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)
When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it.
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) American author, screenwriter, political activist
The Maltese Falcon (1940)
We cannot afford to forget any experience, not even the most painful.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61)
Markings (1951)
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61)
(Attributed)
Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61)
(Attributed)
Never take your eyes off the vampire in front of you to glance at the werewolf in back of you. One problem at a time.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer [nee Laurell Kaye Klein]
The Lunatic Caf
Is life supposed to stop because you did something horrible? I’ll tell you the real horrible truth, Anita. No matter what you do or how bad you feel about it, life just goes on. Life doesn’t give a fuck that you’re sorry or upset or deranged or tormented. Life just goes on, and you gotta go on with it, or sit in the middle of the road and feel sorry for yourself.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer [nee Laurell Kaye Klein]
Blue Moon (1998)
I didn’t question God’s wisdom. I figured He knew what He was doing, and if He didn’t, I really didn’t want to know.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer [nee Laurell Kaye Klein]
Burnt Offerings (1998)
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.
Joseph Hall (1574-1656) English clergyman and satirist
(Attributed)
Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three
Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) American clergyman and author
(Attributed)
Reality is the cage of those who lack imagination.
J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist [John Burden Sanderson Haldane]
(Attributed)
INTERVIEWER: What has the study of biology taught you about the Creator, Dr. Haldane?
HALDANE: I’m not sure, but He seems to be inordinately fond of beetles.J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist [John Burden Sanderson Haldane]
(Attributed)
Variations are given in a variety of sources. A direct, citeable quote on the theme can be found in J.B.S. Haldane, What is Life? (1949):The Creator would appear as endowed with a passion for stars, on the one hand, and for beetles on the other, for the simple reason that there are nearly 300,000 species of beetle known, and perhaps more, as compared with somewhat less than 9,000 species of birds and a little over 10,000 species of mammals. Beetles are actually more numerous than the species of any other insect order. That kind of thing is characteristic of nature.
I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist [John Burden Sanderson Haldane]
“On Being the Right Size,” Possible Worlds and Other Papers (1927)
Sometimes attributed to Arthur Stanley Eddington.
No vacation goes unpunished.
Karl Hakkarainen (contemp.) American technical consultant, writer
(Attributed)
That’s not a lie, it’s a terminological inexactitude.
Alexander Haig (1924-2010) American general and bureaucrat
TV interview (1983)
Movements born in hatred very quickly take on the characteristics of the thing they oppose.
John S. Habgood (1927-2019) British ecclesiastic, Archbishop of York
(Attributed)
The idea that an arbitrary naive human should be able to properly use a given tool without training or understanding is even more wrong for computing than it is for other tools (e.g. automobiles, airplanes, guns, power saws).
Doug A. Gwyn (contemp.) American computer scientist
(Attributed)
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things.
Doug A. Gwyn (contemp.) American computer scientist
(Attributed)
Truth is not determined by majority vote.
Doug Gwyn (b. 1959) American minister, theologian, author
(Attributed)
With all the crap I have to put up with, I’ve stockpiled enough Karma to be Queen of the World in my next life.
Adrienne E. Gusoff (contemp.) American humorist, greeting card writer
Mentioned in personal e-mail to me
Just when you realize life’s a bitch, it has puppies
Adrienne E. Gusoff (contemp.) American humorist, greeting card writer
Mentioned in personal e-mail to me
Grandma always admonished me to be a “good girl.” “Why should he buy the cow when he gets the milk for free?” she’d ask. And I’d remind her that once he owns the cow, he can turn her into hamburger.
Adrienne E. Gusoff (contemp.) American humorist, greeting card writer
Mentioned in personal e-mail to me
Girls just want to have funds.
Adrienne E. Gusoff (contemp.) American humorist, greeting card writer
Mentioned in personal e-mail to me