Life is made up of a series of judgments on insufficient data, and if we waited to run down all our doubts, it would flow past us.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“On Receiving an Honorary Degree,” speech, Harvard University (1939-01-22)
(Source)
First printed in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin (7 Jul 1939)
Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming; not from those who rarely and under the lurid glare of obloquy upset our moral complaisance, or shock us with unaccustomed conduct, but from those, the mass of us, who take their virtues and their tastes, like their shirts and their furniture, from the limited patterns which the market offers.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Preservation of Personality,” speech, commencement, Bryn Mawr College (1927-06-02)
(Source)
First printed in the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin (Oct 1927).
“Via ovicipitum dura est,” or, for the benefit of the engineers among you: “The way of the egghead is hard.”
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Lecture, Harvard University (17 Mar 1954)
Quoted in Stevenson, Call to Greatness, Foreward (1954)
Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)
Ever tried.
Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) American playwright
Worstward Ho (1983)
“I wish life was not so short,” he thought. “Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.”
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lost Road, ch. 1 [Alboin] (1987) [ed. C. Tolkien]
(Source)
Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings — give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else! … Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American revolutionary and orator
Speech to the Virginia Convention, Richmond, Virginia (5 Jun. 1788)
Every child must be encouraged to get as much education as he has the ability to take. We want this not only for his sake — but for the nation’s sake. Nothing matters more to the future of our country: not military preparedness — for armed might is worthless if we lack the brain power to build a world of peace; not our productive economy — for we cannot sustain growth without trained manpower; not our democratic system of government — for freedom is fragile if citizens are ignorant.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-01-12), “Toward Full Educational Opportunity,” Joint Session of Congress
(Source)
When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection. Instances might be cited in which a conduct of this kind has saved the people from very fatal consequences of their own mistakes, and has procured lasting monuments of their gratitude to the men who had courage and magnanimity enough to serve them at the peril of their displeasure.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, author
The Federalist #71 (18 Mar 1788)
Source essay
Nocte latent mendae, vitioque ignoscitur omni, Horaque formosam quamlibet illa facit.
[Blemishes are hidden by night and every fault forgiven; darkness makes any woman fair.]Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Ars Amatoria I.249-250
If you want to be loved, be lovable.
Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Ars Amatoria II.107
It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God’s will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you — try to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept it as God’s will yourself!
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
Seeds of Contemplation, ch. 14 (1949)
I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
No early authority has been found citing this from Lincoln. However, in The Sociable Story-teller (1846), Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor 1410-1437, was quoted : "Do I not most effectually destroy my enemies, in making them my friends?"
When the Devil quotes Scriptures, it’s not, really, to deceive, but simply that the masses are so ignorant of theology that somebody has to teach them the elementary texts before he can seduce them.
Paul Goodman (1911-1972) American author, poet, critic
Five Years, “Spring and Summer 1956,” sec. 6, (1966).
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (28 Jul. 1940)
I used to try to write better than certain dead writers of whose value I was certain. For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
“Interview with Ernest Hemingway,” George Plimpton, The Paris Review #18 (Spring 1958)
Reprinted in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises: A Casebook, ed. Linda Wagner-Martin (2002)
There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.
Antonin Scalia (1936-2016) US Supreme Court justice
Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321 (1987)
Majority (6-3) Supreme Court opinion that refused to expand police power to search or seize evidence they suspected might be stolen.
Administrivia: Sidebar fun
A couple of sidebar notes.
1. I’ve added a new “Research Info” link list into the right-hand sidebar. It’s got some of the sites I use most often to find/source quotations and to get biographical info on the authors. I plan on writing a more complete article on that at some point to replace the links to earlier posts where I discuss those topics (in the “WIST Info” sidebar section), but for now, aside from “Google is your friend,” those are the places I would point anyone for sweet quotey action.
2. I now am keeping a list of the three most recent entries here over on the sidebar of my main blog. That will, I hope, drive a bit more traffic here. We’ll see.
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Attributed)
God does not much mind bad grammar, but He does not take any particular pleasure in it.
Desiderius Erasmus (1465-1536) Dutch humanist philosopher and scholar
(Attributed)
The lack of objectivity, as far as foreign nations are concerned, is notorious. From one day to another, another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one’s own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard — every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals which they serve.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Art of Loving, ch. 2 (1956)
There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
(Attributed)
Quoted in Leslie Halliwell, Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984).
Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
“Mental Illness,” The Second Sin (1973)
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it may be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
(Source)
Einstein crafted and recrafted his credo multiple times in this period, and specifics are often muddled by differing translations and by his reuse of certain phrases in later writing. The Forum and Century entry appears to be the earliest. Some important variants:
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man.
— "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild]" [tr. Bargmann (1954)]
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms -- it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.
— "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild]" [tr. Harris (1934)]
The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavor in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious.
[Das Schönste und Tiefste, was der Mensch erleben kann, ist das Gefühl des Geheimnisvollen. Es liegt der Religion sowie allem tieferen Streben in Kunst und Wissenschaft zugrunde. Wer dies nicht erlebt hat, erscheint mir, wenn nicht wie ein Toter, so doch wie ein Blinder. Zu empfinden, dass hinter dem Erlebbaren ein für unseren Geist Unerreichbares verborgen sei, dessen Schönheit und Erhabenheit uns nur mittelbar und in schwachem Widerschein erreicht, das ist Religiosität. In diesem Sinne bin ich religiös.]
— Variant in "My Credo [Mein Glaubensbekenntnis]" (Aug 1932)
See parallel sentiments here, here, and here.
People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Myself” (1931)
If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
[S’il faut choisir un crucifié, la foule sauve toujours Barabbas.]
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French writer, filmmaker, artist
“Le Coq et l’Arlequin” (1918), Le Rappel à l’ordre (1926)
(Source)
About adjectives: all fine prose is based on the verbs carrying the sentences. They make sentences move.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
Letter, The Crack-Up, ed. Edmund Wilson (1945) p.303
Source text
I never blame failure — there are too many complicated situations in life — but I am absolutely merciless toward lack of effort.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
Letter, The Crack-Up, ed. Edmund Wilson (1945) p.302
Source text
For the partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.
He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
“Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature — that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance — and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth.”
“No, I wouldn’t consent,” said Alyosha softly.Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist
The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, book 5, ch. 4 [Ivan] (1880) [tr. Garnett (1912)]
Drink! for you know not whence you came nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát, 74 [tr. FitzGerald, 4th ed. (1879)]
To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) American actress
Quoted in “Hepburn: She is the Best,” Los Angeles Times (24 Nov 1974)
You should have disagreements with your leaders and your colleagues, but if it becomes immediately a question of questioning people’s motives, and if immediately you decide that somebody who sees a whole new situation differently than you must be a bad person and somehow twisted inside, we are not going to get very far in forming a more perfect union.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
Inaugural Dole Lecture, U. of Kansas (21 May 2004)
And I think America, if we’re ever going to truly defeat terror without changing the character of our own country or compromising the future of our children, has got to not only say, “Okay, I want to shoulder my responsibilities, I want to create my share of opportunities” but we have to find a way to define the future in terms of a humanity that goes beyond our country, that goes beyond any particular race, that goes beyond any particular religion.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
Inaugural Dole Lecture, U. of Kansas (21 May 2004)
Administrivia: Swoosh!
I’ve installed Fast Search on this blog and — yow! Searches that used to take take 15, 30, 60 seconds with the out-of-the-box search capabilities all come back in just 2 or 3. It’s fantastic.
There are a few limitations vs. the normal MT search. It doesn’t do comments (yet) — but that’s not really a problem here. It’s search parameters are a bit more limited — no Regex, no Case Sensitivity, no OR or NOT.
But if you’re looking for a word or two in a quotation here (or a fragment of 4 letters or more), the new Search will rock your world.
I’ll probably be installing it (as an option) on my other blogs. But the best fit was here. If it continues to perform the way it has over the next week, I’ll definitely be dropping something in the tip jar.
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
A Tramp Abroad (1880)
Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, or Baptist he goes haywire. I’ve found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.
Administrivia: Sourcing notes
Some evolving thoughts here on noting the sources of quotation (as part of their citations).
In my old Access database, I had a column for in the quotes table for “source,” where I would put where I’d found something — not necessarily the origin of the quote, but where I’d gotten it (in case someone said, “Hey, where did that come from?”). Often it was a hyperlink — sometimes to the article in question (e.g., a quote from someone in Time magazine), or to a Bartleby entry, or to a primary source.
(If someone is only quoted in a second party’s work, I’ve often shied away from using that work as the citation, both because of the space involved and because it’s a secondary source. I have not been consistent about this, however.)
I also used the field for notes about the quotation — “Not found in the works of Fred Smith,” or “Also attributed to Joe Bloggs,” or “Sometimes given as ‘alternative translation.'”
I hadn’t displayed that material in my previous WIST collection, but I made a conscious decision this time out to do so. It’s the follow-up sans serif text that appears underneath some quote. In some cases it’s an URL, in other cases it’s notes on the source.
One thing I’ve discovered, though, is that I can now easily make actual hyperlinks out of this material. Rather than just giving the URL to the Bartleby page, I can say “Source” and make that a hyperlink to that URL. That may clean up the look of things, and allow for some more even useful ways of putting stuff in here. I’d do something similar in the actual citation (e.g., link to the essay or book or whatever), but the “Title” field in MT isn’t as suited to that (just as the Category Description isn’t well suited to putting in a hyperlink for the Wiki page for an author).
I don’t plan on en masse going back and cleaning these things up, but I will do a bit of cleaning as I go along in adding new and updating old material.
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTHGeorge Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part I, ch. 1 (1949)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, I.7 (1949)
Sufficient to today are the duties of today. Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Immortality,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)
(Source)
As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Attributed)
Date is cited in a couple of places online as 1954, but with no further information.
Administrivia: Performance issues
I’m not happy about the peformance going to individual author pages. In part that’s because archives are the most complex item for MT serve up, and the individual authors are categories.
I’m seriously considering turning the normal author categories into permanent (static) files, rather than dynamic. That should dramatically improve performance, but …
- The disk storage will go way up.
- Posting new stuff will take a bit longer (an added file to generate).
- category rebuilds will seriously churn things up even more.
- I do occasionally rename categories (authors) – will that leave obsolete files out there. Yeah, probably. Trivial issue, I think, but worth considering.
I’m most concerned with #1 and #3, esp. #3. It irks me to do rebuilds, and the category rebuild is already a huge churn.
I will ponder this.
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
“Declaration of Independence,” original rough draft (Jun 1776)
(Source)
Compare to the final version, as modified and adopted by the Continental Congress.
I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (1776-07-03)
(Source)
Administrivia: Administrivia in the sidebar
A moderate design shift for the front page. Rather than having the most recent Adminstrivia post showing at the top of the first page, I’ll have an excerpt of the most recent Adminstrivia in the sidebar on the front page — something visible for those looking for such things, but not getting in the way of the quotations.
Because, after all — the quotations are what it’s all really about.
Jellicle Cats come out tonight,
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright —
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, “The Song of the Jellicles” (1939)
For some are sane and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse —
But all may be described in verse.T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, “The Ad-dressing of Cats” (1939)
What is hell? Hell is oneself.
Hell is alone, the other figures in it
Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from
And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
“The Cocktail Party” (1949)
Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.
George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
(Source)
If you want a war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men are ever subject, because doctrines get inside a man’s reason and betray him against himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines. The reconquest of the Holy Sepulcher, “the balance of power,” “no universal dominion,” “trade follows the flag,” “he who holds the land will hold the sea,” “the throne and the altar,” the revolution, the faith — these are the things for which men have given their lives. What are they all? Nothing but rhetoric and phantasms.
William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) American minister, sociologist, anthropologist.
“War” (1903), War and Other Essays [ed. A. Keller (1911)]
(Source)
Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.
Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
Peter’s Almanac, entry for 24 Sep. (1982).
