Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) English novelist
Frankenstein, Vol. 3, ch. 6 (1818)
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A quotation from Christopher Marlowe
FAUSTUS: Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me,
What good will my soul do thy lord?
MEPHISTOPHILES: Enlarge his kingdom.
FAUSTUS: Is that the reason he tempts us thus?
MEPHISTOPHILES: Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.
[Misery loves company.]
Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 2, sc. 1 (sc. 5), l. 477ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)
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FAUSTUS: Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me, What good will my soul do thy lord? MEPHISTOPHILES: Enlarge his kingdom. FAUSTUS: Is that the reason he tempts us thus? MEPHISTOPHILES: Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris. [Misery loves company.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Arthur Conan Doyle
“They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains,” he [Holmes] remarked with a smile. “It’s a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.”
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 1, ch. 3, Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)
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"They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he [Holmes] remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work." Published in novel form 1888-07.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt
Far better it is to dare mighty things, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those who neither enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1899-04-10), “The Strenuous Life,” Hamilton Club, Chicago
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A quotation from Thomas Carlyle
Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
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Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is. The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 2 (1841).Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Josh Billings
To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-03 “Housekeer’s Guide” (1871 ed.)
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But there is in fact nobody who is so hostile to the Muses that he would not readily allow his own deeds to be immortalized in verse.
[Neque enim quisquam est tam aversus a Musis, qui non mandari versibus aeternum suorum laborum facile praeconium patiatur. ]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Pro Archia Poeta [For Archia the Poet], ch. 9 / sec. 20 (62 BC) [tr. Guinach (1962)]
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We usually see only the things we are looking for — so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 238 (1955)
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We usually see only the things we are looking for -- so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.Dave (WIST Quotations)
He who multiplies Riches multiplies Cares.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1744 ed.)
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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 18 “Conclusion” (1854)
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A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt
I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen two hundred limping, exhausted men come out of line — the survivors of a regiment of one thousand that went forward forty-eight hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1936-08-14), Chautauqua, New York
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A quotation from Ian Stuart Black
PILOT: Stop! Stop! You’re breaking the law!
THE DOCTOR: Bad laws were made to be broken.
Ian Stuart Black (1915–1997) British novelist, playwright, screenwriter
Doctor Who (1963), 04×07 “The Macra Terror,” Part 4 (1967-04-01)
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PILOT: Stop! Stop! You're breaking the law! THE DOCTOR: Bad laws were made to be broken. (Source (Video); dialog verified)Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Madeleine L'Engle
We think because we have words, not the other way around, and the greater our vocabulary, the greater our ability to think conceptually. The first people a dictator puts in jail are the writers, the teachers, the librarians — because these people are dangerous. They have enough vocabulary to recognize injustice and to speak out loudly about it. Let us have the courage to go on being dangerous people.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
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A quotation from Douglas Adams
NARRATOR: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 5th” (BBC radio) (1978-04-05)
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NARRATOR: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. This passage, without change, appears in the second novelization, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ch.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1882), “Advice to Youth”
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A quotation from Bertrand Russell
The happy life is to an extraordinary extent the same as the good life. Professional moralists have made too much of self-denial, and in so doing have put the emphasis in the wrong place. Conscious self-denial leaves a man self-absorbed and vividly aware of what he has sacrificed; in consequence it fails often of its immediate object and almost always of its ultimate purpose. What is needed is not self-denial, but that kind of direction of interest outward which will lead spontaneously and naturally to the same acts that a person absorbed in the pursuit of his own virtue could only perform by means of conscious self-denial.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 17 “The Happy Man” (1930)
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A hungry man [is] an angry man.
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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Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
Essay (1891-02), “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” Fortnightly Review, Vol. 49 (ns)
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A quotation from Abraham Lincoln
The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress, was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1848-02-15) to William H. Herndon
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. This thought continues here.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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CALVIN: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humor? When you think about it, it’s weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it’s funny.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
ADAGE, n. A hoary-headed platitude that is kicked along the centuries until nothing is left of it but its clothes. A “saw” which has worn out its teeth on the human understanding.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Adage,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-03-05)
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ADAGE, n.. A hoary-headed platitude that is kicked along the centuries until nothing is left of it but its clothes. A “saw” which has worn out its teeth on the human understanding. Not collected in later books.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Hannah Arendt
Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer’s apprentice who lacks the magic formula to break the spell.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Human Condition, Part 5, ch. 33 “Irreversibility and the Power to Forgive” (1958)
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Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike …Dave (WIST Quotations)
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They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -- Christopher Robin went down with Alice. They've great big parties inside the grounds. "I wouldn't be King for a hundred pounds," Says Alice.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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MEDEA: I think the unjust man who can speak cleverly incurs the greatest penalty for, feeling confident to cloak injustice in fair speech, he dares the utmost villainy.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
The appreciation of many things in which we are not proficient ourselves but which we have learned to enjoy is one of the important things to cultivate in modern education. The arts in every field — music, drama, sculpture, painting — we can learn to appreciate and enjoy. We need not be artists, but we should be able to appreciate the work of artists.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1958-11-05), “My Day”
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Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.
Frank Zappa (1940-1993) American singer-songwriter
A Day with Frank Zappa, Part 5, documentary, dir. Roelof Kiers, VPRO-TV (1971-02-11)
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Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. Widely attributed to Zappa in various forms, but with very few actual citations. The Kiers documentary gave the quotation twice.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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Rich people show their appreciation through favors. When everyone you know has more money than they know what to do with, money stops being a useful transactional tool. So instead you offer favors. Deals. Quid pro quos. Things that involve personal involvement rather than money. Because when you’re that rich, your personal time is your limiting factor.
John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
Lock In, ch. 3 [Shane] (2014)
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Rich people show their appreciation through favors. When everyone you know has more money than they know what to do with, money stops being a useful transactional tool. So instead you offer favors. Deals. Quid pro quos.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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To be good, and to do good, is all We have to do.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1777-03-17) to Nabby Adams (Abigail Adams 2d)
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A quotation from Henry Commager
But this we can say with certainty: a government and a society that silences those who dissent is one that has lost its way. This we can say: that what is essential in a free society is that there should be an atmosphere where those who wish to dissent and even to demonstrate can do so without fear of recrimination or vilification.
Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review
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It is not the young people that degenerate: they are not spoilt till those of maturer age are already sunk into corruption.
[Ce n’est point le peuple naissant qui dégénere ; il ne se perd que lorsque les hommes faits sont déja corrompus.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 5 (4.5) (1748) [tr. Nugent (1750)]
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A quotation from The Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh, where are you roaming?
You will never find the eternal life
that you seek. When the gods created mankind,
they also created death, and they held back
eternal life for themselves alone.
Humans are born, they live, and then they die,
this is the order that the gods have decreed.
But until the end comes, enjoy your life,
spend it in happiness, not despair.
Savor your food, make each of your days
a delight, bathe and anoint yourself,
wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean,
let music and dancing fill your house,
love the child who holds you by the hand,
and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.
That is the best way for a man to live.
Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100–1200 BC) Sumerian myth
Tablet 10, col. 3 [Siduri] [tr. Mitchell (2004)]
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Gilgamesh, where are you roaming? You will never find the eternal life that you seek. When the gods created mankind, they also created death, and they held back eternal life for themselves alone.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Hyman Rickover
I have for some time thought that a few of our present day ills stem from this childish faith in the existence of perfect answers. It requires a degree of maturity to realize that all solutions are partial ones.
Hyman Rickover (1900-1986) American naval engineer, submariner, US Navy Admiral
Speech (1954-03-16), “Administering a Large Military Development Project,” US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
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Men are still men. The despot’s wickedness
Comes of ill teaching, and of power’s excess, —
Comes of the purple he from childhood wears,
Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.
[L’homme est homme toujours; les crimes du despote
Sont faits par sa puissance, ombre où son âme flotte,
Par la pourpre qu’il traîne et dont on le revêt,
Et l’esclave serait tyran s’il le pouvait.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Poem (1876), “The Vanished City [La Ville Disparue],” Legend of the Ages: New Series [La Légende des siècles: La Nouvelle Série], No. 4 (1877) [tr. Carrington (1885)]
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Men are still men. The despot's wickedness Comes of ill teaching, and of power's excess, -- Comes of the purple he from childhood wears, Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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Now the thing about having a baby — and I can’t be the first person to have noticed this — is that thereafter you have it.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “Introduction,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
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Now the thing about having a baby -- and I can't be the first person to have noticed this -- is that thereafter you have it.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Wendell Berry
If you know even as little history as I do, it is hard not to doubt the efficacy of modern war as a solution to any problem except that of retribution — the “justice” of exchanging one damage for another.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1999), “The Failure of War,” Citizenship Papers (2003)
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A quotation from Joseph Addison
Musick, the greatest Good that Mortals know,
And all of Heav’n we have below.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Poem (1694), “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, at Oxford,” st. 3
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Musick, the greatest Good that Mortals know, And all of Heav'n we have below. Cecilia is the patron saint of music and musicians.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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