Random Quote

All of these quotes are now available at:

http://rndmqt.appspot.com

First Pass

This completes my first reading of Quotationary. I'll probably do one more after a few months/years. Have fun!

Zeal - PAUL

It is good to be zealously affected in a good thing.

PAUL (A. D. 1st cent.), Galatians 4:18 (King James Version)

Wisdom - MARCUS AURELIUS

To do justly is the only wisdom.

MARCUS AURELIUS (A. D. 121 - 180), Meditations, 4.37, tr. Maxwell Staniforth, 1964.

Virtue - FRANCIS BACON

Virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are...crushed.

FRANCIS BACON (1561 - 1626), "Of Adversity", Essays, 1625.

Universe - ALBERT CAMUS

Gazing up at the stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.

ALBERT CAMUS (1913 - 1960), From the closing paragraph, The Stranger, 1942, tr. Stuart Gilbert, 1946.

Time - LORD CHESTERFIELD

No indolence, no laziness; but employ every minute in your life in active pleasures or useful employments.

LORD CHESTERFIELD (1694 - 1773), Letter to his son, 2 January 1752.

States - SOLON

A state is regulated by two things: reward and punishment.

SOLON (630?-560? B. C.), In Cicero (106-43 B. C.), Ad Brutum, 1.15.3.

Sexist Statements - SIGMUND FREUD

Housekeeping and the care and education of children claim the whole person and practically rule out any profession....
It seems a completely unrealistic notion to send women into the struggle for existence in the same way as men. Am I to think of my delicate, sweet girl as a competitor?

SIGMUND FREUD (1856 - 1939), Letter to his fiance Martha Bernays, 15 November 1883, tr. Tania and James Stern, 1960.

Sexist Statements - CHARLES DARWIN

Man is more courageous, pugnacious, and energetic than woman, and has a more inventive genius.

CHARLES DARWIN (1809 - 1882), The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 2nd ed., 19, 1874.

Sexist Statements - WINSTON CHURCHILL

Nothing would induce me to vote for giving women the franchise. I am not going to be henpecked into a question of such importance.

WINSTON CHURCHILL (1874 - 1965), 1910? In Robert Lewis Taylor, Winston Churchill: An Informal Study of Greatness, 1952.

Sexist Statements - ARISTOTLE

The male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.

ARISTOTLE (384 - 322 B. C.), Politics, 1.5, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1885.

Self-Discipline - ARISTOTLE

What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

ARISTOTLE (384 - 322 B. C.), Nicomachean Ethics, 3.5, tr. J. A. K. Thomson, 1953.

Russia - BERNARD LAW MONTGOMERY

Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow!"

BERNARD LAW MONTGOMERY (1887 - 1976), In Hansard (British Government publication), 20 May 1962.

Revolutionary War - JOHN PAUL JONES

I have not yet begun to fight.

JOHN PAUL JONES (1747 - 1792), Naval captain, Attributed, Responding to a British ultimatum that he surrender his sinking ship, the Bon Homme Richard, in a battle he eventually won, 23 September 1779.

Religion - KARL MARX

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

KARL MARX (1818 - 1883), Introduction to Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, 1844, The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Robert C. Tucker, 1978.

Regret - HARRY S. TRUMAN

Never, never waste a minute on regret. It's a waste of time.

HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884 - 1972), In Janet Landman, Regret: The Persistence of the Possible, 1993.

Reason - BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

When Reason preaches, if you won't hear her, she'll box your Ears.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706 - 1790), Poor Richard's Almanack, March 1953.

Reading - SAMUEL JOHNSON

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good. A young man should read five hours in a day, and so may acquire a great deal of knowledge.

SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709 - 1784), 14 July 1763, In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791.

Quotations - WINSTON CHURCHILL

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

WINSTON CHURCHILL (1874 - 1965), My Early Life: A Roving Commission, 9, 1930.

Proverbs - FRANCIS BACON

The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs.

FRANCIS BACON (1561 - 1626), In Selwyn Gurney Champion, comp., Racial Proverbs: A Selection of the World's Proverbs Arranged Linguistically, p. 4, 1938.

Property - ADAM SMITH

The property which every man has in his own labor, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable.

ADAM SMITH (1723 - 1790), The Wealth of Nations, 1.10.2, 1776.

Progress - KARL POPPER

All criticism consists in pointing out some contradictions or discrepancies, and scientific progress consists largely in the elimination of contradictions wherever we find them.

KARL R. POPPER (1902 - 1994), The Open Society and Its Enemies, 2.12.2, 1945.

Progress - ERIC HOFFER

The impulse to escape an untenable situation often prompts human beings not to shrink back but to plunge ahead.

ERIC HOFFER (1902 - 1983), The Ordeal of Change, 15.5, 1964.

Progress - MOHANDAS K. GANDHI

Each step upward makes me feel stronger and fit for the next step.

MOHANDAS K. GANDHI (1869 - 1948), In Young India, 9 April 1925.

Problems & Solutions - LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

If this stone won't budge at present and is wedged in, move some of the other stones round it first.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN (1889 - 1951), 1940, Culture and Value, 1977, tr. Peter Winch, 1980.

Presidents - REXFORD G. TUGWELL

It was part of [Franklin D. Roosevelt's] conception of his role that he should never show exhaustion, boredom, or irritation.

REXFORD G. TUGWELL (1891 - 1979), Economist and undersecretary of agriculture, In Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt: The Coming of the New Deal, 35.2, 1959.

Preparedness - LOUIS PASTEUR

Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind.

LOUIS PASTEUR (1822 - 1895), Address given at the inauguration of the science faculty, University of Lille, Douai (France), 7 December 1854.

Prayer - MUHAMMAD

To spend more time in learning is better than spending more time in praying.

MUHAMMAD (A.D. 570? - 632), The Sayings of Muhammad, 277, tr. Abdullah Al-Suhrawardy, 1941.

Popularity - OLIVER CROMWELL

Anonymous: Are you not proud that so many came to see the chosen of the Lord enter in triumph?
Cromwell: Three times as many would have come to see me hanged.

OLIVER CROMWELL (1599 - 1658), Format adapted. An exchange recounted by Sigmund Freud in reference to his own popularity. In Hanns Sachs, Freud: Master and Friend, 7, 1944.

Persuasion - ADAM SMITH

We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.

ADAM SMITH (1723 - 1790), The Wealth of Nations, 1.2, 1776.

Personality - CARL G. JUNG

Without necessity nothing budges, the human personality least of all. It is tremendously conservative, not to say torpid. Only acute necessity is able to rouse it. The developing personality obeys no caprice, no command, no insight, only brute necessity.

CARL G. JUNG (1875 - 1961), Title essay, 1934, The Development of Personality, tr. R. F. C Hull, 1954.

Perfection - JESUS

You must be perfect - just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

JESUS (A. D. 1st cent.), Matthew, 5:48.

Optimism - COLIN I. POWELL

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

COLIN I. POWELL (1937 - ), Saying kept under desk glass, 17 September 1995.

Notebooks - FRANCIS BACON

A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable and should be secured because they seldom return.

FRANCIS BACON (1561 - 1626), In Wisdom, vol. 38, 1962.

Notebooks - JOHN AUBREY

[Thomas Hobbes] walked much and contemplated, and he had in the head of his Staff a pen and inkhorn, carried always a Notebook in his pocket, and as soon as a notion darted, he presently entered it into his Book, or else he should perhaps have lost it.

JOHN AUBREY (1626 - 1697), "Thomas Hobbes", Brief Lives, ed, Oliver Lawson Dick, 1950.

Necessity - PLATO

The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of invention.

PLATO (427? - 347 B. C.), The Republic, 2.369, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1894.
(Popular version: Necessity is the mother of invention.)

Necessity - NAPOLEON

Don't talk to me of goodness, of abstract justice, of natural law. Necessity is the highest law.

NAPOLEON (1769 - 1821), Remark, April 1815, The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection from His Written and Spoken Words, 202, ed, J. Christopher Herold, 1955.

Morality - GEORGE HEGEL

Passions, private aims, and the satisfaction of selfish desires, are ... most effective springs of action. Their power lies in the fact that they respect none of the limitations which justice and morality would impose on them; and [they] have a more direct influence over man than the artificial and tedious discipline that tends to order and self-restraint, law and morality.

GEORG HEGEL (1770 - 1831), Introduction (3.2.2) to Philosophy of History, 1832, tr. John Sibree, 1900.

Morality - JOHN LOCKE

Moral knowledge is as capable of real certainty as mathematics.

JOHN LOCKE (1632 - 1704), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 4.4.7, 1690, ed. Alexander Campbell Fraser, 1894.

Money - PUBILIUS SYRUS

Money alone sets all the world in motion.

PUBILIUS SYRUS (85 - 43 B.C.), Moral Sayings, 656, tr. Darius Lyman, Jr., 1862.

Man - JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

A man is what he wills himself to be.

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905 - 1980), No Exit (one-act play), 1944, tr. Stuart Gilbert, 1946.

Life - FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

"Where was it", thought Raskolnikov, "where was it I read about a man sentenced to death who, one hour before his execution, says or thinks that if he had to live on some high rock, on a cliff, on a ledge so narrow that there was only room enough for him to stand there, and if there were bottomless chasms all round, the ocean, eternal darkness, eternal solitude, and eternal gales, and if he had to spend all his life on that square yard of space - a thousand years, an eternity - he'd rather live like that than die at once! Oh, only to live, live, live! Live under any circumstances - only to live!"

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY (1821 - 1881), Crime and Punishment, 1.2, 1866, tr. David Magarshack, 2.6, 1951.

Leisure - BERTRAND RUSSELL

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872 - 1970), The Conquest of Happiness, 14, 1930.

Laws - MONTAIGNE

I have my own laws and court to judge me, and I address myself to them more than anywhere else.

MONTAIGNE (1533 - 1592), "Of Repentance", Essays, 1588, tr. Donald M. Frame, 1958.

Knowledge - MUHAMMAD

Acquire knowledge. It enables its possessor to distinguish right from wrong; it lights the way to Heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, our companion when friendless; it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is an ornament among friends and an armor against enemies.

MUHAMMAD (A.D. 570? - 632), The Sayings of Muhammad, 290, tr. Abdullah Al-Suhrawardy, 1941.

Knowledge - JOHN LOCKE

The only Fence against the World is a thorough Knowledge of it.

JOHN LOCKE (1632 - 1704), Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 94, 1693.

Kings - LOUIS XIV

It is legal because I wish it.

LOUIS XIV (1638 - 1715), French king.

Journals - HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Associate reverently and as much as you can with your loftiest thoughts. Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid. Thoughts accidentally thrown together become a frame in which more may be developed and exhibited. Perhaps this is the main value of a habit of writing, of keeping a journal - that so we remember our best hours and stimulate ourselves....Having by chance recorded a few disconnected thoughts and then brought them into juxtaposition, they suggest a whole new field in which it was possible to labor and to think. Thought begat thought.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 - 1862), Journal, 22 January 1852.

Intuition - CARL G. JUNG

Intuition [is] perception via the unconscious.

CARL G. JUNG (1875 - 1961), "Conscious, Unconscious and Individuation", 1939, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, tr. R. F. C. Hull, 1959.

Inferiority - ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884 - 1962), 1936, The Wit and Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt, p. 92, ed. Alex Ayres, 1996.

Ideas - MARCEL PROUST

A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it.

MARCEL PROUST (1871 - 1922), "Madame Swann at Home", Remembrances of Things Past: Within a Budding Grove, 1913 - 1927, tr. C. K. Scott Moncrieff, 1930.

Happiness - ARISTOTLE

The life of the intellect is the best and pleasantest for man, because the intellect more than anything else is the man. Thus it will be the happiest life as well.

ARISTOTLE (384 - 322 B. C.), Nicomachean Ethics, 10.7, tr. J. A. K. Thomson, 1953.

Fathers - SAM JOHNSON

Get up, Lyndon. Every boy in the country's got a two-hour start on you.

SAM JOHNSON (1877 - 1937), Words used in rousing his young son out of bed in the morning. In James David Barber, The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House, 4, 1972.

Failure - SUSAN B. ANTHONY

Failure is impossible.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY (1820 - 1906), On her 86th birthday, one month before her death in 1906. In Lynn Sherr, Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words, 1995.

Events - SAYING

A strong imagination creates the event.

SAYING. In Montaigne, "Of the Power of the Imagination", Essays, 1588, tr. Donald M. Frame, 1958.

Egotism - FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867 - 1959), Recalled on his death, 9 April 1959.

Education - ROBERT FROST

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

ROBERT FROST (1874 - 1963), In "Quotable Quotes", Reader's Digest, April 1960.

Discontent - NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS

Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS (1885 - 1957), "The March: First Step" (17), The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises, 1927, tr. Kimon Friar, 1960.

Discontent - THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

THOMAS ALVA EDISON (1847 - 1931), The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison, 2.4.16, ed, Dagobert D. Runes, 1948.

Despair - JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

Human life begins on the other side of despair.

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905 - 1980), The Flies, 3.3, 1943.

Daring - MAO TSE TUNG

Dare to think and dare to do.

MAO TSE-TUNG (1893 - 1976), Slogan, In Edgar Snow, Red China Today, 20, 1970.

Creativity - ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Often an idea would occur to me which seemed to have force .... I have never let one of those ideas escape me, but wrote it on a scrap of paper and put it in that drawer. In that way I saved my best thoughts on the subject, and, you know, such things often come in a kind of intuitive way more clearly than if one were to sit down and deliberately reason them out. To save the results of such mental action is true intellectual economy .... Of course, in this instance, I had to arrange the material at hand and adapt it to the particular case presented.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809 - 1865), Remarks to James F. Wilson, June 1862, In George Iles, ed., Autobiography, Greatest Americans, 1924.

Creativity - CHARLES DARWIN

I keep from thirty to forty large portfolios, in cabinets with labeled shelves, into which I can at once put a detached reference or memorandum. I have bought many books, and at their ends, I make an index of all the facts that concern my work; or, if the book is not my own, write out a separate abstract, and of such abstracts I have a large drawer full. Before beginning on any subject, I look to all the short indexes and make a general and classified index, and by taking the one or more proper portfolios I have all the information collected during my life ready to use.

CHARLES DARWIN (1809 - 1882), 1 Mat 1881, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin and Selected Letters, 2, ed. Francis Darwin, 1892.

Creativity - ERIC HOFFER

In animals, action follows on perception mechanically with almost chemical swiftness and certainty, but in man there is an interval of faltering and groping; and this interval is the seedbed of the images, ideas, dreams, aspirations, irritations, longings, and fore-bodings which are the warp and woof of the creative process.

ERIC HOFFER (1902 - 1983), The Ordeal of Change, 15.6, 1964.

Courage - MARK TWAIN

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

MARK TWAIN (1835 - 1910), The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, 12 (epigraph), 1894.

Courage - SENECA THE YOUNGER

No courage is so bold as that forced by utter desperation.

SENECA THE YOUNGER (5? B.C. - A.D. 65), "On Mercy" (1.12.5), Moral Essays, tr. John W. Basore, 1928.

Contemplation - ARISTOTLE

Contemplation is the highest form of activity.

ARISTOTLE (384 - 322 B.C), Nicomachean Ethics, 10.7, tr. J. A. K. Thomson, 1953.

Confidence - HENRY FORD

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

HENRY FORD (1863 - 1947).

Civilization - SIGMUND FREUD

Civilization is the fruit of renunciation of instinctual satisfaction.

SIGMUND FREUD (1856 - 1939). "Reflections upon War and Death" (1), 1915, tr. E. Colburn Mayne, Character and Culture, 1963.

Character - MIGNON McLAUGHLIN

Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.

MIGNON McLAUGHLIN (1913 - 1983), The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 4, 1966.

Books - FRANZ KAFKA

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

FRANZ KAFKA (1883 - 1924), Letter to Oskar Pollak, 27 January 1904.

Books - THOMAS FULLER

Out of the Books thou readest, extract what thou likest; and then single out some Particular from the rest for that Day's Meditation.

THOMAS FULLER (1654 - 1734). Comp., Introductio ad Prudentiam, 1640, 1731.

Argument - BERTRAND RUSSELL

You mustn't exaggerate, young man. That's always a sign that your argument is weak.

BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872 - 1970), Tommy Robbins interview, Redbook, September 1964.

Ambition - SAYING

If you would be Pope, you must think of nothing else.

SAYING (SPANISH)

Ambition - MALCOLM S. FORBES

Ambition is best not naked.

MALCOLM S. FORBES (1919 - 1990), "Fact and Comment", Forbes, 3 October 1988.

Ambition - ROBERT BROWNING

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a Heaven for?

ROBERT BROWNING (1812 - 1889), "Andrea del Sarto", 1. 97, Men and Women, 1855.

Alienation - KARL MARX

The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your externalized life - the greater is your alienation.

KARL MARX (1818 - 1883), Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, 1844.

Advice - SAYING

Consult with your pillow.

Adversity - NAPOLEON

Adversity is the midwife of genius.

NAPOLEON (1769 - 1821), Napoleon in His Own Words, 2, comp. Jules Bertaut, 1916.

Activity - NAPOLEON

I multiplied myself by my activity.

NAPOLEON (1769 - 1821), Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena (with Gen. Gaspard Gourgaud), 8, tr. Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer, 1904.

Action - PLUTARCH

[Caesar] slept generally in his chariot or litters, employing even his rest in pursuit of action.

PLUTARCH (A.D 46? - 119?), "Caesar", Parallel Lives, Dryden edition, 1693.

Action - SAYING

We do as we are; we become as we do.

SAYING.

Action - THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Get action, do things; be sane; don't fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody: get action.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858 - 1919). In Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It, 9.1, 1948.

Action - PIERRE LECOMTE du NOUY

Action follows conviction, not knowledge.
PIERRE LECOMTE du NOUY (1883 - 1947), Human Destiny, 11, 1947.

Action - JOSH BILLINGS

"Be sure yu are rite then go ahed;" but in kase ov doubt go ahed enny wa.
JOSH BILLINGS (1818 - 1885), His Sayings, 39, 1867.

Action - HENRI BERGSON

Action on the move creates its own route, creates to a very great extent the conditions under which it is to be fulfilled, and thus baffles all calculation.

HENRI BERGSON (1859 - 1941), "Final Remarks", The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, 1932, tr. R. Ashley Audra and Cloudesley Brereton, 1935.

Acting

Whatever happens, look as if it were intended.

FIRST RULE OF ACTING, In Arthur Bloch, comp., "Socio-Murphology," Murphy's Law: Book Three, 1982.

Actors - CHARLES de GAULLE

An actor's most notable effects depend upon his skill in producing the appearance of emotion when he is keeping strong control of himself.

CHARLES de GAULLE (1890 - 1970), "Of Prestige" (2), The Edge of the Sword, 1934, tr. Gerald Hopkins, 1960.

Achievement - ERIC HOFFER

His momentous achievements are rarely the result of a clean forward thrust but rather of a soul intensity generated in front of an apparently insurmountable obstacle which bars his way to a cherished goal.

ERIC HOFFER (1902 - 1983), The Ordeal of Change, 15.5, 1964.

Accident - FRANZ KAFKA

Accident is the name one gives to the coincidence of events, of which one does not know the causation....Accidents only exist in our heads, in our limited perceptions.

FRANZ KAFKA (1883 - 1924), In Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka, p.55. tr. Goronwy Rees, 1953.

Ability - THOMAS SHADWELL

Every man loves what he is good at.

THOMAS SHADWELL (1642 - 1692), A True Widow, 5.1, 1679.

Ability - CARL G. JUNG

A special ability means a heavy expenditure of energy in a particular direction, with a consequent drain from some other side of life.

CARL G. JUNG (1875 - 1961), Modern Man in Search of a Soul, 8.2, tr. W. S. Dell and Cary F. Baynes, 1933.

Ability - JOSEPH EPSTEIN

The acquisition of one sort of ability often makes that of another unlikely, if not impossible. . . . To take the gifts one does have, to concentrate one's strength upon their development, to disallow distractions - none of this is an easy task.

JOSEPH EPSTEIN (1928 - ), Ambition: The Secret Passion, 7, 1980.