Monday, June 02, 2008

This Is What They Have to Say

Again, a smattering of collected quotations. I think all of them are from A Word a Day.


What matters is not the idea a man holds, but the depth at which he holds it. -Ezra Pound, poet (1885-1972)

All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible. -George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)

God must have loved the people in power, for he made them so much like their own image of him. -Kenneth Patchen, poet and novelist (1911-1972)

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. -Francois, duc de La Rochefoucauld, moralist (1613-1680)

We are all equal before the law, but not before those appointed to apply it. -Stanislaw J. Lec, poet and aphorist (1909-1966)


If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. -Desmond Tutu, clergyman (b. 1931)

Having been unable to strengthen justice, we have justified strength. -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. -William James, psychologist (1842- 1910)

The best way to be more free is to grant more freedom to others. -Carlo Dossi, author and diplomat (1849-1910)

There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare. -Sun Tzu, general (6th century BCE)

We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past. -Miguel de Unamuno, writer and philosopher (1864-1936)

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the U.S. (1809-1865)

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