A quotation from Gracián

The intensity of the favour of fortune is often balanced by the shortness of its duration, for fortune gets tired of carrying any one very long upon her shoulders.
 
[Recompénsase tal vez la brevedad de la duración con la intensión del favor. Cánsase la fortuna de llevar a uno a cuestas tan a la larga.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 38 (1647) [tr. Duff (1877)]

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A quotation from Madeleine L'Engle

Perhaps people who read and write and have enough vocabulary to think with are universe disturbers. But we need to disturb the universe if, as human beings on planet earth, we are to survive. We need to have the vocabulary to question ourselves, and enough courage to disturb creatively, rather than destructively, even if it is going to make us uncomfortable or even hurt.

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 Phyllis McGinley

For high is the price of parenthood,
And daughters may cost you double.
You dare not forget, as you thought you could,
That youth is a plague and a trouble.

Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978) American author, poet
Poem (1952-03-15), “Homework for Annabelle,” st. 4, New Yorker, Vol. 28, No. 4

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A quotation from Bertrand Russell

Too little liberty brings stagnation, and too much brings chaos.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-09), “The Role of Individuality,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 3, BBC Radio

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A quotation from Molly Ivins

How the American right managed to convince itself that the programs to alleviate poverty are responsible for the consequences of poverty will someday be studied as a notorious mass illusion. In the meantime, real children — kids who get earaches and like Big Bird and are crabby when they aren’t fed and whose eyes widen in wonder when they meet Santa Claus — will pay the price for this pernicious folly.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1995-12-24), “Look to the Children of the Poor in This Season of Budget-Slashing,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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A quotation from James Howell

When Adam delv’d and Eve span,
Who was then a Gentleman?

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 Abraham Lincoln

There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost universal. Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1850), Notes for a Law Lecture (fragment)

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A quotation from Emerson

Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

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: Hocus-pocus, Abracadabra! I command my homework to do itself! Homework, be done!

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1986-04-25)

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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce

CONGREGATION, n. The subjects of an experiment in hypnotism.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Congregation,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-08-12)

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A quotation from Hannah Arendt

Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 1, ch. 1 “Antisemitism as an Outrage to Common Sense” (1951)

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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

We do not move forward by curtailing people’s liberty because we are afraid of what they may do or say. We move forward by assuring to all people protection in the basic liberties under a democratic form of government, and then making sure that our government serves the real needs of the people.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1940-02-10), “Fear is the Enemy,” The Nation, Vol. 150, No. 6

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A quotation from John Adams

While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a Stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than 3 or 4 thousand years ago. What is the Reason? I say Parties and Factions will not Suffer, or permit Improvements to be made. As Soon as one Man hints at an improvement his Rival opposes it. No sooner has one Party discovered or invented an Amelioration of the condition of Man or the order of Society, than the opposite Party, belies it, misconstrues it, misrepresents it, ridicules it, insults it, and persecutes it.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1813-07-09) to Thomas Jefferson

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A quotation from Einstein

The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.
 
[Die Majorität der Dummen ist unüberwindbar und für alle Zeiten gesichert. Der Schrecken ihrer Tyrannei ist indessen gemildert durch Mangel an Konsequenz.]

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 5, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]

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A quotation from Montesquieu

It has eternally been observed that any man who has power is led to abuse it; he continues until he finds limits.
 
[C’est une expérience éternelle, que tout homme qui a du pouvoir est porté à en abuser; il va jusqu’à ce qu’il trouve des limites.]

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 11, ch. 4 (11.4) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

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A quotation from Victor Hugo

That posterity may be a rising instead of a setting star is man’s consolation. Time present works for time to come. Work, then, and hope.
 
[Que l’avenir soit un orient au lieu d’être un couchant, c’est la consolation de l’homme. Le temps présent travaille au temps futur, donc travaillez et espérez.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
William Shakespeare, Part 1, Book 2 “Men of Genius [Les Génies], ch. 2 (1.2.2) (1864) [tr. Baillot (1864)]

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A quotation from Jean Kerr

In the beginning, we made the usual mistake of looking at houses we could afford. I am working on a proposition, hereafter to be known as Kerr’s law, which states in essence: All the houses you can afford to buy are depressing.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1955-11), “Our Gingerbread Dream House,” Ladies Home Journal, Vol. 72, No. 11

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A quotation from Richard Steele

Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body: as by the one, health is preserved, strengthened and invigorated; by the other, virtue, which is the health of the mind, is kept alive, cherished and confirmed. But as exercise becomes tedious and painful when we make use of it only as the means of health, so reading is apt to grow uneasy and burdensome, when we apply ourselves to it only for our improvement in virtue. For this reason, the virtue which we gather from a sable, or an allegory, is like the health we get by hunting; as we are engaged in an agreeable pursuit that draws us on with pleasure, and makes us insensible of the fatigues that accompany it.

Richard Steele (1672-1729) Irish writer and politician
Essay (1709-03-17), The Tatler, No. 147

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A quotation from Edmund Spenser

                    Death is an equall doome
To good and bad, the common Inne of rest.

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599) English poet
The Faerie Queene, Book 2, Canto 1, st. 59 (1589-96)

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A quotation from Shakespeare

RICHARD: Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
   By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams ….

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard III, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 32ff (1.1.32) (1592)

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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, every one should be serene, slow-pulsed and calm.

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

The rock-bottom foundation of a free press is the integrity of the people who run it. Our press may make a million mistakes of judgment without doing itself permanent harm so long as its proprietors are steadfast in their adherence to truth.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-08), “The One-Party Press,” Portland Journal Luncheon, Portland, Oregon

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A quotation from Philip Larkin

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms
Inside your head, and having people in them, acting.
People you know, yet can’t quite name.

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) English poet, novelist, librarian
Poem (1974), “The Old Fools,” High Windows

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A quotation from Twain

Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment. The penalty may be unfair, unrighteous, illogical, and a cruelty; no mater, it will be inflicted, just the same.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident”

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A quotation from Lyman Beecher

Eloquence is logic on fire.

Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) American minister, preacher, abolitionist
(Attributed)

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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 7.4 “Discipline of Conscience”

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A quotation from Horace

The man who mingles the useful with the sweet carries the day by charming his reader and at the same time instructing him. That’s the book to enrich the publisher, to be posted over seas, and to prolong its author’s fame.
 
[Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci,
lectorem delectando pariterque monendo.
Hic meret aera liber Sosiis, hic et mare transit
et longum noto scriptori prorogat aevum.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 343ff (2.3.343-346) (19 BC) [tr. Blakeney; ed. Kramer, Jr. (1936)]

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A quotation from Lincoln

As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1850), Notes for a Law Lecture (fragment)

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A quotation from Kerry Greenwood

   “The best advice I would give you is, ‘If under attack, cause a diversion.'”
   “A diversion?”
   “Yes, trip over the dog, spill a glass of wine on your attacker, burst into song, challenge your attacker to a duel.”

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher No. 13, The Castlemaine Murders, ch. 4 [Phryne to Jane] (2003)

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A quotation from Arthur Conan Doyle

No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit, — destructive to the logical faculty.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1890-02), “The Sign of the Four,” ch. 1 [Holmes], Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 45 (US) / 1 (UK)

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A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt

Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 9 “Outdoors and Indoors” (1913)

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A quotation from Thomas Carlyle

The beginning of all is to have done with Falsity — to eschew Falsity as Death Eternal.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Journal (1870-06-23)

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A quotation from Josh Billings

I hav known people who waz virtewous just bekauze they waz lazy, they hadn’t snap enuff in them tew brake one of the 10 commandments.
 
[I have known people who were virtuous just because they were lazy; they hadn’t snap enough in them to break one of the Ten Commandments.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1874-01 (1874 ed.)

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