The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“Liberty”
Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
“Trotsky’s Testament,” (27 Feb 1940)
Full text.
The finest fruits of human progress, like all of the nobler virtues of man, are the exclusive possession of small minorities, chiefly unpopular and disreputable.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Notes on Democracy, 1.8 (1926)
No man can go too far in independence or in adaptation with impunity.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Reflections, #245 [ed. Michels (1974)]
Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.
[Eltern verzeihen ihren Kindern die Fehler am schwersten, die sie selbst ihnen anerzogen haben.]
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 107 (1880) [tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:Parents are least ready to forgive in their children faults which result from their own training.
[tr. Wister (1883)]
The all-important distinction between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world entails that a kingdom-of-God citizen must take care never to align any particular version of the kingdom of the world with the kingdom of God. We may firmly believe one version to be better than another, but we must not conclude that this better version is therefore closer to the kingdom of God than the worse version.
Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd (b. 1957) American evangelical pastor, Christian theologian, author.
The Myth of a Christian Nation (2007)
The United States of America has not the option as to whether it will or it will not play a great part in the world … It must play a great part. All that it can decide is whether it will play that part well or badly. And it can play it badly if it adopts the role either of the coward or of the bully. Nor will it help it in the end to avoid either part if it play the other. It must avoid both. Democratic America can be true to itself, true to the great cause of freedom and justice, only if it shows itself ready and willing to resent wrong from the strong, and scrupulously desirous of doing generous justice to both strong and weak.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Outlook (1 Apr 1911)
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
“We and They” (1.3), Debits and Credits (1919-26)
An orator’s life is more convincing than his eloquence.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 507 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 241 (1955)
(Source)
If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, Harvard University (14 Jun 1956)
(Source)
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile,
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag
And smile, smile, smile.George Asaf (1880-1951) British songwriter (pseud. for George Henry Powell)
“Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-bag” (song) (1915)
The fundamental conflicts in human life are not between competing ideas — one of which is true and the other false — but rather, between those that hold power and use it to oppress others, and those who are oppressed by power and seek to free themselves.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
The Manufacture of Madness, Part 1, ch. 4 “The Defense of the Dominant Ethic” (1970)
Nothing but Money
Is sweeter than Honey.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Jun 1735)
Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
“H.L. Mencken,” The Washington Post (14 Sep 1980)
Some people write heavily, some write lightly. I prefer the light approach because I believe there is a great deal of false reverence about. There is too much solemnity and intensity in dealing with sacred matters; too much speaking in holy tones.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Final Interview of C. S. Lewis,” Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Decision (Sep 1963)
Full text.
You’re never too old to become younger.
Mae West (1892-1980) American film actress
(Attributed)
There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook, 22 Dec 1903 [ed. Paine (1935)]
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.
George Sand (1804-1876) French novelist, feminist [pseud. for Aurore Dupin]
Letter to Lina Calamatta (31 Mar 1862)
Experience has taught me that things are likely to get worse, so these will eventually turn out to be the Good Old Days, and think what a fool you’ll feel like later if you don’t enjoy them now.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Bill of Wrongs (2007)
Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
Diary, Notebook 2 (1935-05-08) [tr. Zarudnaya (1958)]
(Source)
When we lose the right to be different, we lose the right to be free.
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (1862-1948) American statesman, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1910-1916, 1930-1941)
Speech, 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, Boston (17 Jun 1925)
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Stephen Biko (1946-1977) South African civil rights activist
Speech, Cape Town Conference on Inter-Racial Studies (1971)
Reprinted in I Write What I like, "White Racism and Black Consciousness" (1978)
One of the greatest attractions of patriotism — it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what’s more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous. Sweet and decorous to murder, lie, torture for the sake of the fatherland.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Eyeless in Gaza, ch. 17 (1922)
(Source)
Happiness is the only good.
The place to be happy is here.
The time to be happy is now.
The way to be happy is to make others so.Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Note to a fan (26 Mar 1897)
Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Endorsement statement for Charles E. Little, The Dying of the Trees (1997)
If there is no other way of preventing the evil destroying the good, I trust I shall use force and give myself up into God’s hands.
Martin Buber (1878-1965) Austrian-born Jewish philosopher
“The Land and Its Possessors: An Answer to Gandhi,” The Bond (Jerusalem) (1939)
On Gandhi's calling for European Jews to adopt nonviolence against Nazi persecution.
One of the benefits that oppression confers upon the oppressors is that the most humble among them is made to feel superior; thus, a poor white in the South can console himself with the thought that he is not a “dirty nigger” — and the more prosperous whites cleverly exploit this pride. Similarly, the most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist
The Second Sex, Introduction (1950) [tr. Parshley (1952)]
See Johnson.
If there is anything we wish to change in our children, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“The Development of Personality” (1934) [tr. Hull (1954)]
As long as they’re homophobic behind closed doors, and don’t hurt anyone, I’m fine with it.
Eddie Izzard (b. 1962) British comedian
Unrepeatable (1994)
We stand equally against government by a plutocracy and government by a mob. There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with “the money touch,” but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Letter to Sir Edward Grey (15 Sep 1913)
There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomrrow, just you wait and see.
There’ll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow, when the world is free.Nat Burton (1901-1945) American songwriter (b. Nat Schwartz)
“The White Cliffs of Dover” (lyrics) (1941)
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden (11 Dec 1964)
There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Guardian (28 Jul 1989)
Mr. Forster feels anxious because he dreads Theocracy. Now if he expects to see a Theocracy set up in modern England, I myself believe his expectation to be wholly chimerical. But I wish to make it very clear that, if I thought the thing in the least probable, I should feel about it exactly as he does. I fully embrace the maxim (which he borrows from a Christian) that ‘all power corrupts.’ I would go further. The loftier the pretensions of the power, the more meddlesome, inhuman, and oppressive it will be. Theocracy is the worst of all possible governments. All political power is at best a necessary evil: but it is least evil when its sanctions are most modest and commonplace, when it claims no more than to be useful or convenient and sets itself strictly limited objectives. Anything transcendental or spiritual, or even anything very strongly ethical, in its pretensions is dangerous and encourages it to meddle with our private lives. Let the shoemaker stick to his last. Thus the Renaissance doctrine of Divine Right is for me a corruption of monarchy; Rousseau’s General Will, of democracy; racial mysticisms, of nationality. And Theocracy, I admit and even insist, is the worst corruption of all.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Lilies that Fester,” The Twentieth Century (Apr 1955)
The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 458 (1949) [concurring]
(Source)
The past is a kind of screen upon which we project our vision of the future; and it is indeed a moving picture, borrowing much of its form and color from our fears and aspirations.
Carl L. Becker (1873-1945) American historian
“What Are Historical Facts?” Western Political Quarterly (Sep 1955)
Like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and wastful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as willful disobedience — incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature’s discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your ears are boxed.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“A Liberal Education,” Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews (1870)
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
Veto Message Regarding the Bank of the United States (10 Jul 1832)
Government is just a tool, like a hammer. There’s nothing intrinsically good or evil about the hammer; it all depends on what it’s used for and the skill with which it is used.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Wiggy Republicans”, Mother Jones (Sep/Oct 1992)
If your business decisions and motives were published on the front page of a large circulation newspaper the day after you made your decision, and you will still feel comfortable, then do it.
Warren Buffett (b. 1930) American investor and financier
Address to Johns Manville senior management
People who are always praising the past
And especially the times of faith as best
Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages
And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.Stevie Smith (1902-1971) English novelist and poet [b. Florence Margaret Smith]
“The Past” (1957)
It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist
Les Belles Images, ch. 3 (1966) [tr. O’Brian (1968)]
You have no control over your cat! You can’t say to your cat, “Cat, heel! Stay! Wait! Lie down! Roll over!” ‘Cause the cat’s just gonna be sitting there going, “Interesting words … have you finished?” While you’re shouting all this to your cat, your dog’s next to you, going … [mimes obeying all commands] “What the hell are you doing? I’m talking to the cat!” “Oh, I’m sorry!”
Eddie Izzard (b. 1962) British comedian
Unrepeatable (1994)
We can only pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
John Buchan (1875-1940) Scottish novelist, poet, and politician; Governor-General of Canada (1935 -1940)
Speech to the People of Canada on the Coronation of King George VI (12 May 1937)
If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them, become President.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
Speech, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (23 Mar 1990)
The nationalist has a broad hatred and a narrow love.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
Journal (1918) [tr. O’Brien (1948)]
When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths. Self-deception, credulity, and charlatanism are somehow linked together.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State Of Mind, Aphorism 83 (1955)
(Source)
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Interview, BBC Radio 4 (18 Nov 2007)
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 5:38-42
Orthdoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man’s doxy.
William Warburton (1698-1779) English critic and churchman
(Attributed)
In Joseph Priestley, Memoirs, Vol. 1:“I have heard frequent use,” said the late Lord Sandwich, in a debate on the Test Laws, “of the words ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘heterodoxy;’ but I confess myself at a loss to know precisely what they mean.” “Orthodoxy, my Lord,” said Bishop Walburton, in a whisper,—“orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man’s doxy.”
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
New York Times Magazine (7 Jun 1970)
Democracy demands that little men shouldn’t take big ones too serious; it dies when it’s full of little men who think they are big themselves.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Notes on the Way,” Time and Tide (29 Apr 1944)
Grab your coat, and get your hat,
Leave your worry on the doorstep,
Just direct your feet
To the sunny side of the street.Dorothy Fields (1905-1974) American librettist and lyricist
“On the Sunny Side of the Street” (song) (1930)
TOM: I don’t know, maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) American playwright and essayist
The Ride Down Mount Morgan, Act 1 (1991)
(Source)
Nature, as we know her, is no saint.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Experience,” Essays: Second Series (1844)
As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
Inaugural address (4 Mar 1829)
Full text.
Listen, a populist is someone who is for the people and against the powerful, and so a populist is generally the same as a liberal — except we tend to have more fun.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Jan 2007)
Administrivia: Updated to WordPress 3.3
The blogging software underlying WIST, WordPress, has now been updated to the latest-greatest version. Let me know if you spot any problems.
I am quite possibly going to be changing the theme (screen appearance) over the next week or so (hurrah for holiday vacations), so if you pop in here and things look really weird … hopefully that’s why.
Impossible things are simply those which so far have never been done.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
An American Bible [ed. Alice Hubbard] (1918)
You do not become a dissident just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
“The Power of the Powerless,” Living in Truth (1986)
Patriotism is sometimes stimulated by religious enthusiasm, and then it is capable of prodigious efforts. It is in itself a kind of religion: it does not reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and sentiment.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Democracy in America, 1.14 (1835) [tr. Reeve and Brown (1862)]
I know a great many rich men and I have read about a great many others, and I do not envy them. They are no happier than I am. You see, after all, few rich men own their property. The property owns them. It gets them up early in the morning. It will not let them sleep; it makes them suspect their friends. Sometimes they think their children would like to attend a first-class funeral. Why should we envy the rich?
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1896-10-29), “The Chicago and New York Gold Speech,” McKinley League, Carnegie Hall, New York City
The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
Diary in Exile, 1935-04-05 (1958)
(Source)
All things come into being by conflict of opposites.
Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.540-c.480 BC) Greek philosopher [Ἡράκλειτος, Herákleitos, Heracleitus]
In Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 9.1 [tr. Hicks (1925)]
In affairs of importance a man should concentrate not so much on making opportunities as on taking advantages of those that arise.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #453 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
Tew bring up a child in the wa he should go — travel that wa yourself.
[To bring up a child in the way he should go — travel that way yourself.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings: His Sayings, 78 (1865)
In my first year I was taught about the slide rule. They said, “The slide rule is important. Without it you can do nothing. The slide rule is the modern weapon of efficiency. With the slide rule you can get from here to the stars. Buy it, use it – your slide rule!” Within one year it was, “Burn the slide rule. The calculator can add up with none of this fucking sliding the shit around and working out where that bit in the middle goes. Smash it over your head.”
We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Progressive Party Convention, Chicago (17 Jun 1912)
The man who is unable to laugh at his god is a man who does not quite believe in his god. In the Middle Ages, when Christians were really Christians, the burlesque mass flourished, and even bishops took part in it. Today, with not enough faith left in Christendom to make a single martyr, a burlesque mass would end in a lynching — and Jews and Protestants would help pull the rope.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Pertinent and Impertinent,” Smart Set (Jun 1913) [as Owen Hatteras]
(Source)
It is not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.
James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
Interview with Nikki Giovanni (4 Nov 1971), A Dialogue (1973)
Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook, 23 May 1903 [ed. Paine (1935)]
The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 104 (1955)
(Source)
Injustice and oppression will never prevail. Those who are powerful have to remember the litmus test that God gives to the powerful: what is your treatment of the poor, the hungry, the voiceless? And on the basis of that, God passes judgment.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Speech, Boston (2002)
Full text.
Being paid — what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourself to perdition!
Herman Melville (1819-1891) American writer
Moby-Dick, ch. 1 [Ishmael] (1851)
The gracious lesson taught by science to this country is that the history of Nature from first to last is incessant advance from less to more, from rude to finer organization, the globe of matter thus conspiring with the principle of undying hope in man. Nature works in immense time, and spends individuals and races prodigally to prepare new individuals and races.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“The Fortune of the Republic,” lecture, Boston (1878-03-30)
(Source)
Final version of a lecture first given in 1863, and his last public speech.
The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country, than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
To troops who abandoned their lines during the Battle of New Orleans (8 Jan 1815)
This is a column for everyone who ever said, “I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in politics,” or, “There’s nothing I can do about it,” or, “Hey, they’re all crooks anyway.” … I’ve got one word for all of you: Katrina. … This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Oct 2005)
Dwell on the past and you lose an eye. Forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Russian Saying
And I wanted someone who is absolutely and utterly powerful. It’s interesting because at the time, John Byrne had just taken over Superman and had announced that he was making Superman less powerful because he had become too powerful and you couldn’t write interesting stories about people that were too powerful. That started me thinking, “Well, no, actually you can, because what makes a person interesting or not interesting isn’t how powerful they are, but who they are.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
“Alan Moore got to be the Beatles. … I was Gerry and the Pacemakers,” Interview, Los Angeles Times (2008-12-02)
On creating Morpheus, the Sandman.
So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
The Tyrant’s plea, excus’d his devilish deeds.John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
Paradise Lost, 4.383 (1667)
Churches are becoming political organizations … It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes, if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this Government will be destroyed.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Some Mistakes of Moses, Sec. 3 “The Politicians” (1879)
(Source)
There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
The Russian Revolution (1930)
Be not the slave of your own past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1838-06-19)
What we believe to be the motives of our conduct are usually but the pretexts for it.
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) Spanish philosopher and writer [Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo]
The Tragic Sense of Life [Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida], ch. 11 (1913) [tr. Flitch (1921)]
Full text.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra (1925-2015) American baseball player, coach, manager [b. Lawrence Peter Berra]
When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! (2002)
Berra says this is actually part of the directions to drivers going to his house in Montclair, New Jersey; there is a fork in the road, but either branch will get you to the destination.
To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
State of the Union (3 Dec 1907)
Full text.
Pain will force even the truthful to speak falsely.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 232 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
(Spurious)
Frequently attributed to Tennyson, but found as early as in D. E. Macdonnel, A Dictionary of Quotations, in Most Frequent Use, (1809) translated from French: "Le bonheur de l'homme en cette vi ne consiste pas á être sans passions: il consiste à en être le maître."
I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Letter to Alexander Pope (29 Sep 1725)
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 70 (1955)
(Source)
Sometimes, of course, you wish you could whisper in God’s ear, “God, we know that you are in charge. Why don’t you make it slightly more obvious?”
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Wallenberg Lecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (29 Oct 2009)
(Source)
Video at 20:37.
But Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment: “Stay, thou art so fair.” And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, Assembly Hall at Paulskirche, Frankfurt (25 Jun 1963)
He’s a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
For nobody.
Doesn’t have a point of view,
Knows not where he’s going to,
Isn’t he a bit like you
And me?John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
“Nowhere Man” (song) (1965) [with Paul McCartney]
A heavy purse makes a light heart.
John Ray (1627-1705) English naturalist [a.k.a. John Wray]
A Collection of English Proverbs (1678)
Then the shit hit the fan.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Ambassador’s Journal (1969)
Galbraith claims to have coined this phrase (see A Life In Our Times (1981))
[T]hat intimate laughter between fellow professionals, which of all earthly powers is strongest to make men do very bad things before they are yet, individually, very bad men.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
That Hideous Strength (1945)
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #225 (17 May 1750)
(Source)
Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can’t read the want-ad sections. And when they can, they can’t find a job that matches the address. They work hard every day.
I know. I live amongst them. I’m one of them. I know they work. I’m a witness. They catch the early bus. They work every day. They raise other people’s children. They work every day. They clean the streets. They work every day. They drive dangerous cabs. They work every day. They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can’t get a union contract. They work every day.
No, no, they are not lazy! Someone must defend them because it’s right, and they cannot speak for themselves. They work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes. No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day. America, that is not right. We are a better Nation than that. We are a better Nation than that.
Jesse Jackson (b. 1941) American activist, clergyman, politician
“Common Ground and Common Sense,” speech, Democratic National Convention, Atlanta (19 Jul 1988)
Full text.
There is no unemployed force in Nature. All decomposition is recomposition.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“The Man of Letters,” Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883)
The individual who refuses to defend his rights when called by his Government, deserves to be a slave, and must be punished as an enemy of his country and friend to her foe.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
“Proclamation to the People of Louisiana” (21 Sep 1814)
I do not believe the President’s sex life is any of our business. After thirty years of political reporting, I have been unable to establish a link between marital fidelity and high performance in public office. It really doesn’t matter who they screw in private, as long as they don’t screw the public.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Mar 1998)
More cranks take up unfashionable errors than unfashionable truths.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)
If the fire rages uncontrolled in a house, we call it a disastrous conflagration; if it burns in a smelting furnace, we call it a useful industrial force. In other words, our drives and impulses as they live within us are neither good nor bad, right nor wrong.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
(Attributed)
Quoted in Helen Walker Puner, Freud: His Life and His Mind, ch. 10 (1947).
The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.
Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic, 2.369 [tr. Jowett (1894)]
Popularly: "Necessity is the mother of invention."
As long as we love we will hope to live, and when the one dies that we love we will say: “Oh, that we could meet again,” and whether we do or not it will not be the work of theology. It will be a fact in nature. I would not for my life destroy one star of human hope, but I want it so that when a poor woman rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby to the dimpled darling, she will not be compelled to believe that ninety-nine chances in a hundred she is raising kindling wood for hell.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do To Be Saved?” Sec. 11 (1880)
(Source)
In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the Central Committee substitutes itself for the organization, and, finally, a “dictator” substitutes himself for the Central Committee.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
Our Political Tasks (1904)
Regarding Lenin's suggestion in What Is To Be Done? that workers would not revolt on their own and needed the party's trained revolutionaries to lead them.
To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother’s keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right. It is a way of allowing his conscience to fall asleep. At this moment the oppressed fails to be his brother’s keeper. So acquiescence — while often the easier way — is not the moral way. It is the way of the coward.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 11 “Where Do We Go from Here?” (1958)
(Source)
Timid men are more likely to be moved to trepidation than daring in the face of great opportunities.
Henry Kissinger (1923-2024) German-American diplomat
A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Prolems of Peace, 1812-1822, 1.2 (1957)
We should often blush at our noblest deeds if the world were to see all their underlying motives.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #409 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
It’s déjà vu all over again.
Yogi Berra (1925-2015) American baseball player, coach, manager [b. Lawrence Peter Berra]
What Time Is It? You Mean Now? (2003)
Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them. … If they gradually grow to feel that the whole world is nothing but muck their power of usefulness is gone.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Address, Laying the Cornerstone of the House Office Building, Washington (14 Apr 1906)
Nonconformity, Holy Disobedience, becomes a virtue and indeed a necessary and indispensable measure of spiritual self-preservation, in a day when the impulse to conform, to acquiesce, to go along, is the instrument which is used to subject man to totalitarian rule and involve them in permanent war.
A. J. Muste (1885-1967) Dutch-American minister, labor and civil rights activist, pacifist [Reverend Abraham Johannes Muste]
“Of Holy Disobedience” (1952)
Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!
John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
The Conquest of Granada, 2.4.3 (1672)
Man is a rational animal — so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)
Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Speech (Nov 1984), Hope and Suffering (1985)
BRUTUS: There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 249ff (4.3.249-255) (1599)
(Source)
Yes! ready money is Aladdin’s lamp.
Recessions catch what the auditors miss.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Interview with Robert Cornwell, The Independent (1 Jul 2002)
Full text.
The surest way of spoiling a pleasure [is] to start examining your satisfaction.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Surprised by Joy (1955)
Be very wary of opinions that flatter your self-esteem.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)
Since I do not foresee that atomic energy will prove to be a boon within the near future, I have to say that, for the present, it is a menace. Perhaps it is well that it should be. It may intimidate the human race into bringing order to its international affairs, which, without the pressure of fear, undoubtedly would not happen.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“Einstein on the Atomic Bomb,” Interview with Raymond Swing, Atlantic (Nov 1945)
(Source)
Man is neither villain nor hero; he is rather both villain and hero.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Strength to Love, ch. 11 “What Is Man?” (1963)
(Source)
Describing a more realistic view of humanity neither in "the thesis of pessimistic materialism nor the antithesis of optimistic humanism."
A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 68 (1955)
(Source)
History, like beauty, depends largely on the beholder, so when you read that, for example, David Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls, you might be forgiven for thinking that there was nobody around the Falls until Livingstone arrived on the scene.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
“Fortieth Anniversary of the Republic,” speech (1981)
See Richard Cumberland.
THE OBSTINATE MAN does not hold Opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an Error, ’tis, like the Devil, not to be cast out but with great Difficulty.
Samuel Butler (1612-1680) English poet, satirist, painter, philosopher [Hudibras Butler]
“The Obstinate Man”
Full text.
A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable, and should be secured because they seldom return.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
(Attributed)
You cannot escape necessities, but you can overcome them.
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Moral Letters to Lucilius [Epistulae morales ad Lucilium], letter 37, sec. 3 “On Allegiance to Virtue” [tr. Gummere (1918)]
And I believe, too, in the gospel of Liberty, in giving to others what we claim for ourselves. I believe there is room everywhere for thought, and the more liberty you give away, the more you will have. In liberty extravagance is economy. Let us be just. Let us be generous to each other.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do To Be Saved?” Sec. 11 (1880)
(Source)
A sledgehammer breaks glass but forges steel.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
“We Do Not Change Our Course” (1938)
I think that if the atomic bomb did nothing more, it scared the people to the point where they realized that either they must do something about preventing war or there is a chance that there may be a morning when we would not wake up.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
News Conference (3 Jan 1946)
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
Sig Lines
Grey’s Law
Good and Evil, Reward and Punishment, are the only Motives to a rational Creature: These are the Spur and the Reins whereby all Mankind are set on Work and guided.
John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher
Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 54 (1693)
If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
Yogi Berra (1925-2015) American baseball player, coach, manager [b. Lawrence Peter Berra]
When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! (2002)
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Springfield, Illinois (4 Jul 1903)
What greater evil could you wish a miser than a long life?
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 69 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
If the government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong I condemn.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
“Civil Disobedience” (1849)
Man is very much a creature of habit.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, author
The Federalist #27 (Dec 1787)
Whenever we proclaim the uniqueness of a religion, a truth, a leader, a nation, a race, a part or a holy cause, we are also proclaiming our own uniqueness.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 37 (1955)
(Source)
The wonderful thing about God’s love is that maybe we are going to be surprised at the people we find in Heaven that we didn’t expect, and possibly we’ll be surprised at those we’d thought would be there and aren’t. God has a particularly soft spot for sinners. Remember, Jesus says there is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine needing no repentance. Ultimately it all hinges on one thing: our response to the divine invitation. There is hope for us all. God’s standards are quite low.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
Interview with Gyles Brandreth, Sunday Times (15 Apr 2001)
(Source)
Often paraphrased (possibly the version printed in the Sunday Times): "We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low."
Orthodoxy:
- In religion, that state of mind which congratulates itself on being absolutely right, and a belief that all who think otherwise are wholly wrong.
- A faith in the fixed — a worship of the static.
- The joy that comes from thinking that most everybody is lined up for Limbus with no return ticket.
- A condition brought about by the sprites of Humor, according to the rule that whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.
- The zenith of selfishness and the nadir of egotism.
- Mephisto with a lily in his hand.
- A corpse that does not know it is dead.
- Spiritual constipation.
- That peculiar condition where the patient can neither eliminate an old idea or absorb a new one.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Roycroft Dictionary (1914)
(Source)
Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) French writer, novelist
Letter (Feb 1876)
“Money isn’t everything,” — according to those who have it.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
The Sayings of Chariman Malcolm, “Nobody’s Capitalist Fool” (1978)
People are the common denominator of progress. So, paucis verbis, no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated. It would be wrong to dismiss the importance of roads, railroads, power plants, mills, and the other familiar furniture of economic development. At some stages of development — the stage that India and Pakistan have reached, for example — they are central to the strategy of development. But we are coming to realize, I think, that there is a certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Economic Development (1964)
Many things — such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly — are done worst when we try hardest to do them.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1966)
I’m a pessimist about probabilities; I’m an optimist about possibilities.
Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) American writer, philosopher, historian, architect
In Carey Winfrey, “Lewis Mumford Remembers,” New York Times (6 Jul 1977)
Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthdoxy is unconsciousness.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 1, ch. 5 [Symes] (1949)
(Source)
Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Nature in Men,” Essays, No. 38 (1625)
(Source)
The day has been, I grieve to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated by the law exactly upon the same footing as, in England for example, the inferior races of animals are still. The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognized that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month, old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not Can they reason?, nor Can they talk?, but Can they suffer?
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) English jurist and philosopher
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, ch. 17 “Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence” (1789; 1823)
Full text.
There are three things one must not do in the face of electoral disaster. Whine. Despair. Or fall for that specious old radical crap: “Things have to get worse before they can get better.” The only possible response to that one is, “Not with my child’s life.” Nor is it helpful to sit around hoping that given enough rope, the R’s will hang themselves. They’ll hang us along with them. The only thing to do is to fight harder and smarter.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Fight Harder,” The Progressive (Dec 2002)
Our wretched species is so made that those who walk the beaten path always throw stones at those who teach a new path.
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Philosophical Dictionary, “Literature and Writers” (1764) [tr. Besterman (1971)]
Necessity makes an honest man a knave.
Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731) English journalist and novelist
Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, ch. 2 (1720)
We have had too many of these solemn people. Whenever I see an exceedingly solemn man, I know he is an exceedingly stupid man. No man of any humor ever founded a religion — never. Humor sees both sides. While reason is the holy light, humor carries the lantern, and the man with a keen sense of humor is preserved from the solemn stupidities of superstition.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do To Be Saved?” Sec. 11 (1880)
(Source)
There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves in the unchanging principles of human nature. They are like gigantic trees that we sometimes see on the banks of a stream; which, by their vast and deep roots, penetrating through the mere surface, and laying hold on the very foundations of the earth, preserve the soil around them from being swept away by the ever-flowing current, and hold up many a neighboring plant, and perhaps worthless weed, to perpetuity.
Washington Irving (1783-1859) American author [pseud. for Geoffrey Crayon]
“The Mutabilities of Literature,” The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819-20)
True modesty does not consist in an ignrance of our merits, but in due estimate of them.
Julius Hare (1795-1855) English cleric, theologian
Guesses at Truth: First Series [with A. W. Hare] (1827)
Nonconformity is an empty goal, and rebellion against prevailing opinion merely because it is prevailing should no more be praised that acquiescence to it. Indeed, it is often a mask for cowardice and few are more pathetic than those who flaunt outer differences to expiate their inner surrender.
William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte, Jr. (1917-1999) American sociologist, journalist, and civic planner
The Organization Man, ch. 1 (1956)
Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
“Courage,” Rectoral Address, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1922-05-03)
(Source)
The future ain’t what it used to be.
Yogi Berra (1925-2015) American baseball player, coach, manager [b. Lawrence Peter Berra]
When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! (2002)
Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
State of the Union address (2 Dec 1902)
In the midst of this American society, so well policed, so sententious, so charitable, a cold selfishness and complete insensibility prevails when it is a question of the natives of the country. Ths Americans of the United States do not let their dogs hunt the Indians as do the Spaniards in Mexico, but at bottom it is the same pitiless feeling which here, as everywhere else, animates the European race. The world belongs to us, they tell themelves every day: the Indian race is destined for final destruction which one cannot prevent and which it is not desirable to delay. Heaven has not made them to become civilized; it is necessary that they die. Besides I do not at all want to get mixed up in it. I will not do anything against the,: I will limit myself to providing everything that will hasten their ruin. In time I will have their lands and will be innocent of their death. Satisfied with his reasoning, the American goes to the church where he hears the minister of the gospel repeat every day that all men are brothers, and the Eternal Being who has made them all in like image, has given them all the duty to help one another.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician
Notebook, 20 Jul 1831, Journey to America, ch., 7 [tr. Lawrence (1971)]
Allow me to furnish the interior of my head as I please, and I shall put up with a hat like everybody else’s.
Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) French philosopher
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, “Final Remarks” (1932) [tr. Auda and Brereton (1935)]
Every man lives behind bars, which he carries within him.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech-Austrian Jewish writer
In G. Janouch, Conversations with Kafka [tr. G. Rees (1953)]
It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 41 (1955)
(Source)
Good is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through him who loves us.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
The Rainbow People of God (1994)
Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.
Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977-1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
Charlie Rose television interview, PBS (17 Jan 1995)
With whom does the greatest danger for the whole human future lie? Is it not with the good and just? — with those who say and feel in their hearts: “We already know what is good and just, we possess it, too; woe to those who are still searching for it!”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Thus Spoke Zarathustra [Also sprach Zarathustra], “Of Old and New Law-Tables” (26) (1883-85) [tr. Hollingdale (1961)]
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 4, st. 178 (1818)
(Source)
Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) English jurist and philosopher
“On Publicity,” The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol 2, part 2 (1836)
Full text.
It’s hard to convince people you are bombing that you’re doing it for their own good.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Foolish Military Strategy,” The Progressive (Dec 2001)
Women, in consequence of the greater predisposition imparted to their bodies by menstruation, and parturition, and to their minds, by living so much alone in their families, are more predisposed to madness than men.
Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) American physician, writer, educator, humanitarian
Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind, 2nd ed., ch. 2 (1818)
A man who is “ill-adjusted to the world” is always on the point of finding himself. One who is adjusted to the world neer finds himself, but gets to be a cabinet minister.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Reflections, #149 [ed. Michels (1974)]
Necessity never made good bargain.
James Howell (c. 1594 - 1666) British historian and writer
“Divers Centuries of New Sayings,” Paroimiographia (1659)
I propose good fellowship — good friends all around. No matter what we believe, shake hands and let it go. That is your opinion; this is mine: let us be friends. Science makes friends; religion, superstition, makes enemies. They say: Belief is important. I say: No, actions are important. Judge by deed, not by creed. Good fellowship — good friends — sincere men and women — mutual forbearance, born of mutual respect.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“What Must We Do To Be Saved?” sec. 11 (1880)
(Source)
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.
Washington Irving (1783-1859) American author [pseud. for Geoffrey Crayon]
“Philip of Pokanoket : An Indian Memoir,” The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–20)
Sometimes presented in a longer form: "Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them." This version, as quoted by Elbert Hubbard, is found as early as 1897, but has not been located in Irving's works.
Why should we be in such a desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different rummer. Let him step to the music that he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden, “Conclusion” (1854)
Give me but virtuous actions, and I will not quibble and chicane about the motives.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #161 (5 Sep 1748)
(Source)
Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise they won’t go to yours.
Yogi Berra (1925-2015) American baseball player, coach, manager [b. Lawrence Peter Berra]
When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! (2002)
Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures. But there is another harm; and it is evident that we should try to do away with that. The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Providence, Rhode Island (23 Aug 1902)
Moderation has been declared a virtue so as to curb the ambition of the great and console lesser folk for their lack of fortune and merit.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #308 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of the substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
West Virginia State Board v. Barnette (1943)
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet
“A Death in the Desert,” l. 586, Dramatis Personae (1864)
Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Letter to Mrs. Blumberg (27 Sep 1977)
Isn’t it desperately sad that, at a time when we face formidable problems — poverty, HIV/AIDS, conflict — that the Anglican Communion can invest so much energy on disagreements about human sexuality? A communion that used to boast that one of its distinctive characteristics was something called comprehensiveness, that our communion, the Anglican Church, included just about everybody. Even if you had the most weird theology you could come in, you were allowed. And now we, who used to be held up in admiration by many because of this inclusiveness, are now spending time working out how we can excommunicate one another. God looks on and God weeps. God weeps.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
“And God Smiles,” sermon at All Saints Church, Pasadena, California (6 Nov 2005)
Society is always trying in some way or other to grind us down to a single flat surface.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
The Professor at the Break-fast Table, ch. 2 (1860)
Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.
Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
Discussion with John Dean (Nov 1994)
Quoted in John Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience (2006). Full text.
It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Erewhon, ch. 20 (1872)
See Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10
In the usual (though certainly not in every) public decision on economic policy, the choice is between courses that are almost equally good or equally bad. It is the narrowest decisions that are most ardently debated. If the world is lucky enough to enjoy peace, it may even one day make the discovery, to the horror of doctrinaire free-enterprisers and doctrinaire planners alike, that what is called capitalism and what is called socialism are both capable of working quite well.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
“The American Economy: Its Substance and Myth” (1949)
‘You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,’ said the Lion.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Silver Chair (1953)
Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they consider such departures as a criticism of themselves. They will pardon much unconventionality in a man who has enough jollity and friendliness to make it clear, even to the stupedist, that he is not engaged in criticizing them.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
The Conquest of Happiness, ch. 9 (1930)
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
(Attributed)
Quoted in Earl Wilson, "Coco Offered Fatty Arbuckle Role," Hartford Courant (6 Aug 1972); earliest reference found for Forbes. A variant is found in The Sayings of Chairman Malcolm (1978): “You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.”
The earliest version of the sentiment appears to be Paul Eldridge.
[Middle age is] the time when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel just as good as ever.
Don Marquis (1878-1937) American journalist and humorist
(Attributed)
Earliest reference found in The American Magazine (1932)
It is with government, as with medicine. They have both but a choice of evils. Every law is an evil, for every law is an infraction of liberty: And I repeat that government has but a choice of evils: In making this choice, what ought to be the object of the legislator? He ought to assure himself of two things; 1st, that in every case, the incidents which he tries to prevent are really evils; and 2ndly, that if evils, they are greater than those which he employs to prevent them.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) English jurist and philosopher
Principles of Legislation, ch. 10 “Analysis of Political Good and Evil” (1830)
Sunday-morning chatter announced in horror: “People may think the rich can buy their way out of the justice system.” No shit. Been going to Texas prisons for a long time. Seen nobody rich on Death Row yet. You mean MONEY has something to do with justice in this country? … Wake me when impending egalitarianism is a problem. In the meantime, oligarchy is eating our ass, our dreams, our country, our heritage, our democracy, our justice, and our tax code.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Injustice and Inequality,” The Progressive (Apr 2001)
A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer, pianist
Statement (1953)
Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third. And to this end the actor must forget his personality and throw aside his joys and sorrows. He must present the public with the reality of a being who for him is only a fiction. With his own eyes, he must shed the tears of the other. With his own voice, he must groan the anguish of the other. His own heart beats as if it would burst, for it is the other’s heart that beats in his heart. And when he retires from a tragic or dramatic scene, if he has properly rendered his character, he must be panting and exhausted.
Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) French actress
The Art of the Theatre (1925)
[T]he Supreme Court has made its judgment and a good many people obviously will disagree with it. Others will agree with it. But I think that it is important for us if we are going to maintain our constitutional principle that we support the Supreme Court decisions even when we may not agree with them. In addition, we have in this case a vary easy remedy and that is to pray ourselves. And I would think that it would be a welcome reminder to every American family that we can pray a good deal more at home, we can attend our churches with a good deal more fidelity, and we can make the true meaning of prayer much more important in the lives of all of our children. That power is very much open to us.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech (1962)
On the Supreme Court's ruling in Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), which forbade government-written school prayers.
Such a book has of course its predestined readers, even now more numerous and more critical than is always realised. To them a reviewer need say little, except that here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Gods Return to Earth,” Time and Tide (14 Aug 1954)
Book review of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring. Full text.
I have always been fond of the West African proverb “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Letter to Henry L. Sprague (26 Jan 1900)
Full text. This is the first known use by Roosevelt of his future catch phrase. It attained more fame when he used it in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair (2 Sep 1901) (there are transcript variants):More discussion here:
- "There is a homely adage which runs 'Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.' If the American nation will speak softly and yet build and keep at a pitch of highest training a thoroughly efficient Navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far."
- "Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick -- you will go far.' If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples. Whenever on any point we come in contact with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always strive to speak courteously and respectfully of that foreign power."
Never let the other fellow set the agenda.
James Baker III (b. 1930) American attorney, politician, political advisor
Quoted in The Daily Telegraph (15 Nov 1988)