vous implorez: si digne, il le sait mieux que vous; si indigne, on commet un crime de plus en demandant ce qu’on ne mérite pas.
En un mot, nous ne faisons des prières à Dieu que parce que nous l’avons fait à notre image. Nous le traitons comme un bacha, comme un sultan qu’on peut irriter ou apaiser.]
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, “Prayers,” (1770-1774)
Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots.Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) American poet, biographer
“Primer Lessons” (1922)
To me who dreamed so much as a child, who made a dreamworld in which I was the heroine of an unending story, the lives of people around me continued to have a certain storybook quality. I learned something which has stood me in good stead many times — The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Preface (1961)The last line was originally in her autobiography This Is My Story (1937).
In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.
John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker
Modern Painters, vol. IV, pt. V, ch. III, sec. 22 (1856)
We must not conclude merely upon a man’s haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.
I’ve made it a rule never to drink by daylight and never to refuse a drink after dark.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
New York Post (18 Sep 1945)
The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Address on the first observance of “Law Day” (5 May 1958)
One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it.
[On doit exiger de moi que je cherche la vérité, mais non que je la trouve.]
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts], #29 (1746)Alt. trans.: "I can be expected to look for truth but not to find it."
The old dog barks backward without getting up;
I can remember when he was a pup.
Conventional people are roused to fury by departures from convention, largely because they regard such departures as a criticism of themselves.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, ch. 9 “Fear of Public Opinion” (1930)
In the end, we should simply imagine a joke; a long joke that’s being continually retold in an accent too thick and too strange to ever be completely understood. Life is that joke. The soul is its punchline.
Tom Robbins (b. 1932) American novelist
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000)
The people you hate, well, this is the question about such people: why do you hate them?
William Saroyan (1908-1981) American writer
Chance Meetings (1978)
The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) Irish dramatist, satirist, politician
The Critic, Act I, sc. ii (1779)
I would rather miss the mark acting well than win the day acting basely.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Philoctetes, l. 94
Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft, effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, Oslo (5 May 1910)
Full text.
I did not know that we had ever quarreled, Aunt.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
(Attributed)
On his deathbed, when asked by his Aunt Louisa if he'd made his peace with God.
What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
(Attributed)
Attr. by Aulus Gellius in Noctes Atticae, bk. 12, ch. 2, sct. 13 (2nd cent. A.D.).
Now everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody Else, but when it happens to you, why it seems to lose some of its Humor, and if it keeps on happening, why the entire laughter kinder Fades out of it.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
The Illiterate Digest, “Warning to Jokers: Lay off the Prince” (1924)
(Source)
I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply. In almost everything I’ve written there is a thread of this: a man’s seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself
Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Interview, Los Angeles Times (1967)
Should, hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by the Supineness or venality of their Constituents, overleap the known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable rights of humanity: it will only serve to shew, that no compact among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchm[en]t can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.
George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
First Inaugural Address, draft (Apr 1789)
Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
“Novanglus” #3, Boston Gazette (1774)
Good-nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. It shows virtue in the fairest light, takes off in some measure from the deformity of vice, and makes even folly and impertinence supportable.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Spectator, No. 169 (1711-09-13)
(Source)
Is it necessary that Heaven should borrow its light from the glare of Hell? Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, immortal meanness. To worship an eternal gaoler hardens, debases, and pollutes even the vilest soul. While there is one sad and breaking heart in the universe, no good being can be perfectly happy.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Great Infidels” (1881)
(Source)
I always have a quotation for everything — it saves original thinking.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Have His Carcase, ch. 4 [Wimsey] (1932)
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Technical Education” (1877)Full text.
Administrivia: Passing the 6,000 mark
While the odometer at the top of WIST isn’t exact (it includes about 50-odd Administrivia posts such as this), it appears we’ve rollled well past the 6,000 quotations mark. While there are a lot of sites with more, I’d like to think that the loving attention I give to each and every quote I put up here makes WIST a bit special.
It remains a labor of love, and I plan to be around for at least another 6,000.
One should always sleep in all of one’s guest beds, to make sure that they are comfortable.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
My Day (11 Sep 1941)
Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American poet, memoirist, activist [b. Marguerite Ann Johnson]
Gather Together in My Name, vol. 2, ch. 6 (1974)
I am the people – the mob – the crowd – the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) American poet, biographer
“I Am the People, the Mob” (1916)
Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.
[Le préjugé est une opinion sans jugement.]
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif, “Prejudices” (1764)
Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Education, Especially in Early Childhood” (1926)
Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
Address at Milton Academy, Massachusetts (17 May 1935)
In a 1966 interview with Edward Lanthem, Frost restated the metaphor: "I'd as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down."
If we should hear it reported of the Eastern People, that their usual Drink is a Liquor which flies up into the Head, makes them mad, and sets them a-vomiting, we should be apt to lift up our Hands and say, These sottish Barbarians!
[Si nous entendions dire des Orientaux qu’ils boivent ordinairement d’une liqueur qui leur monte à la tête, leur fait perdre la raison et les fait vomir, nous dirions: «Cela est bien barbare.»]
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 12 “Of Opinions [Des Jugements],” § 24 (12.24) (1688) [Browne ed. (1752)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:If we should talk of the Eastern People, how they ordinarily drink a Liquor that takes the head, makes them mad, and forces them to vomit, we should be apt to say 'tis Barbarous.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]If we should hear it reported of the Eastern People, how they ordinarily drink a Liquor which flies up into the Head, makes them mad, and forces them to vomit, we should be apt to say, this is very Barbarous.
[Curll ed. (1713)]If we should hear it reported of an Eastern nation that they habitually drink a liquor which flies to their head, drives them mad, and makes them very sick, we should say they are barbarians.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]If we heard it said of Orientals that they habitually drank a liquor which went to their heads, deprived them of reason, and made them vomit, we should say: “How very barbarous!”
[tr. Stewart (1970)]
Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: but a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (17 Jul 1775)
But if survival calls for the bearing of arms, bear them, you must. As we all have. Keep in mind only this, that province of combat is not the end, it is simply the means. And the most essential part of the challenge is for you to find another means that does not come with the killing of your fellow-man.
Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Commencement Speech, Binghamton Central High School, Binghamton, New York (28 Jan 1968)
(Source)
Sometimes paraphrased:If survival calls for the bearing of arms, bear them you must. But the most important part of the challenge is for you to find another means that does not come with the killing of your fellow man.
I abhor unjust war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals. I abhor violence and bloodshed. I believe that war should never be resorted to when, or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid it. I respect all men and women who from high motives and with sanity and self-respect do all they can to avert war. I advocate preparation for war in order to avert war; and I should never advocate war unless it were the only alternative to dishonor.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 7 “The War of American and the Unready” (1913)
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
“Supplement to Bougainville’s Voyage” (1796)
And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course…all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) American author, illustrator [pseud. of Theodor Geisel]
Yertle the Turtle (1958)
All a man’s affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 98.
Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
Cosmos (1980)
it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go. […] In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
“Kentucky Resolutions,” Resolution 9 (1798)
(Source)
In protest of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Testimony of all ages forces us to admit that war is among the most dangerous enemies to liberty, and that the executive is the branch most favored by it of all the branches of Power.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
“Political Reflections” (22 Feb 1799)
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. — I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (1776-07-03)
(Source)
The Colonial Congress approved of the Independence Resolution on 2 July. The final agreement on the Declaration, and its signing, was on 4 July.
Metaphysicians and politicians may dispute forever, but they will never find any other moral principle or foundation of rule or obedience, than the consent of governors and governed.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
“Novanglus” #7, Boston Gazette (1775)
The word religion is extremely rare in the New Testament or the writings of mystics. The reason is simple. Those attitudes and practices to which we give the collective name of religion are themselves concerned with religion hardly at all. To be religious is to have one’s attention fixed on God and on one’s neighbor in relation to God. Therefore, almost by definition, a religious man, or a man when he is being religious, is not thinking about religion; he hasn’t the time. Religion is what we (or he himself at a later moment) call his activity from the outside.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Lilies that Fester,” The Twentieth Century (Apr 1955)
When I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
“Thoughts in Westminster Abbey” (1711)
So then, I am simply in favor of intellectual hospitality — that is all. You come to me with a new idea. I invite you into the house. Let us see what you have. Let us talk it over. If I do not like your thought, I will bid it a polite “good day.” If I do like it, I will say: “Sit down; stay with me, and become a part of the intellectual wealth of my world.” That is all.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Limits of Toleration,” debate at the Nineteenth Century Club, New York (8 May 1888)
(Source)
Three hundred years ago it mattered comparatively little. But now that you have the age of national self-realization, the age of colonial expansion, the age of the barbarian invasions and the age of the decline and fall, all jammed cheek by jowl in time and space, all armed alike with poison-gas and going through the outward motions of an advanced civilization, principles have become more dangerous than passions. It’s getting uncommonly easy to kill people in large numbers, and the first thing a principle does — if it really is a principle — is to kill someone.
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
Gaudy Night, ch. 17 [Wimsey] (1936)
Truth is better than much profit. I have searched over the grounds of my belief, and if wife and child and name and fame were all to be lost to me one after the other as the penalty, still I will not lie.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Letter to Charles Kingsley (23 Sep 1860)
Eat a chocolate. Light an Old Gold. And enjoy both! Two fine and healthful treats!
(Other Authors and Sources)
Cigarette ad, P. Lorillard Co. (1929)
We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.
Tom Robbins (b. 1932) American novelist
Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
Nothing is so common as to imitate one’s enemies, and to use their weapons.
[Rien n’est si ordinaire que d’imiter ses ennemis, et d’employer leurs armes.]Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, “Oracles” (1770-1774)
Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
My Day (16 Oct 1939)
One of us is obviously mistaken.
William Saroyan (1908-1981) American writer
New York Mirror (10 Jun 1960)
Response to a critic who had panned his latest play.
Injustice in this world is not something comparative; the wrong is deep, clear, and absolute in each private fate.
George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress, vol. 2 “Reason in Society,” ch. 4 “The Aristocratic Ideal” (1905-06)
The nearest friends can go
With anyone to death, comes so far short
They might as well not try to go at all.
No, from the time when one is sick to death,
One is alone, and he dies more alone.
Friends make pretence of following to the grave,
But before one is in it, their minds are turned
And making the best of their way back to life
And living people, and things they understand.