A quotation from Thoreau

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 1 “Economy” (1854)

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A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt

We seek peace — enduring peace. More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars — yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman, and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1945-04-13), Jefferson Day (undelivered)

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A quotation from Montaigne

Particularly dangerous are old men who retain the memory of past events, but do not remember how often they have repeated them. I have known some very amusing tales to become most tiresome when told by some gentlemen whose whole audience has been sated with them a hundred times.
 
[Sur tout les vieillards sont dangereux, à qui la souvenance des choses passees demeure, et ont perdu la souvenance de leurs redites. J’ay veu des recits bien plaisants, devenir tres-ennuyeux, en la bouche d’un Seigneur, chascun de l’assistance en ayant esté abbreuvé cent fois.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 9 (1.9), “Of Liars [Des Menteurs]” (1572) [tr. Cohen (1958)]

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A quotation from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always explaining things to them.
 
[Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c’est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours et toujours leur donner des explications.]

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) French writer, aviator
Le Petit Prince [The Little Prince], ch. 1 (1943) [tr. Wood (1945)]

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A quotation from Bertrand Russell

It is better to do nothing than to do harm. Half the useful work in the world consists of combating the harmful work.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 16 “Effort and Resignation” (1930)

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A quotation NOT from Ben Franklin

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
(Spurious)

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A quotation from Thomas Fuller

A Fault, once denied, is twice committed.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 93 (1732)

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A quotation from Ben Franklin

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Letter (1755-11-11) to Royal Governor Robert Hunter Morris, from the Pennsylvania Assembly

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A quotation from Abraham Lincoln

I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason: I can never be satisfied with any one who would be block-head enough to have me.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1838-04-01) to Mrs. Orville H. Browning

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A quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson

God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2

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A quotation from Bill Watterson

CALVIN: I think nighttime is dark so you can imagine your fears with less distraction.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1989-04-23)

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A quotation from Hannah Arendt

The price for absolute freedom from necessity is, in a sense, life itself, or rather the substitution of vicarious life for real life. […] The human condition is such that pain and effort are not just symptoms which can be removed without changing life itself; they are the modes in which life itself, together with the necessity to which it is bound, makes itself felt. For mortals, the “easy life of the gods” would be a lifeless life.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Human Condition, Part 3 “Labor,” ch. 16 (1958)

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A quotation from A. A. Milne

So wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,
There’s always Pooh and Me.
“What would I do?” I said to Pooh,
“If it wasn’t for you,” and Pooh said: “True,
It isn’t much fun for One, but Two
Can stick together,” says Pooh, says he.
“That’s how it is,” says Pooh.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Now We Are Six, “Us Two,” st. 5 (1927)

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A quotation from Fran Lebowitz

Being offended is a natural consequence of leaving the house.

Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950) American journalist, essayist
Interview (2021-02-17), BBC Newsnight

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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

I think the women of this country, if they face the fact of the present situation, will agree with me that this is a time for action — not for war, but for mobilization of every bit of peace machinery. It is also a time for facing the fact that you cannot use a weapon, even though it is the weapon that gives you greater strength than other nations, if it is so destructive that it practically wipes out large areas of land and great numbers of innocent people.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1954-04-16), “My Day”

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A quotation from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yes, I am personally the victim of deferred dreams, of blasted hopes, but in spite of that I close today by saying I still have a dream, because, you know, you can’t give up in life. If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Sermon (1967-12-24), “A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta

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A quotation from Victor Hugo

Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
(Attributed)

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A quotation from Jean Kerr

The real menace in dealing with a five-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a five-year-old.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “How to Get the Best of Your Children,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies

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A quotation from Wendell Berry

It is impossible not to notice how little the proponents of the ideal of competition have to say about honesty, which is the fundamental economic virtue, and how very little they have to say about community, compassion, and mutual help.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1988), “Economy and Pleasure,” What Are People For? (1990)

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A quotation from Joseph Addison

VELLUM: There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Drummer, Act 5, sc. 1 (1716)

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A quotation from Walter Raleigh

O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised: thou hast drawn together all the far stretchèd greatness, all the pride, cruelty and ambition of man, and covered it all over with those two narrow words, Hic jacet!

Walter Raleigh (c. 1552-1618) English statesman, soldier, writer, explorer
The Historie of the World, in Five Bookes, Book 5, ch. 6, sec. 12 (1614)

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A quotation from Shakespeare

GLOUCESTER: We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
King Lear, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 118ff (1.2.118-121) (1606)

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A quotation from Aldous Huxley

All propaganda directed against an opposing group has but one aim: to substitute diabolical abstractions for concrete persons. The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. By robbing them of their personality, he puts them outside the pale of moral obligation. Mere symbols can have no rights — particularly when that of which they are symbolical is, by definition, evil.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Essay (1936), “Words and Behaviour,” The Olive Tree, and Other Essays

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A quotation from Terry Pratchett

You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless, and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape — the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes — we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 8, Guards! Guards! (1989)

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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

I am not sure that, historically, there has been another powerful nation that has been trusted as the United States is trusted today. It is something new under the sun when the proudest nations on earth have not only accepted American leadership in the common defense effort, but have also welcomed our troops and bases on their territory.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York City

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A quotation from Mark Twain

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Attributed)

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A quotation from C. C. Colton

The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 443 (1820)

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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. It seems a pity to sit, like the Lady of Shalott, peering into a mirror, with your back turned on all the bustle and glamour of reality.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1877-07), “An Apology for Idlers,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 36

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A quotation from Orwell

One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognises the overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty. In certain circumstances it can break down, at certain levels of civilisation it does not exist, but as a positive force there is nothing to set beside it. Christianity and international Socialism are as weak as straw in comparison with it. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in their own countries very largely because they could grasp this fact and their opponents could not.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 1, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

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A quotation from Eisenhower

Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 143,000,000 followers, it will no longer be America. Truly American leadership is not of any one man. It is of multitudes of men — and women.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Essay (1948-10), “An Open Letter to America’s Students,” Reader’s Digest

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A quotation from Abraham Lincoln

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.” When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1854-08-24) to Joshua Speed

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