No penance would ever expiate the sin against free government of holding that a President can escape control of executive powers by law through assuming his military role.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952) [concurring]
I never met a man I didn’t like.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Motto
(Source)
Rogers' first use of the phrase in writing comes from "Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President," Saturday Evening Post (1926-11-06):I bet you if I had met him and had a chat with him, I would have found him a very interesting and human fellow, for I never yet met a man that I dident like. When you meet people, no matter what opinion you might have formed about them beforehand, why, after you meet them and see their angle and their personality, why, you can see a lot of good in all of them.
(Misspelling of "didn't" in the original.) Rogers was writing of his regrets over not having met Leon Trotsky while visiting the Soviet Union. The article was incorporated into a book Rogers published about the trip, "There's Not a Bathing Suit in Russia & Other Bare Facts, ch. 4 (1927).
Two other early references, the first from his "Weekly Article" column (1930-06-29):You know I have often said in answer to inquiries as to how I got away with kidding some of our public men, that it was because I liked all of them personally, and that if there was no malice in your heart there could be none in your "Gags," and I have always said I never met a man I didn't like.
And from a speech at a Boston church, the same month:I’ve got my epitaph all worked out. When I’m tucked away in the old graveyard west of Oologah [Oklahoma], I hope they will cut this epitaph -- or whatever you call them signs they put over gravestones -- on it, 'Here lies Will Rogers. He joked about every prominent man in his time, but he never met a man he didn’t like.'
That reference was picked up in AP news stories, and Rogers used the phrase for the rest of his life.
More info on Rogers' motto and the above quotations: here, here, and here.
Never say anything on the phone that you wouldn’t want your mother to hear at your trial.
Sydney Biddle Barrows (b. 1952) American prostitute, writer [The Mayflower Madam, alias Sheila Devin]
Mayflower Madam (w. with W. Novak) (1986)
Why should millions be spent daily on the war and yet there’s not a penny available for medical services, artists, or for poor people?… Oh, why are people so crazy?
Anne Frank (1929-1945) German-Dutch Jewish diarist
Diary (1944-05-03)
If people can be educated to see the lowly side of their own natures, it may be hoped that they will also learn to understand and to love their fellow men better. A little less hypocrisy and a little more tolerance toward oneself can only have good results in respect for our neighbors, for we are all too prone to transfer to our fellows the injustice and violence we inflict upon our own natures.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
New Paths in Psychology, Appendix I (1912)
It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 995
Sovereignty remains at all times with the people and they do not forfeit through elections the rights to have the law construed against and applied to every citizen.
(Other Authors and Sources)
United States Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, Nixon v. Sirica (1973)
5-2 ruling that President Nixon had to turn over tape recordings he was withholding. Quoted in NY Times (14 Oct 1973)
Everything will be all right — you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction and see it as a drawing they made themselves.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61)
Quoted in Time (27 Jun 1955)
You say you’re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense, I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.
Pat Robertson (1930-2023) American politician and televangelist
The 700 Club broadcast (1991-01-14)
(Source)
The earliest documentation of this quote I can find is in David Cantor, The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance & Pluralism in America, Sec. 1, ch. 1 (1994).
No one can advise or help you — no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1963) German poet
Letters to a Young Poet, Letter 1 (17 Feb 1903)
trans. M. D. Herter Norton (1993)
May the state fence in the harmless mentally ill solely to save its citizens from exposure to those whose ways are different? One might as well ask if the state, to avoid public unease, could incarcerate all who are physically unattractive or socially eccentric. Mere public intolerance or animosity cannot constitutionally justify the deprivation of a person’s physical liberty.
Potter Stewart (1915-1985) US Supreme Court Justice (1959-81)
O’Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975) [Unanimous opinion]
(Source)
We don’t have to be “successful,” only valuable. We don’t have to make money, only a difference, and particularly in the lives society counts least and puts last.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924-2006) American minister, social activist
Credo, “Faith, Hope, Love” (2004)
(Source)
Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
Colin Powell (1937-2021) American military leader, politician, diplomat
The Powell Principles (2003)
Just as the right to speak and the right to refrain from speaking are complementary components of a broader concept of individual freedom of mind, so also the individual’s freedom to choose his own creed is the counterpart of his right to refrain from accepting the creed established by the majority.
John Paul Stevens (1920-2019) American lawyer, US Supreme Court Justice (1975-2010)
Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) [Majority Opinion]
Full ruling.
There are only two mantras… yum and yuk. Mine is yum.
Tom Robbins (b. 1932) American novelist
Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces — and that cure is freedom!
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“John Milton,” Edinburgh Review (Aug 1825)
(Source)
Review of John Milton, A Treatise on Christian Doctrine.
Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.
(Other Authors and Sources)
English proverb (18th Century)
Collected in Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732).
Why should my freedom be governed by somebody else’s conscience?
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
1 Corinthians 10:29 [NJB (1985)]
(Source)
Paul on how it's okay to eat food that others think is religiously wrong to eat (but how you shouldn't be a dick about it, either).
Alternate translations:For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?
[KJV (1611)]Why should my freedom depend on somebody else’s conscience?
[JB (1966)]“Well, then,” someone asks, “why should my freedom to act be limited by another person's conscience?"
[GNT (1976)]Why should my freedom be judged by someone else’s conscience?
[CEB (2011)]For why should my liberty be subject to the judgment of someone else’s conscience?
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
Nothing in our Constitution is plainer than that declaration of a war is entrusted only to Congress. Of course, a state of war may in fact exist without a formal declaration. But no doctrine that the Court could promulgate would seem to me more sinister and alarming than that a President whose conduct of foreign affairs is so largely uncontrolled, and often even is unknown, can vastly enlarge his mastery over the internal affairs of the country by his own commitment of the Nation’s armed forces to some foreign venture.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952) [concurring]
Ratings don’t last. Good journalism does.
Dan Rather (b. 1931) American broadcast journalist
“What I’ve Learned,” Esquire (Aug 2005)
Full article.
What is left when honor is lost?
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 265
Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Post, alt.fan.pratchett
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1963) German poet
Letters to a Young Poet, Letter 4 (16 Jul 1903) trans. by M. D. Herter Norton (1993)
Alt trans. (Stephen Mitchell): "Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
When young writers write to me about following in the footsteps of those of us who string together nouns and verbs for a living, I tell them this: every story has already been told. Once you’ve read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had. And that is herself, her own personality, her own voice. If she is doing Faulkner imitations, she can stay home. If she is giving readers what she thinks they want instead of what she is, she should stop typing. But if her books reflect her character, who she really is, then she is giving them a new and wonderful gift. Giving it to herself, too.
Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
Commencement Speech, Mount Holyoke College (23 May 1999)
Full text.
The press is a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can’t be right all the time. He doesn’t bark only when he sees or smells something that’s dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.
Dan Rather (b. 1931) American broadcast journalist
“What I’ve Learned,” Esquire (Aug 2005)
Full article.
Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume Thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land
On each I judge Thy foe.Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“The Universal Prayer” (1738)
In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do.
Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 717 (1971) [concurring]
(Source)
To give the victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech fragment (c. 18 May 1858)
I have spent all my life under a communist regime and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. A society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage of the high level of human possibilities. The letter of the law is too cold and formal to have a beneficial influence on society. Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relations, there is an atmosphere of moral mediocrity, paralyzing man’s noblest impulses.
Alexander Solzhenitsen (1918-2008) Russian novelist, emigre [Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn]
“A World Split Apart,” Commencement Address, Harvard (8 Jun 1978)
(Source)
Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Look, “What They Are Saying” (1954-02-23)
(Source)
This column was a regular feature quoting notable comments by notable people. The actual source of the quotation, presumably made around this time, is unknown.
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate’er is best administered is best:
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind’s concern is charity.Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Essay on Man,” Epistle 3, l. 303 (1733-1734)
Law is born from despair of human nature.
José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1944) Spanish philosopher
(Attributed)
I had wanted to wrap this book up in a neat little package about a girl who is a comedienne from Detroit, becomes famous in New York, with all the world coming her way, gets this horrible disease of cancer, is brave and fights it, learning all the skills she needs to get through it, and then, miraculously, things are neatly tied up and she gets well. I wanted to be able to write on the book jacket: “Her triumph over cancer” or “She wins the cancer war.” I wanted a perfect ending, so I sat down to write the book with the ending in place before there even was an ending.
Now I’ve learned, the hard way. that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Like my life, this book has ambiguity. Like my life, this book is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity, as Joanna said.Gilda Radner (1946-1989) American comedian
It’s Always Something, ch. 16 “Change” (1989)
(Source)
Joanna was Radner's psychotherapist.
A good reputation is more valuable than money.
[Honesta fama melior pecunia est.]
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 108
If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
Speech, Legal Aid Society of New York (1951-02-16)
(Source)
On ensuring that accused persons did not lack for counsel needed for a fair trial.
An open foe may prove a curse,
But a pretended friend is worse.John Gay (1685-1732) English poet and playwright
“The Shepherd’s Dog and the Wolf,” pt. 1, l. 33-4 (1727)
[Arguments] seem unable to influence the masses in the direction of what is noble and good. For the masses naturally obey fear, not shame, and abstain from shameful acts because of the punishments associated with them, not because they are disgraceful.
[τοὺς δὲ πολλοὺς ἀδυνατεῖν πρὸς καλοκαγαθίαν προτρέψασθαι: οὐ γὰρ πεφύκασιν αἰδοῖ πειθαρχεῖν ἀλλὰ φόβῳ, οὐδ᾽ ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν φαύλων διὰ τὸ αἰσχρὸν ἀλλὰ διὰ τὰς τιμωρίας]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 10, ch. 9 (10.9.3-4) / 1179b.10ff (c. 325 BC) [tr. Crisp (2000)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:[Talking and writing] plainly are powerless to guide the mass of men to Virtue and goodness; because it is not their nature to be amenable to a sense of shame but only to fear; nor to abstain from what is low and mean because it is disgraceful to do it but because of the punishment attached to it
[tr. Chase (1847), ch. 8]But, for most men, mere precept is powerless to dispose them to noble conduct. For their nature is such, that they are not ruled by a proper sense of shame, but only by fear, and do not abstain from vice because of the disgrace which attaches to it, but because of the punishment which its practice involves.
[tr. Williams (1869)][Theories] are impotent to inspire the mass of men to chivalrous action; for it is not the nature of such men to obey honour but terror, nor to abstain from evil for fear of disgrace but for fear of punishment.
[tr. Welldon (1892)]Yet [theories] are powerless to turn the mass of men to goodness. For the generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than by reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.
[tr. Peters (1893)][Arguments] are not able to encourage the many to nobility and goodness. For these do not by nature obey the sense of shame, but only fear, and do not abstain from bad acts because of their baseness but through fear of punishment.
[tr. Ross (1908)]Yet [theories] are powerless to stimulate the mass of mankind to moral nobility. For it is the nature of the many to be amenable to fear but not to a sense of honor, and to abstain from evil not because of its baseness but because of the penalties it entails.
[tr. Rackham (1934)][Arguments are] unable to encourage ordinary people toward noble-goodness. For ordinary people naturally obey not shame but fear and abstain from base things not because of their shamefulness but because of the sanctions involved.
[tr. Reeve (1948)][Arguments] cannot exhort ordinary men to do good and noble deeds, for it is the nature of these men to obey not a sense of shame but fear, and to abstain from what is bad not because this is disgraceful but because of the penalties which they would receive.
[tr. Apostle (1975)][Discourses] are incapable of impelling the masses toward human perfection. For it is the nature of the many to be ruled by fear rather than by shame, and to refrain from evil not because of the disgrace but because of the punishments.
[tr. Thomson/Tredennick (1976)]But [arguments] seem unable to turn the many toward being fine and good. For the many naturally obey fear, not shame; they avoid what is base because of the penalties, not because it is disgraceful.
[tr. Irwin/Fine (1995)]
Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil … prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon …
Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Essay on Man,” Epistle 1, l. 17-18 (1734)
Therefore Trampas spoke. “Your bet, you son-of-a–.”
The Virginian’s pistol came out, and his hand lay on the table, holding it unaimed. And with a voice as gentle as ever, the voice that sounded almost like a caress, but drawling a very little more than usual, so that there was almost a space between each word, he issued his orders to the man Trampas: “When you call me that, SMILE.” And he looked at Trampas across the table.
Yes, the voice was gentle. But in my ears it seemed as if somewhere the bell of death was ringing; and silence, like a stroke, fell on the large room.
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it — namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, ch. 2 (1876)
I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another’s misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“Thoughts on Various Subjects” (1727)
I have made up my mind that if there is a God, he will be merciful to the merciful.
Upon that rock I stand.
That he will not torture the forgiving.
Upon that rock I stand.
That every man should be true to himself, and that there is no world, no star, in which honesty is a crime.
Upon that rock I stand.
The honest man, the good woman, the happy child, have nothing to fear, either in this world or the world to come.
Upon that rock I stand.Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do to Be Saved?” Sec. 11 (1880)
(Source)
Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
“The Notebooks” (E), The Crack-Up [ed. Edmund Wilson (1945)]
To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold — brothers who know now they are truly brothers.
Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American poet, writer, statesman
NY Times (25 Dec 1968)
On the "Earth rising over the Moon" photo sent back from an Apollo mission. When collected in "Bubble of Blue Air," Riders on the Earth; Essays and Recollections, epigraph (1978), he phrased it: "To see the earth as we now see it, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the unending night — brothers who see now they are truly brothers."
Thus, then, stands the case. It is good, that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
Speech on the Copyright Bill (5 Feb 1841)
(Source)
Agnosticism is not properly described as a “negative” creed, nor indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a principle which is as much ethical as intellectual. This principle may be stated in various ways, but they all amount to this: that it is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what Agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Agnosticism and Christianity,” The Nineteenth Century magazine (1889-02)
(Source)
Collected in his Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions, ch. 12 (1892).
Charity is the power of defending that which we know to be indefensible. Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate. It is true that there is a state of hope which belongs to bright prospects and the morning; but that is not the virtue of hope. The virtue of hope exists only in earthquake and, eclipse. It is true that there is a thing crudely called charity, which means charity to the deserving poor; but charity to the deserving is not charity at all, but justice. It is the undeserving who require it, and the ideal either does not exist at all, or exists wholly for them. For practical purposes it is at the hopeless moment that we require the hopeful man, and the virtue either does not exist at all, or begins to exist at that moment. Exactly at the instant when hope ceases to be reasonable it begins to be useful.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Heretics, ch. 12 (1905)
The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.
Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) American politician, writer, US President (1967-74)
Interview on his 60th birthday (9 Jan 1973)
Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the state of victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, “they” don’t want me, “they” accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, “they” don’t deserve me.
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American poet, memoirist, activist [b. Marguerite Ann Johnson]
Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas, Vol. 3, ch. 9 (1976)
I can’t help feeling wary when I hear anything said about the masses. First you take their faces from ’em by calling ’em the masses and then you accuse ’em of not having any faces.
J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) English author, dramatist [John Boyne Priestley]
Saturn over the Water, ch. 2 (1961)
When you see reference to a new paradigm you should always, under all circumstances, take cover. Because ever since the great tulipmania in 1637, speculation has always been covered by a new paradigm. There was never a paradigm so new and so wonderful as the one that covered John Law and the South Sea Bubble – until the day of disaster.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
In B. Laurance, W. Keegan, “Galbraith on crashes, Japan and Walking Sticks”, The Observer (21 Jun 1998)
Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.
Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977-1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
White House ceremony on the 30th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights (6 Dec 1978)
There is something beyond the grave; death does not end all, and the pale ghost escapes from the vanquished pyre.
Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies IV, vii, 1
Reason, Observation and Experience — the Holy Trinity of Science — have taught us that happiness is the only good; that the time to be happy is now, and the way to be happy is to make others so. This is enough for us. In this belief we are content to live and die. If by any possibility the existence of a power superior to, and independent of, nature shall be demonstrated, there will then be time enough to kneel. Until then, let us stand erect.
Some old men, by continually praising the time of their youth, would almost persuade us that there were no fools in those days; but unluckily they are left themselves for examples.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“Thoughts on Various subjects” (1727)
Those who compare the age in which their lot has fallen with a golden age which exists only in imagination, may talk of degeneracy and decay; but no man who is correctly informed as to the past, will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
History of England, Vol. I, ch. 1 (1849-1861)
I could never hate anyone I knew.
Charles Lamb (1775-1834) Welsh-English essayist
(Attributed)
In A. Ainger, Charles Lamb, ch. 6 (1882). Attributed to him by others, but under various circumstances.
Ignorance is death. A closed mind is a catafalque.
Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
How Reading Changed My Life (1998)
For those who want some proof that physicists are human, the proof is in the idiocy of all the different units which they use for measuring energy.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
The Character of Physical Laws ch. 3 “The Great Conservation Principles” (1965)
(Source)
Liberty is always unfinished business.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Annual Report, American Civil Liberties Union (1955/56)
I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions.
Omar Bradley (1893-1981) American general
Interview (17 May 1959)
Sex stops when you pull up your pants,
Love never lets you go.Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) English poet, novelist, critic, lecturer
“An Ever-Fixed Mark,” l. 29-30
An epigram is a flashlight of a truth; a witticism, truth laughing at itself.
Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Naked Truth and Veiled Allusions (1901)
The greatest of human problems, and the greatest of our common tasks, is to keep the peace and to save the future. All that we have built in the wealth of nations, and all that we plan to do toward a better life for all, will be in vain if our feet should slip, or our vision falter, and our hopes ended in another worldwide war. If there is one commitment more than any other that I would like to leave with you today, it is my unswerving commitment to the keeping and to the strengthening of the peace. Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1963-12-17), United Nations General Assembly
(Source)
John Kennedy had used the same "journey" phrase from Lao-tzu early that year, before his assassination.
What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.
P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
Interview, Face (Dec 1986)
The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1961-01-18), US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC
(Source)
Statement given by Stevenson after his nomination by President-elect Kennedy to be ambassador to the United Nation, which office he held until his death in 1965. The speech (or this passage) is often cited to the New York Times coverage of it the following day, though often mistakenly dating it in 1962.
In context, he is addressing criticisms of the UN as a "debating society," noting that the US Congress often serves as such, from which he extends this principle.
Win or lose, do it fairly.
Knute Rockne (1888-1931) American football coach
(Attributed)
Future contingents cannot be certain to us, because we know them as such. They can be certain only to God whose understanding is in eternity above time. Just as a man going along a road does not see those who come after him; but the man who sees the whole road from a height sees all those who are going along the road at the same time.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Italian friar, philosopher, theologian
Summa Theologica, I, q. 14, art. 13, ad 3 (1265-1274)
They define themselves in terms of what they oppose.
George Will (b. 1941) American political commentator
Newsweek (30 Sep 1974)
On conservatives.
To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man — and also a nation.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Wire services (11 Apr 1955)
Most writers enjoy two periods of happiness – when a glorious idea comes to mind and, secondly, when a last page has been written and you haven’t had time to know how much better it ought to be.
J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) English author, dramatist [John Boyne Priestley]
International Herald Tribune (3 Jan 1978)
If none of us ever read a book that was “dangerous,” had a friend who was “different” or joined an organization that advocated “change,” we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants. Whose fault is that? Not really [McCarthy’s]. He didn’t create this situation of fear. He merely exploited it, and rather successfully.
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) American journalist
See It Now (7 Mar 1954)
On McCarthy’s accusations about Communists in the government.
Fondly we think we honour Merit then,
When we but praise Our selves in Other Men.Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Essay on Criticism,” Part 2, l. 254-55 (1711)
I was in a state of witless shock, as though flames had suddenly enwrapped and paralyzed me so that for a moment I had no mind, no memory.
Alexander Solzhenitsen (1918-2008) Russian novelist, emigre [Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn]
The Oak and the Calf (1975)
On being arrested by the secret police.
I’m sleeping like a baby, too — every two hours, I wake up, screaming.
Colin Powell (1937-2021) American military leader, politician, diplomat
(Attributed)
Upon hearing that President Bush was "sleeping like a baby" on the eve of the Iraq war. Quoted by Hendrik Hertzberg, New Yorker (10 Feb 2003).
A European says: I can’t understand this, what’s wrong with me? An American says: I can’t understand this, what’s wrong with him? I make no suggestion that one side or other is right, but observation over many years leads me to believe it is true.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Interview
Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can’t beat Somebody with Nobody.
William Safire (1929-2009) American author, columnist, journalist, speechwriter
“The Perfect Candidate,” NY Times (16 Apr 1987)
Not only is our love for our children sometimes tinged with annoyance, discouragement, and disappointment, the same is true for the love our children feel for us.
Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990) Austrian-American child psychologist, writer.
A Good Enough Parent, ch. 2 (1987)
To those who charge that liberalism has been tried and found wanting, I answer that the failure is not in the idea, but in the course of recent history. The New Deal was ended by World War II. The New Frontier was closed by Berlin and Cuba almost before it was opened. And the Great Society lost its greatness in the jungles of Indochina.
ATTRIBUTION: Lecture at Oxford University, NY Times 22 Jan 73George McGovern (1922-2012) American historian, author, politician
Lecture at Oxford University (Jan 1973)
Reported in the NY Times (22 Jan 1973)
No one man can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) American journalist
See It Now (7 Mar 1954)
(Source)
Comment to the production team before the episode on Senator Joseph R McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt.
What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
On Revolution, ch. 2 (1963)
If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.
Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) British politician, UK Prime Minister (1957-63)
(Attributed)
Quoted in Henry Fairlie, The Life of Politics (1969)
Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Morals, ch. 7 (1913)
(Source)
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.
Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Naked Truth and Veiled Allusions (1901)
The historian should be fearless and incorruptible; a man of independence, loving frankness and truth; one who, as the poet says, calls a fig a fig and a spade a spade. He should yield to neither hatred nor affection, but should be unsparing and unpitying. He should be neither shy nor deprecating, but an impartial judge, giving each side all it deserves but no more. He should know in his writings no country and no city; he should bow to no authority and acknowledge no king. He should never consider what this or that man will think, but should state the facts as they really occurred.
Lucian (c. AD 120 - after 180) Assyrian rhetoric, satirist [Lucian of Samasota]
De Historia Conscribenda
The proclamation and repetition of first principles is a constant feature of life in our democracy. Active adherence to these principles, however, has always been considered un-American. We recipients of the boon of liberty have always been ready, when faced with discomfort, to discard any and all first principles of liberty, and, further, to indict those who do not freely join with us in happily arrogating those principles.
David Mamet (b. 1947) American writer, playwright, director
Writing in Restaurants, “First Principles” (1986)
I said to Life, I would hear Death speak. And Life raised her voice a little higher and said, You hear him now.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
(Attributed)
How has the church in every age, when in authority, defended itself? Always by a statute against blasphemy, against argument, against free speech. And there never was such a statute that did not stain the book that it was in and that did not certify to the savagery of the men who passed it.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
(Source)
The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) Indian nationalist leader, politician, statesman, author
Quoted in the London Observer (29 Aug 1954)
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Inaugural address (20 Jan 1961)
(Source)
A portion of this ("Let the word go forth ... new generation of Americans") is one of the seven quotations by JFK at his grave site in Arlington National Ceremony.
I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
Letter to his Niece (15 Sep 1842)
Dishonor in public life has a double poison. When people are dishonorable in private business, they injure only those with whom they deal or their own chances in the net world. When there is a lack of honor in Government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Address, Des Moines, Iowa (30 Aug 1951)
(Source)
Mutual respect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make one’s own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude.
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal Intime (7 Nov 1862)
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
Albert Pike (1809-1891) American author, orator, jurist, Freemason
(Attributed)
If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.
Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977-1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
Speech to Future Farmers of America, Kansas City (9 Nov 1978)
Still bent to make some port he knows not where,
Still standing for some false impossible shore.Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
“A Summer Night,” l. 68-9 (1852)
We cannot define anything precisely! If we attempt to, we get into that paralysis of thought that comes to philosophers who sit opposite each other, one saying to the other, “You don’t know what you are talking about!”. The second one says, “What do you mean by know? What do you mean by talking? What do you mean by you?” and so on.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume I, 8-2 “Motion” (20 Oct 1961)
(Source)
The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That — with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success — is our national disease.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
Letter to H.G. Wells (11 Sep 1906)
Administrivia: Screens, searches, speed, and summaries
I’ve modified the screen layout for the author pages and the individual post pages to be two-column, rather than three. That should make reading a bit easier, and improve the crawling of the pages for the author info and quotation text.
The Google search feature is currently not working as well as I’d like, since I managed to inadvertently ban Google’s spiders from the site. My bad. That problem is fixed, but it may take Google a while to get up to speed. In the mean time, the non-Google search works passably well.
Most of the WIST pages are produced dynamically, which means the server builds what they look like on the fly from the WIST database. That’s very space-efficient, but it does slow down page loads and makes WIST more sensitive to any server slowdowns. I’m pondering going to static publishing, which creates a physical file for each page (i.e., for each quotation, for each author’s quotes, etc.); that would significantly speed up loading to any given page (and probably improve Google’s searches), but would each up a chunk of disk space, and would make each posting a bit slower for me to make (and redesigns aot more painful). As I said, I’m pondering.
Finally, I’ve now got a little “X quotes and growing” line at the top of the main page. The number is a little misleading, as it’s an entry count, and so it includes these occasional Administrivia items. That’s a small number (a couple of dozen), so I feel good enough about the number to live with it.
UPDATE: I’ve gone ahead and done the author and quotation pages as static pages. Let’s see how that works.
UPDATE: I’ve also revised all page formats, except the front page, to use the same two-column format. It makes for a cleaner, easier interface, and a better standard across the site. I’ve also shifted to using SSIs for most of the sidebar information, to reduce disk storage.