The alternative to uncertainty is authority, against which science has fought for centuries.
James Gleick (b. 1954) American writer, journalist, biographer
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992)
The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions.
Ellen Glasgow (1874-1945) American author
(Attributed)
All change is not growth; all movement is not forward.
Ellen Glasgow (1874-1945) American author
In Clifton Fadiman, I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Certain Eminent Men and Women of Our Time (1939 ed.)
(Source)
For I believe that an inability to accept God
Chris Glaser (contemp.) American writer, activist, minister
Come Home! (1990)
Reading theology is like reading pornography: instructive, provocative, but always pale in comparison to the real encounter.
Chris Glaser (contemp.) American writer, activist, minister
Come Home!, ch. 17 (1990)
Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.
William Gladstone (1809-1898) English Liberal politician, Prime Minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94)
(Attributed)
Justice delayed is justice denied.
William Gladstone (1809-1898) English Liberal politician, Prime Minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94)
(Attributed)
Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.
Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) American poet, commentator, activist, educator [b. Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr.]
(Attributed)
If Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric bulb were reported on tonight’s evening news, it would be reported as a threat to the candle industry.
Newt Gingrich (b. 1943) American politician [Newton Leroy Gingrich]
Speech at the Internet Commerce Expo (1999)
The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.
Newt Gingrich (b. 1943) American politician [Newton Leroy Gingrich]
(1989)
Interview when asked about lobbyist contributions to his campaign
SALLY: I’ve always dreamed of being a big hit singer.
DORIAN: Oh, can you sing?
SALLY: No, that’s why they call them dreams.Vince Gilligan (b. 1967) American screenwriter, producer
Home Fries (1998)
Sir, Sunday morning, although recurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always seems to take this railway by surprise.
W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) English playwright [William Schwenck Gilbert]
(Attributed)
Letter of complaint to the station manager
The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own.W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) English playwright [William Schwenck Gilbert]
The Mikado
It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking at it that one overcomes it; but, rather, often by working on the one next to it. Certain people and certain things require to be approached on an angle.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
Journal (26 Oct 1924) [tr. O’Brien (1951)]
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
(Attributed)
The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
The Counterfeiters, pt. 3, ch. 16 (Hildebrant) (1925)
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
(Attributed)
Let there be spaces in your togetherness
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Llet it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Marriage” (1923)
When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, “Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison.”
And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, “Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful.”Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Self-Knowledge” (1923)
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Pain” (1923)
I have learned silence from the talkative; tolerance from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Keep me from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Mirrors of the Soul (1965)
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Prayer” (1923)
Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Should we all confess our sins to one another, we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master. […] Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Houses” (1923)
(Source)
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Love” (1923)
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) English historian
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5, ch. 50 (1788)
(Source)
[T]he laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular ….
The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious accord.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) English historian
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 2 (1776-88)
Augustus … [was not] deceived in his expectation that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) English historian
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 3 (1776-88)
To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs.
Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) Indian philosopher, poet
(Attributed)
TURGIDSON: Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.
Peter George (1924-1996) British writer
Doctor Strangelove (1964)
with Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern
GEN. RIPPER: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk … ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.
CAPT. MANDRAKE: Lord, Jack.
GEN. RIPPER: You know when fluoridation first began?
CAPT. MANDRAKE: I — no, no. I don’t, Jack.
GEN. RIPPER: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.Peter George (1924-1996) British writer
Doctor Strangelove (1964)
with Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern
PRES. MUFFLEY: You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!
Peter George (1924-1996) British writer
Doctor Strangelove (1964)
with Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern
There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism.
Henry George (1839-1897) American economist
Social Problems, ch. 1 (1883)
The clinching proof of my reasoning is that I will cut anyone who argues further into dog meat.
Sir Geoffrey de Tourneville (fl. 14th C) Norman knight
(c. AD 1350)
True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable.
(Other Authors and Sources)
David Tyson Gentry
Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying.
[Lebe, wie Du, wenn du stirbst, / Wunschen wirst, gelebt zu haben.]
Christian Gellert (1715-1769) German poet, moralist
Geistliche Oden und Lieder, “Vom Tode” (1757)
Those who in quarrels interpose
Must often wipe a bloody nose.John Gay (1685-1732) English poet and playwright
Fables, “The Mastiffs,” pt. 1, l. 1-2 (1727)
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.
Bill Gates (b. 1955) American software magnate [William Henry Gates III]
The Road Ahead (1995)
Be careful of your thoughts; they may become words at any moment.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Iara Gassen
(also attributed to Lara, Sara, Ira, and Jana Gassen)
Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man’s superiority to all that befalls him.
Romain Gary (1914-1980) French novelist
Promise at Dawn (1960)
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.
Judy Garland (1922-1969) American singer, actress
(Attributed)
If there is one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire better than another, it is a brave man — it is the man who dares to look the devil in the face and tell him he is a devil.
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in The Phrenological Journal (Dec 1881).
I think that all human systems require continuous renewal. They rigidify. They get stiff in the joints. They forget what they cared about. The forces against it are nostalgia and the enormous appeal of having things the way they have always been, appeals to a supposedly happy past. But we’ve got to move on.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002) American writer, businessman, government official
New York Times (21 Jul. 1989)
As I said in another connection: “An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
John W. Gardner (1912-2002) American writer, businessman, government official
Excellence, Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? (1961)
Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding, sings.
Ed Gardner (1901-1963) American comic actor, writer and director
Duffy’s Tavern (1940s American radio show)
Oxford Dict of Modern Quotes
Where facts are few, experts are many.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Donald Gannon
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) Indian politician
Quoted in Christian Science Monitor (17 May 1982)
Rights that do not flow directly from duty well performed are not worth having.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (6-Jul-1947)
A “no” uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a “yes” merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)