In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Guardian (28 Jul 1989)
On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon, London (Sep 1941)
A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
Considerations on Representative Government, ch. 5 (1861)
Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790)
(Source)
Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
State of the Union address (6 Jan 1945)
A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God’s sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.
William Penn (1644-1718) English writer, philosopher, politician, statesman
Fruits of Solitude, #537-539 (1682)
(Source)
It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, ch. 3, “The Suicide of Thought” (1909)
Although humans tend to view sex as mainly a fun recreational activity sometimes resulting in death, in nature it is a far more serious matter.
Dave Barry (b. 1947) American humorist
Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys (1996)
Even a paranoid has some real enemies.
Henry Kissinger (b. 1923) German-American diplomat
(Attributed)
In Newsweek (13 Jun 83)
First, is the dangers of futility; the belief 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. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man.
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
My position as regards the monied interests can be put in a few words. In every civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; ordinarily and in the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run, identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, human rights must have the upper hand; for property belongs to man and not man to property.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“Citizenship in a Republic,” speech, Sorbonne, Paris (23 Apr 1910)
Gratis paenitet esse probum
[A man is sorry to be honest for nothing.]Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Ex Ponto, Bk 2, ch 3
Trans. Henry T. Riley. Alt. translation (Bartlett): "It is annoying to be honest to no purpose."
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Remarks on “In Your Hands” booklet, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, New York (27 Mar 1958)
For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Coloured Lands (1938)
Administrivia: Busy, busy, busy
Sorry about the gap in posting new quotes here — life’s been busy, and I’ve hardly been spending any time online the past week or so. Regular posting will resume shortly.
The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Preface (1936)
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it is also more nourishing.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 2, § 3 (1916)
(Source)
Variants:
IDEALIST: one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
A Book of Burlesques, "The Jazz Webster" (1924)
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
Chrestomathy, ch. 30 "Sententiae" (1949)
When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It’s a remarkably shrewd and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Age of Uncertainty, ch. 12 (1977)
(Source)
Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (23 Oct 1909)
One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pinprick, but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
Tender Is the Night, Bk. 3, ch. 13 (1934)
Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong — these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (2 May 1935)
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Polish-English novelist [b. Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski]
Under Western Eyes, Part 2, ch. 4 (1911)
(Source)
But the only real reason for being a progressive is that things naturally tend to grow worse. The corruption in things is not only the best argument for being progressive; it is also the only argument against being conservative. The conservative theory would really be quite sweeping and unanswerable if it were not for this one fact. But all conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, ch. 7 “The Eternal Revolution” (1908)
Full text.
At the heart of that western freedom and democracy is the belief that the individual man, the child of God, is the touchstone of value, and all society, groups, the state, exist for his benefit. Therefore the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and the abiding practice of any western society.
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, author
The Federalist # 1
In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
The Crack-Up (1936)
Richard did not believe in angels. He never had believed in angels. He was damned if he was going to start now. Still, it was much easier not to believe in something when it was not actually looking directly at you, and saying your name.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Neverwhere, ch. 9 (2006 ed.)
(Source)
In the original 1996 edition, the first two sentences are elided: "Richard did not believe in angels, he never had."
Hell is not punishment. It’s training.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
(Attributed)
When the people are too much attached to savage independence, to be tolerant of the amount of power to which it is for their good that they should be subject, the state of society (as already observed) is not yet ripe for representative government.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
Considerations on Representative Government, ch. 6 (1861)
The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Affluent Society, ch. 2, sec. 4 (1958)
The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
The Virginia Report of 1799
"Report on Resolutions," a report of the resolutions of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1799, submitted by a committee headed by Madison.
I did not let the fear of death govern my life, and my reward was, I had my life. You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life; and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Heartbreak House, Act 2 [Capt. Shotover] (1919)
In context.
Four things greater than all things are, —
Women and Horses and Power and War.Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
“The Ballad of the King’s Jest,” st. 5
Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be led.
H. Ross Perot (1930-2019) American entrepreneur, politician, reformer [Henry Ross Perot, Sr.]
(Attributed)
“I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken.” I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every court house, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, “I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that we may be mistaken.”
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
Testimony, US Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Special Subcommittee on the Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government (1951-06-28)
(Source)
This was a favorite phrase of Hand's regarding his own judicial philosophy. Quoting Oliver Cromwell's letter to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (Aug 1650) before the Battle of Dunbar.
Collected as "Morals in Public Life" in Irving Dillard, ed., The Spirit of Liberty (1952).
I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
- Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
- Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
- Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
Administrivia: State of the WIST
Things are running pretty stable as far as visitors goes. I wouldn’t mind seeing more, but I’m seeing enough traffic to make it worthwhile for me.
I’ve been pretty consistent with putting 3+ quotes up every weekday — and not just quotes but quotes with some research into where it was actually said. I’ve been going through multiple sources to keep a (hopefully) good variety. Remember, if you subscribe via e-mail, you’ll get those quotes delivered straight to your in-box.
I keep seeing Google and Yahoo both indexing pages, so hopefully more folks will continue to find WIST.
One thing that I have been light on is feedback. A few comments, but not as much as the visitor stats would warrant. Feel free, then, to comment on quotes you like, suggest new ones, to link back to a particular quote, or to comment on posts like this as to what you’d like to see here at WIST.
I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
“A Scandal in Bohemia” [Holmes] (1891)
Full text. Sometimes conflated with "No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit -- destructive to the logical faculty." from The Sign of the Four.
If the artist works only when he feels like it, he’s not apt to build up much of a body of work. Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work, and to go where it tells him to go.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Walking on Water (1980)
Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.
Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
Laws, Book IX [Athenian Stranger] (360 BC)
Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Full text.
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2, 15 January 1907 (2010)
(Source)
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Age of Uncertainty, ch. 12 (1977)
Courage — without which all other virtues are useless.
[I]t is contrary to the principles of reason and justice that any should be compelled to contribute to the maintenance of a church with which their consciences will not permit them to join, and from which they can derive no benefit; for remedy whereof, and that equal liberty as well religious as civil, may be universally extended to all the good people of this commonwealth.
George Mason (1725-1792) American statesman, Founding Father [George Mason IV]
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
But there is one feature I notice that is generally missing in Cargo Cult Science. That is the idea that we all hope you have learned in studying science in school — we never explicitly say what this is, but just hope that you catch on by all the examples of scientific investigation. It is interesting, therefore, to bring it out now and speak of it explicitly. It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid — not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you’ve eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked — to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
“Cargo Cult Science,” commencement address, California Institute of Technology (1974)
(Source)
To teach is to learn.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Japanese proverb
And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Spirit of Liberty,” speech, “I Am an American Day,” New York (1941-05-21)
(Source)
We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say — and to feel — ”Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.”
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
“In Awe of Words,” The Exonian, 75th anniversary edition, Exeter University (1930)
“What a brain, Mister Vandemar. Keen and incisive isn’t the half of it. Some of us are so sharp,” he said as he leaned in closer to Richard, went up on tiptoes into Richard’s face, “we could just cut ourselves.”
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Neverwhere, ch. 2 [Mr. Croup] (1996)
(Source)
I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1991)
If the gods think to speak outright to man, they will honorably speak outright; not shake their heads, and give an old wives’ darkling hint.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) American writer
Moby-Dick, ch. 133 [Ahab] (1851)
Decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously.
Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 438 (1928) [Dissent]
(Source)
The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life:
Try to be Shakespeare, leave the rest to fate.Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet
“Bishop Bougram’s Apology” (1855)
