THE EARTH IS GIVEN AS COMMON STOCK FOR MAN TO LABOR AND LIVE ON.$Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison
WE HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO BE GOOD GUESTS, HOW TO WALK LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH AS ITS OTHER CREATURES DO.$Stockholm Conference, 1972
THERE IS NO KING WHO HAS NOT HAD A SLAVE AMONG HIS ANCESTORS, AND NO SLAVE WHO HAS NOT HAD A KING AMONG HIS.$Hellen Keller, “The Story of My Life”
IT IS EASIER TO FIGHT FOR ONE'S PRINCIPLES THAN TO LIVE UP TO THEM$Alfred Adler, quoted by his biographer, P. Bottome
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU DO, AS LONG AS YOU DON'T DO IT IN PUBLIC AND FRIGHTEN THE HORSES.$traditionally attributed to Mrs. Patrick Campbell
THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN POSSESSION OF ANY CRITERIA FOR DISTINGUISHING GOOD AND EVIL IS VERY SMALL.$T. S. Eliot, Virginia lectures, 1933
YOU SHOULD NOT DECIDE UNTIL YOU HAVE HEARD WHAT BOTH HAVE TO SAY.$Aristophanes, “The Wasps”
THE MOST SAVAGE CONTROVERSIES ARE ABOUT THOSE MATTERS AS TO WHICH THERE IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE EITHER WAY.$Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”
THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.$attributed to Edmund Burke, source unknown
WICKEDNESS IS ALWAYS EASIER THAN VIRTUE; FOR IT TAKES THE SHORT CUT TO EVERYTHING.$Samuel Johnson, quoted by James Boswell in “Tour to the Hebrides”
DESTRUCTION NEVER COMES WITH WEAPON IN HAND. IT COMES ON TIPTOE, SEEING GOOD IN BAD AND BAD IN GOOD.$Mahabharata
IN EVERY SORT OF DANGER, THERE ARE VARIOUS WAYS OF WINNING THROUGH, IF ONE IS READY TO DO AND SAY ANYTHING WHATEVER.$Socrates, quoted in Plato’s “Apology”
THE SMALLEST FACT IS A WINDOW THROUGH WHICH THE INFINITE MAY BE SEEN.$Aldous Huxley, cited in Richard Norton Smith, “Thomas E. Dewey”.
LET US NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF A FACT; IT WILL ONE DAY FLOWER INTO A TRUTH.$Henry David Thoreau, “Excursions”
GET YOUR FACTS FIRST, AND THEN YOU CAN DISTORT THEM AS MUCH AS YOU PLEASE.@ - MARK TWAIN$quoted by Rudyard Kipling, “From Sea to Sea”
HOME LIFE CEASES TO BE FREE AND BEAUTIFUL AS SOON AS IT IS FOUNDED ON BORROWING AND DEBT.$Henrick Ibsen, “A Doll's House”
PARTING IS ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN, AND ALL WE NEED OF HELL.$Emily Dickinson
I CLAIM NOT TO HAVE CONTROLLED EVENTS, BUT CONFESS PLAINLY THAT EVENTS HAVE CONTROLLED ME.@ - ABRAHAM LINCOLN$letter to A. G. Hodges, 1864
FEAR IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF SUPERSTITION, AND ONE OF THE MAIN SOURCES OF CRUELTY. TO CONQUER FEAR IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.$Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”
NONE ARE MORE TAKEN IN BY FLATTERY THAN THE PROUD WHO WISH TO BE FIRST AND ARE NOT.$Spinoza, “Ethics”
I WANT THERE TO BE NO PEASANT IN MY KINGDOM SO POOR THAT HE CANNOT HAVE A CHICKEN IN HIS POT EVERY SUNDAY.$attributed to Henry IV
NOTHING IS MORE HUMILIATING THAN TO SEE IDIOTS SUCCEED IN ENTERPRISES WE HAVE FAILED IN.$Flaubert, “Sentimental Education”
LET US BE THANKFUL TO THE FOOLS. BUT FOR THEM THE REST OF US COULD NOT SUCCEED.$Mark Twain, “Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar”
I DISAPPROVE OF WHAT YOU SAY, BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.$attributed to Voltaire
IF A MAN DOES NOT MAKE NEW ACQUAINTANCES AS HE ADVANCES THROUGH LIFE, HE WILL SON FIND HIMSELF LEFT ALONE.$Samuel Johnson, quoted in James Boswell, “Life of Johnson”
ONE FRIEND IN A LIFE IS MUCH, TWO ARE MANY, THREE ARE HARDLY POSSIBLE.$Henry Brooks Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams”
CAGED BIRDS ACCEPT EACH OTHER, BUT FLIGHT IS WHAT THEY LONG FOR.@ - TENNESSEE WILLIAMS$“Camino Real”
HISTORY IS LITTLE MORE THAN THE REGISTER OF THE CRIMES, FOLLIES, AND MISFORTUNES OF MANKIND.$Edward Gibbon, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”
THE GENERATIONS OF LIVING THINGS PASS IN A SHORT TIME, AND LIKE RUNNERS HAND ON THE TORCH OF LIFE.$Lucretius, “De rerum natura”
EACH GENERATION WASTES A LITTLE MORE OF THE FUTURE WITH GREED AND LUST FOR RICHES.$Don Marquis, “archy and mehitabel”
EVERY GENERATION REVOLTS AGAINST ITS FATHERS AND MAKES FRIENDS WITH ITS GRANDFATHERS.$Lewis Mumford, “The Brown Decades”
EVERYBODY IS BORN WITH GENIUS, BUT MOST PEOPLE ONLY KEEP IT A FEW MINUTES.$Edgard Varèse, interview, 1985
NO MAN SHOULD BE IN PUBLIC OFFICE WHO CAN'T MAKE MORE MONEY IN PRIVATE LIFE.$Thomas E. Dewey, maxim
THE GREAT MAN IS HE WHO DOES NOT LOSE HIS CHILD'S HEART.$Mencius, “Works”
ALAS! HOW DIFFICULT IT IS NOT TO BETRAY GUILT BY OUR COUNTENANCE.$Ovid, “Metamorphoses”
ONE HALF OF THE WORLD CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE PLEASURES OF THE OTHER.$Jane Austin, “Mansfield Park”
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS IS TO ADMIRE WITHOUT DESIRING. AND THAT IS NOT HAPPINESS.$F. H. Bradley, “Aphorisms”
A LIFETIME OF HAPPINESS! NO MAN ALIVE COULD BEAR IT: IT WOULD BE HELL ON EARTH.$George Bernard Shaw, “Man and Superman”
THE RICH WOULD HAVE TO EAT MONEY, BUT LUCKILY THE POOR PROVIDE FOOD.$Russian proverb
THERE IS A LIMIT TO THE BEST OF HEALTH: DISEASE IS ALWAYS A NEAR NEIGHBOR.$Aeschylus, “Agamemnon”
THE HUMAN HEART IS LIKE A SHIP ON A STORMY SEA DRIVEN ABOUT BY WINDS BLOWING FROM ALL FOUR CORNERS OF HEAVEN.$Martin Luther, preface to translation of “Psalms”
PLEASURE IS THE ONLY THING TO LIVE FOR. NOTHING AGES LIKE HAPPINESS.$Oscar Wilde, “An Ideal Husband”
GIVE ME THE LUXURIES OF LIFE AND I WILL WILLINGLY DO WITHOUT THE NECESSITIES.$Frank Lloyd Wright, quoted in his obituary in the “New York Times”, 1959
A PRESIDENT'S HARDEST TASK IS NOT TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT BUT TO KNOW WHAT IS RIGHT.$Lyndon B. Johnson, State of the Union speech, 1965
MEN MAKE THEIR OWN HISTORY, BUT THEY DO NOT MAKE IT JUST AS THEY PLEASE.$Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”
A MAN TRAVELS THE WORLD OVER IN SEARCH OF WHAT HE NEEDS AND RETURNS HOME TO FIND IT.$George Moore, “The Brook Kerith”
HE THAT RESOLVES TO DEAL WITH NONE BUT HONEST MEN MUST LEAVE OFF DEALING.$Thomas Fuller, “Gnomologia”
WE ONLY CONFESS OUR LITTLE FAULTS TO PERSUADE PEOPLE THAT WE HAVE NO LARGE ONES.$La Rochefoucauld, “Maxims”
A LITTLE SINCERITY IS A DANGEROUS THING, AND A GREAT DEAL OF IT IS ABSOLUTELY FATAL.$Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
