DRINKING WHEN WE ARE NOT THIRSTY AND MAKING LOVE ALL YEAR ROUND; THAT IS ALL THERE IS TO DISTINGUISH US FROM OTHER ANIMALS.$Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, “Le Mariage de Figaro”
IT IS UNFORTUNATE, CONSIDERING THAT ENTHUSIASM MOVES THE WORLD, THAT SO FEW ENTHUSIASTS CAN BE TRUSTED TO SPEAK THE TRUTH.$A. J. Balfour, letter, 1918
THE MOST MELANCHOLY OF HUMAN REFLECTIONS, PERHAPS, IS THAT, ON THE WHOLE, IT IS A QUESTION WHETHER THE BENEVOLENCE OF MANKIND DOES MOST GOOD OR HARM.$Walter Bagehot, “Physics and Politics”
NO REAL ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, IN HIS SECRET SOUL, WAS EVER SORRY FOR THE DEATH OF A POLITICAL ECONOMIST.$Walter Bagehot, “Estimates of Some Englishmen and Scotchmen”
MEN FEAR DEATH AS CHILDREN FEAR TO GO IN THE DARK; AND AS THAT NATURAL FEAR IN CHILDREN IS INCREASED WITH TALES, SO IS THE OTHER.$Francis Bacon, “Essays: Of Death”
HOUSES ARE BUILT TO LIVE IN AND NOT TO LOOK ON; THEREFORE LET USE BE PREFERRED BEFORE UNIFORMITY, EXCEPT WHERE BOTH MAY BE HAD.$Francis Bacon, “Essays: Of Building”
IT IS IN LIFE AS IT IS IN WAYS, THE SHORTEST WAY IS COMMONLY THE FOULEST, AND SURELY THE FAIRER WAY IS NOT MUCH ABOUT.$Francis Bacon, “Advancement of Learning”
THEY ARE ILL DISCOVERERS THAT THINK THERE IS NO LAND, WHEN THEY CAN SEE NOTHING BUT SEA.$Francis Bacon, “Advancement of Learning”
WHERE SO MANY HOURS HAVE BEEN SPENT IN CONVINCING MYSELF THAT I AM RIGHT, IS THERE NOT SOME REASON TO FEAR I MAY BE WRONG?$Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility”
FOR WHAT DO WE LIVE, BUT TO MAKE SPORT FOR OUR NEIGHBORS, AND LAUGH AT THEM IN OUR TURN?$Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice”
A LARGE INCOME IS THE BEST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS I HAVE EVER HEARD OF. IT CERTAINLY MAY SECURE ALL THE MYRTLE AND TURKEY PART OF IT.$Jane Austen, “Mansfield Park”
ONE HALF OF THE WORLD CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE PLEASURES OF THE OTHER.$Jane Austen, “Emma”
THERE IS NO SUCH WHETSTONE, TO SHARPEN A GOOD WIT AND ENCOURAGE A WILL TO LEARNING, AS IS PRAISE.$Roger Ascham, “The Schoolmaster”
PEOPLE THINK THAT I CAN TEACH THEM STYLE. WHAT STUFF IT ALL IS! HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, AND SAY IT AS CLEARLY AS YOU CAN. THAT IS THE ONLY SECRET OF STYLE.$Matthew Arnold, quoted by G. W. E. Russell in “Collections and Recollections”
CULTURE IS THE ACQUAINTING OURSELVES WITH THE BEST THAT HAS BEEN KNOWN AND SAID IN THE WORLD, AND THUS WITH THE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT.$Matthew Arnold, preface to the 1873 edition of “Literature and Dogma”
I AM BOUND BY MY OWN DEFINITION OF CRITICISM: A DISINTERESTED ENDEAVOR TO LEARN AND PROPAGATE THE BEST THAT IS KNOWN AND THOUGHT IN THE WORLD.$Matthew Arnold, “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”
I VALUE MY GARDEN MORE FOR BEING FULL OF BLACKBIRDS THAN OF CHERRIES, AND VERY FRANKLY GIVE THEM FRUIT FOR THEIR SONGS.$Joseph Addison, “The Spectator”
PAY ATTENTION TO THE YOUNG, AND MAKE THEM JUST AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE.@ - SOCRATES$quoted by Plato in “Euthyphro”
THE YOUNG ARE PERMANENTLY IN A STATE RESEMBLING INTOXICATION; FOR YOUTH IS SWEET AND THEY ARE GROWING.$Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics”
TO TRAVEL HOPEFULLY IS A BETTER THING THAN TO ARRIVE, AND TRUE SUCCESS IS TO LABOR.$Robert Louis Stevenson, “Virginibus Puerisque”
IF I WERE A MEDICAL MAN, I SHOULD PRESCRIBE A HOLIDAY TO ANY PATIENT WHO CONSIDERS HIS WORK IMPORTANT.$Bertrand Russell, “Autobiography”
FAR AND AWAY THE BEST PRIZE THAT LIFE OFFERS IS THE CHANCE TO WORK HARD AT WORK WORTH DOING.$Theodore Roosevelt, Labor Day speech, 1903
THE AVERAGE MALE GETS HIS LIVING BY SUCH DEPRESSING DEVICES THAT BOREDOM BECOMES A SORT OF NATURAL STATE TO HIM.$H. L. Mencken, “In Defence of Women”
CONSTANT LABOR OF ONE UNIFORM KIND DESTROYS THE INTENSITY AND FLOW OF A MAN’S ANIMAL SPIRIT, WHICH FIND RECREATION AND DELIGHT IN MERE CHANGE OF ACTIVITY.$Karl Marx, “Capital”
IT IS WEARINESS TO KEEP TOILING AT THE SAME THINGS SO THAT ONE BECOMES RULED BY THEM.$Heraclitus, fragment
FARMING LOOKS MIGHTY EASY WHEN YOUR PLOW IS A PENCIL AND YOU’RE A THOUSAND MILES FROM A CORNFIELD.$Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, September 1956
THE BITTER AND THE SWEET COME FROM THE OUTSIDE, THE HARD FROM WITHIN, FROM ONE’S OWN EFFORTS.$Albert Einstein, “Out of My Later Years”
ORIGINALITY AND A FEELING OF ONE’S OWN DIGNITY ARE ACHIEVED ONLY THROUGH WORK AND STRUGGLE.$Feodor Dostoevski, “A Diary of a Writer”
WORKING PEOPLE HAVE A LOT OF BAD HABITS, BUT THE WORST OF THEM IS WORK.$Clarence Darrow, quoted by Kevin Tierney in “Darrow”
WORK IS THE GRAND CURE OF ALL THE MALADIES AND MISERIES THAT EVER BESET MANKIND.$Thomas Carlyle, speech, April 1886
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MORAL MAN AND A MAN OF HONOR IS THAT THAT LATTER REGRETS A DISCREDITABLE ACT, EVEN WHEN IT HAS WORKED AND HE HAS NOT BEEN CAUGHT.$H. L. Mencken, “Prejudices”
THE SILLIEST WOMAN CAN MANAGE A CLEVER MAN; BUT IT NEEDS A VERY CLEVER WOMAN TO MANAGE A FOOL.$Rudyard Kipling, “Plain Tales from the Hills”
HOLD IT THE GREATEST SIN TO PREFER EXISTENCE TO HONOR, AND FOR THE SAKE OF LIFE TO LOSE THE REASONS FOR LIVING.$Juvenal, “Satires”
I HAVE BEEN A WOMAN FOR FIFTY YEARS, AND I’VE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DISCOVER PRECISELY WHAT IT IS I AM.$Jean Giraudoux, “The Tiger at the Gates”
THE HIGHEST WISDOM HAS BUT ONE SCIENCE--THE SCIENCE OF THE WHOLE--THE SCIENCE EXPLAINING THE WHOLE CREATION AND MAN'S PLACE IN IT.$Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace”
THOSE WHO ARE HELD WISE AMONG MEN, AND WHO SEARCH FOR THE REASON OF THINGS, ARE THOSE WHO BRING THE MOST SORROW ON THEMSELVES.$Euripides, “Medea”
ONCE YOU HEAR THE DETAILS OF A VICTORY, IT IS HARD TO DISTINGUISH IT FROM A DEFEAT.$Jean-Paul Sartre, “Le Diable et le bon Dieu”
THE PROBLEMS OF VICTORY ARE MORE AGREEABLE THAN THOSE OF DEFEAT, BUT THEY ARE NO LESS DIFFICULT.$Winston Chuchill, speech, November 1942
WAR IS A MATTER NOT SO MUCH OF ARMS AS OF EXPENDITURE, THROUGH WHICH ARMS MAY BE MADE OF SERVICE.$Thucydides, “Historia”
WAR WILL NEVER CEASE UNTIL BABIES BEGIN TO COME INTO THE WORLD WITH LARGER CEREBRUMS AND SMALLER ADRENAL GLANDS.$H. L. Mencken, “Notebooks”
WAR IS THE GREATEST PLAGUE THAT CAN AFFECT HUMANITY: IT DESTROYS RELIGION, IT DESTROYS STATES, IT DESTROYS FAMILIES. ANY SCOURGE IS PREFERABLE TO IT.$Martin Luther, “Table-Talk”
THERE IS NOTHING THAT WAR HAS EVER ACHIEVED THAT WE COULD NOT BETTER ACHIEVE WITHOUT IT.$Havelock Ellis, “The Philosophy of Conflict”
IN WAR, WHICHEVER SIDE MAY CALL ITSELF THE VICTOR, THERE ARE NO WINNERS BUT ALL ARE LOSERS.$Neville Chamberlain, speech, July 1938
IT TAKES TWENTY YEARS OR MORE OF PEACE TO MAKE A MAN; IT TAKES ONLY TWENTY SECONDS OF WAR TO DESTROY HIM.$King Baudouin I of Belgium, speech to U. S. Congress, 1959
IT IS DIFFICULT BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO CONDUCT STRICTLY HONEST BUSINESS. WHAT IS TRUE IS THAT HONESTY IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE AMASSING OF A LARGE FORTUNE.$Mohandas K. Ghandi, “Non-Violence in Peace and War”
WE ARE LIKE DWARVES UPON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, AND SO ARE ABLE TO SEE MORE AND FARTHER THAN THE ANCIENTS.$Bernard of Chartres, quoted by John of Salisbury in “Metalogicon”
VIRTUE, STUDY, AND GAIETY ARE THREE SISTERS WHO SHOULD NOT BE SEPARATED.$Voltaire, letter to Frederick the Great, 1737
ALWAYS DO RIGHT. THIS WILL GRATIFY SOME PEOPLE AND ASTONISH THE REST.$Mark Twain, speech, Brooklyn, New York, 1901
NOTHING CAN HARM A GOOD MAN, EITHER IN LIFE OR AFTER DEATH.@ - SOCRATES$quoted by Plato in “Apology”
