Flattery iz like Kolone water, tew be smelt ov, not swallowed.

[Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings: His Sayings (1865)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 2-May-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Billings, Josh

Politeness haz won more viktorys than logick ever haz.

[Politeness has won more victories than logic ever has.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings: His Sayings (1865)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 2-May-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Billings, Josh

Human knowledge is very short, and don’t reach but a little ways, and even that little ways iz twilite; but faith lengthens out the road, and makes it light, so that we kan see tew read the letterings on the mile stuns.

[Human knowledge is very short, and doesn’t reach but a little way, and even that little way is twilight; but faith lengthens out the road, and makes it light, so that we can see to read the lettering on the milestones.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 9 “Essays: Faith” (1874)
    (Source)

This may be the source of an attributed Billings quote I cannot find in his writings: "Faith was given to man to lengthen out his reason."
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 22-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Billings, Josh

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Jun-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bismarck, Otto von

But they think they know it. And their idea is all the same. You can trace it to the same thing, doesn’t make any difference what it is, what their experience is, or why they’re mad with the Court. It’s all because each one of them believes that the Constitution prohibits that which they think should be prohibited, and it permits that which they think should be permitted.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
Interview with Eric Serverid and Martin Agronsky, CBS News (1968-12-09)

On the public's misunderstanding of the Constitution. Reprinted in "Newsmakers, Objection Overruled," Newsweek (1968-12-09), and in "Justice Black and the Bill of Rights," Southwestern University Law Review (1977).

Black used the same idea on multiple occasions, e.g., at a news conference in Washington, D.C. (1971-02-25):

The layman's Constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn't like is unconstitutional. That about measures up the Constitutional acumen of the average person.
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 9-Jun-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Black, Hugo

When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
(Attributed)

Variants:

  • "When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice."
  • "When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice."
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Jun-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bismarck, Otto von

The Framers knew, better perhaps than we do today, the risks they were taking. They knew that free speech might be the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny. With this knowledge they still believed that the ultimate happiness and security of a nation lies in its ability to explore, to change, to grow and ceaselessly to adapt itself to new knowledge born of inquiry free from any kind of governmental control over the mind and spirit of man. Loyalty comes from love of good government, not fear of a bad one.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
James Madison Lecture, NYU School of Law (1960-02-17)
    (Source)

The inaugural Madison lecture. Reprinted as "The Bill of Rights," NYU Law Review, Vol. 35 (Apr 1960).
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 4-May-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Black, Hugo

My view is, without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts or whereases, that freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have or the views they express or the words they speak or write.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
Interview by Edmond Cahn, New York University Law School (1962)

Published in "Mr. Justice Black and First Amendment Absolutes: A Public Interview," New York University Law Review 37 (1962): 549, and referenced in "Minority Opinion," Time (1962-06-22).

Black reiterated his absolutist point in his third Carpentier Lecture at Columbia University (1968-03-21), collected in A Constitutional Faith (1968):

My view is, without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts or whereases, that freedom of speech means that government shall not do anything to people, or, in the words of the Magna Carta, move against people, either for the views they have or the views they express or the words they speak or write.
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Jun-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Black, Hugo

Freedom to discuss public affairs and public officials is unquestionably, as the Court today holds, the kind of speech the First Amendment was primarily designed to keep within the area of free discussion. To punish the exercise of this right to discuss public affairs or to penalize it through libel judgments is to abridge or shut off discussion of the very kind most needed. This Nation, I suspect, can live in peace without libel suits based on public discussions of public affairs and public officials. But I doubt that a country can live in freedom where its people can be made to suffer physically or financially for criticizing their government, its actions, or its officials.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 296-297 (1964) [concurring]
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 22-Dec-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Black, Hugo

It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend!

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (c. 1803–20)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 4-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Blake, William

He’s a Blockhead who wants a proof of what he Can’t Perceive
And he’s a Fool who tries to make such a Blockhead believe.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Notebooks (1793)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Blake, William

What is now proved was once only imagined.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “Proverbs of Hell” (1790–93)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 4-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Blake, William

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Songs of Experience, “A Poison Tree”, st. 1 (1794)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 4-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Blake, William

A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
“Auguries of Innocence,” l.53 (1803)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 4-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Blake, William

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar’s laurel crown.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
“Auguries of Innocence,” l. 97 (1803)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Dec-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Blake, William

You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “Proverbs of Hell”, l. 46 (1790-93)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 4-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Blake, William

The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of a woman is the work of God.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 4-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Blake, William

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.

Maguerite Countess of Blessington
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) English socialite, writer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Gardiner, Marguerite

The chief prerequisite for a escort is to have a flexible conscience and an inflexible politeness.

Maguerite Countess of Blessington
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) English socialite, writer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Gardiner, Marguerite

When there is too much naívetë around, the universe has no choice but to crystallize out some betrayal.

Robert Bly (b. 1926) American poet, story teller, lecturer
Iron John: A Book About Men, ch. 3 “The Road of Ashes, Descent and Grief” (1990)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bly, Robert

Peace is not the absence of struggle, it is the absence of uncertainty.

Anthony Bloom (1914-2003) English writer, Orthodox cleric [a.k.a. Anthony of Sourozh]
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bloom, Anthony

Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out.

Maguerite Countess of Blessington
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) English socialite, writer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Gardiner, Marguerite

I think “immoral” is probably the wrong word to use. I prefer the word “unethical.”

Ivan Boesky (b. 1937) American investment banker, inside trader
(Attributed)

In John B. Stewart, Den of Thieves (1991).
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Boesky, Ivan

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) Danish physicist
(Attributed)


Also attrib. to Yogi Berra, various humorists, Danish poet Piet Hein ("det er svært at spå - især om fremtiden"), Robert Storm Petersen ("Storm P"), and Markus M. Ronner.

 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bohr, Niels

Genius is the capacity to make all possible mistakes in the least amount of time.

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) Danish physicist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bohr, Niels

Of course I don’t believe in it. But I understand that it brings you luck whether you believe in it or not.

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) Danish physicist
(Attributed)


When asked why he had a horseshoe on his wall.

Variants:

  • "Of course I don't believe in such nonsense. However, I've been told that a horseshoe brings you good luck whether you believe in it or not."
  • "I believe in no such thing, my good friend. Not at all. I am scarcely likely to believe in such foolish nonsense. However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring you good luck whether you believe in it or not."
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Sep-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bohr, Niels

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) Danish physicist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bohr, Niels

If imagination is not set to the task of building a creative life, it busies itself with weaving a web of inner fears and doubts, blame and excuse.

Laurence G. Boldt (b. 1954) American writer, philospher
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Boldt, Laurence G.

MORE: You’d be a fine teacher. Perhaps even a great one.
RICH: And if I was, who would know it?
MORE: You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public, that.

Robert Bolt (1924-1935) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bolt, Robert

MORE: When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his hands, like water. And if he opens his fingers, then he needn’t hope to find himself again.

Robert Bolt (1924-1935) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, Act 2 (1960)

Also in the 1966 screen adaptation.
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 10-Oct-12
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bolt, Robert

MORE: If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we’d live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all . . . why then perhaps we must stand fast a little — even at the risk of being heroes.

Robert Bolt (1924-1935) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bolt, Robert

ROPER: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
MORE: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!

Robert Bolt (1924-1935) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, Act I (1967)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bolt, Robert

When your mother asks, “Do you want a piece of advice?” it’s a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

MORE: I should in fairness add that my taste in music is reputedly deplorable.
HENRY: Your taste in music is excellent. It exactly coincides with my own!

Robert Bolt (1924-1935) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bolt, Robert

Everyone is guilty at one time or another of throwing out questions that beg to be ignored, but mothers seem to have a market on the supply. “Do you want a spanking or do you want to go to bed?” Don’t you want to save some of the pizza for your brother?” Wasn’t there any change?”

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

Have you any idea how many children it takes to turn off one light in the kitchen? Three. It takes one to say, “What light?” and two more to say, “I didn’t turn it on.”

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

I remember buying a set of black plastic dishes once, after I saw an ad on television where they actually put a blowtorch to them and they emerged unscathed. Exactly one week after I bought them, one of the kids brought a dinner plate to me with a large crack in it. When I asked what happened to it, he said it hit a tree. I don’t want to talk about it.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

People shop for a bathing suit with more care than they do a husband or wife. The rules are the same. Look for something you’ll feel comfortable wearing. Allow for room to grow.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with ONLY a loaf of bread are three billion to one.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a Sears battery.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

No one ever died from sleeping in an unmade bed. I have known mothers who remake the bed after their children do it because there’s a wrinkle in the spread or the blanket is on crooked. This is sick.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

I just clipped 2 articles from a current magazine. One is a diet guaranteed to drop 5 pounds off my body in a weekend. The other is a recipe for a 6 minute pecan pie.

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch on fire or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one cares. Why should you?

Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bombeck, Erma

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.

Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) Dutch evangelist, concentration camp survivor
Clippings From My Notebook (1982)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Ten Boom, Corrie

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.

Margaret Wander Bonanno (1950-2021) American writer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Bonanno, Margaret Wander

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.

Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) Dutch evangelist, concentration camp survivor
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Ten Boom, Corrie

Faith is like radar that sees through the fog — the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see.

Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) Dutch evangelist, concentration camp survivor
Tramp for the Lord (1974)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Ten Boom, Corrie

I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.

Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (c.1734-1820) American pioneer
(Attributed)

Variants:

  • "I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days." (J. Faragher, Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1993))
  • "I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days." (Missouri: A Guide to the "Show Me" State (The WPA Guide to Missouri) (1941)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 13-Jan-13
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Boone, Daniel

Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.

Louis E. Boone (1941-2005) American business writer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Boone, Louis E.

Who is blinder than he that will not see?

Andrew Boorde (c.1490-1549) English physician and writer
Breviary of Helthe (1547)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Boorde, Andrew

ARTHUR: Merlin, where are you going?
MERLIN: Where do you think? You have a kingdom to rule.
ARTHUR: But how? I don’t know how.
MERLIN: You knew how to draw the sword from the stone.
ARTHUR: That was easy.
MERLIN: Was it? I couldn’t have done it.

John Boorman (b. 1933) English film director, writer
Excalibur (1981) [with Rospo Pallenburg]
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 14-Jan-13
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Boorman, John

MERLIN: When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.

John Boorman (b. 1933) English film director, writer
Excalibur (1981) [with Rospo Pallenburg]
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 27-Sep-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Boorman, John

Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety.

Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004) American historian, professor, attorney, writer
The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, ch. 2, “From Hero to Celebrity: The Human Pseudo-event” (1961)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 18-Jan-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Boorstin, Daniel J.