Jupiter, now assuredly is the time when I could readily consent to be slain, lest life should sully this ecstasy with some disaster.
Terence (186?-159 BC) African-Roman dramatist [Publius Terentius Afer]
Eunuchus, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 2 (l. 550)
You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
A Week on the Concord and Marrimack Rivers (1849)
Full text.
If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his nest again
I shall not live in Vain.Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet
“If I can stop one Heart from breaking” (1864)
Paradise is nearer you than the thongs of your sandals, and the Fire likewise.
Muhammad (570-632) Arabian merchant, prophet, founder of Islam [Mohammed]
The Sayings of Muhammad, #224 [tr. Al-Suhrawardy (1941)]
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one.
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) American military leader
Letter to his son (1860)
Treat bad men exactly as if they were insane. They are in-sane, out of health, morally. Reason, which is food to sound minds, is not tolerated, still less assimilated, unless administered with the greatest caution; perhaps, not at all. Avoid collision with them, so far as you honorably can; keep your temper, if you can, — for one angry man is as good as another; restrain them from violence, promptly, completely, and with the least possible injury, just as in the case of maniacs, — and when you have got rid of them, or got them tied hand and foot so that they can do no mischief, sit down and contemplate them charitably, remembering that nine tenths of their perversity comes from outside influences, drunken ancestors, abuse in childhood, bad company, from which you have happily been preserved, and for some of which you, as a member of society, may be fractionally responsible.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Elsie Venner, ch. 16 [The Professor] (1859)
(Source)
If you are to judge a man, you must know his secret thoughts, sorrows, and feelings; to know merely the outward events of a man’s life would only serve to make a chronological table — a fool’s notion of history!
[Pour juger un homme, au moins faut-il être dans le secret de sa pensée, de ses malheurs, de ses émotions; ne vouloir connaître de sa vie que les événements matériels, c’est faire de la chronologie, l’histoire des sots!]
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) French novelist, playwright
The Wild Ass’s Skin [La Peau de chagrin], Part 2 “A Woman without a Heart” (1831) [tr. Marriage]
Here we subscribe to the ethos that it is not enough to have the courage of your convictions, but you must also have the courage to have your convictions challenged.
Christopher Phillips (b. 1959) American philosopher, writer, creator of the Socrates Cafe discussion groups
Socrates Cafe (2001)
Health is not valued, till Sickness comes.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #2478 (1732)
(Source)
Neither urge another to that thou wouldst be unwilling to do thyself, nor do thyself what looks to thee unseemly and intemperate in another.
William Penn (1644-1718) English writer, philosopher, politician, statesman
Some Fruits of Solitude, # 71 (1693)
See also Matthew 7:12.
When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
The Second World War, Vol. 2: Their Finest Hour, ch. 23 “September Tensions” (1949)
(Source)
Never Explain — your Friends do not need it and your Enemies will not believe you anyhow.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Motto Book (1907)
Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up, a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
The Principles of Psychology, ch. 4 (1890)
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) South African revolutionary, politician, statesman
Inaugural Address, South Africa (10 May 1994)
While it is very sturdy of comfortable men to point out that life is unfair, the people it is unfair to are not apt to be morally or philosophically elevated by the announcement. If you are going to preach that unfairness is inescapable for some, good sense suggests that you also accept the inevitability of beastly behavior by people who have to carry the burden.
Russell Baker (1925-2019) American journalist, author, humorist
“The Unfairness of It All,” So This Is Depravity (1980)
Most men are rather stupid, and most of those who are not stupid are, consequently, rather vain.
A. E. Housman (1859-1936) English scholar and poet [Alfred Edward Housman]
“The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism,” lecture (4 Aug 1921)
I’m very broad minded usually, she said, but it gets very narrow and fast in spots.
Brian Andreas (b. 1956) American writer, artist, publisher [birth and pen name of Kai Andreas Skye]
Trusting Soul, “Treacherous Rapids” (2000)
‘Tis easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Alamanack (Oct 1745)
The hasty and the slow meet at the ferry.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Arab proverb
Man cannot be made free by laws unless they are in fact free because no man can buy and no one can coerce them. That is why the Englishman’s belief that his home is his castle and that the King cannot enter it, like the American’s convictions that he must be able to look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell, are the very essence of the free man’s way of life.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
The Method of Freedom (1934)
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Some one had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of death
Rode the six hundred.Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“The Charge of the Light Brigade,” st. 2 (1854)
Popularly, "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die."
For such is the nature of men that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent or more learned, yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves; for they see their own wit at hand, and other men’s at a distance.
Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher, naturalist
Essays Scientific, Political and Speculative (1891)
The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, ch. 4 “Habit” (1890)
(Source)
This chapter originally published in Popular Science Monthly (Feb 1887).
The role of government in a free society … is to do something that the market cannot do for itself, namely, to determine, arbitrate, and enforce the rules of the game.
Milton Friedman (1912-2006) American economist, intellectual
Capitalism and Freedom, ch. 2 (1962)
Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes.
[Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus.]
Terence (186?-159 BC) African-Roman dramatist [Publius Terentius Afer]
Eunuchus, Act 4, l. 5
Ceres=bread, Bacchus=wine.
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Civil Disobedience (1849)
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a social program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power-adoring tendencies it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism; and with its traditionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities it will never, except in short periods of disillusionment, appeal to the young and all those others who believe that some changes are desirable if this world is to become a better place.
Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992) Austrian-born economist and philosopher
The Road to Serfdom (1944)
Every act alters the soul of the doer.
Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), German author
The Decline of the West, “Cities and Peoples” (1918-22) [tr. Atkinson (1962)]
May God preserve me from the love of a friend who will never dare to rebuke me.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
No Man Is an Island, 1.9 (1955)
You long to “leap at a single bound into celebrity.” Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else, — very rarely to those who say to themselves, “Go to, now, let us be a celebrated individual!”
When law becomes despotic, morals are relaxed, and vice versa.
[Quand le despotisme est dans les lois, la liberté se trouve dans les mœurs, et vice versa.]
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) French novelist, playwright
The Wild Ass’s Skin [Le Peau de chagrin], Part 1 “The Talisman” (1831) [tr. Marriage]
The reason we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.
Zeno of Citium (334-262 BC) Greek philosopher, founder of the Stoics
In Diogenese Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 7.1 [tr. R. Hicks (1925)]
The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.
Dorothy Allison (b. 1949) American writer and lesbian feminist
Skin, ch. 2 (1994)
Zigong asked, Is there a single word that can guide a person’s conduct throughout life?
The Master said, That would be reciprocity, wouldn’t it? What you do not want others to do to you, do not do to others.[子貢問曰、有一言、而可以終身行之者乎。
子曰、其恕乎、己所不欲、勿施於人。]Confucius (c. 551- c. 479 BC) Chinese philosopher, sage, politician [孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ, K'ung Fu-tzu, K'ung Fu Tse), 孔子 (Kǒngzǐ, Chungni), 孔丘 (Kǒng Qiū, K'ung Ch'iu)]
The Analects [論語, 论语, Lúnyǔ], Book 15, verse 24 (15.24) (6th C. BC – AD 3rd C.) [tr. Watson (2007)]
(Source)
See also 5.12. Compare to the Bible, Matthew 7:12.
Legge and other earlier translators, as noted below, identified this as 15.23.
(Source (Chinese)). Alternate translations:
Tsze-kung asked, saying, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?"
The Master said, "Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."
[tr. Legge (1861), 15.23]
Tsz-kung put to him the question, "Is there one word upon which the whole life may proceed?" The Master replied, "Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? -- what you do not yourself desire, do not put before others."
[tr. Jennings (1895), 15.23. Jennings prefers translating shu as "like-heartedness" or "like-mindedness," but follows Legge.]
A disciple of Confucius enquired: "Is there one word which may guide one in practice throughout the whole life?"
Confucius answered, "The word 'charity' is perhaps the word. What you do not wish others to do unto you, do not do unto them."
[tr. Ku Hung-Ming (1898), 15.23]
"Is there any one word," asked Tzŭ Kung, "which could be adopted as a lifelong rule of conduct?"
The Master replied, "Is not Sympathy the word? Do not do to others what you would not like yourself."
[tr. Soothill (1910), 15.23; he translates shu in the notes as "the following of your good heart's prompting."]
Tze-kung asked if there were a single verb that you could practice through life up to the end.
He said: Sympathy, what you don't want (done to) yourself, don't inflict on another.
[tr. Pound (1933), 15.23]
Tzu-kung asked saying, Is there any single saying that one can act upon all day and every day?
The Master said, Perhaps the saying about consideration: "Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you."
[tr. Waley (1938), 15.23]
Tsekung asked, :Is there one single word that can serve as a principle or conduct for life?"
Confucius replied, "Perhaps the word "reciprocity" (shu) will do. Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you."
[tr. Lin Yutang (1938); see also here and here.]
Tuan-mu Tz’u inquired, “Is there one word that will keep us on the path to the end of our days?”
“Yes. Reciprocity! What you do not wish yourself, do not unto others.”
[tr. Ware (1950)]
Tzu-kung asked, "Is there a single word which can be a guide to conduct throughout one's life?"
The Master said, "It is perhaps the word "shu." Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.
[tr. Lau (1979)]
Zigong asked: "Is there a single word such that one could practise it throughout one's life?"
The Master said: "Reciprocity perhaps? Do not inflict on others what you yourself would not wish done to you."
[tr. Dawson (1993)]
Zigong asked: "Is there any single word that could guide one's entire life?"
The Master said: "Should it not be reciprocity? What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."
[tr. Leys (1997)]
Zi-gong asked: “Is there one single word that one can practice throughout one’s life?”
The Master said: “It is perhaps ‘like-hearted considerateness.’ 'What you do not wish for yourself, do not impose on others.'"
[tr. Huang (1997)]
Zi-gong asked: "Is there one single word that one can practice throughout one's life?"
The Master said: "It is perhaps 'like-hearted considerateness.' 'What you do not wish for yourself, do not impose on others.'"
[tr. Huang (1997)]
Zigong asked, "Is there a word that can be practiced in all life?"
Confucius said: "It is the forgiveness. What is not wanted by oneself, should not be forced to others."
[tr. Cai/Yu (1998)]
Zigong asked, "Is there one expression that can be acted upon until the end of one's days?"
The Master replied "There is shu: do not impose on others what you yourself do not want."
[tr. Ames/Rosemont (1998)]
Dž-gùng asked, is there one saying that one can put in practice in all circumstances?
The Master said, That would be empathy, would it not? What he himself does not want, let him not do it to others.
[tr. Brooks/Brooks (1998)]
Adept Kung asked: "Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?"
The Master replied, "How about "shu": never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.
[tr. Hinton (1998)]
Zigong asked, “Is there one word that can serve as a guide for one’s entire life?”
The Master answered, “Is it not ‘understanding’ ? Do not impose upon others what you yourself do not desire.”
[tr. Slingerland (2003)]
Zigong asked: "Is there a single word that can serve as the guide to conduct throughout one's life?"
The Master said, "It is perhaps the word shu. Do not impose on others what you yourself do not want."
[tr. Chin (2014); Chin translates shu as "treating others with an awareness that they, too, are alive with humanity"]
Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
The Second World War, Vol. 1: The Gathering Storm, ch. 19 “Prague, Albania, and the Polish Guarantee” (1948)
Perfume: Any smell that is used to drown a worse one.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard [ed. E. Hubbard II] (1927)
Politicians trim and tack in their quest for power, but they do so in order to get the wind of votes in their sails.
Ian Gilmour (1926–2007), British politician [Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar]
(Attributed)
In Hutchinson, The Body Politic (1969)
Women hope men will change after marriage but they don’t; men hope women won’t change but they do.
Bettina Arndt (b. 1949) Australian sex therapist, journalist, clinical psychologist
Private Lives, ch. 2 (1986)
The chessboard is the world; the pieces are the are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated — without haste, but without remorse.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“A Liberal Education and Where to Find It” (1868)
(Source)
The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic. His opinions are determined not by his reason — ‘the bulk of mankind’ says Swift ‘is as well qualified for flying as for thinking’ — but by his passions; and the faintest of all human passions is the love of truth. He believes that the text of ancient authors is generally sound, not because he has acquainted himself with the elements of the problem, but because he would feel uncomfortable if he did not believe it; just as he believes, on the same cogent evidence, that he is a fine fellow, and that he will rise again from the dead.
A. E. Housman (1859-1936) English scholar and poet [Alfred Edward Housman]
Introduction to Astronomicon of Manilius, Book 1 (1937)
Full text.
Sometimes I think I should just keep my opinions to myself, she said, but someone has got to be the voice of reason.
Brian Andreas (b. 1956) American writer, artist, publisher [birth and pen name of Kai Andreas Skye]
Trusting Soul, “Voice of Reason” (2000)
Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.
Dorothy Allison (b. 1949) American writer and lesbian feminist
Skin, ch. 18 (1994)
Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism.
Bill Moyers (b. 1934) American journalist and public commentator
Time (29 Oct 1965)
There likewise I beheld Excalibur
Before him at his crowning borne, the sword
That rose from out the bosom of the lake,
And Arthur rowed across and took it — rich
With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt,
Bewildering heart and eye — the blade so bright
That men are blinded by it — on one side,
Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world,
“Take me,” but turn the blade and ye shall see,
And written in the speech ye speak yourself,
“Cast me away!” And sad was Arthur’s face
Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him,
“Take thou and strike! the time to cast away
Is yet far-off.” So this great brand the king
Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
Idylls of the King, “The Coming of Arthur” (1859-1885)
Full text.
The secret thoughts of a man run over all things holy, prophane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame, or blame.
Although he’s regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American politics.
George J. Mitchell (b. 1933) American politician, diplomat, lawyer
Iran-Contra hearings (13 Jul 1987)
Many lawyers in negotiating fall into the error of saying too much. They have not learned the power of pure silence as a response. It is natural to want to respond, to argue your point or position. The recognition that not responding, not arguing, of using silence as a negotiating tool, places one of the most efficient forces for effective negotiations in the hands of the lawyer willing to learn its use.
Arthur J. Sabin (b. 1930) American law profess, lawyer, historian, writer
“Pragmatic Aspects of Negotiations for Lawyers,” The Practical Lawyer (Jan 1986)
A simple and a proper function of government is just to make it easy for us to do good and difficult for us to do wrong.
Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977-1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
Presidential nomination acceptance speech, New York City (15 Jul 1976)
He is wise who tries everything before arms.
Terence (186?-159 BC) African-Roman dramatist [Publius Terentius Afer]
Eunuchus, Act 4, sc. 7, l. 19 (l. 789)
Alt. trans.: "It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms."
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (5 Jan 1856)
[Gambling] is the child of Avarice, the brother of Iniquity, and father of Mischief.
George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
Letter to Bushrod Washington (15 Jan 1783)
We need grace in order to be able to live in such a way as to qualify ourselves to receive grace.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer — II” (1945)
I am for frank explanations with friends in cases of affronts. They sometimes save a perishing friendship, and even place it on a firmer basis than at first; but secret discontent must always end badly.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
The Wit and Wisdom of Sydney Smith
Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.