Search results for tag #quotes
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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”
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/28…
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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)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/bible-ot/84860/
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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)
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/8389/
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The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful, and then only for a short while.
[Dem Streben, Weisheit und Macht zu vereinigen, war nur selten und nur auf kurze Zeit Erfolg beschieden.]
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 2, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]
More about this quote: wist.info/einstein-albert/8485…
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A quotation (not?) from Montesquieu
Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.
[Heureux le peuple dont l’histoire est ennuyeuse.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
(Attributed)
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/84855/
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A quotation from Henry Commager
The Bill of Rights was not written into the Constitution in order to protect governments from “trouble,” but so that the people might have a legitimate method of causing trouble to governments they no longer trusted.
Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Letter (1971-06-17) to the Editor, New York Times
More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…
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He questioned and answered himself; he glorified and insulted himself. One could hear him from the street monologuing in his hut. The passers-by, who have their own way of appreciating witty people, said: he is an idiot.
[Il s’interrogeait et se répondait ; il se glorifiait et s’insultait. On l’entendait de la rue monologuer dans sa cahute. Les passants, qui ont leur manière à eux d’apprécier les gens d’esprit, disaient : c’est un idiot.]
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, Preliminary, ch. 1 (1.0.1) (1869) [tr. Lavelle (2003)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/84851/
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O prince, in early youth divinely wise,
Born, the Ulysses of thy age to rise
If to the son the father’s worth descends,
O’er the wide wave success thy ways attends
To tread the walks of death he stood prepared;
And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.
[Τηλέμαχ᾽, οὐδ᾽ ὄπιθεν κακὸς ἔσσεαι οὐδ᾽ ἀνοήμων,
εἰ δή τοι σοῦ πατρὸς ἐνέστακται μένος ἠύ,
οἷος κεῖνος ἔην τελέσαι ἔργον τε ἔπος τε:
οὔ τοι ἔπειθ᾽ ἁλίη ὁδὸς ἔσσεται οὐδ᾽ ἀτέλεστος.]
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 2, l. 271ff (2.271-274) (c. 700 BC) [tr. Pope (1725)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/homer/49782/
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SYDNEY: A lot of writers drink. Some drink before they write and some drink after they write. The ones that concern me are the ones who drink instead of writing. Even though a number of people have tried, no on has yet found a way to drink for a living.
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/30921/
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A quotation from Richard Steele
It is a Secret known but to a few, yet of no small use in the Conduct of Life, that when you fall into a Man’s Conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater Inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1711-04-26), The Spectator, No. 49
More about this quote: wist.info/steele-richard/13504…
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There are ghosts after all, then; death is not the ending:
the soul, like smoke, escapes from the funeral flame.
[Sunt aliquid Manes: letum non omnia finit,
Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.]
Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 4, Elegy 7, l. 1ff (4.7.1-2) [tr. Carrier (1963)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/propertius/5756/
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FOOL: Good madonna, why mourn’st thou?
OLIVIA: Good Fool, for my brother’s death.
FOOL: I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLIVIA: I know his soul is in heaven, Fool.
FOOL: The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul, being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 64ff (1.5 64-70) (1601)
More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…
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A quotation from John Quincy Adams
I cannot ask of Heaven success, even for my Country, in a Cause where she should be in the wrong — Fiat Justitia, pereat Coelum — My toast would be, may our Country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
Letter (1816-08-01) to John Adams
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john-quincy/14…
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Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation — not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That is the true genius of America — a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles.
Barack Obama (b. 1961) American politician, US President (2009-2017)
Speech (2004-07-26) Keynote, Democratic National Convention, Boston
More about this quote: wist.info/obama-barack/27646/
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A quotation from Martin Luther King
If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation. All tyrants, past, present and future, are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations, no matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power and how malignant their evil.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech (1962-09-12), Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Address, New York City
More about this quote: wist.info/king-martin-luther/2…
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The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence can live only as long as they are enshrined in our hearts and minds. If they are not so enshrined, they would be no better than mummies in their glass cases, and they could in time become idols whose worship would be a grim mockery of the true faith. Only as these documents are reflected in the thoughts and acts of Americans can they remain symbols of a power that can move the world.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech (1952-12-15), National Archives
More about this quote: wist.info/truman-harry-s/63640…
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The doctrine of the Declaration of Independence, predicated upon the glory of man, and the corresponding duty of society, is that the rights of citizens are to be protected with every power and resource of the State, and a government that does any less is false to the teachings of that great document, of the name American.
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) American lawyer, politician, US President (1925-29)
Speech (1916-07-04), “At the Home of Daniel Webster”
More about this quote: wist.info/coolidge-calvin/2698…
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The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. — I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-07-03, p.m.) to Abigail Adams
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/6048/
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“The mind that is open for questions is open for dissent. In the totalitarian regime the doubting, inquisitive, and imaginative mind has to be suppressed. The totalitarian slave is only allowed to memorize, to salivate when the bell rings.”
― Joost A.M. Meerloo
It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland; but something in the Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1861-02-22), Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
More about this quote: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/2474…
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A quotation from Frederick Douglass
The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation’s history — the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Rochester, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/douglass-frederick/2…
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Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.” When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1854-08-24) to Joshua Speed
More about this quote: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/2555…
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A quotation from Benjamin Banneker
This Sir, was a time in which you clearly saw into the injustice of a State of Slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition, it was now Sir, that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publickly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remember’d in all Succeeding ages. “We hold these truths to be Self evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happyness.”
Here Sir, was a time in which your tender feelings for your selves had engaged you thus to declare, you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great valuation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings to which you were entitled by nature; but Sir how pitiable is it to reflect, that altho you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had conferred upon them, that you should at the Same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.
Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) American naturalist, surveyor, almanac author, mathematician
Letter (1791-08-19) to Thomas Jefferson
More about this quote: wist.info/banneker-benjamin/57…
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A quotation from Thomas Jefferson
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Document (1776-07-02), “Declaration of Independence”
More about this quote: wist.info/jefferson-thomas/220…
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A quotation from Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Document (1776-07-02), “Declaration of Independence”
More about this quote: wist.info/jefferson-thomas/200…
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A quotation from Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Document (1776-06), “Declaration of Independence” (original rough draft)
More about this quote: wist.info/jefferson-thomas/520…
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I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-07-03, p.m.) to Abigail Adams
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/5205/
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Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men. A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony “that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have full Power to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the other Acts and Things, which other States may rightfully do.” You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impell’d Us to this mighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it, in the Sight of God and Man. A Plan of Confederation will be taken up in a few days.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-07-03, a.m.) to Abigail Adams
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/78463/
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A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt
One of the worst features of the old spoils system was the ruthless cruelty and brutality it so often bred in the treatment of faithful public servants without political influence. Life is hard enough and cruel enough at best, and this is as true of public service as of private service. Under no system will it be possible to do away with all favoritism and brutality and meanness and malice. But at least we can try to minimize the exhibition of these qualities.
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…
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“Genius” (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all).
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, Book 4, ch. 3 (1858–1865)
More about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/84804…
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MARCUS: All things are tolerable which others have borne and are bearing.
[Sed significat tolerabilia esse, quae et tulerint et ferant ceteri.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 2, ch. 23 (3.23) / sec. 57 (3.57) (45 BC) [tr. Yonge (1853)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/cicero-marcus-tulliu…
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Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 69 (3.14.69) (1951)
More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/11001/
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A Slip of the Foot you may soon recover:
But a Slip of the Tongue you may never get over.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1747 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/84…
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When liberty’s position is challenged, artists and writers are the ones who first take up the sword. They do so without persuasion, for the battle is peculiarly their own. In the nature of things, a person engaged in the flimsy business of expressing himself on paper is dependent on the large general privilege of being heard. Any intimation that this privilege may be revoked throws a writer into a panic. His is a double allegiance to freedom — an intellectual one springing from the conviction that pure thought has a right to function unimpeded, and a selfish one springing from his need, as a breadwinner, to be allowed to speak his piece.
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/84790/
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Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
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Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises — it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook — it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
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
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The man who goes alone can start to-day; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 1 “Economy” (1854)
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As for the duties of marital love that some people consider injured by absence, I do not believe it. On the contrary, it is a relationship that is readily cooled by too continual association, and harmed by assiduity. Every strange woman seems to us an attractive woman. And every man feels by experience that seeing one another continually cannot match the pleasure of parting and being together again at intervals.
[Quant aux devoirs de l’amitié maritale, qu’on pense estre interessez par cette absence: je ne le crois pas. Au rebours, c’est une intelligence, qui se refroidit volontiers par une trop continuelle assistance, & que l’assiduité blesse. Toute femme estrangere nous semble honneste femme: Et chacun sent par experience, que la continuation de se voir, ne peut representer le plaisir que lon sent à se desprendre, & reprendre à secousses.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 9 (3.9), “Of Vanity [De la vanité]” (1587) [tr. Frame (1943)]
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A quotation from Salman Rushdie
The creative act requires not only freedom but also this assumption of freedom. If the creative artist worries if he will still be free tomorrow, then he will not be free today. If he is afraid of the consequences of his choice of subject or of his manner of treatment of it, then his choices will not be determined by his talent, but by fear. If we are not confident of our freedom, then we are not free.
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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Salman Rushdie quotation
A quotation from Baltasar Gracian
Let friendly intercourse be a school for knowledge, and social contact, a school for culture; to make teachers of your friends is to join the need of learning to the joy of converse.
[Sea el amigable trato escuela de erudición, y la conversación enseñanza culta; un hacer de los amigos maestros, penetrando el útil del aprender con el gusto del conversar.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 11 (1647) [tr. Fischer (1937)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…
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A quotation from Douglas Adams
The villagers sold us some [coconuts] and split them open for us. They are almost perfectly designed. You first make a hole and drink the milk, and then you split open the nut with a machete and slice off a segment of the shell, which forms a perfect implement for scooping out the coconut flesh inside. What makes you wonder about the nature of this god character is that he creates something that is so perfectly designed to be of benefit to human beings and then hangs it twenty feet above their heads on a tree with no branches.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1990) [with Mark Carwardine]
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Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk. Don’t talk anything you can whisper. Don’t whisper anything you can smile. Don’t smile anything you can nod. Don’t nod anything you can wink.
Earl Kemp Long (1895-1960) American politician, orator.
(Attributed)
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A quotation from Bertrand Russell
I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: “The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.” In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Social Order [Education and the Modern World], ch. 2 “The Negative Theory of Education” (1932)
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I just finished with nine months of treatment for cancer. First they poison you, then they mutilate you, then they burn you. I’ve had more fun. And when it’s over, you’re so glad that you’re grateful to absolutely everyone. And I am. The trouble is, I’m not a better person. I was in great hopes that confronting my own mortality would make me deeper, more thoughtful. Many lovely people sent books on how to find a more spiritual meaning in life. My response was, “Oh, hell, I can’t go on a spiritual journey — I’m constipated.”
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2000-10), “Cancer, II,” The Progressive magazine
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Time and Tyde stayes for no man.
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659)
[compiler]
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A quotation from Abigail Adams
Of all pride, that which persons discover from Riches is the weakest. If we look over our acquaintance, how many do we find who were a few years ago in affluence, now reduced to real want.
Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter (1790-02-20) to Mary Smith Cranch
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HOBBES: If you couldn’t find any weirdness, maybe we’ll just have to make some!
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1994-04-17)
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Calvin and Hobbes (1994-04-17) excerpt
A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
DRUNK, adj. Boozy, fuddled, corned, tipsy, mellow, soaken, full, groggy, tired, top-heavy, glorious, overcome, swipey, elevated, overtaken, screwed, raddled, lushy, nappy, muzzy, maudlin, pious, floppy, loppy, happy, etc.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Drunk,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1882-08-12)
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A quotation from Hannah Arendt
A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible, world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything is possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself was remarkable enough, because it spelled the end of the illusion that gullibility was a weakness of unsuspecting primitive souls and cynicism the vice of superior and refined minds.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 11 “The Totalitarian Movement,” sec. 2 (1951)
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
Up to a certain point it is good for us to know that there are people in the world who will give us love and unquestioned loyalty to the limit of their ability. I doubt, however, if it is good for us to feel assured of this without the accompanying obligation of having to justify this devotion by our behavior.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Memoir (1937), This Is My Story, ch. 17 “Readjustment”
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Eleanor Roosevelt quote
The gladness of the heart is the life of man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days.
[εὐφροσύνη καρδίας ζωὴ ἀνθρώπου,
καὶ ἀγαλλίαμα ἀνδρὸς μακροημέρευσις.]
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 30:22ff (Sir 30:22) [tr. KJV (1611)]
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Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to know or believe.
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
(Attributed)
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Your “ἄρiςτοi” [aristocrats] are the most difficult Animals to manage, of any thing in the whole Theory and practice of Government. They will not Suffer themselves to be governed. They not only exert all their own Subtilty Industry and courage, but they employ the Commonalty, to knock to pieces every Plan and Model that the most honest Architects in Legislation can invent to keep them within bounds.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1813-07-09) to Thomas Jefferson
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I salute the man who is going through life always helpful, knowing no fear, and to whom aggressiveness and resentment are alien. Such is the stuff of which the great moral leaders are made who proffer consolation to mankind in their self-created miseries.
[Heil dem Manne, der stets helfend durchs Leben ging, keine Furcht kannte und dem jede Aggressivität und jedes Ressentiment fremd war! Von solchem Holz sind die Idealgestalten geschnitzt, die der Menschheit Trost bieten in den Situationen selbstgeschaffenen Leidens.]
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 1, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]
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If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.
[Si on ne vouloit qu’être heureux, cela seroit bientôt fait; mais on veut être plus heureux que les autres; et cela est presque toujours difficile, parce que nous croyons les autres plus heureux qu’ils ne sont.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Pensées Diverses [Assorted Thoughts], # 978 / 1003 (1720-1755)
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Montesquieu quote
![[?]](https://files.hear-me.social/accounts/avatars/110/663/286/708/241/385/original/eb5ae4c05819f336.jpg)
I would invite this guy to join the Rational Misanthrope club, but no one ever comes to the meetings
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I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
Giuseppe Baretti, 1766
A quotation from Harry Commager
But if our democracy is to flourish it must have criticism, if our government is to function it must have dissent. Only totalitarian governments insist upon conformity and they — as we know — do so at their peril. Without criticism abuses will go unrebuked; without dissent our dynamic system will become static. The American people have a stake in the maintenance of the most thorough-going inquisition into American institutions. They have a stake in nonconformity, for they know that the American genius is nonconformist.
Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 3, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168
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Whoever has lived alone, knows to what a degree monologue is innate. The inward word itches. Haranguing space is an outlet. To speak aloud and alone makes the effect of a dialogue with the god which is within one. This was, as is well known, the habit of Socrates. He harangued himself. So did Luther.
[Quiconque a vécu solitaire sait à quel point le monologue est dans la nature. La parole intérieure démange. Haranguer l’espace est un exutoire. Parler tout haut et tout seul, cela fait l’effet d’un dialogue avec le dieu qu’on a en soi. C’était, on ne l’ignore point, l’habitude de Socrate. Il se pérorait. Luther aussi.]
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, Preliminary, ch. 1 (1.0.1) (1869) [tr. Phillips (1894)]
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My word, how mortals take the gods to task!
All their afflictions come from us, we hear.
And what of their own failings? Greed and folly
double the suffering in the lot of man.
[ὢ πόποι, οἷον δή νυ θεοὺς βροτοὶ αἰτιόωνται.
ἐξ ἡμέων γάρ φασι κάκ’ ἔμμεναι· οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ
σφῇσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὑπὲρ μόρον ἄλγε’ ἔχουσιν.]
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 1, l. 32ff (1.32) [Zeus] (c. 700 BC) [tr. Fitzgerald (1961)]
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I have two trifling ambitions in the theater: to make a lot of people laugh and to make a lot of money.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Interview (1955-07), Theatre Arts magazine
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A quotation from Richard Steele
It is a civil Cowardice to be backward in asserting what you ought to expect, as it is a military Fear to be slow in attacking when it is your Duty.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1711-03-01), The Spectator, No. 2
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He first deceas’d; She for a little tri’d
To live without him: lik’d it not, and di’d.
Henry Wotton (1568-1639) English author, diplomat, politician
“Upon the Death of Sir Albertus Moreton’s Wife” (1651)
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TOBY: I am sure care’s an enemy to life.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 2ff (1.3.2-3) (1601)
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For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. “Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) American novelist, journalist
A Man Without A Country, ch. 9 (2005)
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A quotation from La Rochefoucauld
Absence weakens ordinary passions, but inflames great ones, as the wind extinguishes a candle, but fans a fire.
[L’absence diminue les médiocres passions, et augmente les grandes, comme le vent éteint les bougies et allume le feu.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶276 (1665-1678) [tr. Stevens (1939)]
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A quotation from Terry Pratchett
Belief is one of the most powerful organic forces in the multiverse. It may not be able to move mountains, exactly. But it can create someone who can.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 11, Reaper Man (1991)
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A quotation from Samuel Johnson
Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1750-03-24), The Rambler, No. 2
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The fact is, very few men are right in everything. Great virtues may draw attention from defects, but they cannot sanctify them. A pebble surrounded by diamonds remains a common stone, and a diamond surrounded by pebbles is still a gem. No one should attempt to refute an argument by pronouncing the name of some man, unless he is willing to adopt all the ideas and beliefs of that man. It is better to give reasons and facts than names. An argument should not depend for its force upon the name of its author. Facts need no pedigree, logic has no heraldry, and the living should not awed by the mistakes of the dead.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York
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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
A hungry man is not a free man.
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-06), “Farm Policy,” National Plowing Contest, Kasson, Minnesota
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Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Russian politician, Marxist, intellectual, revolutionary [b. Lev Davidovich Bronstein]
Diary, Notebook 2 (1935-05-08) [tr. Zarudnaya (1958)]
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I followed their eyes, as sure as guns, there was my eclipse beginning! The life went boiling through my veins; I was a new man! The rim of black spread slowly into the sun’s disk, my heart beat higher and higher, and still the assemblage and the priest stared into the sky, motionless. I knew that this gaze would be turned upon me, next. When it was, I was ready. I was in one of the most grand attitudes I ever struck, with my arm stretched up pointing to the sun. It was a noble effect.
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. 6 “The Eclipse”
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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
Courage is the principal virtue, for all the others presuppose it. If you are afraid, you may do anything.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 12 “Courage”
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Of lingering and gain-seeking make an end;
Think, while there’s time, how soon Death’s pyre may blaze;
And some brief folly mix with prudent ways:
At the fit hour ’tis sweet to unbend.
[Verum pone moras et studium lucri
nigrorumque memor, dum licet, ignium
misce stultitiam consiliis brevem:
dulce est desipere in loco.]
Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 4, # 12, l. 25ff (4.12.25-28) (13 BC) [tr. Marshall (1908)]
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#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #business #carpediem #celebration #death #enjoyment #folly #foolishness #holiday #mortality #party #revelry #seizetheday #silliness #vacation #work #workaholic
Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.
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/47354/
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So here hath been dawning
Another blue Day:
Think wilt thou let it
Slip useless away.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Poem (1837-08), “Today,” st. 1
More about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/84633…
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GENERAL FINCH: Waiting for this mysterious scientific advisor of yours to turn up?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: That’s right, sir.
GENERAL FINCH: Hmmmm. [sarcastically] I suppose he’ll just materialize out of thin air.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Very probably.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
11×02 “Invasion of the Dinosaurs,” Part 1 (1974-01-12) [w. Malcolm Hulke]
More about this quote: wist.info/doctor-who-1963/8463…
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A quotation from Josh Billings
He who aims at perfekshun will probably miss the mark, but he who aims at nothing, iz sure to hit it every time.
[He who aims at perfection will probably miss the mark, but he who aims at nothing, is sure to hit it every time.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1876-08 (1876 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/84621/
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Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 100 (3.14.100) (1951)
More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/11352/
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MARCUS: As a field, though fertile, cannot yield a harvest without cultivation, no more can the mind without learning.
[Ut ager quamvis fertilis sine cultura fructuosus esse non potest, sic sine doctrina animus.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 2, ch. 5 (2.5) / sec. 13 (2.13) (45 BC) [tr. Peabody (1886)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/cicero-marcus-tulliu…
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What is Serving God? ’Tis doing Good to Man.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1747 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/84…
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For this reason, mixing with men is wonderfully useful, and visiting foreign countries […] to bring back knowledge of the characters and ways of those nations, and to rub and polish our brains by contact with those of others.
[A cette cause le commerce des hommes y est merveilleusement propre, & la visite des pays estrangers […] pour en rapporter principalement les humeurs de ces nations & leurs façons : & pour frotter & limer nostre cervelle contre celle d’autruy.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 25 (1.25), “Of the Education of Children [De l’institution des enfans]” (1579) [tr. Frame (1943), ch. 26]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…
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There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian / Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist, Zionist / Seventh-day Adventist, Women’s Lib / Republican, Mattachine / Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain-porridge unleavened literature licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
Fahrenheit 451, “Coda” Afterword (1979 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/bradbury-ray/46602/
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A quotation from Douglas Adams
“So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly, then?” I asked.
He blinked at me as if I were stupid.
“Well what do you think you do?” he said. “You die of course. That’s what deadly means.”
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/29827/
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A quotation from Jonathan Swift
Conversation is but carving;
Carve for all, yourself is starving:
Give no more to every Guest,
Than he’s able to digest;
Give him always of the Prime;
And but little at a Time.
Carve to all but just enough:
Let them neither starve nor stuff:
And, that you may have your Due,
Let your Neighbours carve for you.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
“An Epistle to a Lady Who Desired the Author to Write Some Verses Upon Her in the Heroic Style,” ll. 123-132 (1732)
More about this quote: wist.info/swift-jonathan/68207…
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There are three things one must not do in the face of electoral disaster. Whine. Despair. Or fall for that specious old radical crap: “Things have to get worse before they can get better.” The only possible response to that one is, “Not with my child’s life.”
Nor is it helpful to sit around hoping that given enough rope, the R’s will hang themselves. They’ll hang us along with them. The only thing to do is to fight harder and smarter.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2002-12-01) “Fight Harder and Smarter,” The Progressive Magazine
More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/16447/
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A quotation from Agnes Repplier
She has frolicsome moods, in which a thimble, a shoe-buttoner, a scrap of paper, or a piece of string will drive her wild with delight; she has moods of inflexible gravity, in which she stares solemnly at her favorite ball rolling over the carpet, without stirring one lazy limb to reach it. “Have I seen this foolish toy before?” she seems to be asking herself with musing austerity; “and can it be possible that there are cats who run after such frivolous trifles? Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, save only to lie upon the hearth-rug, and be warm, and think grave thoughts to feed a serious soul.”
Agnes Repplier (1855-1950) American writer
“Agrippina,” Essays in Idleness (1893)
More about this quote: wist.info/repplier-agnes/61877…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #agnesrepplier #cats #mood #playfulness #seriousness
In every Countrey the Sun riseth in the morning.
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/84600/
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The Utopians marvel that any mortal can take pleasure in the weak sparkle of a little gem or bright pebble when he has a star, or the sun itself, to look at. They are amazed at the foolishness of any man who considers himself a nobler fellow because he wears clothing of specially fine wool. No matter how delicate the thread, they say, a sheep wore it once, and still was nothing but a sheep.
[Mirantur illi siquidem quemquam esse mortalium quem exiguae gemmulae, aut lapilli dubius oblectet fulgor, cui quidem stellam aliquam, atque ipsum denique solem liceat intueri, aut quemquam tam insanum esse, ut nobilior ipse sibi ob tenuioris lanae filum uideatur, siquidem hanc ipsam (quantumuis tenui filo sit) ouis olim gestauit, nec aliud tamen interim, quam ouis fuit.]
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. Adams (1992 ed.)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/more-thomas/84597/
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: It offends the human ego that nature is indifferent to us. Nature doesn’t care if people live or die. It refuses to be tamed. It does whatever it wants and acts like people don’t matter. It won’t confirm our right to be here. That drives people crazy. We can’t stand being ignored. It’s insulting and … hey!
HOBBES: YAWWNN. [wanders off]
CALVIN: I think that’s also why some people don’t like cats.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1994-03-04)
More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/84594…
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Alt...
Calvin and Hobbes (1994-03-04)
A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
DICE, n. Small polka-dotted cubes of ivory, constructed like a lawyer to lie on any side, but commonly on the wrong one.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Dice,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1882-03-24)
More about this quote: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/84592…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #ambrosebierce #devilsdictionary #dice #lawyer #lying
A quotation from Hannah Arendt
Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 11 “The Totalitarian Movement,” sec. 2 (1951)
More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/41783/
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CHORUS: I say that mortals who have no experience
Of and have never had children
Have a better chance for happiness
Than those who bear them.
ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: καί φημι βροτῶν οἵτινές εἰσιν
πάμπαν ἄπειροι μηδ᾿ ἐφύτευσαν
παῖδας προφέρειν εἰς εὐτυχίαν
τῶν γειναμένων.
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1090ff (431 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2020)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/84588/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #euripides #euripidesquotes #medea #anxiety #childrearing #concern #fatherhood #happiness #motherhood #parent #parenting #unhappiness #worry
A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
We must show by our behavior that we believe in equality and justice and that our religion teaches faith and love and charity to our fellow men. Here is where each of us has a job to do that must be done at home, because we can lose the battle on the soil of the United States just as surely as we can lose it in any one of the countries of the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
India and the Awakening East, Conclusion (1953)
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/28…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #America #charity #civilrights #coldwar #diplomacy #example #exemplar #foreignaffairs #foreignrelations #internationalrelations #leadbyexample #leadership #religion
A quotation from Charles Bukowski
Having many cats is good. If you feel bad, you look at the cats and you feel better, because they know that everything is just the way it is. You don’t have to be nervous about anything. And they know it. They are saviors. The more cats you have, the longer you will live. If you have a hundred cats, you will live ten times longer than if you have ten. One day, this will be known and people will have thousands of cats. It’s truly ridiculous.
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Interview (1987-09) by Sean Penn, “Tough Guys Write Poetry,” Interview Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 19
More about this quote: wist.info/bukowski-charles/803…
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No one can stand a person who talks too long and will not give others a chance to speak.
ὁ πλεονάζων λόγῳ βδελυχθήσεται,
καὶ ὁ ἐνεξουσιαζόμενος μισηθήσεται.
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20: 8ff (Sir 20:8) [tr. GNT (1992 ed.)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/bible-ot/84583/
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The substance and essence of Christianity as I understand it is eternal and unchangeable and will bear examination forever but it has been mixed with extraneous ingredients which I think will not bear examination and they ought to be separated
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1825-01-23) to Thomas Jefferson
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/84580/
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Shel Silverstein on success in creative fields (1975):
"I think if you're a creative person, you should just go about your business, do your work and not care how it's received. I never read reviews because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones too.
"Not that I don't care about success. I do, but only because it lets me do what I want.... I have an ego, I have ideas, I want to be articulate, to communicate but in my own way. People who say they create only for themselves and don't care if they are published ... I hate to hear talk like that. If it's good, it's too good not to share."
#shelsilverstein #creativity #publishing #writing #success #quote #quotes #quotation
Jellicle Cats come out tonight,
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright —
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, “The Song of the Jellicles” (1939)
More about this quote: wist.info/eliot-t-s/5203/
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Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
[Wenige sind imstande, von den Vorurteilen der Umgebung abweichende Meinungen gelassen auszusprechen; die Meisten sind sogar unfähig, überhaupt zu solchen Meinungen zu gelangen.]
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 4, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]
More about this quote: wist.info/einstein-albert/210/
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Of a disposition at once unsociable and talkative, desiring to see no one, yet wishing to converse with some one, he solved the difficulty by talking to himself.
[D’une complexion farouche et bavarde, ayant le désir de ne voir personne et le besoin de parler à quelqu’un, il se tirait d’affaire en se parlant à lui-même.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
The Man Who Laughs [L’Homme qui rit; The Laughing Man; By Order of the King], Part 1, Preliminary, ch. 1 (1.0.1) (1869) [tr. Unknown, Authorized (1871)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/84577/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #themanwholaughs #conversation #introvert #loquaciousness #loquacity #monologue #shyness #soliloquy #solitude #talk #talktoyourself #talkativeness #unsociability
Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns …
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
[Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε·
πολλῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω,
πολλὰ δ’ ὅ γ’ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν,
ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων.]
Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 1, l. 1ff (1.1-5) (c. 700 BC) [tr. Fagles (1996)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/homer/46407/
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BOB: Do you know how helpless you feel if you have a full cup of coffee in your hand and you start to sneeze? There’s nothing to do but let it splash.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Mary, Mary, Act 2 (1961)
More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/84573/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jeankerr #helplessness #inevitability #lossofcontrol #sneeze #spatter #spill #splash #uncontrollability
A quotation from Richard Steele
The married state, with and without the affection suitable to it, is the completest image of heaven and hell we are capable of receiving in this life.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1712-09-09), The Spectator, No. 479
More about this quote: wist.info/steele-richard/21270…
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A quotation from Robin Williams
Death is Nature’s way of saying, “Your table is ready.”
Robin Williams (1951-2014) American comedian and actor
(Attributed)
More about this quote: wist.info/williams-robin/84569…
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ORSINO: O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence.
That instant was I turned into a hart,
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E’er since pursue me.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 20ff (1.1.20-24) (1601)
More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…
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For ridicule shall frequently prevail,
And cut the knot, when graver reasons fail.
[Ridiculum acri
Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res.]
Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 10 “Nempe incomposito,” l. 14ff (1.10.14-15) (35 BC) [tr. Francis (1747)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/1955/
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The question as to whether there is such a thing as divine right of kings is not settled in this book. It was found too difficult. That the executive head of a nation should be a person of lofty character and extraordinary ability, was manifest and indisputable; that none but the Deity could select that head unerringly, was also manifest and indisputable; that the Deity ought to make that selection, then, was likewise manifest and indisputable; consequently, that He does make it, as claimed, was an unavoidable deduction. I mean, until the author of this book encountered the Pompadour, and Lady Castlemaine, and some other executive heads of that kind; these were found so difficult to work into the scheme, that it was judged better to take the other tack in this book (which must be issued this fall), and then go into training and settle the question in another book. It is, of course, a thing which ought to be settled, and I am not going to have anything particular to do next winter anyway.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Preface
More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/84562/
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It is commonly assumed that what human beings want is to be comfortable. Well, we now have it in our power to be comfortable, as our ancestors had not. Nature may occasionally hit back with an earthquake or a cyclone, but by and large she is beaten. And yet exactly at the moment when there is, or could be, plenty of everything for everybody, nearly our whole energies have to be taken up in trying to grab territories, markets and raw materials from one another. Exactly at the moment when wealth might be so generally diffused that no government need fear serious opposition, political liberty is declared to be impossible and half the world is ruled by secret police forces. Exactly at the moment when superstition crumbles and a rational attitude towards the universe becomes feasible, the right to think one’s own thoughts is denied as never before. The fact is that human beings only started fighting one another in earnest when there was no longer anything to fight about.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-11-29), “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper
More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/84548/
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In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I just choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to our world.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
East of Eden, ch. 34 (1952)
More about this quote: wist.info/steinbeck-john/84523…
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A quotation from Josh Billings
I am allwuss more than haff afraid ov the man, who kant talk 5 minnitts with me, on enny subjekt, without expressing grate anxiety about my soul.
[I am always more than half afraid of the man who can’t talk five minutes with me, on any subject, without expressing great anxiety about my soul.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1876-07 (1876 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/84544/
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“The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy—then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.”
― Hunter S. Thompson
A quotation from Wallace Stegner
Order is indeed the dream of man, but chaos, which is only another word for dumb, blind, witless chance, is still the law of nature.
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) American novelist
Crossing to Safety, ch. 13 (1987)
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He that won’t be counsell’d, can’t be help’d.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1747 ed.)
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A quotation from Andrew Oliver
Politics is the most hazardous of all professions. There is not another in which a man can hope to do so much good to his fellow creatures; neither is there any in which by a mere loss of nerve he may do such widespread harm. Nor is there another in which he may so easily lose his own soul; nor is there another in which a positive and strict veracity is so difficult. But danger is the inseparable companion of honor. With all the temptations and degradations that beset it, politics is still the noblest career any man can choose.
Andrew Oliver (1706-1774) American Colonial merchant, politician, government official
Speech (1774?)
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MEDEA: I know indeed what evil I intend to do,
But stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,
Fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.
[ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: Καὶ μανθάνω μὲν οἷα τολμήσω κακά,
θυμὸς δὲ κρείσσων τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων,
ὅσπερ μεγίστων αἴτιος κακῶν βροτοῖς.]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1078ff (431 BC) [tr. Warner (1944)]
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Alt...
A famous print by Alphonse Mucha of Medea standing over her dead sons.
A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
Q. What is the best thing to do when people you meet casually — say a taxicab driver or an office receptionist — make violently prejudiced (and untrue) remarks about a minority race? Usually I just keep my mouth shut. But is this really right? It seems to me that perhaps in keeping silent I am actually condoning these vicious remarks.
A. I rather think the time has come when keeping silent, if other people say things of which you cannot approve, is an escape from doing something disagreeable. Everyone has a right to his own opinion and to state it, therefore I do not think one should be heated or angry over what other people say; but if silence seems to give approval, then remaining silent is cowardly. I think one should say, “I have evidently had different experiences from what you have had, and I find on the whole that thus and so seems true.” It may lead to an argument and it may require restraint and patience on both sides, but it will often clear up misconceptions and show that there are two points of view, and that it is possible to discuss questions on a reasonable basis even when feelings are involved as well as facts.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1944-09), “If You Ask Me,” Ladies’ Home Journal, Vol. 61
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Some people are thought to be wise because they don’t talk much; others are disliked because they talk too much. Some people keep quiet because they don’t have anything to say; others keep quiet because they know the right time to speak. A wise person will not speak until the right moment, but a bragging fool doesn’t know when that time is.
[ἔστιν σιωπῶν εὑρισκόμενος σοφός,
καὶ ἔστιν μισητὸς ἀπὸ πολλῆς λαλιᾶς.
ἔστιν σιωπῶν, οὐ γὰρ ἔχει ἀπόκρισιν,
καὶ ἔστιν σιωπῶν εἰδὼς καιρόν.
ἄνθρωπος σοφὸς σιγήσει ἕως καιροῦ,
ὁ δὲ λαπιστὴς καὶ ἄφρων ὑπερβήσεται καιρόν.]
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20: 5ff (Sir 20:5–7) [tr. GNT (1992 ed.)]
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It was said of him that he had once been for a short time in Bedlam; they had done him the honour to take him for a madman, but had set him free on discovering that he was only a poet.
[On contait de lui qu’il avait été jadis un peu enfermé à Bedlam ; on lui avait fait l’honneur de le prendre pour un insensé, mais on l’avait relâché, s’apercevant qu’il n’était qu’un poëte.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
The Man Who Laughs [L’Homme qui rit; The Laughing Man; By Order of the King], Part 1, Book 0, ch. 1 (1.0.1) (1869) [tr. Unknown (1869)]
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Marrying a man is like buying something you’ve been admiring for a long time in a shop window. You may love it when you get it home, but it doesn’t always go with everything else in the house.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1959-03), “The Ten Worst Things About a Man,” McCall’s, Vol. 87, No. 6
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A quotation from Richard Steele
It was very prettily said, that we may learn the little value of fortune by the persons on whom Heaven is pleased to bestow it.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1710-07-27), The Tatler, No. 203
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POMPEY: It is vain for the coward to fly; death follows close behind;
It is only by defying it that the brave escape.
[POMPEE: Le lâche fuit en vain; la mort vole à sa suite:
C’est en la défiant que le brave l’évite.]
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Le Triumvirat [The Triumvirate], Act 4, sc. 7 (1763)
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