Notable Quotes

 

Nov. 12, 2006

 

"...there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.”

 

Alexis de Toqueville, the French philosopher and historian commented in 1835:

 

Nov. 13, 2006

 

“Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.”

 

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825‑1895)

English biologist

 

Nov. 14, 2006

 

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

 

 Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer.

 

Nov. 15, 2006

 

 “Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.”

 

 Robert Benchley (1889–1945), U.S. humorous writer.

 

Nov. 16, 2006

 “YES,” I answered you last night,

 “No,” this morning, Sir, I say.

 Colours seen by candle-light,

 Will not look the same by day.

 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61), English Poet. The Lady’s “Yes,” 1st stanza.

 

Nov. 17 and 18, 2006

 

“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. general, Republican politician, president. Inaugural address, 20 Jan. 1953.

 

Nov. 19, 2006

 

“A man said to the universe:

‘Sir, I exist!’

‘However, ‘ replied the universe

‘The fact has not created in me

A sense of obligation.’ ”

 

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) – “A Man Said to the Universe”.

 

Nov. 21, 2006

 

"Inequality is not only natural, it grows with the complexity of

  civilization."

 

Excerpts: Will and Ariel Durant, Readers Digest, April 1968

 

Nov. 22, 2006

 

"It takes centuries to create a civilization, and only a generation or a year to destroy it."

 

Ariel Durant (1898-1981), U.S. historian and writer.

 

Nov. 24, 2006

 

 

"May you never meet a mouse in your cupboard with tears in his eyes!"

 

  J. C. Furnas (1905-2001) American writer and historian

 

Nov. 26-28, 2006

 

"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. Everybody’s Political What’s What, ch. 30 (1944).

 

Nov. 29, 2006

 

"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph"

 

Thomas Paine   1737-1809 The American Crisis, No. 1 [December 23, 1776]

 

Dec. 1, 2006

 

"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. . . . The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more."

 

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer. My Eary Life, ch. 9 (1930).

 

Dec. 3, 2006

 

"The only certainty is that nothing is certain."

 

Pliny The Elder (c. 23-79), Roman scholar. Historia Naturalis, bk. 2, ch. 7.

 

Dec. 5, 2006

 

"Myths which are believed in tend to become true."

 

George Orwell (1903–50), British author. “The English People”.

 

Dec. 6, 2006

 

“Thank Heaven for Little Girls,”

 

From the Hollywood musical "Gigi" directed by Vincente Minnelli and with

the music of Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.

 

Dec. 7, 2006

 

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

 

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States (1933-1945) in a speech to a joint session of Congress,  December 8, 1941.

 

Dec. 8, 2006

 

“My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.

 

 Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), English statesman, author."

 

Dec. 11, 2006

 

“Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful

   rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the

   forces they deposed."

 

 Excerpts: Will Durant (1885-1981), and Ariel Durant (1898-1981), U.S. historians.  Readers Digest, April 1968

 

Dec. 13, 2006

 

“Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door."

 

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist.Tigg, in Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. 27 (1844).

 

Dec. 18, 2006

 

For Cherie

 

"The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent! "

 

George Gordon Lord Byron (1788- 1824).  The last 4 lines "She Walks in the Night".

 

Dec. 19, 2006

 

"Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the best chance for such consequences."

 

Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), U.S. statesman, writer. Letter, 9 Aug. 1768 (published in Complete Works, vol. 4, ed. by John Bigelow, 1887–88).

 

Dec. 22, 2006

 

"If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost."

 

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer.

 

Jan. 3, 2007

 

"Since an intelligence common to us all makes things known to us and formulates them in our minds, honorable actions are ascribed by us to virtue, and dishonorable actions to vice; and only a madman would conclude that these judgments are matters of opinion, and not fixed by nature."

Cicero (106–43 B.C.), Roman orator, philosopher.

 

Jan. 7, 2007

 

"Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful

  rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the

  forces they deposed."

 

Excerpt: Will Durant (1885-1981), and Ariel Durant (1898-1981), U.S. historians.  Readers Digest, April 1968

 

Jan. 10,  2007

 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

 

George Santayana (1863-1952), U.S. philosopher, poet. Life of Reason, “Reason in Common Sense”, Chapter 12.

 

Jan. 14, 2007

 

"Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

 

 

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Speech, 2 July 1932

 

Jan. 21, 2007

 

"Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious."

 

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Italian philosopher, theologian

 

Jan. 23, 2007

 

"To the query, 'What is a friend?' his reply was 'A single soul dwelling in two bodies.'”

 

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Greek philosopher.

 

Jan. 25, 2007

 

"Necessity never made a good bargain."

 

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer.

 

Jan. 29, 2007

 

"A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill."

 

Jane Austen (1775-1817), English novelist. Pride and Prejudice,  (1813).

 

Feb. 1, 2007

 

"I shall be telling this with a sigh

 Somewhere ages and ages hence:

 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

 I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference."

 

 

Robert Frost (1874-1963), U.S. poet. The Road Not Taken.

 

Feb. 3, 2007

 

"He travels the fastest who travels alone."

 

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), British author, poet. The Winners.

 

"He who travels fastest travels without children"

 

Christine E. Hendrickson (1968-) Mother. "Post It", February 2007.

 

Feb. 5, 2007

 

"The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them."

 

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), British author. “The Secret of a Train”, 1909.

 

Feb. 9, 2007

 

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."

 

 

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian political philosopher, statesman. The Prince (1514).

 

Feb. 11, 2007

 

"I am not responsible for what other people think"

 

Actor Gregory Peck acting the part of James McKay while speaking to his estranged fiancee, Pat Terrill played by the actress Carroll Baker in the movie  "The Big Country", 1958.

 

Feb. 13, 2007

 

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."

 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), U.S. president. Letter, 10 Aug. 1787.

 

Feb. 15, 2007

 

"The passage of this legislation will signal a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home,"

 

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, Feb. 16, 2007

 

"I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air."

 

Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Independent (London, 31 Oct. 1990.

 

Feb. 19, 2007

 

"Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

 

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), Greek philosopher.  Politics, 343 B.C.

 

Feb. 21, 2007

 

"That is the land of lost content,

 I see it shining plain,

 The happy highways where I went

 And cannot come again"

 

A. E. Housman (1859-1936), British poet, "A Shropshire Lad", no. 40.

 

Feb. 23, 2007

 

"When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred."

 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), U.S. president. Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life, no. 10.

 

Feb. 25, 2007

 

"Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals."

 

Abba Eban (1915-2002), Israeli politician. New Yorker magazine, April 23, 1990.

 

Feb. 28, 2007

 

"Society is now one polished horde,

Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored."

 

George Gordon Lord Byron (1788-1824), English poet. Don Juan.

 

Mar. 2, 2007

 

"He knows nothing and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career."

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. Undershaft, in Major Barbara, act 3.

 

Mar. 5, 2007

 

"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

 

Demosthenes (c. 384-322 B.C.), Greek orator. Third Olynthiac, sct. 19 (349 B.C.).

 

Mar. 7, 2007

 

"There is a harmony

In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,

Which through the summer is not heard or seen,

As if it could not be, as if it had not been!"

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), English poet. Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (1816).

 

Mar. 12, 2007

 

 “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.”

 

Will Rogers (1879–1935), U.S. humorist. The Illiterate Digest, “Defending My Soup Plate Position” (1924).

 

 

Mar. 19, 2007

 

 “I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town.  A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.”

 

Emily Brontë (1818-1848), English novelist, poet. Mr. Lockwood, in Wuthering Heights (1847).

 

 

Mar. 22, 2007

 

"Oh yet we trust that somehow good

Will be the final goal of ill!"

 

 

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet. In Memoriam.

 

Mar. 23, 2007

 

"The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

 

John Milton (1608-1674), English poet. Satan, in Paradise Lost.

 

Mar. 27, 2007

 

"You see things; and you say 'Why?'  But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?"

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. The Serpent, in Back to Methuselah, “In the Beginning,” act 1.

 

Apr. 2, 2007

 

"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.

 

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. general, Republican president.  Speech, 25 Sept. 1956, Peoria, Ill.

 

Apr. 5, 2007

 

"I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares."

 

 

George Washington (1732-1799), U.S. general, president. Letter, 20 July 1794.

 

Apr. 8, 2007

 

"Nothing comes from nothing: Nothing ever could"

 

From the 'Sound of Music' by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein.

 

Note:  I include this quote for those following the ongoing debates in quantum mechanics.

 

Apr. 10, 2007

 

"Washington is a very easy city for you to forget where you came from and why you got there in the first place."

 

Harry S Truman (1884-1972), U.S. Democratic politician, president.  Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: Conversations with Harry S. Truman, ch. 11 (1973).

 

Apr. 12, 2007

 

"I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end."

 

Margaret Thatcher (1925-), British Conservative politician, prime minister.  The Observer (London, 2 Jan. 1983).

 

Apr. 18, 2007

 

"Who knows...what evil...lurks in the hearts of men?"

 

Introduction to the old radio program "The Shadow" (1937-1954)

Mutual Broadcasting System.

 

Apr. 20, 2007

 

"Why don’t we just stop playing games here, okay? I mean you probably don’t know a feather duster from a duck’s ass, do you?

 

Agent Fox Mulder played by David Duchovny to the blind woman Marty Glenn (actress Lili Taylor).  "The X Files" (1993-2002), "Minds Eye", 1998, Episode 16.

 

Apr. 22, 2007

 

"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden, “Economy” (1854).

 

Apr. 26, 2007

 

"We cannot play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.

 

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 6 Feb. 1985 (published in Speaking My Mind, “The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan,” 1989).

 

Apr. 28, 2007

 

"Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity"

 

 [Anonymous]

May 2, 2007

 

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

 

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 10 April 1899, Chicago, Ill.

 

May 8, 2007

 

"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."

 

 

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), Polish-born English novelist. The “dame de compagnie,” in Under Western Eyes, pt. 2, ch. 4 (1911).

 

May 15, 2007

 

 

"This above all: to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou cans't not be false to any man"

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616).  Hamlet, Act II.

 

May 21, 2007

 

"I believe it because I want to believe it"

 

Lord Gainsford (actor Hugh Buckler) to members of his club concerning the existence of the mythical city of Shangri-La.  From the movie "Lost Horizon", directed by Frank Capra. 1937.

 

May 24, 2007

 

"Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing.  That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat."

 

George Eliot (1819-1880), English novelist (pen name for Mary Anne or Marian Evans).

Mr. Dempster, in Janet’s Repentance, ch. 8.

 

May 31, 2007

 

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

 

 

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer. The Reader’s Digest, December, 1954.

 

June 2, 2007

 

"Sherif, is there not one thing in your life that is worth losing everything for?”

 

 

The Mulay Achmed Mohammed el-Raisuli the Magnificent (actor Sean Connery) to the Sherif of Wazan (actor Nadim Sawalha) in the movie "The Wind and the Lion", 1975.  John Milius, director.

 

June 8, 2007

 

"We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it."

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. Morell, in Candida, act 1.

 

June 13, 2007

 

"I would rather have peace in the world than be President."

 

Harry S Truman (1884-1972), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Christmas Message, 24 Dec. 1948.

 

June 18, 2007

 

"Golf is a good walk spoiled."

 

 

Mark Twain (attributed to) (1835-1910), U.S. author. Quoted in: Greatly Exaggerated, “Golf”.

 

June 21, 2007

 

"He that fails in his endeavours after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage."

 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author, lexicographer. Adventurer, no. 99 (16 Oct. 1753; repr. in Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 2, ed. by W. J. Bate, John M. Bullitt, and L. F. Powell, 1963).

 

June 26, 2007

 

"The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express."

 

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French social philosopher. Democracy in America, vol. 2, pt. 1, ch. 16 (1840).

 

July 3, 2007

 

"Most of the change we think we see in life

Is due to truths being in and out of favor."

 

Robert Frost (1874-1963), U.S. poet. Black Cottage.

 

July 6, 2007

 

"Oh yet we trust that somehow good

Will be the final goal of ill!"

 

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet.

 

July 9, 2007

 

"I’m not confused, I’m just well mixed."

 

Robert Frost (1874-1963), U.S. poet. Quoted in: Wall Street Journal,  Aug. 5, 1969.

 

July 15, 2007

 

"In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you wake in the morning."

 

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), U.S. poet.  Quoted from the New York Post, September 9, 1960).

 

July 19, 2007

 

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"

 

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), U.S. poet. Maud Muller.

 

July 22, 2007

 

"The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it"


H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), U.S. Journalist

 

July 25, 2007

 

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

 

Marcus Aurelius (121–180 A.D.), Roman emperor, philosopher.

 

July 28, 2007

 

“They also serve who only stand and wait.”

 

John Milton (1608–74), English poet. Sonnet 16, On His Blindness.

 

Aug. 1, 2007

 

“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

 

 

Attributed to John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), U.S. Democratic politician, 35th president of the United States.

 

Aug. 5, 2007

 

"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business."

 

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), 30th U.S. president and Republican politician.  March 1, 1929, Washington, D.C, as quoted by reporters.

 

Aug. 7, 2007

 

“If you believe everything you read, better not read”.

 

Japanese proverb

 

Aug. 20, 2007

 

“To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old."

 

 

Oliver Wendell, Sr. Holmes  (1809-94), U.S. writer, physician. Letter, 27 May 1889, to Julia Ward Howe on her seventieth birthday.

 

Sep. 26, 2007

 

"It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening."

 

H. G. Wells (1866-1946), British author. “The Discovery of the Future,” Lecture at the Royal Institute in London. (Published in Nature, no. 65, 1902).

 

Oct. 3, 2007

 

“If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers.”

 

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist. Mr. Brass, in The Old Curiosity Shop, ch. 56 (1841).

 

Oct. 7, 2007

 

"I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be."

 

Attributed to Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Sixteenth President of the United States.

 

Oct. 9, 2007

 

"Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country."

 

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), (R), 26th president of the United States.   Kansas City Star (27 April 1918).

 

Oct. 15, 2007

 

“We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.”

 

Edmund Burke (1729-97), Irish philosopher, statesman.  The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, vol. 9, ed. by Paul Langford, 1991).

 

Oct. 21, 2007

 

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"

 

George Orwell (1903-1950) British author and futurist.

 

Oct. 26, 2007

 

"Civilization is a stream with banks.  The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues.  The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks.  Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river."

 

Will Durant (1885-1981), U.S. historiographer. Life (Oct. 18, 1963).

 

Nov. 1, 2007

 

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong” 

 

Voltaire (1694-1778), French philosopher

 

Nov. 5, 2007

 

"All things change, nothing is extinguished. . . . There is nothing in the whole world which is permanent.  Everything flows onward; all things are brought into being with a changing nature; the ages themselves glide by in constant movement."

 

Ovid (43 B.C.-17 A.D.), Roman poet. Pythagoras, in Metamorphoses.

 

Nov. 9, 2007

 

“That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.”

 

Marcus Aurelius (121-80), Roman emperor, philosopher. Meditations, Book 6.

 

Nov. 12, 2007

 

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."

 

John Locke (1632-1704), English philosopher. Dedicatory Epistle to An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1690).

 

Nov. 15, 2007

 

"Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."

 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author, lexicographer. Rambler, No. 103 London, March 1751.

 

Nov. 21, 2007

 

"Victory has a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan."

 

Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944), Italian Fascist leader. Diario 1939-1943, entered  Sept. 9, 1942.   President John Kennedy is quoted as having made the same remark in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.

 

Nov. 25, 2007

 

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfils himself in many ways."

 

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet. King Arthur, in The Idylls of the King.

 

Nov. 29, 2007

 

"For ‘tis not in mere death that men die most."

 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), English poet.  Aurora Leigh (1857).

 

Nov. 30, 2007

 

"Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country."

 

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican politician, president. Kansas City Star (27 April 1918).

 

Dec. 3, 2007

 

 

"Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, It is a thing to be achieved”

 

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), U.S. Democratic politician.

 

Dec. 10, 2007

 

"Ha, ha, my ship! thou mightest well be taken now for the sea-chariot of the sun.  Ho, ho! all ye nations before my prow, I bring the sun to ye!  Yoke on the further billows . . . I drive the sea!"

 

Herman Melville (1819-1891), U.S. author. Words of Captain Ahab in "Moby-Dick or "The Whale" (1851).

 

Dec. 17, 2007

 

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. general, Republican politician, president. Attributed to Eisenhower in Richard M. Nixon's book "Six Crises", “Krushchev” (1962).

 

Dec. 19, 2007

 

 

“We predict the future. And the best way to predict it, is to invent it.”

 

The well-manicured man (actor John Neville) to Agent Scully (actress Gillian Anderson) in “The X Files”, “The Blessing Way”, September 1995.  Chris Carter creator/writer.

 

Dec. 27, 2007

 

“I'm not interested in character, Baroness. I plan to become a lady, and for that, no character is necessary."

 

The maid Jane Hoskins (actress Greer Garson) speaking to Lady Sybil Minden (actress Phyllis Stanley) in the movie "The Law and the Lady" directed by Edwin H. Knopf, 1951.

 

Dec. 30, 2007

 

"When I, sitting, heard the astronomer,

Where he lectured with such applause in the lecture room,

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."

 

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), U.S. 19th century poet. "When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer."

 

Jan. 15, 2008

 

Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.

 

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 27 July 1920.

 

Jan. 18, 2008

 

"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."

 

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), U.S. Republican politician, president. Speech, 27 July 1920.

 

Jan. 23, 2008

 

"Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor."

 

A. J. Toynbee (1889-1975), British historian and educator. The Reader’s Digest (Oct. 1958).

 

Jan. 28, 2008

 

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

 

George Orwell (1903-1950), British author. Animal Farm (1945).

 

Feb. 5, 2008

 

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."

 

Attributed to Albert Einstein (1879–1955), German-born U.S. physicist.

 

Feb. 10, 2008

 

"Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."

 

 Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer.

 

Feb. 15, 2008

 

"The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men."

 

Plato (428-347 B.C.), Greek philosopher.

 

Feb. 17, 2008

 

 

"If life doesn't have that little bit of danger, you'd better create it. If life hands you that danger, accept it gratefully."

 

Sir Anthony Quayle, British actor and producer.

 

Feb. 20, 2008

 

“The doctrine of equality! . . . There exists no more poisonous poison: for it seems to be preached by justice itself, while it is the end of justice.”

 

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher. Twilight of the Idols, “Expeditions of an Untimely Man,”  (1889).

 

Feb. 25, 2008

 

“After observing planet earth and its minions for many years it is my belief that it is far more likely that nature will survive man but less likely that man will survive nature”

 

Anonymous (I don’t know the origin of this wonderful quote to give it proper attribution.)

 

Mar. 2, 2008

 

"It was one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life to feel that I was no longer a boy.  From that moment I began to grow old in my own esteem -- and in my esteem age is not estimable.''

 

George Gordon Lord Byron (1788-1824), English poet. Detached Thoughts, no. 72.

 

Mar. 6, 2008

 

"I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state from a little city"

 

Themistocles (525-460 B.C.)  Athenian statesman and philosopher.  Used in the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" 1962, directed by David Lean.  T. E. Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole) speaking to General Sir Archibald Murray (played by Donald Wolfit).

 

Mar. 13, 2008

 

“Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offence.”

 

Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman orator, philosopher. De Officiis, Book 1, Chapter 28.

 

Mar. 18, 2008

 

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

 

John Adams (1735-1826), U.S. statesman, president. Letter, 15 April 1814 (The Works of John Adams, vol. 6, 1851).

 

Mar. 22, 2008

 

“Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim."

 

George Santayana (1863-1952), U.S. philosopher, poet. The Life of Reason, Introduction, “Reason in Commonsense”.

 

Mar. 27, 2008

 

"Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honoured by posterity because he was the last to discover America."

 

James Joyce (1882-1941), Irish author. “The Mirage of the Fisherman of Aran,” in Piccolo della Sera (Trieste, Sept. 5, 1912).

 

Apr. 2, 2008

 

“All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.”

 

Plutarch (46-120 A.D.), Greek essayist, biographer. Morals, “Of Superstition.”

 

Apr. 7, 2008

 

“There is a natural aristocracy among men.  The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”

 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), U.S. president.  In a letter,  October 1813, to John Adams.

 

Apr. 11, 2008

 

“Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers."

 

Willa Cather (1876-1947), Nebraskan and U.S. author. On Writing, “Four Letters: Escapism” (1949).

 

Apr. 16, 2008

 

“Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking."

 

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian philosopher and statesman.  “The Prince”  (1514).

 

Apr. 25, 2008

 

"Some of the closest friends of my youth were the trees that bore me.  “A strange statement indeed,” some might reply.  In response, I can only say that I sought the solace of trees when I was sad, celebrated with them when I was happy, and learned of nature, life, and death as they cradled me."

 

C. Michael Cowan (1938-), Scientist and writer, "The Lake Street Chronicles" (2001)

 

Apr. 26, 2008

 

"Since when was genius found respectable?"

 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), English Poet. Aurora Leigh (1857).

 

Apr. 29, 2008

 

"Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend."

 

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, politician. Essays, “Of Studies” (1597-1625).

 

May 3, 2008

 

"Every time history repeats itself the price goes up."

 

Anonymous.

 

May 6, 2008

 

"All my possessions for a moment of time."

 

Elizabeth I Queen of England (1533-1603).  Supposedly uttered as she died.

 

May 8, 2008

 

"A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it."

 

Victor Hugo (1802-1885), French poet, dramatist, novelist.  Les Misérables.

 

May 11, 2008

 

"Those who have knowledge, don't predict.  Those who predict, don't have knowledge. "

Lao Tzu, 6th Century BC Chinese Poet

 

May 20, 2008

 

"To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter."

 

Françoise Sagan (1935-2004), French novelist.  "La Chamade", ch. 9 (1965).

Stop

May 24, 2008

 

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."

 

John Locke (1632-1704), English philosopher. Dedicatory Epistle to An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1690).

 

May 26, 2008

 

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

 

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British Prime Minister, statesman, writer.

 

June 2, 2008

 

"What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?  If men were angels, no government would be necessary."

 

James Madison (1751-1836), U.S. president. Federalist Papers, no. 47 (Jan. 1788).

 

June 9, 2008

 

Scarecrow:  I haven't got a brain... only straw.

Dorothy:  How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know... But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

 

Dorothy (Judy Garland) speaking to Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), directed by Victor Fleming.

 

June 19, 2008

 

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main. . . . Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

 

John Donne (ca. 1572-1631), English divine and metaphysical poet. Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation 17 (1624).

 

June 24, 2008

 

"What is conservatism?  Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?"

 

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), U.S. president. Speech, Feb. 27, 1860, New York City.

 

June 27, 2008

 

"I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own. I resign."

 

Number 6 (actor Patrick McGoohan) speaking to Number 2 (actor Guy Doleman) in the 1967 television series "The Prisoner", Season 1, Episode 0.

 

June 30, 2008

 

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”

 

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), British novelist, medievalist. The dwarf Gimli, in The Fellowship of the Ring,  Chapter 3, The Lord of the Rings (1954).

 

July 6, 2008

 

"Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from

any side."

 

Yiddish proverb

 

July 9, 2008

 

"When I speak I put on a mask. When I act, I am forced to take it off."

 

Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)  French philosopher and Encyclopedist.

 

July 15, 2008

 

"I do not know the American gentleman, God forgive me for putting two such words together."

 

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist.

 

July 20, 2008

 

"I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

 

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), English mathematician, physicist. Memoirs of Newton, Vol. 2, 1855 (David Brewster, Editor).

 

July 26, 2008

 

“So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it.”

 

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian political philosopher, statesman. The Prince, 1514.

 

July 31, 2008

 

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”

 

H L Menken (1880-1956), U.S. Journalist.

 

Aug. 6, 2008

 

“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts."

 

Charles Darwin (1809–82), English naturalist. The Descent of Man, (1871).

 

Aug. 14, 2008

 

"My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time."

 

Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), British Conservative politician, prime minister.  Words spoken in 1938 just before the start of World War II.

 

Aug. 23, 2008

 

“Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you? You are at your very best when things are worst.”

 

The Starman (actor Jeff Bridges) speaking to the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) scientist (actor Charles Martin Smith) in the movie “Starman”, 1984.  Directed by John Carpenter.

 

Aug. 26, 2008

 

“What do I know of man’s destiny? I could tell you more about radishes."

 

Samuel Beckett (1906-89), Irish dramatist, novelist.

 

Aug. 29, 2008

 

“There is something fascinating about science”, observed Mark Twain. “One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact”.

 

Mark Twain (1835-1910), U.S. author.

 

Sep. 4, 2008

 

 

“Washington is a very easy city for you to forget where you came from and why you got there in the first place.”

 

Harry S Truman (1884-1972), U.S. Democratic politician, president.

 

Sep. 8, 2008

 

It is useless to hold a person to anything he says while he's in love, drunk, or running for office.”

 

Shirley MacLaine (Shirley MacLean Beaty, 1934-) American actress.

 

Sep. 17, 2008

 

“Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.”

 

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), U.S. journalist.  “Sententiae: The Mind of Men” (1914).

 

Sep. 23, 2008

 

"I find that prayers work better when you have big players."

 

Attributed to Knute Rockne (1888-1931).  Notre Dame football coach (1918-1931).

 

Oct. 1, 2008

 

“If you're an eel, sir, conduct yourself like one.  If you're a man, control your limbs, sir!”  

 

Aunt Betsey Trotwood speaking to Uriah Heep.  In “David Copperfield” (1849-1850). Charles Dickens (1812-1870)  British writer.

 

Oct. 3, 2008

 

“It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet -- but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder.  Your choice is simple. Join us and live in peace. Or pursue your present course -- and face obliteration.”

 

The space alien Klaatu (actor Michael Rennie) speaking to the Earth’s world leaders in the classic science fiction movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, Director Robert Wise, 1951.

 

Oct. 9, 2008

 

“The first think you have to know when you come to Nebraska is not to kick a cow chip when it's warm"

 

A paraphrase of a quip attributed to Bob Devaney (1915-1997) University of Nebraska head football coach (1962-1972).

 

Oct. 16, 2008

 

“Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.”

 

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983).  An American migrant worker and longshoreman turned philosopher.  The quote occurred in the New York Times on July 21, 1969.

 

Oct 23, 2008

 

“Listen, I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open”.

 

National Security Adviser Dr. Jeffery Pelt (actor Richard Jordan) in the movie “The Hunt for Red October”.  Director  John McTierman.  Based on the novel by Tom Clancy.

 

Oct. 28, 2008

 

“When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.”

 

Eric Hoffer (1902-83), An American migrant worker and longshoreman turned philosopher. The Passionate State of Mind (1955).

 

Nov. 1, 2008

 

“O mischief, thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!”

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist, poet. Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, act 5, scene 1.

 

Nov. 4, 2008

 

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year

'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown'

And he replied, 'go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God

That shall be to you better than the light and safer than a known way'."

 

The famous first two stanzas of a poem written in 1908 by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957).  King George VI included it in his famous Christmas message in 1939 at the beginning of World War II.

 

Nov. 9, 2008

 

“There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.”

 

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French General and Emperor.  A remark made in 1812 concerning his disastrous Russian campaign.

 

Nov. 13, 2008

 

“The childhood shows the man,

As morning shows the day.”

 

John Milton (1608-1674), English poet. Paradise Regained.

 

Nov. 18, 2008

 

“Do you ever think?”

“Never, Sire!  A gentleman has better things to do”

 

King Henry II of England (actor Peter O’Toole) speaking to one of his barons (actor Niall MacGinnis) in the movie “Becket” (1964).  Based on the play of the same name by Jean Anouilh.

 

Nov. 24, 2008

 

“He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.”

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American author and philosopher. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, “Friday” (1849).

 

Dec. 2, 2008

 

“Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand!”

 

Herman Melville (1819-1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick, (1851).

 

Dec. 7, 2008

 

“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”

 

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish philosopher and statesman. Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, April 1777.

 

Dec.  11, 2008

 

“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a  king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.”

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)  English dramatist and poet.  Hamlet speaking to King Claudius.  Act IV, Scene III.  Hamlet (1599-1601?).

 

Dec. 16, 2008

 

"Only one thing cannot be doubted: doubt itself. Therefore, the doubter must exist."

 

“I think, therefore I am.”

 

René Descartes (1596-1650) French mathematician and philosopher.  Father of analytical geometry and formulator of the Cartesian system of coordinates.

 

Dec. 21, 2008

 

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

 

Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850), French political economist. Essays on Political Economy (1846).

 

Dec. 30, 2008

 

 

"A man calumniated is doubly injured-first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it."

 

Herodotus (ca. 484 - ca. 425 B.C.), Greek historian. Artabanus, in Histories, book 7 (ca. 430 B.C.).

 

Jan. 3, 2009

 

“In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine.”

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Anglo-Irish playwright and critic. The Devil, in Man and Superman.

 

Jan. 7, 2009

 

“ I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”

 

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French philosopher and writer.  Democracy in America, Vol. 1, (1835).

 

Jan. 13, 2009

 

“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.”

 

Abba Eban (1915-2002), Israeli politician. In a speech, Dec. 16, 1970, London.

 

Jan. 21, 2009

 

“Our constitution works.  Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.”

 

Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006), 38th U.S. president. In a speech, (Aug. 1974) on succeeding Richard Nixon as president.

 

Jan. 26, 2009

 

“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.”

 

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), German dictator, founder and leader of  National Socialism (Nazi Party) in Germany. Mein Kampf, (1925).

 

Feb. 1, 2009

 

“History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”

 

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), German socialist revolutionaries. The Holy Family (1844-1845).

 

Feb. 4, 2009

 

“Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.”

 

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. Galileo, in “Life of Galileo”.

 

Feb. 10, 2009

 

“Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.”

 

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher. Quoted in: Isaiah Berlin, Crooked Timber of Humanity, epigraph (1990).

 

Feb. 15, 2009

 

“It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.”

 

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish philosopher and statesman. Letter, 23 April 1778, to Samuel Span, Esq.

 

Feb. 22, 2009

 

“Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.”

 

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Spanish writer. Don Quixote, in Don Quixote, 1615.

 

Mar. 1, 2009

 

“No one is so old as to think he cannot live one more year.”

 

Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman orator and philosopher.  De Senectute,  44 B.C.

 

Mar. 5, 2009

 

“Perhaps one day this too will be pleasant to remember.”

 

Virgil (70-19 B.C.), Roman poet. Aeneid, book 1.

 

Mar. 10, 2009

 

“It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.”

 

Plutarch (46-120), Greek essayist and biographer in Moralia, “On the Training of Children” (ca. 100 A.D.).

 

Mar. 15, 2009

 

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”

 

George Washington (1732-1799), U.S. general, 1st president of the United States. Letter, 17 Aug. 1779.

 

Mar. 19, 2009

 

"Fame has robbed me of my freedom and shut me up in prison and because the prison walls are gilded, and the key that locks me in is gold, does not make it any more tolerable."

 

Ronald Colman (1891-1958), English and American actor describing his loss of freedom that accompanied his fame as an actor.

 

Mar. 26, 2009

 

“I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.”

 

Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman orator, philosopher. De Oratore,  (55 B.C.).

 

Mar. 30, 2009

 

“We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams.”

 

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), U.S. philosopher. The Passionate State of Mind, (1955).

 

Apr. 6, 2009

 

“For what were all these country patriots born?

To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn?”

 

George Gordon Lord Byron (1788-1824), English poet. The Age of Bronze.

 

Apr. 9, 2009

 

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.”

 

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), U.S. journalist and critic.  A Book of Burlesques, “Sententiae” (1920).

 

Apr. 19, 2009

 

“It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.”

 

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish philosopher, statesman.  Speech to the House of Commons, 1774.

 

Apr. 27, 2009

 

“I sincerely believe . . . that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), U.S. president.  In a letter to political philosopher and senator John Taylor, 1816.

 

May 03, 2009

 

“Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls.

For, thus friends absent speak.”

 

John Donne (ca. 1572-1631), English poet.  In a letter to Sir Henry Wotton.

 

May 07, 2009

 

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?

 

Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832-1898), English writer, mathematician.   The last two stanzas of “A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky”

 

May 12, 2009

 

“As he was valiant, I honour him.  But as he was ambitious, I slew him.”

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist, poet. The words of Brutus, in the play Julius Caesar.

 

May 17, 2009

 

“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.”

 

Charles Darwin (1809-1882), English naturalist. The Descent of Man, 1871.

 

May 22, 2009

 

“When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.”

 

Harry S Truman (1884-1972), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Plain Speaking: Conversations with Harry S Truman, 1973.

 

May 29, 2009

 

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”

 

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish political writer and statesman. The Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1756.

 

June 4, 2009

 

"The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it."

 

Adolph Hitler  (1889-1945), German dictator who founded National Socialism (Nazi) and led Germany from 1934 to 1945.

 

June 8, 2009

 

About Smoking:

 

“A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”

 

James I of England (1566–1625).  Reigned as king of England from 1603-1625 and as King James VI of Scotland from 1567-1625. In “A Counter-blaste to Tobacco”, (1604).

 

June 16, 2009

 

 

“Communism is not love.  Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.”

 

Mao Zedong (1893-1976), or Mao Tse-tung.  Communist revolutionary leader and founder of the Chinese Communist Party.  Time Magazine, Dec. 18, 1950.

 

June 21, 2009

 

“To be or not to be is not a question of compromise.  Either you be or you don’t be.”

 

Golda Meir (1898-1978), Israeli  Prime Minister (1969-1974).  Discussing the future of Israel.  In the New York Times (Dec. 12, 1974).

 

June 25, 2009

 

“Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.”

 

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), English biologist/writer. Science and Culture, “On the Hypothesis that Animals are Automata” (1881).

 

July 1, 2009

 

“The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.”

 

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), 30th U.S. president and Republican politician.  In an acceptance speech for vice-president July 27, 1920.

 

July 12, 2009

 

“When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.”

 

George Washington (1732-1799), U.S. general and first president.  June 26, 1775.  Address to the New York legislature.

 

July 19, 2009

 

“Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.”

 

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Spanish satirist, poet and writer.  Don Quixote, Part II, Ch. 4. Published in 1615.

 

July 26, 2009

 

 

“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.”

 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author, lexicographer.

 

July 31, 2009

 

“People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”

 

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish political writer and statesman. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).

 

Aug. 6, 2009

 

“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,

And all the sweet serenity of books.”

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), 19th Century American poet. Morituri Salutamus.

 

Aug. 12, 2009

 

“You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.”

 

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), Polish-born English novelist. Marlow, in Lord Jim, (1900).

 

Aug. 18, 2009

 

“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”

 

Jane Austen (1775-1817), English novelist. Emma (1816).

 

Aug. 25, 2009

 

“When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.”

 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author, lexicographer. Letter, 9 Jan. 1758.

 

Aug. 28, 2009

 

“Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,

To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”

 

William Congreve (1670-1729), English playwright and poet.  In the first two lines of The Mourning Bride, 1697.

 

Sept. 3, 2009

 

“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.”

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th president of the U.S., general, Republican politician. In a speech, 1954.

 

Sept. 7, 2009

 

Concerning hypocrites (test your Middle English)

 

“The smylere with the knyf under the cloke.”

 

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), English poet. The Canterbury Tales, “The Knight’s Tale” (c. 1387–1400).

 

Sept. 9, 2009

 

“That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, no sane human being has ever given his assent.”

 

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), British author, essayist, and poet. Proper Studies, “The Idea of Equality” (1927).

 

Sept. 13, 2009

 

“Just because a cat has her kittens in the oven doesn't make em biscuits”

 

Frasier Crane, in the TV comedy series Frasier.  Frasier speaking to Niles in the episode 'Something about Mary' (2000).

 

 

Sept.  16, 2009

 

“Only man is not content to leave things as they are but must always be changing them, and when he has done so, is seldom satisfied with the result.”

 

Elspeth Huxley (1907-1997), British author. The Mottled Lizard (1962).

 

Sept. 20, 2009

 

“When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it.”

 

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938), Noted U.S. lawyer and writer. As quoted in Irving Stone’s “Clarence Darrow for the Defence” (1941).

 

Sept. 24, 2009

 

“History shows that there are no invincible armies.”


Josef Stalin (1879-1953), Soviet communist dictator in a radio broadcast declaring war on Germany (1941) only weeks before Germany invaded Russia.

 

Sept. 30, 2009

 

“Thy fate is the common fate of all;

Into each life some rain must fall.”

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), American poet. The Rainy Day.

 

Oct. 2, 2009

 

"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."

 

Italo Calvino (1923-1985), Italian author, critic. 1981.  In L’Espresso,  June 28, 1981.

 

Oct. 7, 2009

 

“Though lovers be lost love shall not;

And death shall have no dominion.”

 

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), Welsh poet.  (Partly taken from St. Paul:  “Death Hath No More Dominion over him”).

 

Oct. 11, 2009

 

“The mockingbird can change its tune eighty-seven times in seven minutes.

Politicians regard this interesting fact with envy.”

 

Anonymous

 

Oct. 15, 2009

 

“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as

reason is left free to combat it.”

 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), U.S. president.

 

Oct. 18, 2009

 

“My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk.”

 

John Keats (1795-1821), English poet.  In a letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley , 1820.

 

Oct. 22, 2009

 

“We poets in our youth begin in gladness;

But thereof comes in the end despondency and madness.”

 

William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English poet.  From Resolution and Independence, 1807.

 

Oct. 27, 2009

 

“It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.”

 

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. judge, May 1950.

 

Oct. 29, 2009

 

“Lonely men around me, trying not to cry,
Till the day you found me, there among them was I.”

 

Two lines from the lyrics of “There but for You Go I” from the Broadway musical Brigadoon.  Music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.  (Webgeezeer’s note: What ever happened to our ability to write such beautiful lyrics.)

 

Nov. 2, 2009

 

“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), U.S. poet, “Kavanagh” (1849).

 

Nov. 9, 2009

 

“One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.”

 

Salman Rushdie (1948-), Indian-born British author. Interview in the Guardian (1990).

 

Nov. 10, 2009

 

 

"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

 

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th President of the United States.  Republican politician.  In a speech in front of the Berlin wall, June 12, 1987.

 

Nov. 14, 2009

 

“A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.”

 

The Wizard of Oz (actor Frank Morgan) speaking to the Tin Man (actor Jack Haley) “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), directed by Victor Fleming.

 

Nov. 18, 2009

 

"To understand nothing is to understand everything."

 

Confucius (551-479 B.C.)  Chinese thinker and philosopher.

 

Nov. 24, 2009

 

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

 

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet, dramatist.

 

Nov. 30, 2009

 

“We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.”

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), U.S. author. The Scarlet Letter, (1850).

 

Dec. 7, 2009

 

“When I start out to make a fool of myself there's very little can stop me.”

 

The character Michael O’Hara (actor Orson Welles) in the movie ‘The Lady from Shanghai’ directed by Orson Welles, 1947.

 

Dec. 12, 2009

 

“Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do.  In fact, that’s good taste.”

 

Lucille Ball (1911-89), U.S. actor, producer, (1954).

 

Dec. 15, 2009

 

“The greatest cunning is to have none at all.”

 

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), U.S. poet. ‘The People, Yes’, 1936.

 

Dec. 19, 2009

 

“To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter.”

 

Françoise Sagan (1935-2004), French novelist. Lucile, in La Chamade, (1965).

 

Dec. 28, 2009

 

“I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”

 

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), U.S. general, president. Inaugural address, March 4, 1869.

 

Jan. 4, 2010

 

Theoden: “I will not risk open war.”

Aragorn: “Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not.”

 

Theoden (actor Bernard Hill) speaking to Aragon (actor Viggo Mortensen). The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Director, Peter Jackson,  2002.

 

Jan. 8, 2010

 

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.”

 

Lauren Bacall (1924-), U.S. actress. UK Daily Telegraph (March 1988).

 

Jan. 10, 2010

 

“I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.”

 

The Elder Cato (234-149 B.C.), Roman statesman. From a collection of biographies by Plutarch (Greek writer and philosopher) entitled “Parallel Lives”, Chapter 19, “Marcus Cato,”.

 

Jan. 18, 2010

 

About liberals:

 

“I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means—except by getting off his back.”

 

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), Russian novelist, philosopher. What Then Must We Do? (1886).

 

Jan. 22, 2010

 

“A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.”

 

Victor Hugo (1802–1885), French poet, dramatist, novelist. Les Misérables, (1862).

 

Jan. 26, 2010

 

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

 

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German born American theoretical physicist.

 

Jan. 31, 2010

 

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”

 

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish novelist, essayist, poet. Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers, “An Apology for Idlers” (1881).

 

Feb. 3, 2010

 

“An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.”

 

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), U.S. Democratic politician. Quoted in: The Stevenson Wit (1966). Has also been attributed to Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915), American author and essayist.

 

Feb. 7, 2010

 

“There is a harmony

In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,

Which through the summer is not heard or seen,

As if it could not be, as if it had not been!”

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), English poet. Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (1816).

 

Feb. 11, 2010

 

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

 

John Keats (1795-1821), English poet. Ode on a Grecian Urn (1820).

 

Feb. 16, 2010

 

“The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”

 

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), German social philosophers, revolutionaries. The Communist Manifesto, (1848).

 

Feb. 20, 2010

 

“Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated.”

 

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851), English novelist. Frankenstein, (1818).

 

Feb. 24, 2010

 

“Life is a series of sensations connected to different states of consciousness.”

 

Rémy de Gourmont (1858–1915), French critic, novelist. “The Value of Education,” in Le Chemin de Velours (1902).

 

Mar. 1, 2010

 

“Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.”

 

18th-Century English Proverb

 

Mar. 5, 2010

 

“I’ve got a little list….the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own”

 

Ko-Ko in the operetta, The Mikado.  Lyrics by William S. Gilbert and music by Arthur S. Sullivan (1885). 

 

Mar. 7, 2010

 

“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!”

 

The character Dr. Peter Venkman (played by actor Bill Murray) in the movie Ghostbusters (1985) directed by Ivan Reitman.