A quotation from Ambrose Bierce

ADAM’S APPLE, n. A protuberance on the throat of a man, thoughtfully provided by Nature to keep the rope in place.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Adam’s Apple,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-05-05)


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A quotation from Hannah Arendt

Popular revolt against materially strong rulers, on the other hand, may engender an almost irresistible power even if it foregoes the use of violence in the face of materially vastly superior forces. To call this “passive resistance” is certainly an ironic idea; it is one of the most active and efficient ways of action ever devised, because it cannot be countered by fighting, where there may be defeat or victory, but only by mass slaughter in which even the victor is defeated, cheated of his prize, since nobody can rule over dead men.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Human Condition, Part 5, ch. 28 “Power and the Space of Appearance” (1958)


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A quotation from A. A. Milne

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn’t any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I’m not at the bottom,
I’m not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
When We Were Very Young, “Halfway Down,” st. 1 (1924)
E H Shepard - Halfway Down


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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

A consciousness of the fact that war means practically total destruction is the reason, I think, for the rising tide to prevent what seems such a senseless procedure. I understand that it is perhaps difficult for some people, whose lives have been lived with a sense of the need for military development, to envisage the possibility of being no longer needed. But the average citizen is beginning to think more and more of the need to develop machinery to settle difficulties in the world without destruction or the use of atomic bombs.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1961-12-20), “My Day”


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A quotation from Henrik Ibsen

Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Norwegian poet and playwright
(Attributed)


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A quotation from Alan Watts

The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance. Like music, also, it is fulfilled in each moment of the course. You do not play a sonata in order to reach the final chord, and if the meaning of things were simply in ends, composers would write nothing but finales.

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
The Wisdom of Insecurity, ch. 7 “The Transformation of Life” (1951)


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A quotation from John Adams

My opinions indeed on Religious Subjects ought not to be of any consequence to any but myself.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1820-07-08) to Simon Miller


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A quotation from Henry Commager

The point is that when a nation silences criticism and dissent, it deprives itself of the power to correct its errors. The process of silencing need not be as savage as in Nazi Germany or in South Africa today; it is enough that an atmosphere be created where men prefer silence to protest. As has been observed of book-burning, it is not necessary to burn books, it is enough to discourage men from writing them.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review


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A quotation from Hyman Rickover

Sit down before fact with an open mind. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you learn nothing. Don’t push out figures when the facts are going in the opposite direction.

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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A quotation from Victor Hugo

For, to make deserts, God, who rules mankind,
Begins with kings, and ends the work by wind.
 
[Car pour faire un désert, Dieu, maître des vivants,
Commence par les rois et finit par les vents.]

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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A quotation from Jean Kerr

If you can keep your head when about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.

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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A quotation from Wendell Berry

Violence breeds violence. Acts of violence committed in “justice” or in affirmation of “rights” or in defense of “peace” do not end violence. They prepare and justify its continuation.

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

MARCUS: Oh Portius, is there not some chosen curse,
   Some hidden thunder in the stores of heav’n
   Red with uncommon wrath to blast the man,
   Who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin?

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 20ff (1713)


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A quotation from Nicholas Rowe

CALISTA: That I must die! it is my only Comfort;
   Death is the Privilege of human Nature,
   And Life without it were not worth our taking;
   Thither the Poor, the Pris’ner, and the Mourner,
   Fly for Relief, and lay their Burthens down.

Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) English poet and dramatist
The Fair Penitent, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 137ff (1703)


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A quotation from Terry Pratchett

“I’ve never seen Death actually at work.”
“Not many have,” said Albert. “Not twice, at any rate.”

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 4, Mort (1987)


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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

The anatomy of patriotism is complex. But surely intolerance and public irresponsibility cannot be cloaked in the shining armor of rectitude and righteousness. Nor can the denial of the right to hold ideas that are different — the freedom of man to think as he pleases. To strike freedom of the mind with the fist of patriotism is an old and ugly subtlety.

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 La Rochefoucauld

True eloquence consists in saying all that need be said and no more.
 
[La véritable éloquence consiste à dire tout ce qu’il faut, et à ne dire que ce qu’il faut.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶250 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]


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A quotation from Samuel Johnson

But when thoughts and words are collected and adjusted, and the whole composition at last concluded, it seldom gratifies the author, when he comes coolly and deliberately to review it, with the hopes which had been excited in the fury of the performance: novelty always captivates the mind; as our thoughts rise fresh upon us, we readily believe them just and original, which, when the pleasure of production is over, we find to be mean and common, or borrowed from the works of others, and supplied by memory rather than invention.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1754-03-02), The Adventurer, No. 138


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A quotation from Thomas Bailey Aldrich

All the best sands of my life are somehow getting into the wrong end of the hourglass. If I could only reverse it! Were it in my power to do so, would I?

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) American writer, poet, critic, editor
“Leaves from a Notebook,” Ponkapog Papers (1903)


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A quotation from P. G. Hamerton

If animals could speak as fabulists have feigned, the dog would be a blunt, blundering, outspoken, honest fellow, but the cat would have the rare talent of never saying a word too much.

Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834-1894) British artist, art critic and author.
Chapters on Animals: Dogs, Cats, and Horses, ch. 4 “Cats” (1877)


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A quotation from Horace

We learn more quickly and bring back to mind more readily
The things we laugh at than those we respect and revere.
 
[Discit enim citius, meminitque libentius ilud
Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat et veneratur.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 1 “To Augustus,” l. 262ff (2.1.262-263) (14 BC) [tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]


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A quotation from C. C. Colton

Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed, than night can happen before the sun is set.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 468 (1820)


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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

And how many loves have perished because, from pride, or spite, or diffidence, or that unmanly shame which withholds a man from daring to betray emotion, a lover, at the critical point of the relation, has but hung his head and held his tongue?

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1879-05), “The Truth of Intercourse,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 39


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A quotation from Joanna Maciejewska

I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.

Joanna Maciejewska (contemp.) Polish-Irish-American author
Twitter (2024-03-29)


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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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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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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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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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A quotation from Cicero

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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A quotation from Eric Hoffer

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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A quotation from Thoreau

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)

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. - Thoreau


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