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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A quotation from Florynce Kennedy

The biggest sin is sitting on your ass.

Florynce "Flo" Kennedy (1916-2000) American lawyer, feminist, civil rights activist
(Attributed)

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A quotation from Eric Hoffer

When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them. It is as if ivied maidens and garlanded youths were to herald the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 1, ch. 1, § 5 (1951)

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A quotation from Accius

Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.
 
[Óderint, dum métuant.]

Accius (170-c. 86 BC) Roman tragic poet, literary scholar [Lucius Accius, Lucius Attius]
Atreus (fragment 168) [tr. Kline (2010)]

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A quotation from Franklin

A good Example is the best sermon.

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

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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

Perhaps the older generation is often to blame with its cautious warning: “Take a job that will give you security, not adventure.” But I say to the young: “Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, and imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1961-04), “What Has Happened to the American Dream?” Atlantic Monthly

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A quotation from James Howell

Words cutt more than swords.

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 Molly Ivins

The way one solves problems obviously influences not only the outcome, but the kinds of problems one faces after the immediate problem is settled.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2002-11-19), “Blast from the Past,” Creators Syndicate column

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A quotation from Malcolm X

Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.

Malcolm X (1925-1965) American revolutionary, religious leader [b. Malcolm Little]
Autobiography of Malcolm X, ch. 1 (1964) [with Alex Haley]

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A quotation from Jean Kerr

While in some quarters it is felt that the critic is just a necessary evil, most serious-minded, decent, talented theater people agree that the critic is an unnecessary evil.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “One Half of Two on the Aisle,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies

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A quotation from Brennan Manning

When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.

Brennan Manning (1934-2013) American author, laicized priest, theologian, speaker [Richard Francis Xavier Manning]
The Ragamuffin Gospel, ch. 1 “Something is Radically Wrong” (1990)

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A quotation from Richard Steele

Methinks a Man cannot, without a secret Satisfaction, consider the Glory of the present Age, which will shine as bright as any other in the History of Mankind. It is still big with great Events, and has already produced Changes and Revolutions which will be as much admired by Posterity, as any that have happened in the Days of our Fathers, or in the old Times before them.

Richard Steele (1672-1729) Irish writer and politician
Essay (1710-02-06), The Tatler, No. 130

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A quotation from Robert Southey

DEATH! to the happy thou art terrible;
But how the wretched love to think of thee,
Oh thou true comforter, the friend of all
Who have no friend beside!

Robert Southey (1774–1843) English Romantic poet, Poet Laureate
Joan of Arc, Book 1, l. 318ff (1840 ed.)

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A quotation from Shakespeare

RICHARD: And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
   To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
   I am determinèd to prove a villain
   And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard III, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 28ff (1.1.28-31) (1592)

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A quotation from Gracian

Say farewell to luck when winning: it is the way of the gamblers of reputation: quite as important as a gallant advance is a well-planned retreat, wherefore lock up your winnings when they are enough, or when great.
 
[Saberse dejar ganando con la fortuna. Es de tahúres de reputación. Tanto importa una bella retirada como una bizarra acometida; un poner en cobro las hazañas cuando fueren bastantes, cuando muchas.]

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. Fischer (1937)]

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A quotation from Hilaire Belloc

He served his God so faithfully and well,
That now he sees him face to face, in hell.

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Franco-British writer, historian [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc]
Poem (1923), “Epigram 45: On a Puritan,” Sonnets and Verse (1923 ed.)

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A quotation from Barzun

Old age is like learning a new profession. And not one of your own choosing.

Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Quoted in Arthur Krystal, “Age of Reason,” The New Yorker (2007-10-15)

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A quotation from Twain

Remember this, take it to heart, live by it, die for it if necessary: that our patriotism is medieval, outworn, obsolete; that the modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Story (1905-02-02), “The Czar’s Soliloquy,” North American Review, Vol. 180, No. 580 (1905-03)

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A quotation from Lyman Beecher

Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death.

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

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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in the retrospect. We should have been cut-throats to do otherwise. And there’s an end. We ought to know distinctly that we are damned for what we do wrong; but when we have done right, we have only been gentlemen, after all. There is nothing to make a work about.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 6 “Right and Wrong”

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A quotation from Horace

Smiles are contagious; so are tears; to see
Another sobbing, brings a sob from me.
No, no, good Peleus; set the example, pray,
And weep yourself; then weep perhaps I may.
 
[Ut ridentibus adrident, ita flentibus adflent
humani voltus. Si vis me flere, dolendum est
primum ipsi tibi: tum tua me infortunia laedent,
Telephe vel Peleu.]

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. 101ff (2.3.101-103) (19 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]

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