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:
“Irrationally
held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825‑1895)
“A
pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the
opportunity in every difficulty.”
Winston Churchill
(1874-1965), British statesman, writer.
“Drawing on my fine command of language, I
said nothing.”
Robert Benchley
(1889–1945), U.S. humorous writer.
“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.
“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.
“A man said to the universe:
‘Sir, I exist!’
‘The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.’ ”
Stephen Crane (1871-1900) – “A
Man Said to the Universe”.
"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.
"May
you never meet a mouse in your cupboard with tears in his eyes!"
J. C. Furnas (1905-2001) American writer and
historian
"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).
"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]
"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.
"Myths which are believed in tend to become
true."
George Orwell (1903–50), British author. “The English
People”.
“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.
“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."
“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
“Charity begins at home, and justice begins next
door."
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist.Tigg, in
Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. 27 (1844).
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".
"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).
"If
the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost."
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman,
writer.
"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.
"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
"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.
"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
"Not everything that is more difficult is more
meritorious."
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Italian philosopher,
theologian
"To the query, 'What is a friend?' his reply
was 'A single soul dwelling in two bodies.'”
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Greek philosopher.
"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).
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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).
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.).
"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).
“Everybody
is ignorant, only on different subjects.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935), U.S. humorist. The Illiterate
Digest, “Defending My Soup Plate Position” (1924).
“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).
"Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill!"
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet. In
Memoriam.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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).
"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).
"Who
knows...what evil...lurks in the hearts of men?"
Introduction to the old radio program "The
Shadow" (1937-1954)
Mutual Broadcasting System.
"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.
"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).
"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).
"Never
attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity"
[Anonymous]
"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).
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"Golf is a good walk spoiled."
Mark Twain (attributed to) (1835-1910), U.S. author.
Quoted in: Greatly Exaggerated, “Golf”.
"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).
"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).
"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.
"Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill!"
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet.
"I’m not confused, I’m just well mixed."
Robert Frost (1874-1963), U.S. poet. Quoted in: Wall
Street Journal, Aug. 5, 1969.
"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).
"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.
"The urge to save humanity is always a false
front for the urge to rule it"
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), U.S. Journalist
"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.
“They also serve who only stand
and wait.”
John Milton (1608–74), English poet. Sonnet 16, On His
Blindness.
“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.
"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.
“If you believe everything you read, better not read”.
Japanese proverb
“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.
"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).
“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).
"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.
"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).
“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).
"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.
"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).
“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.
"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).
"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.
"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.
"For ‘tis not in mere death that men die
most."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), English
poet. Aurora Leigh (1857).
"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).
"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.
"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).
"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).
“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.
“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.
"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."
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.
"The nation which forgets its defenders will be
itself forgotten."
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), U.S. Republican
politician, president. Speech, 27 July 1920.
"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).
"All animals are equal but some animals are
more equal than others."
George Orwell (1903-1950), British author. Animal Farm
(1945).
"The difference between
genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Attributed to
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), German-born U.S. physicist.
"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.
"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.
"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.
“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).
“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.
"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).
“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.
“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).
“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”.
"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).
“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.”
“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.
“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).
“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).
"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)
"Since
when was genius found respectable?"
Elizabeth
Barrett Browning (1806-1861), English Poet. Aurora Leigh (1857).
"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.
"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.
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict.
Those who predict, don't have knowledge. "
Lao Tzu, 6th Century BC Chinese Poet
"To
jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter."
Françoise Sagan (1935-2004), French novelist. "La Chamade", ch. 9 (1965).
Stop
"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).
"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.
"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).
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.
"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).
"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.
"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.
“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
"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.
"I
do not know the American gentleman, God forgive me for putting two such words
together."
Charles
Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist.
"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).
“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.
“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).
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.
“What
do I know of man’s destiny? I could tell you more about radishes."
Samuel
Beckett (1906-89), Irish dramatist, novelist.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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).
"I
find that prayers work better when you have big players."
Attributed
to Knute Rockne (1888-1931). Notre Dame
football coach (1918-1931).
“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.
“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.
“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).
“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.
“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.
“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).
“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.
"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.
“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.
“The
childhood shows the man,
As
morning shows the day.”
John
Milton (1608-1674), English poet. Paradise Regained.
“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.
“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).
“Give
me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand!”
Herman
Melville (1819-1891), U.S. author. Moby-Dick, (1851).
“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.
“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?).
"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.
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).
"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.).
“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.
“ 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).
“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.
“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.
“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).
“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).
“Unhappy
the land that is in need of heroes.”
Bertolt
Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. Galileo, in “Life of Galileo”.
“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).
“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.
“Our
greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.”
Miguel
de Cervantes (1547-1616), Spanish writer. Don Quixote, in Don Quixote, 1615.
“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.
“Perhaps
one day this too will be pleasant to remember.”
Virgil
(70-19 B.C.), Roman poet. Aeneid, book 1.
“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.).
“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.
"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.
“I prefer tongue-tied
knowledge to ignorant loquacity.”
Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman orator, philosopher. De
Oratore, (55 B.C.).
“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).
“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.
“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).
“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.
“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.
“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.
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”
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
"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.
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).
“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.
“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).
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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).
“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.
“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).
“One half of the
world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”
Jane Austen (1775-1817), English novelist. Emma (1816).
“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.
“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.
Concerning hypocrites (test your Middle English)
“The smylere with the knyf under the cloke.”
“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).
“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).
“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).
“When I was a boy I
was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it.”
“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.
“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”).
“The mockingbird can change its tune eighty-seven
times in seven minutes.
Politicians regard
this interesting fact with envy.”
Anonymous
“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.
“My imagination is a
monastery and I am its monk.”
John Keats (1795-1821), English poet. In a letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley , 1820.
“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.”
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.”
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”
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.