A quotation from Baltasar Gracian

The way to quiet the turbulence of a mob is to withdraw your hand, and let it quiet itself; to concede today, may be the best way to succeed tomorrow.
 
[Sea modo de sosegar vulgares torbellinos el alzar mano y dejar sosegar; ceder al tiempo ahora será vencer después.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 138 (1647) [tr. Fischer (1937)]


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A quotation from Anaïs Nin

The important task of literature is to free man, not to censor him, and that is why Puritanism was the most destructive and evil force which ever oppressed people and their literature: it created hypocrisy, perversion, fears, sterility.

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist


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A quotation from Douglas Adams

It’s important to remember that the relationship between different media tends to be complementary. When new media arrive they don’t necessarily replace or eradicate previous types. Though we should perhaps observe a half second silence for the eight-track — there that’s done. What usually happens is that older media have to shuffle about a bit to make space for the new one and its particular advantages. Radio did not kill books and television did not kill radio or movies — what television did kill was the cinema newsreel.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Broadcast (2010-10-11), Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Future, ep. 2, “Publishing,” BBC Radio 4


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A quotation from Molly Ivins

Nice is a pallid virtue. Not like honesty or courage or perseverance. On the other hand, in a nation frequently lacking in civility, there is much to be said for nice.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1994-05-15), “My, Oh, My, It’s the Ninth Wonder of the World,” Creators Syndicate column, Fort Worth Star-Telegram


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A quotation from James Howell

He who will thrive, must rise at five;
He who hath thriven, may sleep till seven;
Who will not thrive at all, may sleep till eleven.

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


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A quotation from C S Lewis

There are inquiries in which scanty evidence is worth using. We may not be able to get certainty, but we can get probability, and half a loaf is better than no bread.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Essay (1950-10), “Historicism,” The Month, Vol. 4, No. 4 New Series (Vol. 190, No. 998 Old Series)


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A quotation from Hannah Arendt

Totalitarianism is never content to rule by external means, namely, through the state and a machinery of violence; thanks to its peculiar ideology and the role assigned to it in this apparatus of coercion, totalitarianism has discovered a means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 10 “A Classless Society,” sec. 1 (1951)


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A quotation from Brennan Manning

Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot cover.

Brennan Manning (1934-2013) American author, laicized priest, theologian, speaker [Richard Francis Xavier Manning]
All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir, ch. 19 (2011)


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A quotation from Henry Commager

We are shocked when we see educators, timid before criticism and confused about first principles, betray their trust. And we wonder what can be that "philosophy of education" which believes that young people can be trained to the duties of citizenship by wrapping their minds in cotton wool.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 1, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168


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A quotation from Terry Pratchett

It was said that life was cheap in Ankh-Morpork. This was, of course, completely wrong. Life was often very expensive; you could get death for free.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld, Book 7, Pyramids (1989)


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A quotation from Thoreau

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

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 Samuel Johnson

Of many writers who filled their age with wonder, and whose names we find celebrated in the books of their contemporaries, the works are now no longer to be seen, or are seen only amidst the lumber of libraries which are seldom visited, where they lie only to show the deceitfulness of hope, and the uncertainty of honour.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-06-02), The Idler, No. 59


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A quotation from Shakespeare

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Sonnet 94, ll. 13-14 (pub. 1609)


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A quotation from John Quincy Adams

I have, and must have, confidence in the possible virtue of human nature; and although in entertaining this idea, a man must, and will sometimes, be disappointed, yet if it is coupled with a sound judgment and close observations, I believe he could make fewer great mistakes, than one whose principle is the universal rascality of the species.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
Letter (1809-06-22) to William Eustis


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A quotation from Francis Bacon

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
Essay (1612), “Of Beauty,” Essays, No. 43 (1625)


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A quotation from Alfred Hitchcock

Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
Interview (1962-08) by François Truffaut


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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

Life is a shadowy, strange, and winding road on which we travel for a little way — a few short steps — just from the cradle, with its lullaby of love, to the low and quiet way-side inn, where all at last must sleep, and where the only salutation is — Good-night.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Essay (1881-11) “The Christian Religion,” “Part 2” North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 300


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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

Behind the politics of big talk and little action lies the simple fact that most of the big men who run this show want little government.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1955-10-29), “The Crisis in Agriculture,” Democratic Rally, Duluth, Minnesota


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A quotation from Twain

Customs do not concern themselves with right or wrong or reason. But they have to be obeyed; one may reason all around them until he is tired, but he must not transgress them, it is sternly forbidden.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]


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A quotation from Kerry Greenwood

When pursued by a satyr, always make sure you are caught near the softest available moss.

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher, Book 15, Death by Water, ch. 15 (2005)


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A quotation from Thomas Carlyle

The Public is an old woman. Let her maunder and mumble.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Letter (1837-06-09) to John Sterling


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A quotation from Josh Billings

I dont kno which iz the biggest phool, the man who kan spend two hours bragging about himself, or the one who kan sit pashuntly and listen to him.
 
[I don’t know which is the biggest fool, the man who can spend two hours bragging about himself, or the one who can sit patiently and listen to him.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1876-04 (1876 ed.)


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A quotation from Ben Franklin

One to destroy, is Murder by the Law,
   And Gibbets keep the lifted Hand in Awe.
To murder Thousands, takes a specious Name,
   War’s glorious Art, and gives immortal Fame.
O great Alliance! O divine Renown!
   With Death and Pestilence to share the Crown!
When Men extol a wild Destroyer’s Name,
   Earth’s Builder and Preserver they blaspheme.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1747 ed.)


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A quotation from Jane Austen

We are of each an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all of the eclat of a proverb.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) English author
Pride and Prejudice, ch. 18 [Elizabeth] (1813)


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A quotation from Santayana

Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.

George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
The Life of Reason, Vol. 2: Reason in Society, ch. 8 “Ideal Society” (1905)


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A quotation from Samuel Butler

The limits of vice and virtue are wretchedly ill-defined. Half the vices that the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.

Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Way of All Flesh, ch. 52 (Pryer) (1903)


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A quotation from Garry Wills

Politics demands a great capacity for self-deception, which rescues the politician from hypocrisy. He can normally manage to believe what he is saying for the time it takes him to say it. This gives him a certain sincerity even when he is saying opposite things to opposite people.

Garry Wills (b. 1934) American author, journalist, historian
Confessions of a Conservative, ch. 15 (1979)


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in reply to Kelson

In reading the letter (and similar works), HPL was blindingly certain of the righteousness of his positions, and the idiocy of anyone who held any others. I suspect self-awareness was not high on his list of virtues. I suspect if you'd ask him to say more about the "tradesmen and lucky idlers," he'd fairly quickly start talking about a variety antisemitic tropes, among others.

A quotation from Von Clausewitz

Courage is of two kinds: courage in the face of personal danger, and courage to accept responsibility, either before the tribunal of some outside power or before the court of one’s own conscience.
 
[Der Muth ist doppelter Art: einmal Muth gegen die persönliche Gefahr, und dann Muth gegen die Verantwortlichkeit, sei es vor drm Richterstuhl irgend einer äussern Macht, oder der innern, nämlich des Gewissens.]

Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) Prussian soldier, historian, military theorist
On War [Vom Kriege], Book 1, ch. 3 “On Military Genius [Der Kriegerische Genius],” (1.3) (1832) [tr. Howard & Paret (1976)]


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A quotation from Nora Ephron

When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.

Nora Ephron (1941-2012) American screenwriter, author, journalist, director
Essay (2006), “What I Wish I’d Known,” I Feel Bad About My Neck (2007)


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