The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
Linus Pauling (1901-1994) American chemist and pacifist
(Attributed)
This isn’t right. This isn’t even wrong.
[Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!]
Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) American physicist
(Attributed)
Quoted by R. Peierls in “Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, 1900-1958,″ Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1960): “... a friend showed him the paper of a young physicist which he suspected was not of great value but on which he wanted Pauli’s views. Pauli remarked sadly ‘That’s not right. It’s not even wrong.’” More discussion here.
You don’t get to control any outcome, only every choice you make along the way.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Stephen C. Paul
Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
(Attributed)
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
War As I Knew It, “Reflections and Suggestions” (1947)
I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
(Attributed)
Pacifists would do well to study the Siegfried and Maginot Line, remembering that these defenses were forced; that Troy fell; that the wall of Hadrian succumbed; that the Great Wall of China was futile. In war, the only sure defense is offense.
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
(Attributed)
The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his.
George S. Patton (1885-1945) American soldier
(Attributed)
If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
(Attributed)
Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
(Attributed)
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious convictions.
[Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement, que quand on le fait par un faux principe de conscience.]
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Pensées, ch. 14, Appendix: Polemical Fragments #895 (1669) [tr. Trotter (1910)]
(Source)
Also labeled as Part 2, Article 17, # 53. Sometimes also shown in slightly shorter French as "Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement que quand on le fait par conscience."
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
- "We never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience." [#813 (#895), tr. Krailsheimer]
- "We never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience." [Miscellaneous Thoughts 7: Sellier #658/Lafuma #813, tr. Ariew]
- "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it conscientiously."
People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
On Mind and On Style
When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Pensées #139 “Diversion” (1670)
(Source)
Alt. trans.: "I have often said that man's unhappiness springs from one thing alone, his incapacity to stay quietly in one room."
Alt. trans.: "All the trouble in the world is due to the fact that a man cannot sit still in a room."
We sometimes learn more from the sight of evil than from an example of good; and it is well to accustom ourselves to profit by the evil which is so common, while that which is good is so rare.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
(Attributed)
It appears from this, that whatever it may be of which we wish to persuade men, it is necessary to have regard to the person whom we wish to persuade, of whom we must know the mind and the heart, what principles he acknowledges, what things he loves
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
(Attributed)
The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This, then, is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason.
[Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connaît point. On le sent en mille choses. C’est le cœur qui sent Dieu, et non la raison. Voilà ce que c’est que la foi parfaite, Dieu sensible au cœur.]
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Pensées (1670)
It has pleased God that divine verities should not enter the heart through the understanding, but the understanding through the heart.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
(Attributed)
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Cyril Northcote Parkinson (1909-1993) British historian and writer
Parkinson’s Law (1957)
The thing about monsters is, you want to kill them until you meet them, and when you meet them they don’t seem monstrous, and killing them begins to seem unkind.
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
Crimson Joy (1988)
Nature hates a vacuum. If there are no things which are important, then things are assigned importance arbitrarily and defended at great risk. Because the risk validates the importance.
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
Double Deuce (1992)
Most people I know, in fact, are a little afraid of flying. But you fly anyway because life’s too complicated if you don’t, and you don’t pay much attention, unless you’re phobic, to whether in fact you are afraid.
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
Small Vices (1997)
Candy smiled at me a little. “Look,” she said. “You’re a good guy. I know you care about me, but you’re a white male, you can’t understand a minority situation. It’s not your fault.”
[…] When the beer came, I drank about a quarter of it and said to Candy, “Extend that logic, and we eventually have to decide that no one can understand anyone. Maybe the matter of understanding has been overrated. Maybe I don’t have to understand your situation to sympathize with it, to help you alter it, to be on your side. I’ve never experienced starvation either, but I’m opposed to it. When I encounter it, I try to alleviate it. I sympathize with its victims. The question of whether I understand it doesn’t arise.”
She shook her head. “That’s different,” she said.
“Maybe it isn’t. Maybe civilization is possible, if at all, only because people can care about conditions they haven’t experienced. Maybe you need understanding like a fish needs a bicycle.”
“You’re quite thoughtful,” she said, “for a man your size.”
“You’ve never been my size,” I said. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Lots of real creeps have self-respect. They just have a creepy version of it.
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
A Savage Place (1981)
Too much positive is either scared or stupid or both. Reality is uncertain.
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
Early Autumn (1981)
I hadn’t smoked in ten or twelve years, but I wished then I’d had a cigarette that I could have taken a final drag on and flipped still burning into the river as I turned and walked away. Not smoking gains in the area of lung cancer, but it loses badly in the realm of dramatic gestures.
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
The Judas Goat (1978)
“The truth will set you free,” Paul said. His voice was angry.
“Not necessarily,” I said. “But pretend sure as hell doesn’t do it.”Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
Pastime (1991)
If you’ll excuse the phrase, it’s the way life is. You don’t know what’s going to happen. People whose lives work best are the ones who recognize that and, having done what they can, are ready for what comes.
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) American writer
Early Autumn (1981)
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
“Comment,” New York World (16 Aug 1925)
(Source)
Reprinted in Enough Rope (1926)
If you would know what the Lord God thinks of money, you have only to look at those to whom He gives it.
Maurice Baring (1874-1945) English man of letters, writer, essayist, translator
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted by Dorothy Parker in "The Art of Fiction," interview by Marion Capron, The Paris Review #13 (Summer 1956) (reprinted in The Portable Dorothy Parker (1944)). Not found in Baring's writings. The quotation is often attributed to Parker, especially in simpler forms, e.g., "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."
Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
Interview, Writers at Work, ed. Malcolm Cowley (1958)
I’d like to have money. And I’d like to be a good writer. These two can come together, and I hope they will, but if that’s too adorable, I’d rather have the money.
This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
(Attributed)
First attributed in this form in Robert E. Drennan, ed., The Algonquin Wits (1968). No actual source material has been found by Parker using this quip, and it appears to have been first attributed to her by Bennett Cerf in his "Try and Stop Me" syndicated column (1962-10-10).
The Quote Investigator site attributes the quote to a faked, humorous review blurb in the book To You I Tell It! by Bill Miller (1929). Further examination of the quotation's origins: Quote Origin: Not a Book To Be Lightly Thrown Aside. Should Be Thrown with Great Force – Quote Investigator®.
Let none, then, take it in bad part of me, that I myself have loved this truth and pursued it. I was forced to seek it, for it did not seek me. If a man wishes to see a foreign city, it is no good for him to stay at home with his head on his pillow.
Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493-1541) German alchemist and physician [Bombast von Hohenheim]
A Treatise Concerning the Medicinal Philosophic Stone, Preface
Reprinted in Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, Part 2, by Arthur Edward Waite (2002).
It may be doubtful, at first,
Whether a person is an enemy or friend.
Meat, if not properly digested, becomes poison;
But poison, if used rightly, may turn medicinal.Saskya Pandita (1182-1251) Tibetan Grand Lama
(Attributed)
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
Common Sense (14 Feb 1776)
Source essay
Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
The Rights of Man, Introduction (1791)
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
The Rights of Man (1791)
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
“The American Crisis” #1 (19 Dec 1776)
Source essay
Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
Common Sense (14 Feb 1776)
Source essay
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
The Rights of Man (1791)
An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
“Dissertation on the First Principles of Government” (Jul 1795)
Source essay
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.
Satchel Paige (1906-1982) American baseball player [Leroy Robert Paige]
New York Post (4 Oct. 1959)
I am persuaded that some have scarce any better or more forcible argument to satisfy their own minds that they are in the right in religion than the inclination they find in themselves to hate and persecute them whom they suppose to be in the wrong.
John Owen (1616-1683) English clergyman and theologian
(Attributed)
Common experience declares how momentary and how useless are those violent fits and gusts of endeavours which proceed from fear and uncertainty, both in things spiritual and things temporal, or civil. Whilst men are under the power of actual impressions from such fears, they will convert to God, yea, they will turn in a moment, and perfect their holiness in an instant; but so soon as that impression wears off (as it will do on every occasion, and upon none at all) such persons are as dead and cold towards God as the lead or iron, which but now ran in a fiery stream, is now when the heat is departed from it.
John Owen (1616-1683) English clergyman and theologian
(Attributed)
Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.
John Owen (1616-1683) English clergyman and theologian
(Attributed)
Thy lot is mortal, but thy wishes fly
Beyond the province of mortality.Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Metamorphoses, I.69-70, “The Story of Phaeton”
Garth trans. Alternate translation: "Thy destiny is only that of man, but thy aspirations may be those of a god."
Prisca juvent alios; ego me nunc denique natum Gratulor.
[Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.]Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Ars Amatoria III.121
Trans. by Sydney Smith: "The good of other times let people state; I think it lucky I was born so late."
Expedit esse deos et ut expedit esse putemus.
[We need to think there to be gods and, since it is expedient, let us think that there are gods.]Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Ars Amatoria I.637
Medio tutissimis ibis.
[You will go most safely by the middle way.]Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Metamorphoses, II.137 “The Story of Phaeton”
Ill Habits gather by unseen Degrees —
As Brooks make Rivers, Rivers run to Seas.Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Metamorphosis, Book 15 “The Worship of Aesculapius,” l. 155 [tr. Dryden]
(Source)
Sometimes cited as Dryden's Abslolam and Achitophel (1681)
Happy is he who dares courageously to defend what he loves.
Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Amores, II.5
If Jupiter hurled his thunderbolt as often as men sinned, he would soon be out of thunderbolts.
Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) Roman poet [Publius Ovidius Naso]
Tristia, 2.33-34
We may look into a church, almost any church, and discover someone who, though he is offered a gospel of love, must subtly convert it into a gospel of hate before he can receive it. The gospel of love — with its emphasis upon brotherhood, equality before God, the dignity of every human being, and man’s social responsibility toward man — does not satisfy the lack that he urgently feels. That calls for something altogether different, for an assurance that he is superior, that he is right where others are wrong — a kind of cosmic teacher’s pet.
Bonaro W. Overstreet (1902-1985) American poet, psychologist
(Attributed)
Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Mark A. Overby
He that tells a lie to save his credit, wipes his mouth with his sleeve to spare his napkin.
Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) English poet
Newes from the Lower End of the Table
