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
If a sufficient number of people who wanted to stop war really did gather together, they would first of all begin by making war upon those who disagreed with them. And it is still more certain that they would make war on people who also want to stop wars but in
another way.Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1873-1949) Russian teacher, writer
(Attributed)
Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea.
John Gunther (1901-1970) American journalist
(Attributed)
Eighty percent of rules of thumb only apply twenty percent of the time.
Sig Lines
Silence is argument carried out by other means.
Che Guevara (1928-1967) Argentine revolutionary [b. Ernesto Guevara da la Serna]
(Attributed)
Government loses its claim to legitimacy when it fails to fulfill its obligations.
Martin L. Gross (1925-2013) American writer
The Government Racket (1992)
We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.
Martin L. Gross (1925-2013) American writer
A Call for Revolution (1993)
We are commanded to love God with all our minds, as well as with all our hearts, and we commit a great sin if we forbid or prevent that cultivation of the mind in others which would enable them to perform this duty.
Angelina Grimké Weld (1805-1879) American abolitionist, women's rights activist
Anti-Slavery Examiner, “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South” (Sep. 1836)
I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand what we are praying for.
Angelina Grimké Weld (1805-1879) American abolitionist, women's rights activist
“Appeal to the Christian Women of the South,” Anti-Slavery Examiner (Sep 1836)
(Source)
Every time I try to define a perfectly stable person, I am appalled by the dullness of that person.
(Other Authors and Sources)
J. D. Griffin
Security is when everything is settled. When nothing can happen to you. Security is the denial of life.
Germaine Greer (b. 1939) Australian-English feminist, reformer, author, educator
“Security,” The Female Eunuch (1970)
Sometimes cited: "Security is when everything is settled, when nothing happens to you; security is the denial of life."
No statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children.
Irving Yitzchak Greenberg (b. 1933) American rabbi, scholar, author
(Attributed)
I’ve got a simple rule: if I can do it, it’s not art.
Rick Green (b. 1953) Canadian comedian
(Attributed)
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.Thomas Gray (1716-1771) English poet
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” st. 14, l. 53ff (1751)
(Source)
The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.
Robert Graves (1895-1985) English poet, novelist, critic
(Attributed)
The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.
Günter Grass (1927-2015) German author, playwright, Nobel laureate
(Attributed)
I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) American military leader, US President (1869-77)
Inaugural Address
God gave Moses the Ten Commandments: rules of behavior that were supposed to make people moral. Ten was too much to remember. Jesus knew this. He brought them down to two: Love God and Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself. Still too much to remember, if the last 2,000 years is an indicator. So let’s bring it down to a simple four words: Don’t be a bastard.
Steven Grant (b. 1953) American writer
Scars, #6 (Afterword) (Jun 2003)
The strongest human instinct is to impart information, the second is to resist it.
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) Scottish author
(Attributed)
Some questions don’t have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.
Katharine Graham (1917-2001) American newspaper publisher
(Attributed)
If the Supreme Creator had meant us to be gloomy, he would, it seems to me, have clothed the earth in black, not in that lively green, which is the livery of cheerfulness and joy.
Janet Graham (1723?-1789) Scottish poet, author
This History of Emily Montague
The man who can make up his mind quick, makes up other people’s minds for them. Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clear and straight and lays bare the fat and the lean; indecision is a dull one that hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind it.
George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937) American journalist, author, magazine editor
Old Gorgon Graham: More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son, ch. 3 (1903)
(Source)
Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.
Billy Graham (1918-2018) American evangelist, revivalist, author [William Franklin Graham Jr.]
(Attributed)
The pillow is a silent Sibyl, and to sleep upon an enterprise avails more than to be sleepless under it.
[Es la almohada Sibila muda, y el dormir sobre los puntos vale más que el desvelarse debajo de ellos.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 151 (1647) [tr. Fischer (1937)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:
The Pillow is a dumb Sibylle. To sleep upon a thing that is to be done, is better than to be awaked by a thing already done.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]
The pillow is a silent Sibyl, and it is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]
The pillow is a tongueless sibyl, and it is better to sleep on something than to lie awake when things are on top of you.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]
Many would be wise if they did not think themselves wise.
[Serían sabios algunos si no creyesen que lo son.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 176 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:
Some would be wise, if they did not think themselves so.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]
Some would be wise if they did not believe themselves wise.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]
Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
[Nunca se le ha de abrir la puerta al menor mal, que siempre vendrán tras él otros muchos, y mayores, en celada.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 31 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:
We must not open the door to the least evil, for others, and those greater too, which lie in ambush come always after.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]
Never open the door to a small misfortune, for many more always creep in behind it, and greater ones, under its protection.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]
Never open the door to the least of evils, for many other, greater ones lurk outside.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
[Sin valor es estéril la sabiduría.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 4 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:
Knowledge is barren, if Valour do'nt accompany it.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]
Knowledge without courage is sterile.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]
Without courage, the mind is dead.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]
Results rarely specify their causes unambiguously.
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
The Panda’s Thumb
The fundamentalists, by ‘knowing’ the answers before they start, and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science — or of any honest intellectual inquiry.
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
Bully for Brontosaurus
History is complex. It cannot be reproduced in a flask.
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
The Panda’s Thumb
Every protective self deception is a crevice in our psyche with a little demon lurking in it, ready to become an episode of unexplained anxiety when life threatens. The self deceptions which are designed to protect us from pain actually end up delivering more pain. We fortify our deceptions to protect them from the natural corrections of daily life.
Roger L. Gould (contemp.) American author, psychoanalyst, sociologist
Transformations
Recollect how easy it is to assume that we, ourselves, are Christian people. Why? Oh, well, just the usual reasons: we say our prayers, when we are not too sleepy; and we come to church, when there is nothing much to do; and so, of course, there is no doubt of it, although our tempers may remain uncurbed, and our characters are not the least like Jesus Christ’s, nor growing any nearer it!
A.J. Gossip (1873-1954) Scottish theologian, preacher
The Galilean Accent (1926)
Of course, it all depends upon what we are praying for. If we are whimpering, and sniveling, and begging to be spared the discipline of life that is sent to knock some smatterings of manhood into us, the answer to that prayer may never come at all. Thank God!
A.J. Gossip (1873-1954) Scottish theologian, preacher
Experience Worketh Hope
If you consider the contribution of plumbing to human life, the other sciences fade into insignificance.
James Gorman (b. 1949) American science writer, journalist
Discover, “From fill to full: the search for the perfect flush-toilet technology” (May 1986)
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