A quotation from Jean Kerr

The most important thing about me is that I am a Catholic. It’s a superstructure within which you can work, like a sonnet. A good director tells the actors where to move exactly; then they’re free to act. I’m grateful for that discipline, and I’ve never had a crisis of conscience.

Jean Kerr (1922–2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Quoted in (1961-04-14) “Show Business: BROADWAY,” Time Magazine


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A quotation from Propertius

I am scaling a great height, but hope of glory gives me strength: a crown plucked from an easy summit brings no pleasure.
 
[Magnum iter ascendo; sed dat mihi gloria vires;
non iuvat e facili lecta corona iugo.]

Propertius (50–16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 4, Elegy 10, l. 3ff (4.10.3–4) [tr. Goold (Loeb) (1990)]


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A quotation from Shakespeare

VIOLA: I hate ingratitude more in a man
   Than lying, vainness, babbling drunkenness,
   Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
   Inhabits our frail blood.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 3, sc. 4, l. 372ff (3.4.372–375) (1601)


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A quotation from Octavia Butler

All that you touch
You Change
 
All that you Change
Changes you
 
The only lasting truth
Is Change
 
God
Is Change

Octavia Butler (1947–2006) American writer
Parable of the Sower, ch. 1, epigraph (1993)


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A quotation from Orwell

The child thinks of growing old as an almost obscene calamity, which for some mysterious reason will never happen to itself. All who have passed the age of thirty five are joyless grotesques, endlessly fussing about things of no importance and staying alive without, so far as the child can see, having anything to live for. Only child life is real life.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1948-06), “‘Such, Such Were the Joys …’,” Partisan Review (1952-09)


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A quotation from Horace

Let the man who has acquired Enough not ask for MORE.
A house and acreage, a pile of bronze and gold coins,
Have never been able to lower the sick man’s fever
Or drive out his worries. The proprietor must be well
If he plans to enjoy the good things he’s gathered together.
 
[Quod satis est cui contingit, nihil amplius optet.
Non domus et fundus, non aeris acervus et auri
Aegroto doniini deduxit corpore febres,
on animo curas; valeat possessor oportet,
Si conpertatis rebus bene cogitat uti.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 “To Lollius,” l. 46ff (1.2.46-50) (14 BC) [tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]


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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Novel (1886), Kidnapped, ch. 14 “The Islet”


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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

Participating in government in a democracy does not mean merely casting a ballot on election day. It means much more than that. It means an attitude, a moral view, and a willingness to assume a day-to-day responsibility. How many good citizens do you know who constantly deplore waste, inefficiency, and corruption in government, and who also go out and ring doorbells for candidates they believe in? Not very many. Far more say, “Politics is dirty” — and that is about their only protest about the quality of government.

Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1954-03-22), “The Educated Citizen,” Senior Class Banquet, Dillon Gymnasium, Princeton University


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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

When we take into consideration the fact that a belief in the Trinity is absolutely essential to salvation, how unfortunate it was for the world that this doctrine was not established until the year 1274. Think of the millions that dropped into hell while these questions were being discussed.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York


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A quotation from Samuel Johnson

Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1750-08-28), The Rambler, No. 47


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A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

Why is our memory good enough to recall to the last detail things that have happened to us, yet not good enough to recall how often we have told them to the same person?
 
[Pourquoi faut-il que nous ayons assez de mémoire pour retenir jusqu’aux moindres particularités de ce qui nous est arrivé, et que nous n’en ayons pas assez pour nous souvenir combien de fois nous les avons contées à une même personne?]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶313 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]


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A quotation from Terry Pratchett

His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools — the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans — and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, “You can’t trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there’s nothing you can do about it, so let’s have a drink.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 13, Small Gods (1992)


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A quotation from Josh Billings

Honesty iz the rarerest welth enny one kan possess, and yet all the honesty in the world, aint lawful tender for a loaf ov bread.
 
[Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess, and yet all the honesty in the world, ain’t lawful tender for a loaf of bread.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1878-04 “Imps” (1878 ed.)


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A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt

All for each, and each for all, is a good motto; but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain himself as not to be a burden to others.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer; US President (1901–09)
Autobiography, Introduction (1913)


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A quotation from Eric Hoffer

The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination. We cannot pity those we have wronged, nor can we be indifferent toward them. We must hate and persecute them or else leave the door open to self-contempt.

Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 71 (3.14.71) (1951)


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A quotation from Sue Grafton

We all need to look into the dark side of our nature — that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying.

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American novelist, screenwriter
Interview (1997-02-07) by Jeffrey Zaslow, “Straight Talk,” USA Weekend magazine


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A quotation from Cicero

MARCUS: And so, whatever that may be which possesses thought, wisdom, life, vitality — it must be of Heaven and divine, and therefore immortal.
 
[Ita, quicquid est illud, quod sentit, quod sapit, quod vivit, quod viget, caeleste et divinum ob eamque rem aeternum sit necesse est.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 27 (1.27) / sec. 66 (1.66) (45 BC) [tr. Black (1889)]


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A quotation from Gloria Steinem

The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn. We are filled with the popular wisdom of several centuries just past, and we are terrified to give it up. Patriotism means obedience, age means wisdom, woman means submission, black means inferior: these are preconceptions embedded so deeply in our thinking that we honestly may not know that they are there.

Gloria Steinem (1934–2026) American feminist, journalist, activist
Essay (1971-08-21), “A New Egalitarian Life Style,” New York Times


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A quotation from Montaigne

He who does not give himself leisure to be thirsty cannot take pleasure in drinking.
 
[Qui ne se donne loisir d’avoir soif, ne sçauroit prendre plaisir à boire.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 42 (1.42), “Of the Inequality among Us [De l’inequalité qui est entre nous]” (1572) [tr. Frame (1943)]


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A quotation from Alan Watts

When we finally got down to something, which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing — which is stupid!

Alan Watts (1915–1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
Lecture (1969 ca.), “What If Money Was No Object?”


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A quotation from Gracian

Never from Obstinacy take the Wrong Side because your Opponent has anticipated you in taking the Right One.
 
[Nunca por tema seguir el peor partido, porque el contrario se adelantó y escogió el mejor.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601–1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 142 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]


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A quotation from Douglas Adams

It’s easy to think that as a result of the extinction of the dodo, we are now sadder and wiser, but there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that we are merely sadder and better informed.

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Last Chance to See, ch. 6 (1990) [with Mark Carwardine]


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A quotation from Bertrand Russell

Children, like grown-ups, enjoy the sense of achievement derived from mastering a difficulty, but this requires a consistency of effort of which few are capable without some outside encouragement. The capacity for consistent self-direction is one of the most valuable that a human being can possess. It is practically unknown in young children, and is never developed either by a very rigid discipline or by complete freedom.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Social Order [Education and the Modern World], ch. 2 “The Negative Theory of Education” (1932)


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A quotation from Molly Ivins

I don’t think there was ever a time when money was not important in politics. The single most striking development in American politics is the extent to which money is so predominant that everything else including the public interest is insignificant.

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Interview (2006-10-09), “Who’s It Screw, and Who’s Doing the Screwing?” by Rosalind Alexander, Seattle Weekly


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A quotation from James Howell

Easter so wished for long, passeth away in one day.
 
[Pasqua tanto defiata, in un giorno è passata.]

James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian, writer, aphorist
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “Proverbs in Italian” (1659) (compiler)


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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce

FOOLHARDY, adj. Unlucky in the execution of a courageous act.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Foolhardy,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1884-12-13)


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A quotation from Hannah Arendt

The [American] Founding Fathers never believed that tyranny could arise out of the executive office, because they did not see this office in any different light but as the execution of what the legislation has decreed in various forms. I leave it at that. We know today that the greatest danger of tyranny is, of course, the executive.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)


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A quotation from Christy Hall

The night before a deadline, I usually am in desperate need of a back rub. And new wrists. And candy. And little mice to secretly finish the job while I am sleeping.

Christy Hall (contemp.) American playwright, screenwriter, film director
(Attributed)


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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

No matter what you do, some people will criticize you, and, if you are entirely sure that you would not be ashamed to explain your action to someone whom you loved and who loved you, and you are satisfied in your own mind that you are doing right, then you need not worry about criticism, nor need you ever explain what you do.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, activist; First Lady of the US (1933–45)
Memoir (1937), This Is My Story, ch. 4 “Home Again”


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Luke 12:2–3 — Nothing stays hidden
“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known.”

Job 12:22 — God exposes deep darkness
“He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light.”

Proverbs 10:9 — Integrity stands; crookedness collapses
“Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”

Mark 4:22 — Hidden things are meant to be revealed
“For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.”

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A quotation from Jean Kerr

MARY: Some people have such a talent for making the best of a bad situation that they go around creating bad situations so they can make the best of them.

Jean Kerr (1922–2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Mary, Mary, Act 3 (1961)


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A quotation from Richard Steele

We that are very old, are better able to remember things which befell us in our distant youth, than the passages of later days.

Richard Steele (1672–1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1710-06-06), “On the Death of Friends,” The Tatler, No. 181


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