I ne’er insulted the calamities
Of those who were unfortunate, because
I fear’d that I myself might also suffer.[μή μοι προτείνων ἐλπίδ᾽ ἐξάγου δάκρυ. γένοιτο τἂν πόλλ’ ὧν δόκησις οὐκ ἔνι.]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Andromeda [Ἀνδρομέδα], Frag. 130 (TGF) (412 BC) [tr. Wodhull (1809)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translation:
I never treated the troubles of the unfortunate insultingly,
through fear of suffering them myself.
[tr. Gibert (2004)]
Quotations about:
karma
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
What have I always believed? That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right.
CHARLIE ANDERSON: I’m not going to kill you. I want you to live. I want you to live to be an old man, and I want you to have many, many, many children, and I want you to feel about your children then the way I feel about mine now. And someday, when a man comes along and kills one of ’em, I want you to remember! Okay? I want you to remember.
People don’t ever seem to realize that doing what’s right’s no guarantee against misfortune.
William McFee (1881-1966) English writer
Casuals of the Sea, Book 2, ch 6 (1916)
(Source)
Sometimes paraphrased "Doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune."
For nothing is more blamefull to a Knight,
That court’sie doth as well as armes professe,
However strong and fortunate in fight,
Then the reproch of pride and cruelnesse:
In vain he seeketh others to suppresse,
Who hath not learned himself first to subdue:
All flesh is frayle and full of ficklenesse,
Subject to fortunes chance, still chaunging new;
What haps to-day to me to-morrow may to you.Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599) English poet
The Faerie Queene, Book 6, canto 1, st. 41 (1590-96)
(Source)
Who will not mercie unto others shew,
How can he mercy ever hope to have?Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599) English poet
The Faerie Queene, Book 6, Canto 1, st. 42 (1589-96)
(Source)
See James 2:13.
Ill doers in the end shall ill receive.
[Chi mal opra, male al fine aspetta.]
Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) Italian poet
Orlando Furioso, Canto 37, st. 106, l. 6 (1532) [tr. Rose (1831)]
(Source)
Satchelmouth was by no means averse to the finger-foxtrot and the skull fandango, but he’d never murdered anyone, at least on purpose. Satchelmouth had been made aware that he had a soul and, though it had a few holes in it and was a little ragged around the edges, he cherished the hope that some day the god Reg would find him a place in a celestial combo. You didn’t get the best gigs if you were a murderer. You probably had to play the viola.
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Importance of Being Earnest, act 2 (Miss Prism) [1895]
(Source)
“The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on” — and only then do you find out if it goosed you in passing.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Farnham’s Freehold, ch. 21 (1964)
(Source)
See Omar Khayyám.
Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends — they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.
Emily Brontë (1818-1848) British novelist, poet [pseud. Ellis Bell]
Wuthering Heights, ch. 17 [Isabella Linton] (1847)
(Source)
“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”
“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 356ff [Parolles] (1602?)
(Source)
Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them.
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.
Be nice to people on your way up because you’ll meet them on your way down.
How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it.
If you leap into a Well, Providence is not bound to fetch you out.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #2795 (1732)
(Source)
There are none more abusive to others than they that lie most open to it themselves; but the humor goes round, and he that laughs at me today will have somebody to laugh at him tomorrow.
The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Attributed)
(Source)
Found in Merle Johnson, More Maxims of Mark (1927), and generally considered authentic.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
The Bible (14th C BC - 2nd C AD) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 7:1-2 (KJV)
Alt. trans.:
- "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get."(NRSV)
- "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (NIV)
- "Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others." (GNT)
VIR: I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave, like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?
MARCUS: You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair; then I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happened to us come because we actually deserved them?’ So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.
It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us — the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage — may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss — except the inventor of the telephone.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Letter to the Editor of the New York World (23 Dec 1890)
(Source)
Happiness is not a reward — it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment — it is a result.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“The Christian Religion,” Part 2, The North American Review (Nov 1881)
(Source)