NOTHING IS IN REALITY EITHER PLEASANT OR UNPLEASANT BY NATURE; BUT ALL THINGS BECOME SO THROUGH HABIT.$Epictetus, “Encheiridion”
GREAT INDEBTEDNESS DOES NOT MAKE MEN GRATEFUL, BUT VENGEFUL; AND IF A LITTLE CHARITY IS NOT FORGOTTEN, IT TURNS INTO A GNAWING WORM.$Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”
ONE OF THE GREATEST DELUSIONS IN THE WORLD IS THE HOPE THAT THE EVILS IN THIS WORLD ARE TO BE CURED BY LEGISLATION.$Thomas B. Reed, speech, 1886
THE GOVERNMENT IS LIKE A BABY’S ALIMENTARY CANAL, WITH A HEALTHY APPETITE AT ONE END AND NO RESPONSIBILITY AT THE OTHER.@ RONALD REAGAN$quoted in “New York Times Magazine”
GOVERNMENTS EXIST TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF MINORITIES. THE LOVED AND THE RICH NEED NO PROTECTION: THEY HAVE MANY FRIENDS AND FEW ENEMIES.$Wendell Phillips, speech, 1860
A LITTLE GOVERNMENT AND A LITTLE LUCK ARE NECESSARY IN LIFE, BUT ONLY A FOOL TRUSTS EITHER OF THEM.$P. J. O’Rourke, quoted in “Quote” magazine
NOTHING APPEARS MORE SURPRISING TO THOSE WHO CONSIDER HUMAN AFFAIRS WITH A PHILOSOPHICAL EYE, THAN THE EASINESS WITH WHICH THE MANY ARE GOVERNED BY THE FEW.$David Hume, “Essays”
TOO BAD THAT ALL THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO RUN THE COUNTRY ARE BUSY DRIVING TAXICABS AND CUTTING HAIR.@ GEORGE BURNS$quoted in “Life”
THERE IS NO MAN SO GOOD, WHO, WERE HE TO SUBMIT ALL HIS THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS TO THE LAWS, WOULD NOT DESERVE HANGING TEN TIMES IN HIS LIFE.$Michel de Montaigne, “Essays”
A MAN OF GENIUS MAKES NO MISTAKES. HIS ERRORS ARE VOLITIONAL AND ARE THE PORTALS OF DISCOVERY.@ JAMES JOYCE$“Ulysses”
GENIUS WILL LIVE AND THRIVE WITHOUT TRAINING, BUT IT DOES NOT THE LESS REWARD THE WATERING POT AND PRUNING KNIFE.$Margaret Fuller, diary entry
EACH GENERATION IMAGINES ITSELF TO BE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN THE ONE THAT WENT BEFORE IT, AND WISER THAN THE ONE THAT COMES AFTER IT.$George Orwell, “Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell”
I WANT DEATH TO FIND ME PLANTING MY CABBAGES, BUT CARING LITTLE FOR IT, AND EVEN LESS FOR MY IMPERFECT GARDEN.$Michel de Montaigne, “Essays”
MAN IS A GAMING ANIMAL. HE MUST BE ALWAYS TRYING TO GET THE BETTER IN SOMETHING OR OTHER.@ CHARLES LAMB$“Essays of Elia”
I SUPPOSE IT CAN BE TRUTHFULLY SAID THAT HOPE IS THE ONLY UNIVERSAL LIAR WHO NEVER LOSES HIS REPUTATION FOR VERACITY.$Robert G. Ingersoll, speech, 1892
A TRUE FRIEND IS THE GREATEST OF ALL BLESSINGS, AND THE ONE THAT WE TAKE THE LEAST CARE OF ALL TO ACQUIRE.$La Rochefoucauld, “Maxims”
THE ONLY REWARD OF VIRTUE IS VIRTUE; THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE A FRIEND IS TO BE ONE.@ RALPH WALDO EMERSON$“Essays: Friendship”
THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE YOU AGREE WITH CAN SPEAK IS TO SUPPORT THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE YOU DON’T AGREE WITH.$Eleanor Holmes Norton, quoted in “New York Post”
YOU CAN MUFFLE THE DRUM, AND YOU CAN LOOSEN THE STRINGS OF THE LYRE, BUT WHO SHALL COMMAND THE SKYLARK NOT TO SING?$Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet”
A FREE PRESS CAN OF COURSE BE GOOD OR BAD, BUT, MOST CERTAINLY, WITHOUT FREEDOM IT WILL NEVER BE ANYTHING BUT BAD.$Albert Camus, “Resistance, Rebellion and Death”
THOSE WHO EXPECT TO REAP THE BLESSINGS OF FREEDOM, MUST, LIKE MEN, UNDERGO THE FATIGUES OF SUPPORTING IT.$Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis”
NONE CAN LOVE FREEDOM HEARTILY, BUT GOOD MEN; THE REST LOVE NOT FREEDOM, BUT LICENSE.@ JOHN MILTON$“The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates”
I WOULD RATHER BE EXPOSED TO THE INCONVENIENCES ATTENDING TOO MUCH LIBERTY THAN THOSE ATTENDING TOO SMALL A DEGREE OF IT.$Thomas Jefferson, letter, 1859
A MAN IS EITHER FREE OR HE IS NOT. THERE CANNOT BE ANY APPRENTICESHIP FOR FREEDOM.$Imamu Amiri Baraka, in “Kulchur”
THE POWER OF FORTUNE IS CONFESSED ONLY BY THE MISERABLE; FOR THE HAPPY IMPUTE ALL THEIR SUCCESS TO PRUDENCE AND MERIT.$Jonathan Swift, “Thoughts on Various Subjects”
HE WHO CANNOT FORGIVE A TRESPASS OF MALICE TO HIS ENEMY, HAS NEVER YET TASTED THE MOST SUBLIME ENJOYMENT OF LOVE.$Johann Kaspar Lavater, “Aphorisms on Man”
THE FOLLIES WHICH A MAN REGRETS MOST IN HIS LIFE ARE THOSE WHICH HE DIDN’T COMMIT WHEN HE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY.$Helen Rowland, “Reflections of a Bachelor Girl”
A CUCUMBER SHOULD BE WELL SLICED, AND DRESSED WITH PEPPER AND VINEGAR, AND THEN THROWN OUT, AS GOOD FOR NOTHING.$Samuel Johnson, quoted by James Boswell in “Tour to the Hebrides”
THE FLOWER IS THE POETRY OF REPRODUCTION. IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE ETERNAL SEDUCTIVENESS OF LIFE.$Jean Giraudoux, “The Enchanted”
I LIKE TREES BECAUSE THEY SEEM MORE RESIGNED TO THE WAY THEY HAVE TO LIVE THAN OTHER THINGS DO.@ WILLA CATHER$“O Pioneers!”
WHEN ONE IS IN LOVE, ONE ALWAYS BEGINS BY DECEIVING ONESELF, AND ONE ALWAYS ENDS BY DECEIVING OTHERS. THAT IS WHAT THE WORLD CALLS A ROMANCE.$Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
THE COQUETS OF BOTH SEXES ARE SELF-LOVERS, AND THAT IS A LOVE NO OTHER WHATEVER CAN DISPOSSESS.$John Gay, “The Beggar’s Opera”
A DOOR SLAMMING MAKES ONE JUMP, BUT IT DOESN’T MAKE ONE AFRAID. WHAT ONE FEARS IS THE SERPENT THAT CRAWLS UNDERNEATH IT.$Colette, “Cheri”
FEAR IS SHARP-SIGHTED, AND CAN SEE THINGS UNDERGROUND, AND MUCH MORE IN THE SKIES.@ - MIGUEL DE CERVANTES$“Don Quixote de la Mancha”
MEN ALWAYS TRY TO MAKE VIRTUES OF THEIR WEAKNESSES. FEAR OF DEATH AND FEAR OF LIFE BOTH BECOME PIETY.$H. L. Mencken, “Minority Report: H. L. Mencken’s Notebooks”
IT IS WELL THAT THERE IS NO ONE WITHOUT A FAULT; FOR HE WOULD NOT HAVE A FRIEND IN THE WORLD.$William Hazlitt, “Characteristics”
A FASHION IS MERELY A FORM OF UGLINESS SO UNBEARABLE THAT WE ARE COMPELLED TO ALTER IT EVERY SIX MONTHS.$Oscar Wilde, quoted by Richard Ellmann in “Oscar Wilde”
EVERY GENERATION LAUGHS AT THE OLD FASHIONS, BUT FOLLOWS RELIGIOUSLY THE NEW.@ - HENRY DAVID THOREAU$“Walden”
HE THAT HAS NO FOOLS, KNAVES, NOR BEGGARS IN HIS FAMILY WAS BEGOT BY A FLASH OF LIGHTNING.@ - THOMAS FULLER$“Gnomologia”
I WOULD MUCH RATHER HAVE MEN ASK WHY I HAVE NO STATUE, THAN WHY I HAVE ONE.@ - CATO THE ELDER$quoted by Plutarch in “Parallel Lives”
A CELEBRITY IS A PERSON WHO WORKS HARD ALL HIS LIFE TO BECOME WELL KNOWN, THEN WEARS DARK GLASSES TO AVOID BEING RECOGNIZED.$Fred Allen, “Treadmill to Oblivion”
THE FICKLENESS OF THE WOMEN I LOVE IS ONLY EQUALLED BY THE INFERNAL CONSTANCY OF THE WOMEN WHO LOVE ME.$George Bernard Shaw, “The Philanderer”
AN EXPERT IS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOME OF THE WORST MISTAKES THAT CAN BE MADE IN HIS SUBJECT, AND HOW TO AVOID THEM.$Werner Heisenberg, “Physics and Beyond”
TO MOST MEN, EXPERIENCE IS LIKE THE STERN LIGHTS OF A SHIP, WHICH ILLUMINATE ONLY THE TRACK IT HAS PASSED.@ - SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE$“Table Talk”
THE RESOLUTION TO AVOID AN EVIL IS SELDOM FRAMED UNTIL THE EVIL IS SO FAR ADVANCED AS TO MAKE AVOIDANCE IMPOSSIBLE.$Thomas Hardy, “Far From the Madding Crowd”
THE BELIEF IN A SUPERNATURAL SOURCE OF EVIL IS NOT NECESSARY; MEN ALONE ARE QUITE CAPABLE OF EVERY WICKEDNESS.$Joseph Conrad, “Under Western Eyes”
THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.$Edmund Burke, attributed
A MAN SHOULD NEVER BE ASHAMED TO OWN THAT HE HAS BEEN IN THE WRONG, WHICH IS BUT SAYING, IN OTHER WORDS, THAT HE IS WISER TODAY THAN HE WAS YESTERDAY.$Alexander Pope, “Thoughts on Various Subjects”
IT IS ONE THING TO SHOW A MAN THAT HE IS IN AN ERROR, AND ANOTHER TO PUT HIM IN POSSESSION OF TRUTH.$John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
