The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American’s hatred for a fellow American (for Hoover or Roosevelt) is far more virulent than any antipathy he can work up against foreigners. […] Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 73 (1951)
(Source)
Complaint against fortune is often a mask’d apology for indolence.
Fulke Greville (1554-1628) 1st Baron Brooke; Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman
Maxims, Characters, and Reflections (1756)
To understand is not only to pardon, but in the end to love.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Morals, 15.3 (1929)
Most fools think they are only ignorant.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Oct 1748)
All the inducements of early society tend to foster immediate action; all its penalties fall on the man who pauses; the traditional wisdom of those times was never weary of inculcating that “delays are dangerous,” and that the sluggish man — the man “who roasteth not that which he took in hunting” — will not prosper on the earth, and indeed will very soon perish out of it. And in consequence an inability to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
Physics and Politics, ch. 5 “The Age of Discussion” (1869)
Full text.
Goe not for every griefe to the Physitian, nor for every quarrell to the Lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 290 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Elsie Venner, ch. 2 (1891)
(Source)
Often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Shy and proud men … are more liable than any others to fall into the hands of parasites and creatures of low character. For in the intimacies which are formed by shy men, they do not choose, but are chosen.
Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
The Statesman: An Ironical Treatise on the Art of Succeeding, ch. 4 (1836)
For it seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.
[Nam mihi lex esse non videtur, quae justa non fuerit.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On Free Choice of the Will [De Libero Arbitrio Voluntatis], Book 1, ch. 4, sec. 11 / 33 (1.4.11.22) (AD 388) [tr Williams (1993)]
(Source)
More discussion about this and parallel quotations from other notables: An unjust law is no law at all - Wikipedia.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
A law which is not just does not seem to me to be a law.
[tr. Mark Pontifex (1955)]
For I think that a law that is not just is not a law.
[tr. Benjamin/Hackstaff (1964)]
For I think a law that is not just, is not actually a law.
[E.g.]
The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well-meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting usurpers, that without a legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political prosperity.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Letter to F.L. Schaeffer (3 Dec 1821)
Some people’s faults are becoming, other people’s virtues prove drawbacks.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #442 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
There is none so blind as they that won’t see.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation, Dialogue 3 (1738)
I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) [Dissent]
BERNARD. It’s one of those irregular verbs, isn’t it: I have an independent mind, you are eccentric, he is round the twist.
Jonathan Lynn (b. 1943) English actor, comedy writer, director
Yes, Prime Minister, S1E7 “The Bishop’s Gambit” (1986) [with Antony Jay]
The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they’re too damn greedy.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
(Attibuted)
Remark to columnist Mark Sullivan (c. 1929). Spencer Howard, an archivist at the Hoover Presidential Library, says Sullivan's son recalled Hoover saying this to his father at least once in the early 1930s.
The mischief of flattery is not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honor may be gained without the toil of merit.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #155 (10 Sep 1751)
(Source)
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent, or arrogant Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations — all take their seats at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war. Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 18 “With Buller to the Cape” (1930)
Let this be my last word, that I trust in thy love.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]
Stray Birds (1916)
Full text.
Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) Greek writer and philosopher
The Saviors of God [Salvatores Dei], “The March: First Step” (1923) [tr. Friar [1960])
It’s a delightful thing to think of perfection; but it’s vastly more amusing to talk of errors and absurdities.
Frances Burney (1752-1840) English novelist, diarist, playwright [Fanny Burney, Madame d’Arblay]
Camilla, Book 3, ch. 12 (1796)
What is called fashion is the tradition of the moment.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe, 392 [tr. Saunders (1892)]
Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.
[Audacter calumniare, semper aliquid haeret.]
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning] (1605)
Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, Sec. 69 (1951)
Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence … Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation …
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
(Source)
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) American lyrical poet
“There Will Come Soft Rains,” Flame and Shadow (1920)
He must be a thorough fool, who can learn nothing from his own folly.
Julius Hare (1795-1855) English cleric, theologian
Guesses at Truth: First Series (1827) [with A.W. Hare]
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
Physics and Politics, ch. 5 “The Age of Discussion” (1869)
Full text.
Hell is full of good meanings and wishings.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 170 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
It’s the strange thing about this church: it is obsessed with sex, absolutely obsessed. Now they will say, we with our permissive society and our rude jokes are obsessed — no, we have a healthy attitude: we like it, it’s fun, it’s jolly. Because it’s a primary impulse, it can be dangerous and dark and difficult. It’s a bit like food in that respect, only even more exciting. The only people who are obsessed with food are anorexics and the morbidly obese, and that in erotic terms is the Catholic church in a nutshell.
Stephen Fry (b. 1957) British actor, writer, comedian
The Intelligence Squared Debate, BBC World (7 Nov 2009)
Full video.
We try to make virtues out of the faults we have no wish to correct.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #251 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
That is as well said as if I had said it myself.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation, Dialogue 2 (1738)
Deep-seated preferences cannot be argued about — you cannot argue a man into liking a glass of beer — and therefore, when differences are sufficiently far reaching, we try to kill the other man rather than let him have his way. But that is perfectly consistent with admitting that, so far as appears, his grounds are just as good as ours.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Natural Law,” Collected Legal Papers (1921)
VENKMAN: This city is headed for a disaster of Biblical proportions.
MAYOR: What do you mean, “Biblical”?
RAY: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling!
EGON: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes …
WINSTON: The dead rising from the grave!
VENKMAN: Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
Our century is probably more religious than any other. How could it fail to be, with such problems to be solved? The only trouble is that it has not yet found a God it can adore.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) French Jesuit priest, paleontologist, philosopher
Le Phénomène Humain [The Phenomenon of Man] (1955)
A Degree of Fear sharpeneth, the Excess of it stupifieth.
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“Fear,” Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750)
(Source)
Congress should not establish a religion and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Annals of Congress (15 Aug 1789)
You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
(Attributed)
At first you can stand the spotlight in your eyes. Then it blinds you. Others can see you, but you cannot see them.
Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) American aviator and author
Interview, New York Times (1932)
Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
(Attributed)
Quoted in the New York Times (17 Oct 1964)
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 9 “Education at Bangalore” (1930)
If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]
Stray Birds (1916)
Full text.
The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Polite Conversation, Dialog 2 (1738)
Borrowed / popularized from William Bullein, Government of Health, folio 50 (1558): "The first was called doctor diet, the seconde doctor quiet, the thirde doctor merry-man." (1558)
And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
1 Corinthians 13:2 [NRSV (1989)]
Alternate translations:
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
[KJV (1611)]
If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all.
[Jerusalem (1966)]
I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing.
[GNT (1976)]
They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society. The frustrated, oppressed by their shortcomings, blame their failure on existing restraints. Actually, their innermost desire is for an end to the “free for all.” They want to eliminate free competition and the ruthless testing to which the individual is continually subjected in a free society.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part II, sec. 28 (1951)
I make the most of all that comes,
And the least of all that goes.Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) American lyrical poet
“The Philosopher,” st. 4
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Strength to Love, ch. 4 “Love in Action,” sec 3 (1963)
(Source)
A fellow who is always declaring he’s no fool usually has his suspicions.
Wilson Mizner (1876-1933) American screenwriter and wit
(Attributed)
Where the drink goes in, there the wit goes out.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 187 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step. What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing (as upon a former occasion I phrased it) a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) British businessman, essayist, journalist
Physics and Politics, ch. 2 “The Use of Conflict” (1869)
Full text.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, be of good cheer.
For they are out there, and we are in here.(Other Authors and Sources)
Motto of the Playboy Mansion
Originated by Robert Culp (1930-2010), per H. Hefner.
I am unalterably opposed to communism because it exalts the state over the individual and the family, and because of the lack of freedom of speech, of protest, of religion, and of the press, which is the characteristic of totalitarian states. The way of opposition to communism is not to imitate its dictatorship, but to enlarge individual freedom, in our own countries and all over the globe. There are those in every land who would label as Communist every threat to their privilege. But as I have seen on my travels in all sections of the world, reform is not communism. And the denial of freedom, in whatever name, only strengthens the very communism it claims to oppose.
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
(Source)
For it is the characteristic of folly, to have eyes for the faults of others, and blindness for its own.
[Est enim proprium stultitiae aliorum vitia cernere, oblivisci suorum.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 3, ch. 30 (3.30) / sec. 73 (45 BC) [tr. Otis (1839)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
For it is the property of Folly, to look upon other mens Failings, and to forget their own.
[tr. Wase (1643)]
For it is the peculiar characteristic of folly to discover the vices of others, forgetting its own.
[tr. Main (1824)]
For it is the peculiar characteristic of folly to perceive the vices of others, but to forget its own.
[tr. Yonge (1853)]
It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.
[Source (1882)]
It is the property of folly to see the faults of others, to forget its own.
[tr. Peabody (1886)]
This is just how foolish people behave: they observe the faults of others and forget their own.
[tr. Graver (2002)]
It is a trait of fools to perceive the faults of others but not their own.
And he gave it for his opinion, that whosoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Gulliver’s Travels, ch. 6 “Voyage to Brobdingnag” (1726)
Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Brown v. United States, 256 U.S. 335, 343 (1921)
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) French Jesuit priest, paleontologist, philosopher
(Misattributed)
Sometimes paraphrased: "We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey."
Not actually found in Teilhard's works. Sometimes cited to Le Phénomène Humain [The Phenomenon of Man] (1955) [tr. Wall (1959)], but it is not present there.
The best credit seems to be to Wayne Dyer. Also sometimes cited to Stephen Covey, who used the phrase but credited it to Teilhard (without citation). For more discussion, see You Are Not a Human Being Having a Spiritual Experience. You Are a Spiritual Being Having a Human Experience – Quote Investigator.