Search results for tag #quotes
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He did not smile, as we have already said, but he used to laugh; sometimes, indeed frequently, a bitter laugh. There is consent in a smile, while a laugh is often a refusal.
[Il ne souriait pas, nous l’avons dit, mais il riait; parfois, fréquemment même; d’un rire amer. Il y a du consentement dans le sourire, tandis que le rire est souvent un refus.]
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French writer, journalist, human rights activist, politician
The Man Who Laughs [L’Homme qui rit; The Laughing Man; By Order of the King], Part 1, Book 0, ch. 1, sec. 4 (1.0.1.4) (1869) [tr. Unknown, Authorized (1871)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/85160/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #themanwholaughs #misanthrope #anger #acceptance #bitterness #consent #laughter #refusal #rejection #smile #smiling
The recklessness of their ways destroyed them all.
[Αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο.]
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 1, l. 7ff (1.7) (c. 700 BC) [tr. Fagles (1996)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/homer/46491/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #homer #odyssey #consequence #death #destruction #divinejudgment #folly #incaution #punishment #recklessness
BOB: I think success has no rules, but you can learn a great deal from failure.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Mary, Mary, Act 1 (1961)
More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/85156/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jeankerr #marymary #failure #learning #losing #recovery #success #winning
DEMEA: No one has ever plotted out his life’s plan so successfully that he never faces
New challenges and discoveries brought about by circumstances, the passing of time,
Or experience itself. Inevitably, you discover you don’t know what you thought you did,
And the principles we first formed don’t hold up in the face of everyday practice.
[Nunquam ita quisquam bene subducta ratione ad vitam fuit
Quia res, Ætas usus semper aliquid apportet novi
Aliquid moneat, ut illa, quæ te scire credas, nescias
Et, quæ tibi putaris prima, in experiundo ut repudies.]
Terence (186?-159 BC) African-Roman dramatist [Publius Terentius Afer]
Adelphoe [Adelphoi; Adelphi; The Brothers], Act 5, sc. 4, l. 855ff (160 BC) [tr. Christenson (2010), Sc. 22]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/terence/85152/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #terence #challenge #challenges #change #changeofmind #circumstance #conduct #control #experience #growingup #ignorance #illumination #maturity #passageoftime #presuppositions #principles #reallife #realitycheck #theories #theory
And should I fail, my courage brings its commendation:
greatness aimed at is enough.
[Quod si deficiant vires, audacia certe
Laus erit: in magnis et voluisse sat est.]
Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 2, Elegy 10, l. 5ff (2.10.5-6) [tr. Holcombe (2009)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/propertius/3221/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #propertius #writing #aspiration #attempt #audacity #boldness #courage #daring #determination #endeavor #enterprise #failure #fallingshort #goal #honor #intention #praise #praiseworthiness #striving #will
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech (1953-04-16), “The Chance for Peace,” American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, DC
More about this quote: wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/56…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eisenhower #dwighteisenhower #budget #cost #defense #loss #nationaldefense #needy #priorities #spending #threat #tradeoff #war #waste #wastedeffort #weaponry
VIOLA: Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we!
For such as we are made of, such we be.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 31ff (2.2.31-32) (1601)
More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #twelfthnight #fickleness #frailty #humannature #inconstancy #women
Infidels are intellectual discoverers. They sail the unknown seas and find new isles and continents in the infinite realms of thought.
An Infidel is one who has found a new fact, who has an idea of his own, and who in the mental sky has seen another star.
He is an intellectual capitalist, and for that reason excites the envy and hatred of the theological pauper.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #ingersoll #discoverer #discovery #facts #freethinker #infidel #intellect #knowledge #science
A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
I profoundly believe that there is on this horizon, as yet only dimly perceived, a new dawn of conscience. In that purer light, people will come to see themselves in each other, which is to say they will make themselves known to one another by their similarities rather than by their differences. Man’s knowledge of things will begin to be matched by man’s knowledge of self. The significance of a smaller world will be measured not in terms of military advantage, but in terms of advantage for the human community. It will be the triumph of the heartbeat over the drumbeat.
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-10-24), “The United Nations: Our Hope and Commitment,” United Nations Day Radio Broadcast, Springfield, Illinois
More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #adlaistevenson #aspiration #community #dream #foreignrelations #future #hope #humanity #internationalrelations #progress #selfknowledge #similarities #smallworld #utopia #worldpeace
A quotation from Elizabeth Bear
Age had not yet defeated her on all fronts, though it was a war of attrition she knew she was fated to lose.
Elizabeth Bear (b. 1971) American author [pseud. for Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky]
Bone and Jewel Creatures, ch. 3 (2010)
More about this quote: wist.info/bear-elizabeth/85135…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #elizabethbear #age #gettingold #growingold #humancondition #mortality #oldage
Well, I liked the king, and as king I respected him — respected the office; at least respected it as much as I was capable of respecting any unearned supremacy; but as MEN I looked down upon him and his nobles — privately. And he and they liked me, and respected my office; but as an animal, without birth or sham title, they looked down upon me — and were not particularly private about it, either. I didn’t charge for my opinion about them, and they didn’t charge for their opinion about me: the account was square, the books balanced, everybody was satisfied.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Part 3 “The Tale of the Lost Land,” ch. 8 “The Boss”
More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/85133/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #twain #marktwain #connecticutyankee #aristocracy #coexistence #commoner #disrespect #office #respect #aristocrat #commonpeople
A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
The Amateur Immigrant, ch. 4 “Steerage Types (1895)
More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #fault #flaw #resolution #runningaway #selfimprovement #vice #weakness
To go on with my advice (that is, supposing
You need advice from me): Be careful about
The things you say and the people to whom you say them.
Avoid the man who asks too many questions.
No question but he’ll be a teller of tales;
An ear that eager can’t keep a secret for long,
And once a word slips out it won’t come back.
[Protinus ut moneam (si quid monitoris eges tu)
quid de quoque viro et cui dicas, saepe videto,
percontatorem fugito: nam garrulus idem est,
nec retinent patulae commissa fideliter aures,
et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum.]
Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 18 “To Lollius,” l. 67ff (1.18.67-71) (20 BC) [tr. Ferry (2001)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/20802/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #caution #circumspection #confidence #confidentiality #discretion #gossip #hearsay #informer #prattle #prudence #secrecy #secret #tattle #trustworthiness
To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-03-22), “In Front of Your Nose,” “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper
More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/5099/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #attention #awareness #obliviousness #obvious #payattention #unawareness
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
(Spurious)
More about this misquote: wist.info/voltaire/34462/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #voltaire #defense #freepress #freespeech #freedomofexpression #freedomofspeech #freedomofthepress #integrity #principle #selfsacrifice
A quotation from Theodore Roosevelt
My duty was to stand with every one while he was right, and to stand against him when he went wrong; and this I have tried to do as regards individuals and as regards groups of individuals. When a business man or labor leader, politician or reformer, is right, I support him; when he goes wrong, I leave him.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/8…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #theodoreroosevelt #teddyroosevelt #duty #integrity #loyalty #obligation #partisanship #political #politics #rightandwrong
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🤗🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🌐🩷🤗[*THE LATER QUOTES WERE By“SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI”!*ABOUT HELPING GOD’S BELOVED ANIMALS JUST AS WE SHOULD CARE!*& LOVE OUR BROTHERS!*& SISTERS!*(& I HOPE YOU WERE ENLIGHTENED!*& ENJOYED THEM!)*& I “LISA” PERSONALLY REMEMBER READING ABOUT “GOD” SAYING LISTEN TO THE ANIMALS!*& THEY WILL TELL YOU THINGS!*AMEN!]†👉
#Quotes #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #World #Kindness #Caring #Gentleness #Love #Lords #Animals #Listen #For #They #Will #Tell #You #Things
🤗☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🌞🌞💜🐩🪿🐦🐦⬛🦜🦢🕊️🐧🌐🩷🤗[*DEAR BELOVED FRIENDS THE LATER QUOTES WERE By~*“SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI”!*ABOUT HELPING GOD’S BELOVED CREATURES/ANIMALS👉
#Quotes #SAINT #FRANCIS #OF #ASSISI #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #World #Christian #Heaven #Hope #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Hospitality #Gentleness #Understanding #Unity #Love #One #Another #The #Lords #Precious #Creatures #Environment #Animals #Listen #And #Learn #For #They #Will #Tell #You #Things
🤗☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🦭🐓🐠🐟🐬🫧🦨🦡🫶🌐🩷🤗(QUOTE ”SAINT FRANCIS”)*[Holy obedience of one's brother!*& SISTER!*& makes a PERSON subject not JUST to men!*& WOMEN alone!*but also to all beasts!*& wild animals!*so that they may do with him whatsoever they will!*in so far as it may be granted to them from above by the Lord!]👉
#Quotes #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Christian #Faith #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Hospitality #Gentleness #Understanding #Love #Lords #Creatures #Environment
🤗☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🦪🪼🩷🐈🐈⬛🐆🐯🦁🌐🩷🤗(”SAINT FRANCIS”)*[Holy obedience confounds all bodily!*& fleshly desires!*& keeps the body mortified to the obedience of the spirit!*& to the obedience of one's brother!*& SISTER!*& makes a PERSON subject to all the men*& WOMEN of this world!]👉
#Quotes #SAINT #FRANCIS #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Christian #Heaven #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Hospitality #Gentleness #Understanding #Unity #Love #Lords #Creatures #Environment
🤗☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🦨🦡🌞🫶💜🐩🐨🪿🌐🩷🤗(QUOTE ”SAINT FRANCIS”)*[God wants us to help animals!*if they need help!*Every creature in distress has the same right to be protected!]👉
#Quotes #SAINT #FRANCIS #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Savior #Light #World #Pray #Believe #Christian #Heaven #Hope #Peace #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Hospitality #Gentleness #Love #Lords #Precious #Creatures #Environment #Animals #Listen #And #Learn #For #They #Will #Tell #You #Things
🤗☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🌐🩷🐠🐟🐬🫧🤗(QUOTE ”SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI”)*God requires that we assist the animals!*when they need our help!*Each being (human!*or creature) has the same right of protection!👉
#Quotes #SAINT #FRANCIS #OF #ASSISI #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Savior #Light #World #Pray #Believe #Christian #Heaven #Hope #Peace #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Hospitality #Gentleness #Understanding #Love #Lords #Creatures #Environment #Animals #Listen #And #Learn
🤗☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️ 🐈🐈⬛🐆🐯🦁🦭🐓🌏🌐🩷🤗(QUOTES FROM”SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI”)*[If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion!*& pity!*you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men!]👉
#Quotes #SAINT #FRANCIS #OF #ASSISI #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #World #Pray #Believe #Christian #Heaven #Hope #Peace #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Hospitality #Gentleness #Love #Lords #Creatures #Environment #Animals #Listen
☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🌐🩷💁♀️*DEAR BELOVED FRIENDS THE FOLLOWING IS A SPECIAL SHARE OF QUOTES FROM “SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI” ABOUT OUR RESPONSIBILITIES OF CARING!*ASSISTING!*& HELPING GOD’S BELOVED CREATURES/ANIMALS JUST AS WE SHOULD CARE!*& LOVE OUR BROTHERS!*& SISTERS!👉
#Quotes #SAINT #FRANCIS #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Savior #Light #World #Pray #Believe #Hope #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Gentleness #Understanding #Love #Lords #Creatures #Environment #Animals
☁️🌈☁️🪿🐇🫏🦉🦙🦬🐣🦓🐩🐕🦝🐪🦒🐄🐂🐕🦺🦘🦨🐨🫂💒🛐🤠❤️🔥🏩🕊️💦👑✝️🌏🌐🩷💁♀️*DEAR BELOVED FRIENDS ACROSS THE WORLD THE FOLLOWING IS A SPECIAL SHARE OF QUOTES FROM “SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI”👉
#Quotes #By #SAINT #FRANCIS #OF #ASSISI #God #Devotional #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Savior #Light #World #Pray #Christian #Heaven #Hope #Peace #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Caring #Hospitality #Gentleness #Understanding #Love #One #Another #The #Lords #Precious #Creatures #Environment #Animals #Listen #Learn
🐦🐦⬛🦜🦢🕊️🐧🦅🐠🐟🐬🦪🪼🫧🦩🩷🌏🌐🫶💛💁♀️*DEAR BELOVED FRIENDS TODAY’S FEEDING MY SPIRIT WITH GOOD!*& LOVING THINGS I FELT COMPELLED BY THE “HOLY SPIRIT” TO SHARE QUOTES FROM “SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI” ABOUT HOW WE SHOULD TREAT GOD’S CREATURES/BELOVED ANIMALS TO GAIN NEW WISDOM!*& POSITIVE LIVING HOPE!*AMEN!🙏👉
#Quotes #SAINT #FRANCIS #OF #ASSISI #God #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Savior #Light #World #Pray #Heaven #Hope #Peace #Faith #Truth #Kindness #Caring #Gentleness #Understanding #Love #Environment #Animals
🐦🐦⬛🦜🦢🕊️🐧🦅🐠🐟🐬🦪🪼🫧🦩🩷🌏🌐🫶💛💁♀️*DEAR BELOVED FRIENDS GOOD FRIDAY MORNING!🌞👉
#Quotes #By #SAINT #FRANCIS #OF #ASSISI #All #Scripture #Is #Breathed #Out #by #God #Friday #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Savior #Light #World #Pray #Believe #Christian #Heaven #Hope #Peace #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Hospitality #Gentleness #Understanding #Unity #Love #One #Another #Bible #Important #The #Lords #Precious #Creatures #Environment #Animals #Listen #And #Learn #For #They #Will #Tell #You #Things #Amen
🐦🐦⬛🦜🦢🕊️🐧🦅🐠🐟🐬🦪🪼🫧🦩🩷🌏🌐🫶💛💁♀️*DEAR BELOVED FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD GOOD FRIDAY MORNING!🌞👉
2 Timothy 3:10-17
#Quotes #By #SAINT #FRANCIS #OF #ASSISI #All #Scripture #Is #Breathed #Out #by #God #Friday #Devotional #Jesus #Christ #Holy #Spirit #Savior #Light #World #Pray #Believe #Christian #Heaven #Hope #Peace #Faith #Truth #Goodness #Kindness #Hospitality #Gentleness #Love #One #Another #The #Lords #Precious #Creatures #Environment #Animals #Listen #And #Learn #For #They #Will #Tell #You #Things #Amen
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A painting of a cute white mouse with an orange sun hat on sitting amongst beautiful colorful flowers and berries
“You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.”
“A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting.”
“You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to be right.”
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1891-08), “The Red-Headed League,” The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2
More about this quote: wist.info/doyle-arthur-conan/8…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #doyle #arthurconandoyle #sherlockholmes #sherlock #watson #redheadedleague #argument #coincidence #debate #doubt #facts #happenstance #imagination #oddness #reallife #reality #strangeness #unexpectedness #weirdness
A quotation from Kerry Greenwood
He yelled louder, because it is well known to English people that foreigners only pretend to speak those nasty foreign tongues but really understand English if it is shouted loudly enough.
Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher, Book 16, Murder in the Dark, ch. 4 [Sylvanus] (2006)
More about this quote: wist.info/greenwood-kerry/8511…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #kerrygreenwood #phrynefisher #missfishermurdermysteries #communication #foreignlanguage #foreigner #loudness #shouting #understanding #yelling
A quotation from Josh Billings
Mizery luvs company but iz allwuss jealous, — there never waz a man yet but what thought hiz lame back was a good deal lamer than hiz nabors.
[Misery loves company but is always jealous — there never was a man yet but what thought his lame back was a good deal more lame than his neighbor’s.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-07 “Dregs” (1877 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/85114/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joshbillings #back #company #injury #misery #pain #perspective #selfcenteredness #suffering
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 2, ch. 4, § 23 (2.4.23) (1951)
More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/8677/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #avarice #desire #focus #greed #lack #more #need #poor #poverty #rich #want #wealth
A quotation from Frederick Douglass
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/douglass-frederick/8…
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When the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea, the angels in heaven began to break forth in songs of jubilation, but the Holy One, blessed be He, silenced them: “My creatures are perishing — and ye are ready to sing!”
בִּקְּשׁוּ מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת לוֹמַר שִׁירָה, אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: מַעֲשֵׂה יָדַי טוֹבְעִין בַּיָּם, וְאַתֶּם אוֹמְרִים שִׁירָה
The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
Babylonian Talmud, Seder Moed, Megillah 10b.26 [Rosten (1972)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/talmud/4579/
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I don’t want to die, but I don’t worry about being dead.
[Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil æstimo.]
Epicharmus of Kos (c. 540 – c. 450 BC) Greek dramatist and philosopher
Fragment 230 K-A = B 11 DK [tr. Douglas (1985)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/epicharmus/85106/
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In Christmas feasting pray take care;
Let not your table be a Snare;
But with the Poor God’s Bounty share.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard Improved (1748 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/35…
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Alt...
In Christmas feasting pray take care; / Let not your table be a Snare; / But with the Poor God’s Bounty share. - Franklin
To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.
[Viele Worte machen, um wenige Gedanken mitzutheilen, ist überall das untrügliche Zeichen der Mittelmäßigkeit; das des eminenten Kopfes dagegen, viele Gedanken in wenige Worte zu schließen.]
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 23 “On Authorship and Style [Über Schriftstellerei und Stil],” § 283 (1851) [tr. Saunders (1890)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/schopenhauer-arthur/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #schopenhauer #arthurschopenhauer #communication #content #eloquence #genius #loquaciousness #mediocrity #pithiness #thought #wordiness #writing
A quotation from Bertrand Russell
I am sure that university life would be better, both intellectually and morally, if most university students had temporary childless marriages. This would afford a solution to the sexual urge neither restless nor surreptitious, neither mercenary nor casual, and of such a nature that it need not take up time which ought to be given to work.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Social Order [Education and the Modern World], ch. 9 “Sex in Education” (1932)
More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/850…
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Friends, soulwise, these are trying times. Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of our country, and it won’t help if you all cower in places like Madison and the Upper West Side, having hot fantods over the approach of fascism. To the barricades, team. And for Lord’s sake, don’t leave your sense of humor behind.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2005-03), “Use It or Lose It,” The Progressive, Vol. 69, No. 3
More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/85094/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #mollyivins #anxiety #barricades #citizenry #complaints #cowardice #cowing #difficulty #engagement #fantod #fascism #nation #patriotism #politicalaction #politicalmovement #politics #senseofhumor #trial
Old wine, and old friend, and old gold are beloved in all places.
[Vin vieux, amy vieux, Y or vieux sont amez en touts lieux.]
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian, writer, aphorist
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “Proverbs in French” (1659)
[compiler]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/howell-james/85085/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jameshowell #proverb #age #books #comfort #custom #enjoyment #familiarity #friend #maturity #money #needs #passageoftime #provisions #supplies #tradition #wine
JASON: O children, what a wicked mother she was to you!
MEDEA: They died from a disease they caught from their father.
JASON: I tell you it was not my hand that destroyed them.
MEDEA: But it was your insolence, and your virgin wedding.
JASON: And just for the sake of that you chose to kill them.
MEDEA: Is love so small a pain, do you think, for a woman?
[ἸΆΣΩΝ: ὦ τέκνα, μητρὸς ὡς κακῆς ἐκύρσατε.
ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: ὦ παῖδες, ὡς ὤλεσθε πατρῴᾳ νόσῳ.
ἸΆΣΩΝ: οὔτοι νιν ἡμὴ δεξιά γ᾽ ἀπώλεσεν.
ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: ἀλλ᾽ ὕβρις οἵ τε σοὶ νεοδμῆτες γάμοι.
ἸΆΣΩΝ: λέχους σφε κἠξίωσας οὕνεκα κτανεῖν;
ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: σμικρὸν γυναικὶ πῆμα τοῦτ᾽ εἶναι δοκεῖς;]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1363ff (431 BC) [tr. Warner (1944)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/85067/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #euripides #medea #accusation #argument #betrayal #blame #blamethevictim #desertion #father #injury #mother #perspective #selfjustification #suffering #women
A quotation from Abigail Adams
I long to hear that you have declared an independancy — and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter (1776-03-31) to John Adams
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-abigail/29421/
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned, there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
You Learn by Living, Foreword (1960)
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/33…
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Talk not much with a fool, and go not to him that hath no understanding: beware of him, lest thou have trouble, and thou shalt never be defiled with his fooleries: depart from him, and thou shalt find rest, and never be disquieted with madness.
[μετὰ ἄφρονος μὴ πληθύνῃς λόγον
καὶ πρὸς ἀσύνετον μὴ πορεύου·
φύλαξαι ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα μὴ κόπον ἔχῃς
καὶ οὐ μὴ μολυνθῇς ἐν τῷ ἐντιναγμῷ αὐτοῦ·
ἔκκλινον ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ εὑρήσεις ἀνάπαυσιν
καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀκηδιάσῃς ἐν τῇ ἀπονοίᾳ αὐτοῦ.]
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 22:13 (Sir 22:13) [tr. KJV (1611)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/bible-ot/85065/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bible #oldtestament #sirach #ecclesiasticus #apocrypha #avoidance #dolt #folly #fool #idiocy #idiot #stupidity
What was the crime? To complain. What was the crime? To suffer. Let misery hide and be silent, otherwise it is lèse-majesté.
[Quel était l’attentat? se plaindre. Quel était le crime? souffrir. Que la misère se cache et se taise, sinon elle est lèse-majesté.]
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French writer, journalist, human rights activist, politician
The Man Who Laughs [L’Homme qui rit; The Laughing Man; By Order of the King], Part 2, Book 9, ch. 2 (.2.9.2) (1869) [tr. Lavelle (2003)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/85062/
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Some of the words you’ll find within yourself,
the rest some power will inspire you to say.
You least of all — I know —
were born and reared without the gods’ good will.
[τὸν δ᾽ αὖτε προσέειπε θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη:
‘Τηλέμαχ᾽, ἄλλα μὲν αὐτὸς ἐνὶ φρεσὶ σῇσι νοήσεις,
ἄλλα δὲ καὶ δαίμων ὑποθήσεται: οὐ γὰρ ὀίω
οὔ σε θεῶν ἀέκητι γενέσθαι τε τραφέμεν τε.’]
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 3, l. 25ff (3.25) [Athena to Telemachus] (c. 700 BC) [tr. Fagles (1996)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/homer/46674/
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MARY: Being divorced is like being hit by a Mack truck. If you live through it, you start looking very carefully to the right and to the left.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Mary, Mary, Act 1 (1960)
More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/8721/
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A quotation from Richard Steele
A good name is fitly compared to a precious ointment, and when we are praised with skill and decency, it is indeed the most agreeable perfume: but if too strongly admitted into a brain of a less vigorous and happy texture, it will, like too strong and odour, overcome the senses, and prove pernicious to those nerves it was intended to refresh.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1711-12-03), The Spectator, No. 238
More about this quote: wist.info/steele-richard/85053…
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Yet loneliness shall weary thee, and still
Love torture thee with longings nought can fill.
Absence makes passion’s tide have double sway,
Possession cloys the love of every day.
[Nulla tamen lecto recipit se sola libenter:
Est quiddam, quod vos quaerere cogat Amor.
Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes:
Elevat assiduos copia longa viros.]
Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 2, Elegy 33, l. 41ff (2.33.41-44) [tr. Moore (1870); 3.25]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/propertius/6952/
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VIOLA: O Time, thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 40ff (2.2.40-41) (1601)
More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…
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A quotation from Herbert Hoover
You convey too great a compliment when you say that I have earned the right to the presidential nomination. No man can establish such an obligation upon any part of the American people. My country owes me no debt. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope. My whole life has taught me what America means. I am indebted to my country beyond any human power to repay.
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, US President (1929-33)
Letter (1928-06-14) to George Moses
More about this quote: wist.info/hoover-herbert/34175…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #herberthoover #humility #advancement #America #AmericanDream #bootstraps #entitlement #nomination #opportunity #presidency #ragstoriches #selfimprovement
A quotation from Terry Pratchett
They were engaged in religion. You could tell by the knives (it’s not murder if you do it for a god).
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 13, Small Gods (1992)
More about this quote: wist.info/pratchett-terry/8504…
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A quotation from La Rochefoucauld
We can forgive people who bore us, but never those whom we bore.
[Nous pardonnons souvent à ceux qui nous ennuient, mais nous ne pouvons pardonner à ceux que nous ennuyons.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶304 (1665-1678) [tr. Heard (1917), ¶311]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…
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A quotation from Samuel Johnson
There is nothing more dreadful to an author than neglect, compared with which reproach, hatred, and opposition are names of happiness; yet this worse, this meanest fate, every one who dares to write has reason to fear.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Source (1750-03-24), The Rambler, No. 2
More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/24197…
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The God of Hell should be held in loathing, contempt and scorn. A God who threatens eternal pain should be hated, not loved — cursed, not worshiped. A heaven presided over by such a God must be below the lowest hell. I want no part in any heaven in which the saved, the ransomed and redeemed will drown with shouts of joy the cries and sobs of hell — in which happiness will forget misery, where the tears of the lost only increase laughter and double bliss.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-20), “The New South,” Mosque Auditorium, Richmond, Virginia
More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…
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Inherited ideas are a curious thing, and interesting to observe and examine. I had mine, the king and his people had theirs. In both cases they flowed in ruts worn deep by time and habit, and the man who should have proposed to divert them by reason and argument would have had a long contract on his hands.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Part 3 “The Tale of the Lost Land,” ch. 8 “The Boss”
More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/85029/
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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
The correction of silence is what kills; when you know you have transgressed, and your friend says nothing and avoids your eye.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1882-08), “Talk and Talkers (A Sequel),” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 46
More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…
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The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time; the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against a solid reality, usually on a battlefield.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-03-22), “In Front of Your Nose,” “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper
More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/29647/
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RE: https://graeber.social/@DGI/116933283521036477
#Capitalism... It has always been #parasitical."
- David Graeber / @DGI [worth following for #Quotes]
https://mastodon.social/@DGI@graeber.social/116933283698533617
For indeed it is possible that a man may think well, and yet not be able to express his thoughts elegantly; but for any one to publish thoughts which he can neither arrange skillfully nor illustrate so as to entertain his reader, is an unpardonable abuse of letters and retirement: they, therefore, read their books to one another, and no one ever takes them up but those who wish to have the same license for careless writing allowed to themselves.
[Fieri autem potest, ut recte quis sentiat et id quod sentit polite eloqui non possit; sed mandare quemquam litteris cogitationes suas, qui eas nec disponere nec inlustrare possit nec delectatione aliqua allicere lectorem, hominis est intemperanter abutentis et otio et litteris. Itaque suos libros ipsi legunt cum suis, nec quisquam attingit praeter eos, qui eandem licentiam scribendi sibi permitti volunt.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 3 (1.3) / sec. 6 (1.6) (45 BC) [tr. Yonge (1853)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/cicero-marcus-tulliu…
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At length, after infinite effort, the two parties come into actual juxtaposition; and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word “Fire!” is given: and they blow the souls out of one another; and in place of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the Devil is, not the smallest! They lived far enough apart; were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a Universe, there was even, unconsciously, by Commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How then? Simpleton! their Governors had fallen-out; and, instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 8 (1834)
More about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/85019…
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THE DOCTOR: To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained.
LEELA: So explain to me how this “TARDIS” is larger on the inside than the out?
THE DOCTOR: Hmm? All right, I’ll show you. It’s because insides and outsides are not in the same dimension. [holds up two black cubes of different sizes] Which box is larger?
LEELA: [points to the larger of the two] That one.
THE DOCTOR: Alright. [places the larger cube on the console, walks over next to Leela, holds up the smaller one] Now, which is larger?
LEELA: [scoffs, points at the cube on the console] That one!
THE DOCTOR: But it looks smaller.
LEELA: Well, that’s because it’s further away!
THE DOCTOR: Exactly! If you could keep that exactly that distance away, and have it here, the large one would fit inside the small one.
LEELA: That’s silly.
THE DOCTOR: That’s trans-dimensional engineering: a key Time Lord discovery!
Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
14×05 “The Robots of Death,” Part 1 (1977-01-29) [w. Chris Boucher]
More about this quote: wist.info/doctor-who-1963/8501…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #doctorwho #fourthdoctor #leela #dimensions #doctorwho #explanation #perspective #science #size #TARDIS
A quotation from Josh Billings
Man kant make cirkumstanses, but he kan take them bi the horns, insted ov the tale.
[Man can’t make circumstances, but he can take them by the horns, instead of the tail.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-05 “Artikles Ov Faith” (1877 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/85012/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joshbillings #action #agency #circumstance #dragging #following #goingalong #reaction #reallife #reality #world
The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them to a promised land than because of their immediate feeling that he is leading them away from their unwanted selves. Surrender to a leader is not a means to an end but a fulfillment. Whither they are led is of secondary importance.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 94 (3.14.94) (1951)
More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/11209/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hoffer #erichoffer #frustration #follower #following #leader #massmovement
A quotation from Frederick Douglass
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength, than such arguments would imply.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/douglass-frederick/8…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #frederickdouglass #argument #brutality #debate #enslavement #injustice #obviousness #slave #slavery #wrong
Most Fools think they are only ignorant.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard Improved (1748 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/11…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #franklin #benfranklion #poorrichard #poorrichardsalmanac #badjudgment #dolt #folly #fool #goodjudgment #idiocy #ignorance #irrationality #judgment
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We read about “ask,” “seek,” “knock,” and the definite results. It sounds beautiful, easy, thus far. But there are always conditions. We all want results. And he wants us to have the results. That is why he tells us so plainly how to live so that our prayers will get and find and open. The prayer hinges on the life. The life hinges on obedience. Obedience hinges on a set purpose and his grace.”
Source: Devotional: July 16th - The Bent-Knee Time — www.studylight.org/daily-devotionals/eng/bkt.html
Me: Pretty much says it all. (All, that is, within a smaller set of subjects, of course.)
Things are neither so grievous nor so difficult in themselves, but our weakness and cowardice make them so.
[Les choses ne sont pas si douloureuses, ny difficiles d’elles mesmes: mais nostre foiblesse & lascheté les fait telles.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 14 (1.14), “The Taste of Good and Bad Things Depends Mostly on the Opinion We Have of Them [Que le goust des biens et des maux despend en bonne partie de l’opinion que nous en avons]” (1572) [tr. Ives (1925)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…
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A quotation from Salman Rushdie
At its most effective, the censor’s lie actually succeeds in replacing the artist’s truth. That which is censored is thought to have deserved censorship. Boat-rocking is deplored.
Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) Indian novelist
Speech (2012-05-06), Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, PEN World Voices Festival, New York City
More about this quote: wist.info/rushdie-salman/85000…
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Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
[Nunca se le ha de abrir la puerta al menor mal, que siempre vendrán tras él otros muchos, y mayores, en celada.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 31 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
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Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it. - Gracian
A quotation from Agatha Christie
A human being, Hastings, cannot resist the opportunity to reveal himself and express his personality which conversation gives him. Every time he will give himself away.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
The ABC Murders, ch. 21 [Poirot] (1936)
More about this quote: wist.info/christie-agatha/6949…
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A quotation from Bertrand Russell
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence; and in this respect ministers of religion follow gospel authority more closely than in some others. This must be reckoned as a serious defect in the ethics taught in Christian educational establishments.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Social Order [Education and the Modern World], ch. 8 “Religion in Education” (1932)
More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/849…
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As a now-forgotten Sunday-morning chatter announced in horror: “This could cause people to think that the rich can buy their way out of the justice system.”
No shit.
Been going to Texas prisons for a long time. Seen nobody rich on Death Row yet. You mean MONEY has something to do with justice in this country?
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2001-04), “Wake Me When We’re Equal,” The Progressive, Vol. 65, No. 4
More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/16299/
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Better tooth out then alwayes ake.
[Better tooth out than always ache.]
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian, writer, aphorist
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659)
[compiler]
More about this quote: wist.info/howell-james/84989/
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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
EPIDEMIC, n. A disease having a sociable turn and few prejudices.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Epidemic,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1883-04-28)
More about this quote: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/84987…
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A quotation from Hannah Arendt
The chief difference between the despotic and the totalitarian secret police lies in the difference between the “suspect” and the “objective enemy.” The latter is defined by the policy of the government and not by his own desire to overthrow it. He is never an individual whose dangerous thoughts must be provoked or whose past justifies suspicion, but a “carrier of tendences” like the carrier of a disease. Practically speaking, the totalitarian ruler proceeds like a man who persistently insults another man until everybody knows that the latter is his enemy, so that he can, with some plausibility, go and kill him in self-defense.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 12 “Totalitarianism in Power,” sec. 1 (1951)
More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/54483/
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MEDEA: Women, my task is fixed: as quickly as I may
To kill my children, and start away from this land,
And not, by wasting time, to suffer my children
To be slain by another hand less kindly to them.
Force every way will have it they must die, and since
This must be so, then I, their mother, shall kill them.
Oh, arm yourself in steel, my heart! Do not hang back
From doing this fearful and necessary wrong.
Oh, come, my hand, poor wretched hand, and take the sword,
Take it, step forward to this bitter starting point,
And do not be a coward, do not think of them,
How sweet they are, and how you are their mother. Just for
This one short day be forgetful of your children,
Afterward weep; for even though you will kill them,
They were very dear — Oh, I am an unhappy woman!
(With a cry she rushes into the house.)
[ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: φίλαι, δέδοκται τοὔργον ὡς τάχιστά μοι
παῖδας κτανούσῃ τῆσδ᾽ ἀφορμᾶσθαι χθονός,
καὶ μὴ σχολὴν ἄγουσαν ἐκδοῦναι τέκνα
ἄλλῃ φονεῦσαι δυσμενεστέρᾳ χερί.
πάντως σφ᾽ ἀνάγκη κατθανεῖν: ἐπεὶ δὲ χρή,
ἀλλ᾽ εἶ᾽ ὁπλίζου, καρδία: τί μέλλομεν
τὰ δεινὰ κἀναγκαῖα μὴ πράσσειν κακά;
ἄγ᾽, ὦ τάλαινα χεὶρ ἐμή, λαβὲ ξίφος,
λάβ᾽, ἕρπε πρὸς βαλβῖδα λυπηρὰν βίου,
καὶ μὴ κακισθῇς μηδ᾽ ἀναμνησθῇς τέκνων,
ὡς φίλταθ᾽, ὡς ἔτικτες, ἀλλὰ τήνδε γε
λαθοῦ βραχεῖαν ἡμέραν παίδων σέθεν
κἄπειτα θρήνει: καὶ γὰρ εἰ κτενεῖς σφ᾽, ὅμως
φίλοι γ᾽ ἔφυσαν: δυστυχὴς δ᾽ ἐγὼ γυνή.]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1236ff (431 BC) [tr. Warner (1944)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/84979/
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
To me who dreamed so much as a child, who made a dreamworld in which I was the heroine of an unending story, the lives of people around me continued to have a certain storybook quality. I learned something which has stood me in good stead many times — The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Memoir (1961), The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Preface
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/60…
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Do not envy the sinner his success;
you do not know how that will end.
[μὴ ζηλώσῃς δόξαν ἁμαρτωλοῦ·
οὐ γὰρ οἶδας τί ἔσται ἡ καταστροφὴ αὐτοῦ.]
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 9:11 (Sir 9:11) [tr. NJB (1985)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/bible-ot/84974/
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Soliloquy is the smoke exhaled by the inmost fires of the soul.
[Le monologue est la fumée des feux intérieurs de l’esprit.]
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French writer, journalist, human rights activist, politician
The Man Who Laughs [L’Homme qui rit; The Laughing Man; By Order of the King], Part 1, Book 2, ch. 4 (1.2.4) (1869) [tr. Unknown (1869)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/84972/
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Few match their fathers. Any tongue can tell
The more are worse: yea, almost none their sires excel.
[παῦροι γάρ τοι παῖδες ὁμοῖοι πατρὶ πέλονται,
οἱ πλέονες κακίους, παῦροι δέ τε πατρὸς ἀρείους.]
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 2, l. 276ff (2.276) [Athena to Telemachus] (c. 700 BC) [tr. Worsley (1861), st. 37]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/homer/49638/
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SYDNEY: You don’t seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help. I tell you there is no despair like the despair of the man who has everything.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Poor Richard, Act 1 (1965)
More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/30990/
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A quotation from Richard Steele
Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1711-12-03), The Spectator, No. 238
More about this quote: wist.info/steele-richard/21152…
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OLIVIA: What’s a drunken man like, Fool?
FOOL: Like a drowned man, a fool, and a madman. One
draught above heat makes him a fool, the second
mads him, and a third drowns him.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 128ff (1.5.128-131) (1601)
More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…
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"There are different kinds of curiosity: one springs from interest, which makes us desire to know everything that may be profitable to us; another from pride, which springs from a desire of knowing what others are ignorant of."
- La Rochefoucauld, Moral Maxim № 173 (1678)
If he's implying that the second kind is worse, then pub #trivia must not have been invented yet in 1678.
I want to know; AND I want to vanquish all challengers. Don't talk about my $25 gift card like it's some kind of vice.
#quote #quotes #quotation #larochefoucuald #pubtrivia #curiosity
A quotation from Robert Green Ingersoll
Is it necessary that Heaven should borrow its light from the glare of Hell?
Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, immortal meanness. To worship an eternal gaoler hardens, debases, and pollutes even the vilest soul. While there is one sad and breaking heart in the universe, no good being can be perfectly happy.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
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I like that this quote doesn't say whether it was herself, or the friend, who neglected the friendship until it was lost. Somebody wouldn't "cross the street." And that was as consequential as a death.
Text or call an old friend TODAY. You don't need to say anything special.
#loneliness #community #friendship #quotes #quote #quotation #virginiawoolf
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I have lost friends, some by death, others through sheer inability to cross the street.
Virginia Woolf, 1931
For the complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquility of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
The Summing Up, ch. 73 (1938)
More about this quote: wist.info/maugham-william-some…
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To be vested with enormous authority is a fine thing; but to have the onlooking world consent to it is a finer.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Part 3 “The Tale of the Lost Land,” ch. 8 “The Boss”
More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/39269/
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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
Marriage is one long conversation, chequered by disputes.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1882-08), “Talk and Talkers (A Sequel),” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 46
More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…
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Robert Louis Stevenson quote
There was a stag, once, who could always defeat a stallion
And drive him out of their pasture — until, tired of losing,
The horse begged help of man, and got a bridle in return.
He beat the stag, all right, and he laughed — but then the rider
Stayed on his back, and the bit stayed in his mouth.
Give up your freedom, more worried about poverty than something
Greater than any sum of gold, and become a slave and stay
A slave forever, unable to live on only enough.
[Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis
pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo
imploravit opes hominis frenumque recepit;
sed postquam victor violins discessit ab hoste,
non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore.
Sic qui pauperiem veritus potiore metallis
libertate caret, dominum vehet improbus atque
serviet aeternum, quia parvo nesciet uti.]
Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 10 “To Aristius Fuscus,” l. 34ff (1.10.34-41) (20 BC) [tr. Raffel (1983)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/80424/
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I suggest that the real objective of Socialism is not happiness. Happiness hitherto has been a by-product, and for all we know it may always remain so. The real objective of Socialism is human brotherhood. This is widely felt to be the case, though it is not usually said, or not said loudly enough. Men use up their lives in heart-breaking political struggles, or get themselves killed in civil wars, or tortured in the secret prisons of the Gestapo, not in order to establish some central-heated, air-conditioned, strip-lighted Paradise, but because they want a world in which human beings love one another instead of swindling and murdering one another. And they want that world as a first step. Where they go from there is not so certain, and the attempt to foresee it in detail merely confuses the issue.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1943-12-20), “Can Socialists Be Happy?” “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper [as John Freeman]
More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/47663/
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SARAH JANE: What’s gone wrong this time?
THE DOCTOR: Nothing. Nothing at all. What makes you think something’s gone wrong?
SARAH JANE: Because you always get rude when you’re trying to cover up a mistake.
THE DOCTOR: Nothing of consequence. Slight overshoot, easily rectified.
SARAH JANE: Come on, where are we?
THE DOCTOR: We’ve come out of the time vortex at the wrong point, that’s all. A few years too late.
SARAH JANE: How many?
THE DOCTOR: Thirty thousand.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
13×02 “Planet of Evil,” Part 1 (1975-09-27) [w. Louis Marks]
More about this quote: wist.info/doctor-who-1963/8493…
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“Sometimes the point isn’t to make people believe a lie; it’s to make people fear the liar.”
― Anne Applebaum
A quotation from Richard Feynman
It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil — which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
Interview (1959-05-01) by Bill Stout, Viewpoint, KNXT radio
More about this quote: wist.info/feynman-richard/5462…
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A quotation from Josh Billings
Life aint mutch more than a farce enny how, but it iz quite necessary that the play should go on, and the farce be well ackted.
[Life ain’t much more than a farce anyhow, but it is quite necessary that the play should go on, and the farce be well-acted.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-02 (1877 ed.
More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/84919/
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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) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 75 (3.14.75) (1951)
More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/11110/
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A quotation from Frederick Douglass
I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/douglass-frederick/8…
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MARCUS: But there are more disorders of the mind than of the body, and they are of a more dangerous nature.
[At et morbi perniciosiores pluresque sunt animi quam corporis; hi enim ipsi odiosi sunt.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 3, ch. 3 (3.3) / sec. 5 (3.5) (45 BC) [tr. Yonge (1853)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/cicero-marcus-tulliu…
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Cicero quote
He is not well-bred, that cannot bear Ill-Breeding in others.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard Improved (1748 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/32…
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But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink back from that frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric — and those who prefer that course should not cast their votes for me, regardless of party.
But I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age — to all who respond to the Scriptural call: “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”
For courage — not complacency — is our need today — leadership — not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech (1960-07-15), “The New Frontier,” Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles
More about this quote: wist.info/kennedy-john/25850/
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There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 1 “Economy” (1854)
More about this quote: wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/…
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It makes sense to say that those without a solid memory should not get in the habit of telling lies.
[Ce n’est pas sans raison qu’on dict, que qui ne se sent point assez ferme de memoire, ne se doit pas mesler d’estre menteur.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 9 (1.9), “Of Liars [Des Menteurs]” (1572) [tr. HyperEssays (2025)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…
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A quotation from Salman Rushdie
When censorship intrudes on art, it becomes the subject; the art becomes “censored art,” and that is how the world sees and understands it. The censor labels the work immoral, or blasphemous, or pornographic, or controversial, and those words are forever hung like albatrosses around the necks of those cursed mariners, the censored works. The attack on the work does more than define the work; in a sense, for the general public, it becomes the work.
Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) Indian novelist
Speech (2012-05-06), Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, PEN World Voices Festival, New York City
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Keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of; it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate.
Besides you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch.
[Llevar sus cosas con suspensión. La admiración de la novedad es estimación de los aciertos. El jugar a juego descubierto ni es de utilidad ni de gusto. El no declararse luego suspende, y más donde la sublimidad del empleo da objeto a la universal expectación; amaga misterio en todo, y con su misma arcanidad provoca la veneración. Aun en el darse a entender se ha de huir la llaneza, así como ni en el trato se ha de permitir el interior a todos. Es el recatado silencio sagrado de la cordura. La resolución declarada nunca fue estimada; antes se permite a la censura, y si saliere azar, será dos veces infeliz.
Imítese, pues, el proceder divino para hacer estar a la mira y al desvelo.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 3 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
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A quotation from Douglas Adams
I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1990) [with Mark Carwardine]
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-douglas/5406/
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Ultimately, the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or friendship, is conversation.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
Letter (1897-03) to Alfred Douglas, “Epistola: In Carcere et Vinculis”
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Oscar Wilde quote
A quotation from Bertrand Russell
Patriotism of the nationalistic type, so far from being taught in schools, ought to be mentioned as a form of mass-hysteria to which men are unfortunately liable, and against they need to be fortified both intellectually and morally. Nationalism is undoubtedly the most dangerous vice of our time.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Social Order [Education and the Modern World], ch. 10 “Patriotism in Education” (1932)
More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/848…
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It’s hard to convince people you are bombing that you’re doing it for their own good.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2001-12), “What Osama Bin Wants,” The Progressive, Vol. 65, No. 12
More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/16357/
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As I brew, so must I drink.
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659)
[compiler]
More about this quote: wist.info/howell-james/84888/
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Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Remark (1865-02) to Joshua Speed
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A writer should cultivate only what naturally absorbs his fancy, whether it be freedom or cinch bugs, and should write in the way that comes easy.
E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178
More about this quote: wist.info/white-eb/84883/
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A writer should cultivate only what naturally absorbs his fancy, whether it be freedom or cinch bugs, and should write in the way that comes easy.
E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178
More about this quote: wist.info/white-eb/84883/
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Insist on yourself; never imitate.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
More about this quote: wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/…
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Insist on yourself; never imitate. - Emerson
But what puzzles and disgusts the Utopians even more is the idiotic way some people have of practically worshipping a rich man, not because they owe him money or are otherwise in his power, but simply because he’s rich — although they know perfectly well that he’s far too mean to let a single penny come their way, so long as he’s alive to stop it.
[Caeterum multo magis eorum mirantur, ac detestantur insaniam qui diuitibus illis, quibus neque debent quicquam, neque sunt obnoxij, nullo alio respectu, quam quod diuites sunt, honores tantum non diuinos impendunt, idque cum eos tam sordidos atque auaros cognoscunt, ut habeant certo certius ex tanto nummorum cumulo, uiuentibus illis ne unum quidem nummulum unquam ad se uenturum.]
Thomas More (1478-1535) English lawyer, social philosopher, statesman, humanist, Christian martyr
Utopia, Book 2, ch. 6 “Of the Travelling of the Utopians” (1518 ed.) [tr. Turner (1965)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/more-thomas/84877/
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
HOBBES: If people could put rainbows in zoos, they’d do it.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1995-06-15)
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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
ENCOURAGE, v.t. To confirm a fool in a folly that is beginning to hurt him.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Encourage,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1883-03-10)
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Real power begins where secrecy begins.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 12 “Totalitarianism in Power,” sec. 1 (1951)
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MESSENGER: I have not now first learn’d that all
Th’ affairs of mortal men are a mere shadow:
Nor would I fear to say that those, who most
Boast of their wisdom and their deep research,
The widest in the paths of folly stray.
No mortal man is happy: if the tide
Of wealth flows in upon him, one may be
More fortunate than others, happy never.
[ἌΓΓΕΛΟΣ: τὰ θνητὰ δ᾽ οὐ νῦν πρῶτον ἡγοῦμαι σκιάν,
οὐδ᾽ ἂν τρέσας εἴποιμι τοὺς σοφοὺς βροτῶν
δοκοῦντας εἶναι καὶ μεριμνητὰς λόγων
τούτους μεγίστην μωρίαν ὀφλισκάνειν.
θνητῶν γὰρ οὐδείς ἐστιν εὐδαίμων ἀνήρ:
ὄλβου δ᾽ ἐπιρρυέντος εὐτυχέστερος
ἄλλου γένοιτ᾽ ἂν ἄλλος, εὐδαίμων δ᾽ ἂν οὔ.]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1224ff (431 BC) [tr. Potter (1814)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/84868/
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
It seems to me that America’s objective today should be to try to make herself the best possible mirror of democracy that she can. The people of the world can see what happens here. They watch us to see what we are going to do and how well we can do it. We are giving them the only possible picture of democracy that we can: the picture as it works in actual practice. This is the only way other peoples can see for themselves how it works; and can determine for themselves whether this thing is good in itself, whether it is better than they have, better than what other political and economic systems offer them.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Memoir (1961), The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Part 4, ch. 41 “Milestones”
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Don’t abandon old friends,
because newer ones are not their equals.
New friends are like new wine;
when wine ages,
you will drink it with good cheer.
[Μὴ ἐγκαταλίπῃς φίλον ἀρχαῖον,
ὁ γὰρ πρόσφατος οὐκ ἔστιν ἔφισος αὐτῷ·
οἶνος νέος φίλος νέος·
ἐὰν παλαιωθῇ, μετ᾽ εὐφροσύνης πίεσαι αὐτόν.]
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 9:10 (Sir 9:10) [tr. CEB (2011)]
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I had met with an Observation among regular Officers, that Mankind were naturally divided into three Sorts. One third of them are animated at the first appearance of danger, and will press forward to meet it and examine it; another third are allarmed at it: but will neither advance nor retreat, till they know the nature of it: but stand to meet it: the remaining third will run or fly upon the first thought of it.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Autobiography, Notes on Diary Entry for 1776-10-01 (1807)
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