Aesop -- Fables [Aesopica], “The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey” (6th C BC) [tr. Jacobs (1894)]

Dave — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 15:07:22 +0000

Please all, and you will please none.

Aesop (620?-560? BC) Legendary Greek storyteller
Fables [Aesopica], “The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey” (6th C BC) [tr. Jacobs (1894)]
(Source)

Another translation: "By endeavoring to please everybody he had pleased nobody." [tr. James (1848), "The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass"]

Jackson, Robert H. -- West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 318-319 U.S. 624 (1943) [majority opinion]

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:14:10 +0000

Struggles to coerce uniformity of sentiment in support of some end thought essential to their time and country have been waged by many good, as well as by evil, men. Nationalism is a relatively recent phenomenon, but, at other times and places, the ends have been racial or territorial security, support of a dynasty or regime, and particular plans for saving souls. As first and moderate methods to attain unity have failed, those bent on its accomplishment must resort to an ever-increasing severity. […] Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941–54), lawyer, jurist, politician
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 318-319 U.S. 624 (1943) [majority opinion]
(Source)

WIST Quotations

Aesop -- Fables [Aesopica], “The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey” (6th C BC) [tr. Jacobs (1894)]

Jackson, Robert H. -- West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 318-319 U.S. 624 (1943) [majority opinion]