Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) South African revolutionary, politician, statesman
Letter from prison to Zindzi Mandela, given in Soweto speech (10 Feb 1985)
On refusing to bargain for freedom after 21 years in prison. Quoted in Time (25 Feb 1985).
Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one’s better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk
Maxwell Maltz (1899-1975) American author, dramatist, plastic surgeon
(Attributed)
I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.
Dudley F. Malone (1882-1950) American diplomat
(Attributed)
There may be, in the absence of censorship, some risk that some persons … may possibly get hurt. But … there is risk — and indeed certainty — that every day many people will be killed by automobiles, and yet we leave automobiles on our streets. … [F]ree speech is surely just as vital to our society as the automobile. Risk there is in all life, and we must take this risk on the side of freedom. That is the glory of our way of life. Censorship is abhorrent to Americanism.
Patrick Murphy Malin (1903-1964.) American civil rights activist and administrator
Testimony before the Gathings (D-Ark) House Committee (5 Dec. 1952)
My alma mater was books, a good library
Malcolm X (1925-1965) American revolutionary, religious leader [b. Malcolm Little]
(Attributed)
People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.
Malcolm X (1925-1965) American revolutionary, religious leader [b. Malcolm Little]
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Epilogue (1965)
(with Alex Haley)
You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Malcolm X (1925-1965) American revolutionary, religious leader [b. Malcolm Little]
(1965)
Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen. They are utter fools who accept a thing as convincing proof simply because it is in writing.
Maimonides (1135-1204) Spanish Jewish philosopher, scholar, astronomer, physician [Moses ben Maimon, Rambam, רמב״ם]
Iggeret Teman, “Responsa”
The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.
Norman Mailer (1923-2007) American novelist, journalist, playwright, activist
(Attributed)
A person on hold tends to remain on hold.
(Other Authors and Sources)
John Maguire, “The Law of Social Inertia”
This is my rule of married life: it’s better to be happy than to be right.
Tom Magliozzi (1937-2014) American mechanic, radio personality [of Click & Clack, the Tappet Brothers]
(Attributed)
The Church says the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the Moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) Portuguese explorer
(Attributed)
Probably spurious. No mention can be found prior to Ingersoll tentatively attributing it to Magellan in 1873.
A truth that disheartens because it is true is of more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods.
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) Belgian poet, dramatist, essayist
(Attributed)
I’ve written my best things when I’m upset. What’s the point of sitting down and notating your happiness?
Madonna (b. 1958) American singer, actress [b. Louise Veronica Ciccone]
(Attributed)
A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance. And a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Letter to W.T. Barry (4 Aug. 1822)
Crisis is the rallying cry of a tyrant.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
(Attributed)
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
(Attributed)
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
(Attributed)
Godzilla’s approach
My mouth agape in horror
I just bought that car(Other Authors and Sources)
Donald A. Macpherson
I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.
Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) British politician, UK Prime Minister (1957-63)
Wall Street Journal (13 Aug 1963)
It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are.
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish administrator, jurist, philosopher
(Attributed)
TV is passive; computers are active. TV is just a really, really good screensaver.
William "Bill" Machrone (1946-2016) American technology columnist, editor
PC Week
I find that doing the will of God leaves me with no time for disputing about His plans — I do not say for thinking about them.
Men are very apt to deceive themselves in generals, less so than in particulars.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
(Attributed)
People are fickle by nature; and it is simple to convince them of something, but difficult to hold them in that conviction.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
(Attributed)
Men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Prince, “In What Way Princes Must Keep Faith”
God is merciful. He will not do everything and thus take away our free will and that share of glory that belongs to us.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
(Attributed)
The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
(Attributed)
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
History of England, vol. 1, ch. 3 (1849)
Many politicians are in the habit of laying down as self-evident the proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. This maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim! If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“John Milton,” Edinburgh Review (Aug 1825)
(Source)
Hampden, on the other hand, was for vigorous and decisive measures. When he drew the sword, as Clarendon has well aid, he threw away the scabbard. He had shown that he knew better than any public man of his time how to value and how to practice moderation. He knew that the essence of war is violence, and that moderation in war is imbecility.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“John Hampden,” Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review, Vol. 1 (1843)
(Source)
Review of Lord Nugent, Some Memorials of John Hampden, His Party, and His Times (1831).
There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) American general
(Attributed)
The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can’t ignore it, top it; if you can’t top it, laugh at it; if you can’t laugh at it, it’s probably deserved.
J. Russell Lynes (1910-1991) American educator, critic, writer
(Attributed)
I am a confirmed believer in blessings in disguise. I prefer them undisguised when I myself happen to be the person blessed; in fact I can hardly recognize a blessing in disguise except when it is bestowed upon someone else.
Robert Lynd (1892-1970) American sociologist [Robert Slaughton Lynd]
Middletown
I would rather be ruled by a wise Turk than a Christian donkey.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) German religious reformer
(Attributed)
If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) German religious reformer
(Attributed)
Such are the evils made acceptable by Religion!
[Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.]
Lucretius (c. 100-c. 55 BC) Roman poet [Titus Luretius Carus]
De Rerum Natura [On the Nature of Things], I.101
In the final analysis there is no solution to man’s progress but the day’s honest work, the day’s honest decisions, the day’s generous utterances and the day’s good deed.
Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) American dramatist, diplomat, politician
(Attributed)
There is a major disaster when a person allows some success to become a stopping place rather than a way station on to a larger goal. It often happens that an early success is a
greater moral hazard than an early failure.Halford E. Luccock (1885-1960) American theologian
(Attributed)
Ingenious fools too clever to be wise, though brilliant at inventing the most ingenious reasons for their fatuous beliefs. But, tiresome as intellectuals can be, even they are probably much less menacing and pernicious to the world than anti-intellectuals.
F. L. Lucas (1894-1967) British literary writer, editor, poet [Frank Laurence Lucas]
The Search for Good Sense, “Johnson” (1958)
[C]ommunication [can be] more difficult than we may think. We are all serving life sentences of solitary confinement within our bodies; like prisoners, we have, as it were, to tap in awkward code to our fellow men in their neighboring cells.
F. L. Lucas (1894-1967) British literary writer, editor, poet [Frank Laurence Lucas]
(Attributed)
Many worthy people, and many good books, with no doubt the best intentions, … have represented a life of sin as a life of pleasure; they have pictured virtue as self-sacrifice, austerity as religion. Even in everyday life we meet with worthy people who seem to think that whatever is pleasant must be wrong, that the true spirit of religion is crabbed, sour, and gloomy; that the bright, sunny, radiant nature which surrounds us is an evil and not a blessing,
John Lubbock, Lord Avebury (1834-1913) British banker, politician, polymath
The Use of Life (1894)
The bestialities unleashed in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Chechnya provide evidence, if such be needed, that barbarism is just below the integument in all human societies, whatever their purported moral values or avowed religious persuasions.
Bernard Lown (1921-2021) Lithuanian-American cardiologist, inventor, Nobel Prize Laureate
Technology Review (18 Aug 1995)
This imputation of inconsistency is one to which every sound politician and every honest thinker must sooner or later subject himself. The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“Abraham Lincoln” (1864), My Study Windows (1871)
(Source)
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
(Attributed)
In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; a grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
A Fable for Critics (1848)
I don’t like money, actually, but it quiets my nerves.
Joe Louis (1914-1981) American boxer [Joseph Louis Barrow]
(Attributed)
It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost the things money can’t buy.
George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937) American journalist, author, magazine editor
Old Gorgon Graham: More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son, ch. 12 (1903)
(Source)
The average person thinks he isn’t.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Fr. Larry Lorenzoni
Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.
Sophia Loren (b. 1934) Italian actress [Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone]
(Attributed)
I’m furious about the Women’s Liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That’s true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket.
Anita Loos (1893-1981) American screenwriter, dramatist, author
London Observer (30 Dec. 1973)
Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as a blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
We see but dimly through the mists and vapors;
Amid these earthly damps
What seem to us but sad, funeral tapers
May be heaven’s distant lamps.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet
(Attributed)
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
“Life is but an empty dream!”
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet
A Psalm of Life