A modern dictator with the resources of science at his disposal can easily lead the public on from day to day, destroying all persistency of thought and aim, so that memory is blurred by the multiplicity of daily news and judgment baffled by its perversion.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Vol 1 (1956–58)
On the spread of the news of the Murder of the Princes in the Tower. Sometimes cited to The Second World War (1948-53)
“It is destiny” — phrase of the weak human heart; dark apology for every error. The strong and the virtuous admit no destiny.
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) English novelist and politician
The Last of the Barons, 8.6 (1843)
We declared war on terror — it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Commencement Address, College of William & Mary (2004-05-20)
(Source)
When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
Death in the Afternoon, ch. 16 (1932)
And were an epitaph to be my story,
I’d have a short one ready for my own.
I would have written of me on my stone:
I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
“The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942)
Initially read before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard (20 Jun 1941)
There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“The Soul of Man under Socialism,” Fortnightly Review (Feb 1891)
Our desires always increase with our possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed, impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Adventurer, # 67 (26 Jun 1753)
When one professes [courage] too openly, by words or bearing, there is reason to mistrust it.
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) American military leader and author
Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman, ch. 25 (1875)
If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
James 1:27 (NIV)
- TEV: What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.
- KJV: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
In my experience, at least of late years, all that depresses a man’s spirits is the sense of remissness — duties neglected, unfaithfulness — or shamming, impurity, falsehood, selfishness, inhumanity, and the like.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (28 Aug 1854)
Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714) English writer, religious philosopher
An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, Genesis 3 (1708-10)
Full text.
Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Radio address (29 Sep 1952)
Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer! (There is no beer in heaven, so let us drink it here.)
Martin Luther (1483-1546) German religious reformer
(Attributed)
Democracy stands between two tyrannies: the one which it has overthrown and the one into which it will develop.
Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) American educator, novelist, poet
Maxims for a Modern Man, #642 (1965)
(Source)
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
James 1:22-25 (NIV)
- KJV: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
- TEV: Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice. Whoever listens to the word but does not put it into practice is like a man who looks in a mirror and sees himself as he is. He takes a good look at himself and then goes away and at once forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks closely into the perfect law that sets people free, who keeps on paying attention to it and does not simply listen and then forget it, but puts it into practice -- that person will be blessed by God in what he does.
Wealth is not a crime; poverty is not a virtue — although the virtuous have generally been poor.
There’s no point in burying the hatchet if you’re going to put up a marker on the site.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
There are only two classes in society: those who get more than they earn, and those who earn more than they get.
Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948) English journalist, editor, author
Platitudes in the Making (1911)
Always assume your guest is tired, cold and hungry, and act accordingly.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Navajo proverb
To do two things at once is to do neither.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 7 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
What is the fear of the “gay agenda” that has so upset people? Do people think that if gay people are given a place at the table, they’ll be so convincing we’ll all end up blowing them? What is the issue? “You know, I’m straight, but you’ve made such a convincing argument …”
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Stand-up comedy performance at RIT (2005)
Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
A Moveable Feast (1964)
Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it a charm.
[Nur Thaten geben dem Leben Starke, nur Maas ihm Reiz.]
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
Titan, Zykel 145
The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.
Paul Valéry (1871-1945) French poet, critic, author, polymath
Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci (1895)
It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) American novelist
“On the Disadvantages of Democracy,” The American Democrat (1838)
What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, ch. 1 (1931)
Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives us no concern — why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners, “On the Fear of Death” (1821-1822)
Full text.
Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke.
Lynda Barry (b. 1956) American cartoonist, author, teacher
(Attributed)
My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not signed.
Christopher Morley (1890-1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist, poet
(Attributed)
Our very defects are … shadows of our virtues.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1831, undated)
Most people imagine that the rich are in heaven, but, as a rule, it is only a gilded hell. There is not a man in the city of New York with genius enough, with brains enough, to own five millions of dollars. Why? The money will own him. He becomes the key to a safe. That money will get him up at daylight; that money will separate him from his friends; that money will fill his heart with fear; that money will rob his days of sunshine and his nights of pleasant dreams. He cannot own it. He becomes the property of that money. And he goes right on making more. What for? He does not know. It becomes a kind of insanity. No one is happier in a palace than in a cabin.
When I hear somebody sigh that “Life is hard,” I am always tempted to ask, “Compared to what?”
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (25 Jul 1839)
The slaves of custom are the sport of time.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Book 6, ch. 3, “Innovation” (1605)
A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
Writers at Work, Fourth Series, “On Publishing” [ed. G. Plimpton] (1977)
For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) English physicist, author
British Telecom advertisement (1993)
May you live all the days of your life.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation, Dialogue 2 (1738)
Black care rarely sits beside the rider whose pace is fast enough.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, ch. 4 “The Round Up” (1896)
Full text.
Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“The Citizen and the State,” A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
The reason I don’t worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I’ll take those odds every fucking day.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Interview, Rolling Stone (2007-11 )
No catalogue of horrors ever kept men from war. Before the war you always think that it’s not you that dies. But you will die, brother, if you go to it long enough.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
“Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter,” Esquire (Sep 1935)
As soon as you see something, you already start to intellectualize it. As soon as you intellectualize something, it is no longer what you saw.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
(Attributed)
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
On the Contrary, ch. 7 (1962)
There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners, “On Living to One’s-Self” (1821-22)
Full text.
When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.
Lillian Smith (1897-1966) American author
(Attributed)
Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, ch. 5 (1876)
When Jesus painted that symbolic picture of the great assize, he made it clear that the norm for determining the division between the sheep and the goats would be deeds done for others. One will not be asked how many academic degrees he obtained or how much money he acquired, but how much he did for others. Did you feed the hungry? Did you give a cup of cold water to the thirsty? Did you clothe the naked? Did you visit the sick and minister to the imprisoned? In a sense, every day is judgment day, and we, through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, are constantly writing in the Book of Life.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Strength to Love, ch. 9 “Three Dimensions of a Complete Life,” sec. 2 (1963)
(Source)
The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714) English writer, religious philosopher
An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, Genesis 2:21 (1708-10)
Self-criticism is the secret weapon of democracy.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Chicago (26 Jul 1952)
Death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all — the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Last written note
(Source)
Recorded by A. Paine (his literary executor), Mark Twain: A Biography, Vol III, Part 2, ch. 293 (1912).
The rule of law should not suspended whenever it is convenient or urgent. It is at times when we are most tempted, most compelled to ignore the law that we should should be most reliant upon it, and consider most carefully the consequences of ignoring it. The law is there precisely to keep us from making mistakes when it is convenient or urgent to act.
Graham Ericsson (b. 1947) American writer, aphorist
Into a New Day (2008)
Custom reconciles us to everything.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 4.19 (1756)
No day can be so sacred but that the laugh of a little child will make it holier still.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)
(Source)
The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, “I was wrong.”
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)