YOU HAVE THE WORLD BEFORE YOU. STOOP AS YOU GO THROUGH IT, AND YOU WILL MISS MANY HARD THUMPS.$Cotton Mather, advice to Benjamin Franklin
THE DESIRE TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD AND THE DESIRE TO REFORM IT ARE TWO GREAT ENGINES OF PROGRESS.$Bertrand Russell, “Marriage and Morals”
AS NATURAL SELECTION WORKS SOLELY BY AND FOR THE GOOD OF EACH BEING, ALL CORPOREAL AND MENTAL ENDOWMENTS WILL TEND TO PROGRESS TOWARD PERFECTION.$Charles Darwin “The Origin of Species”
ALL PROGRESS IS BASED UPON A UNIVERSAL INNATE DESIRE OF EVERY ORGANISM TO LIVE BEYOND ITS MEANS.$Sameual Butler, “Notebooks”
FLAMING YOUTH HAS BECOME A FLAMING QUESTION. AND YOUTH COMES TO US WANTING TO KNOW WHAT WE MAY PROPOSE TO DO ABOUT A SOCIETY THAT HURTS SO MANY OF THEM.$Franklin D. Roosevelt, address, 1936
WE SHOULD HAVE A GREAT MANY FEWER DISPUTES IN THE WORLD IF WORDS WERE TAKEN FOR WHAT THEY ARE, THE SIGNS OF OUR IDEAS ONLY, AND NOT FOR THINGS THEMSELVES.$Jonathan Locke, “Essay on Human Understanding”
IT IS WITH WITS AS WITH RAZORS, WHICH ARE NEVER SO APT TO CUT THOSE THEY ARE EMPLOYED ON AS WHEN THEY HAVE LOST THEIR EDGE.$Jonathan Swift, “Tale of a Tub”
SUPERFLUOUS WEALTH CAN BUY SUPERFLUITIES ONLY. MONEY IS NOT REQUIRED TO BUY ONE NECESSARY OF THE SOUL.$Thoreau, “Walden”
THERE'S MANY A BOY HERE TODAY WHO LOOKS ON WAR AS ALL GLORY, BUT, BOYS, IT IS ALL HELL.$General William T. Sherman, address, 1880
WHEN WE ARE PLANNING FOR POSTERITY, WE OUGHT TO REMEMBER THAT VIRTUE IS NOT HEREDITARY.$Thomas Paine, “Common Sense”
NOTHING EXCEPT A BATTLE LOST CAN BE HALF SO MELANCHOLY AS A BATTLE WON.$Duke of Wellington, “Dispatch”, 1815
ONCE THERE WERE TWO BROTHERS. ONE RAN AWAY TO SEA, THE OTHER WAS ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT, AND NOTHING WAS EVER HEARD OF EITHER OF THEM AGAIN.$Thomas R. Marshall, “Recollections”
WHEN OUR VICES LEAVE US, WE FLATTER OURSELVES WITH THE CREDIT OF HAVING LEFT THEM.$La Rochefoucauld, “Maxims”
TRUTH IS THE MOST VALUABLE THING WE HAVE. LET US ECONOMIZE IT.$Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar”
MY WAY OF JOKING IS TO TELL THE TRUTH. IT'S THE FUNNIEST JOKE IN THE WORLD.$George Bernard Shaw, “John Bull’s Other Island”
I SPEAK TRUTH, NOT SO MUCH AS I WOULD, BUT AS MUCH AS I DARE; AND I DARE A LITTLE MORE AS I GROW OLDER.$Montaigne, “Essays”
GOD OFFERS TO EVERY MIND ITS CHOICE BETWEEN TRUTH AND REPOSE. TAKE WHICH YOU PLEASE, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE BOTH.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Essays: Intellect”
HE'S MAD THAT TRUSTS IN THE TAMENESS OF A WOLF, A HORSE'S HEALTH, A BOY'S LOVE, OR A WHORE'S OATH.$William Shakespeare, “King Lear”
A TART TEMPER NEVER MELLOWS WITH AGE, AND A SHARP TONGUE IS THE ONLY EDGED TOOL THAT GROWS KEENER WITH CONSTANT USE.$Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle”
THERE IS A TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN, WHICH, TAKEN AT THE FLOOD, LEADS ON TO FORTUNE.$William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”
IT IS CLEAR THAT THOUGHT IS NOT FREE IF THE PROFESSION OF CERTAIN OPINIONS MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO EARN A LIVING.$Bertrand Russell, “Sceptical Essays”
IF I HAVE DONE THE PUBLIC ANY SERVICE, IT IS DUE TO PATIENT THOUGHT.@ - SIR ISAAC NEWTON$remark to Dr. Bentley
THEOLOGY IS AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN A SUBJECT BY MEN WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT. THE INTENT IS NOT TO TELL THE TRUTH BUT TO SATISFY THE QUESTIONER.$Elbert Hubbard, “The Philistine”
OUR AMERICAN PROFESSORS LIKE THEIR LITERATURE CLEAR, COLD, PURE, AND VERY DEAD.$Sinclair Lewis, address to Swedish Academy, 1930
A TEACHER AFFECTS ETERNITY; HE CAN NEVER TELL WHERE HIS INFLUENCE STOPS.$Henry Adams “The Education of Henry Adams”
THE MARVEL OF ALL HISTORY IS THE PATIENCE WITH WHICH MEN AND WOMEN SUBMIT TO BURDENS UNNECESSARILY LAID UPON THEM BY THEIR GOVERNMENTS.$William E. Boran, speech to U. S. Senate
TALENT IS DEVELOPED IN RETIREMENT: CHARACTER IS FORMED IN THE RUSH OF THE WORLD.$Goethe, “Tasso”
THERE IS NO RIGHT TO STRIKE AGAINST THE PUBLIC SAFETY BY ANYBODY, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.$Calvin Coolidge, letter to Samuel Gompers, 1919
TWO THINGS FILL THE MIND WITH EVER NEW AND INCREASING WONDER AND AWE - THE STARRY HEAVENS ABOVE ME AND THE MORAL LAW WITHIN ME.$Immanuel Kant, “Critique of Pure Reason”
DELAY ALWAYS BREEDS ANGER, AND TO PROTRACT A GREAT DESIGN IS OFTEN TO RUIN IT.$Cervantes, “Don Quixote”
HALF OF THE HARM THAT IS DONE IN THIS WORLD IS DUE TO PEOPLE WHO WANT TO FEEL IMPORTANT.$T. S. Eliot, “The Cocktail Party”
IT'S A FINE THING TO RISE ABOVE PRIDE, BUT YOU MUST HAVE PRIDE IN ORDER TO DO SO.$Georges Bernanos, “The Diary of a Country Priest”
THIS IS THE BITTEREST PAIN AMONG MEN, TO HAVE MUCH KNOWLEDGE BUT NO POWER.$Herodotus, “Histories”
IF A FREE SOCIETY CANNOT HELP THE MANY WHO ARE POOR, IT CANNOT SAVE THE FEW WHO ARE RICH.$John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961
POLITICS IS PERHAPS THE ONLY PROFESSION FOR WHICH NO PREPARATION IS THOUGHT NECESSARY.$Robert Louis Stevenson, “Familiar Studies of Men and Books”
POLITICIANS ARE THE SAME ALL OVER. THEY PROMISE TO BUILD BRIDGES, EVEN WHEN THERE ARE NO RIVERS.$Nikita Khrushchev, remark to the press, 1960
SINCE A POLITICIAN NEVER BELIEVES WHAT HE SAYS, HE IS SURPRISED WHEN OTHERS BELIEVE HIM.$Charles de Gaulle, interview, 1962
PERSISTENCE IN ONE OPINION HAS NEVER BEEN CONSIDERED A MERIT IN POLITICAL MATTERS.$Cicero, “Ad familiares”
WHENEVER THE URGE TO EXERCISE COMES UPON ME, I LIE DOWN FOR A WHILE AND IT PASSES.$Robert Maynard Hutchins, quoted by Harry S. Ashmore in “The Life of Robert Maynard Hutchins”
MOST PROPOSITIONS AND QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT PHILOSOPHICAL MATTERS ARE NOT FALSE BUT SENSELESS.$Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus logico-philosophicus”
PHILOSOPHY BEGINS IN WONDER, AND AT THE END, WHEN PHILOSOPHIC THOUGHT HAS DONE ITS BEST, THE WONDER REMAINS.$Alfred North Whitehead, “Modes of Thought”
PHILOSOPHY ARISES FROM AN UNUSUALLY OBSTINATE ATTEMPT TO ARRIVE AT REAL KNOWLEDGE.$Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Philosophy”
YOU CAN'T DO WITHOUT PHILOSOPHY, SINCE EVERYTHING HAS ITS HIDDEN MEANING WHICH WE MUST KNOW.$Maxim Gorky, “The Zykovs”
TO PERSERVERE, TRUSTING IN WHAT HOPES HE HAS, IS COURAGE IN A MAN. THE COWARD DESPAIRS.$Euripides, “Heracles”
THE PEOPLE, AND THE PEOPLE ALONE, ARE THE MOTIVE FORCE IN THE MAKING OF HISTORY.$Mao Zedung, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedung”
WHY SHOULD THERE NOT BE A PATIENT CONFIDENCE IN THE ULTIMATE JUSTICE OF THE PEOPLE? IS THERE ANY BETTER OR EQUAL HOPE IN THE WORLD?$Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, 1861
ABOUT THINGS ON WHICH THE PUBLIC THINKS LONG IT COMMONLY THINKS RIGHT.$Samuel Johnson, “Addison”
