It’s amazing how much “mature wisdom” resembles being too tired.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough for Love [Lazarus] (1973)
A thousand reasoned opinions are never equal to one case of diving in and finding out. Galileo proved that and it may be the only certainty we have.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough for Love (1973)
At least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come from policemen, that “news” is not something that happens to other people.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
The Number of the Beast (1980)
Good intentions are no substitute for knowing how a buzz saw works, Ira; the worst criminals in history have been loaded with good intentions.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough for Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)
Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.
[Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.]
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) German poet and critic
Almansor: A Tragedy, l. 245 (1823)
Alt trans:
- "Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people."
- "Where they burn books, they will also burn people."
- "It is there, where they burn books, that eventually they burn people."
- "Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings."
- "Where they burn books, they also burn people."
- "Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men."
- "Wherever books are burned, sooner or later men are also burned."
Never judge someone by who he’s in love with; judge him by his friends. People fall in love with the most appalling people. Take a cool, appraising glance at his pals.
Cynthia Heimel (1947-2018) American feminist, humorist, writer
But Enough about You (1986)
(Source)
A "Sister Soignée" quote.
When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.
Cynthia Heimel (1947-2018) American feminist, humorist, writer
“Lower Manhattan Survival Tactics,” The Village Voice (1983)
We all have rosy memories of a simpler, happy time- a time of homemade apple pie and gingham curtains, a time when Mom understood everything and Dad could fix anything. “Let’s get those traditional family values back!” we murmur to each other. Meanwhile, in a simultaneous universe, everyone I know, and every celebrity I don’t know, is coming out of the closet to talk about how miserable they are because they grew up in dysfunctional families.
Cynthia Heimel (1947-2018) American feminist, humorist, writer
(Attributed)
No matter what side of an argument you’re on, you always find some people on your side that you wish were on the other.
Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) Lithuanian-American violinist
(Unsourced)
Quoted on his official web page.
Hell is truth seen too late.
Tryon Edwards (1809-1894) American theologian, writer, lexicographer
A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908)
Also attributed to Henry Gardner Adams, Georg Hegel, John Locke, Anatole France, William Sloane Coffin, Thomas Hobbes, and Michaelangelo. Full text.
The surest hindrance of success is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the judgment of the public. He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything to please himself or others.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
The Plain Speaker, “On the Qualifications Necessary for Success” (1826)
Full text.
I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what, in given circumstances, is to be done, and does it.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
(Attributed)
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Lectures on the English Comic Writers, Lecture 1 “On Wit and Humour” (1819)
(Source)
Sometimes altered to end "... and what they might have been."
Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On the Love of Life,” “The Round Table” column, The Examiner (15 Jan 1815)
Full text.
He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Characteristics, #401 (1823)
There is nothing more likely to drive a man mad, than the being unable to get rid of the idea of the distinction between right and wrong, and an obstinate, constitutional preference of the true to the agreeable.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Lectures on the English Poets, “On Swift, Young, Gray, Collins &c.” (1818).
My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that’s nice too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about the success.
Helen Hayes (1900-1993) American actress
Reader’s Digest (1958)
Well, son, a funny thing about regret is that it’s better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven’t.
Gibby Haynes (b. 1957) American rock musician, radio personality, and painter [Gibson Jerome Haynes]
“Sweatloaf” Locust Abortion Technician, album (Butthole Surfers) (1987)
Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
(Attributed)
No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
The Scarlet Letter, ch. 20 “The Minister in a Maze” (1850)
Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
American Notebooks (3 Nov 1851)
In Passages from the American Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. S. Hawthorne (1868). Full text.
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one’s self a fool; the truest heroism is, to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
The Blithedale Romance, ch. 2 (1852)
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) English physicist, author
A Brief History of Time (1988)
So Einstein was wrong when he said “God does not play dice”. Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can’t be seen.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) English physicist, author
“The Nature of Space and Time,” Lecture 1, “Classical Theory,” Princeton (1994)
Full text. Variants sometimes seen: "Not only does God play dice with the Universe; he sometimes casts them where they can't be seen." "Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen." "God not only plays dice, He sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen."
Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy, will function properly.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
Summer Meditations, “Politics, Morality, and Civility” (tr. Paul Wilson) (1991)
Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
Disturbing the Peace, ch. 5 “The Politics of Hope” (1986) [tr. P. Wilson (1990)]
In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.
Paul Harvey (1918-2009) American commentator and journalist [b. P. H. Aurandt]
(Attributed)
Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed.
Jan de Hartog (1914-2002) Dutch author and playwright [pseud. F. R. Eckman]
(Attributed)
Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.
Josephine Hart (1942-2011) Irish writer, theatrical producer, television presenter
Damage (1991)
There’s a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they’d eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn’t true.
Ian Hart (contemp.) Australian media academic, documentary producer
“Between the Idea and Reality, The Case for Qualitative Research,” ITForum Paper #20 (Mar 1997)
(Source)
Human beings of all societies in all periods of history believe that their ideas on the nature of the real world are the most secure, and that their ideas on religion, ethics and justice are the most enlightened. Like us, they think that final knowledge is at last within reach. Like us, they pity the people in earlier ages for not knowing the true facts. Unfailingly, human beings pity their ancestors for being so ignorant and forget that their descendants will pity them for the same reason.
Edward "Ted" Harrison (1919-2007) Anglo-American cosmologist, astrophysicist
New Scientist, “The Uncertainty of Knowledge” (24 Sep 1987)
Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening …. The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they’re not tempted to think about any other role.
William Torrey Harris (1835-1909) American educator, philosopher
The Philosophy of Education (1889)
The surest indication of a mediocre mind is its belief that everything can be explained.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
If you want to know what a man’s character is really like, don’t ask him to tell you his creed or his code (for everyone has a prettified public version of these), but ask him to tell you the living person he most admires – for hero worship is the truest index of a man’s private nature.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
On the Contrary, ch. 7 (1962)
Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice — that is, until we have stopped saying, “It got lost,” and say, “I lost it.”
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
On the Contrary, ch. 7 (1962)
The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)
If we stop caring about our heroes, we stop caring about what they died for.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Ralph Harris
You can’t run away from trouble. There ain’t no place that far.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) American writer
Uncle Remus
May actually be from the movie Song of the South (1946), based on Harris' tales.
The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.
Corra May Harris (1869-1935) American author [nee White]
(Attributed)
The problem with the postmodern idea that “truth is subjective” is the way most of its adherents (the louder ones, anyway) seem to think that means reality — objective reality, where atoms are combined to form certain shapes and therefore are not combined to form certain other shapes — is therefore as fungible as their own mushy thought processes. Wiser minds know that facts are facts, even if imperfect humans cannot perceive them with 100-percent accuracy and therefore misinterpret or deny them. That’s why the goal should be to get as close to the truth as possible, not to just throw up one’s hands and claim that there mustn’t be any truth to get close to.
Andrea Harris (contemp.) American journalist, commentator
“The Spleenville Journal” (24 Dec. 2002)
http://www.spleenville.com/blog/archives/000648.html
Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.Sir John Harrington (1561-1612) English courtier, writer, inventor (also "John Harington")
Epigrams, Book iv, Epistle 5 “Of Treason”
The law is but words and paper without the hands and swords of men.
James Harrington (1611-1677) English political theorist
The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one’s horse as he is leaping.
Julius Hare (1795-1855) English cleric, theologian
Guesses at Truth, First Series [with Augustus Hare] (1827)
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
‘Come see the oxen kneel . . .’
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist, poet
“Oxen” (1915)
Some folks want their luck buttered.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist, poet
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
It is never worth a first class man’s time to express a majority opinion. By definition, there are plenty of others to do that.
G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) British mathematician [Godfrey Harold Hardy]
(Attributed)
Quoted by C.P. Snow in the 1992 forward to Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology (1941). (Full text) Also sometimes quoted as: "It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that."
Your belief determines your action, and your action determines your results. But first you have to believe.
Mark Victor Hansen (b. 1948) American writer, motivational speaker
(Attributed)
That’s what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end.
Lise Hand (contemp.) British journalist
(Attributed)
Describing the late Irish journalist Veronica Guerin
First as to Speech. That privilege rests upon the premise that there is no proposition so uniformly acknowledged that it may not be lawfully challenged, questioned, and debated. It need not rest upon the further premise that there are no propositions that are not open to doubt; it is enough, even if there are, that in the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Guardians,” Oliver Wendell Holmes Lecture #3, Harvard University (1958)
(Source)
Speaking of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers; to follow one’s hunch is usually better than lying doggo, and rough generalizations that have worked well in the past easily easily take on the authority of universals. It does violence to our inner being to be obliged to give a hearing to opinions widely at variance with those we are accustomed to, and to come to a conclusion unweighted by desire.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“At Fourscore,” speech, Harvard Club of New York (1952-01-18)
(Source)
First published in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin (23 Feb 1952).
I shall ask no more than that you agree with Dean Inge that even though counting heads is not an ideal way to govern, at least it beats breaking them.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“Democracy: Its Presumptions and Realities,” speech, Federal Bar Association, Washington, DC (1932-03-08)
(Source)
First printed in the Federal Bar Association Journal (Mar 1932).
I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Spirit of Liberty,” speech, “I Am an American Day,” New York (1941-05-21)
(Source)
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Spirit of Liberty,” speech, “I Am an American Day,” New York (1941-05-21)
(Source)
