ALL MEN ARE LIABLE TO ERROR; AND MOST MEN ARE, IN MANY POINTS, BY PASSION OR INTEREST, UNDER TEMPTATION TO IT.$John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
WE ACT AS THOUGH COMFORT AND LUXURY WERE THE CHIEF REQUIREMENTS OF LIFE, WHEN ALL THAT WE NEED TO MAKE US REALLY HAPPY IS SOMETHING TO BE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT.$Charles Kingsley, quoted in “Reader’s Digest”
IN THINGS PERTAINING TO ENTHUSIASM, NO MAN IS SANE WHO DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO BE INSANE ON PROPER OCCASIONS.$Henry Ward Beecher, “Proverbs From Plymouth Pulpit”
EDUCATION IS AN ADMIRABLE THING, BUT IT IS WELL TO REMEMBER FROM TIME TO TIME THAT NOTHING THAT IS WORTH KNOWING CAN BE TAUGHT.$Oscar Wilde, “Intentions”
THE TEST AND THE USE OF MAN’S EDUCATION IS THAT HE FINDS PLEASURE IN THE EXERCISE OF HIS MIND.$Jaques Barzun, in “The Saturday Evening Post”
WHEN A STUPID MAN IS DOING SOMETHING HE IS ASHAMED OF, HE ALWAYS DECLARES THAT IT IS HIS DUTY.$George Bernard Shaw, “Caesar and Cleopatra”
THERE ARE TWO REASONS FOR DRINKING: ONE IS, WHEN YOU ARE THIRSTY, TO CURE IT; THE OTHER, WHEN YOU ARE NOT THIRSTY, TO PREVENT IT.$Thomas Love Peacock, “Melincourt”
ONLY THE DREAMER SHALL UNDERSTAND REALITIES, THOUGH, IN TRUTH, HIS DREAMING MUST NOT BE OUT OF PROPORTION TO HIS WAKING!$Margaret Fuller, “Summer on the Lakes”
DREAMING PERMITS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US TO BE QUIETLY AND SAFELY INSANE EVERY NIGHT OF OUR LIVES.$Charles Fisher, in “Newsweek”
IF THE DEVIL DOES NOT EXIST, AND MAN HAS THEREFORE CREATED HIM, HE HAS CREATED HIM IN HIS OWN IMAGE AND LIKENESS.$Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamozov”
AN APOLOGY FOR THE DEVIL: IT MUST BE REMEMBERED THAT WE HAVE ONLY HEARD ONE SIDE OF THE CASE. GOD HAS WRITTEN ALL THE BOOKS.$Samuel Butler, “Note-Books”
IN A REAL DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL IT IS ALWAYS THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING, DAY AFTER DAY.$F. Scott Fitzgerald, in “Esquire”
WHAT WE CALL OUR DEPAIR IS OFTEN ONLY THE PAINFUL EAGERNESS OF UNFED HOPE.$George Eliot, “Middlemarch”
ANYONE CAN STOP A MAN’S LIFE, BUT NO ONE HIS DEATH; A THOUSAND DOORS OPEN ON TO IT.$Seneca, “Phoenissae”
CULTURE IS ON THE HORNS OF THIS DILEMMA: IF PROFOUND AND NOBLE IT MUST REMAIN RARE, IF COMMON IT MUST BECOME MEAN.$George Santayana, “The Life of Reason”
ONE OUGHT EVERY DAY AT LEAST, TO HEAR A LITTLE SONG, READ A GOOD POEM, SEE A FINE PICTURE, AND, IF IT WERE POSSIBLE, TO SPEAK A FEW REASONABLE WORDS.$Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”
CULTURE HAS ONE GREAT PASSION -- THE PASSION FOR SWEETNESS AND LIGHT. IT HAS ONE EVEN YET GREATER, THE PASSION FOR MAKING THEM PREVAIL.$Matthew Arnold, “Culture and Anarchy”
CRUELTY IS THE LAW PERVADING ALL NATURE AND SOCIETY; AND WE CAN’T GET OUT OF IT IF WE WOULD.$Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure”
THE BEST UNIVERSITY THAT CAN BE RECOMMENDED TO A MAN OF IDEAS IS THE GAUNTLET OF THE MOB.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Society and Solitude”
NEVER PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT CRITICS SAY. REMEMBER, A STATUE HAS NEVER BEEN SET UP IN HONOR OF A CRITIC.$Jean Sibelius, quoted by Bengt de Törne in “Sibelius: A Close-Up”
THE PLEASURE OF CRITICIZING ROBS US OF THE PLEASURE OF BEING MOVED BY SOME VERY FINE THINGS.$La Bruyère, “Les Caractères”
THERE IS NO DEN IN THE WIDE WORLD TO HIDE A ROGUE...COMMIT A CRIME, AND THE EARTH IS MADE OF GLASS.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Essays”
SINGULARITY IS ALMOST INVARIABLY A CLUE. THE MORE FEATURELESS AND COMMONPLACE A CRIME IS, THE MORE DIFFICULT IT IS TO BRING IT HOME.$Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”
EVERYBODY IS A POTENTIAL MURDERER. I’VE NEVER KILLED ANYONE, BUT I FREQUENTLY GET SATISFACTION READING THE OBITUARY NOTICES.$Clarence Darrow, quoted in “New York Times Magazine”
EVERY MAN WISHES TO BE WISE, AND THEY WHO CANNOT BE WISE ARE ALMOST ALWAYS CUNNING.$Samuel Johnson, “The Idler”
“FRANK AND EXPLICIT”; THAT IS THE RIGHT LINE TO TAKE WHEN YOU WISH TO CONCEAL YOUR OWN MIND AND TO CONFUSE THE MINDS OF OTHERS.$Benjamin Disraeli, “Sybil”
FEAR EVEN WHEN MORBID IS NOT COWARDICE. THAT IS THE LABEL WE RESERVE FOR SOMETHING THAT A MAN DOES. WHAT PASSES THROUGH HIS MIND IS HIS OWN AFFAIR.$Lord Moran, “The Anatomy of Courage”
THE HAPPINESS OF THE DOMESTIC FIRESIDE IS THE FIRST BOON OF HEAVEN; AND IT IS WELL IT IS SO, SINCE IT IS THAT WHICH IS THE LOT OF THE MASS OF MANKIND.$Thomas Jefferson, letter, 1813
CONVERSATION HAS A KIND OF CHARM ABOUT IT, AN INSINUATING AND INSIDIOUS SOMETHING THAT ELICITS SECRETS FROM US JUST LIKE LOVE OR LIQUOR.$Seneca, “Epistulae ad Lucilium”
THE HAPPIEST CONVERSATION IS THAT OF WHICH NOTHING IS DISTINCTLY REMEMBERED, BUT A GENERAL EFFECT OF PLEASING IMPRESSION.$Samuel Johnson, quoted by James Boswell in “The Life of Samuel Johnson”
CONVERSATION IS AN ART IN WHICH A MAN HAS ALL MANKIND FOR HIS COMPETITORS, FOR IT IS THAT WHICH ALL ARE PRACTICING EVERY DAY WHILE THEY LIVE.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Conduct of Life”
CONSCIENCE IS A COWARD, AND THOSE FAULTS IT HAS NOT STRENGTH ENOUGH TO PREVENT IT SELDOM HAS JUSTICE ENOUGH TO ACCUSE.$Oliver Goldsmith, “The Vicar of Wakefield”
CONSCIENCE IS THOROUGHLY WELL BRED AND SOON LEAVE OFF TALKING TO THOSE WHO DO NOT WISH TO HEAR IT.$Samuel Butler, “Note-Books”
YOU CAN HAVE ANYTHING IN THIS WORLD YOU WANT, IF YOU WANT IT BADLY ENOUGH AND YOU’RE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE.$Mary Kay Ash, quoted in the “New York Times”
I’VE NEVER ANY PITY FOR CONCEITED PEOPLE, BECAUSE I THINK THEY CARRY THEIR COMFORT ABOUT WITH THEM.$George Eliot, “The Mill on the Floss”
A COMPUTER WILL DO WHAT YOU TELL IT TO, BUT THAT MAY BE MUCH DIFFERENT FROM WHAT YOU HAD IN MIND.$Joseph Weisenbaum, quoted in “Time”
ALL A COMPUTER DOES IS TELL A CONSISTENT STORY: A CONSISTENT TRUTH, OR, IF THE PROGRAMMER’S GUESSES ARE UNLIKELY, A CONSISTENT FICTION.$Paul A. Samuelson, in “Newsweek”
WHAT MEN CALL SOCIAL VIRTUE, GOOD FELLOWSHIP, IS COMMONLY BUT THE VIRTUE OF PIGS IN A LITTER, WHICH LIE CLOSE TOGETHER TO KEEP EACH OTHER WARM.$Henry David Thoreau, “Journal”
THE BOURGEOIS PREFERS COMFORT TO PLEASURE, CONVENIENCE TO LIBERTY, AND A PLEASANT TEMPERATURE TO THE DEATHLY INNER CONSUMING FIRE.$Hermann Hesse, “Der Steppenwolf”
IF A TEST OF CIVILIZATION BE SOUGHT, NONE CAN BE SO SURE AS THE CONDITION OF THAT HALF OF SOCIETY OVER WHICH THE OTHER HALF HAS POWER.$Harriet Martineau, “Society in America”
IN ROME YOU LONG FOR THE COUNTRY; IN THE COUNTRY -- OH, INCONSTANT! -- YOU PRAISE THE DISTANT CITY TO THE STARS.$Horace, “Satires”
WE FIND DELIGHT IN THE BEAUTY AND HAPPINESS OF CHILDREN THAT MAKES THE HEART TOO BIG FOR THE BODY.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Conduct of Life”
IN THE LITTLE WORLD IN WHICH CHILDREN HAVE THEIR EXISTENCE, WHOSOEVER BRINGS THEM UP, THERE IS NOTHING SO FINELY PERCEIVED AND SO FINELY FELT AS INJUSTICE.$Charles Dickens, “Great Expectations”
CHILDREN SWEETEN LABORS, BUT THEY MAKE MISFORTUNES MORE BITTER. THEY INCREASE THE CARES OF LIFE, BUT THEY MITIGATE THE REMEMBRENCE OF DEATH.$Francis Bacon, “Essays”
THE PLAINEST SIGN OF WISDOM IS A CONTINUAL CHEERFULNESS: HER STATE IS LIKE THAT OF THINGS IN THE REGIONS ABOVE THE MOON, ALWAYS CLEAR AND SERENE.$Michel de Montaigne, “Essays”
DON’T SAY THINGS. WHAT YOU ARE STANDS OVER YOU THE WHILE, AND THUNDERS SO THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY TO THE CONTRARY.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Letters and Social Aims”
BOREDOM IS A VITAL PROBLEM FOR THE MORALIST, SINCE AT LEAST HALF THE SINS OF MANKIND ARE CAUSED BY THE FEAR OF IT.$Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness”
BOOKS ARE GOOD ENOUGH IN THEIR OWN WAY, BUT THEY ARE A MIGHTY BLOODLESS SUBSTITUTE FOR LIFE.$Robert Louis Stevenson, “Virginibus Puerisque”
