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The House will forgive me for quoting five democratic questions that I have developed during my life. If one meets a powerful person — Rupert Murdoch, perhaps, or Joe Stalin or Hitler — one can ask five questions: what power do you have; where did you get it; in whose interests do you exercise it; to whom are you accountable; and, how can we get rid of you? Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system.

Tony Benn
Tony Benn (1925-2014) British politician, writer, diarist
Speech, House of Commons (16 Nov 1998)
    (Source)

Benn used this set of questions -- often with different examples -- on multiple occasions.
 
Added on 9-Nov-21 | Last updated 9-Nov-21
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Heap on the wood! — the wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.

Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott (1771-1832) Scottish writer, historian, biographer
Marmion, Canto 6, Introduction (1808)
    (Source)
 
Added on 16-Dec-19 | Last updated 24-Dec-21
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A great flame follows a little spark.

[Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda.]

Dante Alighieri the poet
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy, “Paradiso,” Canto 1, l. 34 (1321)
 
Added on 1-Jun-16 | Last updated 1-Jun-16
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Write while the heat is in you. When the farmer burns a hole in his yoke, he carries the hot iron quickly from the fire to the wood, for every moment is less effectual to penetrate (pierce) it. It must be used instantly or it is useless. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (10 Feb 1852)
 
Added on 8-Apr-15 | Last updated 8-Apr-15
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Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

George Washington (1732-1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789-1797)
(Attributed)

Unsourced. First attributed to "The First President of the United States" in "Liberty and Government" by W. M., in The Christian Science Journal (Nov 1902) ed. Mary Baker Eddy.

Variant: "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."

More information here.

 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 29-May-15
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Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
Apothegms, # 97 (1624)

See Alfonso X.

 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 16-May-16
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Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out candles and fans flames.

[L’absence diminue les médiocres passions, et augmente les grandes, comme le vent éteint les bougies et allume le feu.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #276 (1665-1678)

Alt. trans.: "Absence lessens the minor passions and increases the great ones, as the wind douses a candle and kindles a fire."

(See DeBussy)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 29-Aug-17
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Absence is to love what wind is to fire;
It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

[L’absence est a l’amour ce qu’est au feu le vent;
Il eteint le petit, il allume le grand.]

Roger de Rabutin de Bussy
Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy (1618-1693) French soldier, libertine, writer [a.k.a. Roger Bussy-Rabutin]
Histoire amoureuse des Gaules, “Maximes d’amour [Maxims of Love]” (1660)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 29-Aug-17
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A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.

Mildred W. Struven (1892-1983) American Christian Scientist, housewife
(Attributed)

Quoted by her daughter Jean Harris, Stranger in Two Worlds (1986)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 29-May-14
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