FEW THINGS ARE HARDER TO PUT UP WITH THAN THE ANNOYANCE OF A GOOD EXAMPLE.$Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar”
HOW FAR THAT LITTLE CANDLE THROWS HIS BEAMS! SO SHINES A GOOD DEED IN A NAUGHTY WORLD.$William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”
VIRTUE IS HARDER TO BE GOT THAN KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD; AND, IF LOST IN A YOUNG MAN, IS SELDOM RECOVERED.$John Locke, “Some Thoughts Concerning Education”
VIRTUE WOULD NOT GO TO SUCH LENGTHS IF VANITY DID NOT KEEP HER COMPANY.$La Rochefoucauld, “Maxims”
WE ARE LIKE DWARVES ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, AND SO ARE ABLE TO SEE MORE AND FARTHER THAN THE ANCIENTS.$Bernard of Chartes, quoted by John of Salisbury in “Metalogicon”
THE HUMBLEST CITIZEN OF ALL THE LAND, WHEN CLAD IN THE ARMOR OF A RIGHTEOUS CAUSE, IS STRONGER THAN ALL THE HOSTS OF ERROR.$William Jennings Bryan, speech at the Democratic National Convention, 1896
IT IS BETTER TO BE VIOLENT, IF THERE IS VIOLENCE IN OUR HEARTS, THAN TO PUT ON THE CLOAK OF NON-VIOLENCE TO COVER IMPOTENCE.$Mohandas K. Gandhi, “Peace and War”
IT WERE NOT BEST THAT WE SHOULD ALL THINK ALIKE; IT IS DIFFERENCE OF OPINION THAT MAKES HORSE RACES.$Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar”
THE UNIVERSE BEGINS TO LOOK MORE LIKE A GREAT THOUGHT THAN LIKE A GREAT MACHINE.$Sir James Jeans, “The Mysterious Universe”
I DON'T PRETEND TO UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE - IT'S A GREAT DEAL BIGGER THAN I AM. PEOPLE OUGHT TO BE MODESTER.$Thomas Carlyle, quo;d by D. A. Wilson and D. Wilson McArthur in “Carlyle in Old Age”
THE DESPOT, BE ASSURED, LIVES NIGHT AND DAY LIKE ONE CONDEMNED TO DEATH BY THE WHOLE OF MANKIND FOR HIS WICKEDNESS.$Xenophon, “Hiero”
NECESSITY IS THE PLEA FOR EVERY INFRINGEMENT OF HUMAN FREEDOM. IT IS THE ARGUMENT OF TYRANTS; IT IS THE CREED OF SLAVES.$William Pitt, speech, 1783
WHEN A NATION HAS ALLOWED ITSELF TO FALL UNDER A TYRANNICAL REGIME, IT CANNOT BE ABSOLVED FROM THE FAULTS DUE TO THE GUILT OF THAT REGIME.$Winston Churchill, speech, 1944
TRUTH IS MIGHTY AND WILL PREVAIL. THERE IS NOTHING THE MATTER WITH THIS, EXCEPT THAT IT AIN'T SO.$Mark Twain, “Notebook”
HOW DREADFUL KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH CAN BE WHEN THERE'S NO HELP IN TRUTH.$Sophocles, “Oedipus Rex”
TO LOVE TRUTH IS THE PRINCIPAL PART OF HUMAN PERFECTION IN THIS WORLD, AND THE SEED-PLOT OF ALL OTHER VIRTUES.$John Locke, letter, 1703
THERE IS NOT A TRUTH EXISTING WHICH I FEAR, OR WOULD WISH UNKNOWN TO THE WHOLE WORLD.$Thomas Jefferson, letter to Henry Lee, 1826
IT IS THE CUSTOMARY FATE OF NEW TRUTHS TO BEGIN AS HERESIES AND TO END AS SUPERSTITIONS.$T. H. Huxley, “The Coming of Age of ‘The Origin of Species’”
WHEN YOU HAVE ELIMINATED THE IMPOSSIBLE, WHATEVER REMAINS, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, MUST BE THE TRUTH.$Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Sign of Four”
WE SWALLOW GREEDILY ANY LIE THAT FLATTERS US, BUT WE SIP ONLY LITTLE BY LITTLE AT A TRUTH WE FIND BITTER.$Denis Diderot, “Le Neveu de Rameau”
THE TRUTH IS ALWAYS MODERN, AND THERE NEVER COMES A TIME WHEN IT IS SAFE TO GIVE IT VOICE.$Clarence Darrow, writing about Voltaire
EVERYTHING HAS TWO HANDLES: ONE BY WHICH IT MAY BE BORNE, ANOTHER BY WHICH IT CANNOT.$Epictetus, “Enchiridion”
I AM CONVINCED THAT WE HAVE A DEGREE OF DELIGHT, AND THAT NO SMALL ONE, IN THE REAL MISFORTUNES AND PAINS OF OTHERS.$Edmund Burke, “On the Sublime and Beautiful”
WHO EXCEPT THE GODS CAN LIVE TIME THROUGH FOREVER WITHOUT ANY PAIN?$Aeschylus, “Prometheus Bound”
I NEVER TRAVEL WITHOUT MY DIARY. ONE SHOULD HAVE SOMETHING SENSATIONAL TO READ ON THE TRAIN.$Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest”
I TRAVEL NOT TO GO ANYWHERE BUT TO GO. I TRAVEL FOR TRAVEL'S SAKE. THE GREAT AFFAIR IS TO MOVE.$Robert Louis Stevenson, “Travels With a Donkey”
I LOVE TO SAIL FORBIDDEN SEAS, AND LAND ON BARBAROUS COASTS.$Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick”
THOSE WHO GO OVERSEAS FIND A CHANGE OF CLIMATE, NOT A CHANGE OF SOUL.$Horace, “Epistles”
MEN TRAVEL FASTER NOW, BUT I DO NOT KNOW IF THEY GO TO BETTER THINGS.$Willa Cather, “Death Comes for the Archbishop”
WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE TO WANDER? I THINK THE CIVILIZED PARTS OF THE WORLD WILL SUFFICE FOR ME IN THE FUTURE.$Marry Cassatt, letter, 1911
TRAVELLING IS THE RUIN OF ALL HAPPINESS. THERE'S NO LOOKING AT A BUILDING HERE AFTER SEEING ITALY.$Fanny Burney, “Ceclia”
I HAVE NEVER SMOKED IN MY LIFE AND LOOK FORWARD TO A TIME WHEN THE WORLD WILL LOOK BACK IN AMAZEMENT AND DISGUST AT A PRACTICE SO UNNATURAL AND OFFENSIVE.$George Bernard Shaw, “The New York Herald Tribune”, 1946
THE BELIEVING WE DO SOMETHING WHEN WE DO NOTHING IS THE FIRST ILLUSION OF TOBACCO.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Journals”, 1859
THE BUTTERFLY COUNTS NOT MONTHS BUT MOMENTS, AND HAS TIME ENOUGH.$Rabindranath Tagore, “Stray Birds”
COME WHAT COME MAY, TIME AND THE HOUR RUNS THROUGH THE ROUGHEST DAY.$William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”
WHAT THEN IS TIME? IF NO ONE ASKS ME, I KNOW WHAT IT IS. IF I WISH TO EXPLAIN IT TO HIM WHO ASKS, I DO NOT KNOW.$St. Augustine, “Confessions”
THE GENERALITY OF MANKIND ARE CONTENTED TO BE ESTIMATED BY WHAT THEY POSSESS INSTEAD OF WHAT THEY ARE.$William Hazlitt, “On Personal Identity”
THINGS HAVE THEIR LAWS AS WELL AS MEN; THINGS REFUSE TO BE TRIFLED WITH.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Politics”
THE WISDOM OF MAN NEVER YET CONTRIVED A SYSTEM OF TAXATION THAT OPERATES WITH PERFECT EQUALITY.$Andrew Jackson, “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina”
THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD TO WHICH EVERY MAN HAS A MORE UNASSAILABLE TITLE THAN TO HIS OWN LIFE AND PERSON.$Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Suicide”
IT'S ALWAYS CONSOLING TO THINK OF SUICIDE: IN THAT WAY ONE GETS THROUGH MANY A BAD NIGHT.$Friedrich Nietzche, “Beyond Good and Evil”
ALL YOU NEED IN THIS LIFE IS IGNORANCE AND CONFIDENCE, AND THEN SUCCESS IS SURE.$Mark Twain, letter, 1887
BE NICE TO PEOPLE ON YOUR WAY UP BECAUSE YOU'LL NEED THEM ON YOUR WAY DOWN.$Wilson Mizner, quoted by A. Johnson in “The Incredible Mizners”
THERE IS NO BUSINESS IN THE WORLD SO TROUBLESOME AS THE PURSUIT OF FAME: LIFE IS OVER BEFORE YOU HAVE HARDLY BEGUN YOUR WORK.$Jean de La Bruyère, “Les Caractères”
WE ARE ALL MOTIVATED BY A KEEN DESIRE FOR PRAISE, AND THE BETTER A MAN IS, THE MORE HE IS INSPIRED BY GLORY.$Cicero, “Pro archia”
THE STRONGEST IS NEVER STRONG ENOUGH ALWAYS TO BE MASTER, UNLESS HE TRANSFORMS STRENGTH INTO RIGHT, AND OBEDIENCE INTO DUTY.$Jean Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract”
PHYSICAL STRENGTH CAN NEVER PERMANENTLY WITHSTAND THE IMPACT OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH.$Franklin D. Roosevelt, speech, 1941
IF WE MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN THEM, IT IS FAR BETTER TO BE FEARED THAN LOVED.$Machiavelli, “The Prince”
THE RACE IS NOT ALWAYS TO THE SWIFT NOR THE BATTLE TO THE STRONG - BUT THAT'S THE WAY TO BET IT.$Damon Runyon, “More Than Somewhat”
