WIST Quotations | Wish I'd Said That!

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-10), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 10 (1859).

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: experience, insight, lifetime
More quotes by Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr.

I didn’t want to work. It was as simple as that. I distrusted work, disliked it. I thought it was a very bad thing that the human race had unfortunately invented for itself.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
Endless Night, ch. 3 (1967)
(Source)

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: ambition, human condition, labor, laziness, sloth, work
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Weak men are the light troops in the army of the wicked. They do more harm than the main force; they overrun and and ravage the country.
[Les gens faibles sont les troupes légères de l’armée des méchans. Ils font plus de mal que l’armée même; ils infestent et ils ravagent.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 133 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

The weak are the light infantry of the army of the ill-intentioned. They do more harm than the army itself; they harry and they lay waste.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Weaklings are the light foot of the army of the wicked. They do more harm than the army itself, they pillage and lay waste.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]

Weak people are the light troops of the wicked. They cause more harm than the army itself, they infest and ravage.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Weak people are the light infantry of the army of the wicked. They cause more harm than the army itself; they spread infection, they wreak havoc.
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶108]

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: acquiescent, bad people, complaisance, compliant, enabler, evil, evil-doers, irresolution, wavering, weak, wicked
More quotes by Chamfort, Nicolas

Mild success can be explainable by skills and labor. Wild success is attributable to variance.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
Fooled by Randomness, Part 1, ch. 1 (2001)
(Source)

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: average, good luck, hard work, labor, luck, skill, success, variance
More quotes by Taleb, Nassim Nicholas

Wives who are chummy with their husbands are apt to live contented lives.

Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Sweethearts and Beaux (1905)
(Source)

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: companion, contentment, friendliness, friendship, husband, marriage, relationship, spouse, wife
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Machines do not have feelings. […] This is not to say that no inanimate objects have feelings — toys are loaded with feelings, for instance, and only a monster would break the heart of a rag doll.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1981-03-29)
(Source)

Collected in Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Part 3 "Basic Civilization," "Common Courtesy for All Ages" (1983).

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: animism, doll, emotions, feelings, inanimate objects, machines, qualia, toys
More quotes by Martin, Judith

IAGO: O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Othello, Act 3, sc. 3, ll. 195ff (3.3.195-197) (1603)
(Source)

Probable origin not just of the term "green-eyed monster" for jealousy / envy, but (along with his previous use of "green-eyed jealousy" in The Merchant of Venice, 3.2.113) of the association of the color green with the emotion.

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: desire, envy, green, jealousy
More quotes by Shakespeare, William

ARTHUR: I don’t want to die now, I’ve still got a headache! I don’t want to go to heaven with a headache, I’d be all cross and wouldn’t enjoy it.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humourist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 2nd” (BBC radio) (1978-03-15)
(Source)

The adaptation into the original novelization, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, ch. 7 (1979), is nearly the same:

"I don't want to die now!" he yelled. "I've still got a headache! I don't want to go to heaven with a headache, I'd be all cross and wouldn't enjoy it!"

Added on 3-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: afterlife, death, enjoyment, headache, heaven
More quotes by Adams, Douglas

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, political ethicist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Letter (1947-08-29) to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
(Source)

Quoted in Louis Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, ch. 31 (1954)

Added on 2-Mar-25 | Last updated 3-Mar-25
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Topics: contamination, corruption, faith, good people, human nature, humanity, love your neighbor, meme, people, stain
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

You wretches, detestable on land and sea; you who seek equality with lords are unworthy to live. Give this message to your colleagues: rustics you were and rustics you are still: you will remain in bondage, not as before but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example in the eyes of posterity. How ever, we will spare your lives if you remain faithful and loyal. Choose now which course you want to follow .

Richard II of England (1367-1400) King of England (1377-1399) [Richard of Bordeaux]
Speech (1381-06-22) to the peasant followers of Wat Tyler at Walthamstow, St Alban’s Chronicle
(Source)

More on the Peasant Rebellion here.

Added on 2-Mar-25 | Last updated 2-Mar-25
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Topics: class warfare, classism, equality, inequality, oppression, rebellion, threat, tyranny
More quotes by Richard II

And what does this metastasizing testing, for every subject, at every level, at every time of the year, do to kids? It has to mean that students absorb the message that learning is a joyless succession of hoops through which they must jump, rather than a way of understanding and mastering the world. Every question has one right answer; the measure of a person is a number. Being insightful, or creative, or, heaven forfend, counterintuitive counts for nothing.

Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
Article (2005-06-12), “Testing: One, Two, Three,” Newsweek
(Source)

Added on 2-Mar-25 | Last updated 2-Mar-25
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Topics: creativity, education, insight, joylessness, learning, oversimplification, testing, understanding
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When I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I think of the time in China when I saw Mao’s Little Red Book on every official’s desk, omnipresent and unread.

Bill Moyers (1934-2025) American journalist and public commentator
Essay (2003-02-28), “Patriotism and the Flag,” NOW with Bill Moyers (PBS)
(Source)

Moyers quoted the comments a few years later in a speech to the National Conference for Media Reform (St Louis) (2005-05-15); the phrase is often cited to that occasion.

Added on 2-Mar-25 | Last updated 2-Mar-25
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Topics: compliance, facade, flag, party line, patriotism, performance, pretense
More quotes by Moyers, Bill

You know the simple psychological truth, Charles; we’re always accusing others of our own flaws.

Alfred Bester (1913-1987) American author, screenwriter, editor
“Galatea Galante,” Omni (1979-04-07)
(Source)

Added on 1-Mar-25 | Last updated 1-Mar-25
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Topics: accusation, flaws, judgment, projection, self-awareness, self-rightousness
More quotes by Bester, Alfred

It is my belief that no crime, however cowardly and however shameless and cruel, can be imagined which there isn’t somebody in Christendom willing to commit.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Autobiographical Dictation (1908-06-26)
(Source)

Published in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3 (2015).

Added on 1-Mar-25 | Last updated 1-Mar-25
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Topics: Christianity, cowardice, crime, cruelty, religion, shamelessness
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I had set foot in that part of life beyond which one cannot go with any hope of returning.
[Io tenni li piedi in quella parte de la vita di là da la quale non si puote ire più per intendimento di ritornare.]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 14 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Reynolds (1969)]
(Source)

Said to his friend after seeing Beatrice at a wedding feast (perhaps her own to Simone de’ Bardi), at which point his passion for her has have been set.

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

Of a surety I have now set my feet on that point of life, beyond the which he must not pass who would return.
[tr. Rossetti (c. 1847; 1899 ed.)]

I have set my foot in that part of life, to pass beyond which with purpose to return is impossible.
[tr. Martin (1862)]

I have held my feet on that part of life beyond which no man can go with intent to return.
[tr. Norton (1867)]

I have placed my feet on those boundaries of life beyond which no one can go further and hope to return.
[tr. Musa (1971)]

I have just set foot on that boundary of life beyond which no one can go, hoping to return.
[tr. Hollander (1997)]

I have set foot in that region of life where it is not possible to go with any more intention of returning.
[tr. Kline (2002)]

My feet were at the edge of life beyond which one cannot pass with an expectation of returning.
[tr. Appelbaum (2006)]

I have set my feet in that place in life beyond which one cannot go with the intention of returning.
[tr. Frisardi (2012), ch. 7]

Added on 1-Mar-25 | Last updated 1-Mar-25
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Topics: commitment, irreversibility, irrevocability, life, living, no return, rubicon, transition
More quotes by Dante Alighieri

Like the Athenian miser, who was wont
To meet men’s curses with a hero’s front:
“Folks hiss me,” said he, “but myself I clap
When I tell o’er my treasures on my lap.”
[Ut quidam memoratur Athenis
sordidus ac dives, populi contemnere voces
sic solitus: ‘populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.’]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Maecenas,” l. 64ff (1.1.64-67) (35 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Such one we reade of in olde tyme, that dwelte in Athins towne,
A man in substance passinge rytche, nathlesse a niggerde cloune,
At whose scarceheade, and covetyce the worlde did outas make,
But all in vayne, he forste it not, he sought not howe to slake
Blacke fame, that frisked everye wheare, and bounsed at ytche eare,
"A figge for them (brasen face) I force not howe I heare,
"They hauke, they hem, they hisse at me, I weygh it not an hawe,
"Whilste I may harbor in mine arke, and lodge wythin my lawe
"My darlynge goulde, my leaves gueste, my solace and my glee,
"He is the bone companion, its he that cheares up me."
[tr. Drant (1567)]

Thus that Athenian Monster Timon, which
Hated Man-kind, a sordid Knave, but rich,
Was wont to say, When ere I walk abroad
The People hiss me, but I do applaud
And hug my self at home, when I behold
My chests brim-full with Silver and with Gold.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]

Since He, as the Athenian Chuff, will cry
The People hiss me, True, but what care I?
Let the poor fools hiss me where e're I come,
I bless my self to see my bags at home.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

At Athens liv'd a wight, in days of yore,
Though miserably rich, yet fond of more,
But of intrepid spirit to despise
The abusive crowd. "Let them hiss on," he cries,
" While, in my own opinion fully blest,
I count my money, and enjoy my chest."
[tr. Francis (1747)]

Self-cursed as that same miser must have been,
Who lived at Athens, rich as he was mean, --
Who, when the people hiss'd, would turn about
And drily thus accost the rabble-rout:
"Hiss on; I heed you not, ye saucy wags,
While self-applauses greet me o'er my bags."
[tr. Howes (1845)]

As a certain person is recorded [to have lived] at Athens, covetous and rich, who was wont to despise the talk of the people in this manner: “The crowd hiss me; but I applaud myself at home, as soon as I contemplate my money in my chest.”
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

As wretched as, at Athens, some rich miser was, who (as they say) was wont to thus despise what people said of him: "Aha ! the Public hiss, but in my heart I say I m right, directly that I gaze upon the coins in my strong-box."
[tr. Millington (1870)]

He is like a rich miser in Athens who, they say, used thus to scorn the people's talk: "The people hiss me, but at home I clap my hands for myself, once I gaze on the moneys in my chest."
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]

Like the man they tell of
In Athens, filthy but rich, who despised the voice
Of the people and kept saying, "So! The citizens hiss at me!
Ah! But I applaud myself alone at home
When I gaze on the coins in my strongbox."
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]

They're like an Athenian I heard about
Rich and stingy, he thought nothing of the people's snide remarks,
and always said, "They hiss me, but I applaud myself
at home, as soon as I lay eyes on the money in my chest."
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]

As the Athenian miser
Is said to have answered, when citizens
Mocked him: "They hiss me, but at home I
Applaud myself, counting the coins in my safe."
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

Like that one
about whom the story was told in Athens:
stingy and rich, he used to express
his scorn of the people’s jibes with these words:
"The people may hiss me, but at home
I applaud myself as I contemplate
my gold in the strongbox."
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

He’s like the miser in Athens
who scorned, it’s said, what people thought of him.
“They hiss me in the streets, but once I’m home
I stare at my bright coffers and applaud
myself.”
[tr. Matthews (2002)]

He's like the rich
Athenian miser who treated the people's remarks with contempt.
"The people hiss me," he would say, "but I applaud myself
when I reach home and set eyes on all the cash in my box!"
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]

Like the rich Athenian miser
Who used to hold the voice of the crowd in contempt:
"They hiss at me, that crew, but once I’m home I applaud
Myself, as I contemplate all the riches in my chests."
[tr. Kline (2015)]

Added on 28-Feb-25 | Last updated 28-Feb-25
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Topics: avarice, booing, disdain, greed, hissing, miser, mob, money, public, riches, solace, treasure, wealth
More quotes by Horace

I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.

Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) Canadian writer, literary critic, environmental activist
“Hair Jewellery,” Dancing Girls (1982)
(Source)

Added on 28-Feb-25 | Last updated 28-Feb-25
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Topics: forget, looking back, nostalgia, past, retrospect, rose-colored glasses, youth
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What do you think of Technocracy?
Nothing you can’t spell will ever work.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1933-01-04), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Interviews Forgotten Man”
(Source)

In later collections, only the answer is given.

Added on 28-Feb-25 | Last updated 28-Feb-25
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Topics: complexity, solution, spelling
More quotes by Rogers, Will

Gratitude without familiarity, gratitude otherwise than as a nameless element in a friendship, is a thing so near to hatred that I do not care to split the difference. Until I find a man who is pleased to receive obligations, I shall continue to question the tact of those who are eager to confer them.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1888-03), “Beggars,” sec. 4 Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 3
(Source)

Collected in Across the Plains, ch. 9 (1892).

Added on 28-Feb-25 | Last updated 28-Feb-25
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Topics: appreciation, familiarity, friendship, gratefulness, gratitude, hatred, obligation, resentment, thankfulness
More quotes by Stevenson, Robert Louis

A good-tempered antinomianism rather of Dickens’s type is one of the marks of Western popular culture. One sees it in folkstories and comic songs, in dream-figures like Mickey Mouse and Pop-eye the Sailor (both of them variants of Jack the Giant-killer), in the history of working-class Socialism, in the popular protests (always ineffective but not always a sham) against imperialism, in the impulse that makes a jury award excessive damages when a rich man’s car runs over a poor man; it is the feeling that one is always on the side of the underdog, on the side of the weak against the strong.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Orwell frequently used the term "antinomianism," representing defiance of social mores and rules.

Added on 28-Feb-25 | Last updated 28-Feb-25
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Topics: dark horse, defiance, disadvantaged, downtrodden, laws, little guy, rules, underdog, weak
More quotes by Orwell, George

What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak. In the rare circumstances where a choice is possible, he may, with some difficulty, make an exchange; but even then he is only adopting a new convention which may be more agreeable to his personal temper but which is essentially as arbitrary as the old.

George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
The Life of Reason, vol. 3 “Reason in Religion,” ch. 1 (1905)
(Source)

Added on 27-Feb-25 | Last updated 27-Feb-25
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Topics: accident, belief, belief system, conversion, faith, heritage, random, religion
More quotes by Santayana, George

I dreamt a sage said, “Wherefore life consume
In sleep? Can sleep make pleasure’s roses bloom?
For gather not with death’s twin-brother sleep,
Thou wilt have sleep enough within thy tomb!”

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 27 [tr. Whinfield (1883), # 51]
(Source)

Alternate translations:

One night, I beheld in a dream a sage, who said to me, "In sleep, O mhy friend, the rose of joy has never blossomed for any man. Why do you do a deed so like to death? Arise, and drink wine, for you will sleep sound enough beneath the earth.
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 47] (1888)]

Last night I dreamed I met a sage who said:
"Doth e'er in sleep the rosebud lift its head?
Why sleep, for sleep is but akin to death,
And thou shalt sleep enough when thou art dead?"
[tr. Garner (1887), 91]

Life is so short, yet sleeps thy lovely head;
Why make so soon a death-bed of thy bed?
O love, awake! thy beauty wastes away --
Thou shalt sleep on and on when thou art dead.
[tr. Le Gallienne (1897), # 33]

In a dream of the night quoth a sage me unto:
"Rose of gladness for mortal from sleep never blew;
A thing, then, to death that akin is why do?
Up, for under the earth thou shalt slumber thy due!"
[tr. Payne (1898), # 196]

I fell asleep, and wisdom said to me: --
"Never from sleep has the rose of happiness blossomed for anyone;
why do a thing that is the mate of death?
Drink wine, for thou must sleep for ages."
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 27]

'Twas while I slept, that thus a wise man spoke: --
"Sleep never caused joy's rose in man to bloom,
Why court you thus the fellow of death's yoke?
Drink now, you'll sleep enough in earth's dark womb."
[tr. Cadell (1899), # 16]

I lay upon my couch in slumber deep,
And Wisdom cried aloud, "Oh, wherefore sleep?
For sleep is kin to death; drink while you may;
Eternal slumber hastens o'er the steep!"
[tr. Roe (1906), # 20]

I dreamt that Wisdom came to me and said,
"In sleep for none joy's roses petals spread,
In life why dost thou mimic death? Arise!
For sleep thou must when 'neath earth is thy bed."
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 93]

Falling asleep, I heard my Fate confess
That Sleep ne'er bore the Rose of Happiness.
"Sleep is the Mate of Death," she cried. "Awake!
Drink, ere Her lips bestow the last caress!"
[tr. Talbot (1908), # 27]

I dropped asleep. A wise man said to me: "From sleep
the rose of pleasure did never bloom for anyone.
Why do you meddle with that which is of a piece
with death ? Drink wine for we must sleep during many a lifetime."
[tr. Christensen (1927), # 59]

I fell asleep, and a wise man said to me:
"Sleep has brought to no one the rose of bliss.
Why do a thing which is the twin of death?
Drink wine, for many a life-time you must slumber".
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 43]

In sleep I was -- A sage then told me so:
"In darkness fruit of bliss will never grow,
Arise and fight with Death, avoid his blow;
Ere long you sleep within The Pit below."
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 7.1]

I was asleep, a wise man said to me
"The rose of joy does not bloom for slumberers;
Why are you asleep? Sleep is the image of death,
Drink wine, below the ground you must sleep of necessity.
[tr. Avery/Heath-Stubbs (1979), # 159]

Added on 27-Feb-25 | Last updated 27-Feb-25
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Topics: awaken, death, happiness, joy, life, living, sleep
More quotes by Omar Khayyam

The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)

Added on 27-Feb-25 | Last updated 27-Feb-25
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Topics: action, activity, belief, confidence, conviction, courage, cynicism, dandy, emotion, enthusiasm, fop, hedonist, inaction, manliness, passion, pleasure, pride, sloth, vanity
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

He had never before been quite so acutely aware of the particular quality and function of November, its ripeness and its hushed sadness. The year proceeds not in a straight line through the seasons, but in a circle that brings the world and man back to the dimness and mystery in which both began, and out of which a new seed-time and a new generation are about to begin. Old men, thought Cadfael, believe in that new beginning, but experience only the ending. It may be that God is reminding me that I am approaching my November. Well, why regret it? November has beauty, has seen the harvest into the barns, even laid by next year’s seed. No need to fret about not being allowed to stay and sow it, someone else will do that. So go contentedly into the earth with the moist, gentle, skeletal leaves, worn to cobweb fragility, like the skins of very old men, that bruise and stain at the mere brushing of the breeze, and flower into brown blotches as the leaves into rotting gold. The colours of late autumn are the colours of the sunset: the farewell of the year and the farewell of the day. And of the life of man? Well, if it ends in a flourish of gold, that is no bad ending.

Ellis Peters (1913-1995) English writer, translator [pseud. of Edith Mary Pargeter, who also wrote under the names John Redfern, Jolyon Carr, Peter Benedict]
Brother Cadfael’s Penance, ch. 1 (1994)
(Source)

Added on 27-Feb-25 | Last updated 27-Feb-25
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Topics: acceptance, aging, autumn, circle of life, death, ending, fall, farewell, getting old, growing old, lifespan, mortality, seasons, winter
More quotes by Peters, Ellis

Wish a miser long life, and you wish him no good.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1738 ed.)
(Source)

Added on 27-Feb-25 | Last updated 27-Feb-25
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Topics: long life, miser, misery, unhappiness
More quotes by Franklin, Benjamin

SUSAN: The world is hard, they must take pain that look for any gayn.

Nicholas Breton (c. 1545/53 - c. 1625/26) English Renaissance poet and prose writer [Britton; Brittaine]
Workes of a Young Wyt (1577)
(Source)

First record of something resembling "No pain, no gain" in English.

Added on 27-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Mar-25
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Topics: consequences, effort, gain, hard work, no pain no gain, pain, prerequisite, reward, work
More quotes by Breton, Nicholas

Intelligent trial and error beats the planning of a sole genius every time.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Spurious)

Not found in Einstein's writings or in any definitive reference I could find.

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: genius, science, trial and error
More quotes by Einstein, Albert

There may be said to be two classes of people in the world: those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.

Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist, columnist, actor, wit
Of All Things, ch. 20 “The Most Popular Book of the Month” (1921)
(Source)

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: categorization, classification, division, generalities, humanity, people, types
More quotes by Benchley, Robert

The nearer we approach great men, the clearer we see that they are men. Barely do they appear great before their valets.
[Rarement ils sont grands vis-à-vis de leurs valets-de-chambre.]

Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
(Spurious)

This passage, both English and French, is attributed to La Bruyere (and, more specifically, to his Characters [Les Caractères] (1688). It does not, however, appear in that work (in any translation or the native French) nor does it seem to appear in any other work of La Bruyere that I could find.

Both English and French show up in a passage in Samuel Arthur Bent, Short Sayings of Great Men (1882), about Mme. de Cornuel (d. 1694). Bent is discussing a quotation attributed to her, with parallels amongst Montaigne (1586) and Goethe (1805). (The passage is quoted at Bartleby.com, which may account for modern familiarity with it.) Bent cites the above from La Bruyere's Caractères.

Other versions, of each sentence, show up in quotations collections over the following decades, and today the French has a number of hits on Russian/Slavic websites, but nothing (not even on French search engines) that pins it to any source aside from the same pages in English language searches.

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: familiarity, great man, great person, greatness, human nature, proximity, servant, valet
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The true source of our sufferings, has been our timidity.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Essay (1765-09-30), “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, Boston Gazette
(Source)

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: apprehension, fear, self-inflicted, self-restraint, suffering, timidity, trouble
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We will not be intimidated by the threats of dictators that they will regard as a breach of international law or as an act of war our aid to the democracies which dare to resist their aggression. Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator should unilaterally proclaim it so to be.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1941-01-06) to Congress, Annual Message (State of the Union), “Four Freedoms,” Washington, D. C.
(Source)

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: aggression, aid, alliance, autocracy, democracy, dictator, foreign aid, foreign policy, international affairs, war
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STEVE: (at the furniture store; holds up a decorative furniture pillow) What — is this?
SUSAN: It’s a cushion.
STEVE: Right! Yes! It’s a cushion! Thank you for that, very informative. (to Jeff) Have you got any of these?
JEFF: No.
STEVE: Of course you haven’t. (to clerk) — You. You married? Living with anyone?
JUNIOR SHOP ASSISTANT: No.
STEVE: Got any of these?
JUNIOR SHOP ASSISTANT: No.
STEVE: Of course not! Okay. (looking at Susan and her female friends) You bring these things into our homes. They sit on our chairs. They watch our televisions! Now, I just need to know, on behalf of all men, everywhere — I just need to ask, please, what are they for? I mean, look, look at the chubby little bastards, just sitting around everywhere. What are they? Pets for chairs? (to senior clerk) Come on, you sell them — what are they for?
SENIOR SHOP ASSISTANT: Well — you sit on them.
STEVE: Aha! I see! That’s where you’re wrong! Nobody sits on them. Ok, watch this! Here’s the cushion. I’m putting it on the sofa. Now, watch me! I’m sitting down, and what do I do on my final approach? I — (he moves the cushion from the seat) — oop! — Move the cushion! You see? It’s not involved! It’s not part of the whole sitting process! It just lies there. It’s fat litter! It’s a sofa parasite!
JANE: It’s — you know, padding.
STEVE: Oh, padding! Oh now that’s interesting. See, I like padding. You know, if I was, say, an American football player with all those big bastards running at me, I would say, you know, “Give me some of that padding and be quick about it!” You know, if my job involved bouncing down jagged rocks, I would say, “In view of those jagged rocks down there, I’ll have some of that padding, thank you very much!” But Susan, Sally, Jane, this — is a sofa. It is designed by clever scientists in such a way so is to shield the unprotected user from the way of skin abrasions, serious head trauma, and of course — (he dives behind the sofa and reemerges) — Daleks! You lot trust me, girls, trust me on this one, you do not need padding to tackle upholstery! So please, once and for all, tell me, why on Earth you would want me to sit on one of these?
SUSAN: Because, if you pressed it firmly against your bottom it might stop you talking!

Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Coupling, 02×03 “Her Best Friend’s Bottom” (2001-09-17)
(Source)

(Source (video); dialog confirmed.)

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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The good and straightforward person should resemble one who stinks of goat, in the sense that whoever comes close will immediately sense him, whether they want to or not.
[τοιοῦτον ὅλως δεῖ τὸν ἁπλοῦν καὶ ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, οἶον γράσωνα, ἵνα ὁ παραστὰς ἅμα τῷ προσελθεῖν, θέλει οὐ θέλει, αἴσθηται.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 11, ch. 15 (11.15) [tr. Needleman/Piazza (2008)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Such must he be for all the world, that is truly simple and good, as he whose arm-holes are offensive, that whosoever stands by, as soon as ever he comes near him, may as it were smell him whether he will or no.
[tr. Casaubon (1634), 11.14]

I would have Honesty so incorporated with the Constitution, so mixed up with the Blood and Spirits, that it should be discoverable by the Sences, and as easily distinguish'd as Rankness, or a strong Breath; so that a Man must be forced to find it out whether he would or no.
[tr. Collier (1701)]

The man of simplicity and goodness should, in this, resemble such as have a disagreeable smell in their arm-pits; his disposition should be perceived by all who approach him, whether they will or not.
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]

A truly good and sincere man should be so palpably such, that no one could be a moment in his company or approach him, without being sensibly and necessarily convinced of it.*
*The expression in the original is rather coarse; which the translators have rather heightened than shorted as they might have done.
[tr. Graves (1792)]

The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.
[tr. Long (1862)]

Goodness, true and simple, should be like musk, so redolent that, will-he nill-he, every one who draws near perceives its fragrance.
[tr. Rendall (1898)]

The straightforward, good man should be like one of rank odour who can be recognised by the passer by as soon as he approaches, whether he will or no.
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]

The simple and good man should in fact be like a man who has a strong smell about him, so that, as soon as ever he comes near, his neighbour is, will-he nill-he, aware of it.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]

The simple and good man ought to be entirely such, like the unsavoury man, that those who stand by detect him at once, whether he will or not, as soon as he comes near.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]

Sincerity and goodness ought to have their own unmistakable odor, so that one who encounters this becomes straightaway aware of it despite himself.
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]

A good and honest man should be so right through, like one who smells like a goat, so that anyone who comes near him is immediately aware of it whether he wishes it or not.
[tr. Hard (1997 ed.)]

A straightforward, honest person should be like someone who stinks: when you're in the same room as them, you know it.
[tr. Hays (2003)]

In short, the good and honest man should have the same effect as the unwashed -- anyone close by as he passes detects the aura, willy-nilly, at once.
[tr. Hammond (2006)]

In short, a good and honest person should resemble one who smells like a goat in this respect, that anyone who comes near him is immediately aware of it whether he wishes it or not.
[tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]

A person who is honest and good is immediately seen as such even by people who were not looking for any such assurance.
[tr. McNeill (2019)]

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: goat, good person, goodness, honesty, obvious, simplicity, smell, stink, straightforwardness
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Hell is wherever Love is not, and Heaven
Is Love’s location. No dogmatic creed,
No austere faith based on ignoble fear
Can lead thee into realms of joy and peace.
Unless the humblest creatures on the earth
Are bettered by thy loving sympathy
Think not to find a Paradise beyond.
There is no sudden entrance into Heaven.
Slow is the ascent by the path of Love.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1906), “The Way,” ll. 5-13, New Thought Pastels
(Source)

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: afterlife, compassion, creed, dogma, faith, fear, heaven, hell, helping, love, lovelessness, paradise, salvation, sympathy
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He that is proud of riches is a fool. For if he be exalted above his Neighbors because he hath more gold, how much inferior is he to a gold Mine! how much is he to give place to a chain of Pearl, or a knot of Diamonds? for certainly that hath the greatest excellence from whence he derives all his gallantry and preeminence over his Neighbours.

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) English cleric and author
The Rule and Exercise of Holy Living, ch. 2 “Of Christian Charity,” sec. 4 “Of Humility” (1650)
(Source)

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: comparison, ego, money, pride, riches, superiority, wealth
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Chuse such Pleasures, as recreate much, and cost little.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 61 (1725)
(Source)

Added on 26-Feb-25 | Last updated 26-Feb-25
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Topics: affordability, economy, enjoyment, fun, hobby, holiday, pastime, pleasure, recreation, thrift, vacation
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PHILOSOPHY, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Philosophy,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1905-01-11), and the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner (1905-03-18).

Added on 25-Feb-25 | Last updated 18-Jun-25
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PETER: Because I heard father and mother talking of what I was to be when I became a man. I want always to be a little boy and to have fun; so I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long time among the fairies.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)

In Barrie's 1911 novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 3 "Come Away, Come Away!" this is rendered:

“It was because I heard father and mother,” he explained in a low voice, “talking about what I was to be when I became a man.” He was extraordinarily agitated now. “I don’t want ever to be a man,” he said with passion. “I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the fairies.”

Added on 25-Feb-25 | Last updated 25-Feb-25
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Topics: adulthood, childhood, eternal youth, fun, getting old, growing up, maturity, youth
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CHORUS: Goodbye! Good luck! If you can, be lucky, steer clear of disaster. That’s happiness for mortals.
[ΧΟΡΟΣ: χαίρετε: χαίρειν δ᾽ ὅστις δύναται
καὶ ξυντυχίᾳ μή τινι κάμνει
θνητῶν, εὐδαίμονα πράσσει.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 1357ff (c. 420 BC) [tr. Wilson (2016)]
(Source)

Closing lines.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Farewell. And sure the man
To whom this wish is granted, he who feels
No pressure of calamity, is blest.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

Farewell! Any mortal who is able to fare well, and is not worn down by any misfortune, achieves happiness.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

Farewell; but whosoever of mortals is able to fare well, and bends not under some misfortune, fares happily.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

Farewell! Ah, whosoe'er may know this blessing,
To fare well, never crushed 'neath ills oppressing,
Alone of mortals tastes abiding bliss.
[tr. Way (1896)]

Farewell, farewell! -- But he who can so fare,
And stumbleth not on mischief anywhere,
Blessèd on earth is he!
[tr. Murray (1905)]

Farewell! truly that mortal's is a happy lot, who can thus fare, unafflicted bv any woe.
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

Good bye. Blessed is the human who can live happily without the weight of suffering.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]

Farewell. Any mortal who can indeed live well
without being ground down by misfortune,
that man will find his happiness.
[tr. Johnston (2009)]

Added on 25-Feb-25 | Last updated 25-Feb-25
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Topics: avoidance, bad luck, disaster, good fortune, good luck, happiness, misfortune
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Education is the cheap defence of nations.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Spurious)

American spelling variant: "Education is the cheap defense of nations."

While widely quoted since the early 19th Century, there is no record of Burke having said or written it. The earliest references come from Thomas Chalmers (1827, 1832), who mentions it as a well-known quotation, but many other uses of it show up quickly after (1835, 1837, 1838, 1839, etc.), continuing through the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Burke did, in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), make a reference to the "cheap defence of nations," but in the very different context of praising the social order of genteel nobility and honor. In a passage bemoaning the execution of Marie Antoinette, he wrote (emphasis mine):

But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone. It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

It's unclear how this phrase got "Education is ..." grafted to it, though some see it as an intentional and nefarious fabrication.

Added on 25-Feb-25 | Last updated 25-Feb-25
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The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) American photographer and environmentalist
(Attributed)

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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However, it is my judgment in these things that when you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) American theoretical physicist, "Father of the Atomic Bomb" [Julius Robert Oppenheimer]
“In the matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” testimony transcript, US Atomic Energy Commission, Personnel Security Board (1954-04-13)
(Source)

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: consequences, consideration, creativity, enthusiasm, ethics, excitement, irresponsibility, problem-solving, ramifications, science, technology, unintended consequences
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It is true, there has been among us a party for some years, consisting chiefly not of the descendants of the first settlers of this country but of high churchmen and high statesmen, imported since, who affect to censure this provision for the education of our youth as a needless expence, and an imposition upon the rich in favour of the poor — and as an institution productive of idleness and vain speculation among the people, whose time and attention it is said ought to be devoted to labour, and not to public affairs or to examination into the conduct of their superiours. And certain officers of the crown, and certain other missionaries of ignorance, foppery, servility and slavery, have been most inclined to countenance and increase the same party.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Essay (1765-09-30), “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, Boston Gazette
(Source)

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: class warfare, education, powerful, public education, upper class
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True remorse is never just a regret over consequence; it is a regret over motive.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 4 (1963)
(Source)

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: consequence, guilt, motivation, regret, remorse, results, self-awareness, self-criticism, shame
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Thus it was that with the shadows deepening about him, with his hopes fading one after another, Monsieur Mabeuf had remained serene, rather childishly but profoundly so. His spiritual states resembled the swing of a pendulum. Once set in motion by an illusion, the swing continued for a long time, even after the illusion had vanished. A clock does not stop the moment one loses the key.
[C’est ainsi qu’à travers cet obscurcissement qui se faisait autour de lui, toutes ses espérances s’éteignant l’une après l’autre, M. Mabeuf était resté serein, un peu puérilement, mais très profondément. Ses habitudes d’esprit avaient le va-et-vient d’un pendule. Une fois monté par une illusion, il allait très longtemps, même quand l’illusion avait disparu. Une horloge ne s’arrête pas court au moment précis où l’on en perd la clef.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 3 “Marius,” Book 5 “The Excellence of Misfortune,” ch. 4 (3.5.4) (1862) [tr. Denny (1976)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Thus it was that amid this darkness which was gathering about him, all his hopes going out one after another, Monsieur Mabeuf had remained serene, somewhat childishly, but very thoroughly. His habits of mind had the swing of a pendulum. Once wound up by an illusion he went a very long lime, even when the illusion had disappeared. A clock does not stop at the very moment you lose the key.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

It was thus that M. Mabeuf remained rather childishly but most profoundly serene, in the obscurity that was enveloping him gradually, and while his hopes were being extinguished in turn. The habits of his mind had the regular movement of a clock, and when he was once wound up by an illusion he went for a very long time, even when the illusion had disappeared. A clock does not stop at the precise moment when the key is lost.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

It is thus that, athwart the cloud which formed about him, when all his hopes were extinguished one after the other, M. Mabeuf remained rather puerilely, but profoundly serene. His habits of mind had the regular swing of a pendulum. Once mounted on an illusion, he went for a very long time, even after the illusion had disappeared. A clock does not stop short at the precise moment when the key is lost.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

So it was that amid this darkness gathering around him, all his hopes dimming one after another, M. Mabeuf had remained serene, somewhat childishly, but very deeply. His state of mind had the swing of a pendulum. Once wound up by an illusion, he went on a long time, even when the illusion had disappeared. A clock does not stop at the very moment you lose the key.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

Thus, as the darkness gathered, as all his hopes died, one by one, Monsieur Mabeuf remained serenE, a little childishly, but profoundly so. His mind behaved like a swinging pendulum. Once wound up by an illusion, it kept going for a very long time, even after the illusion was gone. A clock does not stop dead the very moment the key is lost.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: decline, fade, hopelessness, illusion, inertia, misfortune, momentum, run down
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The world’s great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor great scholars great men.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 6 (1858).

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.

James Howell (c. 1594 - 1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία], or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659) [compiler]
(Source)

First recorded instance of this adage, though in context it predates Howell's collection.

The phrase was popularized for modern audiences by its use in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining (1980) (the phrase is not in Stephen King's book; Kubrick used different adages in the different languages the movie was released in). That use, in turn, derived from the phrase being a common one for repetitive work in typing classes.

An additional line is given in Maria Edgeworth, Harry and Lucy (1801), where she refers to this as an "ancient British adage":

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,
All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: excess, labor, play, recreation, relaxation, work, work-life balance
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Delivering advice assumes that our cognitive apparatus rather than our emotional machinery exerts some meaningful control over our actions.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
Fooled by Randomness, Prologue (2001)
(Source)

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: advice, cognition, emotions, irrationality, logic, rationality, reason, self-control, thought
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During a quarrel, to have said too little may be mended; to have said too much, not always.

Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Sweethearts and Beaux (1905)
(Source)

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: argument, conflict, go too far, quarrel, rapprochement, reconciliation, restraint, shut up, silence
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Although making distinctions based on age does violate the concept of total equality, what could be fairer? With any luck, age happens to everyone. According greater respect to greater age is the system most likely to give everyone a fair turn at high status, not to mention its being a nice little consolation for the loss of supple skin and a memory for names.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Star-Spangled Manners, ch. 3 (2003)
(Source)

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: aging, elderly, henoed, old age, respect, senior citizen, seniority
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JESSICA: But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 2, sc. 6, l. 37ff (2.6.37-38) (1597)
(Source)

One of several times Shakespeare used the phrase, "Love is blind." He popularized it, but it was first used by Chaucer around 1404 in "The Merchant's Tale" ("For loue is blynd alday ...").

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: blinding, blindness, error, folly, love, unawareness, unseeing
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I once heard an orthodox person denouncing those who discuss articles of faith. “Gentlemen,” he said naïvely, “a true Christian does not examine what he is ordered to believe. Dogma is like a bitter pill: if you chew it, you will never be able to swallow it.”
[J’ai entendu un dévot, parlant contre des gens qui discutent des articles de foi, dire naïvement: «Messieurs, un vrai chrétien n’examine point ce qu’on lui ordonne de croire. Tenez, il en est de cela comme d’une pillule amère, si vous la mâchez, jamais vous ne pourrez l’avaler.»]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ¶ 1148 (1795) [tr. Hutchinson (1902)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

I heard one day a devotee, speaking against people who discuss articles of faith, say naivement: "Gentlemen, a true Christian never examines what he is ordered to believe. It is with that as with a bitter pill; if you chew it you will never be able to swallow it."
[tr. Mathews (1878)]

I once heard a pious person say naively, in arguing with people who were discussing articles of faith, "Sirs, a true Christian does not examine what he is instructed to believe. You see, it's like a bitter pill -- if you chew it, you'll never be able to swallow it."
[tr. Dusinberre (1992), ¶1148]

A devout and naïve Christian was admonishing those who questioned the articles of faith. "A true Christian must never examine the things he's told to believe, gentlemen," he said. "It's like taking a pill: if you chew it, it's so bitter you'll never get it down."
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶363]

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 21-Jul-25
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Topics: articles of faith, belief, blind faith, Christianity, credo, creed, doctrine, dogma, doubt, faith, indoctrination, questioning, religion, true believer
More quotes by Chamfort, Nicolas

What we’re here for
is death
Somebody accidentally
wound us up
(“I told you
to leave that alone”)
and we must
wait
to run down.

George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) American author [a.k.a. O. Neimand, Susan Doenim]
Poem (1972), “Things Go Better, Orbit 11 [ed. Damon Knight]
(Source)

Collected in Effinger, Mixed Feelings (1974).

Added on 24-Feb-25 | Last updated 24-Feb-25
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Topics: death, life, lifetime, meaning of life, mortality, toy, winding up
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Then I attempt to ease my own malaise,
and thus death-pale, fatigued and torn apart,
I go to glimpse you, hopeful I’ll be whole.
And if I lift my eyes so I can gaze,
a seismic shaking starts within my heart
that chases from my pulse my very soul.
[Poscia mi sforzo, ché mi voglio atare;
e così smorto, d’onne valor voto,
vegno a vedervi, credendo guerire:
e se io levo li occhi per guardare,
nel cor mi si comincia uno tremoto,
che fa de’ polsi l’anima partire.]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 16 / Sonnet 7, ll. 9-14 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Frisardi (2012), ch. 9]
(Source)

Dante gets his courage up to approach his beloved Beatrice, only to be gobsmacked by her gaze.

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

At length I make an effort for relief,
And so, all pale and destitute of power,
I come to gaze on you, in hope of cure:
And if I raise the eyes that I may look,
A trembling at my heart begins, so dread,
It makes the soul take flight from every vein.
[tr. Lyell (1845)]

And then if I, whom other aid forsook,
Would aid myself, and innocent of art
Would fain have sight of thee as a last hope,
No sooner do I lift mine eyes to look
Than the blood seems as shaken from my heart,
And all my pulses beat at once and stop.
[tr. Rossetti (c. 1847; 1899 ed.)]

Then I resolve, -- this shall no longer be,
And come to seek thee, all amort and pale,
Thinking by sight of thee to cure my pain;
But when I lift mine eyes to look on thee,
My heart within my bosom begins to quail,
And my perturbed soul takes flight from every vein.
[tr. Martin (1862)]

Then to mine aid I summon up my strength,
And so, all pale, and empty of defence,
I seek thy sight, thinking to be made whole;
And if to look I lift mine eyes at length,
Within my heart an earthquake doth commence,
Which from my pulses driveth out the soul.
[tr. Norton (1867), ch. 16]

To aid me then my forces I renew
And pallid, all my courage drained long since,
I come to you to remedy my plight;
But if I raise my eyes to look at you
So vast a tremor in my heart begins
My beating pulses put my soul to flight.
[tr. Reynolds (1969)]

Hoping to help myself, I gather courage
And pale, drawn, lacking all defense
I come to you expecting to be healed;
But if I raise my eyes to look at you
An earthquake starts at once within my heart
And drives life out and stops my pulses' beat.
[tr. Musa (1971)]

With hope of help to come I gather courage,
and deathly languid, drained of all defenses,
I come to you expecting to be healed;
and if I raise my eyes to look at you,
within my heart a tremor starts to spread,
driving out life, stopping my pulses’ beat.
[tr. Hollander (1997), sec. 9-10]

I renew my strength, because I wish for help,
and pale like this, all my courage drained,
come to you, believing it will save me:
and if I lift my eyes to gaze at you
my heart begins to tremble so,
that from my pulse the soul departs.
[tr. Kline (2002)]

Then I make an effort, because I want to defend myself:
and thus, wan and drained of all strength,
I come to see you, thinking I will recover:
but if I raise my eyes to look at you,
such a great trembling begins in my heart
that it makes my soul desert my heartbeats.
[tr. Appelbaum (2006)]

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Topics: beloved, desperation, infatuation, love, obsession, paleness, passion, speechlessness, trembling
More quotes by Dante Alighieri

The two most precious things on this side the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other. A wise man, therefore, will be more anxious to deserve a fair name than to possess it, and this will teach him so to live as not to be afraid to die.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 555 (1820)
(Source)

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Topics: courage, deserving, gossip, life, living, mortality, name, reputation, slander
More quotes by Colton, Charles Caleb

Quite a few of the editorials have shown what the court ought to have done. We are always saying let the law take its course but what we really mean is “Let the law take our course.”

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1935-02-19), “Daily Telegram: Mr. Rogers Saw Warning in the Decision on Gold”
(Source)

Referring to the Supreme Court "Gold Clause" cases, particularly Perry v. U.S., which allowed the federal government to not pay its debts in gold.

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Topics: bias, courts, expectations, impartiality, justice, law, preference, self-centered
More quotes by Rogers, Will

Apollo: all I ask is what I own already,
And the peace to enjoy it, sound in body
And mind, and a promise of honor
In old age, and to go on singing to the end.
[Frui paratis et valido mihi
Latoë, dones, et precor, integra
Cum mente; nec turpem senectam
Degere, nec cithara carentem.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 1, # 31, l. 17ff (1.31.17-20) (23 BC) [tr. Raffel (1983)]
(Source)

This poem is said to have been inspired by the new temple to Apollo built by Augustus on the Palatine in AUC 726. It is framed as being from a poet (likely Horace himself) considering what to ask from Apollo as a blessing. These are the concluding four lines.

Apollo here is referred to as the son of the goddess Latona (Greek Leto).

The reason for the longer-than-usual list of translators is that this passage is quoted at the end of Montaigne's Essays, Book 3, ch. 13 "Of Experience," the final essay in his collection, written in 1587, and translations from that context are also included here.(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Apollo graunt, enjoy health I may
That I have got, and with sound minde, I pray:
Nor that I may with shame spend my old yeares,
Nor wanting musike to delight mine eares.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

Latona's Son,
In Minde and Bodies health my own
T' enjoy; old Age from dotage free,
And solac'd with the Lute, give me.
[tr. Fanshaw; ed. Brome (1666)]

O (great Apollo) grant
To me in health, and free from life's annoy,
Things native, and soon gotten to enjoy;
And with a mind compos'd old Age attain,
Not loathsome, nor depriv'd of Lyrick strain.
[tr. "Sir T. H."; ed. Brome (1666)]

A Mind to use my present Store
With Health and Life, but not so long
As brings Contempt, or cramps my Song;
Grant this Apollo, and I ask no more.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to possess my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; and that I may not lead a dishonorable old age, nor one bereft of the lyre.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

O grant me, Phoebus, calm content,
Strength unimpairEd, a mind entire,
Old age without dishonour spent,
Nor unbefriended by the lyre!
[tr. Conington (1872)]

And health
Give thou, Latoë, so I might
Enjoy my present wealth!
Give me but these, I ask no more,
These, and a mind entire --
And old age, not unhonour'd, nor
Unsolaced by the lyre!
[tr. Martin (1864)]

Give me health in myself to enjoy the things granted,
O thou son of Latona; sound mind in sound body;
Keep mine age free from all that degrades,
And let it not fail of the lyre.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]

Grant it to me, Apollo, that I may enjoy what I have in good health; let me be sound in body and mind; let me live in honor when old, nor let music be wanting.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

Grant it to me, Apollo, that I may enjoy my possessions in good health; let me be sound in mind; let me not lead a dishonourable old age, nor want the cittern.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877), alternate]

Son of Latona, grant me, I pray, to enjoy in health of body and soundness of mind what I possess, and let my old age be honourable and rendered happy by the charms of music.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]

Give me then health, Apollo; give
Sound mind; on gotten goods to live
Contented; and let song engage
An honoured, not a base, old age.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]

Health to enjoy the blessings thou givest me,
Grant me, Latoe, with a sound mind, I pray;
Nor let my age be e'er unhonour'd.
Nor unattended with lyric measures.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]

Grant me in health to relish what I have
In store, Latona's son, with mind I pray,
Unclouded -- and to pass an eld
Not base, nor of my harp deprived.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]

Grant, god, that with my lot
I live content, hale, and still fresh my gift, --
Grant that in age I may not drift
Long years, my lyre forgot.
[tr. Marshall (1908)]

Grant me, O Latona’s son, to be content with what I have, and, sound of body and of mind, to pass an old age lacking neither honour nor the lyre!
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]

Grant me, Apollo, for the rest,
Contentment, health, sound wits and bright,
An honoured eld, by music blest.
[tr. Mills (1924)]

Grant, I pray, son of Latona, that I enjoy full health, and with mind uunimpaired, the goods that have been prepared for me; and that my old age be not unhonoured, nor lack the lyre.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

Grant me, Latona's son, but health,
Grant me a mind entire,
Contentment and a dignified old age,
Not lacking in the sweetness of the lyre.
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]

Grant me but health, Latona's son,
And to enjoy the wealth I've won,
And honored age, with mind entire
And not unsolaced by the lyre.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

Delight had I healthily in what lay handy provided.
Grant me now, Latoe:
full wit in my cleanly age,
Nor lyre lack me, to tune the page.
[tr. Pound (c. 1955)]

Grant me, Apollo, that I may enjoy with healthy body and sound mind the goods that have been prepared for me, and that my old age be honourable and no stranger to the lyre.
[tr. Cohen (1958)]

Here's what I crave most, son of Latona, then:
Good health, a sound mind, relish of life, and an
Old age that still maintains a stylish
Grip on itself and the lyric metres.
[tr. Michie (1963)]

Vouchsafe, O Son of Latona, that I may enjoy those things I have prepared; and, with my mind instact I pray, may I not degenerate into a squalid senility, in which the lyre is wanting.
[tr. Screech (1987)]

Apollo grant that I be satisfied
With what I have as what I ought to have,
And that I live my old age out with honor,
In health of mind and body, doing my work.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]

Grant me, O son of Latona, I pray
that I take joy in what I have
Sound in mind and body entire
and my old age lacking neither honor nor lyre.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

Apollo, the son
of Latona, let me enjoy what I have,
and, healthy in body and mind, as I ask,
live an old age not without honour,
and one not lacking the art of the lyre.
[tr. Kline (2015)]

Added on 21-Feb-25 | Last updated 21-Feb-25
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Topics: blessings, health, music, old age, prayer, satisfaction
More quotes by Horace

What an art it is, to give, even to our nearest friends! and what a test of manners to receive! How, upon either side, we smuggle away the obligation, blushing for each other; how bluff and dull we make the giver; how hasty, how falsely cheerful, the receiver! and yet an act of such difficulty and distress between near friends, it is supposed we can perform to a total stranger and leave the man transfixed with grateful emotions. The last thing you can do to a man is to burthen him with an obligation, and it is what we propose to begin with! But let us not be deceived: unless he is totally degraded to his trade, anger jars in his inside, and he grates his teeth at our gratuity.
We should wipe two words from our vocabulary: gratitude and charity. In real life, help is given out of friendship, or it is not valued; it is received from the hand of friendship, or it is resented.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1888-03), “Beggars,” sec. 4 Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 3
(Source)

Collected in Across the Plains, ch. 9 (1892).

Added on 21-Feb-25 | Last updated 21-Feb-25
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Topics: assistance, charity, friendship, gift, giving, gratitude, help, love your neighbor, obligation, poor, resentment
More quotes by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Most revolutionaries are potential tories, because they imagine that everything can be put right by altering the shape of society; once that change is effected, as it sometimes is, they see no need for any other.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Added on 21-Feb-25 | Last updated 21-Feb-25
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Topics: change, conservative, revolution, revolutionary, society, status quo, tory
More quotes by Orwell, George

LYMAN: He’s not the enemy. Scott, the Joint Chiefs, even the very emotional, very illogical lunatic fringe: they’re not the enemy. The enemy’s an age — a nuclear age. It happens to have killed man’s faith in his ability to influence what happens to him. And out of this comes a sickness, and out of sickness a frustration, a feeling of impotence, helplessness, weakness. And from this, this desperation, we look for a champion in red, white, and blue. Every now and then a man on a white horse rides by, and we appoint him to be our personal god for the duration. For some men it was a Senator McCarthy, for others it was a General Walker, and now it’s a General Scott.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Seven Days in May, film (1964)
(Source)

Based on the 1962 novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II.

These lines are almost all Serling's. By wording, the only parallel I could find in the original novel was this:

The nuclear age, by killing man’s faith in his ability to influence what happens, could destroy the United States even if no bombs were ever dropped.
[Source]

Added on 21-Feb-25 | Last updated 21-Feb-25
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Topics: champion, cold war, control, desperation, fate, government, helplessness, hero, lunatic fringe, nuclear war, savior, self-confidence, times, white horse
More quotes by Serling, Rod

From God’s own hand this earthly vessel came,
He shaped it thus, be it for fame or shame;
If it be fair — to God be all the praise,
If it be foul — to God alone the blame.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات] [tr. Le Gallienne (1897), # 92]
(Source)

Given Le Gallienne's paraphrasing, I am unable to align this with an original quatrain or other translations.

Added on 20-Feb-25 | Last updated 20-Feb-25
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Topics: accountability, creation, destiny, fate, God, pre-destination, responsibility
More quotes by Omar Khayyam

Wonder, indeed, is, on all hands, dying out: it is the sign of uncultivation to wonder.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1829-06), “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review, Vol. 49, No. 98, Art. 7
(Source)

Review of three 1829 books: Anticipation; or, an Hundred Years Hence; The Rise, Progress, and Present State of Public Opinion in Great Britain; Edward Irvine, The Last Days; or, Discourses on These Our Times.

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Topics: amazement, astonishment, awe, crudeness, ignorance, primitiveness, unlearned, unsophistication, wonder
More quotes by Carlyle, Thomas

Coercion is the least efficient means of obtaining order.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) American writer
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, ch. 5 (1974)
(Source)

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Topics: coercion, control, force, inefficiency, order, society
More quotes by Le Guin, Ursula K.

He was about to urge her to let well alone and trust heaven to do justice, but then he had a sudden vision of heaven’s justice as the Church sometimes applied it, in good but dreadful faith, with all the virtuous narrowness and pitilessness of minds blind and deaf to the infinite variety of humankind, its failings, and aspirations, and needs, and forgetful of all the Gospel reminders concerning publicans and sinners.

Ellis Peters (1913-1995) English writer, translator [pseud. of Edith Mary Pargeter, who also wrote under the names John Redfern, Jolyon Carr, Peter Benedict]
The Holy Thief, ch. 11 (1992)
(Source)

Added on 20-Feb-25 | Last updated 20-Feb-25
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Topics: church, church law, cruelty, divine justice, divine mercy, human condition, human nature, humanity, inhumanity, pity, punishment, sinners, theocracy, trust, understanding, unworthiness, virtue
More quotes by Peters, Ellis

Be mersiphull to all the dum animals — no man can ride into heaven, on a sore-backed horse.
[Be merciful to all the dumb animals — no man can ride into heaven on a sore-backed horse.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 11 “The Mermaid” (1874)
(Source)

Added on 20-Feb-25 | Last updated 20-Feb-25
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Topics: afterlife, animal cruelty, animal rights, animals, divine mercy, heaven, horse, kindness, mercy, salvation
More quotes by Billings, Josh

Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1738 ed.)
(Source)

Either taken from, or from a common source by, Fuller (1725).

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Topics: error, faults, forgiveness, human nature, humility, others, perspective, responsibility, self-awareness, sins, tolerance, vices, weaknesses
More quotes by Franklin, Benjamin

Principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1941-01-06) to Congress, Annual Message (State of the Union), “Four Freedoms,” Washington, D. C.
(Source)

Added on 19-Feb-25 | Last updated 19-Feb-25
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Topics: aggression, appeasement, diplomacy, foreign affairs, freedom, international relations, morality, negotiations, peace, security, war
More quotes by Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

JEFF: See, women think we’re normal, like them, ’cause we talk to them like normal people, you know, we say, “Hello. How are you? Haven’t seen you in this place before. What kind of music do you like?” But all the time in our brains, we’ve got the word “breasts” on a loop. If we ever lost control for a second, we’d all start shouting “Breasts! Breasts! Breasts! Breasts!”

Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Coupling, 01×05 “The Girl with Two Breasts” (2000-06-09)
(Source)

(Source (Video), at 3:08)

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More quotes by Moffat, Steven

For of course it is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
[οὐ γὰρ ἴσως ταὐτὸν ἀνδρί τ᾽ ἀγαθῷ εἶναι καὶ πολίτῃ παντί.]

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 5, ch. 2 (5.2.11) / 1130b.29 (c. 325 BC) [tr. Thomson (1953)]
(Source)

Aristotle suggests the distinction comes when a regime is corrupt or unjust, at which point carrying out the duties of a good citizen (supporting the regime) may not align with an individual's virtues.

See also Aristotle, Politics.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

For perhaps it is not the same thing to be a good man, and a good citizen.
[tr. Taylor (1818), 5.2]

It may be it is not the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen in every case.
[tr. Chase (1847), 5.4]

The perfection of the man is not perhaps in all cases identical with the perfection of the citizens.
[tr. Williams (1869), 5.2]

It is possibly not the same thing in all cases to be a good man and to be a good citizen.
[tr. Welldon (1892), 5.5]

It is possible that to be a good man is not the same as to be a good citizen of any state whatever.
[tr. Peters (1893), 5.2]

Perhaps it is not the same to be a good man and a good citizen of any state taken at random.
[tr. Ross (1908), 5.2]

It would seem that to be a good man is not in every case the same thing as to be a good citizen.
[tr. Rackham (1934), 5.2.11]

For being a good man is presumably not in every case the same as being a good citizen.
[tr. Reeve (1948)]

For perhaps to be a good man is not the same as to be a good citizen in every case.
[tr. Apostle (1975)]

Presumably it is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
[tr. Thomson/Tredennick (1976)]

For, presumably, being a good man is not the same as being every sort of good citizen.
[tr. Irwin/Fine (1995)]

For, presumably, being a good person is not in every case the same as being a good citizen.
[tr. Crisp (2000)]

For perhaps it is not the same thing in every case to be a good man and to be a good citizen.
[tr. Bartlett/Collins (2011)]

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Topics: citizen, citizenship, civic duty, civic virtue, duty, good, good person, government, public life, regime, society, virtue
More quotes by Aristotle

We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work against each other is contrary to nature; and resentment and rejection count as working against someone.
[γεγόναμεν γὰρ πρὸς συνεργίαν ὡς πόδες, ὡς χεῖρες, ὡς βλέφαρα, ὡς οἱ στοῖχοι τῶν ἄνω καὶ κάτω ὀδόντων. τὸ οὖν ἀντιπράσσειν ἀλλήλοις παρὰ φύσιν: ἀντιπρακτικὸν δὲ τὸ ἀγανακτεῖν καὶ ἀποστρέφεσθαι.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 2, ch. 1 (2.1) [tr. Gill (2013)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

For we are all born to be fellow-workers, as the feet, the hands, and the eyelids; as the rows of the upper and under teeth: for such therefore to be in opposition, is against nature; and what is it to chafe at, and to be averse from, but to be in opposition?
[tr. Casaubon (1634), 1.15]

For we are all made for mutual Assistance, no less than the Parts of the Body are for the Service of the whole; From whence it follows that Clashing and Opposition is perfectly Unnatural: Now such an unfriendly Disposition is imply'd in Resentment and Aversion.
[tr. Collier (1701)]

We were formed by nature for mutual assistance, as the two feet, the hands, the eye¬ lids, the upper and lower rows of teeth. Opposition to each other is contrary to nature: All anger and aversion is an opposition.
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]

For we are all born for our mutual assistance; as the hands and feet, and every part of the human body, are for the service of the whole; to thwart and injure each other, therefore, is contrary to nature. Now injuries and hostilities are generally the consequence of hatred and resentment.
[tr. Graves (1792)]

For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another, then, is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.
[tr. Long (1862)]

For we are all made for mutual assistance, as the feet, the hands, and the eyelids, as the rows of the upper and under teeth, from whence it follows that clashing and opposition is perfectly unnatural. Now such an unfriendly disposition is implied in resentment and aversion.
[tr. Collier/Zimmern (1887)]

For we are made for co-operation, like the feet, the hands, the eyelids, the upper and the lower rows of teech. To thwart one another is contrary to nature; and one form of thwarting is resentment and estrangement.
[tr. Rendall (1898)]

For we are made by nature for mutual assistance, like the feet, the hands, the eyelids, the upper and lower rows of teeth. It is against nature for men to oppose each other; and what else is anger and aversion?
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]

For we have come into being for co-operation, as have the feet, the hands, the eyelids, the rows of upper and lower teeth. Therefore to thwart one another is against Nature; and we do thwart one another by shewing resentment and aversion.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]

For we have come into the world to work together, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. To work against one another therefore is to oppose Nature, and to be vexed with another or to turn away from him is to tend to antagonism.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]

For he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet, or eyelids, or like the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law -- and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction?
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]

For we have come into being to work together, like feet, hands, or eyelids, or the two rows of teeth in our upper and lower jaws. To work against one another is therefore contrary to nature; and to be angry with another and turn away form him is surely to work against him.
[tr. Hard (1997 ed.)]

We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.
[tr. Hays (2003)]

We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work in opposition to one another is against nature: and anger or rejection is opposition.
[tr. Hammond (2006)]

For we have been made for cooperation, just like the feet, the hands, the eyelids, and the upper and lower teeth. To hinder one another, then, is contrary to Nature, and this is exactly what happens when we are angry and turn away from each other.
[tr. Needleman/Piazza (2008)]

For we have come into being to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, or the two rows of teeth in our upper and lower jaws. To work against one another is therefore contrary to nature; and to be angry with another person and turn away from him is surely to work against him.
[tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]

For both they and I need each other. To act against them would be to act against myself. And to become angry and turn away from them is also to act against them.
[tr. McNeill (2019)]

Added on 19-Feb-25 | Last updated 19-Feb-25
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Topics: anger, assistance, cooperation, help, human nature, meaning of life, mutuality, nature, opposition, purpose, rejection, resentment, together
More quotes by Marcus Aurelius

There is no language that Love does not speak:
To-day commanding and to-morrow meek,
One hour laconic and the next verbose,
With hope triumphant and with doubt morose,
His varying moods all forms of speech employ.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1911), “Love’s Language,” st. 2, Poems of Progress, Preface
(Source)

Added on 19-Feb-25 | Last updated 19-Feb-25
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Topics: expression, language, love, mood, speech, tone, vocabulary
More quotes by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

Our Lord commonly giveth Riches to such gross asses to whom he affordeth nothing else that is good.
[Darumb gibt unser Herrgott gemeiniglich Reichtum den groben Eseln, denen er sonst nichts gönnt.]

Martin Luther (1483-1546) German priest, theologian, writer, religious reformer
Table Talk [Colloquies; Tischreden] (1566) [tr. Bell (1652)]

This is a common translation given in various places. A more complete one, Colloquia Mensalia [Divine Discourses], ch. 4 "Of the Nature of the World," "Wealth is the least gift of GOD" [tr. Bell (1659, 2d ed.)]:

Riches is the smallest thing on earth, and the least gift that God hath bestowed on mankinde. What is it in comparison of God's Word; yea, what is it to bee compared with corporal gifts, as beautie, health, &c. nay, what is it to the gifts of the minde, as understanding, Art, wisdom; &c. yet are men so eager upon it, that no labor, travail, nor danger is regarded in getting of Riches: there is in it neither Materialis, formalis, efficiens & finalis caussa, nor anie thing els that good is, therefore our Lord God commonly givet Riches to such gross Asses, to whom hee affordeth nothing els that is good.

This same passage is quoted and cited in The Apophthegmes of Erasmus (1471) [tr. Udall (1877 reprint of the 1564 ed.), in the Appendix to discuss the principle "Gold masters all things," related to Erasmus' work on Philippus, sec. 13. It is not Erasmus' work, as is sometimes suggested, but that of Robert Roberts, the editor.

The Latin bits refer to Aristotle's four causes or reasons for something to exist.

For similar sentiments, see also La Bruyere (1688), Steele (1710), Swift (1720).

The variations and abridgments of Luther's Table Talk are legion, even in variations of the same translator's text (Henry Bell, who was the first English translator of the work). The variants are usually either to simplify or update the language to contemporary standards, or to bowdlerize Luther's rough language (e.g., "groben Eseln" [coarse asses]).

(Source (German)). Alternate translations:

Riches is the smallest thing on earth, and the least gift that God hath bestowed on mankind. What is it in comparison of God's Word? yea, what is it to be compared with corporal gifts; as beauty, health, &c. ? nay, what is it to the gifts of the mind; as understanding, art, wisdom, &c.? Yet are men so eager after it, that no labour, travel, nor danger is regarded in getting of riches. There is in it neither Materialis, formalis, efficiens et finalis causa, nor anything else that is good; therefore our Lord God commonly giveth riches to such from whom he withholds all spiritual good.
[tr. Bell (1650), 1791 ed.]

Riches is the smallest thing on earth, and the least gift that God bestowed on mankind. What is it in comparison of God's Word? yea, what is it to be compared with corporal gifts; as beauty, health, &c? nay, what is it to the gifts of the mind; as understanding, art, wisdom, &c. Yet are men so eager after it, that no labour, travel, nor danger is regarded in getting of riches, there is in it neither matter, form, effect, or cause, or any thing else that is good; therefore our Lord God commonly giveth riches to such, from whom he withholds all spiritual good.
[tr. Bell (1650), ed. Kerby (1818)]

Wealth is the smallest thing on earth, the least gift that God has bestowed on mankind. What is it in comparison with God's Word -- what, in comparison with corporal gifts, as beauty, health, &c.? -- nay, what is it to the gifts of the mind, as understanding, wisdom, &c.? Yet are men so eager after it, that no labour, pains, or risk is regarded in the acquisition of riches. Wealth has in it neither material, formal, efficient nor final cause, nor anything else that is good; therefore our Lord God commonly gives riches to those from whom he withholds spiritual good.
[tr. Hazlitt (1847), "Of the nature of the world," # 167]

Wealth is the least important of all things upon the earth, the smallest gift that God has bestowed on man. What is it, compared to the Word of God? Yes, what is it, compared even to bodily gifts and beauty? What is it, compared to the gifts of the mind? Yet people strive so for it! By no category of logic can [wealth] be called good — for its substance, its quality, as a means or as an end. Therefore God gives it commonly to coarse fools, to whom he means no good.
[tr. Smith / Gallinger (1915), ch. 36 "Miscellaneous"]

Riches are the most insignificant things on earth, the smallest gift that God can give a man. What are they in comparison with the Word of God? In fact, what are they in comparison even with physical endowments and beauty? What are they in comparison with gifts of the mind? And yet we act as if this were not so! The matter, form, effect, and goal of riches are worthless. That's why our Lord God generally gives riches to crude asses to whom he doesn't give anything else.
[ed. French (2017?), winter of 1542-1543]

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More quotes by Luther, Martin

Scorn Affronts: let Dogs Bark, and Asses Kick.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 34 (1725)
(Source)

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More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

WOLSEY: You opposed me in the Council this morning, Thomas.
MORE: Yes, Your Grace.
WOLSEY: You were the only one.
MORE: Yes, Your Grace.
WOLSEY: You’re a fool.
MORE: Thank God there is only one fool on the Council.

Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, film (1966)
(Source)

(Source (Video); dialog confirmed.) This interchange does not occur Bolt's 1960 play.

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More quotes by Bolt, Robert

WOLSEY: That thing out there’s at least fertile, Thomas.
MORE: But she’s not his wife.
WOLSEY: No, Catherine’s his wife and she’s barren as brick. Are you going to pray for a miracle?
MORE: There are precedents.

Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
(Source)

Referring to Anne Boleyn, whom King Henry VIII wants to marry pending to a divorce from his present wife, Catherine of Aragon.

In Bolt's 1966 film adaptation (Source (Video); dialog verified), nearly the same lines are used:

WOLSEY: That thing out there; at least she's fertile.
MORE: But she's not his wife.
WOLSEY: No, Catherine's his wife and she's barren as a brick; are you going to pray for a miracle?
MORE: There are precedents.

Added on 18-Feb-25 | Last updated 1-Apr-25
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The man who steals a buckle is put to death, the man who steals a state becomes a prince.
[竊鉤者誅，竊國者侯 – traditional]
[窃钩者诛，窃国者侯 – simplified]

Chuang Tzu (369-286 BC) Chinese Taoist philosopher [Zhuang Zhou (莊周), Zhuangzi ( 莊子)]
Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzŭ), ch. 10 “Quqie [胠篋; Rifling Trunks]” (3rd C BC) [tr. Graham (1981)]
(Source)

(Source (Chinese, traditional; simplified)). Alternate translations:

One man steals a purse, and is punished. Another steals a State, and becomes a Prince.
[tr. Giles (1889)]

Here is one who steals a hook (for his girdle); -- he is put to death for it: here is another who steals a state; -- he becomes its prince.
[tr. Legge (1891)]

A poor man must swing
For stealing a belt buckle
But if a rich man steals a whole state
He is acclaimed
As statesman of the year.
[tr. Merton (1965)]

This one steals a buckle and he is executed, that one steals a country and he becomes its ruler.
[tr. Palmer (1996)]

He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord.
[tr. Watson (2013)]

One steals a hook -- he is put to death. Another steals a state -- he becomes a prince.
[tr. Yang/Höchsmann (2007)]

He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state is made a feudal lord.
[tr. Ziporyn (2009)]

This adage can be found in a wide array of forms, with the same basic structure (steal something small, get punished; steal something big, get rewarded), usually stripped of its Chinese/Taoist origin, e.g.:

Steal money you're a thief; steal a country you're a king.
["Japanese proverb"]

Stealing a dog is said to be immoral. Still, they steal a country and call it righteousness.
[Source]

To steal a purse is rightly held a crime.
To steal a country is an act sublime.
[Percy Russell (1919)]

One who steals a pearl is persecuted as a thief. One who steals a nation is revered as a king.
[Source]

When you steal a pin, you are executed; but if you steal a country, you become a king.
[Chinese historian Sima Qian (c. 145 – c. 86 BC)]

One who steals a little is a thief. One who steals a little bit more is a robber. And one who steals a nation is a king.
[Source]

To steal a fruit means theft, while to steal a country does not.
["Old Chinese saying"]

Those that steal a loaf of bread are hanged as thieves - those that steal a country are made emperor.
[Source]

Steal an apple and you're a thief. Steal a country and you're a statesman.
[Disney's Aladdin (2019)]

Added on 18-Feb-25 | Last updated 18-Feb-25
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More quotes by Chuang Tzu

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Patriotism,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

See Johnson. See Bierce's definition of "Patriot."

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1904-12-26) and the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner (1904-01-03).

Added on 18-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Jun-25
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Topics: demagoguery, fame, nationalism, patriot, patriotism, publicity, scoundrel, villain
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The only real difference between Anxiety and Excitement was my willingness to let go of Fear.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Learning to Walk in the Dark, ch. 4 (2014)
(Source)

Added on 18-Feb-25 | Last updated 18-Feb-25
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(He and his shadow dance together. He is showing off now. He crows like a cock. He would fly in order to impress WENDY further if he knew that there is anything unusual in that.)
PETER: Wendy, look, look; oh the cleverness of me!

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)

In Barrie's 1911 novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 3 "Come Away, Come Away!" this is rendered:

Alas, he had already forgotten that he owed his bliss to Wendy. He thought he had attached the shadow himself. “How clever I am!” he crowed rapturously, “oh, the cleverness of me!”

Added on 18-Feb-25 | Last updated 18-Feb-25
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ORESTES: I’ll go. I’ll start to do this dreadful thing, this horror. Yes, I will. If it’s the gods’ will, I’ll do it. But I take no joy in it.
[ὈΡΈΣΤΗΣ: ἔσειμι: δεινοῦ δ᾽ ἄρχομαι προβλήματος
καὶ δεινὰ δράσω γε — εἰ θεοῖς δοκεῖ τάδε,
ἔστω: πικρὸν δὲ χἡδὺ τἀγώνισμά μοι.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 985ff (c. 420 BC) [tr. Wilson (2016)]
(Source)

Orestes going to kill his mother, Clytemnestra, who was, along with the already-killed Aegisthus, the murderer of his father, Agamemnon.

Interestingly, earlier translations have him characterize the task as both bitter and sweet; later ones only speak of its bitterness.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

I go in.
Tho' I am entering on a deed that's fraught
With horror, I will execute the deed;
Thus let it be, if thus the righteous Gods
Ordain: altho' this conflict to my soul
At the same time be bitter, and yet sweet.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

I will go in; it is a dreadful task I am beginning and I will do dreadful things. If the gods approve, let it be; to me the contest is bitter and also sweet.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

I will enter in; but I am beginning a dreadful attempt. Ay, and I shall do dreadful things; but if this seems fit to the Gods, let it be; but the contest is for me [at once] bitter and sweet.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

I will go in. A horror I essay!
Yea, horrors will achieve! If this please Heaven,
So be it. Bitter strife, yet sweet, for me.
[tr. Way (1896)]

Aye. So be it. -- I have ta'en
A path of many terrors: and shall do
Deeds horrible. 'Tis God will have it so. ...
Is this the joy of battle, or wild woe?
[tr. Murray (1905)]

I will go in; 'tis an awful task I undertake; an awful deed I have to do; still if it is Heaven's will, be it so; I loathe and yet I love the enterprise.
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

Fine. I am going inside. Terrible the deed I shall begin and frightening the deeds I shall accomplish. If this is liked by the gods then so be it. My battle is bitter, not sweet.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]

I’ll go in.
I’m on the verge of a horrendous act,
something truly dreadful. Well, so be it,
if gods approve of this. And yet, for me
the contest is not sweet at all, but bitter.
[tr. Johnston (2009)]

Added on 18-Feb-25 | Last updated 11-Mar-25
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More quotes by Euripides

That integrity that lives only on opinion would starve without it; and that theatrical kind of virtue, which requires publicity for its stage, and an applauding world for an audience, could not be depended on in the secrecy of solitude, or the retirement of a desert.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 236 (1820)
(Source)

Added on 18-Feb-25 | Last updated 18-Feb-25
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The time to begin most things is ten years ago.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1966)
(Source)

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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However, as we have just pointed out, brains which are absorbed in some bit of wisdom, or folly, or, as it often happens, in both at once, are but slowly accessible to the things of actual life. Their own destiny is a far-off thing to them. There results from such concentration a passivity, which, if it were the outcome of reasoning, would resemble philosophy. One declines, descends, trickles away, even crumbles away, and yet is hardly conscious of it one’s self. It always ends, it is true, in an awakening, but the awakening is tardy. In the meantime, it seems as though we held ourselves neutral in the game which is going on between our happiness and our unhappiness. We are the stake, and we look on at the game with indifference.
[Du reste, comme nous venons de l’indiquer, les cerveaux absorbés dans une sagesse, ou dans une folie, ou, ce qui arrive souvent, dans les deux à la fois, ne sont que très lentement perméables aux choses de la vie. Leur propre destin leur est lointain. Il résulte de ces concentrations-là une passivité qui, si elle était raisonnée, ressemblerait à la philosophie. On décline, on descend, on s’écoule, on s’écroule même, sans trop s’en apercevoir. Cela finit toujours, il est vrai, par un réveil, mais tardif. En attendant, il semble qu’on soit neutre dans le jeu qui se joue entre notre bonheur et notre malheur. On est l’enjeu, et l’on regarde la partie avec indifférence.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 3 “Marius,” Book 5 “The Excellence of Misfortune,” ch. 4 (3.5.4) (1862) [tr. Hapgood (1887)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

However, as we have just indicated, brains absorbed in wisdom, or in folly, or, as often happens, in both at once, are but very slowly permeable by the affairs of life. Their own destiny is far from them. There results from such concentrations of mind a passivity which, if it were due to reason, would resemble philosophy . We decline, we descend, we fall, we are even overthrown, and we hardly perceive it. This always ends, it is true, by an awakening, but a tardy one. In the meantime, it seems as though we were neutral in the game which is being played between our good and our ill fortune. We are the stake, yet we look upon the contest with indifference.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

As we have remarked, things of this world permeate very slowly brains absorbed in wisdom, or mania, or, as often happens, in both at once. Their own destiny is remote from them. The result of such concentrations is a passiveness which, were it of a reasoning nature, would resemble philosophy. Men sink, pass away, drift away, even crumble away without exactly noticing, though this always ends with a re-awakening, but a tardy one. In the meanwhile, it appears as if they are neutral in the game which is being played between their happiness and misery; they are the stakes, and look on at the game with indifference.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

In general, as we have already suggested, minds absorbed in wisdom or in folly, or in both at once as often happens, are little affected by the vicissitudes of daily life. Their personal destiny is a thing remote from them. Such detachment creates a state of acquiescence which, if it were the outcome of reflection, might be termed philosophical. But they submit to losses and reverses, even to physical decay, without being much aware of them. It is true that in the end there is an awakening, but it is late in coming. In the meantime they stand as it were aloof from the play of personal fortune and misfortune, pawns in a game of which they are detached spectators.
[tr. Denny (1976)]

However, as we have just indicated, brains absorbed in wisdom, in folly, or, as often happens, in both at once, are permeated only slowly by the affairs of life. Their own destiny is far from them. From such concentrations of mind comes a passivity which, if due to reason, would resemble philosophy. We decline, we descend, we fall, we are even overthrown, and we hardly notice it. This always ends, it is true, in an awakening, but a tardy one. In the meantime, we seem neutrals in the game being played between our good and our ill fortune. We are the stake, yet we look on the contest with indifference.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

However, as we have just suggested, minds engrossed in wisdom or folly , or, as is often the case, in both at the same time, are only very slowly pervious to matters of everyday life. Their own destiny is far removed from them. resulting from this kind of concentration is a passivity, which, if there were any reasoning behind it, would seem philosophical. Such minds go into a decline, they sink, they languish, they even come to grief without really being aware of it. True, this always ends with an awakening, but a belated one. In the meantime it is as if they had no interest in the game that plays out between their happiness and their unhappiness. They who are themselves as stake watch the game with indifference.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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More quotes by Hugo, Victor

Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust is insidiously betray’d, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority, that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys and trustees.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Essay (1765-09-30), “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, Boston Gazette
(Source)

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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Over and over in my mind preside
the dark and somber moods Love puts me through.
Self-pity broods, so I have often cried,
“Alas, do other people feel this too?”
[Spesse fiate vegnonmi a la mente
le oscure qualità ch’Amor mi dona,
e venmene pietà, sì che sovente
io dico: «Lasso!, avviene elli a persona?»]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 16 / Sonnet 7, ll. 1-4 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Frisardi (2012), ch. 9]
(Source)

Dante in the painful, self-pitying throes of unrequited love for Beatrice. "Nobody has known such tormented love as mine ..."

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

Many the times that to my memory comes
The cheerless state imposed on me by Love;
And o’er me comes such sadness then, that oft
I say, alas, was ever fate like mine!
[tr. Lyell (1845)]

At whiles (yea oftentimes) I muse over
The quality of anguish that is mine
Through Love: then pity makes my voice to pine,
Saying, “Is any else thus, anywhere?”
[tr. Rossetti (c. 1847; 1899 ed.)]

Full many a time I ponder on the drear
And heavy hours which Love doth make my doom;
And then I cry, "Alas!" in piteous cheer,
"Was ever fate like mine, so wrapt in gloom?"
[tr. Martin (1862)]

The dark condition Love doth on me lay
Many a time occurs unto my thought,
And then comes pity, so that oft I say,
Ah me! to such a pass was man e’er brought?
[tr. Norton (1867), ch. 16]

Many a time the thought returns to me:
What sad conditions Love on me bestows!
And moved by Pity I say frequently:
"Can there be anyone who my state knows?"
[tr. Reynolds (1969)]

So many tmes there comes into my mind
The dark condition Love bestows on me,
That pity comes and often makes me say:
"Could every anyone have felt the same?"
[tr. Musa (1971)]

Time and again the thought comes to my mind
of the dark condition Love imparts to me;
then the pity of it strikes me, and I ask:
"Could ever anyone have felt the same?"
[tr. Hollander (1997) , sec. 7]

Often it is brought home to my mind
the dark quality that Love gives me,
and pity moves me, so that frequently
I say: "Alas! is anyone so afflicted?"
[tr. Kline (2002)]

Frequently there come to my mind
the puzzling characteristics Love gives me,
and I feel pity for them, so that often
I say: "Alas! Does this happen to anyone else?"
[tr. Appelbaum (2006)]

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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Topics: anguish, depression, despair, infatuation, love, lovesick, melodrama, passion, sadness, self-pity, torment
More quotes by Dante Alighieri

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-12), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 2 (1858).

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
Fooled by Randomness, Prologue (2001)
(Source)

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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Separations are the tonics of Love, but beware of overdoses.

Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Sweethearts and Beaux (1905)
(Source)

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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Topics: absence, apart, love, separation
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Condemning sin should never be confused with eschewing it.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Star-Spangled Manners, ch. 2 (2003)
(Source)

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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Topics: avoidance, condemnation, eschew, hypocrisy, immorality, sin, words and deeds
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FALSTAFF: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 9ff (1.2.9-11) (c. 1598)
(Source)

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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More quotes by Shakespeare, William

MCCOY: He’s dead, Jim.

Richard Matheson (1926-2013) American author and screenwriter
Star Trek, 1×05 “The Enemy Within” (1966-10-06)
(Source)

First use of the phrase that became a trademark for DeForest Kelley's Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. In this first instance, it's applied to an alien animal that has been run through the malfunctioning transporter to (lethally) re-integrate its "good" and "evil" halves.

Matheson did the initial screenplay and multiple revisions, and gets the writing credit for the episode, but John Black and Gene Roddenberry also "polished" the script, so the precise provenance of the line which, with variations, showed up in multiple subsequent episodes, is unknown.

Added on 17-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Feb-25
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We owe more money than any Nation in the World, and we are LOWERING TAXES. When is the time to pay off a debt if it is not when you are doing well? […] Will you tell me any good reason (OUTSIDE OF POLITICS) why Taxes should be lowered this year? I know it’s good politics to lower taxes. In fact, did you ever figure it out Taxes is all there is to Politics? I bet you tomorrow if you started a Political Party and had this as its platform , “No taxes are to be paid at all. We will borrow money on our National resources for all current expenses. Remember the Slogan. No Taxes as long as we can borrow.” Well I will bet you you would have the biggest Political party in America.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1926-01-10), “Weekly Article”
(Source)

Present in an elided form in his The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949) [ed. Donald Day].

Added on 14-Feb-25 | Last updated 14-Feb-25
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Topics: national debt, politics, tax cuts, taxation, taxes
More quotes by Rogers, Will

But there’s a class of persons, led astray
By false desires, and this is what they say:
“You cannot have enough: what you possess,
That makes your value, be it more or less.”
What answer would you make to such as these?
Why, let them hug their misery if they please.
[At bona pars hominum decepta cupidine falso
‘nil satis est’, inquit, ‘quia tanti quantum habeas sis’:
quid facias illi? iubeas miserum esse, libenter
quatenus id facit.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Maecenas,” l. 61ff (1.1.61-64) (35 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

But out (alas) the greater parte with sweete empoysned bate
Of welthe bewitchde, do weene their wants aboundance in eache state.
For monye maks, and mars (say they) and coyne it keepes the coyle,
It byndes the beare, it rules the roste, it putts all things to foyle.
A mann's his money, and no more, wherin confused is
An heaven of happs, a worlde of weeles, an hunnye hath of blisse.
O dottrells dome, and is it so? what guardon for these doultes
Shall we devyse? lets suffer still the foolishe frantycke foultes
To wallowe in their wilfulnes, whose under eating myndes
Is never cramde, but prooles for more and swarves not from their kyndes.
[tr. Drant (1567)]

But most of men deceiv'd by false desire,
Say, Noughts enough; 'cause they absurdly guess
At what men are, by what they do possess.
To such a Miser what is't best to do?
Let him be wretched, since he will be so.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]

But most are lost in a Confounded Cheat,
They would have more, for when their Wealth is great
They think their Worth as much as their Estate:
Well then, what must we do to such a one?
Why, let him, 'tis his Will to be undone.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

Some, self-deceiv'd, who think their lust of gold
Is but a love of fame, this maxim hold,
No Fortune's large enough, since others rate
Your worth proportion'd to a large estate.
Say, for their cure what arts would you employ?
"Let them be wretched, and their choice enjoy."
[tr. Francis (1747)]

Yet thousands, duped by avarice in disguise,
Intrench themselves in maxims sage and wise.
Go on, say they, and hoard up all you can;
For wealth is worth, and money makes the man!
What shall we say to such? Since 'tis their will
Still to be wretched, let them be so still!
[tr. Howes (1845)]

But a great majority of mankind, misled by a wrong desire, cry, “No sum is enough; because you are esteemed in proportion to what you possess.” What can one do to such a tribe as this? Why, bid them be wretched, since their inclination prompts them to it.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

But some one argues: -- many men, misled by wrong desire of fame, say no sum is enough, because we all are rated by the money we possess. What would you do with them? Why, bid them live a wretched life, since they act thus of their free will.
[tr. Millington (1870)]

But a good many people, misled by blind desire, say, "You cannot have enough: for you get your rating from what you have." What can you do to a man who talks thus? Bid him be miserable, since that is his whim.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]

Mankind for the most part, fooled by its own false desires,
Says, “There’s no such thing as enough. You are worth
Only as much as you have.” And what can you do
With a person like this? Oh, well! Wish him hell and farewell,
Since he's headed that way by choice.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]

Still, since false desires fool a large portion of mankind,
they'll tell you, *Nothing's enough. What we own, we are."
What can you say? Say, "Be miserable," for that's the choice
they freely made.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]

Too many men, bewitched by false desire, insist that
"Nothing is enough: people value you by what you own."
What can I say? Let him be miserable, that's how
He wants it!
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

And yet a good part of humankind is deceived
by false cupidity. “Nothing is enough,”
they say. “For you are esteemed for as much as you
possess.” What can you do with one of these fools?
Leave him to his misery. It’s all of his
own doing anyway.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

But most people
want all that they desire, and so say, “There’s no such
thing as too much: you are what you acquire.”
You can always tell such a man but you
can’t tell him much. Tell him to suffer, since
that’s his choice.
[tr. Matthews (2002)]

People are enticed by a desire which continually cheats them.
"Nothing is enough," they say, "for you’re only worth what you have."
What can you do with a man like that? You might as well tell him
to be miserable, since misery is what he enjoys.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]

Still, a good many people misled by foolish desire
Say: ‘There’s never enough, you’re only what you own.’
What can one say to that? Let such people be wretched,
Since that’s what they wish.
[tr. Kline (2015)]

Added on 14-Feb-25 | Last updated 14-Feb-25
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More quotes by Horace

The thing that drove Dickens forward into a form of art for which he was not really suited, and at the same time caused us to remember him, was simply the fact that he was a moralist, the consciousness of “having something to say.” He is always preaching a sermon, and that is the final secret of his inventiveness. For you can only create if you can care.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

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More quotes by Orwell, George

Of all the arts that of government has been brought least to perfection.

James Hilton (1900-1954) Anglo-American novelist and screenwriter
Lost Horizon, ch. 6 (1933)
(Source)

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Topics: art, governance, government, society
More quotes by Hilton, James

A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities — all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain think, of superiority, but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part manfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affectation of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves their own weakness.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)

Added on 13-Feb-25 | Last updated 13-Feb-25
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Topics: affectation, criticism, cynic, cynicism, ego, superiority, weakness
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

“But when it comes down to it,” said Cadfael, with profound content, “as roads go, the road home is as good as any.”

Ellis Peters (1913-1995) English writer, translator [pseud. of Edith Mary Pargeter, who also wrote under the names John Redfern, Jolyon Carr, Peter Benedict]
The Summer of the Danes, ch. 14 (1991)
(Source)

Closing words.

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Topics: home, homecoming, return, road, travel, wanderlust
More quotes by Peters, Ellis

I kant help but respekt the man who haint got enny failings, but i dont seem to luv him, he iz too diffrent from me.
[I can’t help but respect the man who ain’t got any failings, but I don’t seem to love him; he is too different from me.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 11 “The Mermaid” (1874)
(Source)

See also Billings.

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Topics: love, paragon, perfection, respect, saint, self-awareness, virtue
More quotes by Billings, Josh

Drive thy business; let not that drive thee.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1738 ed.)
(Source)

See previous passages from Fuller in 1725 and 1732.

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More quotes by Franklin, Benjamin

Justice insists on obligation, law on decorum. Justice is critical and discriminating; law is supervisory and commanding. Justice refers to the individual, law to the community.
[Das Recht dringt auf Schuldigkeit, die Polizei aufs Geziemende. Das Recht ist abwägend und entscheidend, die Polizei überschauend und gebietend. Das Recht bezieht sich auf den Einzelnen, die Polizei auf die Gesamtheit.]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen [Proverbs in Prose: Maxims and Reflections] (1833) [tr. Rönnfeldt (1900)]
(Source)

From Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1829).

(Source (German)). Alternate translations:

Justice insists on obligation, law on decorum. Justice weighs and decides, law superintends and orders. Justice refers to the individual, law to society.
[tr. Saunders (1893), "Life and Character," sec. 1, # 50]

Law deals with guilt, the police with what is fitting. Law considers and decides, the police surveys and commands. Law is concerned with the individual, the police with the community.
[tr. Stopp (1995), #544]

Added on 13-Feb-25 | Last updated 13-Feb-25
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More quotes by Goethe, Johann von

But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him.
[ἐγὼ δὲ τεθεωρηκὼς τὴν φύσιν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ὅτι καλόν, καὶ τοῦ κακοῦ ὅτι αἰσχρόν, καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντος φύσιν ὅτι μοι συγγενής, οὐχὶ αἵματος ἢ σπέρματος τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ νοῦ καὶ θείας ἀπομοίρας μέτοχος, οὔτε βλαβῆναι ὑπό τινος αὐτῶν δύναμαι: αἰσχρῷ γάρ με οὐδεὶς περιβαλεῖ: οὔτε ὀργίζεσθαι τῷ συγγενεῖ δύναμαι οὔτε ἀπέχθεσθαι αὐτῷ.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 2, ch. 1 (2.1) [tr. Hays (2003)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

But I that understand the nature of that which is good, that it only is to be desired, and of that which is bad, that it only is truly odious and shameful: who know moreover, that this transgressor, whosoever he be, is my kinsman, not by the same blood and seed, but by participation of the same reason, and of the same divine particle; How can I either be hurt by any of those, since it is not in their power to make me incur anything that is truly reproachful? or angry, and ill affected towards him, who by nature is so near unto me?
[tr. Casaubon (1634), 1.15]

And since it's fallen to my share to understand the Natural Beauty of a good Action, and the Deformity of an ill One; since I am satisfied the Person disobliging is of Kin to me, and tho we are not just of the same Flesh and Blood, yet our Minds are nearly related, being both extracted from the Deity; since I am likewise convinc'd that no Man can do me a real injury, because no Man can force me to misbehave my self; For these Reasons, I can't find in my Heart to Hate, or to be Angry with one of my own Nature and Family.
[tr. Collier (1701)]

But I have fully comprehended the nature of good, as only what is beautiful and honourable; and of evil, that it is always deformed and shameful; and the nature of those persons too who mistake their aim; that they are my kinsmen, by partaking, not of the same blood or seed, but of the same intelligent divine part; and that I cannot be hurt by any of them, since none of them can involve me in any thing dishonourable or deformed. I cannot be angry at my kinsmen, or hate them.
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]

But I, who have a more just idea of things, that nothing is good, but what is honourable, and nothing evil, but what is base; and am also sensible that the persons who offend me are in some sense allied to me, (I do not mean of the same flesh and blood, but that our souls are derived from, and particles of, the same divine nature) I can neither suffer any real injury from them, because they cannot compel me to do a base action; nor can I be angry with or hate thoe whom I consider as of the same nature and the same family with myself.
[tr. Graves (1792)]

But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me; not [only] of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in [the same] intelligence and [the same] portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him.
[tr. Long (1862)]

Since it has fallen to my share to understand the natural beauty of a good action, and the deformity of an ill one -- since I am satisfied the person disobliging is of kin to me, and though we are not just of the same flesh and blood, yet our minds are nearly related, being both extracted from the Deity I am likewise convinced that no man can do me a real injury, because no man can force me to misbehave myself, nor can I find it in my heart to hate or to be angry with one of my own nature and family.
[tr. Collier/Zimmern (1887)]

But seeing that I have beheld the nature and nobility of good, and the nature and meanness of evil, and the nature of the sinner, who is my brother, participating not indeed in the same flesh and blood, but in the same mind and partnership with the divine, I cannot be injured by any of them; for no man can involve me in what demeans. Neither can I be angry with my brother, or quarrel with them.
[tr. Rendall (1898)]

But I have considered the nature of the good, and found it beautiful: I have beheld the nature of the bad, and found it ugly. I also understand the nature of the evil-doer, and know that he is my brother, not because he shares with me the same blood or the same seed, but because he is a partaker of the same mind and of the same portion of immortality. I therefore cannot be hurt by any of these, since none of them can involve me in any baseness. I cannot be angry with my brother, or sever myself from him.
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]

But I, in that I have comprehended the nature of the Good that it is beautiful, and the nature of Evil that it is ugly, and the nature of the wrong-doer himself that it is akin to me, not as partaker of the same blood and seed but of intelligence and a morsel of the Divine, can neither be injured by any of them -- for no one can involve me in what is debasing -- nor can I be wroth with my kinsman and hate him.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]

But I, because I have seen that the nature of good is the right, and of ill the wrong, and that the nature of the man himself who does wrong is akin to my own (not of the same blood and seed, but partaking with me in mind, that is in a portion of divinity), I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]

But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow-creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him.
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]

But I, who have beheld the nature of the good, and seen that it is the right; and of the bad, and seen that it is the wrong; and for the wrongdoer himself, and seeing that his nature is akin to my own -- not because he is of the same blood and seed, but because he shares with me in mind and a portion of the divine -- I, then, can neither be harmed by any of these men, nor can I become angry with one who is akin to me, nor can I hate him.
[tr. Hard (1997 ed.)]

But I have seen that the nature of good is what is right, and the nature of evil what is wrong; and I have reflected that the nature of the offender himself is akin to my own -- not a kinship of blood or seed, but a sharing in the same mind, the same fragment of divinity. Therefore I cannot be harmed by any of them, as none will infect me with their wrong. Nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him.
[tr. Hammond (2006)]

But insofar as I have comprehended the true nature of what is good, namely that it is fine and noble, and the true nature of what is bad, that it is shameful, and the true nature of the person who has gone astray: that he is just like me, not only in the physical sense but also with respect to Intelligence and having a portion of the divine -- insofar as I have comprehended all this, I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no one else can involve me in what is shameful and debasing, nor can I be angry with my fellow man or hate him.
[tr. Needleman/Piazza (2008)]

But I, who have observed the nature of the good, and seen that it is the right; and of the bad, and seen that it is the wrong; and of the wrongdoer himself, and seen that his nature is akin to my own -- not because he is of the same blood and seed, but because he shares as I do in mind and thus in a portion of the divine -- I, then, can neither be harmed by these people, nor become angry with one who is akin to me, nor can I hate him.
[tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]

But I have recognized the nature of the good and seen that it is the right, and the nature of the bad and seen that it is the wrong, and nature of th wrongdoer himself, and seen that he is related to me, not because he has the same blood or seed, but because he shares in the same mind and portion of divinity. So I cannot be harmed by any of them, as no one will involve me in what is wrong. Nor can I be angry with my relative or hate him.
[tr. Gill (2013)]

But I, who know what is truly beautiful and truly ugly, and who know the wickedness of their hearts, also know that all these people are akin to me, that they are part of the same divine pattern. I cannot be injured by any of them, for no one can force me to see the world the way they do. Neither can I hate them, for both they and I need each other.
[tr. McNeill (2019)]

Added on 12-Feb-25 | Last updated 13-Feb-25
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Topics: anger, brotherhood, evil, evil-doer, good, good and evil, hatred, human nature, humanity, right and wrong, wicked, wrongdoer
More quotes by Marcus Aurelius

Every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world — assailed either by arms, or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1941-01-06) to Congress, Annual Message (State of the Union), Washington, D. C.
(Source)

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Topics: conquest, democracy, discord, propaganda
More quotes by Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

JANE: Could you remind lovely Susan that Jill and I are vegetarians?
STEVE: You’re what?
JILL: You’re not a vegetarian!
JANE: I’m a bi-vegetarian!
JILL: What? That doesn’t exist! It’s not possible!
JANE: I’m an emotional vegetarian, Jill. I know a lot of vegetarians and we tend to like the same films. Do you have a problem with that?
JILL: You could never finish your greens and you could suck a whole pig through a straw.
JANE: I’m not exclusively vegetarian, Jill, if that’s what you’re trying to say. Vegetarianism for me is about, mmmm, saying yes to things — even meat.
JILL: No, it isn’t.

Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Coupling, 01×04 “Inferno” (2000-06-02)
(Source)

Verified against Source (Video), at 13:21.

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More quotes by Moffat, Steven

You never can tell what your thoughts may do,
In bringing you hate or love,
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe —
Each thing must create its kind,
And they speed o’er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out of your mind.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1896), “You Never Can Tell,” st. 3, Custer and Other Poems
(Source)

Added on 12-Feb-25 | Last updated 12-Feb-25
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Topics: draw a blank, forget, memory, thinking, thoughts
More quotes by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

It was very prettily said, that we may learn the little value of fortune by the persons on whom Heaven is pleased to bestow it.

Richard Steele (1672-1729) Irish writer and politician
Essay (1710-07-27), The Tatler, No. 203
(Source)

Added on 12-Feb-25 | Last updated 12-Feb-25
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Topics: fortune, gift, importance, rich, riches, value, wealth
More quotes by Steele, Richard

Do thou drive thy Business; let not that drive thee.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 32 (1725)
(Source)

See Franklin and also Fuller.

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More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

It is likewise well to rise before daybreak; for this contributes to health, wealth, and wisdom.
[τό τε διανίστασθαι νύκτωρ: τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ πρὸς ὑγίειαν καὶ οἰκονομίαν καὶ φιλοσοφίαν χρήσιμον.]

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Economics [Οἰκονομικά, Œconomica], Book 1, ch. 6 (1345a, l. 16) [tr. Walford (1853)]
(Source)

While this resembles Franklin's Poor Richard proverb ("... makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"), it only refers to being "early to rise." Only a few sentences before this it recommends, rather than "early to bed," that the master of the house should stay up later than the servants and slaves:

And since it is good for the formation of character and useful in the interests of economy, masters ought to rise earlier than their slaves and retire to rest later.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

There are occasions when a master should rise while it is still night; for this helps to make a man healthy and wealthy and wise.
[tr. Forester (1920)]

Rising before daylight is also to be commended; it is a healthy habit, and gives more time for the management of the household as well as for liberal studies.
[tr. Armstrong (1935)]

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom.
[Common Usage]

Added on 11-Feb-25 | Last updated 11-Feb-25
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More quotes by Aristotle

WOLSEY: The King wants a son; what are you going to do about it?
MORE: (dry murmur) I’m very sure the King needs no advice from me on what to do about it.

Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
(Source)

Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same lines. (Source (Video); dialog verified.)

Added on 11-Feb-25 | Last updated 1-Apr-25
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Topics: child, dynasty, heir, king, offspring, son
More quotes by Bolt, Robert

PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Patriot,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1904-12-26) and the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner (1904-01-03).

Those newspaper versions also included:

A person whose zeal for the defense of his country’s altars and fires is not inconsistent with a fierce desire to cross the border to overturn the altars and extinguish the fires of another land.

See Bierce's definition of "Patriotism."

Added on 11-Feb-25 | Last updated 17-Jun-25
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More quotes by Bierce, Ambrose

I don’t know whether you have ever seen a map of a person’s mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, threepence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.
Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John’s, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents, but on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have each other’s nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter and Wendy, ch. 1 “Peter Breaks Through” (1911)
(Source)

Not included in the play.

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More quotes by Barrie, James

ORESTES: What should we do? Should we kill our mother?
[ὈΡΈΣΤΗΣ: τί δῆτα δρῶμεν; μητέρ᾿ ἦ φονεύσομεν.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 966ff (c. 420 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2020)]
(Source)

The answer from Electra, of course, is yes -- Clytemnestra is to be killed for her role in the murder of her late husband (and Electra and Oresthes' father), Agamemnon. They have already killed the other responsible party, her next husband, Aegisthus.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

What now remains
For us to do, shall we with ruthless steel
Pierce the maternal breast?
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

What are we going to do? Shall we kill our mother?
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

What then shall we do? shall we murder our mother?
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

What shall we do? -- our mother shall we slay?
[tr. Way (1896)]

What would we with our mother? Didst thou say
Kill her?
[tr. Murray (1905)]

What must we do to our mother? Slay her?
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

What shall we do then? Slaughter our mother?
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]

What are we going to do?
Kill our mother?
[tr. Johnston (2009)]

What shall we do? Can we really kill our mother?
[tr. Wilson (2016)]

Added on 11-Feb-25 | Last updated 11-Mar-25
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Topics: killing, mother, murder, plot
More quotes by Euripides

“Knowledge is what man is all about. People like you have tried to hold back progress since the beginning of time. But they failed, and you failed. Man needs to know.”
“Maybe,” Sanders said, “But is that the only thing man needs? I don’t think so. I think he also needs mystery, and poetry, and romance. I think he needs a few unanswered questions, to make him brood and wonder.”

George R. R. Martin (b. 1948) American author and screenwriter [George Raymond Richard Martin]
“With Morning Comes Mistfall,” Analog (1973-05)
(Source)

Collected in Portraits of His Children (1987)

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More quotes by Martin, George R. R.

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
Poem (1855), “Song of Myself,” sec. 32, l. 684ff, Leaves of Grass
(Source)

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We welcome passion, for the mind is briefly let off duty.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 1 (1963)
(Source)

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Topics: emotion, feeling, mind, passion, rest, thinking
More quotes by McLaughlin, Mignon

Not being heard is no reason for silence.
[N’être pas écouté, ce n’est pas une raison pour se taire.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 8 “Cemeteries Take What is Given Them,” ch. 1 (2.8.1) (1862) [tr. Wilbour (1862)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Not to be heard is no reason why a man should hold his tongue.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

That one is not listened to is no reason for preserving silence.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

Not being heard is no reason for silence.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

Not being listened to is no reason to stop talking.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]

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It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-10), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 10 (1872).

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Busy work brings after ease;
Ease brings sport and sport brings rest;
For young and old, of all degrees,
The mingled lot is best.

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) Scottish poet and dramatist
Poem (1790), “Rhymes,” Fugitive Verses
(Source)

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We humans, facing limits of knowledge, and things we do not observe, the unseen and the unknown, resolve the tension by squeezing life and the world into crisp commoditized ideas, reductive categories, specific vocabularies, and prepackaged narratives, which, on the occasion, has explosive consequences.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, Introduction (2010)
(Source)

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Topics: categories, categorization, knowledge, mind, narratives, oversimplification, patterns, short cut, simplicity, tropes, understanding
More quotes by Taleb, Nassim Nicholas

Etiquette systems of one kind or another govern all social intercourse, formal and informal, which is why faulty ones are able to do so much damage. A system that denies the innate human need for dignity to specific categories of people, typically the poor and the enslaved, fosters incendiary resentment.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Star-Spangled Manners, ch. 1 (2003)
(Source)

Added on 10-Feb-25 | Last updated 10-Feb-25
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Topics: bias, class, class warfare, classism, dignity, etiquette, indignity, interaction, manners, other, prejudice, racism, resentment, sexism, society, unrest
More quotes by Martin, Judith

FALSTAFF: I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that’s in me should set hell on fire.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, sc. 5, l. 37ff (5.5.37-38) (1597)
(Source)

Added on 10-Feb-25 | Last updated 10-Feb-25
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More quotes by Shakespeare, William

Madame de Tencin was gentle-mannered but quite unscrupulous, capable of absolutely anything. On one occasion people were praising the gentleness of her nature. “Yes,” an abbé commented, “if it was in her interest to poison you, I’m sure she’d choose the pleasantest poison possible.”

[Mme de Tencin, avec des manières douces, était une femme sans principes et capable de tout, exactement. Un jour, on louait sa douceur: «Oui, dit l’abbé Trublet, si elle eût eu intérêt de vous empoisonner, elle eût choisi le poison le plus doux.»]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ¶ 662 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 455]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

When some one was one day vaunting the affability and softness of manner of Madame de Tencin, the Abbé Trublet replied, "Yes, if it was her interest to poison you she would select the sweetest poison for the purpose."
[tr. Blessington (c. 1869)]

Madame de Tencin, with the suavest manners in the world, was an unprincipled woman, capable of anything. On one occasion, a friend was praising her gentleness. "Aye, aye," said the Abbé Imblet, "if she had any object whatever in poisoning you, undoubtedly she would choose the sweetest and least disagreeable poison in the world."
[tr. Mathews (1878)]

Madame de Tencin, whose manners were of the sweetest, was a woman of no principles, and capable of anything, precisely. One day someone was extolling her sweetness. "Yes," said the Abbé Trublet, {if she stood to profit by poisoning you, she would choose the sweetest possible poison."
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Mme de Tencin, with the sweetest manners, was a woman without principles and was capable of everything, to be exact. One day someone praised her sweetness: "Yes," said the abbé Trublet, "if she decided to poison you, she would choose the sweetest poison possible."
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994), ¶ 662]

Added on 10-Feb-25 | Last updated 10-Feb-25
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More quotes by Chamfort, Nicolas

Mors sceptra ligonibus æquat.
[Death equalizes the scepter and the spade.]

Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin proverb

Widely used over the centuries in sermons, religious writings, and inscriptions regarding death and the vanity of worldly rank and honors. Citations I found go back at least to the 16th Century, with use peaking, then tailing off in the 19th Century.

While attributed in various places, without citation, to Lucan, Lucian, or Horace, it does not appear to be actually from any of those writers.

Alternate translations / renderings:

Death maketh sceptres and mattocks equal, and as soon arresteth he the prince that carrieth the sceptre, as the poor man that diggeth with the mattock.
[tr. Grindal (1564)]

Scepter and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
[tr. Shirley (1654)]

Death mingles scepters with spades.
[tr. Henry (1806)]

Death is the head of the leveling party.
[tr. Cawdry (1869)]

In death there is no difference betwixt the king and the beggar.
[tr. Cawdry (1869)]

In death there is no difference made
Between the sceptre and the spade.
[Inverness tombstone of Samuel Urquhart (1700); see Swift, below]

In Death, no Difference is made,
Betweene the Sceptre, and the Spade.
[Inverness tombstone of John Cutherbert of Drakes (1711)]

Death makes sceptres and hoes equal.
[tr. Aavitsland (2012)]

Death makes scepters equal with hoes.
[tr. Stone (2013)]

Variants:

Mors dominos servis et sceptra ligonibus æquat,
Dissimiles simili condicione trahens.

[Death comes alike to monarch, lord, and slave,
And levels all distinctions in the grave.]

[Hall (1909), from Colman (c. 1633)]

Ah! who, in our degenerate days,
As nature prompts, his offering pays?
Here nature never difference made
Between the sceptre and the spade.
[Swift (1730), regarding the goddess of the sewer, Cloacina]

Added on 10-Feb-25 | Last updated 21-Sep-25
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More quotes by ~Proverbs and Sayings

The surest method of being deceived is to believe that one is cleverer than others.
[Le vrai moyen d’être trompé, c’est de se croire plus fin que les autres]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶127 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶127]
(Source)

Present in the 1st (1665) edition. Another 1665 variant:
On est fort sujet à être trompé quand on croit être plus fin que les autres.

[We are very liable to be deceived when we believe ourselves to be more subtle than others.]

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

The sure way to be cheated is, to fancy ourselves more cunning than others.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶81; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶123; ed. Carvill (1835), ¶69]

The true method of being deceived is to think oneself more cunning than others.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶130]

The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶127]

The surest way to be deceived is to think one's self cleverer than one's neighbor.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶127]

The best way to be outwitted is to believe ourselves cleverer than others.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶127]

The surest way to be outwitted is to suppose yourself sharper than others.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶127]

The surest way to be taken in is to think oneself craftier than other people.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶127]

The best way to be deceived is to think ourselves more cunning than others.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶127]

Added on 7-Feb-25 | Last updated 7-Feb-25
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Topics: cheating, cleverness, craftiness, cunning, deceiving, deception, ego, fooling, outwitting, pride
More quotes by La Rochefoucauld, Francois

Love is but one thing with the gentle heart,
As in the saying of the sage we find;
Thus one from other cannot be apart,
More than the reason from the reasoning mind.
[Amore e ’l cor gentil sono una cosa,
Si come il saggio in suo dittare pone,
E cosi esser I’un sanza altro osa
Com’alma razional sanza ragione.]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 20, Sonnet 8, ll. 1-4 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Norton (1867)]
(Source)

The wise man referenced is the poet Guido Guinizzelli (or Guinicelli).

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

Love and the gentle heart are but one thing,
As says the wise man in his apothegm;
And one can by itself no more exist
Than reason can without the reasoning soul.
[tr. Lyell (1845)]

Love and the gentle heart are one same thing,
Even as the wise man in his ditty saith:
Each, of itself, would be such life in death
As rational soul bereft of reasoning.
[tr. Rossetti (c. 1847; 1899 ed.)]

They are the same, Love and the gentle heart!
So runs the saw, which from the sage I stole;
Nor can they more abide, from each apart,
Than reason parted from the reasoning soul.
[tr. Martin (1862)]

Love and the noble heart are but one thing,
Even as the wise man tells us in his rhyme,
The one without the other venturing
As well as reason from a reasoning mind.
[tr. Reynolds (1969)]

Love and the gracious heart are but one thing,
As Guinizelli tells us in his rhyme;
As much can one without the other be
As without reason can the reasoning mind.
[tr. Musa (1971)]

Love and the gracious heart are a single thing, as Guinizelli tells us in his poem: one can no more be without the other than can the reasoning mind without its reason.
[tr. Hollander (1997), sec. 3]

Love and the gentle heart are one thing,
as the wise man puts it in his verse,
and each without the other would be dust,
as a rational soul would be without its reason.
[tr. Kline (2002)]

Love and the noble heart are one and the same thing,
as the sage states in his poem,
and one of them dares as little to exist without the other
as does the rational soul without reasoning.
[tr. Appelbaum (2006)]

Love and the open heart are always one,
the sage has written; neither love nor heart
can be until the other is begun,
as thought confirms a thinking counterpart.
[tr. Frisardi (2012), ch. 11]

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More quotes by Dante Alighieri

Death didn’t scare her. It was only an episode in her life. If you live right, death is a joke to you as far as fear is concerned.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1925-05-24), “Weekly Article”
(Source)

Writing of his sister, Maude Ethel Lane, after her funeral.

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The liberty we obtain by being members of civilized society, would be licentiousness, if it allowed us to harm others, and slavery, if it prevented us from benefiting ourselves. True liberty, therefore, allows each individual to do all the good he can to himself, without injuring his neighbor.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 226 (1820)
(Source)

Added on 7-Feb-25 | Last updated 7-Feb-25
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Towering is the confidence of twenty-one.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Letter (1759-01-09) to Bennet Langton [paraphrase]
(Source)

While usually quoted as above, the actual passage reads:

When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.

Langton was only 14-15 at the time.

The letter is itself misdated (and often mis-cited) as being in 1758 when it was actually written in 1759 (based on Johnson's stated age and other internal evidence).

In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 1: 1709-1765 (1791).

Added on 7-Feb-25 | Last updated 7-Feb-25
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What we want to-day is what our fathers wrote down. They did not attain to their ideal; we approach it nearer, but have not reached it yet. We want, not only the independence of a State, not only the independence of a nation, but something far more glorious — the absolute independence of the individual. That is what we want. I want it so that I, one of the children of Nature, can stand on an equality with the rest; that I can say this is my air, my sunshine, my earth, and I have a right to live, and hope, and aspire, and labor, and enjoy the fruit of that labor, as much as any individual or any nation on the face of the globe.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois
(Source)

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Topics: equality, freedom, independence, individual, liberty, personal freedom
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It is not possible for the human imagination to conceive of the horrors of slavery. It has left no possible crime uncommitted, no possible cruelty unperpetrated. It has been practiced and defended by all nations in some form. It has been upheld by all religions. It has been defended by nearly every pulpit. From the profits derived from the slave trade churches have been built, cathedrals reared and priests paid. Slavery has been blessed by bishop, by cardinal, and by pope. It has received the sanction of statesmen, of kings, and of queens. It has been defended by the throne, the pulpit and the bench. Monarchs have shared in the profits. Clergymen have taken their part of the spoils, reciting passages of Scripture in its defence at the same time, and judges have taken their portion in the name of equity and law.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois
(Source)

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Seven long years of war — fighting for what? For the principle that all men are created equal — a truth that nobody ever disputed except a scoundrel; nobody, nobody in the entire history of this world. No man ever denied that truth who was not a rascal, and at heart a thief; never, never, and never will. What else were they fighting for? Simply that in America every man should have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nobody ever denied that except a villain; never, never. It has been denied by kings — they were thieves. It has been denied by statesmen — they were liars. It has been denied by priests, by clergymen, by cardinals, by bishops, and by popes — they were hypocrites.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois
(Source)

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Topics: America, created equal, Declaration of Independence, equality, liberty, life, pursuit of happiness
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To be honest, to be kind — to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation — above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself — here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy. He has an ambitious soul who would ask more; he has a hopeful spirit who should look in such an enterprise to be successful.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1888-12), “A Christmas Sermon,” sec. 1, Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 4
(Source)

Originally written in the winter of 1887-88. Collected in Across the Plains, ch. 12 (1892).

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More quotes by Stevenson, Robert Louis

And yet what harm can there be
in presenting the truth with a laugh, as teachers sometimes give
their children biscuits to coax them into learning their ABC?
[Quamquam ridentem dicere verum
quid vetat? ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi
doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Mæcenas,” l. 24ff (1.1.24-26) (35 BC) [tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Toyes may kepe and staye
Sumtimes the reeder very well, as those that teache in schooles,
With buttred bread, or featusse knacks will lewre the little fooles,
To learne a pace theyr A. B. C.
[tr. Drant (1567)]

Though to blurt out a truth has never been
(In way of merriment) esteem'd a sin.
The flattering Master thus his Boys presents
With Cakes, to make them learn their Rudiments.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]

And mirth commends, and makes our Precepts take,
Thus Teachers bribe their Boys with Figs and Cake
To mind their books.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

Yet may not truth in laughing guise be drest?
As masters fondly sooth their boys to read
With cakes and sweetmeats.
[tr. Francis (1747)]

Albeit why may not truth in smiles be drest,
As gentle teachers lure the child to come
And learn his horn-book, with a sugar plum?
[tr. Howes (1845)]

Though what hinders one being merry, while telling the truth? as good-natured teachers at first give cakes to their boys, that they may be willing to learn their first rudiments.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

Although what does prevent one telling truth in playful mood, as often tutors give their pupils cakes caressingly, to make them care to learn their ABC?
[tr. Millington (1870)]

Though, for me,
Why truth may not be gay, I cannot see:
Just as, we know, judicious teachers coax
With sugar-plum or cake their little folks
To learn their alphabet.
[tr. Conington (1874)]

What is to prevent one from telling truth as he laughs, even as teachers sometimes give cookies to children to coax them into learning their A B C?
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]

And yet -- there’s no law against telling the truth with a smile.
Smart teachers, for instance, give crunchy sweets to children
To make them learn their letters.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]

But tell me what law is violated if someone laughs
while speaking truth? You know how teachers sometimes give
their pupils little cakes, to help them learn their ABC’s.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]

Though why can’t one tell the truth
With a smile? Teachers coax children to love
Learning by giving them cookies.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

Although what's there to forbid one who is laughing,
from telling the truth? As loving teachers sometimes
hand out sweets to their pupils
so that they'll want to learn their ABC's.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

Though what bars us
from telling truths with a laugh, the way teachers
sow cookies and reap memorized alphabets?
[tr. Matthews (2002)]

Though what stops one telling the truth
While smiling, as teachers often give children biscuits
To try and tempt them to learn their alphabet?
[tr. Kline (2015)]

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More quotes by Horace

What people always demand of a popular novelist is that the shall write the same book over and over again, forgetting that a man who would write the same book twice could not even write it once.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

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Topics: author, novelist, originality, readership, repetition, self-imitation, writing
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Patriotism, red hot, is compatible with the existence of a neglect of national interests, a dishonesty, a cold indifference to the suffering of millions. Patriotism is largely pride, and very largely combativeness. Patriotism generally has a chip on its shoulder.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) American sociologist, writer, reformer, feminist
Herland, ch. 8 (1915)
(Source)

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Topics: belligerence, callousness, challenging, combativeness, indifference, nationalism, patriotism, pride
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There are many men who feel a kind of twisted pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes second to achievement.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: achievement, condescension, cynicism, disbelief, effort, ego, pride, sardonicism, scoffing, sneering, superiority
More quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

Then to the Lip of this poor earthen Urn
I lean’d, the Secret of my Life to learn:
And Lip to Lip it murmur’d — “While you live,
“Drink! — for, once dead, you never shall return.”

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 100 [tr. FitzGerald, 3rd ed. (1872), # 35]
(Source)

The same translation was used by Fitzgerald for the 4th ed. (1879) and 5th ed. (1889).

Where there are numerological references (which multiple sources pull together as variations on this quatrain), they are based on the numbering: One man, two worlds, four elements, five senses, seven planets, eight heavens, nine spheres, ten powers.

Alternate translations:

Lip to lip I passionately kissed the bowl,
To learn from it the secret of length of days;
Lip to lip in answer it whispered reply,
"Drink wine, for once gone thou shalt never return!"
[tr. Cowell (1858), # 25]

Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn
My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn:
And Lip to Lip it murmur'd -- "While you live,
"Drink! -- for once dead you never shall return."
[tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859), # 34]

Then to the Lip of this poor earthen Urn
I lean'd, the secret Well of Life to learn:
And Lip to Lip it murmur'd -- "While you live,
"Drink! -- for, once dead, you never shall return."
[tr. FitzGerald, 2nd ed. (1868), # 34]

O offspring of the four and five, art puzzled by the four and five? Drink deep, for I have told thee time on time, that once departed, thou returnest no more.
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 245]

I put my lips to the cup, for I did yearn
The secret of the future life to learn;
And from his lip I heard a whisper drop,
"Drink! for once gone you never will return."
[tr. Whinfield (1882), # 149]

I put my lips to the cup, for I did yearn
The means of gaining length of days to learn;
It leaned its lip to mine, and whispered low,
"Drink! for, once gone, you never will return."
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 152, elsewhere # 274]

I put my lips to the cup, for I did yearn
The hidden cause of length of days to learn;
He leaned its lip to mine, and whispered low,
"Drink! for, once gone, you never will return."
[tr. Whinfield (188?), # 274]

Slave of four elements and sevenfold heaven,
Who aye bemoan the thrall of these eleven,
Drink! I have told you seventy times and seven,
Once gone, nor hell will send you back, nor heaven.
[tr. Whinfield (1882), #223]

Child of four elements and sevenfold heaven,
Who fume and sweat because of these eleven,
Drink! I have told you seventy times and seven,
Once gone, nor hell will send you back, nor heaven.
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 431]

Sprung from the Four, and the Seven! I see that never
The four and the Seven respond to thy brain's endeavour --
Drink wine! for I tell thee, four times o'er and more,
Return there is none! -- Once gone, thou art gone for ever!
[tr. M. K. (1888)]

Lip to lip with the jar you know not what is intended
That is to say my lip also was like your lips (employed)
In the end since existence is no longer available
Your lips should be thus employed according to the friendly order.
[tr. Heron-Allen (1897), Calcutta # 227]

In great desire I pressed my lips to the lip of the jar,
To inquire from it how long life might be attained;
It joined its lip to mine and whispered: --
"Drink wine, for, to this world, thou returnest not."
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 100]

With strong desire my lips the cup's lip sought
From it the cause of weary life to learn.
Its lip pressed my lips close and whisperèd: --
"Drink, in this world no moment can return."
[tr. Cadell (1899), # 110]

I prest my lip in yearning to the urn.
Thereby the means of length of life to learn.
And lip to my lip placed it whispered low,
"Drink! For to this world you will ne'er return!"
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 320]

To the jar's mouth my eager lip I press'd,
For Life's Elixir making anxious quest;
It join'd its lip to mine, and whisper'd low --
"Drink wine: thou shalt not wake from thy last rest!"
[tr. Talbot (1908), # 100]

I laid my lip to the lip of the wine-cup in the utmost
desire to seek from it the means of prolonging life.
It laid its lip to my lip and said mysteriously: "During
a whole life I was like thee; rejoice for a while in my company."
[tr. Christensen (1927), # 65]

I placed my lip on the lip of the jug and caught from it
The means of attaining a long life.
The jug then seemed to say to me:
"For a lifetime I have been as you; now, for a while, be my companion."
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 177]

My lip to lip of Jar I close in glee,
In hopes that life eternal I would see;
Then quoth the Jar: Like thee I once have been
For ages, hence a minute breathe with me."
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 5.29]

Greedily to the bowl my lips I pressed
and asked how might I sue for green old age.
Pressing its lips to mine it muttered darkly:
"Drink up! Once gone, you shall return no more!"
[tr. Graves & Ali-Shah (1967), # 36]

I laid my lip against the pitcher's lip in the extremity of desire, that I might seek from it the means of long life: it laid (its) lip upon my lip and said secretly, "I too was (once) like thee: consort with me for a moment."
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 19, after Heron-Allen]

I pressed my lip upon the Winejar's lip,
And questioned how long life I might attain;
Then lip to lip it whispering replied:
"Drink wine -- this world thou shalt not see again."
[tr. Bowen (1976), # 19]

In the extremity of desire I put my lip to the pot's
To seek the elixir of life:
It put its lip on mine and murmured,
"Enjoy the wine, you'll not be here again."
[tr. Avery/Heath-Stubbs (1979), # 139]

I brought the cup to my lips with greed
Begging for longevity, my temporal need
Cup brought its to mine, its secret did feed
Time never returns, drink, of this take heed.
[tr. Shahriari (1998), literal]

The only secret that you need to know
The passage of time is a one way flow
If you understand, joyously you’ll grow
Else you will drown in your own sorrow.
[tr. Shahriari (1998), figurative]

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: afterlife, carpe diem, death, drinking, enjoyment, living, long life, longevity, seize the day, wine
More quotes by Omar Khayyam

Tell me what kind of man governs a People, you tell me, with much exactness, what the net sum-total of social worth in that People has for some time been.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3
(Source)

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: dictator, governance, government, governor, leader, meme, monarch, nation, people, president, ruler, society
More quotes by Carlyle, Thomas

Man has always dreamed of power. But damn it, man has always dreamed of love, too, and of the rights of his fellow man. The only power worthy of man is the power of all mankind struggling together toward a goal of unobtainable perfection.

Anthony Boucher (1911-1968) American author, critic, and editor [pseud. of William White; also H. H. Holmes and Herman W. Mudgett]
“The Barrier,” Astounding Science-Fiction, Vol. 30, No. 1 (1942-09)
(Source)

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: aspiration, dreams, humanity, love, perfection, power, rights, vision
More quotes by Boucher, Anthony

Did you ever think what a waste it would be if you burned a man for what he believed at twenty, when what he might believe and write at forty would be hailed as the most blessed of holy writ?

Ellis Peters (1913-1995) English writer, translator [pseud. of Edith Mary Pargeter, who also wrote under the names John Redfern, Jolyon Carr, Peter Benedict]
The Heretic’s Apprentice, ch. 13 [Elave] (1990)
(Source)

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: belief, blasphemy, burning, change, execution, growing up, growth, heresy, maturity, opinion
More quotes by Peters, Ellis

Natur seldum makes a phool, she simply furnishes the raw materials, and lets the fellow finish the job to suit himself.
[Nature seldom makes a fool, she simply furnishes the raw materials and lets the fellow finish the job to suit himself.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 11 “The Mermaid” (1874)
(Source)

See also Billings.

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: dolt, folly, fool, idiot, responsibility, self-made
More quotes by Billings, Josh

This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish. Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that, for the heart of the matter is here, and the root of my dispute with my country. You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
The Fire Next Time, “My Dungeon Shook” (1963)
(Source)

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: African-American, America, discrimination, expectations, ghetto, limitations, racism, segregation
More quotes by Baldwin, James

It is a good thing to recognize one’s own faults.
[Bellum est enim sua vitia nosse.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 2, Letter 17, sec. 2 (2.17.2) (59 BC) [tr. Winstedt (1912)]
(Source)

Speaking of his own slight "vanity and thirst for fame."

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:

It is well to know one's faults.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1900)]

It is a great thing to know our own vices.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]

It is a fine thing to recognize one's faults.
[tr. McKinlay (1926), # 14]

It's a fine thing to know one's failings.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1968), # 37]

Added on 6-Feb-25 | Last updated 6-Feb-25
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Topics: failings, faults, meme, self-awareness, self-criticism, vices
More quotes by Cicero, Marcus Tullius

So too with our minds. If we do not keep them busy with some particular subject which can serve as a bridle to rein them in, they charge ungovernably about, ranging to and fro over the wastelands of our thoughts. Then, there is no madness, no raving lunacy, which such agitations do not bring forth.
[Ainsi est-il des esprits, si on ne les occupe à certain sujet, qui les bride & contraigne, ils se jettent desreglez, par-ci par là, dans le vague champ des imaginations. Et n’est follie ny réverie, qu’ils ne produisent en cette agitation.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 8 (1.8), “Of Idleness [De l’Oisiveté]” (1572) [tr. Screech (1987)]
(Source)

This essay was in the 1st ed. (1595); though the essay was revised for later editions, this text was not. The Essays themselves were begun to cure the melancholy and unrestrained thoughts caused by Montaigne's moving to his country estates, retiring from public life, and isolating himself in the château library for some time. This essay speaks to that experience.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

So is it of minds, which except they be busied about some subject, that may bridle and keepe them under, they will here and there wildely scatter themselves through the vaste field of imaginations. And there is no follie, or extravagant raving, they produce not in that agitation.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

So it is with Wits, which if not applyed to some certain Study that may fix and restrain them, run into a thousand Extravagancies, and are eternally roving here and there in the inextricable Labyrinth of restless Imagination. In which wild and irregular Agitation, there is no Folly, nor idle Fancy they do not light upon.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

So it is with our minds, which, if not applied to some particular subject to check and restrain them, rove about confusedly in the vague expanse of imagination. In which agitation there is no folly nor idle fancy which they do not create.
[tr. Friswell (1868)]

So it is with minds, which if not applied to some certain study that may fix and restrain them, run into a thousand extravagances, eternally roving here and there in the vague expanse of the imagination -- in which wild agitation there is no folly, nor idle fancy they do not light upon.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

So it is with our minds. If we do not apply them to some sort of study that will fix and restrain them, they will drift into a thousand extravagances, and will sternly run here and there in an inextricable labyrinth of restless imagination. In this wild and irregular agitation there is no folly nor idle fancy they do not touch upon.
[tr. Rector (1899)]

So it is with our minds: if we do not keep them occupied with a distinct subject, which curbs and restrains them, they run aimlessly to and fro, in the undefined field of imagination. And there is no folly or fantasy to which they do not give birth in this agitation.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination. And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do not bring forth in this agitation.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

So it is with our minds. If we do not occupy them with some definite subject which curbs and restrains them, they rush wildly to and fro in the ill-defined field of the imagination. And there is no folly or fantasy that they will not produce in this restless state.
[tr. Cohen (1958)]

If [minds] have no object to busy themselves with, something to check and restrain them, they will run free and ramble through the open field of their imagination. And in this state of excitement, minds will come up with all kinds of foolishness and fantasies.
[tr. HyperEssays (2025)]

Added on 5-Feb-25 | Last updated 23-Jul-25
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Topics: agitation, boredom, concentration, fancy, focus, idleness, imagination, madness, raving, reverie, thinking, thoughts
More quotes by Montaigne, Michel de

JANE: So, Steve, Susan tells us you’ve been using pornography. (Everyone at the dinner party leans in.)
STEVE: (after a beat, scoffs) “Using pornography”? What a strange expression, Jane. Um, I enjoy erotica, if that’s what you mean. But then, doesn’t everyone? I certainly don’t “use pornography,” whatever that means. That makes me sound like — some kind of —
SALLY: Wanker?

Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Coupling, 01×04 “Inferno” (2000-06-02)
(Source)

(Source (Video), 18:26; dialog validated)

Added on 5-Feb-25 | Last updated 5-Feb-25
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Topics: erotica, porn, pornography, terminology, words
More quotes by Moffat, Steven

I will not say that we may not sooner or later be compelled to meet force by force; but the time has not yet come, and, if we are true to ourselves, may never come. Do not mistake that the ballot is stronger than the bullet. Therefore let the legions of slavery use bullets; but let us wait patiently till November and fire ballots at them in return; and by that peaceful policy I believe we shall ultimately win.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1856-05-29), Republican State Convention of Illinois, Bloomington [ed. Whitney]
(Source)

The speech is based on contemporaneous notes by William C. Whitney, who was present at the speech. The speech was reconstructed from the notes in 1896; Whitney said that it was not literal, but followed Lincoln's arguments and used many of his sentences.

Usually given in a shorter form: "The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

Lincoln used the juxtaposition of ballots and bullets a number of times (e.g., 1858, 1863). This is the earliest of the instances I can find.

Added on 5-Feb-25 | Last updated 5-Feb-25
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Topics: ballot, bullet, democracy, elections, force, political violence, slavery, violence, voting
More quotes by Lincoln, Abraham

Say to yourself first thing in the morning: I shall meet with people who are meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable. They are subject to these faults because of their ignorance of what is good and bad.
[ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ· συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ· πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 2, ch. 1 (2.1) [tr. Gill (2013)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Betimes in the morning say to thyself, This day I shalt have to do with an idle curious man, with an unthankful man, a railer, a crafty, false, or an envious man; an unsociable uncharitable man. All these ill qualities have happened unto them, through ignorance of that which is truly good and truly bad.
[tr. Casaubon (1634), 1.15]

Remember to put yourself in mind every Morning, That before Night 'twill be your Luck to meet with some Inquisitive Impertinent, with some ungrateful, and abusive Fellow; with some Knavish, Envious, or unsociable Churl or other. Now all this perverseness in them proceeds from their Ignorance of Good and Evil
[tr. Collier (1701)]

Say thus to thyself every morning: to day I may have to do with some intermeddler in other mens affairs, with an ungrateful man; an insolent, or a crafty, or an envious, or an unsociable selfish man. These bad qualities have befallen them through their ignorance of what things are truly good or evil.
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]

Consider with yourself, before you go out in the morning, that in the course of the day you will probably meet with some impertinent, disagreeable, or abusive fellow, with some deceitful, envious, or selfish wretch: now all this perverseness in them proceeds from their ignorance of what is really good or evil.
[tr. Graves (1792)]

Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.
[tr. Long (1862)]

Remember to put yourself in mind every morning, that before night it will be your luck to meet with some busy-body, with some ungrateful, abusive fellow, with some knavish, envious, or unsociable churl or other. Now all this perverseness in them proceeds from their ignorance of good and evil.
[tr. Collier/Zimmern (1887)]

When you wake, say to yourself -- To-day I shall encounter meddling, ingratitude, violence, cunning, malice, self-seeking; all of them the results of men not know what is good and what is evil."
[tr. Rendall (1898)]

Say this to yourself in the morning: Today I shall have to do with meddlers, with the ungrateful, with the insolent, with the crafty, with the envious and the selfish. All these vices have beset them, because they know not what is good and what is evil.
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]

Say to thyself at daybreak: I shall come across the busy-body, the thankless, the bully, the treacherous, the envious, the unneighbourly. All this has befallen them because they know not good from evil.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]

Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet to-day inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]

Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill will, and selfishness -- all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]

Say to yourself at break of day, I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and ungrateful men. All these vices have fallen to them because they have no knowledge of good and bad.
[tr. Hard (1997 ed.)]

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil.
[tr. Hays (2003)]

Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I shall meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, aggressive, treacherous, malicious, unsocial. All this has afflicted them through their ignorance of true good and evil.
[tr. Hammond (2006)]

Begin each day by saying to yourself: Today I am going to encounter people who are ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, and hostile. People have these characteristics because they do not understand what is good and what is bad.
[tr. Needleman/Piazza (2008)]

Say to yourself at the start of the day, I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable people. They are subject to all these defects because they have no knowledge of good and bad.
[tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]

First thing in the morning say to yourself: "I’m going to meet a busybody, an ingrate, a bighead, a fraudster, a slanderer, and an anti-social person; they’ve become all these things because of their ignorance of good and evil."
[tr. @aleatorclassicus (2013)]

Begin the morning by saying to yourself: Today I will meet people who are busy-bodies, ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, and unkind. This will happen because these people are ignorant of what is good and bad.
[tr. McNeill (2019)]

Added on 5-Feb-25 | Last updated 5-Feb-25
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Topics: bad, bad behavior, bad people, evil people, evil-doers, good, good and evil, ignorance, vice
More quotes by Marcus Aurelius

Who would attain to summits still and fair,
Must nerve himself through valleys of despair.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1906), “Climbing,” ll. 9-10, New Thought Pastels
(Source)

Added on 5-Feb-25 | Last updated 5-Feb-25
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Topics: aspiration, attainment, despair, discouragement, goal, struggle
More quotes by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

The rich man’s son inherits cares;
The bank may break, the factory burn,
A breath may burst his bubble shares,
And soft, white hands could hardly earn
A living that would serve his turn;
A heritage, it seems to me,
One would not care to hold in fee.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
Poem (1843-12), “The Heritage,” st. 2, The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22., No. 6
(Source)

In later collections, the last line reads, "One scarce would wish to hold in fee."

Added on 5-Feb-25 | Last updated 5-Feb-25
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Speak fair; and think what thou wilt.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 26 (1725)
(Source)

Added on 5-Feb-25 | Last updated 5-Feb-25
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Topics: belief, courtesy, discretion, evasiveness, opinion, pleasantry, politeness, prevarication, thought
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

Years ago we discovered the exact point, the dead center of middle age. It occurs when you are too young to take up golf and too old to rush up to the net.

Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960) American journalist and humorist ["F. P. A."]
Nods and Becks (1944)
(Source)

Originally published in Franklin's "Conning Tower" newspaper column during 1934-1935.

Added on 4-Feb-25 | Last updated 4-Feb-25
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Topics: ageing, lifespan, maturity, middle age, youth
More quotes by Adams, Franklin P.

MARGARET: Father, that man’s bad.
MORE: There is no law against that.
ROPER: There is! God’s law!
MORE: Then God can arrest him.

Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
(Source)

Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same lines. (Source (Video); dialog verified.)

Added on 4-Feb-25 | Last updated 1-Apr-25
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Topics: bad person, divine justice, divine law, God, good and evil, justice, law, right and wrong
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PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Patience,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1904-12-26), and the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner (1905-01-03).

Added on 4-Feb-25 | Last updated 4-Feb-25
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Topics: abiding, composure, despair, despondency, forbearance, fortitude, giving up, hopelessness, patience, perseverance, self-restraint, virtue, waiting
More quotes by Bierce, Ambrose

All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, “Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter and Wendy, ch. 1 “Peter Breaks Through” (1911)
(Source)

Opening words, not included in the play.

Added on 4-Feb-25 | Last updated 4-Feb-25
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Topics: childhood, children, growing up, maturity, parent, toddler, work, youth
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ORESTES: Otherwise how can we believe in the gods, if injustice can triumph over justice?
[ὈΡΈΣΤΗΣ:ἢ χρὴ μηκέθ᾽ ἡγεῖσθαι θεούς,
εἰ τἄδικ᾽ ἔσται τῆς δίκης ὑπέρτερα.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 584ff (c. 420 BC) [tr. Theodoridis (2006)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Else shall we cease to think that any Gods
Exist, if Villainy prevail o'er Justice.
[tr. Wodhull (1809); Electra speaking]

Else we must no longer believe in gods, if wrong is to be victorious over right.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

It behooves one no longer to think that there are Gods, if unjust deeds get the advantage of justice.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

We must believe no more
In Gods, if wrong shall triumph over right.
[tr. Way (1896)]

Else men shall know there is no God, no light
In Heaven, if wrong to the end shall conquer right.
[tr. Murray (1905)]

Else must we cease to believe in gods, if wrong is to triumph o'er right.
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

For if wrongful acts
triumph over justice, then no longer
should we put any of our faith in gods.
[tr. Johnston (2009), l. 699ff]

Added on 4-Feb-25 | Last updated 11-Mar-25
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Topics: belief system, divine justice, evil, faith, God, gods, good, good and evil, injustice, justice, meme, right, right and wrong, theodicy, wrong
More quotes by Euripides

Questions are a burden to others
Answers a prison for oneself

George Markstein (1926-1987) British journalist, author, screenwriter
The Prisoner, 01×01 “Arrival” (1967-09-29) [with David Tomblin]
(Source)

Sign in the Labour Exchange office of the Village.

Added on 4-Feb-25 | Last updated 4-Feb-25
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Topics: acceptance, answers, censorship, compliance, control, questions, self-censorship, thought control
More quotes by Markstein, George

Dessous roared with laughter. “Telman! I can’t believe I’m having to tell you this, but life isn’t fair!”
“No, the world isn’t fair, the universe isn’t fair. Physics, chemistry and mathematics, they aren’t fair. Or unfair, for that matter. Fairness is an idea, and only conscious creatures have ideas. That’s us. We have ideas about right and wrong. We invent the idea of justice so that we can judge whether something is good or bad. We develop morality. We create rules to live by and call them laws, all to make life more fair.”

Iain Banks (1954-2013) Scottish author
The Business, ch. 5 (1999)
(Source)

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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Topics: fairness, good and evil, human condition, humanity, justice, laws, morality, right and wrong
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That Greek one then is my hero, who watched the bath water
rise above his navel and rushed out naked. “I found it,
I found it” into the street in all his shining, and forgot
that others would only stare at his genitals. What laughter!

Daniel "Dannie" Abse (1923-2014) Welsh poet
Poem (1952), “Letter to Alex Comfort,” Walking Under Water
(Source)

Referring to Archimedes.

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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Topics: discovery, distraction, epiphany, eureka, nakedness, preoccupation, revelation
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Irrelevant things may happen to you, but once they have happened they all become relevant.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 4 (1963)
(Source)

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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Topics: experience, occurrence, relevance
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To be lost in thought is not to be idle. There is visible work and invisible work. To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do.
[On n’est pas inoccupé parce qu’on est absorbé. Il y a le labeur visible et le labeur invisible.
Contempler, c’est labourer; penser, c’est agir.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 7 “A Parenthesis,” ch. 8 (2.7.8) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour.
To meditate is to labour; to think is to act.
[tr. Wilbour (1862); Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

To be absorbed is not to be unoccupied, there is an invisible as well as a visible labor.
To contemplate is to labor, to think is to act.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

One is not unoccupied because one is absorbed. There is visible labor and invisible labor.
To contemplate is to labor, to think is to act.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible labour. To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do.
[tr. Denny (1976)]

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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When the map does not correspond to the territory, there is a certain category of fool — the overeducated, the academic, the journalist, the newspaper reader, the mechanistic “scientist”, the pseudo-empiricist, those endowed with what I call “epistemic arrogance”, this wonderful ability to discount what they did not see, the unobserved — who enter a state of denial, imagining the territory as fitting the map.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, “Postface” (2010)
(Source)

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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Topics: arrogance, assumptions, denial, epistemology, evidence, map, model, territory, theory
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When the final records shall be made clear, I think we shall be greatly amazed to see how alike in their frailties were men and women.

Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Naked Truth and Veiled Allusions (1902)
(Source)

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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Every day we have illustrated for us the paradox that it is the very people who violate and condemn the system of expected behavior codified in etiquette who are most outraged when it is violated by others.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Star-Spangled Manners, ch. 1 (2003)
(Source)

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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FALSTAFF:O powerful love,
that in some respects makes a beast a man, in
some other a man a beast!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, sc. 5, l. 4ff (5.5.4-6) (1597)
(Source)

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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Madame de Tencin said that intelligent people often erred in their conduct because they could never believe that the world in general is as stupid as it is.
[Mme de Tencin disait que les gens d’esprit faisaient beaucoup de fautes en conduite, parce qu’ils ne croyaient jamais le monde assez bête, aussi bête qu’il l’est.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ¶ 715 (1795) [tr. Merwin (1969)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Mme de Tencin said that people with spirit make many mistakes in their actions because they never believe that society is brutish enough, as brutish as it is.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Madame de Tencin said that many very clever people made social blunders because they could never believe that society was quite as stupid as it really was.
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶382]

The great mistake made by intelligent people is to refuse to believe that the world is as stupid as it is.
[Forbes]

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To mourn is to pity oneself. The dead feel nothing. The mourner does not pity the dead. He pities himself for having lost the living.

Walter M. Miller Jr. (1923-1996) American writer
“The Soul-Empty Ones,” Astounding Science Fiction (1951-08)
(Source)

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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Whatever good that Nature can reveal
is hers — she’s beauty’s touchstone on review.
[Ella è quanto de ben pò far natura;
per essemplo di lei bieltà si prova.]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 19, Canzone 1 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Frisardi (2012), ch. 10]
(Source)

Love waxing lyrical about the beauty of Dante's beloved Beatrice.

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

All choicest gifts in nature’s power are her’s:
In her example beauty finds its test.
[tr. Lyell (1845)]

She is as high as Nature’s skill can soar;
Beauty is tried by her comparison.
[tr. Rossetti (c. 1847; 1899 ed.)]

She is the sum of all on earth most rare;
Beauty by her bright standard tests its claim.
[tr. Martin (1862)]

Whate’er of good Nature can make she is,
And by her pattern beauty tries itself.
[tr. Norton (1867)]

She is the sum of nature's universe.
To her perfection all of beauty tends.
[tr. Reynolds (1969)]

She is the highest nature can achieve
And by her mold all beauty tests itself.
[tr. Musa (1971)]

She is the best that Nature can achieve and by her mold all beauty tests itself.
[tr. Hollander (1997)]

She is the greatest good nature can create:
beauty is proven by her example.
[tr. Kline (2002)]

She is the highest good that nature can make;
beauty is tested with her as the touchstone.
[tr. Appelbaum (2006)]

Added on 3-Feb-25 | Last updated 3-Feb-25
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It’s almost been worth this depression to find out how little our big men know.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1930-01-11)
(Source)

Variant: "It's almost worth the Great Depression to learn how little our big men know.

Collected in Sanity Is Where You Find It, ch. 8 (1955) [ed. Donald Day].

Added on 31-Jan-25 | Last updated 31-Jan-25
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There is this difference between those two temporal blessings health and money: money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied; and this superiority of the latter is still more obvious when we reflect that the poorest man would not part with health for money, but that the richest would gladly part with all their money for health.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 225 (1820)
(Source)

Added on 31-Jan-25 | Last updated 31-Jan-25
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Youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 14 (1891)
(Source)

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So our fathers said: “We will form a secular government, and under the flag with which we are going to enrich the air, we will allow every man to worship God as he thinks best.” They said: “Religion is an individual thing between each man and his creator, and he can worship as he pleases and as he desires.” And why did they do this? The history of the world warned them that the liberty of man was not safe in the clutch and grasp of any church. They had read of and seen the thumbscrews, the racks, and the dungeons of the Inquisition. They knew all about the hypocrisy of the olden time. They knew that the church had stood side by side with the throne; that the high priests were hypocrites, and that the kings were robbers. They also knew that if they gave power to any church, it would corrupt the best church in the world. And so they said that power must not reside in a church, or in a sect, but power must be wherever humanity is — in the great body of the people.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois
(Source)

Added on 31-Jan-25 | Last updated 31-Jan-25
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If grace be grace, and Allah gracious be,
Adam from Paradise why banished He?
Grace to poor sinners shown is grace indeed;
In grace hard earned by works no grace I see.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات] [tr. Whinfield (1883), # 102]
(Source)

While numbered as # 102 in most locations, it is given as # 57 here.

I was unable to find alternate translations or analogs to this quatrain from Whinfield. The closest (but a bit of a stretch):

If sinfully I drudge, where is Your mercy?
If clouds darken my heart, where is Your light?
Heaven rewards my practice of obedience;
Rewards well-earned are good -- but what of grace?
[tr. Graves & Ali-Shah (1967), # 86]

Added on 30-Jan-25 | Last updated 24-Jul-25
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ALCESTE: The more one loves, the more one should object
To every blemish, every least defect.
Were I this lady, I would soon get rid
Of lovers who approved of all I did,
And by their slack indulgence and applause
Endorsed my follies and excused my flaws.
[Plus on aime quelqu’un, moins il faut qu’on le flatte ;
À ne rien pardonner le pur amour éclate ;
Et je bannirais, moi, tous ces lâches amants
Que je verrais soumis à tous mes sentiments,
Et dont, à tous propos, les molles complaisances
Donneraient de l’encens à mes extravagances.]

Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Le Misanthrope, Act 2, sc. 5 (1666) [tr. Wilbur (1954)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

The more we love any one, the less we ought to flatter her. True love shows itself in overlooking nothing; and, were I a lady, I would banish all those mean-spirited lovers who submit to all my sentiments, and whose mild complacencies every moment offer up incense to my vagaries.
[tr. Van Laun (1878)]

The more we love any one, the less it behoves us to flatter them; true love shows itself by pardoning nothing, and for my part I would banish all those mean-spirited lovers whom I found submissive to all my opinions, and whose soft complaisance offered incense to all my extravagant ideas.
[tr. Mathew (1890), 2.6]

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself. For my part, I would banish those unworthy lovers who slavishly submit to all my sentiments, and by their weak compliance swing incense to my follies.
[tr. Wormeley (1894)]

The more we love, the less ought we to flatter. True love shows itself in not pardoning anything; and, for my part, I would banish every one of those mean-spirited lovers who submit to all my views, whose tame compliance on every occasion burns incense to my vagaries.
[tr. Waller (1903), 2.4]

The more we love, the less we ought to flatter;
True love is proven by condoning nothing;
For my part, I would banish those base lovers
I found agreeing with my own opinions,
And pandering with weak obsequiousness
To my vagaries upon all occasions.
[tr. Page (1913)]

The more you love, the less you ought to flatter;
And true love is incapable of pardon.
If I were she, I'd banish all admirers
Submissive to my slightest sentiment,
Fawning upon me with their cheap applause
For even my most extreme extravagances.
[tr. Bishop (1957)]

Loving and flattering are worlds apart;
The least forgiving is the truest heart;
And I would send those soft suitors away,
Seeing they dote on everything I say,
And that their praise, complaisant to excess,
Encourages me in my foolishness.
[tr. Frame (1967), 2.4]

Added on 30-Jan-25 | Last updated 30-Jan-25
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Topics: candor, challenge, complaisance, criticism, fawning, flattery, love, relationship, submission
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Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as the cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)

Added on 30-Jan-25 | Last updated 30-Jan-25
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Topics: cynicism, intellectual, sardonicism, scoffing, sneer, sophistication, superiority, worldliness
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Reverence for Human Worth, earnest devout search for it and encouragement of it, loyal furtherance and obedience to it: this, I say, is the outcome and essence of all true “religions,” and was and ever will be.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3
(Source)

Added on 30-Jan-25 | Last updated 30-Jan-25
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Topics: humanism, humanity, love your neighbor, religion
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Books have another value, to those who have fallen forever and wholly in love with them. There are those who would cheat for them, steal for them, lie for them, even if then they could never show or boast of their treasures to any other creature. Kill for them? It was not impossible.

Ellis Peters (1913-1995) English writer, translator [pseud. of Edith Mary Pargeter, who also wrote under the names John Redfern, Jolyon Carr, Peter Benedict]
The Heretic’s Apprentice, ch. 12 (1990)
(Source)

Added on 30-Jan-25 | Last updated 30-Jan-25
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Topics: art, books, collection, crime, obsession, preciousness, value
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Thoze people who are trieing to git to heaven on their kreed will find out at last that they didn’t hav a thru ticket.
[Those people who are trying to get to heaven on their creed will find out at last that they didn’t have a through ticket.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Trump Kards, ch. 9 “The Ram and Crawfish” (1874)
(Source)

Added on 30-Jan-25 | Last updated 30-Jan-25
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Topics: afterlife, creed, doctrine, dogma, faith and works, heaven, salvation, works
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The others you know without my telling you. They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe.
[Ceteros iam nosti; qui ita sunt stulti, ut amissa re publica piscinas suas fore salvas sperare videantur.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 1, Letter 18, sec. 6 (1.18.6) (60 BC) [tr. Shuckburgh (1900)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:

The others you know well enough -- fools who seem to hope that their fish-ponds may be saved, though the country go to rack and ruin.
[tr. Winstedt (1912)]

As for the rest of the Optimates, you know them. They are so stupid as to suppose that their own fishponds can be unharmed even though the constitution go to pot.
[tr. McKinlay (1926), # 13]

The others you know. They seem fools enough to expect to keep their fish-ponds after losing constitutional freedom.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1968)]

Added on 30-Jan-25 | Last updated 30-Jan-25
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For heaven’s sake, children, Fascism isn’t coming — it’s here. It’s dreadful. Stop it.

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer, poet, wit
Speech (1947-11-02), Civil Rights Congress reception, Park Central Hotel, New York City
(Source)

At a fund-raiser on behalf of 19 writers, directors, and actors who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Reported as an AP story, "Eisler in Attendance At Reception for 19 in Hollywood Inquiry," Evening Star, Washington, DC (1947-11-03).

The paper is given as the primary source for the above quote in various books about Parker or the HUAC Era. The full passage from the paper reads:

Dorothy Parker, the writer, said that when she viewed a committee session last week it was "incredibly hideous, as though the Gestapo were there, and fascism was there."
"Fascism isn't coming here -- it is here," she declared. Miss Parker said the Hollywood investigation was "shocking, dreadful, terrifying."

The line is also sometimes given as, "For heaven’s sake, children, Fascism isn’t coming -- it’s already here."

Added on 29-Jan-25 | Last updated 29-Jan-25
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The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) American writer
Speech (1978) “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later”
(Source)

First collected in Dick's I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1985) [ed. Mark Hurst and Paul Williams], where it serves as the introduction.

Lawrence Sutin, editor of The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995) (where this is reprinted) suggests this speech was "likely never delivered."

Added on 29-Jan-25 | Last updated 29-Jan-25
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Topics: control, language, meaning, reality, vocabulary, words
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Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter [unjust laws]. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Essay (1849-05), “Resistance to Civil Government [On the Duty of Civil Disobedience],” Æsthetic Papers, No. 1, Article 10
(Source)

Based on an 1848 lecture at the Concord Lyceum.

Added on 29-Jan-25 | Last updated 29-Jan-25
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Democracy in order to live must become a positive force in the daily lives of its people. It must make men and women whose devotion it seeks, feel that it really cares for the security of every individual; that it is tolerant enough to inspire an essential unity among its citizens; and that it is militant enough to maintain liberty against social oppression at home and against military aggression abroad.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1938-11-04), “The Election of Liberals” (radio broadcast)
(Source)

Added on 29-Jan-25 | Last updated 9-Apr-25
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JEFF: You’re not ready for the Giggle Loop. […] Basically, it’s like a feedback loop. You’re somewhere quiet. There’s people. It’s a — it’s a solemn occasion. A wedding. No — it’s a minute’s silence for someone who’s died. […] Minute’s silence ticking away. Tick. Tick. Tick. The Giggle Loop begins. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this thought comes into your head: the worst thing I could possibly do during a minute’s silence is laugh. (Overturns an empty beer glass) And as soon as you think that, you almost do laugh, automatic reaction. But you don’t, you control yourself. You’re fine. Whoo — but then you think how terrible it would have been if you’d laughed out loud in the middle of a minute’s silence. And so you nearly do it again, only this time it’s a bigger laugh. (Stacks a beer glass on top of the first one) And then you think how awful this bigger laugh would have been. And so you nearly laugh again, only this time it’s a very big laugh. (Stacks another glass) It’s an enormous laugh! Let this bastard out, and you get whiplash! (Stacks another glass) Suddenly, you’re in the middle of this completely silent room (Stacks another glass) and your shoulders are going like you’re drilling the road! And what do you think of this situation? Oh, dear Christ, you think it’s funny!

Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Coupling, 01×03 “Sex, Death and Nudity” (2000-05-26)

Slightly edited from the transcript at Wikiquote. as verified from the video. The transcript at IMDb is much rougher.

Added on 29-Jan-25 | Last updated 29-Jan-25
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Topics: embarrassment, escalation, feedback, funeral, giggling, laughter, propriety, self-control, self-restraint, spiral
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Give of thy gold, though small thy portion be.
Gold rusts and shrivels in the hand that keeps it.
It grows in one that opens wide and free.
Who sows his harvest is the one who reaps it.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1901), “Give,” st. 3, New Thought Pastels (1906)
(Source)

Added on 29-Jan-25 | Last updated 5-Feb-25
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Topics: charity, generosity, giving, investment, miser, pay it forward
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Wink at small Faults; for thou hast great ones.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 25 (1725)
(Source)

See Franklin (1758).

Added on 29-Jan-25 | Last updated 20-Feb-25
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OBSTINATE, adj. Inaccessible to the truth as it is manifest in the splendor and stress of our advocacy.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Obstinate,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1904-10-05) and the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner (1904-10-31).

See "Resolute."

Added on 28-Jan-25 | Last updated 2-Sep-25
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Topics: obstinacy, obstinate, perspective, stubbornness
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PETER: You mustn’t touch me.
WENDY: Why?
PETER: No one must ever touch me.
WENDY: Why?
PETER: I don’t know.
(He is never touched by any one in the play.)

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)

These lines are not in Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy (1911).

Added on 28-Jan-25 | Last updated 29-Jan-25
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Topics: connection, separation, touch
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ELECTRA: And let no man committing wicked acts
believe that if he runs the first leg well,
he is defeating justice, not before
he moves across the finish line and ends
the last lap in his life.
[ἨΛΈΚΤΡΑ:ὧδέ τις κακοῦργος ὢν
μή μοι τὸ πρῶτον βῆμ᾽ ἐὰν δράμῃ καλῶς,
955νικᾶν δοκείτω τὴν Δίκην, πρὶν ἂν πέλας
γραμμῆς ἵκηται καὶ τέλος κάμψῃ βίου.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 954ff (c. 420 BC) [tr. Johnston (2009), l. 1152]
(Source)

Speaking to the corpse of Ægisthus, who slew her father, Agamemnon.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Let no villain,
Tho' the first stage of his career he run
With prosperous Fortune, think he hath outstripp'd
Avenging Justice, till he reach the goal,
And end his life.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

Let none suppose, though he have run the first stage of his course with joy, that he will get the better of Justice, till he have reached the goal and ended his career.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

Let not a man, if he run the first course well, think he will win the victory, before he comes nigh the line, and turns the end of life.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

Let none dream, though at starting he run well,
That he outrunneth Justice, ere he touch
The very goal and reach the bourn of life.
[tr. Way (1896)]

O vaunt not, if one step be proudly made
In evil, that all Justice is o'ercast:
Vaunt not, ye men of sin, ere at the last
The thin-drawn marge before you glimmereth
Close, and the goal that wheels 'twixt life and death.
[tr. Murray (1905)]

So let no evildoer suppose, even if he runs the first step well, that he will get the better of Justice, until he comes to the end of the finish-line and makes the last turn in life.
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

Let every criminal like him know that just because his first criminal steps went according to his wishes that he has not defeated Justice before his life’s end.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]

May every criminal
see that he'll never win the race with Justice!
He may run quick at first, but play it out:
run on, right to the finish line of life.
[tr. Wilson (2016)]

Added on 28-Jan-25 | Last updated 11-Mar-25
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Topics: death, justice, race, survival
More quotes by Euripides

When I contemplate the common lot of mortality, I must acknowledge that I have drawn a high prize in the lottery of life. The far greater part of the globe is overspread with barbarism or slavery: in the civilized world the most numerous class is condemned to ignorance and poverty; and the double fortune of my birth in a free and enlightened country, in an honourable and wealthy family, is the lucky chance of an unit against millions.

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) English historian
Memoirs of My Life and Writings (1796)
(Source)

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: good fortune, good luck, privilege
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Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 2 (1963)
(Source)

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: abilities, disappointment, giving up, inadequacy, limitations, powers, self-deprecation, self-distrust, surrender
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It was a characteristic of Jean Valjean that he might have been said to carry two bags: in one he kept his saintly thoughts, in the other the formidable talents of a convict. He dug into one or the other, depending on circumstances.

[Jean Valjean avait cela de particulier qu’on pouvait dire qu’il portait deux besaces; dans l’une il avait les pensées d’un saint, dans l’autre les redoutables talents d’un forçat. Il fouillait dans l’une ou dans l’autre, selon l’occasion.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 5 “Dark Hunt, Mute Mutts,” ch. 5 (2.5.5) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Jean Valjean had this peculiarity, that he might be said to carry two knapsacks; in one he had the thoughts of a saint, in the other the formidable talents of a convict. He helped himself from one or the other as occasion required.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

Jean Valjean had one peculiarity, that he might be said to carry two wallets: in one he had the thoughts of a saint; in the other the formidable talents of a convict, and he felt in one or the other as opportunity offered.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

Jean Valjean had this peculiarity, that he carried, as one might say, two beggar's pouches: in one he kept his saintly thoughts; in the other the redoubtable talents of a convict. He rummaged in the one or the other, according to circumstances.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

Jean Valjean had the singularity that he might be said to be doubly endowed, on the one side with the aspirations of a saint, on the other with the formidable talents of a criminal. He could draw on either as the case required.
[tr. Denny (1976)]

Jean Valjean had this trait, that he might be said to carry two knapsacks -- in one he had the thoughts of a saint, in the other the impressive talents of a convict. He helped himself from one or the other as occasion required.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: abilities, convict, piety, resources, saint, talents, virtue
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I have admitted that there are very few women who would put their job before every earthly consideration. I will go further and assert that there are very few men who would do it either. In fact, there is perhaps only one human being in a thousand who is passionately interested in his job for the job’s sake. The difference is that if that one person in a thousand is a man, we say, simply, that he is passionately keen on his job; if she is a woman, we say she is a freak.

Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) English author, translator
“Are Women Human?” speech to a Women’s Society (1938)
(Source)

Collected in Unpopular Opinions (1946).

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: dedication, job, men, passion, priorities, sexism, women, work
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Because our minds need to reduce information, we are more likely to try to squeeze a phenomenon into the Procrustean bed of a crisp and known category (amputating the unknown), rather than suspend categorization, and make it tangible. Thanks to our detections of false patterns, along with real ones, what is random will appear less random and more certain — our overactive brains are more likely to impose the wrong, simplistic, narrative than no narrative at all.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, “Postface” (2010)
(Source)

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: assumption, categorization, cognition, explanation, information, mind, model, narrative, oversimplification, patterns, thought, understanding
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There would be neither fruit nor flowers if God answered all prayers concerning the weather according to our folly.

Minna Antrim (1861-1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Naked Truth and Veiled Allusions (1902)
(Source)

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: divine intervention, God, intercession, prayer, weather
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That it is expedient to kill a king, rather than wait for his natural demise, is something a populace can come to accept, perhaps to relish. That the people’s own customs and costumes are to be radically changed by edict, rather than being allowed to evolve haphazardly and linger sentimentally beyond their time, is not. Yet messing with the national etiquette is one of the great spoils of revolutionary success.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Star-Spangled Manners, Prologue (2003)
(Source)

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: change, custom, direction, etiquette, fashion, new order, revolution, society
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FALSTAFF:Setting the attractions of
my good parts aside, I have no other charms.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 105ff (2.2.105-106) (1597)
(Source)

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: attractiveness, beauty, charm, ego, handsomeness, self-regard
More quotes by Shakespeare, William

Men’s ideas are like card-playing or any other game. Ideas which in the past I’ve seen considered reckless have since become commonplace, almost trivial, and adopted by men unworthy of sharing them. Ideas which now seem extraordinary will be regarded feeble and perfectly ordinary by our descendants.

[Les idées des hommes sont comme les cartes et autres jeux. Des idées que j’ai vu autrefois regarder comme dangereuses et trop hardies, sont depuis devenues communes, et presque triviales, et ont descendu jusqu’à des hommes peu dignes d’elles. Quelques-unes de celles à qui nous donnons le nom d’audacieuses seront vues comme faibles et communes par nos descendans.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 145 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 115]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Men’s ideas are like cards and other games. Ideas which I remember to have seen regarded as dangerous and over-bold have since become commonplace and almost trite, and have descended to men little worthy of them. So it is that some of the ideas which to-day we call audacious will be considered feeble and conventional by our descendants.
[tr. Hutchinson (1902), "The Cynic's Breviary"]

Man's ideas are like card & other games. Ideas which I once heard stigmatised as dangerous and over-daring have since become common and even trivial, and have sunk to be the tenets of quite unworthy persons. Some ideas which we call audacious nowadays will seem feeble and ordinary to our descendants.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

The ideas of men are like cards and other games. ideas that at one time, to my own knowledge, were considered dangerous and rash, have since become general, almost commonplace, and have descended to men who are little worthy of them. Some of those that we call daring will seem feeble and ordinary to our descendants.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

The ideas of men are like cards and other games. Some ideas, which formerly I observed to be considered dangerous and intemperate, have since become universal, even trivial, and have been adopted by men scarcely worthy of them. Some notions which we call bold will be regarded as feeble and commonplace by our descendants.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: boldness, commonplace, concepts, convention, danger, expectations, heresy, heterodoxy, ideas, normalcy, novelty, ordinary, orthodoxy, passage of time, revolution, status quo, triviality
More quotes by Chamfort, Nicolas

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange eons, even death may die.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) American fabulist [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]
“The Nameless City,” The Wolverine magazine (1921-11)
(Source)

In the story, the "unexplainable couplet" of Abdul Alhazred, "the mad poet," after having dreamed of the titular city. It is babbled later by the narrator after his sojourn into the city and confrontation with the horror there.

Added on 27-Jan-25 | Last updated 27-Jan-25
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Topics: death, eternity, life, unnatural
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But I now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realized. What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate; I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself: the gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive, and it shall content me. It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) English novelist
Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, Vol. 2, ch. 9 [The Creature] (1818)
(Source)

Added on 25-Jan-25 | Last updated 25-Jan-25
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Topics: bride, companion, creation, creator, mate, monster, prayer
More quotes by Shelley, Mary Wallstonecraft

There is no cruelty so inexorable and unrelenting, as that which proceeds from a bigoted and presumptuous supposition of doing service to God. Under the influence of such hallucination, all common modes of reasoning are perverted, and all general principles are destroyed.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 222 (1820)
(Source)

Added on 24-Jan-25 | Last updated 24-Jan-25
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Topics: cruelty, divine inspiration, fanaticism, holy war, religion, religious persecution, self-delusion, self-righteousness, zealotry
More quotes by Colton, Charles Caleb

O Adolescence, O Adolescence
I wince before thine incandescence.
Thy constitution, young and hearty
Is too much for this aged party.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“Tarkington, Thou Should’st Be Living in This Hour,” Versus (1939)
(Source)

Added on 24-Jan-25 | Last updated 24-Jan-25
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Topics: adolescence, energy, teenager, youth
More quotes by Nash, Ogden