“To be eccentric,” says Miss Webster, dead for fifteen years, in the back of my head, her voice dry, her elocution perfect, “you must first know your circle.” Know the rules before you break them. Learn how to draw, then break the rules of drawing. Learn to craft a story and then show people things they’ve seen before in ways they’ve never seen.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Foreword (1993) to Harlan Ellison, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (1969)
(Source)
Quotations about:
foundation
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
There was a time when all these things would have passed me by, like the flitting figures of a theatre, sufficient for the amusement of an hour. But now, I have lost the power of looking merely on the surface. Everything seems to me to come from the Infinite, to be filled with the Infinite, to be tending toward the Infinite. Do I see crowds of men hastening to extinguish a fire? I see not merely uncouth garbs, and fantastic, flickering lights, of lurid hue, like a trampling troop of gnomes — but straightway my mind is filled with thoughts about mutual helpfulness, human sympathy, the common bond of brotherhood, and the mysteriously deep foundations on which society rests; or rather, on which it now reels and totters.
Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) American abolitionist, activist, journalist, suffragist
Letters from New-York, # 1, 1841-08-19 (1843)
(Source)
We do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen. If the foundation be firm, the foundation will stand.
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) American lawyer, politician, US President (1925-29)
Commencement Address, Wheaton College, Norton, Mass. (17 Jun 1921)
An empire founded by arms needs to be sustained by arms.
[Un empire fondé par les armes a besoin de se soutenir par les armes.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline [Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence], ch. 18 (1734, 1748 ed.) [tr. Baker (1882)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Other translations:An empire, founded by arms, must likewise have arms for its support.
[tr. B--- (1734)]An Empire founded by Arms, must likewise have Arms for its Support.
[ed. Guterman (1963)]An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
[E.g. (1960)]An empire founded by arms needs to be sustained by arms.
[tr. Lowenthal (1965)]
