MATHEMATICS IS THE DOOR AND THE KEY TO THE SCIENCES.$Roger Bacon, “Opus Majus”
IS MAN AN APE OR AN ANGEL? NOW I AM ON THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS.$Benjamin Disraeli, speech, 1864
FAMILIAR THINGS HAPPEN, AND MANKIND DOES NOT BOTHER ABOUT THEM. IT REQUIRES A VERY UNUSUAL MIND TO UNDERTAKE THE ANALYSIS OF THE OBVIOUS.$Alfred North Whitehead, “Science and the Modern World”
THE RELIGIONS DISPERSE, KINGDOMS FALL APART, BUT WORKS OF SCIENCE REMAIN FOR ALL AGES.$carved on a stone observatory erected by Ulugh-Beg in Samarkand in 1528-29
HAPPY IS HE WHO HAS BEEN ABLE TO LEARN THE CAUSES OF THINGS.$Virgil, “Georgics”
THE WORK OF SCIENCE IS TO SUBSTITUTE FACTS FOR APPEARANCES, AND DEMONSTRATIONS FOR EXPRESSIONS.$John Ruskin, “The Stones of Venice”
THE SIMPLEST SCHOOLBOY IS NOW FAMILIAR WITH FACTS FOR WHICH ARCHIMEDES WOULD HAVE SACRIFICED HIS LIFE.$Ernest Renan, “Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse”
IF I HAVE SEEN FURTHER, IT IS BY STANDING UPON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS.$Sir Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, 1675
I AM SORRY TO SAY THAT THERE IS TOO MUCH POINT TO THE WISECRACK THAT LIFE IS EXTINCT ON OTHER PLANETS BECAUSE THEIR SCIENTISTS WERE MORE ADVANCED THAN OURS.$John F. Kennedy, speech, 1959
THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF SCIENCE IS THE SLAYING OF A BEAUTIFUL HYPOTHESIS BY AN UGLY FACT.$T. H. Huxley, “Biogenesis and Abiogenesis”
SCIENCE SAYS THE FIRST WORD ON EVERYTHING, AND THE LAST WORD ON NOTHING.$Victor Hugo, “Things of the Infinite”
SCIENCE IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF CONSEQUENCES AND THE DEPENDENCE OF ONE FACT UPON ANOTHER. $Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan”
MOST OF THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS OF SCIENCE ARE ESSENTIALLY SIMPLE, AND MAY, AS A RULE, BE EXPRESSED IN A LANGUAGE COMPREHENSIBLE TO EVERYONE.$Albert Einstein, “The Evolution of Physics”
THERE IS A DEMON WHO PUTS WINGS ON CERTAIN STORIES AND WHO LAUNCHES THEM LIKE EAGLES IN THE AIR.$Alexandre Dumas, “La Dame du Monsoreau”
MEN FALL FROM GREAT FORTUNE BECAUSE OF THE SAME SHORTCOMINGS THAT LED TO THEIR RISE.$La Bruyère, “Les Caractères”
THERE IS NOT A FIERCER HELL THAN THE FAILURE IN A GREAT OBJECT.$John Keats, “Endymion”
LET EVERYONE WITNESS HOW MANY DIFFERENT CARDS FORTUNE HAS UP HER SLEEVE WHEN SHE WANTS TO RUIN A MAN.$Benvenuto Cellini “Autobiography”
ALL MEN THAT ARE RUINED ARE RUINED ON THE SIDE OF THEIR NATURAL PROPENSITIES.$Edmund Burke, “Letters on a Regicide Peace”
NOBODY TALKS MORE PASSIONATELY OF HIS RIGHTS THAN HE WHO, IN THE DEPTHS OF HIS SOUL, IS DOUBTFUL ABOUT THEM.$Frederick Nietzsche, “Human, All-Too-Human”
A BILL OF RIGHTS IS WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO AGAINST EVERY GOVERNMENT ON EARTH.$Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, 1787
THE PUBLIC GOOD IS IN NOTHING MORE ESSENTIALLY INTERESTED THAN IN THE PROTECTION OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL'S PRIVATE RIGHTS.$William Blackstone, “Commentaries”
THE TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TYRANTS. IT IS ITS NATURAL MANURE.$Thomas Jefferson, letter, 1787
THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT IS MIGHTY CONVENIENT IN THIS, THAT IT FREES ONE FROM ALL SCRUPLES AS REGARDS IDEAS.$Joseph Conrad, “A Personal Record”
A MAN THAT STUDIETH REVENGE KEEPS HIS OWN WOUNDS GREEN, WHICH OTHERWISE WOULD HEAL AND DO WELL.$Francis Bacon, “Of Revenge”
IN TAKING REVENGE, A MAN IS BUT EVEN WITH HIS ENEMY; BUT IN PASSING IT OVER, HE IS SUPERIOR.$Francis Bacon, “Of Revenge”
MEN REGARD IT AS THEIR RIGHT TO RETURN EVIL FOR EVIL - AND IF THEY CANNOT, FEEL THEY HAVE LOST THEIR LIBERTY.$Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics”
I BELIEVE THAT EVERY RIGHT IMPLIES A RESPONSIBILITY; EVERY OPPORTUNITY, AN OBLIGATION; EVERY POSSESSION, A DUTY.$John D. Rockefeller, speech, 1941
WHEN YOUR NEIGHBOR'S WALL IS ON FIRE, IT BECOMES YOUR BUSINESS.$Horace, “Epistles”
A CALM DESPAIR, WITHOUT ANGRY CONVULSION OR REPROACHES DIRECTED TO HEAVEN, IS THE ESSENCE OF WISDOM.$Alfred de Vigny, “Journal d’un poète”
IF WE DISREGARD WHAT THE WORLD SAYS OF SOMEONE, WE LIVE TO REPENT IT.$Logal Pearsall Smith, “All Trivia”
THE WORST OF ME IS KNOWN, AND I CAN SAY THAT I AM BETTER THAN MY REPUTATION.$J. C. F. von Schiller, “Maria Stuart”
REPUTATION, LIKE A FACE, IS THE SYMBOL OF ITS POSSESSOR AND CREATOR, AND ANOTHER CAN USE IT ONLY AS A MASK.$Learned Hand, “Yale Electric Company v. Robertson”
ONE WHO HAS A REPUTATION FOR RISING EARLY CAN SLEEP UNTIL NOON.$Alphonse Daudet, “Tartarin sur les Alpes”
I LIKE THE SILENT CHURCH BEFORE THE SERVICE BEGINS, BETTER THAN ANY PREACHING.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
WHAT'S GONE AND WHAT'S PAST HELP SHOULD BE PAST GRIEF.$William Shakespeare, “The Winter’s Tale”
IF YOU BOARD THE WRONG TRAIN, IT IS NO USE RUNNING ALONG THE CORRIDOR IN THE OTHER DIRECTION.$Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Way to Freedom”
A MIND ALL LOGIC IS LIKE A KNIFE ALL BLADE. IT MAKES THE HAND BLEED THAT USES IT.$Rabindranath Tagore, “Stray Birds”
PASSION AND PREJUDICE GOVERN THE WORLD; ONLY UNDER THE NAME OF REASON.$John Wesley, letter to Joseph Benson, 1770
IN THIS WORLD THERE IS ONE TERRIBLE THING, AND THAT IS THAT EVERYONE HAS HIS REASONS.$Jean Renoir, “The Rules of the Game”
WE LIVE IN A FANTASY WORLD, A WORLD OF ILLUSION. THE GREAT TASK IN LIFE IS TO FIND REALITY.$Iris Murdoch, interview, 1983
EVERY AGE IS FED ON ILLUSIONS, LEST MEN SHOULD RENOUNCE LIFE EARLY AND THE HUMAN RACE COME TO AN END.$Joseph Conrad, “Victory”
BE PATIENT TOWARD ALL THAT IS UNSOLVED IN YOUR HEART. TRY TO LOVE THE QUESTIONS THEMSELVES.$Rainer Maria Rilke, letter, 1903
A SUDDEN, BOLD, AND UNEXPECTED QUESTION DOTH MANY TIMES SURPRISE A MAN AND LAY HIM OPEN.$Francis Bacon, “Of Cunning”
THE REFORMATIVE EFFECT OF PUNISHMENT IS A BELIEF THAT DIES HARD, CHIEFLY I THINK, BECAUSE IT IS SO SATISFYING TO OUR SADISTIC IMPULSES.$Bertrand Russell, “Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind”
FREQUENT PUNISHMENTS ARE ALWAYS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS OR LAZINESS ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT.$Jean Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract”
TO PUNISH AND NOT PREVENT IS TO LABOR AT THE PUMP AND LEAVE OPEN THE LEAK.$Thomas Fuller, “Gnomologia”
THE ART OF PUBLICITY IS A BLACK ART; BUT HAS COME TO STAY, AND EVERY YEAR ADDS TO ITS POTENCY.$Learned Hand, address to the Elizabethan Club, 1951
