Now there’s a WIST store at CafePress, where you can get t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, and other goodies with the WIST logo and some quotation-oriented quotations. Being stylish, chic, and erudite was never this simple! Drop on by and see what you think! (And if you think of a design or quote you’d like to see, let me know!)
If I am inclined to doubt, steady my faith.
If I am tempted, make me strong to resist.
If I should miss the mark, give me courage to try again.(Other Authors and Sources)
Marine Corps Prayer
http://www.uspharmd.com/usmc/marineprayer.html
But the greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness — each system only too delighted to find that the other is wicked — each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity.
Sir Herbert Butterfield (1900-1979) British historian, historiographer
Christianity, Diplomacy and War (1953)
The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Androcles and the Lion, Preface (1912)
(Source)
To a valet no man is a hero.
[Es gibt fur den Kammerdiener keiner Helden.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Wahlverwandtschaften, II, 5, Aus Ottilien’s Tagebuche (1805)
There is nothing more fearful than imagination without taste.
[Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Spruche in Prosa [Proverbs in Prose], 3 (1819)
He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
[Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Über Kunst und Alterthum (1821)
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
- "He who knows not foreign languages, knows nothing of his own."
- "No man who knows only his own language knows even that."
- "He who knows but one language knows none."
- "He who knows one language, knows none."
- "A man who has no acquaintance with foreign languages knows nothing of his own." [tr. Bailey Saunders]
Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.
[Zu strenge Ford’rung ist verborgner Stolz.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Iphigenia auf Tauris, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 120 (1787)
Where there is much light, the shadows are deepest.
[Wo viel Licht is, ist starker Schatten.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Gotz von Berlichingen, I, 24 (1773)
The words you’ve bandied are sufficient;
‘Tis deeds that I prefer to see.[Der Worte sind genug gewechselt,
Lasst mich auch endlich Thaten sehn.]Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Faust, “Vorspiel auf dem Theater,” l.214 (trans. Bayard Taylor) (1808)
Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to errors that counts.
Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) American poet, commentator, activist, educator [b. Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr.]
Black Feeling/Black Talk/Black Judgment, “Of Liberation,” st. 16 (1968)
In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.
Newt Gingrich (b. 1943) American politician [Newton Leroy Gingrich]
International Herald Tribune, Paris (1 Aug 1988)
He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it.
Henry George (1839-1897) American economist
The Land Question (1881)
Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.
Bill Gates (b. 1955) American software magnate [William Henry Gates III]
(Attributed)
Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren’t so irritating.
Bill Gates (b. 1955) American software magnate [William Henry Gates III]
Wall Street Journal, “Why I Hate Spam” (2003)
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ofnote/06-23wsjspam.asp
Don’t expect faith to clear things up for you. It is trust, not certainty.
Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) American writer [Mary Flannery O'Connor]
(Attributed)
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Letter to Pres. Kennedy (3 Mar 1962)
Quoted in Galbraith, Ambassador’s Journal (1969).
I have only three enemies. My favorite enemy, the one most easily influenced for the better, is the British Empire. My second enemy, the Indian people, is far more difficult. But my most formidable opponent is a man named Mohandas K. Gandhi. With him I seem to have very little influence.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)
Let us grant then that theology is conversant with the loftiest divine contemplation, and occupies the regal throne among sciences by dignity but acquiring the highest authority in this way. lf she does not descend to the lower and humbler speculations of the subordinate sciences and has no regard for them because they are not concerned with blessedness, then her professors should not arrogate to them-selves the authority to decide on controversies in professions which they have neither studied nor practiced. Why, this would be as if an absolute despot, being neither a physician nor an architect but knowing himself free to command, should undertake to administer medicines and erect buildings according to his whim-at grave peril of his poor patients’ lives, and the speedy collapse of his edifices.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and mathematician
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany (1615)
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/212gal.html
It is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth — whenever its true meaning is understood. But I believe nobody will deny that it is often very abstruse, and may say things which are quite different from what its bare words signify.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and mathematician
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany (1615)
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/212gal.html
And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the whim of others? When people devoid of whatsoever competence are made judges over experts and are granted authority to treat them as they please? These are the novelties which are apt to bring about the ruin of commonwealths and the subversion of the state.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and mathematician
Dialogue on Two Chief World Systems, marginal note (1632)
Take note, theologians, that in your desire to make matters of faith out of propositions relating to the fixity of sun and earth you run the risk of eventually having to condemn as heretics those who would declare the earth to stand still and the sun to change position — eventually, I say, at such a time as it might be proved that the earth moves and the sun stands still.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and mathematician
Dialogue on Two Chief World Systems (1632)
I would say here something that was heard from an ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree; “That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how the heaven goes.”
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist and mathematician
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christine (1615)
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/212gal.html
I’ve researched citations for E and F entries, added some quotes as I came across them, and have re-uploaded everything for A-F (plus the Authors list).
Slow slogging, though I’ve discovered two new tools to use:
The work continues …
Life is a unique gift and challenge, not to be measured in terms of anything else, and no sensible answer can be given to the question whether it is ‘worth while’ living, because the question does not make any sense.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Sane Society (1955)
Children and Princes will quarrel for Trifles.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack
Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) German-American psychologist, writer
Man’s Search for Meaning (1959)
Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of [achieving] a free society.
Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965) US Supreme Court Justice, jurist and teacher
New York Times (28 Nov. 1954)
If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny. Legal process is an essential part of the democratic process.
Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965) US Supreme Court Justice, jurist and teacher
United States v. Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 312 (concurring) (1946)
The world often looks with contempt upon piety because it pictures the pious as men of downcast and sorrowful faces, but Christ himself testifies that the inner life is a soft, sweet, and happy one.
François de Sales (1567-1622) French bishop, saint, writer [a.k.a. Francis de Sales, b. François de Boisy]
Introduction to a Devout Life (1618)
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace!
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) Italian Franciscan mystic, reformer, saint [b. Giovanni di Pietro di Bunardone]
“Prayer of St Francis” (Attributed)
The poem (in French) appears to date back no further than 1912, and was first misattributed to St. Francis in 1927. The first English translation (as above) is in 1936. More information on its origin here and here. The original French (La Clochette magazine, #12 (Dec 1912):
Belle prière à faire pendant la Messe
Seigneur, faites de moi un instrument de votre paix.
Là où il y a l'offense, que je mette le pardon.
Là où il y a la discorde, que je mette l'union.
Là où il y a l'erreur, que je mette la vérité.
Là où il y a le doute, que je mette la foi.
Là où il y a le désespoir, que je mette l'espérance.
Là où il y a les ténèbres, que je mette votre lumière.
Là où il y a la tristesse, que je mette la joie.
Ô Maître, que je ne cherche pas tant à être consolé qu'à consoler, à être compris qu'à comprendre, à être aimé qu'à aimer, car c'est en donnant qu'on reçoit, c'est en s'oubliant qu'on trouve, c'est en pardonnant qu'on est pardonné, c'est en mourant qu'on ressuscite à l'éternelle vie.
Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
(Attributed)
God is not a cosmic bell-boy for whom we can press a button to get things done.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
(Attributed)
He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
(Attributed)
Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind’s eye, and you will be drawn toward it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
(Attributed)
Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
(Attributed)
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
Living Under Tension (1941)
Religion is not a burden, not a weight, it is wings.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
(Attributed)
The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, author, teacher
The Living of These Days (1956)
I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right. I do believe that right makes might and that if I am wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. I do believe, with all my heart and mind and spirit, that I, not as President but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy.
Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) American politician, US President (1974-77) [b. Leslie Lynch King, Jr.]
Announcing his decision to pardon Nixon (8 Sep. 1974)
I swear: some people will not be happy until the people who are usually happy aren’t.
James Lileks (b. 1958) American journalist, columnist
The Bleat (29 Jun. 2004)
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/0604/062904.html
Religion, a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his maker, in which no other, & far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Richard Rush (31 May 1813)
(Source)
Make mistakes. Make great mistakes, make wonderful mistakes, make glorious mistakes. Better to make a hundred mistakes than to stare at a blank piece of paper too scared to do anything wrong, too scared to do anything.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Speech, Harvey Awards (2004)
Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish” (1943)
You know, most of the people I’ve known in this business, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, were good people, honest people, and they did what they thought was right. And I hope that I’ll live long enough to see American politics return to vigorous debates where we argue who’s right and wrong, not who’s good and bad.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
Comments at his offical portrait unveiling (14 Jun. 2004)
Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell on the right.
John McCain (1936-2018) American naval aviator, politician
(Attributed)
When we put aside partisanship, embrace the best ideas regardless of where they come from and work for principled compromise, we can move America not left or right, but forward.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
News conference (8 Nov. 1996)
Idealism without pragmatism is impotent. Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless. The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism.
Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) American politician, writer, US President (1967-74)
(Attributed)
This is a time for courage and a time of challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a Party is not to our Party alone, but to the Nation, and, indeed to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Undelivered speech (22 Nov. 1963)
Extreme opposites resemble the other. Each believes that we have only two choices: appeasement or war, suicide or surrender, humiliation or holocaust, to be either Red or dead.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)
The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in Government than in politics.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
(Attributed)
We … hold the just balance and set ourselves as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 8 “The New York Governorship” (1913)
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, it to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 Oct 1789)
Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Inaugural Address (4 Mar 1801)
(Source)
I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in any thing else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I protest to you I am not of the party of federalists. But I am much farther from that of the Antifederalists.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Francis Hopkinson (13 Mar 1789)
(Source)
