IT IS A MISERABLE STATE OF MIND TO HAVE FEW THINGS TO DESIRE AND MANY THINGS TO FEAR; AND YET THAT COMMONLY IS THE CASE OF KINGS.$Francis Bacon, “Essays”
THERE ARE NO CLASSES IN LIFE FOR BEGINNERS; RIGHT AWAY YOU ARE ASKED TO DEAL WITH WHAT IS MOST DIFFICULT.$Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge”
THANKS TO WORDS, WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO RISE ABOVE THE BRUTES; AND THANKS TO WORDS, WE HAVE OFTEN SUNK TO THE LEVEL OF THE DEMONS.$Aldous Huxley, “Adonis and the Alphabet”
ALL KNOWLEDGE IS OF ITSELF OF SOME VALUE. THERE IS NOTHING SO MINUTE OR INCONSIDERABLE THAT I WOULD NOT RATHER KNOW IT THAN NOT.$Samuel Johnson, quoted by James Boswell in “The Life of Samuel Johnson”
THAT WHICH ONE HAS BEEN LONG LEARNING UNWILLINGLY, HE UNLEARNS WITH PROPORTIONAL EAGERNESS AND HASTE.@ - WILLIAM HAZLITT$“On Personal Character”
THE SOUND OF A KISS IS NOT SO LOUD AS THAT OF A CANNON, BUT ITS ECHO LASTS A GREAT DEAL LONGER.@ - OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR.$“The Professor at the Breakfast Table”
MANKIND CENSURE INJUSTICE, FEARING THAT THEY MAY BE THE VICTIMS OF IT AND NOT BECAUSE THEY SHRINK FROM COMMITTING IT.$Plato, “The Republic”
WE PRAISE OR BLAME AS ONE OR THE OTHER AFFORDS MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR EXHIBITING OUR POWER OF JUDGMENT.$Friedrich Nietzsche, “Human, All-too-Human”
HE THAT JUDGES WITHOUT INFORMING HIMSELF TO THE UTMOST THAT HE IS CAPABLE, CANNOT ACQUIT HIMSELF OF JUDGING AMISS.@ - JOHN LOCKE$“An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
THE TEST OF A FIRST-RATE INTELLIGENCE IS THE ABILITY TO HOLD TWO OPPOSED IDEAS IN THE MIND AT THE SAME TIME, AND STILL RETAIN THE ABILITY TO FUNCTION.$F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up,” ed. Edmund Wilson
IF A MAN’S CHARACTER IS TO BE ABUSED, SAY WHAT YOU WILL, THERE’S NOBODY LIKE A RELATION TO DO THE BUSINESS.$William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair”
IT IS NOT HE WHO REVILES OR STRIKES YOU WHO INSULTS YOU, BUT YOUR OPINION THAT THESE THINGS ARE INSULTING.$Epictetus, “Encheiridion”
HE WHO INJURED YOU IS EITHER STRONGER OR WEAKER. IF WEAKER, SPARE HIM; IF STRONGER, SPARE YOURSELF.@ - SENECA$“De Ira”
THERE NEVER WERE IN THE WORLD TWO OPINIONS ALIKE, NO MORE THAN TWO HAIRS OR TWO GRAINS; THE MOST UNIVERSAL QUALITY IS DIVERSITY.$Michel de Montaigne, “Essays”
WE FANCY MEN ARE INDIVIDUALS; SO ARE PUMPKINS; BUT EVERY PUMPKIN IN THE FIELD GOES THROUGH EVERY POINT OF PUMPKIN HISTORY.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Essays”
THERE IS NO MORE MISERABLE HUMAN BEING THAN ONE IN WHOM NOTHING IS HABITUAL BUT INDECISION.@ - WILLIAM JAMES$“The Principles of Psychology”
MOST PEOPLE ARE OTHER PEOPLE. THEIR THOUGHTS ARE SOMEONE ELSE’S OPINIONS, THEIR LIVES A MIMICRY, THEIR PASSIONS A QUOTATION.$Oscar Wilde, “De Profundis”
EVERY AGE IS FED ON ILLUSIONS, LEST MEN SHOULD RENOUNCE LIFE EARLY AND THE HUMAN RACE COME TO AN END.@ - JOSEPH CONRAD$“Victory”
IF YOU START TO THINK ABOUT YOUR PHYSICAL OR MORAL CONDITION, YOU USUALLY FIND THAT YOU ARE SICK.$Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Proverbs in Prose”
I RECKON BEING ILL AS ONE OF THE GREAT PLEASURES OF LIFE, PROVIDED ONE IS NOT TOO ILL AND IS NOT OBLIGED TO WORK UNTIL ONE IS BETTER.$Samuel Butler, “The Way of All Flesh”
TO DO NOTHING AT ALL IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN THE WORLD, THE MOST DIFFICULT AND THE MOST INTELLECTUAL.@ - OSCAR WILDE$“Intentions”
FOR AN IDEA EVER TO BE FASHIONABLE IS OMINOUS, SINCE IT MUST AFTERWARDS BE ALWAYS OLD-FASHIONED.$George Santayana, “Winds of Doctrine”
AN IDEA, TO BE SUGGESTIVE, MUST COME TO THE INDIVIDUAL WITH THE FORCE OF A REVELATION.@ - WILLIAM JAMES$“The Varieties of Religious Experience”
AN IDEALIST IS ONE WHO, ON NOTICING THAT A ROSE SMELLS BETTER THAN A CABBAGE, CONCLUDES THAT IT WILL ALSO MAKE BETTER SOUP.$H. L. Mencken, “A Mencken Chrestomathy”
EVERY FORM OF ADDICTION IS BAD, NO MATTER WHETHER THE NARCOTIC BE ALCOHOL OR MORPHINE OR IDEALISM.@ - CARL JUNG$“Memories, Dreams, Reflections”
IDEALISM IS THE NOBLE TOGA THAT POLITICAL GENTLEMEN DRAPE OVER THEIR WILL TO POWER.@ - ALDOUS HUXLEY$quoted in the “New York Herald Tribune”
I LOVE SUCH MIRTH AS DOES NOT MAKE FRIENDS ASHAMED TO LOOK UPON ONE ANOTHER NEXT MORNING.$Izaak Walton, “The Compleat Angler”
SATIRE IS A SORT OF GLASS, WHEREIN BEHOLDERS DO GENERALLY DISCOVER EVERYBODY’S FACE BUT THEIR OWN.@ - JONATHAN SWIFT$“The Battle of the Books”
THERE’S NO POSSIBILITY OF BEING WITTY WITHOUT A LITTLE ILL-NATURE; THE MALICE OF A GOOD THING IS THE BARB THAT MAKES IT STICK.$Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “The School for Scandal”
MEN WILL CONFESS TO TREASON, MURDER, ARSON, FALSE TEETH, OR A WIG. HOW MANY OF THEM WILL OWN UP TO A LACK OF HUMOR?$Frank Moore Colby, “The Colby Essays”
THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH, BUT NOT THE MINERAL RIGHTS.@ - J. PAUL GETTY$quoted by Robert Lenzner in “The Great Getty”
MAN IS A RATIONAL ANIMAL WHO ALWAYS LOSES HIS TEMPER WHEN HE IS CALLED UPON TO ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DICTATES OF REASON.$Oscar Wilde, “Intentions”
MAN IS THE ONLY ANIMAL THAT KNOWS NOTHING, AND CAN LEARN NOTHING WITHOUT BEING TAUGHT.@ PLINY THE ELDER$“Natural History”
MAN IS THE ONLY ANIMAL THAT LAUGHS AND WEEPS; FOR HE IS THE ONLY ANIMAL THAT IS STRUCK WITH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT THINGS ARE, AND WHAT THEY OUGHT TO BE.$William Hazlitt, “Lectures on the English Comic Writers”
A WONDERFUL FACT TO REFLECT UPON, THAT EVERY HUMAN CREATURE IS CONSTITUTED TO BE THAT PROFOUND SECRET AND MYSTERY TO EVERY OTHER.$Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities”
MAN IS THE ONLY ANIMAL THAT CAN REMAIN ON FRIENDLY TERMS WITH THE VICTIMS HE INTENDS TO EAT UNTIL HE EATS THEM.$Samuel Butler, “Note-Books”
A MAN BUILDS A FINE HOUSE; AND NOW HE HAS A MASTER, HE IS TO FURNISH, WATCH, SHOW IT, AND KEEP IT IN REPAIR, THE REST OF HIS DAYS.$Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Society and Solitude”
THE NATURAL FLIGHTS OF THE HUMAN MIND ARE NOT FROM PLEASURE TO PLEASURE, BUT FROM HOPE TO HOPE. @SAMUEL JOHNSON$“The Rambler”
THOSE WHO THINK THEY HAVE NOT TIME FOR BODILY EXERCISE WILL SOONER OR LATER HAVE TO FIND TIME FOR ILLNESS.$Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby, speech, 1873
THE TROUBLE ABOUT ALWAYS TRYING TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF THE BODY IS THAT IT IS SO DIFFICULT TO DO WITHOUT DESTROYING THE HEALTH OF THE MIND.$G. K. Chesterson, “Come to Think of It”
ONE DOES NOT HATE AS LONG AS ONE HAS A LOW ESTEEM OF SOMEONE, BUT ONLY WHEN ONE ESTEEMS HIM AS AN EQUAL OR A SUPERIOR.$Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil”
MANKIND ARE ALWAYS HAPPY FOR HAVING BEEN HAPPY; SO THAT, IF YOU MAKE THEM HAPPY NOW, YOU MAKE THEM HAPPY TWENTY YEARS HENCE BY THE MEMORY OF IT.$Sydney Smith, “Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy”
THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE SEEM TO BE THOSE WHO HAVE NO PARTICULAR CAUSE FOR BEING HAPPY EXCEPT THAT THEY ARE SO.$William Ralph Inge, in “Wit and Wisdom of Dean Inge,” edited by James Marchant
HUMAN FELICITY IS PRODUCED NOT SO MUCH BY GREAT PIECES OF GOOD FORTUNE THAT SELDOM HAPPEN, AS BY LITTLE ADVANTAGES THAT OCCUR EVERY DAY.$Benjamin Franklin, “Autobiography”
HABIT IS HABIT, AND NOT TO BE FLUNG OUT OF THE WINDOW BY ANY MAN, BUT COAXED DOWNSTAIRS A STEP AT A TIME.$Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar”
AS GOOD HABITS OF THE PEOPLE REQUIRE GOOD LAWS TO SUPPORT THEM, SO LAWS, TO BE OBSERVED, NEED GOOD HABITS ON THE PART OF THE PEOPLE.$Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince and the Discourses”
