A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

We are stubborn because we are narrow-minded; it is hard to believe what is beyond the scope of our vision.
 
[La petitesse de l’esprit fait l’opiniâtreté, et nous ne croyons pas aisément ce qui est au delà de ce que nous voyons.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶265 (1665-1678) [tr. Heard (1917), ¶273]

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A quotation from Samuel Johnson

Among the calamities of war, may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1758-11-11), The Idler, No. 30

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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

We must never delude ourselves into thinking that physical power is a substitute for moral power, which is the true sign of national greatness.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-18), “The Atomic Future,” Bushnell Memorial Auditorium, Hartford, Connecticut

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A quotation from Mark Twain

[S]he brought some of those apples. I was obliged to eat them, I was so hungry. It was against my principles, but I find that principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Story (1893), “Extracts from Adam’s Diary,” The Niagara Book

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A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

To give the public what they do not want, and yet expect to be supported: we have there a strange pretension, and yet not uncommon, above all with painters. The first duty in this world is for a man to pay his way; when that is quite accomplished, he may plunge into what eccentricity he likes; but emphatically not till then.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1888-09), “A Letter to a Young Gentleman Who Proposes to Embrace the Career of Art,” Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3

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A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt

Our worst revolutionaries today are those reactionaries who do not see and will not admit that there is any need for change.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 13 “Social and Industrial Justice” (1913)

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A quotation from Doctor Who

   JO: I don’t believe it! It’s bigger inside than out!
   THE DOCTOR: Yes. That’s because the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental.
   JO: What does that mean?
   THE DOCTOR: It means that it’s bigger inside than out.

Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
08×04 “Colony in Space,” Part 1 (1971-04-10) [w. Malcolm Hulke]

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A quotation from Eric Hoffer

Suffering cleanses only when it is free of resentment. Wholehearted contempt for our tormentors safeguards our soul from the mutilations of bitterness and hatred.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 263 (1955)

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A quotation from Montaigne

Not being able to control events, I control myself, and adapt myself to them if they do not adapt themselves to me.
 
[Ne pouvant regler les evenemens, je me regle moy-mesme: & m’applique à eux, s’ils ne s’appliquent à moy.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Cohen (1958)]

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A quotation from Josh Billings

Man iz mi brother, and i konsider that i am nearer related tew him through hiz vices, than i am through hiz virtews.
 
[Man is my brother, and I consider that I am nearer related to him through his vices, than I am through his virtues.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-07 (1871 ed.)

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A quotation from Ben Franklin

Many complain of their Memory, few of their Judgment.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)

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A quotation from Kit Marlowe

BAD ANGEL: He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure fall.

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 4 (sc. 19), l. 2032 (5.4.2032) (1594; 1616 “B” text)

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A quotation from Madeleine L'Engle

We need to dare disturb the universe by not being manipulated or frightened by judgmental groups who assume the right to insist that if we do not agree with them, not only do we not understand but we are wrong. How dull the world would be if we all had to feel the same way about everything, if we all had to like the same books, dislike the same books.

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

He gazed keenly into the distance and looked as if he would quite like the wind to blow his hair back dramatically at that point, but the wind was busy fooling around with some leaves a little way off.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 3, Life, the Universe, and Everything, ch. 2 (1982)

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A quotation from Jung

Nothing exerts a stronger psychic effect upon the human environment, and especially upon children, than the life which the parents have not lived.

Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Lecture (1929-06), “Paracelsus,” Literary Club of Zurich, Paracelsus House, Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Switzerland [tr. Hull (1966)]

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A quotation from James Thurber

America must learn that humor, whatever form it may take, can be one of our strongest allies, but it cannot flourish in a weather of fear and hysteria and intimidation.

James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
Essay (1958-12-07), “State of the Nation’s Humor: ‘On the Brink of Was,'” New York Times Magazine

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A quotation from James Howell

The more haste, the worse speed.

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 Lincoln

If all men were just, there would still be some, though not so much, need of government.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1854-07-01?), fragment on government

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A quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson

You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.

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 Hannah Arendt

The emotions I feel are no more meant to be shown in their unadulterated state than the inner organs by which we live.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Life of the Mind, Vol. 1, Part 1, ch. 4 “Body and soul; soul and mind” (1977)

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A quotation from A. A. Milne

I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking. With equal truth it may be said that a first-rate mind is not one which does not remember the past, nor is it one which cannot forget the past; it is a mind which will use the past but not be ordered by it. It is a mind independent of everybody and everything but the facts in front of it. It is as little perturbed to find itself sharing a thought with the simple as it is elated to find itself sharing a thought with the subtle.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
War with Honour, Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940)

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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

And the important thing was that you never let down doing the best that you were able to do — it might be poor because you might not have very much within you to give, or to help other people with, or to live your life with. But as long as you did the very best that you were able to do, then that was what you were put here to do and that was what you were accomplishing by being here.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1951-12), “This I Believe: Growth that Starts from Thinking,” on Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe, CBS Radio

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A quotation from John Adams

Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1825-01-23) to Thomas Jefferson

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A quotation from Henry Commager

We cannot have a society half slave and half free; nor can we have thought half slave and half free. If we create an atmosphere in which men fear to think independently, inquire fearlessly, express themselves freely, we will in the end create the kind of society in which men no longer care to think independently or to inquire fearlessly.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1949-11-05), “What Ideas Are Safe?” Saturday Review

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A quotation from Montesquieu

No word has received more different significations and has struck minds in so many ways as has liberty.
 
[Il n’y a point de mot qui ait reçu plus de différentes significations, & qui ait frappé les esprits de tant de manieres, que celui de liberté.]

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. 2 (11.2) (1748) tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

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A quotation from Hyman Rickover

If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won’t.

Hyman Rickover (1900-1986) Polish-American naval engineer, admiral [b. Chaim Gdala Rykower]
(Attributed)

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A quotation from Victor Hugo

To love is to act.
 
[Aimer, c’est agir.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Journal (1885-05-19)

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A quotation from Jean Kerr

If you have formed the habit of checking on every new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information: french-fried potatoes are out.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957-08), “Aunt Jean’s Marshmallow Fudge Diet,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 215, No. 1287

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A quotation from Kurt Vonnegut

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) American novelist, journalist
Slaughterhouse-Five, ch. 2 (1969)

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A quotation from Wendell Berry

Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I
may have spoken well
at times, is not natural.
A wonder is what it is.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Poem (1980), “A Warning To My Readers,” A Part, ch. 3

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