Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
(Attributed)
Quotations about:
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Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Conformity is the ape of harmony.
ROWLAND: I think Hell is something you carry around with you, not somewhere you go.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 4. Season of Mists, # 25 “Chapter 4” (1991-04)
(Source)
Charles Rowland to Edwin Paine (the "Dead Boy Detectives"). Paine disagrees in a following panel: "I think maybe Hell is a place. But you don't have to stay anywhere forever."
Observe a man’s actions; scrutinize his motives; take note of the things that give him pleasure. How, then, can he hide from you what he really is?
[視其所以。觀其所由。察其所安。人焉廋哉、人焉廋哉]
Confucius (c. 551- c. 479 BC) Chinese philosopher, sage, politician [孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ, K'ung Fu-tzu, K'ung Fu Tse), 孔子 (Kǒngzǐ, Chungni), 孔丘 (Kǒng Qiū, K'ung Ch'iu)]
The Analects [論語, 论语, Lúnyǔ], Book 2, verse 10 (2.10) (6th C. BC – AD 3rd C.) [tr. Giles (1907)]
(Source)
(Source (Chinese)). Alternate translations:See what a man does. Mark his motives. Examine in what things he rests. How can a man conceal his character? How can a man conceal his character?
[tr. Legge (1861)]If you observe what things people (usually) take in hand, watch their motives, and note particularly what it is that gives them satisfaction, shall they be able to conceal from you what they are? Conceal themselves, indeed!
[tr. Jennings (1895)]You look at how a man acts; consider his motives; find out his tastes. How can a man hide himself; how can he hide himself from you?
[tr. Ku Hung-Ming (1898)]Observe what he does; look into his motives; find out in what he rests. Can a man hide himself! Can a man hide himself!
[tr. Soothill (1910)]Watch a man’s means, what and how. See what starts him. See what he is at ease in. How can a man conceal his real bent?
[tr. Pound (1933)]Look closely into his aims, observe the means by which e pursues them, discover what brings him content -- and can the man's real worth remain hidden from you, can it remain hidden from you?
[tr. Waley (1938)]Look at the means which a man employs; consider his motives; observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!
[tr. Ware (1950)]Observe a man's actions; scrutinize his motives; and study what makes him content. How can a man conceal himself?
[tr. Chai (1965)]Look at the means a man employs, observe the path he takes and examine where he feels at home. In what way is a man's true character hidden from view? In what way is man's true character hidden from view?
[tr. Lau (1979)]See how he operates, observe what path he follows, examine what his is satisfied with, and how can a man remain inscrutable, how can a man remain inscrutable!
[tr. Dawson (1993)]Find out why a man acts, observe how he acts, and examine where he finds his peace. Is there anything he could still hide?
[tr. Leys (1997)]See what a man does; contemplate the path he has traversed; examine what he is at ease with. How, then, can he conceal himself? How, then, can he conceal himself?
[tr. Huang (1997)]See what a man does; contemplate the path he has traversed; examine what he is at ease with. How, then, can he conceal himself?
[tr. Huang (1997)]Watching one's action, examining one's experience, and observing one's favorite. What could one hide? What could one hide?
[tr. Cai/Yu (1998)]Watch their actions, observe their motives, examine wherein they dwell content; won't you know what kind of person they are? Won't you know what kind of person they are?
[tr. Ames/Rosemont (1998)]See what he bases himself on, observe what he follows, find out what he si comfortable with. Where can the man hide? Where can the man hide?
[tr. Brooks/Brooks (1998)]If you look at their intentions, examine their motives, and scrutinize what brings them contentment -- how can people hide who they are? How can they hide who they really are?
[tr. Hinton (1998)]Look at the means a man employs, observe the basis from which he acts, and discover where it is that he feels at ease. Where can he hide? Where can he hide?
[tr. Slingerland (2003)]Watch what he does, observe the path he follows, examine where he comes to rest -- can any person then remain a mystery? Can any person remain a mystery?
[tr. Watson (2007)]Observe [shi] what a man does. Look into [guan] what he has done [you]. Consider [cha] where he feels at home. How then can he hide his character?
[tr. Chin (2014)]You observe the motivation of a person's behavior and words, the approach and directions he follows, and his mental and emotional conditions. What can he hide? What can he hide?
[tr. Li (2020)]
An optimist isn’t necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
Howard Zinn (1922-2010) American historian, academic, author, social activist
Essay (2004-09-02), “The Optimism of Uncertainty,” The Nation
(Source)
Adopted from Zinn's essay of the same name in Paul Loeb (ed.), The Impossible Will Take a Little While (2004). See also Zinn, "A Marvelous Victory" (2004-02-23).
JONES: For de little stealin’ dey gits you in jail soon or late. For de big stealin’ dey makes you Emperor and puts you in de Hall o’ Fame when you croaks.
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) Irish American playwright, Nobel laureate
The Emperor Jones, Act 1 (1921)
(Source)
See Chuang Tzu.
To be good, and to do good, is all We have to do.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1777-03-17) to Nabby Adams (Abigail Adams 2d)
(Source)
It is not yours to finish the task, but neither are you free to set it aside.
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.
The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
Mishnah, Pirkei Avot [Ethics of the Fathers; פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת] 2:16
(Source)
In some editions cited as 2:15 or 2:21. Many of the references below ("E.g.") have no identified translator, nor is it clear whether the translations are from the surrounding writers or borrowed from elsewhere.
Quoting Rabbi Tarfon (c. AD 130). While literally speaking of studying the Torah, the passage is usually understood to imply solving the problems of the world.
(Source (Hebrew)). Other translations:It is not for thee to finish the work, nor art thou free to desist therefrom.
[tr. Taylor (1897)]It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.
[tr. Charles (1913); 2:21]The work is not upon thee to finish nor art thou free to desist from it.
[tr. Herford (1929); 2:21]It is not thy part to finish the task, yet thou art not free to desist from it.
[tr. Danby (1933)]It is not up to you to complete the work; but neither are you free to desist from it.
[tr. Bokser (1989)]It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it either.
[tr. Telushkin (1991)?]It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.
[tr. Kulp (2014?)]The work is not yours to complete. [The Holy One Blessed be He did not hire you to complete all of it, in which instance you would lose your wage if you did not complete it.] And [lest you say: (In that case,) I will not learn and I will not take a wage] — you are not free to abstain from it. [Perforce the yoke is upon you to labor.]
[tr. Silverstein (2013?)]It is not [incumbent] upon thee to finish the work, but neither art thou a free man so as to [be entitled to] refrain therefrom.
[Wikisource]It is not your responsibility to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
[tr. Open Mishnah]It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
[E.g.]It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it.
[E.g.]It is not up to you to finish the task, but you are not free to avoid it.
[E.g.]You need not finish the work , but you are not free to stop working.
[E.g.]Although I am not free to avoid doing the work, it is not always necessary that I finish the task.
[E.g.]You are not obliged to complete the task, nor are you free to abandon it.
[E.g.]You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
[E.g.]It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
[E.g.]It is not your obligation to finish the task, nor are you free to desist from it.
[E.g.]It is not yours to finish the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.
[E.g.]
Every hour wounds. The last one kills.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
American Gods, epigraph (2001)
(Source)
Gaiman notes this as an "old saying." It is frequently found on sun dials or other clocks, sometimes in Latin. Variations:
- "All hours wound; the last one kills."
- "All the hours wound you, the last one kills."
- "They all wound; the last one kills."
- "Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat."
- "Omnes vulnerant. Postuma necat."
A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.
The envious nature of men, so prompt to blame and so slow to praise, makes the discovery and introduction of any new principles and systems as dangerous as almost the exploration of unknown seas and continents.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Discourses on Livy, Book 1, Introduction (1517) [tr. Detmold (1882)]
ALFRED: Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Christopher Nolan (b. 1970) English-American film director, screenwriter, producer
The Dark Knight (2008) [with Jonathan Nolan]
(Source)
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 18 “Conclusion” (1854)
(Source)
And from your policy do not wholly banish fear,
For what man living, freed from fear, will still be just?
Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
The Eumenides
America’s two great specialties are demagogues and rock and roll, and we’ve all heard plenty of both in our time.
If your writing doesn’t keep you up at night, it won’t keep anyone else up either.
James M. Cain (1892-1977) American author and journalist
(Attributed)
The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.
Gaylord Nelson (1916-2005) American politician and environmentalist
“Ah, Wilderness! Save It,” New York Times (4 Sep 1984)
(Source)
I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1860-1930) American labor leader [a.k.a. Mother Jones]
Speech (1903), in The Autobiography of Mother Jones, ch. 10 (1925)
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Heretics, ch. 15 “On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set” (1905)
(Source)
Take me or leave me; or, as in the usual order of things, both.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer, poet, wit
New Yorker (4 Feb 1928)
Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up.
Edgar Watson "Ed" Howe (1853-1937) American journalist and author [E. W. Howe]
Ventures in Common Sense, 4.29 (1919)
Never marry a man you wouldn’t want to be divorced from.
Nora Ephron (1941-2012) American screenwriter, author, journalist, director
Essay (2006), “What I Wish I’d Known,” I Feel Bad About My Neck (2007)
(Source)
Wherever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865) Canadian politician, judge, humorist
Sam Slick’s Wise Saws and Modern Instances (1853)
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
(Attributed)
Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (1862-1935) American athlete, evangelist, preacher
In William T. Ellis, “Billy” Sunday, The Man and his Message, ch. 12 (1914)
We may dig in our heels and dare life never to change, but, all the same, it changes under our feet like sand under the feet of a sea gazer as the tide runs out. Life is forever undermining us. Life is forever washing away our castles, reminding us that they were, after all, only sand and sea water.
Erica Jong (b. 1942) American writer, poet
Parachutes and Kisses (1984)
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.
Thinking is the activity I love best, and writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers. I can write up to 18 hours a day. Typing 90 words a minute, I’ve done better than 50 pages a day. Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up — well, maybe once or twice.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
(Attributed)
Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong — but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong! Heaven save us from poltroons who fear to make a choice.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Double Star (1956)
We are what we worry about, maybe that’s the lesson of the whole thing.
Steven Brust (b. 1955) American writer, systems programmer
Iorich (2010)
Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation. He recounts the decency and regularity of former times, and celebrates the discipline and sobriety of the age in which his youth was passed; a happy age which is now no more to be expected, since confusion has broken in upon the world, and thrown down all the boundaries of civility and reverence.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #50 (8 Sep 1750)
(Source)
You bid me burn your letters. But I must forget you first.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-04-28) to Abigail Adams
(Source)
What happens to all the tears we do not shed?
Jules Renard (1864-1910) French writer
Journal (Nov 1906) [tr. Bogan & Roget (1964)]
As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
The Road to Wigan Pier, ch. 11 (1937)
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those that other people have lent me.
Anatole France (1844-1924) French poet, journalist, novelist, Nobel Laureate [pseud. of Jaques-Anatole-François Thibault]
La vie littéraire (1888)
What Darwin was too polite to say, my friends, is that we came to rule the Earth not because we were the smartest, or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle.
Stephen King (b. 1947) American author
Cell, “Gaiten Academy,” ch. 16 (2006)
A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) American psychologist
Toward a Psychology of Being (1968 ed.)
To tax and to please, no more than to love and be wise, is not given to men.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“American Taxation,” speech, House of Commons (19 Apr 1774)
You cannot imagine the kindness I’ve received at the hands of perfect strangers.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
The Narrow Corner, ch. 15 (1932)
In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and, both by precept and example, inculcated on mankind.
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) American revolutionary, statesman
“The Rights of the Colonists,” Report of the Committee of Correspondence to the Boston Town Meeting (1772-11-20)
(Source)
If thou desire to see thy child virtuous, let him not see his father’s vices: thou canst not rebuke that in them, that they behold practiced in thee; till reason be ripe, examples direct more than precepts: such as thy behaviour is before thy children’s faces, such commonly is theirs behind their parents’ backs.
Be slow in chusing a Friend, slower in changing.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1735 ed.)
(Source)
While there is a chance of the world getting through its troubles I hold that a reasonable man has to behave as though he was sure of it. If at the end your cheerfulness is not justified, at any rate you will have been cheerful.
H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
Apropos of Dolores (1938)
As the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Innovations,” Essays, No. 24 (1625)
(Source)
A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (1862-1948) American statesman, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1910-1916, 1930-1941)
Address to the YMCA, New York
Quoted in The Homiletic Review (Nov 1907)
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Nature,” ch. 8, Nature: Addresses and Lectures (1849)
(Source)
Change your opinions, keep to your principles;
change your leaves, keep intact your roots.[Changez vos opinions, gardez vos principes;
changez vos feuilles, gardez intactes vos racines.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Victor Hugo’s Intellectual Autobiography [Postscriptum de ma Vie], “Thoughts,” sec. 5 (1901) [tr. O’Rourke (1907)]
(Source)
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
[χαίρειν μετὰ χαιρόντων, κλαίειν μετὰ κλαιόντων.]
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Romans 12: 15 [KJV (1611)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:Rejoice with those who rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow.
[JB (1966)]Rejoice with others when they rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow.
[NJB (1985)]Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who weep.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]Be happy with those who are happy, and cry with those who are crying.
[CEB (2011)]Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness, and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit (1870)
Good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society.
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) English novelist
Sketches and Travels in London, “On Tailoring — and Toilets in General” (1856)
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.
Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) American football coach
(Attributed)
Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.
H. Jackson "Jack" Brown, Jr. (b. 1940) American writer
Life’s Instructions for Wisdom, Success, and Happiness (2001)
SLARTIBARTFAST: Perhaps I’m old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 4th” (BBC Radio) (1978-03-29)
The same text is found in the book form, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, ch. 30 (1979).
The very poor can always be depended upon. They never turn away the hungry. Time and again, all over the United States, have I been refused food at the big house on the hill; and always have I received food from the little shack down by the creek or marsh, with its broken windows stuffed with rags and its tired-faced mother broken with labor. Oh! you charity-mongers, go to the poor and learn, for the poor alone are the charitable. They neither give nor withhold from the excess. They have no excess. They give, and they withhold never, from what they need for themselves. A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.
Jack London (1876-1916) American novelist
“My Life in the Underworld,” Cosmopolitan Magazine (May 1907)
(Source)
Republished in The Road, Part 1, ch. 1 (1907). Recalling his days as a hobo in 1892.
Fashions in sin change.
Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) American playwright, screenwriter
Watch on the Rhine (1941)
What the world wants iz good examples, not so mutch advice; advice may be wrong, but examples prove themselves.
[What the world wants is good examples, not so much advice; advice may be wrong, but examples prove themselves.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 130 “Affurisms: Puddin & Milk” (1874)
(Source)
Experience iz a grindstun, and it iz lucky for us if we kan git brightened by it, not ground.
[Experience is a grindstone, and it is lucky for us if we can get brightened by it, not ground.
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 130 “Affurisms: Puddin & Milk” (1874)
(" target="_blank">Source)
This aphorism was transformed / paraphrased in the early 1920s into something a bit more inspirational, first (it appears) in Forbes (1922-10-14), then in similar form in other periodicals such as The Beaver (1924-03) and Wood Construction (1924-09-15). The new form:Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds a man down or polishes him up, depen's on the stuff he's made of.
In an earlier pass of Billings quotations, I did up a meme, unknowingly based on that later phrasing:
When the political columnists say “Every thinking man,” they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to “Every intelligent voter,” they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.
Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960) American journalist and humorist ["F. P. A."]
Nods and Becks, “Inside ‘Information, Please!'” (1944)
(Source)
Are all men in disguise except those crying?
Daniel "Dannie" Abse (1923-2014) Welsh poet
Poem (1986), “Encounter at a greyhound bus station,” Ask the Bloody Horse
(Source)
Your God is the best God.
In fact, he’s the only God.
All other Gods are ridiculous, made up rubbish.
Not yours though. Yours is real.
Has it ever occurred to you … that parents are nothing but overgrown kids until their children drag them into adulthood? Usually kicking and screaming?
Stephen King (b. 1947) American author
Christine, Part 1, ch. 3 (1983)
The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Note (1896-11-26), Mark Twain’s Notebook, ch. 27 “England” (1935) [ed. Albert Bigelow Paine]
(Source)
Written while in Guilford, England, shortly after the death of his daughter Susy in America.
Often given as "The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." More discussion here.
The beginnings of all things are small.
[Omnium rerum principia parva sunt.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, Book 5, ch. 58
Alt. trans.: "Everything has a small beginning."
I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.
Augusten Burroughs (b. 1965) American writer
Magical Thinking (2004)
PORTIA: How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 99ff (5.1.99-100) (1597)
(Source)
In some versions, "So shines a good deed in a naughty world."
Sometimes misattributed to Roald Dahl (or even Gene Wilder); the character Willy Wonka uses the second sentence toward the end of the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971).
Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Essay (1765-10-21), “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 4, Boston Gazette
(Source)
It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) Chinese revolutionary, politician, statesman [Teng Hsiao-p'ing]
Speech, Communist Youth League conference (Jul 1962)
There are a variety of translations, and Deng used the phrase on numerous occasions.
Live now, believe me, wait not till tomorrow;
Gather the roses of life today.[Vivez, si m’en croyez, n’attendez à demain;
Cueillez dés aujourd’huy les roses de la vie.]
Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) French poet
“Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle,” l. 13, Sonnets pour Hélène (1578)
(Source)
A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 202 (1820)
(Source)
All presidents start out to run a crusade, but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely, the presidency.
Alistair Cooke (1908-2004) Anglo-American essayist and journalist
Talk About America, ch. 6 (1981)
GUIDERIUS: Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Cymbeline, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 331ff (3.2.331-336) (1611)
(Source)
An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) American playwright and essayist
“The Year It Came Apart,” New York Magazine (30 Dec 1974)
The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
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)
Originally written for the Sodalitas Club.
We know so little about each other. We lie mostly submerged, like ice floes, with our visible social selves projecting only cool and white.
Ian McEwan (b. 1948) English novelist and screenwriter
Amsterdam (1998)
The custom and fashion of to-day will be the awkwardness and outrage of to-morrow. So arbitrary are these transient laws.
Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870) French novelist and dramatist
(Attributed)
Quoted in James Comper Gray, The Biblical Museum: Old Testament, vol. 3 (1878 ed.).
Hope for the best.
Expect the worst.
The world’s a stage.
We’re unrehearsed.
Mel Brooks (b. 1926) American comedic actor, writer, producer [b. Melvyn Kaminsky]
The Twelve Chairs, “Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst” (1970)
(Source)
(Source (Audio)). More information on composition of the song here and here.
See also Shakespeare and O'Casey.
Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
“Cheese,” Alarms and Discursions (1911)
Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.
Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) American clergyman, hymnist
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in Life and Light for Woman, Vol. 26, #1 (Jan 1896)
A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1710-07-01), The Tatler, No. 192
(Source)
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.
Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) Irish poet, playwright, novelist
“On Our Theaters,” The Bee, #11 (13 Oct 1759)
I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.
J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) English author, dramatist [John Boyne Priestley]
Delight (1949)
The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one’s self more cunning than others.
Pierre Charron (1541-1603) French Catholic theologian and philosopher
(Attributed)
Quoted in John Timbs, Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors, vol. 3, #308 (1829)
We make ourselves miserable by first closing ourselves off from reality and then collecting this and that in an attempt to make ourselves happy by possessing happiness. But happiness is not something I have, it is something I myself want to be. Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over my body.
Roger J. Corless (1938–2007) Anglo-American religious academic, Buddhist scholar, ecumenicist
The Vision of Buddhism: the Space under the Tree, Part 2 “The Space” (1989)
(Source)
Frequently misattributed to George Carlin (with "all over your body").
A man should fear when he enjoys only what good he does publicly. Is it not the publicity, rather than the charity, that he loves?
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
In Henry Ward Beecher and Edna Dean Proctor, Life Thoughts: Gathered From the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher (1858)
See Matthew.
If you can’t joke about the most horrendous things in the world, what’s the point of jokes? What’s the point in having humor? Humor is to get us over terrible things. That’s all it’s for. That’s why you should laugh at funerals. Of course it’s the wrong thing to say. That’s why it’s funny.
Ricky Gervais (b. 1961) English comedian, actor, director, writer
Interview with Chris Heath, GQ (15 May 2013)
(Source)
The last, best fruit that comes to perfection, even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness toward the hard; forbearance toward the unforbearing; warmth of heart toward the cold; and philanthropy toward the misanthropic.
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
(Attributed)
Quoted in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
He serves his party best who serves the country best.
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) American attorney, soldier, politician, US President (1877-81)
Inaugural address (5 Mar 1877)
But opinion, & the just maintenance of it shall never be a crime in my view; nor bring injury on the individual
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1801-03-29) to Samuel Adams
(Source)
Sometimes misattributed to George Washington.
Our deeds still travel with us from afar.
And what we have been makes us what we are.
George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Middlemarch (1871-72)
The best foreign policy is to live our daily lives in honesty, decency, and integrity; at home, making our own land a more fitting habitation for free men; and abroad, joining with those of like mind and heart, to make of the world a place where all men can dwell in peace.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Lecture (1950-03-23), Inaugural Gabriel Silver Lecture, Columbia University
Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Speech, Virginia Ratifying Convention (6 Jun 1788)
If you have a good idea, get it out there. For every idea I’ve realized, I have ten I sat on for a decade till someone else did it first. Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.
Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
“Dollhouse’s Joss Whedon Answers Your Questions,” Hulu Blog (9 Mar 2009)
(Source)
The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight; that he shall not be a mere passenger, but shall do his share in the work that each generation of us finds ready to hand; and, furthermore, that in doing his work he shall show, not only the capacity for sturdy self-help, but also self-respecting regard for the rights of others.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1902-11-11), State Chamber of Commerce Banquet, New York City
(Source)
This first part of this passage was quoted by Ronald Reagan at a fundraising dinner for Sen. Mack Mattingly in Atlanta (1985-06-05), discussing reform measures to close up tax loopholes.
“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.”
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic
A Christmas Carol (1843)
Sometimes oddly paraphrased, "We forge the chains we wear in life."
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing (1644)
(Source)
HAMLET: Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 124ff (2.2.124-127) (c. 1600)
(Source)
A letter from Hamlet to Ophelia, read by Polonius.
It’s hard to let go of anything we love. We live in a world that teaches us to clutch. But when we clutch we’re left with a fist full of ashes.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
A Ring of Endless Light, ch. 4 [Adam] (1980)
The best advice I’ve ever received is, “No one else knows what they’re doing either.”
To most Christians, the Bible is like a software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll to the bottom and click, “I agree.”
William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
(Attributed)
Unless each day can be looked back upon by an individual as one in which he has had some fun, some joy, some real satisfaction, that day is a loss. It is un-Christian and wicked, in my opinion, to allow such a thing to occur.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Commencement, Dartmouth College (14 Jun 1953)
(Source)
The world’s an Inn; and I her guest.
I eat; I drink; I take my rest.
My hostess, nature, does deny me
Nothing, wherewith she can supply me;
Where, having stayed a while, I pay
Her lavish bills, and go my way.
Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture.
Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) Irish poet, playwright, novelist
“A City Night-Piece,” The Bee, #4 (27 Oct 1759)
(Source)
I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue; the Roman word is better, “impedimenta;” for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue; it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Riches,” Essays, No. 34 (1625)
(Source)
There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is surely yours is the present, hence this is the time to speak the word of appreciation and sympathy, to do the generous deed, to forgive the fault of a thoughtless friend, to sacrifice self a little more for others. Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have long postponed, and to use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of some less fortunate fellow traveler. Today you can make your life big, broad, significant and worthwhile. The present is yours to do with it as you will.
Grenville Kleiser (1868-1953) Canadian-American self-help author
Inspiration And Ideals: Thoughts For Every Day, “August Twenty-Eighth” (1918 ed.)
I shut my eyes in order to see.
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) French painter [Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin]
(Attributed)
If you’re walking down the right path, and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.
Barack Obama (b. 1961) American politician, US President (2009-2017)
(Attributed)
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech, United Nations (23 Sep 1961)
Speech written by Theodore "Ted" Sorensen.
Yes, Haven, most of us enjoy preaching, and I’ve got such a bully pulpit!
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
(Attributed)
In George Haven Putnam, The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. 9, Introduction (1926). Roosevelt's reply when, during his first presidential term, Putnam accused him of tending to preach to people.
For behavior, men learn it, as they take diseases, one of another.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Solitude and Society,” Atlantic Monthly (1857-12)
Paraphrase of Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 2, Act 5, sc. 1: "It is certain that either wife bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore let men take heed of their company." Sometimes misattributed to Francis Bacon.
It is a sad fate for a man to die
Too well known to everybody else,
And still unknown to himself.[Illi mors gravis incubate
Qui notus nimis omnibus
Ignotus moritur sibi.]
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Thyestes, ll. 401-403 [tr. Bacon]
Lines from the Chorus translated by Francis Bacon, in "Of Great Place," Essays, Part 11. Sometimes incorrectly attributed to Bacon.
Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another’s.
[Nie zeichnet der Mensch den eignen Charakter schärfer als in seiner Manier, einen fremden zu zeichnen.]
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
Titan, Jubilee 28, cycle 110 (1803) [tr. Brooks (1863)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:A man never reveals his character more vividly than when portraying the character of another.
[E.g. (1960); E.g. (1962)]
For politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage. Politics must be the concern of every citizen who wants to see our national well-being increased and our international leadership strengthened. In that combined sense, politics is the noblest of professions. In the ranks of that kind of politics, every American should be enrolled.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Republican Lincoln Day Dinners (28 Jan 1954)
(Source)
Often paraphrased: "Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free men."
The speech was filmed for the Republican National Committee and distributed to state and local committees to be shown at the Lincoln Day dinners.
Defer not thy charities till death; for certainly, if a man weight it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man’s than his own.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Riches,” Essays, No. 34 (1625)
(Source)
It is a great misfortune to be alone, my friends; and it must be believed that solitude can quickly destroy reason.
[Malheur à qui est seul, mes amis, et il faut croire que l’isolement a vite fait de détruire la raison.]
Jules Verne (1828-1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
The Mysterious Island, Part 2, ch. 15 (1874) [tr. White (1876)]
(Source)
Why are not more gems from our early prose writers scattered over the country by the periodicals? Selections are so far from preventing the study of the entire authors that they promote it. Who could read the extracts which Lamb has given from Fuller, without wishing to read more of the old Prebendary? But great old books of the great old authors are not in every body’s reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have neither time nor means to get more. Let every bookworm, when, in any fragrant, scarce old tome, he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it the widest circulation that newspapers and magazines, penny and halfpenny, can afford.
Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849) English poet, biographer, essayist, teacher
Biographia Borealis: or, Lives of Distinguished Northerns, “Roger Ascham” (1833)
(Source)
Speaking of the practice of including brief extracts -- quotations -- from famous authors in magazines and newspapers to fill up columns or create a break between stories. Ironically, this extracted quotation -- slightly paraphrased -- was widely circulated in the mid-late 19th and early 20th Century misattributed to his father, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or simply labeled as "Coleridge" without citation, leading to the same confusion.
Usually quoted more succinctly as: "Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly, than to know them only here and there; yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have neither time nor means to get more. Let every bookworm, when in any fragrant, scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it."
Hasten slowly, and without losing heart,
Put your work twenty times upon the anvil.[Hâtez-vous lentement ; et, sans perdre courage,
Vingt fois sur le métier remettez votre ouvrage.]
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) French poet and critic
The Art of Poetry [L’Art Poétique], Canto 1, l. 171 (1674)
‘T is pity though, in this sublime world, that
Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.
Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.
Ian McEwan (b. 1948) English novelist and screenwriter
“Only love and then oblivion,” The Guardian (15 Sep 2001)
(Source)
The more you say, the less people remember.
The fewer the words, the greater the profit.
François de Sales (1567-1622) French bishop, saint, writer [a.k.a. Francis de Sales, b. François de Boisy]
(Attributed)
In S.A. Bent, comp., Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887). Usually attributed, due to structure of that reference, to Francois Fénelon.
We call ourselves a liberal nation, whereas, as a matter of fact, we are one of the most conservative nations in the world. If you want to make enemies, try to change something. You know why it is. To do things to-day exactly the way you did them yesterday saves thinking. It does not cost you anything. You have acquired the habit; you know the routine; you do not have to plan anything, and it frightens you with a hint of exertion to learn that you will have to do it a different way to-morrow.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) US President (1913-20), educator, political scientist
“The Democracy of Business,” speech, Salesmanship Congress, Detroit (1916-07-10)
(Source)
Usually trimmed down to just: "If you want to make enemies, try to change something."
Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.
[Souvent la peur d’un mal nous conduit dans un pire.]
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) French poet and critic
The Art of Poetry [L’Art Poétique], Canto 1, l. 64 (1674)
(Source)
(Source (French)).
Though this sounds like a profound philosophical comment, in reality it refers to writers overcompensating for problems in their work. Soame (1892) translates this and the following line thus:A verse was weak, you turn it much too strong.
And grow obscure for fear you should be long.
There are two means of refuge from the misery of life: music and cats.
[Zweierlei eignet sich als Zuflucht vor den Widrigkeiten des Lebens: Musik und Katzen.]
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Alsatian philosopher, physician, philanthropist, polymath
(Attributed)
Widely attributed to Schweitzer, but no original source found.
It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“The National Letters,” Prejudices: Second Series (1920)
(Source)
Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.
[La nécessité est, d’ailleurs, de tous les maîtres, celui qu’on écoute le plus et qui enseigne le mieux.]
Jules Verne (1828-1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
The Mysterious Island, Part 1, ch. 17 (1874)
(Source)
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Scottish-American scientist, inventor, engineer
Interview, in Orison Swett Marden, How They Succeeded, ch. 2 (1901)
(Source)
Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music, and rings itself all the way through; and thou shalt make of it a dance, a dirge, or a grand life-march as thou wilt.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
Variant: "Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings itself the way through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life-march, as thou wilt."
The earliest reference I can find to this is its quotation in (or perhaps adjacent to) Kate W. Hamilton, "Ariel Seaton's Rainy Day," The Ladies' Repository (Jan 1868).
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda water the day after.
If you torture the data long enough, Nature will confess.
Ronald Coase (1910-2013) British economist, academic, author
(Attributed)
Criticizing econometricians. Cited as early as 1977. Variants:
- "If you torture data long enough, it will confess to anything you'd like."
- "If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
(Attributed)
Widely attributed to Tutu, but I am unable to find a primary source or any sort of citation.
Better hazard once than be always in fear.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 906 (1732)
(Source)
Every morning is a fresh beginning,
Listen my soul to the glad refrain.
And, spite of old sorrows
And older sinning,
Troubles forecasted
And possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again.
Susan Coolidge (1835-1905) American author [pseud. for Sarah Chauncey Woolsey]
“New Every Morning”
Unless someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.
Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) American author, illustrator [pseud. of Theodor Geisel]
The Lorax (1971)
There are things a man must not do even to save a nation.
Murray Kempton (1917-1997) American journalist.
“To Save a Nation,” America Comes of Age (1963)
Brevity is the sister of talent.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
Letter to Alexander Chekhov (11 Apr 1889)
The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61)
Markings (1964)
Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.
Art Buchwald (1925-2007) American humorist, columnist
(Attributed)
Happiness means quiet nerves.
W. C. Fields (1880-1946) American entertainer [b. William Claude Dukenfield]
(Attributed)
Quoted in Robert Lewis Taylor, W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes (1949).
There is but one way I know of conversing safely with all men; that is, not by concealing what we say or do, but by saying or doing nothing that deserves to be concealed.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
Letter to H. Cromwell (28 Oct 1710)
The more an idea is developed, the more concise becomes its expression; the more a tree is pruned, the better is the fruit.
Alfred Bougeard (1815-1882) French writer
(Attributed)
In J. De Finod (ed., tr.) A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1881).
The world today is ruled by harassed politicians absorbed in getting into office or turning out the other man so that not much room is left for determining great issues on their merits.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, New York (25 Jan 1932)
Wherever the truth is injured, defend it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1834)
If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
I, Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
Thirty days hath November,
April, June, and September,
February hath xxviii alone,
And all the rest have xxxi.
Richard Grafton (c. 1511-1572) English printer
Abridgement of the Chronicles of Englande, Vol. 8 (1562)
Noted as "A rule to knowe how many dayes every moneth in the yeare hath." The oldest known version of this mnemonic (in Latin) dates back to at 1488. See here for other examples.
Monarchy is like a sleek craft, it sails along well until some bumbling captain runs it into the rocks. Democracy, on the other hand, is like a raft. It never goes down but, dammit, your feet are always wet.
Fisher Ames (1758-1808) American politician, orator
(Attributed)
This is the earliest reference I can find to this metaphor. Variants:
- "A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in the water." This variant is often attributed to a speech in the House of Representatives in 1795, but is not found in records of Ames' speeches.
- "A monarchy is like a man-of-war -- bad shots between wind and water hurt it exceedingly; there is danger of capsizing. But democracy is a raft. You cannot easily overturn it. It is a wet place, but it is a pretty safe one." -- Joseph Cook (1860-1947) Anglo-Australian politician
- "Dictatorship is like a big proud ship -- steaming away across the ocean with a great hulk and powerful engines driving it. It’s going fast and strong and looks like nothing could stop it. What happens? Your fine ship strikes something -- under the surface. Maybe it’s a mine or a reef, maybe it’s a torpedo or an iceberg. And your wonderful ship sinks. Now take democracy. It’s like riding on a raft, a rickety raft that was put together in a hurry. We get tossed about on the waves, it’s bad going and our feet are always wet. But that raft doesn’t sink … It’s the raft that will get to the shore at last." --- Roaldus Richmond (fl. 1940) American writer. In, ed., "A Yankee Businessman in New Hampshire," American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1940.
- "Democracy is like a raft: It won't sink, but you will always have your feet wet." -- Russell B. Long (1918-2003) American politician
- "But you have to understand, American democracy is not like the system you have. We're not an ocean liner that sails across the ocean from point A to point B at 30 knots. That's not American democracy. American democracy is kind of like a life raft that bobs around the ocean all the time. Your feet are always wet. Winds are always blowing. You're cold. You're wet. You're uncomfortable -- but you never sink." -- Colin Powell (b. 1937) American politician, diplomat, soldier
Moral indignation is in most cases 2 percent moral, 48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy.
Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974) Italian neorealist director and actor
In The Observer (1961)
See also H. G. Wells.
Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church, or robbing a bank, but never to being bores.
Elsa Maxwell (1883-1963) American gossip columnist, author, songwriter, professional hostess
How to Do It, or The Lively Art of Entertaining (1957)
When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.
There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 8 (1891)
(Source)
One sure window into a person’s soul is his reading list.
Mary B. W. Tabor (b. 1964) American journalist [Mary Britt Wellford Tabor]
“Book Notes,” New York Times (14 Jun 1995)
(Source)
The world is full of fools, and he who would not wish to see one must not only shut himself up alone, but also break his looking glass.
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) French poet and critic
(Attributed)
A variant is also attributed to Charles le Petit (1640-1625), Discours satiriques (1686).
The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, School Culture Rewired, ch. 3 (2015)
(Source)
Often misattributed as "Gruenter and Whitaker".
Good is that which makes for unity; Evil is that which makes for separateness.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Ends and Means, “Ethics” (1937)
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Joseph Roux (1834-1886) French Catholic priest
Meditations of a Parish Priest: Thoughts, Part 1, #74 (1886)
(Source)
You may get a large amount of truth into a brief space.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
(Attributed)
Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 28 (1820)
(Source)
Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable.
John Patrick (1905-1995) American playwright and screenwriter
The Teahouse of the August Moon, Act 1, sc. 1 (1957)
I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
Giuseppe Baretti (1719-1789) Italian-English literary critic and translator [a.k.a. Joseph Baretti]
(Attributed)
Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).
I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
(Attributed)
Mentioned frequently as being part of his earlier speeches, but unsourced. Also found as "failed to see the slightest scintillation of an answer until I prayed with my legs."
Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.
[La science, mon garçon, est faite d’erreurs, mais d’erreurs qu’il est bon de commettre, car elles mènent peu à peu à la vérité.]
Jules Verne (1828-1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
Journey to the Center of the Earth, ch. 31 (1864) [tr. Malleson (1877)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.: "Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth."
The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.
Laurence Sterne (1713-1786) Anglo-Irish novelist, Anglican clergyman
Tristam Shandy, Book 1, ch. 3 (1760-1767)
What did you think, that joy
was some slight thing?
The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.
Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) Swiss-French writer, woman of letters, critic, salonist [Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, Madame de Staël, Madame Necker]
Germany [De l’Allemagne], Part 3, ch. 13 (1813)
(Source)
The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain.
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.
Oscar Ameringer (1870-1943) German-American political activist, Socialist organizer, author, politican
The American Guardian
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, ch. 15, epigraph (1894)
(Source)
I am inordinately proud these days of the quill, for it has shown itself, historically, to be the hypodermic which inoculates men and keeps the germ of freedom always in circulation, so that there are individuals in every time in every land who are the carriers, the Typhoid Mary’s, capable of infecting others by mere contact and example. These persons are feared by every tyrant — who shows his fear by burning the books and destroying the individuals.
E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“Freedom” (Jul 1940)
PAROLLES: 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 (4.3.356-358) (1602?)
(Source)
Pain nourishes my courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.
Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017) American actress, producer, and social advocate
Interview, McCall’s, Vol. 108 (1980)
(Source)
Art is not living. It is a use of living.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) American writer, feminist, civil rights activist
“My Words Will Be There”
(Source)
YODA: When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not, hmm?
Lawrence Kasdan (b. 1949) American screenwriter, director, producer
Return of the Jedi (1983) [with George Lucas]
Ignorance might be bliss for the ignorant, but for the rest of us it’s a right fucking pain in the arse.
But the problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence. So you have to mold the evidence to get the answer that you’ve already decided you’ve got to have. It doesn’t work that way.
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) American politician, US President (1993-2001)
Interview, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (20 Sep 2012)
But freedom isn’t free. It shouldn’t be a bragging point that, “Oh, I don’t get involved in politics,” as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn’t insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.
William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden (2002)
You can judge a leader by the size of the problem he tackles — people nearly always pick a problem their own size, and ignore or leave to others the bigger or smaller ones. The chief executive should be thinking about the long-term changes which will bring growth or decay to different parts of the enterprise, not fussing over day-to-day problems. Other people can cope with the waves, it’s his job to watch the tide.
Antony Jay (1930-2016) English writer, broadcaster, director
Management and Machiavelli: An Inquiry into the Politics of Corporate Life, ch. 17 (1967)
NARRATOR: No moral. No message. No prophetic tract. Just a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized. Tonight’s very small exercise in logic from the Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
The Twilight Zone, 3×03 “The Shelter” (29 Sep 1961)
So long as a man rides his hobbyhorse peaceably and quietly along the King’s highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him — pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it?
Laurence Sterne (1713-1786) Anglo-Irish novelist, Anglican clergyman
Tristam Shandy, Book 1, ch. 7 (1760-1767)
Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people.
David Sarnoff (1881-1971) Belarusian-American businessman and broadcasting executive
(Attributed)
You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
Edgar "Ed" Mitchell (1930-2016) American aviator, engineer, astronaut
(Attributed)
The earliest source I can find of the quote is in People (8 Apr 1974), where it appears as an epigraph for a story on Mitchell three years after his flight to the Moon.
You can lead an organization through persuasion or formal edict. I have never found the arbitrary use of authority to control an organization either effective or, for that matter, personally interesting. If you cannot persuade your colleagues of the correctness of your position, it is probably worthwhile to rethink your own.
Alan Greenspan (b. 1926) American economist, bureaucrat
“Federal Reserve’s Chairman Blends Eye for Politics with Economic Skills,” New York Times (26 Jul 1990)
The girl that I will marry
Will be like a fine wine
That will become better
A bit every morning.[La fille que j’aimera
Sera comme bon vin
Qui se bonifiera
Un peu chaque matin.]
Jacques Brel (1929-1978) Belgian singer, songwriter, actor
“Bachelor’s Dance [La Bourrée Du Célibataire]” (1957)
More commonly translated for English (by Eric Blau): "The girl that I will marry / Will age without a fear / And like the wine grow mellower / With every passing year."
If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Interview by Seth King, New York Times (1961-05-18)
Interview on his 89th Birthday. The article does not presently show up in the NYT archives, but the quotation is mentioned in Newsweek, "Newsmakers" (1961-05-29), and in Think Magazine, "Thoughts" (1961-12).
Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have. Just … start.
I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Broadcast with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, London (31 Aug 1959)
The way’s not easy where the prize is great:
I hope no virtues, where I smell no sweat.
Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
Emblems, Emblem 11, Epigram (1634)
(Source)
Often given, "I see no virtue where I smell no sweat."
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-rousing remain the true duty of patriots.
Well begun is half done; dare to be wise; begin!
[Dimidium facti qui coepit habet; sapere aude;
incipe!]
Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 “To Lollius,” l. 40ff (1.2.40-41) (20 BC) [tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]
(Source)
See Aristotle.
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:The facte begun, to one halfe is done, be wyse and take good harte:
Begin.
[tr. Drant (1567)]Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.
[tr. Cowley (17th C)]Set forth, thou'rt half thy way.
Dare to be wise: Begin.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]Begin: 'tis half the work: assume the power
To live: expect not for a fairer hower.
[tr. "Dr. W."; ed. Brome (1666)]He that hath once begun a good design,
Hath finish't half; dare to be wise, begin.
[tr. Creech (1684)]Dare to be wise; begin; for, once begun,
Your task is easy; half the work is done.
[tr. Francis (1747)]In virtue's race to start is half to win;
Come then, be wise -- take courage and begin!
[tr. Howes (1845)]He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]Come now, have courage to be wise: begin:
You're halfway over when you once plunge in.
[tr. Conington (1874)]Make a good start, and you are sure to win.
So, then, have courage to be wise! Begin!
[tr. Martin (1881)]Whoever has begun a deed, by so doing has accomplished half of it. Dare to be wise. Begin.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]Well begun
Is half done. Dare to be wise. Get under way!
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]Once you start, it's nearly done. Be brave and wise:
Begin.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]To begin a job is half the labor: be brave
Enough to be wise: begin!
[tr. Raffel (1983)]Get yourself going and you'll be halfway there;
Dare to be wise; get started.
[tr. Ferry (2001)]Well begun is half done. Dare to be wise.
Start now.
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]Who’s started has half finished: dare to be wise: begin!
[tr. Kline (2015)]He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!
[Bartlett's]
It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it. We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Light-houses don’t ring bells and fire cannon to call attention to their shining — they just shine.
Dwight Lyman "D. L." Moody (1837-1899) American evangelist and publisher
(Attributed)
Sometimes quoted, "they just shine on."
A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasure of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry administers to the effect by acting upon the cause.
Unwilling executants do not make for good execution.
B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, military historian (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
The German Generals Talk, ch. 4 (1948)
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 27, epigraph (1897)
(Source)
Alas, irreverence has been subsumed by mere grossness, at least in the so-called mass media. What we have now — to quote myself at my most pretentious — is a nimiety of scurrility with a concomitant exiguity of taste. For example, the freedom (hooray!) to say almost anything you want on television about society’s problems has been co-opted (alas!) by the freedom to talk instead about flatulence, orgasms, genitalia, masturbation, etc., etc., and to replace real comment with pop-culture references and so-called “adult” language. Irreverence is easy — what’s hard is wit.
Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) American mathematician, satirist, songwriter
Rhino Records online chat (17 Jun 1997)
If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify Him. They would ask Him to dinner, and hear what He had to say, and make fun of it.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Remark (1850-01-12)
(Source)
Remark quoted by Joseph Neuberg in a letter to his sister. The letter was published in an essay (1884-08), "Carlyle and Neuberg," MacMillan's Magazine, Vol. 50. The author is not noted, but was a friend of Neuberg and his sister.
The same letter is cited in David A. Wilson, Life of Carlyle, Vol. 4 "Carlyle at His Zenith (1848-1853), ch. 10 (1927).
You don’t become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting to do something, then doing it so hard that you become great in the process.
Randall Munroe (b. 1984) American webcomic writer, roboticist, programmer
XKCD, # 896 “Marie Curie” (9 May 2011)
(Source)
By doing good we become good.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) French philosopher and writer
Emile, ch. 4 (1762) [tr. Foxley (1911)]
We can sit in our corners, mute forever, while our sisters and ourselves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned. We can sit silently in our corners, mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) American writer, feminist, civil rights activist
“The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” The Cancer Journals (1980)
(Source)
Originally given as a speech at the Modern Language Association meeting (28 Dec 1977).
“Money does not bring happiness” — only the wherewithal, perhaps, to endure its absence.
Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) American feminist, journalist, political activist
Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, ch. 6 (1990)
People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright and critic
A Treatise on Parents and Children (1910)
The human soul, the world, the universe are laboring on to their magnificent consummation. We are not fashioned thus marvelously for nought.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1820-12)
Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.
H. Jackson "Jack" Brown, Jr. (b. 1940) American writer
Life’s Little Instruction Book, Vol. 3, #1427 (1993)
(Source)
