The secret of happiness is understanding that friendship is more precious than mere things, more precious than getting one’s own way, more precious than being right in situations where true principles are not at stake.
To feel valued, to know, even if only once in a while, that you can do a job well is an absolutely marvelous feeling.
Barbara Walters (b. 1929) American broadcast journalist
(Attributed)
This world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.
Horace Walpole (1717-1797) English novelist, letter writer
Letter to Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory (16 Aug 1776)
(Source)
Walpole frequently used used this phrase or variants in letters (and in fact prefaces this quote with "I have often said ..."). Another example is an earlier letter to Horace Mann (31 Dec 1769):I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel -- a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.
It may be derived from an (unsourced) similar quote attributed Jean de La Bruyère: "Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think".
Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting.
Karl Wallenda (1905-1978) German-American tightrope walker
(Attributed)
Never let the urgent crowd out the important.
Kelly Catlin Walker (contemp.) American motivational speaker, business consultant
(Attributed)
By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.
Charles Wadsworth (contemp.) American musician, promoter
(Attributed)
Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne.
The manner in which a man views his fate is more important than what his fate is.
Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) German philologist, diplomat
Letter to Charlotte von Stein (6 Sep 1825) [tr. Stebbing (1849)]Full text.
Alt. trans.:
- "It is far more important how we accept our fortune than what that fortune really may be." [tr. Couper (1824)]
- "How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is."
See also this earlier letter.
I have learned to use the word impossible with the greatest caution.
Wernher von Braun (1877-1912) German-American engineer
(Attributed)
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
[Il est dangereux d’avoir raison dans des choses où des hommes accrédités ont tort.]Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
“Catalogue pour la plupart des écrivains français qui ont paru dans Le Siècle de Louis XIV, pour servir à l’histoire littéraire de ce temps” (1752)
Alt trans:
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."
Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
(Misattributed)
Actually, Pierre de Beaumarchais, Le Barbier de Séville (1775), I.ii, "Aujourd'hui ce qui ne vaut pas la peine d'être dit, on le chante" ["Nowadays what isn't worth saying is sung"]. Also, Joseph Addison, The Spectator (21 Mar 1711), who spoke of "an establish'd Rule, which is receiv'd as such to this Day, That nothing is capable of being well set to Musick, that is not Nonsense."
God is a comic playing to an audience that’s afraid to laugh.
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
(Misattributed)
Unverified. See Mencken.
If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.
[Si Dieu nous a fait à son image, nous le lui avons bien rendu.]
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
[Le doute n’est pas une condition agréable, mais la certitude est absurde.]
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Letter to Frederick William, Prince of Prussia (28 Nov 1770) [tr. Tallentyre (1919)]
(Source)
Alt trans.
- "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
- "Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one."
- "Doubt is not a very agreeable state, but certainty is a ridiculous one."
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
[Il est bien malaisé (puisqu’il faut enfin m’expliquer) d’ôter à des insensés des chaînes qu’ils révèrent.]
A witty saying proves nothing.
[Un bon mot ne prouve rien.]Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers, “Deuxième Entretien” (1767)
Full text.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
(Misttributed)
Actually Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Lévis (1764-1830): "Il est encore plus facile de juger de l'esprit d'un homme par ses questions que par ses réponses." [It is easier to judge the mind of a man by his questions rather than his answers] in Maximes et réflexions sur différents sujets de morale et de politique, Maxim 17 (1808)
Many risks fail because they were not taken in time. Too many risks are postponed until unnecessarily elaborate preparations are made. This does not mean that one should say, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” That is foolish and self-destructive. … But don’t sit back waiting for the perfect moment. It almost never comes.
David Viscott (1938-1996) American psychologist, writer, radio personality
(Attributed)
Those blush to lose a conquering game,
And fain would peril life for fame:
These bring success their zeal to fan;
They can because they think they can.[Hi proprium decus et partum indignantur honorem
ni teneant, vitamque volunt pro laude pacisci;
hos successus alit: possunt, quia posse videntur.]Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 5, l. 229ff (5.229-231) (29-19 BC) [tr. Conington (1866)]
(Source)
Of the crews of the two remaining ships racing at the funeral games of Anchises: Cloanthus' Scylla which is closing on the finish line; Mnestheus' Pristis which has come up from last place and may yet take the lead. (Cloanthus wins the race by offering a sacrifice to the sea gods.)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:These their new glory, honours got despise,
Unless they keep it, and to gaine the prize
Would sell their lives; success feeds them; they may
Because they think they can obtain the day.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]Resolv'd to hold their own, they mend their pace,
All obstinate to die, or gain the race.
Rais'd with success, the Dolphin swiftly ran;
For they can conquer, who believe they can.
[tr. Dryden (1697)]These are fired with indignation, lest they should lose their possession of glory and honor they have won; and they are willing to barter life for renown. Those success cherishes; they are able because they seem to be able.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]These scorn to lose the honour that is their own, the glory in their grasp, and would sell life for renown; to these success lends life; power comes with belief in it.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]These, thinking shame of letting fall their hardly-gotten gain
Of glory's meed, to buy the praise with very life are fain;
Those, fed on good-hap, all things may, because they deem they may
[tr. Morris (1900), l. 228ff]These scorn to lose their vantage, stung with shame,
And life is wagered willingly for fame.
Success inspires the hindmost; as they dare,
They do; the thought of winning wins the game.
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 31, l. 274ff]The leaders now with eager souls would scorn
to lose their glory, and faint-hearted fail
to grasp a prize half-won, but fain would buy
honor with life itself; the followers too
are flushed with proud success, and feel them strong
because their strength is proven.
[tr. Williams (1910)]These think it shame not to keep the honour that is theirs, the glory they have won, and would barter life for fame: those success heartens; strong are they, for strong they deem themselves.
[tr. Fairclough (1916)]On the Scylla
They would give their lives to hold their place, they have won it,
The glory and honor are theirs already, almost;
And Mnestheus’ men take courage from their nearness;
They can because they think they can.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]One crew was compelled by the shame of losing a prize they had all but
Gained for their own, and would give their lives for its glory; the other
Was fired by success -- they could do it because they believed they could do it.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]Cloanthus' crewmen
now think it a disgrace to fail to keep
the fame and honor they themselves have won,
and they would give their very lives for glory;
but Menestheus' men are strengthened by success,
they have the power because they feel they have it.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), l. 301ff]One crew fought off the shame of losing honor
Theirs already, glory won; they'd give
Their lives for fame; but luck empowered the others
Who felt that they could do it, and so could.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981), l. 294ff]Cloanthus and his men on the Scylla saw the honour as theirs by right. They had already won the victory and had no intention of giving it up. They would rather have lost their lives than lose the glory. Mnestheus and his men on the Pristis were feeding on success. They could win because they thought they could.
[tr. West (1990)]The former crew are unhappy lest they fail to keep
the honour that is theirs and the glory already
in their possession, and would sell their lives for fame.
the latter feed on success: they can because they think they can.
[tr. Kline (2002)]One crew, stung by the shame of losing victory now
with glory won, would trade their lives for fame.
But Mnestheus and his crew, fired by their success,
can just about win the day because they think they can.
[tr. Fagles (2006), l. 256ff]One crew would hate to lose the glory of an honor all but one. They'd trade their lives for victory. The others were encouraged by success. Belief in victory spurred them on.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]
Death twitches my ear. “Live,” he says; “I am coming.”
[Pereat qui crastina curat.
Mors aurem vellens Vivite, ait, venio.]Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
“Copa [The Dancing Girl / The Barmaid / The Female Tavern Keeper],” ll. 37-38, Appendix Vergiliana [Minor Poems]
(Source)
The Appendix Vergiliana were long considered authentic, if younger, poems by Virgil, but scholars today consider them to be by other, unknown authors from around the 1st Century AD, collected in Late Antiquity.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., quoted the line in a radio address on his ninetieth birthday (1931-03-08), as noted below.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Away with him who heeds the morrow! Death, plucking the ear, cries: "Live; I come!"
[tr. Fairclough (1908)]Let him perish who
Doth care about to-morrow. Death your ear
Demands and says, "I come, so live to-day."
[tr. Mooney (1916)]Death plucks my ear and says, Live -- I am coming.
[tr. Holmes (1931)]Never mind tomorrow. In my ear
Death whispers: "Live! I'm coming. I am here!"
[tr. Slavitt (2011)]
Now people confuse morals with manners.
Vincent Virga (b. 1942) American photo editor, writer
Gaywyck
One advantage of marriage, it seems to me, is that when you fall out of love with him, or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until maybe you fall in again.
Judith Viorst (b. 1931) American writer, journalist, psychoanalysis researcher
Love and Shrimp (1999) [with Shelly Markam]
(Source)
The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one’s opportunities, and to make the most of one’s resources.
[Le plus grand effort de l’esprit est de se tenier à la hauteur de la fortune, ou au niveau des richesses.]
The lazy are always wanting to do something.
[Les paresseux ont toujours envie de faire quelque chose.]
To accomplish great things we must live as though we had never to die.
[Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir.]
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715-1747) French moralist, essayist, soldier
Reflections and Maxims [Réflexions et maximes] (1746) [tr. Lee (1903)]Alt. trans.:
- "In order to carry out great enterprises, one must live as if one will never have to die."
- "In order to achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die."
Diplomacy is the art of letting someone have your own way.
Danielle Vare (1880-1956) Italian diplomat and author
(Attributed)
Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul
May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;
While he who walks in love may wander far,
Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.
Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) American clergyman and writer
(Misattributed)
Also frequently misattributed to Thoreau. First found in The Ladies Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature, Arts and Religion (Sep 1874), without attribution (see here).
To be glad of life because it gives you to chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars — to be satisfied with your possessions but not content with yourself until you have made the best of them — to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice — to be governed by you admirations rather than by your disgusts — to covet nothing that is your neighbors except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners — to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ; to spend as much time as you can in God’s out-of doors — these are the little guideposts on the foot-path to peace.
Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) American clergyman and writer
“The Foot-path to Peace,” Tacoma Times (1 Jan 1904)
(Source)
Often shortened to: "Be glad for life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to look up at the stars."
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut (1953-1994) Dutch-American computer scientist, educator
(Attributed)
Also attributed to Chuck Reid and Yogi Berra.
The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation known as ‘railroads.’ … As you may well know, railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by engines, which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.
The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.
Abigail Van Buren (1918-2013) American columnist [a.k.a. Dear Abby, pen name for Pauline Phillips]
“Dear Abby” column (16 May 1974)
The earliest variation on this thought appears to be from Paul Eldridge.
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished — a word that for them has no sense — but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless.
[Aux yeux de ces amateurs d’inquiétude et de perfection, un ouvrage n’est jamais achevé, – mot qui pour eux n’a aucun sens, – mais abandonné ; et cet abandon, qui le livre aux flammes ou au public (et qu’il soit l’effet de la lassitude ou de l’obligation de livrer) est une sorte d’accident, comparable à la rupture d’une réflexion, que la fatigue, le fâcheux ou quelque sensation viennent rendre nulle.]
Paul Valéry (1871-1945) French poet, critic, author, polymath
“Au sujet du ‘Cimetière marin,'” La Nouvelle Revue Française (Mar 1933)
(Source)
Often rendered as: "A poem is never finished, only abandoned."
Alt. trans.: "In the eyes of those who anxiously seek perfection, a work is never truly completed -- a word that for them has no sense -- but abandoned; and this abandonment, of the book to the fire or to the public, whether due to weariness or to a need to deliver it for publication, is a sort of accident, comparable to the letting-go of an idea that has become so tiring or annoying that one has lost all interest in it." [tr. Maggio]
In the same vein, in "Recollections," Valery wrote: "A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations."
Also attributed to W. H. Auden, Oscar Wilde, and Jean Cocteau, For more discussion of the origin of this phrase, see here.
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) English actor, author, director
(Attributed)
While I could not find a specific source for this ubiquitous attribution, it does show up in two collections of Ustinov quotations during his lifetime: The Wit of Peter Ustinov, ed. Dick Edwards (1969), and The Quotable Ustinov, no editor given (1995).
I am rather unfriendly toward the Marxists, as I am towards those who persecute them, simply because they regard the unit by which one judges human behavior as the mass, and I really believe the individual is much more important than the mass. In fact, the mass is really composed of individuals that have momentarily lost their voice, which is a sad state of affairs.
Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but death.
Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God idea, not in God Himself.
[Los que sin pasión de ánimo, sin congoja, sin incertidumbre, sin duda, sin la desesperación en el consuelo, creen creer en Dios, no creen sino en la idea de Dios, más no en Dios mismo.]
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) Spanish philosopher and writer [Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo]
The Tragic Sense of Life [Del sentimiento trágico de la vida], ch. 9 “Faith, Hope, and Charity” (1912) [tr. Flitch (1921)]
(Source)
Alt. trans. [tr. Kerrigan (1972)]: "Whoever believes he believes in God, but believes without passion, without anguish, without uncertainty, without doubt, without despair-in-consolation, believes only in the God-Idea, not in God Himself."
Original Spanish.
In Unamuno's earlier, unpublished work Treatise on the Love of God [Tratado del amor de Dios], ch. 3 "What is Faith?" (1905-08) [tr. Orringer], he used this same phrase and surrounding text: "Those without passion in their soul, without anguish, without uncertainty, without doubt, without despair in consolation, think they believe in God; they believe only in the idea of God, but not in God Himself."
Everybody’s got a plan — until he gets hit.
Joe Louis (1914-1981) American boxer [Joseph Louis Barrow]
(Attributed)
Often attributed to Mike Tyson.
Magic is seldom spectacular because it seldom needs to be.
Donald Tyson (b. 1954) Canadian writer and mystic
(Attributed)
Opportunity’s favorite disguise is trouble.
Frank Tyger (1929-2011) American artist, editorial cartoonist, aphorist
(Attributed)
GERARD: Newman, what are you doing?
NEWMAN: I’m thinking.
GERARD: Well, think me up a cup of coffee and a chocolate doughnut with some of those little sprinkles on top, while you’re thinking.David N. Twohy (b. 1956) American screenwriter, director
The Fugitive (1993)
(with Jeb Stuart)
Virtue has never been as respectable as money.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Innocents Abroad, ch. 23 (1869)
(Source)
Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 66, epigraph (1897)
(Source)
It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us — the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage — may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss — except the inventor of the telephone.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Letter to the Editor of the New York World (23 Dec 1890)
(Source)
From his cradle to his grave a man never does a single thing which has any FIRST AND FOREMOST object but one — to secure peace of mind, spiritual comfort, for HIMSELF.
He liked to like people, therefore people liked him.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, ch. 16 (1896)
(Source)
Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 58, epigraph (1897)
See here for more discussion about this (and related) quotations.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Innocents Abroad, “Conclusion” (1869)
(Source)
I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Tom Sawyer Abroad, ch. 11 “The Sand-Storm” (1905)
(Source)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word.
Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will.
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Misattributed)
Not found in Twain's work, and the phrase "putting [someone] on" post-dates Twain.
The quotation actually appears to come from Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle, ch. 7 (1969). Peter writes that during a lecture, a Latin American student named Caesare Innocente, said to him:Professor Peter, I'm afraid that what I want to know is not answered by all my studying. I don't know whether the world is run by smart men who are, how you Americans say, putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.
More discussion: slang - What is the origin of "putting someone on" - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange.
A strange and vanity-devoured, detestable woman! I do not believe I could ever learn to like her except on a raft at sea with no other provisions in sight.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3, 3 July 1908 (2010)
(Source)
The holy passion of friendship is so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring in nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, ch. 8, epigraph (1894)
(Source)