A quotation from Ben Franklin

Hear Reason, or she’ll make you feel her.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1744 ed.)

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A quotation from Montaigne

I see no marriages where the conjugal compatibility sooner fails than those that we contract upon the account of beauty and amorous desires; there should be more solid and constant foundation, and they should proceed with greater circumspection; this furious ardor is worth nothing.
 
[Je ne voy point de mariages qui faillent plustost, & se troublent, que ceux qui s’acheminent par la beauté, & desirs amoureux : Il y faut des fondemens plus solides, & plus constans, & y marcher d’aguet : cette bouillante allegresse n’y vaut rien.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 5 (3.5), “Of Some Verses of Virgil [Sur des vers de Virgile]” (1586) [tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

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A quotation from Joseph Conrad

“No,” interrupted the doctor. “There is no peace and no rest in the development of material interests. They have their law, and their justice. But it is founded on expediency, and is inhuman; it is without rectitude, without the continuity and the force that can be found only in moral principle.”

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Polish-English novelist [b. Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski]
Nostromo, Part 3 “The Lighthouse,” ch. 10 (1904)

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A quotation from Donald Knuth

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.

Donald E. Knuth (b. 1938) American computer scientist, mathematician, academic
Essay (1996), “Foreword” to Marko Petkovsek, Herbert Wilf and Doron Zeilberger, A = B (1996)

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A quotation from James Howell

Burn not thy fingers to snuff another man’s candle.

James Howell (c. 1594 - 1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία], or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “New Sayings” (1659)

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A quotation from Thoreau

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 3 “Reading” (1854)

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A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt

We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions — bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities. Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races. Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1940-11-01), Campaign Address, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York

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A quotation from Douglas Adams

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 1, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, ch. 16 (1979)

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A quotation from Bertrand Russell

The happy man is the man who lives objectively, who has free affections and wide interests, who secures his happiness through these interests and affections and through the fact that they, in turn, make him an object of interest and affection to many others.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 17 “The Happy Man” (1930)

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A quotation from Molly Ivins

This has happened before in our history — in fact, it’s a pretty predictable reaction to fear. We get so rattled by some big Scary Thing — communism or crime or drugs or illegal aliens or terrorism — something that scares us so much, we think we can make ourselves safer by giving up some of our freedom. Now, not only does that not hold a drop of water as a logical proposition but it has consistently proved to be an illusion as a practical matter. Empirically, when you make yourself less free, you are not safe, you are just less free.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Bill of Wrongs, Introduction (2007) [with Lou Dubose]

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A quotation from Abraham Lincoln

I must save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1862-07-26) to Revardy Johnson

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A quotation from Emerson

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.

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

HOBBES: Van Gogh would’ve sold more than one painting if he’d put tigers in them.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1990-10-14)

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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce

ABATTOIR, n. A place where cattle slaughter kine. It is commonly placed at some distance from the haunts of our species, in order that they who devour the flesh may not be shocked by the site of blood.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Abattoir,” “Demon’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco News Letter (1875-12-11)

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A quotation from Hannah Arendt

Without being bound to the fulfillment of promises, we would never be able to keep our identities; we would be condemned to wander helplessly and without direction in the darkness of each man’s lonely heart, caught in its contradictions and equivocalities — a darkness which only the light shed over the public realm through the presence of others, who confirm the identity between the one who promises and the one who fulfills, can dispel.

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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A quotation from A. A. Milne

When I was One,
   I had just begun.
When I was Two,
   I was nearly new.
When I was Three,
   I was hardly Me.
When I was Four,
   I was not much more.
When I was Five,
   I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
   I’m as clever as clever.
   So I think I’ll be six now
   for ever and ever.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Now We Are Six, “The End” (1927)

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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1958-11-05), “My Day”

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A quotation from John Adams

However, it is the Part of a great Politician to make the Character of his People; to extinguish among them the Follies and Vices that he sees, and to create in them the Virtues and Abilities which he sees wanting. I wish I was sure that America has one such Politician, but I fear she has not.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-01-08) to Mercy Otis Warren

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A quotation from Lyman Beecher

They are perfectly aware how little ground there can be to hope that men may be reasoned out of their errours, when in fact they were never reasoned into them, but adopted them from prejudice, passion, or policy.

Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) American minister, preacher, abolitionist
Sermon (1823-10-15), “The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints,” Worcester, Massachusetts

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A quotation from Henry Commager

The rich and respectable have always had their ways of making their discontent heard; the poor and unorganized must resort to protests and marches and demonstrations.

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 William Shakespeare

MACBETH: I am afraid to think what I have done;
   Look on’t again I dare not.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 66ff (2.2.66-67) (1606)

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A quotation from Hyman Rickover

Unfortunately, in real life there are no exact or final answers. In a job which must go ahead at a rapid pace we cannot withhold judgment “until all the facts are in.” Rarely is all the evidence at hand. Decisions must be made, and action taken, before complete knowledge can be acquired.

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 Jean Kerr

Children are different — mentally, physically, spiritually, quantitatively, qualitatively; and furthermore, they’re all a little bit nuts.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957-07-27), “Children Really Are Not People,” Saturday Evening Post

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A quotation from Fénelon

God bears with imperfect beings, even when they resist his goodness. We ought to imitate this merciful patience and endurance. It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

François Fénelon (1651-1715) French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet, writer [François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon]
Letter (1710-10-11) to Duchess de Montemart

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A quotation from Herbert Hoover

More particularly does the weakening of the legislative arm lead to encroachments by the executive upon legislative and judicial functions, and inevitably that encroachment is upon individual liberty. If we examine the fate of wrecked republics over the world we shall find first a weakening of the legislative arm.

Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, US President (1929-33)
The Challenge to Liberty, ch. 7 (1934)

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A quotation from Peter Ustinov

I think that it’s an honorable thing to change your mind occasionally. I don’t think it’s a sign of weakness or lack of integrity. I believe men are united by their doubts and separated by their convictions. Therefore, it’s a very good thing to have doubts. Doubts are the greatest spur to activity that I know of.

Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) English actor, author, director
Interview (1995-06-22) by Warren Allen Smith, Free Inquiry Magazine

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A quotation from John Scalzi

My father deals with millionaires and billionaires on a daily basis, the sort of people who have egos just this side (and sometimes way over the edge) of sociopathy. The sort of person who thinks he’s the apex predator wading through a universe of sheep.

John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
Lock In, ch. 6 (2014)

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A quotation from Terry Pratchett

Not for the first time she reflected that there were many drawbacks to being a swordswoman, not least of which was that men didn’t take you seriously until you’d actually killed them, by which time it didn’t really matter anyway.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 2, The Light Fantastic (1986)

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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

True patriotism, it seems to me, is based on tolerance and a large measure of humility.

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 C. C. Colton

The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 158 (1820)

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A quotation from Samuel Johnson

But there is a higher order of men so inspired with ardour, and so fortified with resolution, that the world passes before them without influence or regard: these ought to consider themselves as appointed the guardians of mankind: they are placed in an evil world, to exhibit publick examples of good life; and may be said, when they withdraw to solitude, to desert the station which Providence assigned them.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126

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A quotation from George Orwell

Why is the goose-step not used in England? There are, heaven knows, plenty of army officers who would be only too glad to introduce some such thing. It is not used because the people in the street would laugh. Beyond a certain point, military display is only possible in countries where the common people dare not laugh at the army.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

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A quotation from Anaïs Nin

Love never dies of a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source, it dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illnesses and wounds, it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings, but never of natural death.

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
The Four-Chambered Heart (1959)

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