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)
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.
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.
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."
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)
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.]
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.
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)
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)
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)
Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.
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."
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.
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.
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)
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)
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.
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.
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"
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)
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)
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)
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)
Most people would rather defend to the death your right to say it, than listen to it.
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)
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)