The secret of my incredible energy and efficiency in getting work done is a simple one. I have based it very deliberately on a well-known psychological principle and have refined it so that it is now almost too refined. I shall have to begin coarsening it up again pretty soon. The psychological principle is this: anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
“How to Get Things Done,” Chicago Tribune (2 Feb 1930)
Work is love made visible.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Work” (1923)
Full text.
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”
“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”
“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.
“You wish to be anonymous?”
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned — they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides — excuse me — I don’t know that.”
“But you might know it,” observed the gentleman.
“It’s not my business,” Scrooge returned. “It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic
A Christmas Carol, Stave 1 “Marley’s Ghost” (1843)
(Source)
Oh, what more sweet than when, from care set free,
The spirit lays its burden down, and we,
With distant travel spent, come home and spread
Our limbs to rest along the wished-for bed.[O quid solutis est beatius curis,
cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,
desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?]Catullus (c. 84 BC – c. 54 BC) Latin poet [Gaius Valerius Catullus]
Carmina # 31 “To Sirmio,” ll. 7-10 [tr. T. Martin (1861)]
(Source)
Sirmio was the peninsula where his country villa was built, present-day Sirmione on Lago di Garda.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:O, what so sweet as cares redress'd!
When the tir'd mind lays down its load;
When, with each foreign toil oppress'd,
We reach at length our own abode;
On our own wish'd-for couch recline,
And taste the bliss of sleep divine!
[tr. Nott (1795), # 28]Then when the mind its load lays down;
When we regain, all hazards past,
And with long ceaseless travel tired,
Our household god again our own;
And press in tranquil sleep at last
The well-known bed so oft desired.
[tr. Lamb (1821)]Sweetest of sweets to me that pastime seems,
When the mind drops her burden: when -- the pain
Of travel past -- our own cot we regain
And nestle on the pillow of our dreams.
[tr. Calverley (1862)]Oh! what more blessèd than to find
Release from all our cares!
When layeth down the weary mind
The burden that it bears:
When, all our toil of travel o'er,
Our hearth again we tread,
And lay us down in peace once more
On the long-wish'd-for bed.
[tr. Cranstoun (1867)]Days of happiness and bless,
What in life can match with this?
When with lightened heart the mind
Care and sorrow leaves behind,
And our weary wanderings o'er,
We have reached our own loved door,
And so no more abroad to roam,
Taste the dear delights of home.
[tr. Bliss (1872)]Is there a scene more sweet than when
our clinging cares are undercase,
And, worn by alien moils and men,
The long untrodden sill repassed,
We press the kindly couch at last,
And find a full repayment there?
[tr. Hardy (1887)]Oh what more blessèd be than cares resolved,
When mind casts burthen and by peregrine
Work over wearied, lief we hie us home
To lie reposing in the longed-for bed!
[tr. Burton (1893)]O what greater blessing than cares released, when the mind casts down its burden, and when wearied with the toil of travel we reach our hearth, and rest in the long-for bed.
[tr. Smithers (1894)]To think, O joy! that once again
I should be here upon my native soil!
At ease! O guerdon sweet! when, after wars,
With journeyings and vigils sore bestead,
Our own old home we come to, and the bed
So often longed for under alien stars.
[tr. Harman (1897)]Ah , what is more blessed than to put cares away, when the mind lays by its burden, and tired with labour of far travel we have come to our own home and rest on the couch we longed for.
[tr. Warre Cornish (1904)]O what is sweeter than when loosed from care, when the mind throws down its burden, way-worn we reach our own hearth and at last find repose in the bed we have so often longed for.
[tr. Stuttaford (1912)]Oh, what is sweeter than, when toil is past,
To come back home, the mind care-free at last,
The foreign labors done, the rest well-earned,
To seek the welcome couch for which we've yearned?
[tr. Stewart (1915)]What joys so keen as all one's cares to shed,
To ease the burdened mind, no more to roam,
All travel-worn to reach th' ancestral home,
And rest at length in the long looked for bed.
[tr. Symons-Jeune (1923)]Joy beyond joy to loose the cares that chafe
And lay aside the burden of the mind!
Home after toilsome travel, home once more,
Snug in the cosy bed we wearied for.
[tr. MacNaghten (1925)]Can there be more joy than this
To throw off the chains of office and in calm domestic bliss,
Wearied with the strain of travel, once again to rest my head,
Full reward of all my labours, in my dear, my longed-for bed?
[tr. Wright (1926)]After many months of travel, nothing's better than to rest, relaxed and careless; sleep is heaven in our own beloved bed.
[tr. Gregory (1931)]For what can be more blissful than to ease
One's troubles, when the mind puts off its load
And I return, all care-worn, to my hearth
And sleep in the bed I've longed for?
[tr. Hollander (1976)]What could be better? Every care dissolving, shedding the burden of an exhausting journey, back home among the gods of our own household we find at last the couch, the rest we desired!
[tr. C. Martin (1979)]O what freedom from care is more joyful
than when the mind lays down its burden,
and weary, back home from foreign toil,
we rest in the bed we longed for?
[tr. Kline (2001)]What greater bliss than when, cares all dissolved,
the mind lays down its burden, and, exhausted
by our foreign labors we at last reach home
and sink into the bed we've so long yearned for?
[tr. Green (2005)]O what is happier than worries released,
when the mind sets aside its burden, and we
having been exhausted from foreign labor, have come to our home,
and we rest in our longed for bed?
[tr. Wikisource (2018)]
For a faith which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) British writer
The Exploration of Space (1951)
On people who fear contact with intelligent non-humans would "destroy the foundations of their religious faith."
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Romans 12:19-21
There was only one catch, and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be gorunded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to, but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to.
Joseph Heller (1923-1999) American novelist
Catch-22, ch. 5 (1961)
The mediaeval university looked backwards: it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge. … The modern university looks forward: it is a factory of new knowledge.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Letter to E. Ray Lankester (11 Apr 1892)
Look into any man’s heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Norwegian poet and playwright
The Pillars of Society, Act 3 [Bernick] (1877)
So many gods, so many creeds;
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author and poet.
“The World’s Need,” Custer and Other Poems (1896)
(Source)
Life is not meaningful … unless it is serving an end beyond itself, unless it is of value to someone else.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) Polish-American rabbi, theologian, philosopher
Man is Not Alone, ch. 19 (1951)
There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning.
Christopher Morley (1890-1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist, poet
Parnassus on Wheels, ch. 10 (1917)
The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Press Interview (1902)
When asked what qualities a politician required.
All people should be loved equally. But you cannot do good to all people equally, so you should take particular thought for those who by the chance of place or time or anything else are, as if by lot, in particularly close contact with you.
[Omnes autem aeque diligendi sunt. Sed cum omnibus prodesse non possis, his potissimum consulendum est, qui pro locorum et temporum vel quarumlibet rerum opportunitatibus constrictius tibi quasi quadam sorte iunguntur.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On Christian Doctrine [De Doctrina Christiana], Book 1, ch. 28 / § 29 (1.28.29) (AD 397) [tr. Green (1995), § 61]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.
[tr. Shaw (1858)]All other men are to be loved equally; but since you cannot be of assistance to everyone, those especially are to be cared for who are most closely bound to you by place, time, or opportunity, as if by chance.
[tr. Robertson (1958)]
“Does it ever get easy?”
“You mean life?”
“Yeah. Does it get easy?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Lie to me.”
“Yes, it’s terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day. No-one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.”Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Lie to Me” (3 Nov 1997)
Where there’s a whip there’s a will, my slugs.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 6, ch. 2 “The Land of Shadow” [The Orc-driver] (1955)
(Source)
Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the End of Speech is not Ostentation, but to be understood.
William Penn (1644-1718) English writer, philosopher, politician, statesman
Some Fruits of Solitude, Part 2, “Of Conduct and Speech,” #122 (1682)
(Source)
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
Commencement Address, Stanford University (2005)
(Source)
We are most alive when we’re in love.
John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
Interview, in Naim Attalah, Singular Encounters (1990)
Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
What’s Wrong With The World (1910)
What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn’t necessarily sinful in the others. Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Memoirs, Part 1 “1919-1968, The Road to 24 Sussex Drive” (1993)
Creative minds are rarely tidy.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002) American writer, businessman, government official
Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society (1964)
Sometimes attributed to Jung. Variant: "Creative minds are seldom tidy."
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech, Madison Square Garden, New York City (31 Oct 1936)
Full text.
It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and to make only two people miserable instead of four, besides being very amusing.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Letter to Miss E. M. A. Savage (21 Nov 1884)
Referring to Thomas Carlyle.
It is in their ‘good’ characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self-revelations.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Preface to “Paradise Lost” (1942)
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Interview with Edward R. Murrow on CBS (27 May 1955)
Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 15, § 65 (1951)
(Source)
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
(Spurious)
First cited in the US in 1950, over a decade after his death. No earlier citation is found than that, and no record has been found in Freud's works (translated or original). More discussion here.
The madman thinks the rest of the world crazy.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 386 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best — that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Evolution and Ethics,” The Romanes Lecture, Oxford (1893)
Full text.
I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Norwegian poet and playwright
Letter to Georg Brandes (3 Jan 1882)
I never knu a man trubbled with melankolly, who had plenty to dew, and did it.
[I never knew a man troubled with melancholy, who had plenty to do, and did it.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Puddin and Milk” (1874)
They will avoid the necessity of those overgrown Military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.
George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
“Farewell Address” (17 Sep 1796)
Life is what happens to you
While you’re busy
Making other plans.John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
“Beautiful Boy” (song) (1981)
More analysis on this quote and its predecessors (going back to Allen Saunders in 1957) here.
BESSIE BRADDOCK: Winston, you are drunk, and what’s more you are disgustingly drunk.
WINSTON CHURCHILL: Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Comment (1946)
Version as cited Richard Langworth, Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations. The story was supposedly vouched for by Churchill's bodyguard, but versions of this exchange can be found (with different players) back to 1882. More info here.
The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Baltimore Evening Sun (12 Feb 1923)
Materialism is the belief that if there are other things in life besides money, it takes money to buy them.
Evan Esar (1899-1995) American humorist
20,000 Quips and Quotes (1968)
Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality properly; they are still entangled with the desire for ownership.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
Abinger Harvest: A Miscellany, “My Wood” (1927)
Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
“Education,” The Second Sin (1973)
There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 6, ch. 2 “The Land of Shadow” (1954)
(Source)
One Folk, One Realm, One Leader. Union with the unity of an insect swarm. Knowledgeless understanding of nonsense and diabolism. And then the newsreel camera had cut back to the serried ranks, the swastikas, the brass bands, the yelling hypnotist on the rostrum. And here once again, in the glare of his inner light, was the brown insectlike column, marching endlessly to the tunes of this rococo horror-music. Onward Nazi soldiers, onward Christian soldiers, onward Marxists and Muslims, onward every chosen People, every Crusader and Holy War-maker. Onward into misery, into all wickedness, into death!
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Island (1962)
Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of mankind.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Italian politician, dictator, fascist
“The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism,” International Conciliation (Dec 1935)
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (Jul 1889)
BRUTUS: When love begins to sicken and decay
It useth an enforcèd ceremony.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 4, sc. 2, l. 23ff (4.2.23-24) (1599)
(Source)
It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (14 Mar 1908)
There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an “all Canadian” boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Speech to the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, Winnipeg (9 Oct 1971)
The habit of doing one’s duty drives out fear.
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) French poet, essayist, art critic
Intimate Journals, 116 (1887) [tr. Isherwood (1957)]
The believers and unbelievers who think for themselves will let themselves be burnt alive rather than conform to a creed imposed on them by any power except their own consciences.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, ch. 82 (1928)
Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Marriage and Single Life,” Essays, No. 8 (1625)
(Source)
‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver … ‘Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
All of you, I am sure, have heard many cries about Government interference with business and about “creeping socialism.” I should like to remind the gentlemen who make these complaints that if events had been allowed to continue as they were going prior to March 4, 1933, most of them would have no businesses left for the Government or for anyone else to interfere with — and almost surely we would have socialism in this country, real socialism, not the kind they define.
‘Tis not the dying for a faith that so hard, Master Harry — ’tis the living up to it that is difficult.
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) English novelist
The History of Henry Esmond, 1.6 (1852)
Men are but children of a larger growth;
Our appetites as apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain.John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
All for Love, 4.1 (1678)
We always hesitate to treat a dangerously good man as a lunatic because he may turn out to be a prophet in the true sense: that is, a man of exceptional sanity who is in the right when we are in the wrong.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Getting Married, Preface, “The Gospel of Laodicea” (1908)
A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there was an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man — a man of restless and versatile intellect — who not content with an equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them with aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Reply to Samuel Wilberforce, Oxford Evolution Debate (30 Jun 1860)
As quoted in Leonard Huxley (ed.), Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S (1900).Bp. Wilberforce (1805-1873), during a debate, asked Huxley "whether he was descended from an ape on his grandmother's side or his grandfather's." No precise transcript was made at the time, so there are various accounts of Huxley's answer.
Variants:
- Quoted in Alan L. Mackay, Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977): "If the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape."
- Quoted in Mrs. Isabella Sidgwick, "A Grandmother's Tales," Macmillan's Magazine (Oct 1898): "The Bishop rose, and in a light scoffing tone, florid and he assured us there was nothing in the idea of evolution; rock-pigeons were what rock-pigeons had always been. Then, turning to his antagonist with a smiling insolence, he begged to know, was it through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey? On this Mr Huxley slowly and deliberately arose. A slight tall figure stern and pale, very quiet and very grave, he stood before us, and spoke those tremendous words — words which no one seems sure of now, nor I think, could remember just after they were spoken, for their meaning took away our breath, though it left us in no doubt as to what it was. He was not ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used great gifts to obscure the truth. No one doubted his meaning and the effect was tremendous. One lady fainted and had to carried out: I, for one, jumped out of my seat; and when in the evening we met at Dr Daubeney's, every one was eager to congratulate the hero of the day."
- [After a defense of Darwin's work.] "I would rather be the offspring of two apes than be a man and afraid to face the truth."
We modern Christians are long on talk and short on conduct.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
Born After Midnight
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the confversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, 1.10.2 (1776)
Being considered or labeled mentally disordered — abnormal, crazy, mad, psychotic, sick, it matters not what variant is used — is the most profoundly discrediting classificiation that can be imposed on a person today. Mental illness casts the “patient” out of our social order just as surely as heresy cast the “witch” out of medieval society, That, indeed, is the very purposes of stigma terms.
Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
The Manufacture of Madness, ch. 12 (1970)
A Good life fears not Life nor Death.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, # 157 (1732)
(Source)
It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (1930s)
Anyone will be glad to admit that he knows nothing about beagling, or the Chinese stock market, or ballistics, but there is not a man or woman alive who does not claim to know how to cure hiccoughs.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
“Stop Those Hiccoughs!”, My Ten Years in a Quandary and How They Grew (1936)
The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Mr. Mencken Sounds Off,” interview, LIFE Magazine (5 Aug 1946)
(Source)
Without the arts, we’re merely primates with car keys.
Susan Barnes-Gelt (contemp.) American civic activist and poltician
In Rocky Mountain News (20 Jul 1997)
Variant (20 Sep 2004): "Without arts and culture - we're no more than primates with car keys!"
‘What do you fear, lady?’ he asked.
‘A cage,’ she said. ‘To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.’
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 5, ch. 2 “The Passing of the Grey Company” [Aragorn and Eowyn] (1955)
(Source)
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“A Case of Voluntary Ignorance,” Esquire (Sep 1956)
Industry is fortune’s right hand, and frugality her left.
John Ray (1627-1705) English naturalist [a.k.a. John Wray]
A Collection of English Proverbs (1678)
The essence of love is kindness.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Virginibus Puerisque,” sec. 3 (1881)
(Source)
War is not the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (24 Jul 1915)
The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
(Attributed, 1970)
Widely attributed, but unsourced.
Lead us not into the temptation of believing that we have truly forgiven, while rancor lingers.
Katherine Zell (1497-1562) German Protestant reformer, writer, humanitarian [Katharina Schütz Zell]
“Den Psalmen Misere” (1558)
The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
(Attributed)
Leisure is Time for doing something useful; this Leisure the diligent Man will obtain but the lazy Man never.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
“The Way to Wealth” (7 Jul 1757)
Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)
The people can never understand why the President does not use his powers to make them behave. Well all the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Letter to Mary Jane Truman (14 Nov 1947)
What do you mean, funny? Funny peculiar, or funny ha-ha?
Ian Hay (1876-1952) Scottish novelist, playwright, schoolmaster, soldier (pseud. of John Hay Beith)
Housemaster, ch. 3 (1936)
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.
Jules de Goncourt (1830-1870) French writer
Journal (12 Jul 1867) [tr. Baldick (1980)]
We are all born mad. Some remain so.
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) American playwright
Waiting for Godot, Act 1 (1955)
The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Science and Morals” (1886)
Full text.
Truth is a glorious but hard mistress. She never consults, bargains or compromises.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
Of God and Men
You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #5427 (1732)
(Source)
YOUNG MAN (after seeing Churchill leave the bathroom without washing his hands): At Eton they taught us to wash our hands after using the toilet.
CHURCHILL: At Harrow they taught us not to piss on our hands.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Nine-tenths of the value of a sense of humor in writing is not in the things it makes one write but in the things it keeps one from writing. It is especially valuable in this respect in serious writing, and no one without a sense of humor should ever write seriously. For without knowing what is funny, one is constantly in danger of being funny without knowing it.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
LIFE Magazine (8 Mar 1929)
History can suggest to us alternatives that we would never otherwise consider. It can both warn and inspire. It can warn us that it is possible for a whole nation to be brainwashed, for “enlightened” and “educated” people to commit genocide, for a “democratic” country to maintain slavery, for oppressed to turn into oppressors, for “socialism” to be tyrannical and “liberalism” to be imperialist, for whole peoples to be led to war like sheep. It can also show us that apparently powerless underlings can defeat their rulers, that men (for at least moments of time) can live like brothers, that man can make incredible sacrifices on behalf of a cause.
Howard Zinn (1922-2010) American historian, academic, author, social activist
The Politics of History, ch. 17 (1970)
[O]ften when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address. Mind you I don’t think so — the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Arthur Greaves (24 Dec 1930)
I am always ready to learn, though I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (4 Nov 1952)
The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually — their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 4, ch. 8 “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol” [Sam] (1954)
(Source)
The trouble with fiction … is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
The Genius and the Goddess [John Rivers] (1955)
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.
Steven Weinberg (1933-2021) American theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate
The First Three Minutes (1977)
Weak kings are subject to flashes of temper
Ruled by their emotion. So are strong ones.Gavin Ewart (1916-1995) British poet
“The Law Allows Cruel Experiments on Friendly Animals,” The Pleasures of the Flesh (1966)
We are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to “like” one another.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
No Man Is an Island, 9.6 (1955)
The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (28 Oct 1922)
Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Addressing the Press Club in Washington, D.C. (25 Mar 1969)
The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change.
(Other Authors and Sources)
A FORTRAN manual for Xerox computers
In brief, she assumed that, being a man, I was vain to the point of imbecility, and this assumption was correct, as it always is.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“A Popular Virtue,” Prejudices: Second Series (1920)
A Life of Leisure and a Life of Laziness are two things.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, # 240 (1732)
(Source)
We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter (29 Apr 1959)
No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Joint Session of the US Congress (12 Mar 1947)
(Source)
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell (1937-2021) American military leader, politician, diplomat
My American Journey, ch. 2 (2003)
Argument is conclusive … but … it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may never rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment. For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns, his hearer’s mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.
Roger Bacon (c.1220-1292) English philosopher and scientist
Opus Maius, Part 4, ch. 1 (1267)
One element in all happiness is to feel that we have deserved it.
[Il entre dans la composition de tout bonheur l’idée de l’avoir mérité.]
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 5 “Des Passions et des Affections de l’Âme [On the Soul],” ¶ 31 (1850 ed.) [tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 4, ¶ 21]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Into the composition of every happiness enters the thought of having deserved it.
[tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 5]It is an element of all happiness to fancy that we deserve it.
[tr. Collins (1928), ch. 5]
Science … commits suicide when it adopts a creed.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“The Darwin Memorial” (1885)
Full text.
In our constant struggle to believe we are likely to overlook the simple fact that a bit of healthy disbelief is sometimes as needful as faith to the welfare of our souls. I would go further and say that we would do well to cultivate a reverent skepticism. It will keep us out of a thousand bogs and quagmires where others who lack it sometimes find themselves. It is no sin to doubt some things, but it may be fatal to believe everything.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Root of the Righteous
You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it.
Robert Anthony (contemp.) American psychologist, author
Beyond Positive Thinking, ch. 11 (1988)
Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.
David Lodge (b. 1935) English author, literary critic
The British Museum is Falling Down, ch. 4 (1965)
The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“Common Places” (1), Literary Examiner (Sep-Dec 1823)
One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double your danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
I can’t quite define my aversion to asking questions of strangers. From snatches of family battles which I have heard drifting up from railway stations and street corners, I gather that there are a great many men who share my dislike for it, as well as an equal number of women who … believe it to be the solution to most of this world’s problems.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
Pluck and Luck, “Ask That Man” (1925)
Sometimes it is too late to win. But it’s never too late to lose.
(Other Authors and Sources)
“Warson’s Truth” (Tom Warson)
The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.
Bret Harte (1836-1902) American author and poet [Francis Bret Harte]
“The Outcasts of Poker Flat” (1869)
‘Tis harder to unlearn than learn.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #5085 (1732)
(Source)
We are truth-speakers, we men of Gondor. We boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt. Not if I found it on the highway would I take it I said. Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take these words as a vow, and be held by them. But I am not such a man. Or I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 4, ch. 5 “The Window on the West” [Faramir] (1954)
Faramir, rejecting the One Ring when he learns Frodo and Sam have it. Referring to this vow.
Any man who has once decared the other man to be a fool, a bad fellow, is annoyed when that man ends by showing that he is not.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Human, All Too Human, ch. 90 (1878) [tr Faber (1984)]
Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation — and their ideas from suppression — at the hand of an intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable consequences, and, in general, our society accords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse.
John Paul Stevens (1920-2019) American lawyer, US Supreme Court Justice (1975-2010)
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission 514 U.S. 334, 357 (1995)
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 5:43-45
See Matthew 22:36-40.
Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of ‘touching’ a man’s heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Twelve Types, “Charles II” (1902)
Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.
Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) Canadian politician
Speech, Liberal leadership convention (1968)
He is dangerous who has nothing to lose.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Die natürliche Tochter, 1.3 (1804)
Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful, and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous, and loathed because they impose slavery.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Sceptical Essays, ch. 6 (1928)
Nothing excellent can be done without leisure.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
Journal (15 Jan 1946) [tr. O’Brien (1951)]
Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)
Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me. I’ve got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Remark to reporters (13 Apr 1945)
On having become president the previous day, upon Franklin Roosevelt's death.
There are two kinds of losers: (1) the good loser and (2) those who can’t act.
Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
Peter’s People, ch. 8 (1979)
In the midst of events there is no perspective.
Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
A Distant Mirror (1978)
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
We Bereaved (1929)
Also in The Open Door (1957).
The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitious — fabricated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the boundaries of that province, they must be content with imagination, with hope, and with ignorance.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature” (1885)
Full text.
Credulity, on the other hand, never honors God, for it shows as great a readiness to believe anybody as to believe God Himself. The credulous person will accept anything as long as it is unusual, and the more unusual it is the more ardently he will believe. Any testimony will be swallowed with a straight face if it only has about it some element of the eerie, the preternatural, the unearthly ….
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Root of the Righteous, ch. 34
How long is life to the wretched, how short for the happy!
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 621 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
The enemy held my will in his power and from it he had made a chain and shackled me. My will was perverse and lust had grown from it, and when I gave in to lust habit was born, and when I did not resist the habit it became a necessity. These were the links which together formed what I have called my chain, and it held me fast in the duress of servitude.
[Velle meum tenebat inimicus et inde mihi catenam fecerat et constrinxerat me. Quippe ex voluntate perversa facta est libido, et dum servitur libidini, facta est consuetudo, et dum consuetudini non resistitur, facta est necessitas. Quibus quasi ansulis sibimet innexis (unde catenam appellavi) tenebat me obstrictum dura servitus.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
Confessions, Book 8, ch. 5 / ¶ 10 (8.5.10) (c. AD 398) [tr. Pine-Coffin (1961)]
(Source)
Sometimes paraphrased "Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity."
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:My will the enemy held, and thence had made a chain for me, and bound me. For of a forward will, was a lust made; and a lust served, became custom; and custom not resisted, became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together (whence I called it a chain) a hard bondage held me enthralled.
[tr. Pusey (1838), and ed. Shedd (1860)]My will was the enemy master of, and thence had made a chain for me and bound me. Because of a perverse will was lust made; and lust indulged in became custom; and custom not resisted became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together (whence I term it a “chain”), did a hard bondage hold me enthralled.
[tr. Pilkington (1876)]The enemy held my will , and with me made a chain for me and bound me. For from a perverse will, lust was made; and in obeying lust, habit was formed, and habit not resisted, became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together -- therefore I call it a chain -- was I held shackled with a hard bondage.
[tr. Hutchings (1890)]The enemy held fast my will, and had made of it a chain, and bound me tight therewith. For from a perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and acquiescence in habit produced necessity. These were the links of what I call my chain, and they held me bound in hard slavery.
[tr. Bigg (1897)]The enemy held my will; and of it he made a chain and bound me. Because my will was perverse it changed to lust, and lust yielded to became habit, and habit not resisted became necessity. These were like links hanging one on another -- which is why I have called it a chain -- and their hard bondage held me bound hand and foot.
[tr. Sheed (1943)]The enemy held fast my will, and had made of it a chain, and had bound me tight with it. For out of the perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and habit, not resisted, became necessity. By these links, as it were, forged together--which is why I called it “a chain”--a hard bondage held me in slavery.
[tr. Outler (1955)]The enemy had control of my will, and out of it he fashioned a chain and fettered me with it. For in truth lust is made out of a perverse will, and when lust is served, it becomes habit, and when habit is not resisted, it becomes necessity. By such links, joined one to another, as it were -- for this reason I have called it a chain -- a harsh bondage held me fast.
[tr. Ryan (1960)]The enemy held my will and made a chain out of it and bound me with it. From a perverse will came lust, and slavery to lust became a habit, and the habit, being constantly yielded to, became a necessity. These were like links, hanging each to each (which is why I called it a chain), and they held me fast in a hard slavery.
[tr. Warner (1963)]My willingness the enemy held, and out of it had made me a chain and bound me. Of stubborn will ios a lust made. When a lust is served, a custom is made, and when a custom is not resisted a necessity is made. It was as though link was bound to link (hence what I called a chain) and hard bondage held me bound.
[tr. Blailock (1983)]
Life is hardly more than a fraction of a second. Such a little time to prepare oneself for eternity!!!
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) French painter [Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin]
Intimate Journals of Paul Gauguin (1936) [tr. Brooks (1949)]
Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Spurious)
Anthony Montague-Browne, Churchill's assistant, said that Churchill denied coining this phrase, but wished he had.
Sometimes given as "nothing but rum, buggery, and the lash."
It’s easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
(Attributed)
They do say that when a man starts down hill everybody is ready to help him with a kick, and I suppose it is so.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Letter, San Francisco Alta California (15 Mar 1867)
War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
The Guns of August (1962)
In Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1970), she gave this as "History is the unfolding of miscalculations."
A Little Learning misleadeth, and a great deal often stupifieth the Understanding.
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“False Learning,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)
(Source)
Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 4, ch. 1 “The Taming of Sméagol” (1954)
(Source)
Frodo recalling the words of Gandalf (approximately) in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Distractions I,” Vedanta for the Western World [ed. Christopher Isherwood] (1945)
When I am dead,
I hope it may be said:
‘His sins were scarlet,
But his books were read’.Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Franco-British writer, historian [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc]
“On His Books” (1923)
Whatever you can lose, reckon of no account.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 191 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
If you would be loved, love and be lovable.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Feb 1755)
Earlier given, "If you'd be beloved, make yourself amiable." (Nov 1744). See Ovid.
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (3 Jun 1922)
May it be to the world what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all.) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which Monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self government. The form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born, with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. These are grounds of hope for others.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Roger Chew Weightman (24 Jun 1826)
(Source)
The last letter he wrote.
From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Franco-British writer, historian [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc]
Verses, “Dedicatory Ode” (1910)
All the lonely people,
where do they all come from?
All the lonely people,
where do they all belong?John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
“Eleanor Rigby” (song) [with Paul McCartney] (1966)
Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce, ch. 9 (1946)
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Memoirs of William Miller, quoted in Life (2 May 1955)
(Source)
To wait an Hour — is long —
If Love be just beyond —
To wait Eternity — is short —
If Love reward the end —Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet
“To Wait an Hour — is long” (1863?)
Logic: an instrument for bolstering a prejudice.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
A Thousand and One Epigrams (1911)
Happiness cannot be the reward of virtue; it must be the the intelligible consequence of it.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Morals, 7.7 (1929)
I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance — that there are a great many people in the world who are just as clever as you are. You learn to put your trust, by and by, in an economy and frugality of the exercise of your powers, both moral and intellectual; and you very soon find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“On Medical Education” (1870)
Whatever a man wants badly and persistently enough will determine the man’s character.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Root of the Righteous, ch. 33 (1955)
Full text.
The judgments which Johnson passed on books were, in his own time, regarded with superstitious veneration, and, in our time, are generally treated with indiscriminate contempt. They are the judgments of a strong but enslaved understanding. The mind of the critic was hedged round by an uninterrupted fence of prejudices and superstitions. Within his narrow limits, he displayed a vigour and an activity which ought to have enabled him to clear the barrier that confined him. How it chanced that a man who reasoned on his premises so ably, should assume his premises so foolishly, is one of the great mysteries of human nature.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“Samuel Johnson,” The Edinburgh Review (Sep 1831)
(Source)
Review of John Croker's 1831 edition of James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson.
I entirely appreciate loyalty to one’s friends, but loyalty to the cause of justice and honor stand above it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Letter to a Senator from Oregon (15 May 1905)
Govern thy Life and Thoughts, as if the whole World were to see the one, and read the other.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 417 (1725)
(Source)
The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Variant: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average voter."Commonly attributed but no citation has been found.
Success is full of promise till men get it; and then it is last year’s nest from which the bird has flown.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
(Attributed)
In Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
Great merit, or great failings, will make you be respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked, in the general run of the world.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #187 (20 Jul 1749)
(Source)
By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars. … Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state?
Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
Speech, US Senate (15 Sep 1981)
A handfull of good life is better then a bushell of learning.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 3 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
The treacherous are ever distrustful.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 3, ch. 10 “The Voice of Saruman” [Gandalf] (1954)
(Source)
Facts are ventriloquists’ dummies. Sitting on a wise man’s knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Time Must Have A Stop [Bruno Rotini] (1944)
Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.
Germaine Greer (b. 1939) Australian-English feminist, reformer, author, educator
The Female Eunuch, “Love: Security” (1970)
(Source)
Literature is both my joy and my comfort: it can add to every happiness and there is no sorrow it cannot console.
Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, 8.19 [tr. Radice (1963)]
Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, 3.9 (1952)
But among the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
A Miscellany of Men, “The Miser and His Friends” (1912)
(Source)
In a similar vein, in "The Paradise of Thieves," The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914), Chesterton has the character Muscari say:To be clever enough to get all that money,
one must be stupid enough to want it.
Least and last of all should I undertake to criticise works on the Apocalypse. it is between 50. and 60. years since I read it, & I then considered it as merely the ravings of a Maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1825-01-17) to Alexander Smyth
(Source)
On the Book of Revelation.
When you think you’ve lost everything,
you find out you can always lose a little more.Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
“Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” (song) (1997)
Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #227 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
Your job today tells me nothing of your future — your use of your leisure today tells me just what your tomorrow will be.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Speech, Building Dedication, Jamestown High School, New York (1935-11-15)
(Source)
Quoted in Eugene Gerhart, America's Advocate: Robert H. Jackson, ch. 24 (1958).
You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humour while roaring with laughter.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
God in the Dock, “Myth Become Fact” (1970)
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Attributed)
Alternate versions:No source found. The quote is frequently also attributed to Richard Feynman. It is likely based on a similar quote by Ernest Rutherford.
- "If you can't explain something to a six-year-old, you really don't understand it yourself."
- "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
The closest reference to it can be found in Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times (1972):To de Broglie, Einstein revealed an instinctive reason for his inability to accept the purely statistical interpretation of wave mechanics. It was a reason which linked him with Rutherford, who used to state that "it should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid." Einstein, having a final discussion with de Broglie on the platform of the Gare du Nord in Paris, whence they had traveled from Brussels to attend the Fresnel centenary celebrations, said "that all physical theories, their mathematical expressions apart ought to lend themselves to so simple a description 'that even a child could understand them.'"
More discussion of this quotation here.
ERNEST: What is the differnece between literature and journalism?
GILBERT: Oh! journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“Sebastian Melmoth”
Trusting to luck is only another name for trusting to lazyness.
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 131 “Affurisms: Plum Pits (1)” (1874)
(Source)
I believe four ingredients are necessary for happiness: health, warm personal relations, sufficient means to keep you from want, and successful work.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Redbook Dialogue,” interview by Tommy Robbins, Redbook (1964-09)
(Source)
Reprinted in Russell Society News, #37 (1983-02), p. 25.
Let us have “sweet girl graduates” by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom; and the “golden hair” will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Emancipation — Black and White” (1865)
Full text.
All things being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives. In the long pull we pray only as well as we live.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Pursuit of God (1957)
I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please, as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process.
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“The Disease of Democracy,” Notes on Democracy (1926)
Full text.
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal (1869-12-16) [tr. Ward (1897)]
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech in the House of Commons (4 Jun 1940)
Full text.
There are many persons of combative tendencies, who read for ammunition, and dig out of the Bible iron for balls. They read, and they find nitre and charcoal and sulphur for powder. They read, and they find cannon. They read, and they make portholes and embrasures. And if a man does not believe as they do, they look upon him as an enemy, and let fly the Bible at him to demolish him. So men turn the word of God into a vast arsenal, filled with all manner of weapons, offensive and defensive.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
(Attributed)
In Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
The legislative job of the President is especially important to the people who have no special representatives to plead their cause before Congress — and that includes the great majority. The President is the only lobbyist that 150 million Americans have. The other 20 million are able to employ people to represent them — and that’s all right, it’s the exercise of the right of petition — but someone has to look after the interests of the 150 million that are left.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Press and Union Club, San Francisco (25 Oct 1956)
A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
“Elements of Success,” speech, Spencerian Business College, Washington, D.C. (29 Jul 1869)
(Source)
The first reward of justice is the consciousness that we are acting justly.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) French philosopher and writer
Emile, ch. 4 “The Creed of a Savoyard Priest” (1762) [tr. Foley (1911)]
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Illustrated London News (19 Apr 1930)
And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to John Adams (11 Apr 1823)
(Source)
Loyalty is a noble quality, so long as it is not blind and does not exclude the higher loyalty to truth and decency.
B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, military historian (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Why Don’t We Learn from History?, “Blinding Loyalties” (1944)
JULIET: My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 139ff (2.2.139-141) (c. 1594)
(Source)
Whoever is not in the possession of leisure can hardly be said to possess independence. They talk of the dignity of work. Bosh. True work is the necessity of poor humanity’s earthly condition. The dignity is in leisure.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) American writer
Letter to his cousin, Kate Gansevoort Lansing (5 Sep 1877)
Full text.
In the moral sphere, every act of justice or charity involves putting ourselves in the other person’s place and thus transcending our own competitive particularity.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
An Experiment in Criticism (1961)
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Attributed)
In a Nutshell: Six Ways to Make People Like You —
Principle 1: Become genuinely interested in other people
Principle 2: Smile.
Principle 3: Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Principle 4: Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Principle 5: Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
Principle 6: Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely.Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer, lecturer
How to Win Friends and Influence People, 2.6 (1936, rev. 1981)
Give a man health and a course to steer; and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, ch. 3 (1901)
Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Darwiniana: the Origin of Species (1860)
If my fire is not large, it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) American minister, author [Aiden Wilson Tozer]
The Pursuit of God, Forward (1957)
It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
(Attributed)
Cited in some cases as the closing argument while defending the British Soldiers accused of killing 5 colonists in the "Boston Massacre" (usually given as "Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials" (Dec 1770)), but I did not find it in accounts of that defense.
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.
Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) English parodist, caricaturist, wit, writer [Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm]
“1880” (1895)
The prime thing that every man who takes an interest in politics should remember is that he must act, and not merely criticize the actions of others. It is not the man who sits by his fireside reading his evening paper, and saying how bad our politics and politicians are, who will ever do anything to save us; it is the man who goes out into the rough hurly-burly of the caucus, the primary, and the political meeting, and there faces his fellows on equal terms. The real service is rendered, not by the critic who stands aloof from the contest, but by the man who enters into it and bears his part as a man should, undeterred by the blood and the sweat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“The Manly Virtues and Practical Politics,” Forum (Jul 1894)
The trick in life is not in getting what you want but in wanting what you get after you get it.
Warren Beatty (b. 1937) American actor
Love Affair (film) [with Robert Towne] (1994).
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (27 Feb 1945)