THE CENTURY ON WHICH WE ARE ENTERING CAN BE AND MUST BE THE CENTURY OF THE COMMON MAN.$Henry A. Wallace, speech, 1942

A LIFE SPENT IN MAKING MISTAKES IS NOT ONLY MORE HONORABLE BUT MORE USEFUL THAN A LIFE SPENT DOING NOTHING.$George Bernard Shaw, “The Doctor’s Dilemma”

I DO NOT WANT PEOPLE TO BE VERY AGREEABLE, AS IT SAVES ME THE TROUBLE OF LIKING THEM A GREAT DEAL.$Jane Austin, letter to her sister Cassandra, 1798

EVERYTHING IS MIRACULOUS. IT IS MIRACULOUS THAT ONE DOES NOT MELT IN ONE'S BATH.$Picasso, attributed

ON EARTH THERE IS NOTHING GREAT BUT MAN; IN MAN THERE IS NOTHING GREAT BUT MIND.$Sir William Hamilton, “Lectures on Metaphysics”

IN THIS COUNTRY WE FIND IT PAYS TO SHOOT AN ADMIRAL FROM TIME TO TIME TO ENCOURAGE THE OTHERS.@      - VOLTAIRE$“Candide”

THE SERVICES IN WARTIME ARE FIT ONLY FOR DESPERADOES, BUT IN PEACE ARE FIT ONLY FOR FOOLS.$Benjamin Disraeli, “Vivian Grey”

DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT NAVAL TRADITION. IT'S NOTHING BUT RUM, SODOMY, AND THE LASH.$Winston Churchill, quoted by Sir Peter Gretton in “Former Naval Person”

MIDDLE AGE IS THE TIME WHEN A MAN IS ALWAYS THINKING THAT IN A WEEK OR TWO HE'LL FEEL JUST AS GOOD AS EVER.$Don Marquis, quoted by B. Wilcox in “A Little Book of Aphorisms”

AFTER THIRTY, A MAN WAKES UP SAD EVERY MORNING, EXCEPTING PERHAPS FIVE OR SIX, UNTIL THE DAY OF HIS DEATH.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal, 1834

MIDWAY IN OUR LIFE'S JOURNEY, I WENT ASTRAY FROM THE STRAIGHT ROAD AND WOKE TO FIND MYSELF ALONE IN A DARK WOOD.$Dante, “Inferno”

THERE ARE SOME ENTERPRISES IN WHICH A CAREFUL DISORDERLINESS IS THE TRUE METHOD.$Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick”

THERE'S NOTHING SO STUBBORN AS A MAN WHEN YOU WANT HIM TO DO SOMETHING.$Jean Giraudoux, “The Madwoman of Chaillot”

AS LONG AS YOU KNOW THAT MOST MEN ARE LIKE CHILDREN, YOU KNOW EVERYTHING.$Coco Chanel, attributed

SOME MEMORIES ARE REALITIES, AND ARE BETTER THAN ANYTHING THAT CAN EVER HAPPEN TO ONE AGAIN.$Willa Cather, “My Antonia”

THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS IN WHICH MEDIOCRITY IS INSUPPORTABLE - POETRY, MUSIC, PAINTING, PUBLIC SPEAKING.$La Bruyère, “Les Caractères”

TELEVISION IS A MEDIUM, SO CALLED BECAUSE IT IS NEITHER RARE NOR WELL DONE.$Ernie Kovacs, remark

THE PRINTING PRESS IS EITHER THE GREATEST BLESSING OR THE GREATEST CURSE OF MODERN TIMES, ONE SOMETIMES FORGETS WHICH.$J. M. Barrie, “Sentimental Tommy”

THE WORLD HAS GROWN SUSPICIOUS OF ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE A HAPPY MARRIED LIFE.$Oscar Wilde, “Lady Windermere’s Fan”

THE MARRIED STATE IS THE COMPLETEST IMAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL WE ARE CAPABLE OF RECEIVING IN THIS LIFE.$Richard Steele, “The Spectator”, 1711-1712

IT DOESN'T MUCH SIGNIFY WHOM ONE MARRIES, FOR ONE IS SURE TO FIND OUT THE NEXT MORNING THAT IT WAS SOMEONE ELSE.$Samuel Rogers, “Table Talk”

MARRIAGE IS LIKE A CAGE; ONE SEES THE BIRDS OUTSIDE DESPERATE TO GET IN, AND THOSE INSIDE DESPERATE TO GET OUT.$Montaigne, “Essays”

MARRIAGE, TO TELL THE TRUTH, IS AN EVIL, BUT IT IS A NECESSARY EVIL.$Menander, fragment

MARRIAGE, TO WOMAN AS TO MAN, MUST BE A LUXURY, NOT A NECESSITY; AN INCIDENT OF LIFE, NOT ALL OF IT.$Susan B. Anthony, speech, 1875

GOOD BREEDING CONSISTS IN CONCEALING HOW MUCH WE THINK OF OURSELVES AND HOW LITTLE WE THINK OF THE OTHER PERSON.$Mark Twain, “Notebooks”

YOU NEVER WANT TO GIVE A MAN A PRESENT WHEN HE'S FEELING GOOD. YOU WANT TO DO IT WHEN HE'S DOWN.$Lyndon B. Johnson, quoted by Doris Kearns in “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream”

TO BE AUDACIOUS WITH TACT, YOU HAVE TO KNOW TO WHAT POINT YOU CAN GO TOO FAR.$Jean Cocteau, “Le Coq et l’Harlequin”

WHEN WE REMEMBER THAT WE ARE ALL MAD, THE MYSTERIES DISAPPEAR AND LIFE STANDS EXPLAINED.$Mark Twain, “Notebook”

MEN GO MAD IN HERDS, WHILE THEY ONLY RECOVER THEIR SENSES SLOWLY, AND ONE BY ONE.$Charles Mackay, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”

THERE IS A PLEASURE SURE IN BEING MAD, WHICH NONE BUT MADMEN KNOW.$John Dryden, “The Spanish Four”

SPEECH IS CIVILIZATION ITSELF. THE WORD, EVEN THE MOST CONTRADICTORY WORD, PRESERVES CONTACT - IT IS SILENCE WHICH ISOLATES.$Thomas Mann, “The Magic Mountain”

BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO, HAVING NOTHING TO SAY, ABSTAINS FROM GIVING US WORDLY EVIDENCE OF THE FACT.$George Eliot, “Theophrastus Such”

IF SLANDER BE A SNAKE, IT IS A WINGED ONE - IT FLIES AS WELL AS CREEPS.$Douglas Jerrold, “Slander”

I NEVER WONDER TO SEE MEN WICKED, BUT I OFTEN WONDER NOT TO SEE THEM ASHAMED.$Jonathan Swift, “Thoughts on Various Subjects”

SUBTRACT FROM MANY MODERN POETS ALL THAT MAY BE FOUND IN SHAKESPEARE, AND TRASH WILL REMAIN.$C. C. Colton, “Lacon”

THE PRIMARY AND SOLE FOUNDATION OF VIRTUE OR OF THE PROPER CONDUCT OF LIFE IS TO SEEK OUR OWN PROFIT.$Spinoza, “Ethics”

IF THE SCOTCH KNEW ENOUGH TO GO IN WHEN IT RAINED, THEY WOULD NEVER GET ANY OUTDOOR EXERCISE.$Simeon Ford, “My Trip to Scotland”

TRUE SCIENCE TEACHES, ABOVE ALL, TO DOUBT AND TO BE IGNORANT.$Miguel de Unamuno, “The Tragic Sense of Life”

SCIENCE IS VASTLY MORE STIMULATING TO THE IMAGINATION THAN ARE THE CLASSICS.$J. B. S. Haldane, “Daedalus”

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SAINT AND THE SINNER IS THAT EVERY SAINT HAS A PAST AND EVERY SINNER HAS A FUTURE.$Oscar Wilde, “A Woman of No Importance”

SWEET AS THE ROSE THAT DIED LAST YEAR IS THE ROSE THAT IS BORN TODAY.$William Cosmo Monkhouse, “A Dead March”

A MAN IS RICH IN PROPORTION TO THE NUMBER OF THINGS HE CAN AFFORD TO LET ALONE.$Henry David Thoreau, “Where I Lived...”

THE MORE THINGS A MAN IS ASHAMED OF, THE MORE RESPECTABLE HE IS.$George Bernard Shaw, “Man and Superman”

WE HAVE JUST ENOUGH RELIGION TO HATE, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE US LOVE, ONE ANOTHER.$Jonathan Swift, “Thoughts on Various Subjects”

ALL RELIGIONS MUST BE TOLERATED, FOR EVERY MAN MUST GET TO HEAVEN HIS OWN WAY.$Frederick the Great, remark, 1740

REFORM MUST COME FROM WITHIN, NOT FROM WITHOUT. YOU CANNOT LEGISLATE FOR VIRTUE.$Cardinal Gibbons, address, 1909

HE WHO WILL NOT REASON IS A BIGOT; HE WHO CANNOT IS A FOOL; AND HE WHO DARES NOT IS A SLAVE.$Sir William Drummond, “Academical Questions”

VERILY, WHEN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT COMES, WE SHALL NOT BE ASKED WHAT WE HAVE READ, BUT WHAT WE HAVE DONE.$Thomas à Kempis, “Imitation of Christ”

I LOVE TO LOSE MYSELF IN OTHER MEN'S MINDS. WHEN I AM NOT WALKING, I AM READING; I CANNOT SIT AND THINK. BOOKS THINK FOR ME.$Charles Lamb, “Last Essays of Elia”

THE TRUE USE OF SPEECH IS NOT SO MUCH TO EXPRESS OUR WANTS AS TO CONCEAL THEM.$Oliver Goldsmith, paraphrase of Samuel Butler