Restrain yourself, old dame, and gloat in silence. I’ll have no jubilation here. It is an impious thing to exult over the slain.

[ἐν θυμῷ, γρηῦ, χαῖρε καὶ ἴσχεο μηδ᾽ ὀλόλυζε:
οὐχ ὁσίη κταμένοισιν ἐπ᾽ ἀνδράσιν εὐχετάασθαι.]

Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 22, l. 411ff (22.411) [Odysseus to Eurycleia] (c. 700 BC) [tr. Rieu (1946)]
    (Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Forbear, nor shriek thus, but vent joys as loud.
It is no piety to bemoan the proud.
[tr. Chapman (1616)]

Hold, said he, within
Your joy, and let it not appear in vain;
To glory over dead men is a sin.
[tr. Hobbes (1675), l. 361ff]

Woman, experienced as thou art, control
Indecent joy, and feast thy secret soul.
To insult the dead is cruel and unjust;
Fate and their crime have sunk them to the dust.
[tr. Pope (1725)]

Silent exult, O ancient matron dear!
Shout not, be still. Unholy is the voice
Of loud thanksgiving over slaughter’d men.
[tr. Cowper (1792), ll. 479-480]

Nurse, with a mute heart this my vengeance hail!
Not holy is it o'er the slain to boast.
[tr. Worsley (1861), st. 50]

In heart, dame, joy! but hush! no wild hurrah!
It is not right to vaunt o'er slaughtered men.
[tr. Bigge-Wither (1869)]

In thy breast
Confine these transports, aged one! Be calm!
Hence with all exclamations! All the joy
Unhallow'd is that over a slain foe
Would thus exult.
[tr. Musgrave (1869), l. 655ff]

Within thine own heart rejoice, old nurse, and be still, and cry not aloud; for it is an unholy thing to boast over slain men.
[tr. Butcher/Lang (1879)]

Rejoice in thy soul, O goodwife, and thy shout of joy refrain,
For nowise is it righteous to boast above the slain.
[tr. Morris (1887)]

Woman, be glad within; but hush, and make no cry. It is not right to glory in the slain.
[tr. Palmer (1891)]

Old woman, rejoice in silence; restrain yourself, and do not make any noise about it; it is an unholy thing to vaunt over dead men.
[tr. Butler (1898)]

In thine own heart rejoice, old dame, but refrain thyself and cry not out aloud: an unholy thing is it to boast over slain men.
[tr. Murray (1919)]

Rejoice within thyself, beldam, and quietly. Keep back that throbbing cry. To make very glad over men's deaths is not proper.
[tr. Lawrence (1932)]

Rejoice
inwardly. No crowing aloud, old woman.
To glory over slain men is no piety.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1961)]

Keep your joy in your heart, old dame; stop, do not raise up
the cry. It is not piety to glory so over slain men.
[tr. Lattimore (1965)]

Rejoice in your heart,
old woman -- peace! No cries of triumph now.
It's unholy to glory over the bodies of the dead.
[tr. Fagles (1996)]

Rejoice in your heart, but do not cry aloud.
It is unholy to gloat over the slain.
[tr. Lombardo (2000), ll. 435-36]

Restrain yourself old woman, and gloat in silence. I'll have no cries of triumph here. It is an impious thing to exult over the slain.
[tr. DCH Rieu (2002)]

It is not a pious action to exult over slain men.
[tr. Verity (2016)]

Old woman, no! Be glad inside your heart, but do not shout. It is not pious, gloating over men who have been killed.
[tr. Wilson (2017)]

Keep your joy to yourself, old woman -- don't exult aloud! It's not decent to vaunt over men that have been killed.
[tr. Green (2018)]

Old woman, you can rejoice
in your own heart -- but don’t cry out aloud.
Restrain yourself. For it’s a sacrilege
to boast above the bodies of the slain.
[tr. Johnston (2019), l. 509ff]

 
Added on 28-Jan-08 | Last updated 1-Dec-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Homer

But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wicked situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any for of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.

James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Speech at the Virginia Convention (20 Jun 1788)
    (Source)
 
Added on 28-Jan-08 | Last updated 3-Nov-20
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Madison, James

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
    (Source)
 
Added on 28-Jan-08 | Last updated 4-Sep-19
Link to this post | 2 comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by King, Martin Luther

He died on Monday where he lived, it happens to us all
Shot through the air expecting nets, flight and then a fall.

Loudon Wainwright III (b. 1946) American singer-songwriter, humorist, actor
“Human Cannonball” (1965)
 
Added on 25-Jan-08 | Last updated 25-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Wainwright, Loudon, III

How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is, “Who in the world am I?” Ah, that’s the great puzzle!

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Alice in Wonderland, ch. 2 (1865)
 
Added on 25-Jan-08 | Last updated 25-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Carroll, Lewis

All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

Sean O'Casey (1880-1964) Irish playwright [b. John Casey, a.k.a. Seán O'Cathaseaigh]
(Attributed)
 
Added on 24-Jan-08 | Last updated 24-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by O'Casey, Sean

An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Some Mistakes of Moses, Sec. 3 “The Politicians” (1879)
 
Added on 24-Jan-08 | Last updated 4-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

How strange to have failed as a social creature — even criminals do not fail that way — they are the law’s “Loyal Opposition,” so to speak. But the insane are always mere guests on earth, eternal strangers carrying around broken decalogues that they cannot read.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
Letter to daughter, Frances “Scottie” Fitzgerald (Dec 1940)
 
Added on 23-Jan-08 | Last updated 23-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Fitzgerald, F. Scott

The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
“Refutation of Helvétius” (1773-76)
 
Added on 23-Jan-08 | Last updated 23-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Diderot, Denis

Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you ran a very long time as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Through the Looking-Glass, ch. 2 (1871)
 
Added on 23-Jan-08 | Last updated 1-May-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Carroll, Lewis

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so as long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
Fahrenheit 451, ch. 3 [Granger] (1953)
    (Source)
 
Added on 22-Jan-08 | Last updated 20-Jun-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bradbury, Ray

They say the religion of your fathers is good enough. Why should a father object to your inventing a better plow than he had?

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech on Religious Intolerance, Pittsburgh Opera House (14 Oct 1879)
 
Added on 22-Jan-08 | Last updated 5-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (24 Aug 1815)
 
Added on 22-Jan-08 | Last updated 10-Jul-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Adams, John

As it was 189 years ago, so today the cause of America is a revolutionary cause. And I am proud this morning to salute you as fellow revolutionaries. Neither you nor I are willing to accept the tyranny of poverty, nor the dictatorship of ignorance, nor the despotism of ill health, nor the oppression of bias and prejudice and bigotry. We want change. We want progress. We want it both abroad and at home — and we aim to get it.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-08-04), “Remarks to College Students Employed by the Government During the Summer,” White House
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Jan-08 | Last updated 26-Apr-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Lyndon

God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us, and whose names are already written in the book of creation, as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker
The Seven Lamps of Architecture, “The Lamp of Memory,” ch. 6, sec. 9 (1907)
 
Added on 21-Jan-08 | Last updated 21-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Ruskin, John

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Jesting Pilate, pt. 4 (1926)
 
Added on 18-Jan-08 | Last updated 18-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Huxley, Aldous

For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us — recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

First, were we truly men of courage — with the courage to stand up to one’s enemies — and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one’s associates — the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?

Secondly, were we truly men of judgment — with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past — of our mistakes as well as the mistakes of others — with enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candor to admit it.

Third, were we truly men of integrity — men who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the men who believed in us — men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

Finally, were we truly men of dedication — with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?

Courage — judgment — integrity — dedication — these are the historic qualities … which, with God’s help … will characterize our Government’s conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address to the Massachusetts legislature (9 Jan 1961)
    (Source)

As President-elect. The reference is to Luke 12:48.
 
Added on 18-Jan-08 | Last updated 14-Oct-19
Link to this post | 2 comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Kennedy, John F.

Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
    (Source)

Einstein crafted and recrafted his credo multiple times in this period, and specifics are often muddled by differing translations and by his reuse of certain phrases in later writing. The Forum and Century entry appears to be the earliest. Some important variants:

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an undue amount of the labor of my fellow-men.

— "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild]" [tr. Bargmann (1954)]


A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to the simple life and am often oppressed by the feeling that I am engrossing an unnecessary amount of the labor of my fellowmen.

— "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild]" [tr. Harris (1934)]


I am often troubled by the thought that my life is based to such a large extent on the work of my fellow human beings, and I am aware of my great indebtedness to them.

[Oft bedrückt mich der Gedanke, in welchem Maße mein Leben auf der Arbeit meiner Mitmenschen aufgebaut ist, und ich weiß, wie viel ich Ihnen schulde.]

Reduced variant in "My Credo [Mein Glaubensbekenntnis]" (Aug 1932)
 
Added on 18-Jan-08 | Last updated 20-Feb-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Einstein, Albert

But is an enemy so execrable that tho in captivity his wishes and comforts are to be disregarded and even crossed? I think not. It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war as much as possible.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Patrick Henry (27 Mar 1779)
    (Source)
 
Added on 17-Jan-08 | Last updated 24-Jul-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Jefferson, Thomas

It is hardly lack of due process for the Government to regulate that which it subsidizes.

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 131 (1943)
 
Added on 17-Jan-08 | Last updated 17-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Jackson, Robert H.

The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)

Unverified in Shaw's writings.
 
Added on 17-Jan-08 | Last updated 17-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Shaw, George Bernard

The victor belongs to the spoils.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
 
Added on 16-Jan-08 | Last updated 16-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Fitzgerald, F. Scott

“Natural” is a very dangerous word to use about sexuality … Our society’s notions of normality are completely fake and meta-trendy, since they rely on the changing standards of superstition, religion, Christianity and gender bias to define themselves. Americans, in particular, exhibit very childish reactions to sexual practices that are new to them, much like little kids who are offered a vegetable they haven’t seen before: “That’s disgusting!” “But darling, you haven’t even tried it!” “I don’t care, I hate it, I hate it!”

Susie Bright (b. 1958) American writer, performer, feminist [aka Susie Sexpert, Sue Daniels]
Nothing But the Girl (1996)

Edited with Jill Posner
 
Added on 16-Jan-08 | Last updated 16-Jan-08
Link to this post | 2 comments
More quotes by Bright, Susie

Now we have come to the conclusion that every man has a right to think. Would God give a bird wings and make it a crime to fly? Would he give me brains and make it a crime to think? Any God that would damn one of his children for the expression of his honest thought wouldn’t make a decent thief. When I read a book and don’t believe it, I ought to say so. I will do so and take the consequences like a man.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech on Religious Intolerance, Pittsburgh Opera House (14 Oct 1879)
 
Added on 16-Jan-08 | Last updated 5-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

If fallacies come knocking at my door,
I’d rather feed, and shelter full a score,
Than hide behind the black portcullis, doubt,
And run the risk of barring one Truth out.

And if pretension for a time deceive,
And prove me one too ready to believe,
Far less my shame, than if by stubborn act,
I brand as lie, some great colossal Fact.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author and poet.
“Credulity,” st. 1-2, Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels (1909)
    (Source)
 
Added on 15-Jan-08 | Last updated 14-Aug-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) American novelist, journalist
Slaughterhouse-Five, ch. 2 (1969)
 
Added on 15-Jan-08 | Last updated 15-Jan-08
Link to this post | 1 comment
More quotes by Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.

In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
De Genesi ad Litteram, Bk. I, ch. 41 (AD 401) [tr. Taylor]
 
Added on 15-Jan-08 | Last updated 30-Jan-10
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Augustine of Hippo

I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough…. The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (28 Dec 1794)
 
Added on 14-Jan-08 | Last updated 10-Jul-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Adams, John

Whatever issue may come before me as President — on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject — I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise. But if the time should ever come — and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible — when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, Greater Houston Ministerial Association (12 Sep 1960)
    (Source)
 
Added on 14-Jan-08 | Last updated 21-Jul-14
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Kennedy, John F.

I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
The Mysterious Affair at Styles [Poirot] (1920)
 
Added on 14-Jan-08 | Last updated 14-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Christie, Agatha

While utterly discarding all creeds, and denying the truth of all religions, there is neither in my heart nor upon my lips a sneer for the hopeful, loving and tender souls who believe that from all this discord will result a perfect harmony; that every evil will in some mysterious way become a good, and that above and over all there is a being who, in some way, will reclaim and glorify every one of the children of men; but for those who heartlessly try to prove that salvation is almost impossible; that damnation is almost certain; that the highway of the universe leads to hell; who fill life with fear and death with horror; who curse the cradle and mock the tomb, it is impossible to entertain other than feelings of pity, contempt and scorn.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Gods” (1876)
    (Source)
 
Added on 14-Jan-08 | Last updated 2-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

Administrivia: E-mail Quote of the Day!

Interested in getting quotations delivered right to your e-mailbox daily? Have we got a deal for you!
I have a Feedburner e-mail feed set up for this site. While it won’t select a random quote, it will send you a copy of every quote I add to WIST (usually 3-4 each weekday). That’s not a single Quote of the Day, but 3-4 Quotes of the Day! What a deal!
You’ll get an e-mail each evening titled “Your WIST quotation update.” It’s all handled through Feedburner, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Just click here.


 
Added on 12-Jan-08; last updated 12-Jan-08
Link to this post | 2 comments
More ~~Admin posts

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
“What Publicity Can Do,” Harper’s Weekly (20 Dec 1913)
 
Added on 11-Jan-08 | Last updated 11-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Brandeis, Louis

Explore, and explore. Be neither chided nor flattered out of your position of perpetual inquiry. Neither dogmatize, or accept another’s dogmatism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Speech, Dartmouth College (1838-07-24)
 
Added on 11-Jan-08 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician.

Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) American politician, writer, US President (1967-74)
Address, Radio-Television Executives Society, New York (14 Sep 1955)

Quoted by The Christian Science Monitor the following day, but not in the press release of the speech.
 
Added on 11-Jan-08 | Last updated 11-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Nixon, Richard Milhous

The holiest of holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet
“Holidays” (1876)
    (Source)
 
Added on 10-Jan-08 | Last updated 16-Apr-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Nothing in the World can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) American lawyer, politician, US President (1925-29)
(Attributed)

Unverified in his writings. Cited on the program at a Coolidge memorial service (1933)
 
Added on 10-Jan-08 | Last updated 10-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Coolidge, Calvin

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, Harrow School, England (1941-10-29)
    (Source)
 
Added on 10-Jan-08 | Last updated 26-Jan-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Churchill, Winston

We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall; —
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Boston” (1873)

Written and read for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
 
Added on 9-Jan-08 | Last updated 9-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Few men have the natural strength to honour a friend’s success without envy. … I well know that mirror of friendship, shadow of a shade.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, l. 832

Alt trans.: "It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered."
 
Added on 9-Jan-08 | Last updated 9-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Aeschylus

In the last analysis, my fellow countrymen, as we in America would be the first to claim, a people are responsible for the acts of their government.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) US President (1913-20), educator, political scientist
Address, Columbus, Ohio (4 Sep 1919)
 
Added on 9-Jan-08 | Last updated 9-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Wilson, Woodrow

If I were to attempt to put my political philosophy tonight into a single phrase, it would be this: Trust the people. Trust their good sense, their decency, their fortitude, their faith. Trust them with the facts. Trust them with the great decisions. And fix as our guiding star the passion to create a society where people can fulfill their own best selves — where no American is held down by race or color, by worldly condition or social status, from gaining what his character earns him as an American citizen, as a human being and as a child of God.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, Harrisburg, Penn. (13 Sep 1956)
 
Added on 8-Jan-08 | Last updated 8-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Stevenson, Adlai

Intellectually I know America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) American novelist, playwright
Radio interview, Berlin (29 Dec 1930)

Reported in the New York Times (30 Dec 1930)
 
Added on 8-Jan-08 | Last updated 19-May-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Lewis, Sinclair

It is clear that the most elementary condition, if thought is to be free, is the absence of legal penalties for the expression of opinions. No great country has yet reached to this level, although most of them think they have. The opinions which are still persecuted strike the majority as so monstrous and immoral that the general principle of toleration can not be held to apply to them. But this is exactly the same view as that which made possible the tortures of the Inquisition. There was a time when Protestantism seemed as wicked as Bolshevism seems now.

Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Free Thought and Official Propaganda,” lecture, South Place Institute, London (1922-03-24)
    (Source)
 
Added on 7-Jan-08 | Last updated 25-May-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Russell, Bertrand

True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them — the desire to do right — is precisely the same.

Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) American military leader
Letter to Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard (3 Oct 1865)
 
Added on 7-Jan-08 | Last updated 7-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Lee, Robert E.

How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past?

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
 
Added on 7-Jan-08 | Last updated 7-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Steinbeck, John

A member of the Cabinet congratulated Wilson on introducing the vogue of short speeches and asked him about the time it took him to prepare his speeches. He said: “It depends. If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) US President (1913-20), educator, political scientist
(Attributed)

In Josephus Daniels, The Wilson Era; Years of War and After, 1917–1923, p. 624 (1946)
 
Added on 7-Jan-08 | Last updated 7-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Wilson, Woodrow

Non semper ea sunt quae videntur.
[Things are not always what they seem.]

Phaedrus (15 BC-AD 50) Roman fabulist, poet
Fables, Book 4, #2
 
Added on 6-Jan-08 | Last updated 6-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Phaedrus

Administrivia: Upgrade

I’ve updated this blog to MT 4.01. It appears to have gone smoothly, and everything seems to be working, but if you run across any problems, please don’t hesitate to contact me.


 
Added on 5-Jan-08; last updated 5-Jan-08
Link to this post | 2 comments
More ~~Admin posts

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.

Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Sceptical Essays, Introduction (1928)
 
Added on 5-Jan-08 | Last updated 5-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Russell, Bertrand

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, “The Logic of Elfland” (1908)
 
Added on 4-Jan-08 | Last updated 4-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Commencement Address, Yale University (1962-06-11)
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-Jan-08 | Last updated 13-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Kennedy, John F.

Education is a good thing generally, but most folks educate their prejudices.

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia (1874)
 
Added on 3-Jan-08 | Last updated 29-Feb-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Billings, Josh

Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)
 
Added on 3-Jan-08 | Last updated 3-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Disraeli, Benjamin

I generalized rashly: That is what kills political writing, this absurd pretence that you are delivering a great utterance. You never do. You are just a puzzled man making notes about what you think. You are not building the Pantheon, then why act like a graven image? You are drawing sketches in the sand which the sea will wash away.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
“Books and Things,” The New Republic, (7 Aug 1915)

After reading a book on politics he didn't like.
 
Added on 2-Jan-08 | Last updated 2-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Lippmann, Walter

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker
St. Mark’s Rest: The History of Venice, Preface (1885)
 
Added on 2-Jan-08 | Last updated 2-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Ruskin, John

Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed.
But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) English poet
“A Court Lady,” st. 20 (1859)
 
Added on 2-Jan-08 | Last updated 2-Jan-08
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

The plea of good intentions is not one that can be allowed to have much weight in passing historical judgment upon a man whose wrong-headedness and distorted way of looking at things produced, or helped to produce, such incalculable evil; there is a wide political applicability in the remark attributed to a famous Texan, to the effect that he might, in the end, pardon a man who shot him on purpose, but that he would surely never forgive one who did so accidentally.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Thomas Hart Benton, ch. 5 (1897)

Writing of John C. Calhoun.
 
Added on 29-Dec-07 | Last updated 29-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

We must not inquire too curiously into motives…. they are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Middlemarch, ch. 2 (1871)
 
Added on 29-Dec-07 | Last updated 29-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Eliot, George

At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty, chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same.
And why? Because he thinks himself immortal.
All men think all men mortal but themselves.

Edward Young (1683-1765) English poet
The Complaint: Or, Night Thoughts, Vol. 1, No. 1 “Night the First: On Death, Life, and Immortality,” l. 418ff (1742-05) (1744)
    (Source)
 
Added on 29-Dec-07 | Last updated 29-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Young, Edward

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depth of affliction!

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Address, Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee (30 Sep 1859)
 
Added on 28-Dec-07 | Last updated 28-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Lincoln, Abraham

Even if we accept, as the basic tenet of true democracy, that one moron is equal to one genius, is it necessary to go a further step and hold that two morons are better than one genius?

Leó Szilárd (1898-1964) Hungarian-American physicist
The Voice of the Dolphins and Other Stories (1961)

Variant: "I’m all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius." In "Some Szilardisms on War, Fame, Peace", LIFE‎ (1 Sep 1961)

 
Added on 28-Dec-07 | Last updated 22-Feb-10
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Szilard, Leo

Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom. It should be the first duty of those who are happy to let others know of their gladness.

Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) Belgian poet, dramatist, essayist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 28-Dec-07 | Last updated 28-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Maeterlinck, Maurice

Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
(Spurious)

Widely attributed to Augustine, but not recognizably found in his works. For more information, see: St. Augustine and the daughters of hope | They didn't say it.
 
Added on 27-Dec-07 | Last updated 19-Aug-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Augustine of Hippo

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity …. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #2 (24 Mar 1750)
    (Source)
 
Added on 27-Dec-07 | Last updated 25-Jun-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Samuel

If I have been wrong in my agnosticism, when I die I’ll walk up to God in a manly way and say, “Sir, I made an honest mistake.”

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)

Quoted by John Kenneth Galbraith, interview with N. Attallah, Singular Encounters (1990)
 
Added on 27-Dec-07 | Last updated 27-Dec-07
Link to this post | 1 comment
More quotes by Mencken, H. L.

No man who is not willing to bear arms and to fight for his rights can give a good reason why he should be entitled to the privilege of living in a free community.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Thomas Hart Benton, ch. 2 (1897)
 
Added on 26-Dec-07 | Last updated 26-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

With heapy Fires our chearful Hearth is crown’d;⁠
And Firs for Torches in the Woods abound:
We fear not more the Winds, and wintry Cold,
Than Streams the Banks, or Wolves the bleating Fold.

[Hic focus et taedae pingues, hic plurimus ignis
semper, et adsidua postes fuligine nigri;
hic tantum Boreae curamus frigora, quantum
aut numerum lupus, aut torrentia flumina ripas.]

Virgil the Poet
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Eclogues [Eclogae, Bucolics, Pastorals], No. 7 “Meliboeus,” l. 49ff (7.49-52) [Thyrsis] (42-38 BC) [tr. Dryden (1709), l. 70ff]
    (Source)

Francis Bacon refers to Virgil's use of a Latin proverb about wolves not caring about the numbers of sheep they face.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

A hearth, fat Pyne, nor ample fire we lack,
With daily smoke, our Chimney peeces black:
The cold of Boreas here we fear no more,
Than Wolves our Cattell, or fierce streams the shore.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]

Here on this hearth, with resinous billets piled,
The pine-branch blazes; and the rafters, soil'd
With constant smoke, bespeak the warmth within:
Nor more we care for winter's snow-clad scene
Than wolves respect the numbers of the fold,
Or streams their banks, in mountain-torrent rolled.
[tr. Wrangham (1830), l. 67ff]

Here is a glowing hearth, and resinous torches; here is always a great fire, and lintels sooted with conitnual smoke. here we just as much regard the cold of Boreas, as either wolf does the number [of sheep], or impetuous rivers their banks.
[tr. Davidson (1854)]

Warm hearth, good faggots, and great fires you'll find
In my home: black with smoke are all its planks:
We laugh, who're in it, at the chill north wind,
As wolves at troops of sheep, mad streams at banks.
[tr. Calverley (c. 1871)]

Here is a glowing hearth, and oily brands of pine, here an everblazing fire, and door-posts black with never-ceasing soot; sitting here we heed the chilly blasts of Boreas just as much as the wolf heeds the number of the flock, or torrent floods the bank.
[tr. Wilkins (1873)]

Great store of wood, the unctuous pine.
The smoke-stained rafter, all are mine:
I fear no more the northern cold
Than floods the reeds, or wolves the fold.
[tr. King (1882), l. 648ff]

Here with fat logs heap'd up for winter store,
Plenty as heart could wish, our fagots roar:
With smoke the groins and girders always black,
And boar's chine seasoning in the chimney rack,
We care as much for the North wind or frost,
As wolves for number of the fleecy host,
Or mountain torrent for its bank, when first
O'er granite peaks a lowering cloud has burst.
[tr. Palmer (1883)]

Here is a hearth, and resinous logs, here fire
unstinted, and doors black with ceaseless smoke.
Here heed we Boreas' icy breath as much
as the wolf heeds the number of the flock,
or furious rivers their restraining banks.
[tr. Greenough (1895)]

Here is a glowing hearth, and resinous torches ; here is always plenty of fire, and lintels blackened with continual smoke. Here we as much regard the cold of Boreas as either the wolf does the number [of the sheep], or foaming rivers their banks.
[tr. Bryce (1897)]

Here is the hearth and resinous billets; here the fire ever burns high and the doorposts are black with constant soot: here we care as much for the freezing North as the wolf for the flock's multitude, or rivers in flood for their banks.
[tr. Mackail (1899)]

Here glows a ruddy hearth, with pitch pine logs
Ever alight -- and doorposts, black with smoke.
We heed no more the northern cold, than does
The wolf the flock, or flooded streams their banks.
[tr. Mackail/Cardew (1908)]

My hearth is piled with faggots of pitch-pine.
Free burns my faithful fire, and every hour
My walls are black with smoke; we heed no more
The frosts of Boreas than the wild wolf fears
The gathered sheep, or swollen stream its shore.
[tr. Williams (1915)]

With me you will find a hearth and pitchy brands; with me a good fire ever blazing and doorposts black with many a layer of soot. Here we care as much for the chill blasts of Boreas as the wolf for the number of sheep or rushing torrents for their banks.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1916)]

Here are fires never-failing and pine-faggots good
Under soot-blackened rafter we laugh at the cold,
As high banks are laught at by rivers in flood,
Or as one wolf derideth the numberless fold.
[tr. Royds (1922)]

Here is the hearth, logs rich in resin, a big fire all the time, and doorposts blackened by the constant smoke. We care as little here about the North Wind and the cold as a wolf cares for numbers, or rivers for their banks in time of spate.
[tr. Rieu (1949)]

Here we have pitch-pine logs and a blazing hearth-fire
With uprights always sootily flagged: we are harassed
No more by northern blizzards than wolves are flustered
By sheep in hosts or torrents by bordering boulders.
[tr. Johnson (1960)]

Oh here’s a hearth and pine logs in plenty,
doorposts black with winter-long smoke:
What are sheep-hordes to wolf, or high banks to flood-water?
what do we care for the north wind’s cold stroke?
[tr. Day Lewis (1963)]

We have a hearth with a fire that's always going,
Fed with resiny pinelogs from the woods;
Doorposts black with soot; we're bothered by
The winter cold no more than wolves by sheep
Or torrents by the banks that try to hold them.
[tr. Ferry (1999)]

Here is a hearth, and soaked pine torches, here a good fire
always, and door posts ever black with soot:
here we care as much for the freezing Northern gale,
as wolves for counting sheep, foaming rivers for their banks.
[tr. Kline (2001)]

Here is the hearth and the well-fueled torches, here
there's always an abundant fire, and the doorposts
are black with constant soot. Here we heed the
North Wind's blasts just as much as the wolf heeds
the number or the raging rivers heed their banks.
[tr. Bestiara Latina (2006)]

 
Added on 26-Dec-07 | Last updated 29-Nov-23
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Virgil

When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled. It has no apparatus to deal with the boor, the liar, the lout, and the antidemocrat in general.

J. William Fulbright (1905-1995) American politician
Remarks in the Senate (2 Feb 1954)
 
Added on 26-Dec-07 | Last updated 26-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Fulbright, J. William

Who is wise? He that learns from every One. Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Jul 1755)
 
Added on 24-Dec-07 | Last updated 24-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Franklin, Benjamin

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.

Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) English actor, author, director
Newspaper column, The European

Rarely cited. Referenced here, and reprinted in Ustinov Still At Large (1995).
 
Added on 24-Dec-07 | Last updated 24-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Ustinov, Peter

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Isaiah 11:6 [KJV (1611)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:

Wolves and sheep will live together in peace,
and leopards will lie down with young goats.
Calves and lion cubs will feed together,
and little children will take care of them.
[GNT (1976)]

The wolf will live with the lamb, the panther lie down with the kid, calf, lion and fat-stock beast together, with a little boy to lead them.
[NJB (1985)]

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard lie down with the kid;
The calf, the beast of prey, and the fatling together,
With a little boy to herd them.
[JPS (1985)]

The wolf shall live with the lamb;
the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed together,
and a little child shall lead them.
[NRSV (1989 ed.)]

 
Added on 24-Dec-07 | Last updated 24-Oct-23
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Bible, vol. 1, Old Testament

Manhood begins when we have in any way made truce with Necessity; begins even when we have surrendered to Necessity, as the most part only do; but begins joyfully and hopefully only when we have reconciled ourselves to Necessity; and thus, in reality, triumphed over it, and felt that in Necessity we are free.

Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Burns,” Edinburgh Review No. 96, Art. 1 (1828-12)
    (Source)

A review of Lockhart, The Life of Robert Burns (1828).
 
Added on 24-Dec-07 | Last updated 7-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Carlyle, Thomas

Our ignorance of history makes us calumniate our own time. We have always been like this. Some calm years have deceived us. That is all. I too believed in the softening of manners. We must erase this error and esteem ourselves no more than people esteemed themselves in the time of Pericles or Shakespeare, atrocious epochs in which fine things were done.

[On a toujours été comme ça. Quelques années de calme nous ont trompés. Voilà tout. Moi aussi, je croyais à l’adoucissement des mœurs. Il faut rayer cette erreur et ne pas s’estimer plus qu’on ne s’estimait du temps de Péricles ou de Shakespeare, époques atroces où on a fait de belles choses.]

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) French writer, novelist
Letter to George Sand (8 Sep 1871) [tr. Tarver]
    (Source)

Original French.

Alternate translation: "Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times."
 
Added on 20-Dec-07 | Last updated 23-Jun-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Flaubert, Gustave

Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end — where all men and all churches are treated as equal — where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice — where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind — and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, Greater Houston Ministerial Association (12 Sep 1960)
    (Source)
 
Added on 20-Dec-07 | Last updated 21-Jul-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Kennedy, John F.

Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

Lawrence J Peter
Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
The Peter Principle (1969)
 
Added on 20-Dec-07 | Last updated 3-Apr-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Peter, Lawrence J.

In Words, as Fashions, the same Rule will hold;
Alike Fantastick, if too New, or Old;
Be not the first by whom the New are try’d,
Nor yet the last to lay the Old aside.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Essay on Criticism,” l. 333–36 (1711)
 
Added on 19-Dec-07 | Last updated 8-Nov-10
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Pope, Alexander

You’ll never get mixed up if you simply tell the truth. Then you don’t have to remember what you have said, and you never forget what you have said.

Sam Rayburn (1882-1961) American lawyer and politician
(Attributed)

Private conversation quoted in W. B. Ragsdale, “An Old Friend Writes of Rayburn,” U.S. News & World Report (23 Oct 1961)
 
Added on 19-Dec-07 | Last updated 19-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Rayburn, Sam

I would say here something that was heard from an ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree; “That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how the heaven goes.”

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and mathematician
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christine (1615)

Defending his "heretical" theories.
 
Added on 19-Dec-07 | Last updated 19-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Galileo Galilei

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, final sentence (1967).
 
Added on 19-Dec-07 | Last updated 19-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Wilder, Thornton

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“In Memoriam A. H. H.” , Part 27, st. 4 (1849)

Arthur Henry Hallam was the fiancé of Tennyson's sister Emily. Hallam died suddenly in September 1833.
 
Added on 18-Dec-07 | Last updated 24-Nov-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Tennyson, Alfred, Lord

Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to joy, and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“Orthodoxy” (1884)
    (Source)
 
Added on 18-Dec-07 | Last updated 2-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics:
More quotes by Ingersoll, Robert Green

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (1971-04-25)
    (Source)
 
Added on 18-Dec-07 | Last updated 21-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Hoffer, Eric

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
The Great Adventure, ch. 1 (1918)
 
Added on 17-Dec-07 | Last updated 24-Oct-11
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance
Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
(Attributed)

Quoted in Reader’s Digest (Jun 1967)
 
Added on 17-Dec-07 | Last updated 17-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Nash, Ogden

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me. It is an uncomfortable doctrine which the true ethics whisper into my ear. You are happy, they say; therefore you are called upon to give much.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Alsatian philosopher, physician, philanthropist, polymath
Philosophy of Civilisation, vol. 2 “Civilization and Ethics,” ch. 26 (1949)

Trans. CT Campion
 
Added on 17-Dec-07 | Last updated 17-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Schweitzer, Albert

There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It’s very hard in military or in personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
News conference (21 Mar 1962)
 
Added on 14-Dec-07 | Last updated 14-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Kennedy, John F.

We have to recognise, that the gin-palace, like many other evils, although a poisonous, is still a natural outgrowth of our social conditions. The tap-room in many cases is the poor man’s only parlour. Many a man takes to beer, not from the love of beer, but from a natural craving for the light, warmth, company, and comfort which is thrown in along with the beer, and which he cannot get excepting by buying beer. Reformers will never get rid of the drink shop until they can outbid it in the subsidiary attractions which it offers to its customers.

William Booth (1829–1912), British evangelist, founder of the Salvation Army
In Darkest England, and the Way Out, pt. 1, ch. 6 (1890)
 
Added on 13-Dec-07 | Last updated 13-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Booth, William

I do not speak for my church on public matters — and the church does not speak for me.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, Greater Houston Ministerial Association (12 Sep 1960)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Dec-07 | Last updated 2-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Kennedy, John F.

Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd [Poirot] (1926)
 
Added on 13-Dec-07 | Last updated 13-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Christie, Agatha

It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Cleveland Press (1 Mar 1921)
 
Added on 12-Dec-07 | Last updated 12-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.

Matt Groening (b. 1954) American cartoonist, writer, producer
Life in Hell, “Basic Sex Facts For Today’s Youngfolk”
 
Added on 12-Dec-07 | Last updated 9-Feb-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Groening, Matt

Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.

David Franzoni (b. 1947) American screenwriter
Gladiator (2000)

Screenplay, with John Logan, William Nicholson.The words are attributed in the movie to Marcus Aurelius, though they are not found in his writings. In his Meditations 9.3, though, he writes, "Do not despise death, but welcome it gladly" (or, alternately, "smile at its coming.")
 
Added on 12-Dec-07 | Last updated 15-Apr-09
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Franzoni, David

When a tiger dies, it leaves its skin behind. When a person dies, he leaves his name behind.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Chinese proverb
 
Added on 11-Dec-07 | Last updated 11-Feb-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by ~Other

My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
Letter to his daughter Frances Scott Fitzgerald (Jul 1938)
 
Added on 11-Dec-07 | Last updated 11-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Fitzgerald, F. Scott

In my religion there would be no exclusive doctrine; all would be love, poetry and doubt.

Cyril Connolly (1903-1974) English intellectual, literary critic and writer.
The Unquiet Grave (1945)
 
Added on 11-Dec-07 | Last updated 17-Jul-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Connolly, Cyril

All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an artist, or an independent business creator. In service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self. Become a parent is one of these basic human transformational deeds. By this act, we change our fundamental relationship with the universe — if nothing else, we lose our place as the pinnacle and end-point of evolution, and become a mere link.

Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949) American author
Cordelia’s Honor, “Afterword” (1996)
 
Added on 10-Dec-07 | Last updated 10-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bujold, Lois McMaster

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
A gauntlet with a gift in it.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) English poet
Aurora Leigh, Bk. II (1856)
 
Added on 10-Dec-07 | Last updated 10-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
A Short History of England (1917)
 
Added on 10-Dec-07 | Last updated 10-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

Administrivia: Great Googley-Moogley!

I’ve found the FastSearch add-in for MT to be pretty handy — quick, and eminently configurable to look like any other page here. But it does have some limitations, most especially in not being able to search by author.
So I’ve added into the sidebar a customized Google search bar, which harnesses the power of Google (yadda-yadda) and does a search just within the site. It should be a good additional tool for folks (myself included) to use in accessing content here at WIST. It’s advantages:
1. It’s Google-fast. Whee!
2. It searches everything on the page, including the author and biography and all that.
A few limits the Google search has:
1. As I have it set up, the result page isn’t very customized. A little WIST logo, that’s it. There are some ways to do more of that sort of thing (bringing results to one of my own pages, for example), but that was more time than I had to immediately invest.
2. The search isn’t very discriminating content-wise, just as Google is not. You may get individual quotations back, author pages back, even the front page (if that’s where a quote match was), all mixed together. If I’d known I was doing this, I would have organized the virtual pages here differently — but I didn’t, and it’s kind of too late now. You also end up with any sort of match — if I have a particular word in the sidebar, it will flood every result.
3. It’s a Google search result — you get a little context, but not necessarily the whole quote.
4. The content is limited to the last time Google crawled the page. A quote I entered in the past few days most likely won’t show up (not sure how often Google crawls here, but it’s not hourly, that’s for sure).
But that all said, I’m pretty happy with it as an added tool in the WIST tool kit. Heck, if it works out well here, I might use it on my main blog …


 
Added on 8-Dec-07; last updated 8-Dec-07
Link to this post | No comments
More ~~Admin posts