There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923) American electrical engineer
(Attributed)
Quoted in John J. B. Morgan and T. Webb Ewing, Making the Most of Your Life (2005). Sometimes given as: "No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions."
The wise person questions the wisdom of others because they question their own; the foolish one, because it is different from their own.
Leo Stein (1872-1947) American art collector, writer
(Attributed)
If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.
Herb Stein (1916-1999) American economist
Stein’s Law (c. 1980)
This was a frequent statement by Stein. He explained it: "This proposition, arising first in a discussion of the balance-of-payments deficit, is a response to those who think that if something cannot go on forever, steps must be taken to stop it -- even to stop it at once."
Variants.:
- "If something can’t go on forever, it won’t."
- "Anything that can’t go on, won’t."
- "Trends that can't continue won't.
You can plan all you want to. You can lie in your morning bed and fill whole notebooks with schemes and intentions. But within a single afternoon, within hours or minutes, everything you plan and everything you have fought to make yourself can be undone as a slug is undone when salt is poured on him. And right up to the moment when you find yourself dissolving into foam you can still believe you are doing fine.
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) American novelist
Crossing to Safety (1987)
Whoever kindles the flames of intolerance is lighting a fire underneath his own home.
Harold E. Stassen (1907-2001) American politician, lawyer, educator
(Attributed) (1947)
A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
(Attributed)
Alternate versions:The actual quote (such as is supported) appears to be "When one man dies it is a tragedy, when thousands die it's statistics." It is found in David McCullough, Truman (1992), said by Stalin to Churchill in Tehran when the latter was concerned over the potential casualties of opening a second front in France prematurely. McCullough cites it to Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko, The Time of Stalin: Portrait of Tyranny (1981).
- "Death of one man is a tragedy. Death of a million is a statistic."
- "One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic."
- "When one dies, it is a tragedy. When a million die, it is a statistic."
- "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."
On the other hand, Mary Soames (Churchill's daughter) said in a BBC interview with Andrew Marr (11 Nov 2011) that she overhead Stalin say this to her father at Potsdam, when Churchill was upset over the death of a family friend and then apologized to Stalin given the high number of Russian war casualties.
The earliest mention of the quote and Stalin is a 28 Sep 1958 book review.
Compare to Erich Maria Remarque, Der schwarze Obelisk (1956): "Sonderbar, denke ich, wir alle haben doch so viele Tote im Kriege gesehen, und wir wissen, daß über zwei Millionen von uns nutzlos gefallen sind — warum sind wir da so erregt wegen eines einzelnen, und die zwei Millionen haben wir schon fast vergessen? Aber das ist wohl so, weil ein einzelner immer der Tod ist — und zwei Millionen immer nur eine Statistik." [Strangely, I think we all have seen so many dead in the war, and we know that more than two million of us are unvalued -- why we are so excited because of an individual, and we have two million almost forgotten already? But that is probably so because a single death is always a death -- and two million only a statistic.]
Also compare to a 1925 essay on French humor, "Französischer Witz," by Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist, pacifist, and satirist. He wrote of a diplomat in the French Ministry of Foreign affairs, who said: "The war? I cannot find it to be so bad! The death of one man: this is a catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of deaths: that is a statistic!" ["Darauf sagt ein Diplomat vom Quai d'Orsay: «Der Krieg? Ich kann das nicht so schrecklich finden! Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!"]
It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.
[Я считаю, что совершенно неважно, кто и как будет в партии голосовать; но вот что чрезвычайно важно, это – кто и как будет считать голоса.]
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
Comment (1923)
Alternate translation: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
Alternate translation: "I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this -- who will count the votes, and how." Quoted in B. Bazhanov, The Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary (1992) [Борис Бажанов. Воспоминания бывшего секретаря Сталина], regarding elections to the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
The quotation is considered dubious by a number of sources.
The phrase was used by Tom Stoppard in Jumpers (1972): "It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting."
Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing, there is some ordinance under which you can be booked.
Robert D. Specht (1913-1996) American research analyst
(Attributed)
Summarized in various Murphy's Laws lists as "Specht's Meta-Law," as in Paul Dickson, The Official Rules. See also Cardinal Richelieu.
Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
Benjamin Spock (1903-1998) American pediatrician, writer, activist
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, “Preparing for the Baby” (1946)
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
Many customs in this life persist because they ease friction and promote productivity as a result of universal agreement, and whether they are precisely the optimal choices is much less important.
The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.
Art Spander (contemp.) American sports writer
(Attributed)
If you are never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances.
Rosalyn Drexler (b. 1926) American visual artist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter [pseud. Julia Sorel]
See How She Runs (1978)
Based on the screenplay by Marvin Gluck. As Julia Sorrel (sometimes attrib. "Julia Soul").
It isn’t the incompetent who destroy an organization. The incompetent never get into a position to destroy it. It is those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up.
Charles E. Sorenson (1881-1968) American engineer, executive
My Forty Years with Ford, ch. 5 (1956)
Full text.
O my son!
These are no trifles! Think: all men make mistakes,
But a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong,
And repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Antigone, l. 1022ff [Tiresias] (441 BC) [tr. Fitts/Fitzgerald (1939), ll. 803ff]
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
Then take these things to heart, my son: for error
Is as the universal lot of man;
But whenso'er he errs, that man no longer
Is witless or unblessed, who, having fallen
Into misfortune, seeks to mend his ways
And is not obstinate: the stiffneckt temper
Must oft plead guilty to the charge of folly.
[tr. Donaldson (1848)]
Now, then, my son, take thought. A man may err;
But he is not insensate or foredoomed
To ruin, who, when he hath lapsed to evil,
Stands not inflexible, but heals the harm.
The obstinate man still earns the name of fool.
[tr. Campbell (1873)]
O ponder this, my son. To err is common
To all men, but the man who having erred
Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks
The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.
No fool, the saw goes, like the obstinate fool.
[tr. Storr (1859)]
Think, therefore, on these things, my son. All men are liable to err. But when an error is made, that man is no longer unwise or unblessed who heals the evil into which he has fallen and does not remain stubborn. Self-will, we know, invites the charge of foolishness.
[tr. Jebb (1891)]
Consider this, my son! and, O remember,
To err is human; 'tis the common lot
Of frail mortality; and he alone
Is wise and happy, who, when ills are done,
Persists not, but would heal the wound he made.
[tr. Werner (1892)]
Think, then, on these things, my son. All men are liable to err; but when an error hath been made, that man is no longer witless or unblest who heals the ill into which he hath fallen, and remains not stubborn. Self-will, we know, incurs the charge of folly.
[tr. Jebb (1917)]
Mark this, my son: all men fall into sin.
But sinning, he is not forever lost
Hapless and helpless, who can make amends
And has not set his face against repentance.
Only a fool is governed by self-will.
[tr. Watling (1939)]
Think of these things, my son. All men may err
but error once committed, he's no fool
nor yet unfortunate, who gives up his stiffness
ad cures the trouble he has fallen in.
Stubbornness and stupidity are twins.
[tr. Wyckoff (1954)]
Be warned, my son, No man alive is free
From error, but the wise and prudent man
When he has fallen into evil courses
Does not persist, but tries to find amendment ....
[tr. Kitto (1962)]
Take these things to heart, my son, I warn you.
All men make mistakes, it is only human.
But once the wrong is done, a man
can turn his back on folly, misfortune too,
if he tries to make amends, however low he's fallen,
and stops his bullnecked ways. Stubbornness
brands you for stupidity -- pride is a crime
[tr. Fagles (1982), l. 1131ff]
Therefore, think about this, child. For men,
all of them, it is common to make mistakes.
Whenever he does make a mistake, that man is still not
foolish or unhappy who, fallen into evil,
applies a remedy and does not become immovable.
Stubborn self-will incurs a charge of stupidity.
[tr. Tyrell/Bennett (2002)]
Understand this: All men make mistakes. But when they do, it would be a wise and well acting man who corrected that mistake and moved on rather than stayed there stubbornly and unrepentant. The stubborn man is rewarded with more errors.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]
Consider this, my son.
All men make mistakes -- that's not uncommon.
But when they do, they’re no longer foolish
or subject to bad luck if they try to fix
the evil into which they’ve fallen,
once they give up their intransigence.
Men who put their stubbornness on show
invite accusations of stupidity.
[tr. Johnston (2005), l. 1138ff]
Therefore, think on these things, my child; for every human being makes mistakes, but when he has made a mistake, that man is no longer foolish and unhappy who remedies the evil into which he has fallen and is not stubborn. Obstinacy brings the charge of stupidity.
[tr. Thomas (2005)]
Well one must learn
By doing the thing; for though you think you know it
You have no certainty, until you try.Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Trachiniae [The Women of Trachis], [First Lady] [tr. Young]
Full text.
Ever negotiate with lawyers at a huge company? If they saw you drowning 100 feet from the shore, they’d through you a 51-foot rope and say they went more than halfway.
Paul Somerson (1950-2018) American technology writer
PC Computing (1996)
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a part of his own heart?
For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man. But men fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils.
If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.
No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades — that of government.
Socrates (c.470-399 BC) Greek philosopher
Paraphrased from Plato, Protagoras, 319b-d
In Henry St. John Bolingbroke, Political Writings (1736). Original Plato passage (tr. Jowett) here (search).
Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.
Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of — for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
We must remember that the test of courage comes when we are in the minority, but the test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970) American Methodist clergyman
“The Open Mind,” Protestantism: A Symposium, ed. William K. Anderson (1944)
Full text.
Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you!
Tommy Smothers (b. 1937) American comedian, folk musician, winemaker [Thomas Bolyn Smothers III]
(Attributed)
Diplomacy has rarely been able to gain at the conference table what cannot be gained or held on the battlefield.
Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith (1895-1961) American soldier, diplomat
Comments on the Geneva Conference on French Indochina (23 Jul 1954)
Quote in The Pentagon Papers (1971).
Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side.
Michael W. Smith (b. 1959) American Christian singer
(Attributed)
METATRON: Human beings have neither the aural nor the psychological capacity to withstand the awesome power of God’s true voice. Were you to hear it, your mind would cave in and your heart would explode within your chest. We went through five Adams before we figured that out.
The mother eagle teaches her little ones to fly by making their nest so uncomfortable that they are forced to leave it and commit themselves to the unknown world of air outside. And just so does our God to us. He stirs up our comfortable nests, and pushes us over the edge of them, and we are forced to use our wings to save our selves from fatal falling. Read your trials in this light, and see if you cannot begin to get a glimpse of their meaning. Your wings are being developed.
Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) American evangelist, suffragist, author
A Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, “The Life on Wings,” (1875)
Full text.
Beware of pretty faces that you find.
A pretty face can hide an evil mind.P. F. Sloan (1945-2015) American singer-songwriter [Philip Gary "Flip" Sloan, b. Philip Gary Schlein]
Secret Agent Man
(with Steve Barri, sung by Johnny Rivers)
If I told you how I really felt about you it would probably sound like a medley of clichés from popular songs.
Bernard Slade (1930-2019) Canadian-American playwright and screenwriter
Same Time, Next Year (1978)
Slade wrote the screenplay and original stage play (1975).