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