I have seen a man of genius who made one think if other men were like him, cooperation were impossible. Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy?
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Table Talk,” American Life, lecture, Boston (1864-12-18)
(Source)
Speaking of Thoreau's style of conversation. Originally a Journal entry of 29 Feb 1856. Also part of the lecture "Social Aims".
History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
“Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Men of our army and navy!”, Radio Address (3 Jul 1941)
A few weeks after the invasion of the USSR by Germany. Full text.
We, in some unknown Power’s employ,
Move on a rigorous line;
Can neither, when we will, enjoy,
Nor, when we will, resign.Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
“Stanzas in Memory of the Author of ‘Obermann'”, s. 34 (1852)
Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots.
Steve Allen (1922-2000) American composer, entertainer, and wit.
(Attributed)
A gloomy morning. On all sides a depressing outlook, and within, disgust with self.
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal (26 Apr 1968) [tr. Mrs. H. Ward (1887)]
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Eloquence,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)
What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.
Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, ch. 2
The profession of book-writing makes horse-racing seem like a solid, stable business.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, Preface (1976)
Steinbeck often used this phrase; it's first quoted in Newsweek (24 Dec 1962)
If others could only see us as we think we are.
Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist
Abe Martin’s Back Country Sayings (1917)
The salvation of America and of the human race depends on the next Election, if we believe the newspapers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1848-10)
Pray for thy Enemy, for if thou beest a good Man thyself, thou canst not but rejoice to see thy worst Enemy become a good Man, too.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, # 878 (1725)
(Source)
Here’s the way I look at it. President Bush has uranium-tipped bunker busters and I have puns. I think he’ll be okay.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Interview, Rolling Stone (2006-10-31)
(Source)
On political satire.
Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
The Roving Mind (1983)
It is of great advantage that man should know his station, and not erroneously imagine that the whole Universe exists only for him.
Maimonides (1135-1204) Spanish Jewish philosopher, scholar, astronomer, physician [Moses ben Maimon, Rambam, רמב״ם]
The Guide for the Perplexed, 3.12 (AD 1190) [tr. M Friedlander (1904)]
How rare, men with the character to praise
a friend’s success without a trace of envy.Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, l. 818 [tr. R. Fagles (1975)]
Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its essence, to accommodate it to the prejudices of the world.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On the Causes of Methodism,” The Round Table (1817)
Everything.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 4. Season of Mists, # 21 “A Prologue” (1990-11)
(Source)
The greater the tension, the greater is the potential. Great energy springs from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon,” introduction (1942), Alchemical Studies [tr. R. Hull (1967)]
We are all children of one and the same God and, therefore, absolutely equal.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (2 Feb 1934)
The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Training of Reason” (1918)
In A. C. Benson (ed.), Cambridge Essays on Education (1918)
Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, University of Wisconsin, Madison (8 Oct 1952)
This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. I would not have believed it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.
Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Fer-de-Lance, ch. 1 [Wolfe] (1934)
He that will have the Kernel, must crack the Shell.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #2348 (1732)
(Source)
I suppose if you had to choose just one quality to have that would be it: vitality.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
In A. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days, 25.2 (1965)
The real existence of an enemy upon whom one can foist off everything evil is an enormous relief to one’s conscience. You can then at least say, without hesitation, who the devil is; you are quite certain that the cause of your misfortune is outside, and not your own attitude.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“General Aspects of Dream Psychology” (1916) [tr. R. Hull (1960)]
Whatever barriers we put up are gone. Even if it’s just momentary. We are judging people by not the color of their skin, but the content of their character. You know, all this talk about “These guys are criminal masterminds. They’ve gotten together and their extraordinary guile and their wit and their skill …” It’s, it’s — it’s a lie. Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters and these policemen and people from all over the country, literally with buckets, rebuilding … that’s extraordinary. And that’s why we have already won … they can’t … it’s light. It’s democracy. They can’t shut that down.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
The Daily Show (2001-09-20)
(Source)
Monologue on "September 11, 2001."
Don’t you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don’t you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out “Don’t you believe in anything?”
“Yes,” I said. “I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
The Roving Mind (1983)
For country ’tis a sweet and seemly thing
To die.[Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 3, Ode 2, l. 13
Alt trans:
- "Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country." [J. C. Elgood, The Works of Horace]
We cannot evade life’s course, but we can school ourselves to be superior to fortune and also to look unflinchingly upon the most painful things.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]
To persevere, trusting in what hopes he has,
Is courage in a man. The coward despairs.Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Heracles, l. 100 [tr. W. Arrowsmith (1956)]
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, does not value gifts and honors as much as he values this — that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not praising one’s own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way. But it is better to honor other religions for this reason. By so doing, one’s own religion benefits, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one’s own religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought “Let me glorify my own religion,” only harms his own religion. Therefore contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others.
Ashoka (c. 269-232 BC) Indian Buddhist emperor [Asoka, Piyadasi]
Edicts, Girnar version (256 BC)
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant Land.William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Milton: A Poem, preface, st. 4 (1804-08)
This is on me.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
(Attributed)
Proposed epitaph for herself. In Robert E. Drennan, ed., "Dorothy Parker," The Algonquin Wits (1968)
Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech, Washington (26 Mar 1964)
Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, Denver, Colorado (5 Sep 1952)
I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn’t have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you’re guilty you’ll get it in the neck and if you’re innocent you can’t possibly be harmed. No matter who you are. There was no such conception of justice until after 1830. There was no such thing as a policeman or a detective in the world before 1830, because the modern conception of the policeman and detective, namely, a man whose only function is to find out who did it and then get the evidence that will punish him, did not exist. … In Paris before the year 1800 — read the Dumas stories — there were gangs of people whose business was to go out and punish wrongdoers. But why? Because they had hurt De Marillac or Richelieu or the Duke or some Huguenot noble, not just because they had harmed society. It is only the modern policeman that is out to protect society.
Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Roundtable discussion of Sherlock Holmes, on Mark Van Doren’s Invitation to Learning (Jan 1942)
Transcribed in M. Van Doren, The New Invitation to Learning: The Essence of the Great Books of All Times (1942)
We credit ourselves for our successes; we blame others for our faults.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Philosophy of Elbert Hubbard [ed. Edward Hubbard II] (1930)
There can be no truer principle than this — that every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, author
Speech, Constitutional Conventnion, Philadelphia (29 Jun 1787)
In good conversation, parties don’t speak to the words, but to the meanings of each other.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Social Aims,” lecture, Boston (1864-12-04), Letters and Social Aims (1875)
Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
Interview with H. G. Wells (Sep 1937)
Full text.
Ah! two desires toss about
The poet’s feverish blood;
One drives him to the world without,
And one to solitude.Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
Stanzas in Memory of the Author of “Obermann” (1852), st. 24.
Liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of every body and everything by the agencies of central government.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World, Revisited, “Over-Population” (1958)
The Many can elect after the Few have nominated.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
Public Opinion, 14.6 (1922)
The eloquence that diverts us to itself harms its content.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
“Of the Education of Children,” Essays (1588) [Tr. D. Frame (1958)]
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, ch. 3
Alt. trans.:
- "Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting"
- "The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities .... It is best to win without fighting."
In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence — but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.
As in a game ov cards, so in the game ov life, we must play what is dealt tew us, and the glory consists, not so mutch in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.
[As in a game of cards, so in the game of life, we must play what is dealt to us, and the glory consists, not so much in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Ods and Ens” (1874)
Full text.
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, San Diego State College (6 Jun 1963)
The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles mine.
Stanislaw Lec (1909-1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]
I have not found this generation to be cynical or apathetic or selfish. They are as strong and as decent as any people that I have met. And I will say this, on my way down here I stopped at Bethesda Naval, and when you talk to the young kids that are there that have just been back from Iraq and Afghanistan, you don’t have the worry about the future that you hear from so many that are not a part of this generation but judging it from above.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Commencement Address, College of William & Mary (2004-05-20)
(Source)
I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
Free Inquiry (Spring 1982)
You’ve no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself — and how little I deserve it.
W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) English playwright [William Schwenck Gilbert]
Ruddigore, Act I (1887)
There is … a manly and lawful passion for equality that incites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, 1.3 (1885) [tr. Beeve and Bowen (1862)]
Man’s life seems to me like a long, weary night that would be intolerable if there were not occasionally flashes of light, the sudden brightness of which is so comforting and wonderful, that the moments of their appearance cancel out and justify the years of darkness.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]