You know, the more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1922-12-31), “Weekly Article: Breaking into the Writing Game”
(Source)
Reprinted in The Illiterate Digest (1924)
Often paraphrased along the lines of, "The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other."
You can’t say civilization don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1929-12-23), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Has An Idea About Disarmament Plans”
(Source)
MARTIN: I’m a parent. I haven’t got the luxury of principles.
Robert Rodat (b. 1953) American screenwriter
The Patriot (2000)
We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship.
James Harvey Robinson (1863-1936) American historian and educator
The Mind in the Making, Pt II, ch. 4, “Rationalizing” (1921)
Full text.
The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.
Pat Robertson (1930-2023) American politician and televangelist
Fund-raising letter to Christian Coalition members in Iowa (1992-07)
The letter urged supporters to vote down Iowa's state Equal Rights Amendment (the referendum failed that November).
More discussion of this quotation:Frequently misattributed to his speech at the 1992 GOP Presidential Convention.
- Did Pat Robertson Say Feminism Encourages Women to "Kill Their Children"? | Snopes.com
- ROBERTSON LETTER ATTACKS FEMINISTS - The New York Times
- EQUAL RIGHTS INITIATIVE IN IOWA ATTACKED - The Washington Post
VILLAGE BOY 2: We’re ashamed to live here. Our fathers are cowards.
O’REILLY: Don’t you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun; well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there’s nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery.
Destiny is as destiny does. If you believe you have no control, then you have no control.
Wess Roberts (b. 1946) American author, motivational speaker
(Attributed)
Suffering is not good for the soul, unless it teaches you to stop suffering.
Jane Roberts (1929-1984) American author
(Attributed)
We pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure! Seek it out. Learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will ever be free.
I didn’t claw my way to the top of the food chain just to eat leaves!
Michael Rivero (contemp.) American journalist, conspiracy theorist
(Attributed)
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.
The changes in your life aren’t always the ones you hoped for. But they can usually help you grow.
Pat Riley (b. 1945) American basketball coach
The Winner Within (1994)
Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.
Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973) American industrialist and aviator
(Attributed)
A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in Edward Parsons Day, Day's Collacon: an Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations, "Danger" (1884), without citation.
Show me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will find enough therein to hang him.
[Qu’on me donne six lignes de la main du plus honnête homme, j’y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre]
No matter what a man’s past may have been, his future is spotless.
John R. Rice (1895-1980) American evangelist, author
(Attributed)
In the practice of art, as well as in morals, it is necessary to keep a watchful and jealous eye over ourselves; idleness, assuming the specious disguise of industry, will lull to sleep all suspicion of our want of an active exertion of strength. A provision of endless apparatus, a bustle of infinite enquiry and research, or even the mere mechanical labour of copying, may be employed, to evade and shuffle off real labour, — the real labour of thinking.
Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) British painter, critic
Speech to the Royal Academy, London (10 Dec 1784)
(Source)Paraphrased over a long period of time (and still attributed to Reynolds) as: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
The lecture was later described as the Twelfth Discourse in a 1797 collection of Reynolds' works.
Often attributed to Thomas Edison. More information here.
But it’s a five o’clock world when the whistle blows,
No one owns a piece of my time.
And there’s a five o’clock me inside my clothes,
Thinkin’ that the world looks fine, yeah.Allen Reynolds (b. 1938) American music writer and producer
“Five O’clock World” (1965)
(as sung by the Vogues)
All politics is based on the indifference of the majority.
James "Scotty" Reston (1909-1995) Scottish-American journalist and editor
“New York: Rockefeller Comes Out of His Trance,” New York Times (12 Jun 1968)
(Source)
This is cited in multiple places to this 1968 op-ed, to which I don't have access. Reston also used the phrase in this 1972 op-ed.
Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their pedestals.
We do not accede to the suggestion that the constitutional protection for a free press applies only to the expression of ideas. The line between the informing and the entertaining is too elusive for the protection of that basic right. Everyone is familiar with instances of propaganda through fiction. What is one man’s amusement, teaches another’s doctrine.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon (1933-1996) American beatnik, writer, radical [b. James Neil Hollingworth; also Ambrose Redmon]
Gnosis, “No Peaceful Warriors!” (Fall 1991)
Note.
There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up.
Bernice Johnson Reagon (b. 1942) American song leader, composer, scholar, social activist
“Coalition Politics: Turning the Century,” presentation, West Coast Women’s Music Festival, Yosemite (1981)
(Source)
It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their county, for us. All we can do is remember.
A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history — with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.
Mitch Ratcliffe (b. 1961) American technology journalist
Technology Review (Apr 1992)
The man who wastes today lamenting yesterday will waste tomorrow lamenting today.
Philip M. Raskin (1878-1944) American poet
(Attributed)
Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.
Jef Raskin (1943-2005) American computer scientist, writer
“Human Interface Design: Jef Raskin Interview,” Doctor Dobb’s Journal (May 1986)
(Source)
We did not labor in suffrage just to bring the vote to women, but to allow women to express their opinions and become effective in government. Men and women are like right and left hands; it doesn’t make sense not to use both.
So you think that money is the root of all evil? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
No, it is a very interesting number, it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways.
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) Indian mathematician
Quoted in G.H. Hardy, Ramanujan (1940)
When Hardy commented that the number of a taxi cab, 1729, was a "dull" number.
O God! If I worship Thee in fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise; but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not Thine Everlasting Beauty!
Rabi'ah of Basra (713?-801) Arab mystic and poetess [Rabi'ah al 'Adawiyah]
(Attributed)
Good friends, my Readers, who peruse this Book,
Be not offended, whilst on it you look:
Denude yourself of all depraved affection,
For it contains no badness, nor infection:
‘Tis true that it brings forth to you no birth
Of any value, but in point of mirth;
Thinking therefore how sorrow might your mind
Consume, I could no apter subject find:
One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span;
Because to laugh is proper to the man.[Amis lecteurs qui ce livre lisez,
Despouillez vous de toute affection.
Et le lisants ne vous scandalisez,
Il ne contient mal ne infection.
Vray est qu’icy peu de perfection
Vous apprendrez, si non en cas de rire.
Aultre argument ne peut mon cueur elire.
Voiant le dueil qui vous mine & consomme,
Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escrire,
Pour ce que rire est le propre de l’homme.
VIVEZ IOYEUX]François Rabelais (1494-1553) French writer, humanist, doctor
Gargantua and Pantagruel, “To the Readers” (1534-1542) [tr Urquhart/Motteux (1653)]
(Source)
The work was deemed obscene by the censors of the Collège de la Sorbonne.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:My kindly Readers, who this Book begin,
All Prejudice, I pray you, lay aside,
And reading it, find no Offence therein;
In it nor Hurt nor Poison doth abide.
'Tis true that small Perfection here doth hide;
Nought will you learn save only Mirth's Delight;
No other Subject can my Heart indite,
Seeing the Dole that wastes and makes you wan;
'Tis better far of Mirth than Tears to write,
For Laughter is the special Gift to Man.
LIVE MERRILY
[tr. Smith (1893)]Kind readers, who vouchsafe to cast an eye
On what ensues, all prejudice lay by:
Let not my book your indignation raise;
It means no harm, no poison it conveys.
Except in point of laughing, it is true
Not much 'twill teach you -- it being all my view
To inspire with mirth the hearts of those that moan,
And change to laughter the afflictive groan,
FOR LAUGHTER IS MAN'S PROPERTY ALONE.
[tr. Urguhart/Motteux/Stokes (1905)]Readers, friends, if you turn these pages
Put your prejudice aside,
For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous,
Nothing sick, or bad -- or contagious.
Not that I sit here glowing with pride
For my book: all you'll find is laughter:
That's all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.
BE HAPPY!
[tr. Raffel (1989)]You friends and readers of this book, take heed:
Pray put all perturbation far behind,
And do not be offended as you read:
It holds no evil to corrupt the mind;
Though here perfection may be hard to find,
Unless in point of laughter and good cheer;
No other subject can my heart hold dear,
Seeing the grief that robs you of your rest:
Better a laugh to write of than a tear,
For it is laughter that becomes man best.
[tr. Frame (1991)]
Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.
John Quinton (b. 1947) American actor, writer
(Attributed)
I am happy. I am successful on my own terms. Because if your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.
Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
Commencement Speech at Mount Holyoke College (23 May 1999)
Full text.
Politics is the art of postponing decisions until they are no longer relevant.
Henri Queuille (1884-1970) French politician
The Bureaucrat Magazine (1985)
(quoted)
If we don’t succeed we run the risk of failure.
J. Danforth (Dan) Quayle (b. 1947) Vice-president of the U.S. (1988-92)
(Spurious)
Originally from MAD Magazine (1991). See Snopes.
Quod si deficiant vires, audacia certe
Laus erit: in magnis et voluisse sat est
[What though strength fails? Boldness is certain to win praise. In mighty enterprises, it is enough to have had the determination.]
FLAKFIZER: Sorry, two’s company, and three’s an adult movie.
Pat Proft (b. 1947) American screenwriter, comedian
Brain Donors (1992)
A great many people mistake opinions for thoughts.
Herbert V. Prochnow (1897-1998) American writer, educator
(Attributed)
We like to think of the universe as simple and comprehensible, but the universe is under no obligation to line up to our expectations.
Joel R. Primack (b. 1945) American astrophysicist, academic
(Attributed)
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning
Ivy Baker Priest (1905-1975) American politician [Ivy Baker]
Parade (1958)
(also attrib. George Priest)
JESSICA: Oh, Roger, you were magnificent!
ROGER: Was I? Really?
JESSICA: Better than Goofy.Jeffrey Price (b. 1949) American screenwriter, producer
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
(with Peter Seaman; book by Gary Wolf)
A bad reputation is like a hangover
James E. Preston (b. 1933) American business executive
(Attributed)
“But the Great Plan can only be a tiny part of the overall ineffability,” said Crowley. “You can’t be certain that what’s happening right now isn’t exactly right, from an ineffable point of view.”
“It izz written!” bellowed Beelzebub.
“But it might be written differently somewhere else,” said Crowley. “Where you can’t read it.”
“In bigger letters,” said Aziraphale.
“Underlined,” Crowley added.
“Twice,” suggested Aziraphale.Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 6. “Saturday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
And the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.*
* This is not actually true. The road to Hell is paved with frozen door-to-door salesmen. On weekends many of the younger demons go ice-skating down it.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 6. “Saturday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
If you take the long view, the universe is just something small and round, like those water-filled balls which produce a miniature snowstorm when you shake them.*
* Although, unless the ineffable plan is a lot more ineffable than it’s given credit for, it does not have a giant plastic snowman at the bottom.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 6. “Saturday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
The way of the portable computer user is as a stony path strewn with plugs and sockets, all the wrong size.
Hastur was paranoid, which was simply a sensible and well-adjusted reaction to living in Hell, where they really were all out to get you.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 6. “Saturday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don’t let you go around again until you get it right.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 3. “Wednesday” [Crowley] (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your own home.
God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players (i.e., everybody), to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 2. “Eleven Years Ago” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
“I mean, maybe you just want to see how it all turns out. Maybe it’s all part of a great big ineffable plan. All of it. You, me, him, everything. Some great big test to see if what you’ve built all works properly, eh? You start thinking: it can’t be a great cosmic game of chess, it has to be just very complicated Solitaire. And don’t bother to answer. If we could understand, we wouldn’t be us. Because it’s all — all –”
INEFFABLE, said the figure feeding the ducks.Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 7. “Sunday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
Crowley speculating to Aziraphale about God's motivations in creating a flawed Universe.