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I like friends who, when you tell them you need a moment alone, know enough not to stray too far.

Robert Brault (b. c. 1945) American aphorist, programmer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 8-Dec-20 | Last updated 8-Dec-20
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Familiarity breeds contempt, while rarity wins admiration.

[Parit enim conversatio contemptum; raritas conciliat admirationem.]

Apuleius (AD c. 124 - c. 170) Numidian Roman writer, philosopher, rhetorician [Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis]
On the God of Socrates [De Deo Socratis]
    (Source)

First recorded passage with this phrase. Discussing why the gods do not mingle with humanity. Alternate translations:

  • "Familiarity produces contempt, but infrequency conciliates admiration."
    [tr. Taylor (1822)]
  • "Familiarity breeds contempt, but privacy gains admiration." [
    Works of Apuleius
    (1853)]
  • "Familiarity breeds contempt, but concealment excites interest."
    [National Review (1858-04)]
The first part of the phrase is also used as the modern moral the English translation of Aesop's "The Fox and the Lion." Applying this proverb to Aesop seems to have first happened in 1820; in classic Greek sources, the moral was more along the line that "acquaintance overcomes fear."
 
Added on 8-Jul-20 | Last updated 31-Jan-24
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The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.

Ouida (1839-1908) English novelist [pseud. of Maria Louise Ramé]
Friendship, ch. 11 (1878)
    (Source)
 
Added on 5-Sep-17 | Last updated 5-Sep-17
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Absence and a friendly neighbor washes away love.

(Other Authors and Sources)
English proverb
 
Added on 29-Aug-17 | Last updated 29-Aug-17
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The real problem is that through our scientific genius we’ve made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we’ve failed to make of it a brotherhood.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“Rediscovering Lost Values,” sermon, Second Baptist Church, Detroit (28 Feb 1954)
    (Source)
 
Added on 24-Feb-17 | Last updated 24-Feb-17
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We hope that the world will not narrow into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1963-12-17), Pageant of Peace Ceremonies, Washington, D.C.
    (Source)

Johnson used this phrase many times in the early '60s to refer to how, as the world "shrank" through advances in travel (including for weapons), it had not resolved the ongoing problems within humanity, only brought them closer. Other examples:

We live in a world which has narrowed into a neighborhood before it broadened into a brotherhood.
[Reported (1961-08-01)]

The world has narrowed to a neighborhood before it has broadened to brotherhood.
[Speech, New York City (1963-12-17)]

See also King (1954).
 
Added on 8-May-13 | Last updated 26-Apr-24
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Men have seemed miraculous to the world, in whom their wives and valets have never seen anything even worth noticing. Few men have been admired by their own households.

[Tel a esté miraculeux au monde, auquel sa femme & son valet n’ont rien veu seulement de remerquable. Peu d’hommes ont esté admirez par leurs domestiques.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 2 “Of Repentance [Du repentir]” (1586) (3.2) (1595) [tr. Frame (1943)]
    (Source)

See Cornuel (1728) and Goethe (1805). For discussion on this and related quotes, see here.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Some have beene admirable to the world, in whom nor his wife, nor his servant ever noted any thing remarkeable. Few men have beene admired of their familiers.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

Such a one has been a Miracle to the World, in whom neither his Wife nor Servant have ever seen any thing so much as remarkable. Few men have been admired by their own Domesticks.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

Such a one has been a miracle to the world, in whom neither his wife nor servant has ever seen anything so much as remarkable; few men have been admired by their own domestics.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

A man may appear wonderful to the world, in whom his wife and his servant see nothing even remarkable; few men have been admired by their household.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

Many a man has been a wonder to the world, whose wife and valet have seen nothing in him that was even remarkable. Few have been admired by their servants.
[tr. Cohen (1958)]

A man may appear to the world as a marvel: yet his wife and his manservant see nothing remarkable about him. Few men have been wonders to their families.
[tr. Screech (1987)]

 
Added on 17-Apr-13 | Last updated 12-Feb-25
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All people should be loved equally. But you cannot do good to all people equally, so you should take particular thought for those who by the chance of place or time or anything else are, as if by lot, in particularly close contact with you.

[Omnes autem aeque diligendi sunt. Sed cum omnibus prodesse non possis, his potissimum consulendum est, qui pro locorum et temporum vel quarumlibet rerum opportunitatibus constrictius tibi quasi quadam sorte iunguntur.]

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On Christian Doctrine [De Doctrina Christiana], Book 1, ch. 28 / § 29 (1.28.29) (AD 397) [tr. Green (1995), § 61]
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.
[tr. Shaw (1858)]

All other men are to be loved equally; but since you cannot be of assistance to everyone, those especially are to be cared for who are most closely bound to you by place, time, or opportunity, as if by chance.
[tr. Robertson (1958)]

 
Added on 30-Aug-11 | Last updated 29-Jan-24
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Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.

Germaine Greer (b. 1939) Australian-English feminist, reformer, author, educator
The Female Eunuch, “Love: Security” (1970)
    (Source)
 
Added on 18-Jul-11 | Last updated 12-Dec-23
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Great minds are related to the short span of time wherein they live as are large buildings to the narrow plot of ground on which they stand. Thus large buildings are not seen to their full extent because we are too close to them.

[Zu der kurzen Spanne Zeit, in der sie leben, verhalten sich die großen Geister wie große Gebäude zu einem engen Plage, auf dem sie stehn. Man sieht nämlich diese nicht in ihrer Größe, weil man zu nahe davor steht.]

Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 20 “On Judgement, Criticism, Approbation, and Fame [Über Urtheil, Kritik, Beifall und Ruhm],” § 242 (1851) [tr. Payne (1974)]
    (Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

Compared with the short span of time they live, men of great intellect are like huge buildings, standing on a small plot of ground. The size of the building cannot be seen by anyone, just in front of it.
[tr. Saunders (1890)]

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.
[tr. Hollingdale (1970)]

 
Added on 27-Aug-08 | Last updated 21-Dec-22
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To a valet no man is a hero.

[Es gibt fur den Kammerdiener keiner Helden.]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Wahlverwandtschaften, II, 5, Aus Ottilien’s Tagebuche (1805)

See Montaigne (1586), Cornuel (1805).

For discussion on this and related quotes, see here.
 
Added on 6-Jul-04 | Last updated 12-Feb-25
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