Search results for tag #quotes
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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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #friend #reproach #silence #transgression
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #belief #cognitivedissonance #confirmationbias #facefacts #facereality #facingfacts #honesty #intellectualhonesty #realitycheck #selectivememory #selfdeceit #selfdelusion #truth #unreliablenarrator
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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
"It’s become fashionable lately to say that capitalism has entered a new phase in which it has become parasitical to forms of creative cooperation.
This is nonsense. It has always been parasitical."
- David Graeber
Alt...
"It’s become fashionable lately to say that capitalism has entered a new phase in which it has become parasitical to forms of creative cooperation. This is nonsense. It has always been parasitical." - David Graeber
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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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #cicero #author #clarity #clique #communication #elegance #entertainment #expression #organization #selfindulgence #writing #writinggroup
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #carlyle #thomascarlyle #pawns #battle #casualties #classwarfare #death #soldier #war #waste
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/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montaigne #micheldemontaigne #cowardice #difficulty #fear #pain #perspective #relativity #subjectivity #weakness #nerves #selfcontempt #selfdoubt #selfsabotage #
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #salmanrushdie #censor #censorship #justdeserts #label #makingtrouble #outrage #rockingtheboat #troublemaker
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #avalanche #compromise #corruption #deathspiral #error #escalation #evil #infection #lesserevil
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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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #agathachristie #poirot #herculepoirot #character #conversation #expression #humannature #personality #revealing #talking #insight
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #Christianity #education #intelligence #religion
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #mollyivins #capitalpunishment #classwarfare #injustice #judicialsystem #justice #justicesystem #legalsystem #money #wealth
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jameshowell #proverb #dentistry #pain #resolution #solution #teeth #tooth #toothache
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #ambrosebierce #devilsdictionary #contagion #disease #epidemic #illness #plague #sickness
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arendt #hannaharendt #aggression #demonization #despotism #enemy #enemyofthestate #insult #ruler #scapegoat #secretpolice #selfdefense #totalitarian
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #euripides #excuse #filicide #killing #murder #necessity #selfjustification #selfrationalization #tragedy
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #daydreaming #engagement #filter #giving #receiving #relationship
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bible #oldtestament #apocrypha #sirach #ecclesiasticus #badending #envy #evildoer #justdeserts #justice #karma #sinner #success #wrongdoer
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #themanwholaughs #innerself #mind #monologue #selfexpression #soliloquy #soul #talktoyourself
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #homer #odyssey #telemachus #ancestors #challenge #child #decadence #disappointment #father #generations #improvement #parent #parentage #progress #regress #son
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The Bastille: on the 14th of July 1789 the prison held 7 inmates:
• 4 forgers
• 2 mentally ill men,
• 1 count imprisoned at his family's request.
(Rather modern prison demographics)
And while the fortress no longer held military significance, the storming was perfectly strategic.
The British ambassador to France reported two days later: “…the greatest revolution that we know anything of has been effected with, comparatively speaking—if the magnitude of the event is considered—the loss of very few lives.
From this moment we may consider France as a free country, the King a very limited monarch, and the nobility as reduced to a level with the rest of the nation." — Francis Osborne
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille#Aftermath
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jeankerr #despair #everything #happiness #hope #misery #money #poor #possessions #poverty #rich #unhappiness #wealth #pursuitofhappiness
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #richardsteele #acclaim #adulation #celebrity #ego #flattery #mentalillness #pride
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/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #shakespeare #twelfthnight #alcohol #drinking #drunkenness #intoxication
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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
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ... says of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation products that "it is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all."
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #ingersoll #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #afterlife #Christianity #cruelty #damnation #divinejudgment #divinejustice #divinepunishment #divinewrath #eternity #God #heaven #hell #punishment #universalism
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #maugham #somersetmaugham #wsomersetmaugham #aging #completeness #gettingold #goodlife #growingold #livingwell #oldage #perspective #pleasure
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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #twain #marktwain #connecticutyankee #buyin #agreement #authority #consent #consentofthegoverned #democracy #popularopinion #popularity #power #support
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…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #relationship #argument #talking #communication #coexistence #conversation #disagreement #discussion #dispute #engagement #husband #marriage #partnership #spouse #wife
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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/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #aspirations #brotherhood #cause #contentment #details #dissent #happiness #hope #love #loveyourneighbor #materialism #physical #planning #protest #sacrifice #socialism #struggle #torture #utopia #war