Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
In More Maxims of Mark [ed. M. Johnson (1925)]
A jealous person is doubly unhappy — over what he has, which is judged inferior, and over what he has not, which is judged superior. Such a person is doubly removed from knowing the true blessing of creation.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
An African Prayer Book
Poverty is not a disgrace; disgrace lies in poverty without ambition. A mean position is not a cause for contempt; contempt belongs to one in a mean position without ability. Old age is no cause for regret; regret that one is old, having lived in vain. Death is no cause for sorrow; sorrow that one dies without benefit to the world.
Mr. Tut-tut (fl. 17th C.) Chinese collector of proverbs (pseud.)
One Hundred Proverbs
Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil;
In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish;
For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth;
Nor is any poison so deadly, that it serveth not some wholesome use.Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889) English poet
“Of Truth in Things False,” Proverbial Philosophy (1838-49)
Yet men, scanning the surface, count the wicked happy; […]
They see not the frightful dreams that crowd a bad man’s pillow.Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889) English poet
“Of Compensation,” Proverbial Philosophy (1838-1849)
Full text.
Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.
John Tukey (1915-2000) American mathematician and statistician
“The future of data analysis,” Annals of Mathematical Statistics 33 (1) (1962)
Paraphrased in Super Freakonomics as: "An approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question."
He that will only Give, and not Receive
Enslaves the Person whom he would Relieve.Sir Samuel Tuke (c. 1620-1674) English Royalist and playwright
The Adventures of Five Hours [Don Octavio] (1663)
Full text.
Maturity is knowing that just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean he’s a horse’s ass.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
(Attributed)
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
(Spurious)
There is nothing contemporary to Truman indicating this is a valid quotation of his. The earliest instance of crediting Truman seems to be by Hugh Sidey in Time (7 Nov 1988).
A variant of this quote was also attributed to Ronald Reagan, apparently due to a plaque he kept in his office:
There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.
More discussion of the quote and its actual origins going back to 1863: A Man May Do an Immense Deal of Good, If He Does Not Care Who Gets the Credit – Quote Investigator. See also Montague.
I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I had to do it, and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in Tombstone, Ariz.: “Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.”
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Time, “The Presidency: The Answer Man” (28 Apr. 1952)
Speaking in Winslow, AZ (15 Jun 1948), Truman said, "You know, the greatest epitaph in the country is here in Arizona. It’s in Tombstone, Ariz., and this epitaph says, 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest.' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man could have."
To permit freedom of expression is primarily for the benefit of the majority, because it protects criticism, and criticism leads to progress.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Message to the House of Representatives, veto of McCarran Act (22-Sep-1950)
A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
D. Elton Trueblood (1900-1994) American author, educator, theologian [David Elton Trueblood]
The Life We Prize (1951)
Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
Where Is Britain Going?, “The Question of Revolutionary Force” (1925)
Alt. trans.: "A disbelief in violence is equivalent to a disbelief in gravitation."
The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.
Dawson Trotman (1906-1956) American activist, evangelist
(Attributed)
No man can be without his god. If he have not the true God to bless and sustain him, he will have some false god to delude and to betray him. … For every man has something in which he hopes, on which he leans, to which he retreats and retires, with which he fills up his thoughts in empty spaces of time, when he is alone, when he lies sleepless on his bed, when he is not pressed with other thoughts; to which he betakes himself in sorrow or trouble, as that from which he shall draw comfort and strength — his fortress, his citadel, his defense; and has not this a good right to be called his god?
Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886) English archbishop, philologist, poet
(Attributed)
The ivy cannot grow alone: it must twine round some support or other; if not the goodly oak, then the ragged thorn — round any dead stick whatever, rather than have no stay or support at all. It is even so with the heart and affections of man; if they do not twine around God, they must twine around some meaner thing.
Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886) English archbishop, philologist, poet
(Attributed)
The glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between the leader and the led — is trust, and trust is based on integrity.
Brian Tracy (b. 1944) American motivational speaker, writer
(Attributed)
To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
Man – The Dwelling Place of God
Individual enlightenment is the indispensable means of social reform.
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) English historian
The Toynbee-Ikeda Dialogue: Man Himself Must Choose, ch. 12 (1976)
Do not let yourselves be discouraged or embittered by the smallness of the success you are likely to achieve in trying to make life better. You certainly would not be able, in a single generation, to create an earthly paradise. Who could expect that? But, if you make life ever so little better, you will have done splendidly, and your lives will have been worthwhile.
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) English historian
(Attributed)
Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.
Paul Tournier (1848-1986) Swiss physician, writer, philosopher
Secrets (1963)
Let us not seek to bring religion to others, but let us endeavor to live it ourselves.
Paul Tournier (1848-1986) Swiss physician, writer, philosopher
“Resources in Medical Training and Practice,” lecture (30 Mar 1965)
And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Pamphlets, “Some Social Remedies,” “Three Methods of Reform” [tr. Free Age Press (1900)]
(Source)
More common variant: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
Progress consists, not in the increase of truth, but in freeing it from its wrappings. The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn’t gold.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Tolstoy’s Diaries, Vol. 2 (ed., tr. Christian)
Alt trans: "Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."
“It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two, Master Warden,” answered Éowyn. “And those who have not swords can still die upon them.”
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 6, ch. 5 “The Steward and the King” (1955)
(Source)
For myself, I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens; not as a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor, and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 4, ch. 5 “The Window on the West” [Faramir] (1954)
(Source)
Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses ….
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
Letter to Christopher Tolkien (1943-11-29)
(Source)
Letter 52 in Humphrey Carpenter, ed., The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1981).
The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, ch. 3 “Three Is Company” [Gildor, to Frodo] (1954)
(Source)
Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, ch. 2 “The Shadow of the Past” [Gandalf] (1954)
(Source)
Frodo later recounts these words (approximately) to Sam in The Two Towers.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, ch. 2 “The Shadow of the Past” (1954)
(Source)
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Hobbit, ch. 12 “Inside Information” (1937)
(Source)
There are also conflicts about important things or ideas. In such cases I am more impressed by the extreme importance of being on the right side, than I am disturbed by the revelation of the jungle of confused motives, private purposes, and individual actions (noble or base) in which the right and the wrong in actual human conflicts are commonly involved.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
Notes on W. H. Auden’s review of Return of the King (1956)
(Source)
Auden's review: "At the End of the Quest, Victory," New York Times Book Review (1956-01-22).
Tolkien never sent or shared these notes. Reprinted in Humphrey Carpenter, ed., The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #183 (1981).
He who breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 2, ch. 1 “The Council of Elrond” [Gandalf to Saruman] (1954)
(Source)
Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 5, ch. 9 “The Last Debate” [Gandalf] (1955)
(Source)
Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
The Old Regime and the French Revolution, 3.3 (1856) [tr. Gilbert (1955)]
The people grow tired of a confusion whose end is not in sight.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856)
Alt. trans.: "People are tired of a confusion whose end is not in sight." Referring to Bonaparte's ability to manipulate the public by drawing on their weariness of the Revolution.
In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils that it creates.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, Vol. 1, ch. 5 (1835)
If I were asked … to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, 2.3.12 (1840) [(tr. Reeve and Bowen (1862)]
Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Recollections, Part 2, ch. 1 (1893) [tr. De Mattos (1896)]
Full text.
Any movement in history which attempts to perpetuate itself, becomes reactionary.
Josef Broz Tito (1892-1980) Yugoslavian politician, revolutionary
(Attributed)
Sin is a base and ill-natured thing, and renders a man not so apt to be affected with the injuries he hath offered to God as with the mischief which is likely to fall upon himself.
John Tillotson (1630-1694) English prelate, Archbishop of Canterbury
(Attributed)
Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.
Paul Tillich (1886-1965) American theologian and philosopher
(Attributed)
The first duty of love is to listen.
Paul Tillich (1886-1965) American theologian and philosopher
(Attributed)
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Frank Tibolt
“I don’t understand,” said the scientist, “why you lemmings all rush down to the sea and drown yourselves.”
“How curious,” said the lemming. “The one thing I don’t understand is why you human beings don’t.”
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
“Interview with a Lemming” (1941)
Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
Quoted in New York Post (29 Feb 1960)
Playing on a Wordsworth definition of poetry as "emotion recollected in tranquility."
If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
“Why Not Die?” The New Yorker (21 Sep 1935)
Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave.
Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) Greek historian
The Speeches of Pericles, “The Funeral Speech” [tr. Edinger (1979)
Alt trans.:
- "The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage."
- "Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous."
History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) Greek historian
Ars Rhetorica, quoted by Dionysius of Halicarnasus, ch. 11
Cream rises to the top. So does fat.
Kelvin R. Throop (contemp.) Fictional bureaucrat, epigrammist [collectiive pseud. for various Analog magazone authors]
(Attributed)
The real world is not user-friendly.
Kelvin R. Throop (contemp.) Fictional bureaucrat, epigrammist [collectiive pseud. for various Analog magazone authors]
(Attributed)
Celestial navigation is based on the premise that the Earth is the center of the universe. The premise is wrong, but the navigation works. An incorrect model can be a useful tool.
Kelvin R. Throop (contemp.) Fictional bureaucrat, epigrammist [collectiive pseud. for various Analog magazone authors]
(Attributed)
With the near avalanche of technological progress, the horizons are nearly limitless for creating new scams.
Kelvin R. Throop (contemp.) Fictional bureaucrat, epigrammist [collectiive pseud. for various Analog magazone authors]
(Attributed)
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
(Misattributed)
Actually from James Jeffrey Roche, "Rules of the Road" (1891):
Be silent and safe — silence never betrays you;
Be true to your word and your work and your friend;
Put least trust in him who is foremost to praise you,
Nor judge of a road till it draw to the end.
And the cost of a thing it will be remembered is the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (after 6 Dec 1845)