Famous Quotes |
| You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. |
John Adams, Instructions to his son
Johnny in the biography "John Adams" by David McCullough (p. 19) |
US diplomat & politician (1735
- 1826) |
| Many go fishing without knowing it is fish they are after. |
Henry David Thoreau, ? |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| Too often the strong silent man is
silent because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent. |
Winston Churchill |
| Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others. |
Winston Churchill |
| Reality continues to ruin my life. |
Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes |
US cartoonist (1958 - ) |
| Courage is fear that has said its prayers. |
Dorothy Bernard |
| History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree
upon. |
Napoleon Bonaparte |
French general & politician
(1769 - 1821) |
| In the end, our society will be
defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy. |
John C. Sawhill |
| War is hell, and I mean to make it so. |
William Tecumseh Sherman |
| My kids can do whatever they want as
long as they are not Republicans or junkies. That is where I draw the line. |
Steven Bernstein, Interview |
| The little reed, bending to the
force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. |
Aesop |
Greek slave & fable author
(620 BC - 560 BC) |
| The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with
the advent of commercial airlines. |
Henry J. Tillman |
| Never tell a man you can read him
through and through; most people prefer to be thought enigmas. |
Marchioness Townsend |
| Most new books are forgotten within a year, especially by those who
borrow them. |
Evan Esar |
American Humorist (1899 - 1995) |
| America believes in education: the
average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week. |
Evan Esar |
American Humorist (1899 - 1995) |
| Channeling is just bad ventriloquism. You use another voice, but people
can see your lips moving. |
Penn Jillette |
US magician & showman (1955
- ) |
| All is in the hands of man. Therefore wash them often. |
Stanislaw J. Lec, "Unkempt Thoughts" |
Polish writer (1909 - 1966) |
| The first condition of immortality is death. |
Stanislaw J. Lec, "Unkempt Thoughts" |
Polish writer (1909 - 1966) |
| There are grammatical errors even in his silence. |
Stanislaw J. Lec, "Unkempt Thoughts" |
Polish writer (1909 - 1966) |
| Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before
you begin. |
Stanislaw J. Lec, "Unkempt Thoughts" |
Polish writer (1909 - 1966) |
| Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether
impossible. |
Stanislaw Lem |
Polish science fiction author
(1921 - ) |
| The great masses of the people... will more easily fall victims to a
great lie than to a small one. |
Adolf Hitler |
German Nazi dictator, orator, & politician (1889 - 1945) |
| You never know till you try to reach
them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door. |
Henry Ward Beecher |
US abolitionist & clergyman
(1813 - 1887) |
| Electricity is actually made up of
extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking. |
Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw" |
US columnist & humorist (1947
- ) |
| The only really good place to buy
lumber is at a store where the lumber has already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture, finished,
and put inside boxes. |
Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw" |
US columnist & humorist (1947
- ) |
| Procrastination is the thief of time. |
Edward Young |
English poet (1683 - 1765) |
| You must not think me necessarily
foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave. |
Sydney Smith |
English essayist (1771 - 1845) |
| What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of
us left. |
Oscar Levant |
(1906 - 1972) |
| A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. |
Sir Francis Bacon |
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626) |
| It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way. |
John Viscount Morley, of Blackburn |
| With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in
another. |
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg |
(1742 - 1799) |
| Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows. |
David T. Wolf |
(1943 - ) |
| There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face
is sensible. |
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg |
(1742 - 1799) |
| It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. |
Aeschylus |
Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC -
456 BC) |
| Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly
recognizes genius. |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915 |
British mystery author & physician
(1859 - 1930) |
| Man is equally incapable of seeing
the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed. |
Blaise Pascal |
French mathematician, physicist
(1623 - 1662) |
| Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them. |
Dr. Seuss |
US author & illustrator (1904
- 1991) |
| Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself. |
Plutarch |
Greek biographer & moralist
(46 AD - 120 AD) |
| Some national parks have long
waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong. |
George Carlin |
US comedian and actor (1937 - ) |
| As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything. |
George Carlin |
US comedian and actor (1937 - ) |
| Cannibals prefer those who have no spines. |
Stanislaw Lem, "Holiday", 1963 |
Polish science fiction author
(1921 - ) |
| Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter. |
Francis Bacon, Essays (1625) |
| Toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other. |
Seneca |
Roman dramatist, philosopher, & politician (5 BC - 65 AD) |
| It is only rarely that one can see
in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman. |
Alexandre Dumas |
French dramatist & novelist
(1802 - 1870) |
| Remember that as a teenager you are
at the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you. |
Fran Lebowitz, Social Studies (1981) |
US writer and humorist (1950
- ) |
| I love children - especially when they cry, for then someone takes them
away. |
Nancy Mitford |
| It was no wonder that people were so horrible when they started life as
children. |
Kingsley Amis, One Fat Englishman (1963) |
English author & humorist
(1922 - ) |
| The man who leaves money to charity
in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him. |
Voltaire, Letter (1769) |
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778) |
| In charity there is no excess. |
Sir Francis Bacon, Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature (1625) |
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626) |
| The living need charity more than the dead. |
George Arnold, The Jolly Old Pedagogue (1866) |
| Whatever you are by nature, keep to
it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed. |
Sydney Smith |
English essayist (1771 - 1845) |
| Every man has three characters: that
which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has. |
Alphonse Karr |
| Things do not change; we change. |
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1970) |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| There is nothing in this world constant, but inconsistancy. |
Jonathan Swift, A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1709) |
Irish essayist, novelist, & satirist
(1667 - 1745) |
| You cannot step twice into the same river. |
Heraclitus, In Plato, Cratylus |
Greek philosopher (540 BC - 480
BC) |
| The more things change the more they remain the same. |
Alphonse Karr, Les GuΩpes |
| The issues are the same. We wanted
peace on earth, love, and understanding between everyone around the world. We have learned that change comes
slowly. |
Paul McCartney, The Observer (1987) |
| They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. |
Confucius, Analects |
Chinese philosopher & reformer
(551 BC - 479 BC) |
| Change is inevitable. In a progressive country change is constant. |
Benjamin Disraeli, Speech, Edinburgh (1867) |
British politician (1804 - 1881) |
| But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and
taxes. |
Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy (1789) |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| The only certainty is that nothing is certain. |
Pliny the Elder |
Roman scholar & scientist (23
AD - 79 AD) |
| I prefer complexity to certainty, cheerful mysteries to sullen facts. |
Claude T. Bissell |
| There is no such thing on earth as
an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. |
G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905) |
English author & mystery novelist
(1874 - 1936) |
| I wanted to be bored to death, as good a way to go as any. |
Peter De Vries, Comfort me with Apples (1956) |
| I came upstairs into the world; for I was born in a cellar. |
William Congreve, Love for Love (1695) |
English dramatist (1670 - 1729) |
| For that which is born death is
certain, and for the dead birth is certain. Therefore grieve not over that which is unavoidable. |
Bhagavad Gita |
(250 BC - 250 AD) |
| The more the fruits of knowledge
become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief. |
Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (1927) |
Austrian psychologist (1856 -
1939) |
| Where would this country be without this great land of ours? |
Ronald Reagan |
40th president of US (1911 - 2004) |
| The future depends on what we do in the present. |
Mahatma Gandhi |
Indian ascetic & nationalist leader
(1869 - 1948) |
| Unless you believe, you will not understand. |
Saint Augustine, De Libero Arbitrio |
Carthaginian author, saint, & church father (354 AD - 430 AD) |
| Men generally believe what they wish. |
Gaius Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico |
| The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw. |
Havelock Ellis, Impressions and Comments (1914) |
English sexual psychologist (1859
- 1939) |
| Beauty is handed out as
undemocratically as inherited peerages, and beautiful people have done nothing to deserve their astonishing reward. |
John Mortimer, The Observer (1999) |
| Outside every fat man there was an even fatter man trying to close in. |
Kingsley Amis, One Fat Englishman (1963) |
English author & humorist
(1922 - ) |
| Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light. |
Baltasar Gracian |
| I say that good painters imitated nature; but that bad ones vomited it. |
Miguel de Cervantes, Exemplary Novels (1613) |
Spanish adventurer, author, & poet
(1547 - 1616) |
| To the accountants, a true work of art is an investment that hangs on the
wall. |
Hilary Alexander, Sunday Telegraph (1993) |
| It takes in reality only one to make
a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a
different opinion. |
William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays (1919) |
English author & Anglican prelate
(1860 - 1954) |
| The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he makes so many of
them. |
Abraham Lincoln |
16th president of US (1809 - 1865) |
| Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable. |
Joseph Addison, Women and Liberty |
English essayist, poet, & politician
(1672 - 1719) |
| It is a good rule in life never to
apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. |
P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs (1914) |
British humorist & novelist in US
(1881 - 1975) |
| Beware the fury of a patient man. |
John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (1681) |
English dramatist & poet (1631
- 1700) |
| Animals are always loyal and love you, whereas with children you never
know where you are. |
Christina Foyle, The Times (1993) |
| The angry man always thinks he can do more than he can. |
Albertano of Brescia, Liber Consolationis |
| History teaches us that men and
nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. |
Abba Eban |
Israeli (S. African-born) diplomat & politician (1915 - 2002) |
| Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that
has been entrusted to you. |
Henri-FrΘdΘric Amiel |
| We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us. |
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes (1678) |
French author & moralist (1613
- 1680) |
| I hate middle age. Too young for the bowling green, too old for Ecstasy. |
Ian Pattison, Rab C. Nesbitt, television series |
| Adventure must be held in delicate
fingers. It should be handled, not embraced. It should be sipped, not swallowed at a gulp. |
Ashley Dukes, The Man with a Load of Mischief (1924) |
| To ask advice is in nine cases out of ten to tout for flattery. |
John Churton Collins |
| Being another character is more interesting than being yourself. |
Sir John Gielgud |
| Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. |
John Dryden |
English dramatist & poet (1631
- 1700) |
| You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery,
are now extinct. |
William Somerset Maugham, The Bread-Winner |
| To be an adult is to be alone. |
Jean Rostand, Thoughts of a biologist (1939) |
(1894 - 1977) |
| He who neglects to drink from the
spring of experience is likely to die of thirst in the desert of ignorance. |
Ling Po, (Chinese, 701-762) |
| Ten thousand fools proclaim
themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality. |
Martin Luther King Jr. |
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968) |
| If you judge people, you have no time to love them. |
Mother Teresa |
Indian humanitarian & missionary
(1910 - 1997) |
| The only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won. |
Arthur Wellesley, Aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, 1815. |
British general & politician
(1769 - 1852) |
| Life is simply the pursuit of something worth dying for. |
David Van Boom |
| Faith, Hope, and Love remanined. And the greatest of these is Love. |
1 Corinthians 13:13, 1 Corinthians 13:13 |
| Real, constructive mental power lies
in the creative thought that shapes your destiny, and your hour-by-hour mental conduct produces power for change in
your life. Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your
life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that train
of thought is going. |
Laurence J. Peter |
US educator & writer (1919 -
1988) |
| Of ten parts a man enjoys one only, but a woman enjoys the full ten parts
in her heart. |
Tiresias, [Apollodorus, Library 3.6.7] |
| What is a seer? A man who with luck
tells the truth sometimes, with frequent falsehoods, but when his luck deserts him, collapses then and there. |
Achilles, Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 955 |
| We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts, have
their root in Greece. |
Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| How terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have
it. |
Sophocles, Tiresias. Oedipus the King 315 |
Greek tragic dramatist (496 BC -
406 BC) |
| All great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road
to actual seduction. |
Marya Mannes, The Quotable Woman...on Love & Relationships |
| It is the excitement of becoming -
always becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting, and trying again- but always trying and always gaining... |
Lyndon B. Johnson, Inaugural Adress, January 20, 1965 |
36th president of US (1908 - 1973) |
| The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| If you would not be forgotten as
soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Audacious ribald: your laughter will finish in hideous boredom before
morning. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Curiosity was a form of lust, a wandering cupidity of the eye and the
mind. |
John Crowley, Of Marvels And Monsters,
Washington Post, October 18, 1998 |
| Funny how the new things are the old things. |
Rudyard Kipling, With the Night Mail (1909) |
British (Indian-born) author (1865
- 1936) |
| Every woman knows all about everything. |
Rudyard Kipling, The Eye of Allah (1926) |
British (Indian-born) author (1865
- 1936) |
| Let no man imagine that he has no
influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power. |
Henry George |
US economist (1839 - 1897) |
| A positive attitude may not solve
all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. |
Herm Albright |
(1876 - 1944) |
| Once there was The People - Terror
gave it birth;<br> Once there was The People, and it made a hell of earth!<br> Earth arose and crushed it.
Listen, oh, ye slain!<br> Once there was The People - it shall never be
again! |
Rudyard Kipling, As Easy as A.B.C. (1917) |
British (Indian-born) author (1865
- 1936) |
| A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad. |
Samuel Goldwyn |
US (Polish-born) movie producer
(1882 - 1974) |
| Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all
men. |
Jane Addams, Speech, Honolulu (1933) |
US social worker, sociologist, & suffragist (1860 - 1935) |
| Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. |
Henri Bergson |
French author, mystic, & philosopher
(1859 - 1941) |
| Civilization degrades the many to exalt the few. |
Amos Bronson Alcott, Table Talk (1877) |
US educator & Transcendentalist
(1799 - 1888) |
| The more rapidly a civilization progresses, the sooner it dies for
another to rise in its place. |
Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life |
English sexual psychologist (1859
- 1939) |
| It is so stupid of modern
civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only
explanation of it. |
Ronald Knox |
| Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real
civilization. |
G. M. Trevelyan, English Social History (1942) |
British historian (1876 - 1962) |
| The best coffee in Europe is Vienna coffee, compared to which all other
coffee is fluid poverty. |
Mark Twain, Greatly Exaggerated |
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) |
| Compassion and love are not mere
luxuries. As the source of both inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our
species. |
Dalai Lama, The Times (1999) |
| Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? |
Clifford Stoll |
| Dive into the sea of thought, and find there pearls beyond price. |
Moses Ibn Ezra, Shirat Yisrael |
| Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore
we must learn both arts. |
Thomas Carlyle |
Scottish author, essayist, & historian (1795 - 1881) |
| I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his
enemies. |
Aristotle, In Stobaeus, Florilegium |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| The important thing when you are
going to do something brave is to have someone on hand to witness it. |
Michael Howard, The Observer (1980) |
| Courage mounteth with occasion. |
William Shakespeare, King John, II.i |
Greatest English dramatist & poet
(1564 - 1616) |
| Cowardly dogs bark loudest. |
John Webster, The White Devil (1612) |
English dramatist (1580 - 1625) |
| He that first cries out stop thief, is often he that has stolen the
treasure. |
William Congreve, Love for Love (1695) |
English dramatist (1670 - 1729) |
| Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes
heroes. |
Benjamin Disraeli |
British politician (1804 - 1881) |
| Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the
criminal. |
Elizabeth Fry, Journal entry |
| Crime is naught but misdirected energy. |
Emma Goldman, Anarchism (1910) |
US (Lithuanian-born) anarchist
(1869 - 1940) |
| Kill one man, and you are a
murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god. |
Jean Rostand, Thoughts of a Biologist (1939) |
(1894 - 1977) |
| Cruelty is like hope: it springs eternal. |
Dr. Anthony Daniels, The Observer (1998) |
| We need never be ashamed of our tears. |
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations |
English novelist (1812 - 1870) |
| Curiosity is the key to creativity. |
Akio Morita, Made in Japan (1986) |
Japanese electronics industrialist
(1921 - ) |
| Always aim at complete harmony of
thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. |
Mahatma Gandhi |
Indian ascetic & nationalist leader
(1869 - 1948) |
| Experience is a hard teacher becuase she gives the tests first, the
lessons afterwards. |
Vernon Suanders Law, Chicken Soup for the Teenage soul: Tough Stuff |
| Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly. |
Voltaire |
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778) |
| Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. |
Isaac Asimov, Salvor Hardin in "Foundation" |
US science fiction novelist & scholar
(1920 - 1992) |
| Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be
shocked at in public. |
Edgar Watson Howe |
US journalist (1853 - 1937) |
| Devotees of grammatical studies have
not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression. |
Amos Bronson Alcott |
US educator & Transcendentalist
(1799 - 1888) |
| When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary. |
William Wrigley Jr. |
US chewing gum industrialist (1861
- 1932) |
| Time is the coin of your life. It is
the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for
you. |
Carl Sandburg |
US biographer & poet (1878 -
1967) |
| About the most originality that any
writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment. |
Josh Billings |
US Humorist (1818 - 1885) |
| The price one pays for pursuing any
profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side. |
James Baldwin |
US author (1924 - 1987) |
| My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the
pessimists. |
Jean Rostand, Journal of a Character, 1931 |
(1894 - 1977) |
| Men of genius do not excel in any
profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel. |
William Hazlitt |
English essayist (1778 - 1830) |
| Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought. |
Sir William Osler |
British (Canadian-born) physician
(1849 - 1919) |
| Perpetual devotion to what a man
calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things. |
Robert Louis Stevenson |
Scottish author (1850 - 1894) |
| At least half the mystery novels
published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable. |
Raymond Chandler |
US detective novelist & screenwriter
(1888 - 1959) |
| There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste. |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist (1749 - 1832) |
| How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. |
Henry David Thoreau |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy. |
Isaac Newton |
English mathematician & physicist
(1642 - 1727) |
| History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. |
Sir Winston Churchill |
British politician (1874 - 1965) |
| Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with
ourselves. |
Henri-FrΘdΘric Amiel |
| Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be. |
Clementine Paddleford |
| Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which
you must see the world. |
George Bernard Shaw |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| A promise made is a debt unpaid. |
Robert W. Service |
| We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has
revealed to us. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| It is not enough to be good if you have the ability to be better. |
Alberta Lee Cox |
| The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we
pretend to be. |
Socrates |
Greek philosopher in Athens (469
BC - 399 BC) |
| Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. |
George Eliot, Silas Marner (1861) |
English novelist (1819 - 1880) |
| But IÆm not so think as you drunk I am. |
Sir J.C. Squire, Ballade of Soporific Absorption |
| An apology for the devil: it must be
remembered that we have heard only one side of the case; God has written all the books. |
Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912) |
English composer, novelist, & satiric author (1835 - 1902) |
| The bitterest tragic element in life
to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect (1893) |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| We have to believe in free will. WeÆve got no choice. |
Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Times (1982) |
US (Polish-born) Jewish author
(1904 - 1991) |
| Nothing happens to any thing which that thing is not made by nature to
bear. |
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations |
Roman Emperor, A.D. 161-180 (121
AD - 180 AD) |
| I shall despair. There is no
creature loves me;<br> And if I die no soul will pity me:<br> And
wherefore should they, since that I
myself<br> Find in myself no pity to myself? |
William Shakespeare, Richard III, V.iii |
Greatest English dramatist & poet
(1564 - 1616) |
| Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. |
Graham Greene, Heart of the Matter (1948) |
| He who despairs over an event is a
coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool. |
Albert Camus, The Rebel (1951) |
French existentialist author & philosopher (1913 - 1960) |
| Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and
fade. |
Marcel Proust, Les Plaisirs et les Jours (1896) |
French novelist (1871 - 1922) |
| Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. |
Robert Ingersoll |
US agnostic, agnostic apologist, lawyer, & orator (1833 - 1899) |
| Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be
restrained. |
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c. 1790-1793) |
English engraver, illustrator, & poet
(1757 - 1827) |
| False face must hide what the false heart doth know. |
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, I.vii |
Greatest English dramatist & poet
(1564 - 1616) |
| There is a great deal of wishful
thinking in such cases; it is the easiest thing of all to deceive oneÆs self. |
Demosthenes, Olynthiac |
Greek orator & politician in Athens
(384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Creditors have better memories than debtors. |
Benjamin Franklin, Poor RichardÆs Almanac (1758) |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts
of theirs at all amusing. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Age and Death" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| It matters not how a man dies, but
how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time. |
Samuel Johnson, Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) |
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784) |
| I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of
pleasure. |
Clarence Darrow, Medley |
US defense lawyer (1857 - 1938) |
| Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot
attain even that wish. |
Sophocles, Electra |
Greek tragic dramatist (496 BC -
406 BC) |
| And come he slow, or come he fast,<br> It is but death who comes at
last. |
Sir Walter Scott, Marmion (1808) |
Scottish author & novelist
(1771 - 1832) |
| Be entirely tolerant or not at all;
follow the good path or the evil one. To stand at the crossroads requires more strength than you possess. |
Heinrich Heine |
German critic & poet (1797 -
1856) |
| One dies only once, and then for such a long time! |
MoliΦre, Le DΘpit Amoureux (1656) |
French actor & comic dramatist
(1622 - 1673) |
| Death is the only grammatically correct full stopà |
Brian Patten, Schoolboy (1990) |
| Death à ItÆs the only thing we havenÆt succeeded in completely
vulgarizing. |
Aldous Huxley, Eyeless in Gaza (1936) |
English critic & novelist
(1894 - 1963) |
| Grieve not that I die young. Is it not well To pass away ere life hath
lost its brightness? |
Lady Flora Hastings, ôSwan Songö |
| Death hath so many doors to let out life. |
John Fletcher, The Custom of the Country (1647) |
English dramatist (1579 - 1625) |
| One does not learn how to die by killing others. |
Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Memoirs (1826-1841) |
French author & politician
(1768 - 1848) |
| When you have told anyone you have
left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once. |
Samuel Butler, In Festing Jones, Samuel Butler : A Memoir |
English composer, novelist, & satiric author (1835 - 1902) |
| As soon as there is life there is danger. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude (1870) |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| Be not so bigoted to any custom as to worship it at the expense of truth. |
Johann Georg von Zimmermann |
| When we conquer without danger our triumph is without glory. |
Pierre Corneille, Le Cid (1637) |
French dramatist (1606 - 1684) |
| To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. |
Emily Dickinson |
US poet (1830 - 1886) |
| Avoiding danger is no safer in the
long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| The desire to take medicine is
perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals. |
Sir William Osler, In H. Cushing, Life of Sir William Osler (1925) |
British (Canadian-born) physician
(1849 - 1919) |
| Men seldom make passes<br> At girls who wear glasses. |
Dorothy Parker, Not So Deep as a Well (1937), "News Item" |
US author, humorist, poet, & wit
(1893 - 1967) |
| The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. |
Carl Sagan |
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996) |
| If we long to believe that the stars
rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our
conceits? |
Carl Sagan |
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996) |
| Personally, I would be delighted if
there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me
a chance to discover how history turns out. |
Carl Sagan |
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996) |
| Lost time is never found again. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| We live in a time of transition, an
uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be tempted to abandon some of
the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the
difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation.
Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities - not the salt in our
bread, but the bread itself. |
Jimmy Carter, in his farewell address |
US diplomat & Democratic politician
(1924 - ) |
| Think of how many religions attempt
to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however
unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a
religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? |
Carl Sagan |
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996) |
| He that has done you a kindness will
be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Distrust and caution are the parents of security. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| He who is unable to live in society,
or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Roam abroad in the world, and take
thy fill of its enjoyments before the day shall come when thou must quit it for good. |
Saadi |
Persian poet (1184 - 1291) |
| The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one;
enemy to none. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but
their inward significance. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Wit is educated insolence. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| There was never a genius without a tincture of madness. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Nature does nothing uselessly. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Own only what you can carry with
you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. |
Alexander Solzhenitsyn |
Russian author & dissident in US
(1918 - ) |
| Honesty is for the most part, less profitable than dishonesty. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| Courage is knowing what not to fear. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| All men are by nature equal, made
all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the
mighty prince. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| He who would travel happily must travel light. |
Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
French writer (1900 - 1944) |
| Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol
or morphine or idealism. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not
balanced by sadness. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is
without trouble. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| Great talents are the most lovely
and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily
snapped off. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| The greatest and most important
problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them
of their arms. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Those who are too smart to engage in
politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| Science is nothing but perception. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| When you travel, remember that a
foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable. |
Clifton Fadiman |
US author, editor, & radio host
(1904 - ) |
| Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion. |
Edward Abbey |
US radical environmentalist (1927
- 1989) |
| Hierarchical institutions are like
giant bulldozers-- obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls. |
Edward Abbey |
US radical environmentalist (1927
- 1989) |
| Good people do not need laws to tell
them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to
evoke it in us. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his
government. |
Edward Abbey |
US radical environmentalist (1927
- 1989) |
| The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| We have rudiments of reverence for
the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| The most gifted members of the human
species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by
realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| All leaders strive to turn their followers into children. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive
themselves. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| As far as the laws of mathematics
refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so
on. |
Robert Byrne |
| How can I believe in God when just
last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? |
Woody Allen |
US movie actor, comedian, & director
(1935 - ) |
| Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel
alone. |
The Dhammapada |
| The wise learn from the experience
of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks
them. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| To most of us nothing is so
invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats- we know it
not. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| The uncompromising attitude is more
indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt
within than the assailant without. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| The remarkable thing is that we
really love our neighbors as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves.
We are tolerant of others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when
we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to
sacrifice ourselves. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| Passionate hatred can give meaning
and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content
not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a
fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for
both. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| The opposite of the religious
fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| People unfit for freedom - who
cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It
says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The
desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of
self. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| The basic test of freedom is perhaps
less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. |
Eric Hoffer |
(1902 - 1983) |
| Safeguard the health both of body and soul. |
Cleobulus, {One of the 7 Greek Sages} |
| Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant. |
P. T. Barnum |
| Old houses mended,<br> Cost little less than new before they Ære
ended. |
Colley Cibber, The Double Gallant, Prologue |
English actor & dramatist
(1671 - 1757) |
| The weak ones are there to justify the strong. |
Marilyn Manson |
| God is really only another artist,
he made the elephat, giraffe and cat. He has no real style but keeps trying new ideas. |
Pablo Picasso |
Spanish Cubist painter (1881 -
1973) |
| People can be in general pretty well
trusted, of course--with the clock of their freedom ticking as loud as it seems to do here--to keep an eye on the
fleeting hour. |
Henry James, "The Ambassadors", Book Fifth, Chapter 2 |
British (US -born) author (1843 -
1916) |
| Thanks to his constant habit of
shaking the bottle in which life handed him the wine of experience, he presently found the taste of the lees rising as
usual into his draught. |
Henry James, "The Ambassadors", Book Fourth, Chapter 2 |
British (US -born) author (1843 -
1916) |
| Common sense and sense of humor are
the same thing moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. |
Clive Jones |
| I have always been impressed by the
fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal
number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| The chief lesson I have learned in a
long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is
to distrust him and show your distrust. |
Henry L. Stimson |
US politician (1867 - 1950) |
| It is better to be a lion for a day than a sheep for your whole life. |
Elizabeth Henry |
| Never let a stain from the past put a mark on your future. |
Jillian Graham, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul |
| The beauty of religious mania is
that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which
happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily
tossed out the window. |
Stephen King |
US horror novelist & screenwriter
(1947 - ) |
| Everyone dies. Not everyone really lives. |
William Wallace, Braveheart |
| Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off. |
Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods" (1992) |
| Be not simply good - be good for something. |
Henry David Thoreau |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| We are wise when we learn from one
another. We are strong when we contain our impulses. We are honored when we honor others. |
Rabbi Mark David Finkel, Gov. Craig Benson Inaugural Speech, January 9,
2003 |
| A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows. |
O. Henry, "A Ruler of Men." |
US short story author (1862 -
1910) |
| You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment
if you do not trust enough. |
Frank Crane |
| Life is sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating. |
O. Henry, "Gift of the Magi," 1906 |
US short story author (1862 -
1910) |
| I hope I never get so old I get religious. |
Ingmar Bergman |
| One should never direct people
towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the market-place. One should direct them towards mutual
affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human
beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement
they can aspire to. |
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn |
| The problem is not that there are
problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. |
Theodore Rubin |
| A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are
still thinking. |
Jerry Seinfeld |
US comedian & television actor
(1954 - ) |
| Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. |
Carl Sagan |
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996) |
| When I find myself in the company of
scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes. |
W. H. Auden |
US (English-born) critic & poet
(1907 - 1973) |
| Avarice, envy, pride,<br> Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts
of all<br> On Fire. |
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy |
Italian national epic poet (1265 -
1321) |
| Through me you pass into the city of
woe:<br> Through me you pass into eternal pain:<br> Through me among the people lost for aye.<br> Justice
the founder of my fabric moved:<br> To rear me was the task of power
divine,<br> Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.<br> Before me
things create were none, save things<br> Eternal, and eternal I shall
endure.<br> All hope abandon, ye who enter here.<br> |
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy |
Italian national epic poet (1265 -
1321) |
| No other job in the world could
possibly dispossess one so completely as this job of teaching. You could stand all day in a laundry, for instance, still
in possession of your mind. But this teaching utterly obliterates you. It
cuts right into your being: essentially, it takes over your spirit. It drags
it out from where it would hide. |
Sylvia Ashton-Warner, Spinster |
| To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie
too deep for tears. |
William Wordsworth, "Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood", 1803 |
English poet (1770 - 1850) |
| Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my
opinion, is safe. |
Edmund Burke |
Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797) |
| When in doubt, tell the truth. |
Mark Twain |
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) |
| The world is too much with us; late
and soon,<br> Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:<br> Little we see in Nature that is
ours;<br> We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! |
William Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us |
English poet (1770 - 1850) |
| Books are the legacies that a great
genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of
those who are yet unborn. |
Joseph Addison |
English essayist, poet, & politician
(1672 - 1719) |
| Education is a companion which no
misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend,
abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It
chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to
genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage. |
Joseph Addison |
English essayist, poet, & politician
(1672 - 1719) |
| Millions of men have lived to fight,
build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force
of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit. |
Ansel Adams |
US nature photographer (1902 -
1984) |
| The poor complain that they are governed badly. The rich complain that
they are governed at all. |
G. K. Chesterton |
English author & mystery novelist
(1874 - 1936) |
| It is one of the great secrets of life that those things which are most
worth doing, we do for others. |
Lewis Carroll |
English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898) |
| Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. |
Henry Ford |
US automobile industrialist (1863
- 1947) |
| We shall defend our island, whatever
the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields
and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. |
Sir Winston Churchill |
British politician (1874 - 1965) |
| The gods never let us love and be wise at the same time. |
Publilius Syrus |
(~100 BC) |
| Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them. |
David Reisman |
| You can judge the character of
others by how they treat those who can do nothing to them or for them. |
Malcolm Forbes |
US art collector, author, & publisher
(1919 - 1990) |
| Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all. |
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The autocrat of the breakfast-table |
| His honour rooted in dishonour stood,<br> And faith unfaithful kept
him falsely true. |
Lord Alfred Tennyson |
| It is the simple things in life that make living worthwhile - sweet
fundamental things such as love. |
Laura Ingalls Wilder |
| Wear a smile and have friends,<br> wear a scowl and have wrinkles. |
George Eliot |
English novelist (1819 - 1880) |
| Friendships that have stood the test of time and change are surely best. |
Joseph Parry |
| Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole
truth, or the only truth. |
Charles A. Dana |
US newspaper editor (1819 - 1897) |
| Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| I feel how little she can like being
told of her owing me anything. No woman ever enjoys such an obligation to another woman. |
Henry James, "The Ambassadors", Book Seventh, Chapter 2 |
British (US -born) author (1843 -
1916) |
| It struck him really that he had
never so lived with her as during this period of her silence; the silence was a sacred hush, a finer clearer medium, in which
her idiosyncrasies showed. |
Henry James, "The Ambassadors", Book Seventh, Chapter 3 |
British (US -born) author (1843 -
1916) |
| A little learning is a dangerous
thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers
us again. |
Alexander Pope, An essay on Criticism |
English poet & satirist (1688
- 1744) |
| Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. |
Martin Luther King Jr. |
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968) |
| Because the women are watching. |
T. E. Lawrence, ...when asked, Why do men go to war? |
| Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth. |
Archimedes, (ca. 235 BC) |
Greek inventor, mathematician, & physicist (287 BC - 212 BC) |
| Science knows no country, because
knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification
of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the
furthest the works of thought and intelligence. |
Louis Pasteur |
French biologist & bacteriologist
(1822 - 1895) |
| Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not
experience it. |
Max Frisch |
| It is said that power corrupts, but
actually itÆs more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. |
David Brin, on power and corruption |
US engineer and science fiction author
(1950 - ) |
| It was the most incredible thing
that has ever happened to me in my life. It was as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back
and hit you. |
Ernest Rutheford |
| Splitting the atom is like trying to
shoot a gnat in the Albert Hall at night and using ten million rounds of ammunition on the off chance of getting it. That
should convince you that the atom will always be a sink of energy and never a
reservoir of energy. |
Ernest Rutheford |
| "There are certainly
moments," said Chad, "when you seem to me too good to be true. Yet
if you are true," he added, "that seems
to be all that need concern me." |
Henry James, "The Ambassadors", Book Eleventh, Chapter 1 |
British (US -born) author (1843 -
1916) |
| Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. |
D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature |
English novelist (1885 - 1930) |
| She had fortunately always her
appetite for news. The pure flame of the disinterested burned in her cave of treasures as a lamp in a Byzantine vault. |
Henry James, "The Ambassadors", Book Ninth, Chapter 2 |
British (US -born) author (1843 -
1916) |
| At the bottom every man knows well
enough that he is a unique human being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a
marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put
together a second time. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| How to Raise your I.Q. by Eating Gifted Children |
Lewis B. Frumkes, Book Title (1983) |
| What is important is to keep
learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers. |
Martina Horner, President of Radcliffe College |
| A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can not expect an
apostle to peer out. |
George Christoph Lichtenberg |
| Conformity is the ruin of the mind. |
Jesse Shelley |
| He had the entertainment of thinking
that if he had for that moment stopped the clock it was to promote the next minute this still livelier motion. |
Henry James, "The Ambassadors", Book Eighth, Chapter 2 |
British (US -born) author (1843 -
1916) |
| The best remedy for a bruised heart
is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical
activity, and sudden acquisition of wealth. |
Dorothy Sayers |
| Gold for friends,<br> Lead for foes. |
Anastasio Somoza Garcφa, Dictator of Nicaragua 1936-1956 |
| One day the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful. |
Sigmond Freud |
| Morality is the greatest of all tools for leading mankind by the nose. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back. |
Henny Youngman |
US (English-born) comedian (1906 -
1998) |
| I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no
holidays. |
Henny Youngman |
US (English-born) comedian (1906 -
1998) |
| If we were to wake up some morning
and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon. |
George Aiken |
| The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. |
Richard Bach |
| The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be. |
Walter Bagehot |
English economist & journalist
(1826 - 1877) |
| It is necessary to work, if not from
inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself. |
Charles Baudelaire |
French poet (1821 - 1867) |
| Use harms and even destroys beauty. The noblest function of an object is
to be contemplated. |
Miguel de Unamuno |
(1864 - 1936) |
| Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread
which is not there. |
E. H. Gombrich |
(1909 - ) |
| As I was walking among the fires of
Hell, <br> delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; <br> which to Angels look like torment and insanity. <br> I
collected some of their Proverbs. |
William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", 1790 |
English engraver, illustrator, & poet
(1757 - 1827) |
| There is no slavery but ignorance. |
Robert Ingersoll, The Philosophy of Ingersoll (1906),
"Fragments" |
US agnostic, agnostic apologist, lawyer, & orator (1833 - 1899) |
| There are many ways of breaking a
heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream - whatever
that dream might be. |
Pearl Buck |
US novelist in China (1892 - 1973) |
| To live without killing is a thought
which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in. |
Henry Miller, The Henry Miller Reader (1959), "Reunion in
Brooklyn" |
US author (1891 - 1980) |
| Such is the common process of
marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances,
reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to
divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they
are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They
marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before
concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with
cruelty. |
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas |
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784) |
| There is no observation more
frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate
of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of
misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to
express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or
caution hath withheld from it. |
Samuel Johnson, Rambler #18 |
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784) |
| We are certainly getting ahead; if I
am Moses, then you are Joshua and will take possession of the promised land of psychiatry, which I shall only be
able to glimpse from afar. |
Sigmund Freud, Letter to Carl Jung, January 17, 1909 |
Austrian psychologist (1856 -
1939) |
| The instinct of nearly all societies
is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison
you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head. |
Jean Cocteau, Journey to Freedom (1969) |
French dramatist, director, & poet
(1889 - 1963) |
| To resist the frigidity of old age
one must combine the body, the mind and the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and
love. |
Karl von Bonstetten |
| In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. |
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Speech, September 22, 1936 |
32nd president of US (1882 - 1945) |
| ...it is a base thing to look to
others for your defense instead of depending upon yourself. That defense alone is effectual, sure, and durable which depends
upon yourself and your own valor. |
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince |
Italian dramatist, historian, & philosopher (1469 - 1527) |
| So many of our dreams at first seem
impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. |
Christopher Reeve, From speech at Democratic National Convention, August
1996 |
| Assassins! |
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), To his orchestra |
| Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the worst poverty of all. |
Mother Teresa |
Indian humanitarian & missionary
(1910 - 1997) |
| We all take different paths in life,
but no matter where we go, we all take a little of each other everywhere. |
Tim McGraw |
| There is only one thing that can kill the Movies, and that is education. |
Will Rogers, Autobiography (1949) chapter 6 |
US humorist & showman (1879 -
1935) |
| Well, all I know is what I read in the papers. |
Will Rogers, New York Times, Sept 30 1923 |
US humorist & showman (1879 -
1935) |
| First of all, let me assert my firm
belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed
efforts to convert retreat into advance. |
Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1933 |
32nd president of US (1882 - 1945) |
| Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date
which will live on in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air
forces of the Empire of Japan. |
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress, Dec. 8, 1941 |
32nd president of US (1882 - 1945) |
| Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children. |
George Bernard Shaw |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the
fact. |
Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 1 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| One should as a rule respect public
opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is
voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere
with happiness in all kinds of ways. |
Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 9 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to
true happiness. |
Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 12 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| The fact that an opinion has been
widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of
mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. |
Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 5 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three
parts dead. |
Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 19 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| Mathematics may be defined as the
subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true. |
Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic (1917) ch. 4 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| It is undesirable to believe a
proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true. |
Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "On the Value of
Scepticism" |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| Every man, wherever he goes, is
encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day. |
Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Dreams and Facts" |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| We have, in fact, two kinds of
morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach. |
Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Eastern and Western
Ideals of Happiness" |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| Man is a credulous animal, and must
believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. |
Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual
Rubbish" |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is
ever inhibited by ignorance. |
Harold Macmillan, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 13, 1963 |
(1894 - 1986) |
| The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread. |
Blaise Pascal |
French mathematician, physicist
(1623 - 1662) |
| There is a concept which corrupts
and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite. |
Jorge Luis Borges |
Argentine novelist & poet
(1899 - 1986) |
| When you have once seen the glow of
happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on
the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that
within me there lay an invincible summer. |
Albert Camus |
French existentialist author & philosopher (1913 - 1960) |
| Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not
gold. |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
German Romantic composer (1770 -
1827) |
| America guarantees equal opportunity, not equal outcome. |
Rush Limbaugh |
| If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be
dead. |
Johnny Carson |
US comedian & television host
(1925 - 2005) |
| The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after
the revolution. |
Hannah Arendt |
US (German-born) historian & social philosopher (1906 - 1975) |
| Happiness is the only sanction of
life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment. |
George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905) vol. 1, ch. 10 |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| Music is essentially useless, as
life is: but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions. |
George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905) vol. 4, ch. 4 |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| All great truths begin as blasphemies. |
George Bernard Shaw, Annajanska (1919) |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn. |
George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921) pt. 5 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| He who has never hoped can never despair. |
George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra (1901) act 4 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| The golden rule is that there are no golden rules. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for
Revolutionists" |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Beware of the man whose God is in the skies. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for
Revolutionists" |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| The fickleness of the women I love
is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me. |
George Bernard Shaw, The Philanderer (1898) act 2 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Myself" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| Indeed, I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever. |
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia - denouncing the evils
of slavery |
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826) |
| If our greatest need had been
information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But
since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior. |
Max Lucado |
| Be not slow to visit the sick. |
Ecclesiastes |
| A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever. |
Martin Tupper, English writer 1810-1889 |
| If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his
inferiors, not his equals. |
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
British fantasy author |
| In the United States there is more
space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is. |
Gertrude Stein, The Geographical History of America (1936) |
US author in France (1874 - 1946) |
| A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. |
Gloria Steinem, (attributed) |
US feminist (1934 - ) |
| Mathematics is the queen of the sciences. |
Carl Friedrich Gauss, from Sartorius von Waltershausen, "Gauss zum
Gedachtniss" [1856] |
German mathematician, physicist, & prodigy (1777 - 1855) |
| There is a homely old adage which
runs: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and
keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the
Monroe Doctrine will go far. |
Theodore Roosevelt, Speech in Chicago, 3 Apr. 1903 |
26th president of US (1858 - 1919) |
| Character cannot be developed in
ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and
success achieved. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| The best and most beautiful things
in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. |
Helen Keller, The Open Door (1957) |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| People do not like to think. If one
thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. |
Confucius |
Chinese philosopher & reformer
(551 BC - 479 BC) |
| When one door of happiness closes,
another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| People grow through experience if
they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built. |
Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the
fireside and simply look on. |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| Life was meant to be lived, and
curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she
gets in hot water. |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| We do on stage things that are
supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else. |
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967) |
British dramatist & screenwriter
(1937 - ) |
| Discretion is not the better part of biography. |
Lytton Strachey, in Michael Holroyd Lytton, Strachey vol. 1 (1967) |
English biographer (1880 - 1932) |
| I have learned throughout my life as
a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and
knowledge. |
Igor Stravinsky |
Russian composer in US (1882 -
1971) |
| The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the
wise forgive but do not forget. |
Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin (1973) "Personal Conduct" |
| There are two things that will be
believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink. |
Booth Tarkington, Penrod (1914) |
US novelist (1869 - 1946) |
| I am a deeply superficial person. |
Andy Warhol |
US artist (1928 - 1987) |
| Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very
far. |
Thomas Jefferson |
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826) |
| I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end. |
Margaret Thatcher, in Observer April 4, 1989 |
British politician (1925 - ) |
| Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man. |
Leon Trotsky, Diary in Exile (1959) |
Russian Soviet politician & Communist revolutionary (1879 - 1940) |
| All the President is, is a glorified
public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed
to do anyway. |
Harry S Truman, Letter to his sister, Nov. 14, 1947 |
33rd president of US (1884 - 1972) |
| Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man
looked honest enough. |
Mark Twain |
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) |
| It takes your enemy and your friend,
working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you. |
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897) |
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) |
| What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had
said it before. |
Mark Twain, Notebooks (1935) |
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) |
| Human beings are perhaps never more
frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. |
Laurens Van der Post, The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958) |
| Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast. |
Harry S Truman |
33rd president of US (1884 - 1972) |
| Conspicuous consumption of valuable
goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure. |
Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) |
US economist & social philosopher
(1857 - 1929) |
| In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. |
Andy Warhol |
US artist (1928 - 1987) |
| Whatever women do they must do twice
as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult. |
Charlotte Whitton, Canada Month, June 1963 |
| No one travelling on a business trip would be missed if he failed to
arrive. |
Thorstein Veblen |
US economist & social philosopher
(1857 - 1929) |
| Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out
on the joke of the century. |
Dame Edna Everage, In a television interview with Joan Rivers |
Australian Comedian (character of Barry Humphries) (1934 -
) |
| When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place. |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist (1749 - 1832) |
| Of all forms of tyranny the least
attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy. |
Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, an autobiography |
26th president of US (1858 - 1919) |
| Take death for example. A great deal
of our effort goes into avoiding it. We make extraordinary efforts to delay it, and often consider its intrusion a
tragic event. Yet weÆd find it hard to live without it. Death gives meaning
to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become
meaningless if there were too much of it. |
Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence |
| In my many years I have come to a
conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress. |
John Adams |
US diplomat & politician (1735
- 1826) |
| Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief
by poor dress. |
George Eliot, "Middlemarch", Book I, ch.1 |
English novelist (1819 - 1880) |
| I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to
cross the street. |
Virginia Woolf, The Waves (1931) |
English novelist (1882 - 1941) |
| The fog comes<br> on little
cat feet.<br> It sits looking<br> over harbor and city<br>
on silent haunches<br> and then moves on. |
Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems (1916) "Fog" |
US biographer & poet (1878 -
1967) |
| I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes. |
Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers (1918) "Prairie" |
US biographer & poet (1878 -
1967) |
| Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and
goes to work. |
Carl Sandburg, New York Times Feb. 13, 1959 |
US biographer & poet (1878 -
1967) |
| An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world. |
George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905) vol. 4, ch. 3 |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| Nothing is really so poor and melancholy as art that is interested in
itself and not in its subject. |
George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905) vol. 4, ch. 8 |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| When you strike at a king, you must kill him. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have
loved it. |
George Santayana, Little Essays (1920) "Ideal Immortality" |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| For an idea ever to be fashionable is ominous, since it must afterwards
be always old-fashioned. |
George Santayana, Winds of Doctrine (1913) ch. 2 |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| Intolerance itself is a form of egoism, and to condemn egoism
intolerantly is to share it. |
George Santayana, Winds of Doctrine (1913) ch. 4 |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend. |
John Singer Sargent, quoted in Bentley and Esar, Treasury of Humorous
Quotations (1951) |
US (Italian-born) portrait painter
(1856 - 1925) |
| A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an
institution. |
Jean-Paul Sartre, Upon refusing the Nobel Prize, Oct. 22, 1964 |
French author & existentialist philosopher (1905 - 1980) |
| Existence precedes and rules essence. |
Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943) |
French author & existentialist philosopher (1905 - 1980) |
| Hell is other people. |
Jean-Paul Sartre, Closed Doors (1944) |
French author & existentialist philosopher (1905 - 1980) |
| The notes I handle no better than
many pianists. But the pauses between the notes--ah, that is where the art resides! |
Arthur Schnabel, in Chicago Daily News, June 11 1958 |
Austrian composer & pianist
(1882 - 1951) |
| When I am asked, "What do you
think of our audience?" I answer, "I know two kinds of audiences only--one coughing, and one not coughing." |
Arthur Schnabel, My Life and Music (1961) |
Austrian composer & pianist
(1882 - 1951) |
| Ah! the clock is always slow;<br> It is later than you think. |
Robert Service, Ballads of a Bohemian (1921) |
Canadian poet (1874 - 1958) |
| I never resist temptation because I have found that things that are bad
for me do not tempt me. |
George Bernard Shaw, The Apple Cart (1930) |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| We have no more right to consume
happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. |
George Bernard Shaw, Candida (1898) act 1 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Do you think that the things people
make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? They are more
true: they are the only things that are true. |
George Bernard Shaw, Candida (1898) act 1 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| I am a Millionaire. That is my religion. |
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (1907) act 2 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Alcohol is a very necessary
article... It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables
Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at
eleven in the morning. |
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (1907) act 2 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly
to a political career. |
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (1907) act 3 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| There is no love sincerer than the love of food. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) act 1 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) act 3 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) act 3 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Every man over forty is a scoundrel. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for
Revolutionists" |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Youth, which is forgiven everything,
forgives itself nothing: age, which
forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for
Revolutionists" |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you
get. |
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for
Revolutionists" |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it. |
George Bernard Shaw, Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898) |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| It is impossible for an Englishman
to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him. |
George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion (1916) preface |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master. |
Demosthenes |
Greek orator & politician in Athens
(384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Assassination is the extreme form of censorship. |
George Bernard Shaw, Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1911) "Limits to
Toleration" |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| "Do you know what a pessimist
is?" "A man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it." |
George Bernard Shaw, An Unsocial Socialist (1887) ch. 5 |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Goodbye cruel world. |
Gloria Shayne, Title of song (1961) |
| There are two things to aim at in
life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Life and Human
Nature" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| How many of our daydreams would
darken into nightmares if there seemed any danger of their coming true! |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Life and Human
Nature" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no
avail. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Life and Human
Nature" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| Most people sell their souls, and live with a good conscience on the
proceeds. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Other People" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| All Reformers, however strict their
social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Other People" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| When they come downstairs from their
Ivory Towers, Idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Other People" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| The art of war is simple enough.
Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving. |
Ulysses S. Grant |
US general & politician (1822
- 1885) |
| To suppose, as we all suppose, that
we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely
sober. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "In the World" |
(1865 - 1946) |
| The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves. |
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) "Art and Letters" |
(1865 - 1946) |
