Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
(Attributed)
Anger is momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.
[Ira furor brevis est: animum rege: qui nisi paret imperat.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Epistles, Book 1, Epistle 2, l. 62 (c. 20 BC and 14 BC)
Alt. trans.: "Anger is a short madness." "Anger is a short-lived madness." "Anger is a brief lunacy."
To know all things is not permitted.
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
(Attributed)
No-one is so savage that he cannot soften.
[Nemo adeo ferus est ut non mitescere possit.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
(Attributed)
Go ahead and do it, it is easier to apologize than to get permission.
Grace Hopper (1906-1992) American admiral, computer scientist, educator
(Attributed)
The function of government is to protect me from others. It’s up to me, thank you, to protect me from me.
Arthur W. "Art" Hoppe (1925-2000) American newspaper columnist, humorist, satirist
Column, San Francisco Chronicle (2 Sep 1992)
Who knows? Maybe my life belongs to God. Maybe it belongs to me. But I do know one thing: I’m damned if it belongs to the government.
Arthur W. "Art" Hoppe (1925-2000) American newspaper columnist, humorist, satirist
(Attributed)
When the outcome of a meeting is to have another meeting, it has been a lousy meeting.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
(Attributed)
Ours is a practical people, to whom ideals furnish the theory of political action, upon which they want not only firm assurance, but also effective practice. They want programmes, but they want action to flow from them. They want constructive common sense. They want the development of the common will, not the views of a single individual. They are beginning to realize that words without action are the assassins of idealism.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
In the New York Tribune (29 Apr 1920)
On the 1920 Presidential campaign.
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Speech, Colby College (8 Nov 1937)
Full text.
Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.
Richard Hooker (1554-1600) English theologian
(Attributed)
Quoted in Samuel Johnson, preface to A Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
If you hire only those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among those you don’t particularly like.
Soichiro Honda (1906-1991) Japanese industrialist
(Attributed)
All things are best when done without excess: it is as wrong to hurry off a guest who does not wish to leave as to detain a man who longs for home. Kind care for those who stay — and warm farewells for those who go.
[ἶσόν τοι κακόν ἐσθ᾽, ὅς τ᾽ οὐκ ἐθέλοντα νέεσθαι
ξεῖνον ἐποτρύνει καὶ ὃς ἐσσύμενον κατερύκει.
χρὴ ξεῖνον παρεόντα φιλεῖν, ἐθέλοντα δὲ πέμπειν.]Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 15, l. 72ff (15.72) [Menelaus to Telemachus] (c. 700 BC) [tr. Mandelbaum (1990)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:A like ill ’tis, to thrust out such a guest
As would not go, as to detain the rest.
We should a guest love, while he loves to stay,
And, when he likes not, give him loving way.
[tr. Chapman (1616)]I purpose not to make you longer stay;
For I conceive ’tis not a good man’s part,
To make too much or little of his guest,
To hold him when he gladly would depart,
Or press him to begone e’er he thinks best.
In hospitality this rule is true:
Love him that stays, help forth the going guest.
[tr. Hobbes (1675), l. 60ff]Alike he thwarts the hospitable end,
Who drives the free, or stays the hasty friend:
True friendship's laws are by this rule express'd,
Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.
[tr. Pope (1725)]The middle course is best; alike we err,
Him thrusting forth whose wish is to remain,
And hind’ring the impatient to depart.
This only is true kindness -- To regale
The present guest, and speed him when he would.
[tr. Cowper (1792), l. 82ff]Let us in all things the true mean apply;
Roughness offends, and over-courtesy.
He to my mind an equal sin doth show
Who, when a guest would linger, hints good-bye,
And who, if one desire to part, says no.
Love well the tarrying guest, and speed him fain to go.
[tr. Worsley (1861), st. 9]An equal wrong it is to drive away
The guest, who fain would tarry; and to keep
Against his will the guest who fain would go!
'Tis right to treat with love the tarrying guest;
And speed on his way the guest, who wills to go!
[tr. Bigge-Wither (1869), l. 72ff]Those acts which to strict equity conform
Are worthiest ever: and the selfsame wrong
Doth he commit who from his home would drive
The guest who fain would linger there, -- with him
Who stays the man that on his way would speed.
[tr. Musgrave (1869), l. 113ff]He does equal wrong who speeds a guest that would fain abide, and stays one who is in haste to be gone. Men should lovingly entreat the present guest and speed the parting.
[tr. Butcher/Lang (1879)]For in all things measure is best.
And good is neither fashion, to thrust out the willing guest
Who is fain to abide, or to stay him who longeth to be on the road;
But to cherish the guest that abideth and to speed the departer is good.
[tr. Morris (1887), l. 71ff]It is an equal fault to thrust away the guest who does not care to go, and to detain the impatient. Best make the stranger welcome while he stays, and speed him when he wishes.
[tr. Palmer (1891)]Moderation is best in all things, and not letting a man go when he wants to do so is as bad as telling him to go if he would like to stay. One should treat a guest well as long as he is in the house and speed him when he wants to leave it.
[tr. Butler (1898)]'Tis equal wrong if a man speed on a guest who is loath to go, and if he keep back one that is eager to be gone. One should make welcome the present guest, and send forth him that would go.
[tr. Murray (1919)]There should be moderation in all things, and it is equally offensive to speed a guest who would like to stay and to detain one who is anxious to leave. What I say is, treat a man well while he’s with you, but let him go when he wishes.
[tr. Rieu (1946)]It is equally bad when one speeds on the guest unwilling to go, and when he holds back one who is hastening. Rather one should befriend the guest who is there, but speed him when he wishes.
[tr. Lattimore (1965)]Balance is best in all things. It’s bad either way,
spurring the stranger home who wants to linger,
holding the one who longs to leave -- you know,
‘Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest!’
[tr. Fagles (1996)]It's just as wrong to rush a guest's departure
When he doesn't want to go, as it is
To hold him back when he is ready to leave.
Make a guest welcome for as long as he stays
And send him off whenever he wants to go.
[tr. Lombardo (2000), l. 74ff]There should be moderation in all things, and it is equally offensive to speed a guest who would like to stay and to detain one who is anxious to leave. Treat a man well while he's with you, but let him go when he wishes.
[tr. DCH Rieu (2002)]It is, I think, an equal failing to speed a guest's departure when he is reluctant to leave and to detain him when eager to go. One must care for the guest in one's house, but send him on when he wishes.
[tr. Verity (2016)]To force a visitor to stay is just as bad as pushing him to go. Be kind to guests while they are visiting, then help them on their way.
[tr. Wilson (2017)]It's just as wrong to urge a guest's departure against his will as to keep him when it's itching to be off. Treat your guest well while he's there, let him go when he wants.
[tr. Green (2018)]It’s bad when someone does not want to leave
to be too quick to send him on his way,
but just as bad is holding someone back
when he’s ready to depart. For a host
should welcome any guest in front of him
and send away the one who wants to go.
[tr. Johnston (2019), l. 94ff]
When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas — that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) [Dissent]
As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day address, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)
Full text.
The object of philosophy is to prove that you are right in doing what you want.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Reminiscences of a Holmes Secretary” (W. Barton Leach) (16 Oct 1935)
Judges are commonly elderly men, and are more likely to hate at sight any analysis to which they are not accustomed, and which disturbs repose of mind, than to fall in love with novelties.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Law in Science and Science in Law,” Harvard Law Review (1899)
If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it around. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don’t embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say: meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it, and had better be on speaking terms with it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)
Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)
I made a comparison at table some time since, which has often been quoted, and received many compliments. It was that of the mind of a bigot to the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
“The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” Atlantic Monthly (1858-04)
(Source)
Often trimmed/paraphrased to "The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract." Frequently misattributed to his son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The Autocrat himself correctly comments that a similar phrase appears in Thomas Moore, Preface to the poems "Corruption" and "Intolerance":The minds of some of our statesmen, like the pupil of the human eye, contract themselves the more the stronger light there is shed upon them.
The Autocrat goes on to note, "When a person of fair character for literary honesty uses an image such as another has employed before him, the presumption is, that he has struck upon it independently, or unconsciously recalled it, supposing it his own."
Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 6 (1858)
The aim of the law is not to punish sins, but is to prevent certain external results.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 170 Mass. 18, 20 (1897)
People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more than those who try to be “consistent.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
The Professor at the Breakfast Table
Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Spurious)
Usually attributed to Holmes (or Abraham Lincoln, or John Stuart Mill), but actually first raised in legal commentary by Zechariah Chafee, "Freedom of Speech in Wartime", 32 Harvard Law Review 932, 957 (Jun 1919):Each side takes the position of the man who was arrested for swinging his arms and hitting another in the nose, and asked the judge if he did not have a right to swing his arms in a free country. “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.”
There are earlier versions in non-legal contexts dating back decades earlier, often in arguments for Temperance and Prohibition. See here for more background.
Variants:
- "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins."
- "The right to swing my arms in any direction ends where your nose begins."
- "My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins."
One thing that humbles me deeply is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not.
[Une chose qui m’humilie profondément est de voir que le génie humain a des limites, quand la bêtise humaine n’en a pas.]
Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824-1895) French writer and dramatist
(Attributed)
(Source)Earliest attribution is in the Great Universal Dictionary of the Nineteenth Century [Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXe Siècle], Vol. 2, "Stupidity [Bêtise]" (c. 1865)
Attributed to a wide variety of individuals, including (spuriously) to Albert Einstein.
Variants:
- "What distresses me is to see that human genius has limitations, and human stupidity has none."
- "How despairing it is to see that human genius has limitations, while human stupidity has none."
- "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
- "Human genius has its limits, but stupidity does not."
- "Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped." (Elbert Hubbard, ed., The Philistine, title epigraph (Sep 1906)
See here for more discussion.
… [L]onging for certainty and for repose [is] in every human mind. But certainty generally is an illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“The Path of the Law,” Harvard Law Review (Feb 1897)
(Source)
Citation 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897).
The great act of faith is when man decides that he is not God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Letter to William James (24 Mar 1907)
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, — but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
It is the peculiarity of the bore that he is the last person to find himself out.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Over the Teacups, ch. 4 (1891)
A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
It is by no means certain that our individual personality is the single inhabitant of these our corporeal frames … We all do things both awake and asleep which surprise us. Perhaps we have cotenants in this house we live in.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
The Guardian Angel
Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hand on the strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out their music.
Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 5 (1860)
(Source)
The chapter originally appeared as "The Professor at the Breakfast-Table: What He Said, What He Heard, and What He Saw," Atlantic Monthly, (1859-05).
You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the win-loss record of the referee.
John H. Holcomb (b. 1930) American educational writer
The Militant Moderate
Every day you miss playing or practicing is one day longer it takes to be good.
Ben Hogan (1912-1957) American golfer
(Attributed)
I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.
Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) American political activist
Revolution for the Hell of It (1968)
We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 176 (1955)
(Source)
No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our short-comings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)
Discontent is at the root of the creative process.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 6 (1963)
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 222 (1955)
(Source)
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor. There may even be a certain antagonism between love of humanity and love of neighbor; a low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 11 “Brotherhood” (1963)
Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Reflections on the Human Condition, Section 50 (1973)
Intolerance is the “Do Not Disturb” sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee that covers our baldness.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)
Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Temper of Our Time (1967)
The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change
Some things have to be believed to be seen.
Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) English poet
(Attributed)
If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled subordinates, then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.
Dee W. Hock (b. 1929) American businessman
“Unit of One Anniversary Handbook,” Fast Company (28 Feb 1997)
From the same it proceedeth that men give different names to one and the same thing from the difference of their own passions: as they that approve a private opinion call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy: and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion; but has only a greater tincture of choler.
Why should we refuse the happiness this hour gives us, because some other hour might take it away?
John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906) American-English author [pseud. of Pearl Cragie]
A Bundle of Life (1894)
Full text.
Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster which they call Destiny.
John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906) American-English author [pseud. of Pearl Cragie]
The Sinner’s Comedy (1892)
Full text. Sometimes misquoted "a monster they call Destiny."
I am a strict vegetarian. That is, I consume no meat from carnivorous animals. Chicken, however, is simply a rapid form of corn, while cows are grass, reprocessed for our convenience.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Allan Hjerpe, RelHumor-L (4 Jan 1999)
Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
The Voice of Destruction: Hitler Speaks (quoted)
By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell — and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
Mein Kampf
The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
(Attributed)
What luck for rulers that men do not think.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
(Attributed)
We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
(Attributed)
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
National Observer (15 Aug 1966)
There’s nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
(Attributed)
Television has brought back murder into the home
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
London Observer (quoted) (19 Dec. 1965)
Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. … What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
In François Truffaut, Hitchcock, ch. 4 (1968)
Sometimes paraphrased as "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."
To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.
Hippocrates (c. 460-c.377 BC) Greek physician
(Attributed)
Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
William E. "Bill" Vaughan (1915-1977) American columnist, humorist [pseud. Burton Hillis]
(Attributed)
There’s a mighty big difference between good, sound reasons and reasons that sound good.
William E. "Bill" Vaughan (1915-1977) American columnist, humorist [pseud. Burton Hillis]
(Attributed)
Last Saturday morning, I concluded that there is nothing harder to find than a bottle of pancake syrup reshelved six inches away from its accustomed spot.
William E. "Bill" Vaughan (1915-1977) American columnist, humorist [pseud. Burton Hillis]
(Attributed)
Life cannot be captured in a few axioms. And that is just what I keep trying to do. But it won’t work, for life is full of endless nuances and cannot be captured in just a few formulae.
Esther "Etty" Hillesum (1914-1943) Dutch Jewish law graduate, writer, diarist
Diary (1941-10-22)
(Source)
Collected in An Interrupted Life [Het Verstoorde Leven] (1981) [tr. Pomerans (1983)].
What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it.
[d’`alakh sani l’khaverkha la ta`avid. Zo hi kol hatora kulahh, v’idakh peirusha hu: zil g’mor]
The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a (Rabbi Hillel)
(Noted elsewhere as tractate Shabbat 30a.) See also the Bible, Matthew 7:12.Alt. Trans.: "What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow; this is the whole law. All the rest is a commentary to this law; go and learn it."
It is a glorious achievement to master one’s own temper.
Thomas Hill (1818-1891) American clergyman and educator
The Essential Book of Victorian Etiquette (1890)
It’s always your next move.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) American author, motivational writer
(Attributed)
Let never man be bold enough to say,
Thus, and no farther shall my passion stray:
The first crime, past, compels us into more,
And guilt grows fate, that was but choice, before.Aaron Hill (1685-1750) English poet and playwright
Athelwold, Act V
One difference between savagery and civilization is a little courtesy. There’s no telling what a lot of courtesy would do.
Cullen Hightower (1923-2008) American writer, aphorist, salesman.
(Attributed)
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating or complex — but Congress can.
Cullen Hightower (1923-2008) American writer, aphorist, salesman.
(Attributed)
Those who agree with us may not be right, but we admire their astuteness.
Cullen Hightower (1923-2008) American writer, aphorist, salesman.
(Attributed)
A censor is a man who knows more things than he thinks you ought to.
Granville Hicks (1908-1982) American writer and literary critic
(Attributed)
And while I at length debate and beate the bush,
There shall steppe in other men and catch the burdes.John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 3 (1546)
(Source)
But doubt is as crucial to faith as darkness is to light. Without one, the other has no context and is meaningless. Faith is, by definition, uncertainty. It is full of doubt, steeped in risk. It is about matters not of the known, but of the unknown.
Carter Heyward (b. 1945) American cleric, feminist, theologian
A Priest Forever (1999)
I wanted to try to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why is that so difficult?
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Demian, ch. 3 (1919) [tr. Roloff and Lebeck (1965)]
Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.
Don Herold (1889-1966) American humorist, cartoonist, author
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in Lawrence Peter, Peter's People (1979) as "Herold's Law."
It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.
Herodotus (c.484-c.420 BC) Greek historian
Histories, Book 7, ch. 50
This I know — if all men should take their troubles to market to barter with their neighbors, not one when he had seen the troubles of other men but would be glad to carry his own home again.
Herodotus (c.484-c.420 BC) Greek historian
Histories
Beware of the Truth. If you find a truth it can demand that you make painful changes.
Frank Herbert (1920-1986) American writer
(Attributed)
One of the best things to come out of the home computer revolution could be the general and widespread understanding of how severely limited logic really is.
Frank Herbert (1920-1986) American writer
(Attributed)
I’m going to rub your faces in things you try to avoid. I don’t find it strange that all you want to believe in is only that which comforts you. How else do humans invent the traps which betray us into mediocrity? How else do we define cowardice?
Frank Herbert (1920-1986) American writer
Children of Dune
The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
Frank Herbert (1920-1986) American writer
(Attributed)
The conception of two people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.
A. P. Herbert (1890-1971) English humorist, novelist, playwright, politician [Alan Patrick Herbert; pseud. Albert Haddock]
(Attributed)
It is hard to fight with anger; for what it wants it buys at the price of soul.
Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.540-c.480 BC) Greek philosopher [Ἡράκλειτος, Herákleitos, Heracleitus]
(Attributed)
Much knowledge of divine things is lost to us through want of faith.
Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.540-c.480 BC) Greek philosopher [Ἡράκλειτος, Herákleitos, Heracleitus]
(Attributed)
Life’s what’s important. Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy. Acting’s just waiting for a custard pie. That’s all.
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
Uncommon Scold, by Abby Adams (1989)
Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
(Attributed)
We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers — you can blame anyone but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change, you’re the one who has got to change. It’s as simple as that, isn’t it?
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
(Attributed)
If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
(Attributed)
Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I’ve had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
(Attributed)
If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
(Attributed)
Enemies are so stimulating.
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
(Attributed)
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American revolutionary and orator
Speech at the Second Virginia Convention (23 Mar 1775)
Full text.
We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God Nature has placed in our power.
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American revolutionary and orator
Speech at the Second Virginia Convention (23 Mar 1775)
Full text.
Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces — sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714) English writer, religious philosopher
Letter
Quoted in J. Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods.
Robert Henri (1865-1929) American painter
(Attributed)
The nightingale has a lyre of gold,
The lark’s is a clarion call,
And the blackbird plays but a boxwood flute,
But I love him best of all.William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) English poet, critic, editor
Echoes
I can’t believe how much I’ve grown up over the years. I used to think life was just drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll. Thank God I had the guts to change and develop more mature values. Now it’s wine, women and song.
Marian Henley (contemp.) American cartoonist (Maxine)
Maxine