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Popular Quotables
- “Wealth and Poverty,” speech, National… (6,632)
- “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942) (5,801)
- Agamemnon, ll. 175-183 [tr. Johnston (2007)] (5,687)
- Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962) (4,869)
- “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933) (4,810)
- “On The Conduct of Life” (1822) (3,908)
- “In Search of a Majority,” Speech,… (3,809)
- “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of… (3,662)
- “The Historian as Participant,” Daedalus… (3,057)
- “Hallowed Ground” (1825) (3,056)
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Adams, John • Bacon, Francis • Bible • Bierce, Ambrose • Billings, Josh • Butcher, Jim • Chesterton, Gilbert Keith • Churchill, Winston • Einstein, Albert • Eisenhower, Dwight David • Emerson, Ralph Waldo • Franklin, Benjamin • Fuller, Thomas (1654) • Gaiman, Neil • Galbraith, John Kenneth • Gandhi, Mohandas • Goethe, Johann von • Hazlitt, William • Heinlein, Robert A. • Hoffer, Eric • Huxley, Aldous • Ingersoll, Robert Green • James, William • Jefferson, Thomas • Johnson, Lyndon • Johnson, Samuel • Kennedy, John F. • King, Martin Luther • La Rochefoucauld, Francois • Lewis, C.S. • Lincoln, Abraham • Mencken, H.L. • Orwell, George • Pratchett, Terry • Roosevelt, Eleanor • Roosevelt, Theodore • Russell, Bertrand • Seneca the Younger • Shakespeare, William • Shaw, George Bernard • Stevenson, Adlai • Stevenson, Robert Louis • Twain, Mark • Watterson, Bill • Wilde, Oscar- Only the 45 most quoted authors are shown above. Full author list.
Recent Feedback
- 6-Jul-20 - (Attributed) | WIST on Quoted in Plutarch, Parallel Lives, “The Life of Solon,” sec. 18.5 [tr. Perrin (1914)].
- 6-Jul-20 - Agamemnon, l. 928 | WIST on Oedipus Rex, l. 1529 (concluding words).
- 20-May-20 - Introduction to the Art of Thinking, ch. 1, "Friendship" (1761) | WIST on John 15:13 (KJV).
- 18-May-20 - Chamblee54 on Clouds, ll. 998-999 (423 BC) [tr. Athenian Soc. (1912)].
- 18-May-20 - Chamblee54 on Mills E. Godwin, Governor of Virginia (Dec 1966).
- 11-May-20 - Chamblee54 on “Indian Summer,” Enough Rope (1926).
Quotations about deserving
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
Fortune to many gives too much, enough to none.
[Fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.]
Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 12, epigram 10
Alt. trans.:
- "Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none." [tr. Bohn (1871)]
- "Fortune hath overmuch bestow'd on some; / But plenary content doth give to none." [tr. Fletcher]
- "Fortune, some say, doth give too much to many; / And yet she never gave enough to any." [tr. Harrington]
- "Fortune gives one enough, but some too much." [tr. Hay]
- "Fortune to many gives too much, enough to none." [tr. Ker (1919)]
At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves.
We cannot insure Success, but We can deserve it.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (18 Feb 1776)
(Source)
In giving of thy alms, inquire not so much into the person, as his necessity. God looks not so much upon the merits of him that requires, as into the manner of him that relieves; if the man deserve not, thou hast given it to humanity.
The prouder a man is, the more he thinks he deserves; and the more he thinks he deserves, the less he really does deserve.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
Royal Truths (1866)
No victor believes in chance.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 3 (1882)
WILL MUNNY: It’s a helluva thing killing a man. You take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have.
SCHOFIELD KID: Well, I guess they had it coming.
WILL MUNNY: We all have it coming, kid.
David Webb Peoples (b. 1940) American screenwriter
Unforgiven (film) (1992)
Will Munny was played by Clint Eastwood.
HAMLET: Use every man after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping?
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 554 (1600)
Bad rulers … are in constant fear lest others are conspiring to inflict upon them the punishment which they are conscious of deserving.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Discourses on Livy, Book 3, ch. 6 (1517) [tr. Detmold (1882)]
It is an element of all happiness to fancy that we deserve it.
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist
Pensées (1838) [tr. Collins (1928)]
A man should say, I am not concerned that I have no place, I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.
Confucius (551-479 BC) Chinese philosopher [Ku'ng Ch'iu / King Qiu, Ku'ng Fu-tzu / Kong Fuzi]
The Analects [Lun Yü], 4.14 (6th C. BC) [ed. Lao-Tse; tr. Legge (1930)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
- "Do not worry if you are without a position; worry lest you do not deserve a position. Do not worry if you are not famous; worry let you do not deserve to be famous." [tr. Leys (1997)]
- "Do not worry that you have no official position. Worry about not having the qualifications to deserve a position. Do not worry that others do not know you. seek to be worthy of being known." [tr. Chin (2014)]
- "Do not worry about having no office; rather, worry about whether you deserve to stand in that office. Do not worry about nobody knowing you; rather, seek to be worth knowing." [tr. Huang (1997)]
In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence — but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major (1916)
