We easily forget that smog is the price of freedom of our streets from manure, and from the flies and diseases it brought.

Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004) American historian, professor, attorney, writer
(Attributed)
 
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The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.

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)
 
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Truth is like a well-known whore. Everyone knows her, but it is embarrassing to encounter her on the street.

Wolfgang Borchert (1921-1947) German writer
(Attributed)
 
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The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein (b. 1957) American research scientist, programmer, writer
Programming As If People Mattered (1991)

Originally a classroom comment, c. 1985, while teaching at Carnegie-Mellon University.
 
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“Boren’s Guidelines” for bureacrats: (1) When in charge, ponder. (2) When in trouble, delegate. (3) When in doubt, mumble.

James Boren
James H. Boren (1925-2010) American bureaucrat, humorist, speaker
“Bureaucrats Give Agnew the Bird (It’s an Award),” New York Times (8 Nov. 1970)
 
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While money cannot buy happiness, the advantages of poverty have been greatly exaggerated.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine writer
(Attributed)
 
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Any life, however long and complicated it may be, actually consists of a single moment — the moment when a man knows forever more who he is.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine writer
“A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz”, The Aleph (1949) [tr. Hurley (1998)]

Alt. trans.: "Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment -- the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is."
 
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To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine writer
“The Meeting in a Dream”, Other Inquisitions [Otras Inquisiciones] (1952) [tr. Simms (1964)]
 
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I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine writer
“Poema de los Dones”, Dreamtigers [El Hacedor] (1960)
 
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Only the suppressed word is dangerous.

Ludwig Börne (1786-1837) German-Jewish political writer and satirist. [b. Loeb Baruch]
(Attributed)
 
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The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it, seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world.

Max Born
Max Born (1882-1970) German physicist
Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (1964)

Also in My Life and Views (1968), p. 183
 
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Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart.

Thomas Boston
Thomas Boston (1676-1732) Scottish clergyman
Human Nature in Its Fourfold State (1721)
 
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The greatest weakness of all is the great fear of appearing weak.

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704) French bishop, theologian
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture [Politique tirée de l’Écriture sainte] (1709)
    (Source)

Alt. trans.: "The greatest weakness of all weaknesses is to fear too much to appear weak."
 
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Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.

Dion Boucicault (1822-1890) Anglo-Irish dramatist, actor [Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot]
London Assurance, II.1 (1841)
 
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We must live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we live.

[Cet enseignement, c’est qu’il faut vivre comme on pense, sinon, tôt ou tard, on finit par penser comme on a vécu.]

Paul Bourget (1852-1935) French critic, poet, novelist
The Demon of Noonday [Le Démon de Midi], Epilogue (1914)

Alt. trans.: "This teaching is to live as we think, otherwise, sooner or later, we end up thinking as we lived."
 
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The Night has a thousand eyes,
And the Day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

Francis William Bourdillon (1852-1921) English poet
“Light,” The Spectator (Oct 1873)
 
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Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar of life; the one preserves, the other sweetens it.

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 1, “Discretion” (1862)
    (Source)
 
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No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 1 (1862)
 
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It is some compensation for great evils that they enforce great lessons.

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 1, “Compensation” (1862)
    (Source)
 
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Experience isn’t interesting till it begins to repeat itself — in fact, till it does that, it hardly is experience.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) Irish author
The Death of the Heart (1938)
 
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Nobody speaks the truth when there is something they must have.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) Irish author
The House in Paris (1935)
 
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Some people are molded by their admirations, others by their hostilities.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) Irish author
The Death of the Heart (1938)
 
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Jealousy is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) Irish author
The House in Paris (1935)
 
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History is the torch that is meant to illuminate the past to guard us against the repetition of our mistakes of other days. We cannot join in the rewriting of history to make it to conform to our comfort and convenience.

Claude G. Bowers (1878-1958) American journalist, historian, diplomat
My Mission to Spain (1954)
 
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Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.

George E P Box
George E. P. Box (1919-2013) Anglo-American statistician, quality scientist [George Edward Pelham Box]
Empirical Model Building and Response Surfaces (1987) [with N. R. Draper]

As written on p. 424; earlier in the book (p. 74), it is given as: "Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful."
 
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HAN: You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake, well, this could be it, sweetheart.
LEIA: I take it back.

Leigh Brackett
Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) American writer
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) [with Lawrence Kasdan]
 
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LEIA: Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder!
HAN: Who’s scruffy-looking?

Leigh Brackett
Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) American writer
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) [with Lawrence Kasdan]
 
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My stories run up and bite me in the leg — I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
The Stories of Ray Bradbury, Introduction, “Drunk and in Charge of a Bicycle” (1980)
 
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If we listened to our intellect we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go in business because we’d be cynical: “It’s gonna go wrong.” Or “She’s going to hurt me.” Or, “I’ve had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore …” Well, that’s nonsense. You’re going to miss life. You’ve got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
Speech, Brown University (23 Mar 1995)

In Brown Daily Herald (24 Mar 1995)

 
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Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.

Omar Bradley (1893-1981) American general
(Attributed)
 
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This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.

Omar Bradley (1893-1981) American general
(Attributed)
 
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Tolerance is important. You never know when you’re the one being tolerated.

Pat Brady (b. 1947) American cartoonist
Rose is Rose (30 Aug. 2001)
 
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Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means — to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal — would bring terrible retribution.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 438 (1928) [Dissent]
    (Source)
 
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In differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Business — A Profession (1914)
 
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Full and free expression of the right by the citizen is ordinarily also his duty; for its exercise is more important to the Nation than it is to himself. Like the course of the heavenly bodies, harmony in national life is a resultant of the struggle between contending forces. In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Gilbert v. Minnesota, 254 US 325 (1920) [Dissent]
 
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Organization can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgment.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Business — A Profession (1914)
 
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Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) [Concur]
 
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What I have desired to do is to make the people of Boston realize that the most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen. The duties of the office of private citizen cannot under a republican form of government be neglected without serious injury to the public.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Statement to a reporter, Boston Record (14 Apr 1903)

Quoted in Alpheus Thomas Mason, Brandeis: A Free Man's Life (1946).
    Commonly paraphrased:
  • "The most important office is that of the private citizen"
  • "The most important political office is that of the private citizen"
 
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Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 438 (1928) [Dissent]
    (Source)
 
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If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
In Cleveland Plain Dealer (15 Oct 1912)
 
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Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
(Attributed)
 
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Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing.

Dick Brandon (contemp.) American computer scientist and writer
(Attributed)
 
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Always behave like a duck — keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath.

Jacob M. Braude (1896-1970) American humorist, writer, jurist
(Attributed)

(also attrib. James Bryant Conant and Lord Barbizon)
 
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There are no simple answers because there are no simple questions. If you think you’re seeing a simple question, it’s not the question that’s simple.

Robert "Bobbo" Bredt (contemp.) American physician
Conversation (c. 1982)
 
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Most people would rather defend to the death your right to say it, than listen to it.

Robert Brault (b. c. 1945) American aphorist, programmer
(Attributed)

See Voltaire.
 
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Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be. Because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget to pose, and then who are you?

Fanny Brice (1891-1951) American singer, comedian
(Attributed)

Quoted in Norman Katkov, The Fabulous Fanny, ch. 24 (1952)
 
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This dream is for you, so pay the price.
Make one dream come true, you only live twice.

Leslie Bricusse (b. 1931) English songwriter
“You Only Live Twice” (1967)
 
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All I ask is a chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots, #0398
 
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Inform all the troops that communications have completely broken down.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots
 
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It’s not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots
 
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Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots
 
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What’s the good of being forgiven, if I have to promise not to do it again?

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots, #1175
 
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My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots
 
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I don’t understand you. You don’t understand me. What else do we have in common?

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots
 
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If you can’t learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots, #0702
 
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