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There is no worse heresy
than that the office
sanctifies the holder of it.
Lord Acton
Letter to Mandell Creighton, April 3, 1887
The most certain test by which we judge
whether a country is really free
is the amount of security
enjoyed by minorities.
Lord Acton,
The History of Freedom in Antiquity, 1877
Power
when yielded by abnormal energy
is the most serious of facts.
Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, 1907
A teacher affects eternity;
he can never tell where
his influence stops.
Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, 1907
They know enough
who know how to learn.
Henry Brooks Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, 1906
It will be of little avail to the people,
that the laws are made
by men of their own choice,
if the laws be so voluminous
that they cannot be read,
or so incoherent
that they cannot be understood.
James Truslow Adams
The Adams Family, 1930
Fear is the foundation
of most governments.
John Adams
Thoughts on Government, 1776
Thomas Jefferson still survives.
John Adams
On his deathbed, July 4, 1826
Let us dare
to read, think, speak and write.
John Adams
Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law, 1765
And say not thou "My country right or wrong."
My toast would be,
Nor shead thy blood for an unhallowed cause.
John Quincy Adams
"Congress, Slavery, and an Unjust War," 1847
may our country be always successful,
but whether successful or otherwise,
always right.
John Quincy Adams
Letter to John Adams, August 1, 1816
Among the natural rights of the colonists are these:
first, a right to life;
second, to liberty;
thirdly, to property;
together with the right to support and defend them
in the best manner they can.
Samuel Adams,
"The Rights of the Colonists," August, 1776
When Liberty is gone,
Life grows insipid and has lost its relish.
Joseph Addison
Cato, Act II, scene 3, 1713.
This is a sickness rooted and inherent
in the nature of a tyranny:
that he that holds it does not trust his friends.
Aeschylus
Prometheus Bound, circa 478 B.C.
Beware that you do not lose the substance
by grasping at the shadow.
Aesop
Fables, "The Dog and the Shadow," 6th century, BC
Many can argue,
not many converse.
A. Bronson Alcott
Concord Days, 1872
A man is known by the company
his mind keeps.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
"Leaves from a Notebook," in Ponkapog Papers, 1903
A belief is not true
because it is useful.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Amiel's Journal, November 15, 1876
When a government takes over a people's economic life
it becomes absolute,
and when it has become absolute it destroys
the arts, the minds, the liberties and the meaning
of the people it governs.
Maxwell Anderson
The Guaranteed Life, 1938
Our life
is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius Antonius (121 to 180 A.D.)
Mediations
Give me a firm place to stand,
and I will move the earth.
Archimedes
On the Lever, 3rd Century, BC
We praise a man who is angry on the right grounds,
against the right persons,
in the right manner,
at the right moment,
and for the right length of time.
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics, 340 B.C.
Our characters are the result
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of our conduct.
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics, circa 335 B.C.
Nature,
to be commanded,
must be obeyed.
Francis Bacon
Novum Organum, 1620
Nature is often hidden,
sometimes overcome
seldom extinguished.
Francis Bacon
Essays, "Of Nature in Men," 1610
A wise man will make more opportunities
than he finds.
Francis Bacon
Essays, 1610.
Some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested . . . .
Francis Bacon
Essays: Of Studies.
Nature, to be commanded,
must be obeyed.
Francis Bacon
Novum Organum, 1620.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land,
when they can see nothing but sea.
Francis Bacon
The Advancement of Learning, 1605.
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education
is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do,
when it ought to be done,
whether you like it or not.
Walter Bagehot
Physics and Politics, 1879
It is unfortunate,
considering that enthusiasm moves the world,
that so few enthusiasts
can be trusted
to speak the truth.
Arthur James Balfour
Letter to Mrs. Drew, May 19, 1891
It is only in sorrow
bad weather masters us;
in joy we face the storm and defy it.
Amelia Barr
Jan Vedder's Wife, 1885
I have always found
that the man whose second thoughts are good
is worth watching.
J.M. Barrie
What Every Woman Knows, 1906
"You don't know that," said Molly.
Peter, unable to think of a good answer,
settled for looking annoyed.
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Peter and the Starcatchers, 2004
There is in all of us a strong disposition
to believe that anything lawful
is also legitimate.
This belief is so widespread that many persons
have erroneously held
that things are "just" because law makes them so.
Claude-Frederic Bastiat
The Law, 1850
The defect of equality
is that we only desire it
with our superiors.
Henry-Francois Becque
Querelles Litteraires, 1890
Ignorance is the womb
of monsters.
Henry Ward Beecher
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1870.
Where is human nature so weak
as in the bookstore!
Henry Ward Beecher
"Subtleties of Book Buyers," Star Papers, 1855
We thought, because we had power,
we had wisdom.
Stephen Vincent Benet
Litany for Dictatorships, 1935
No politician has yet gained votes
by advocating the amendment
of the multiplication table,
but many a seat in parliament
has been won on an implied promise--
equally fantastic--
to repeal the law of supply and demand.
Sir Ernest Benn
The State the Enemy, 1953
Every strengthening of the State machine
means a weakening of the individual,
but every improvement in the individual
means a strengthening of the nation.
Sir Ernest Benn
The State the Enemy, 1953
The first sign of corruption
in a society that is still alive
is that the end justifies the means.
Georges Bernanos
Why Freedom, 1955
You get what you pay for.
Gabriel Biel, Expositio Canonis Missae, circa 1495.
As scarce as truth is,
the supply has always been in excess of the demand.
Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Affurisms from Josh Billings: His Sayings, 1865
It is better that ten guilty escape
than that one innocent suffer.
Sir William Blackstone
Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765
The impetus for this book is Libertarianism.
The basic premise of this philosophy is that
it is illegitimate to engage in aggression against non-aggressors.
What is meant by agression is not assertiveness, argumentativeness,
competitiveness, adventurousness, quarrelsomeness, or antagonism.
What is meant by aggression is the use of violence,
such as that which takes place in murder, rape, robbery or kidnapping.
Libertarianism does not imply pacifism;
it does not forbid the use of violence in defense
or even in retaliation against violence.
Libertarian philosophy condemns only the initiation of violence--
the use of violence against a non-violent person or his property.
Walter Block
Defending the Undefendable, 1976
He that would know what shall be,
must consider
what hath been.
H.G. Bohn
Handbook of Proverbs, 1855
Here's to your good health,
and your family's good health,
and may you all
live long and prosper.
Dion Boucicault
Rip Van Winkle, II, 1866
War is the health of the State.
Randolph Bourne
Essay: "War Is the Health of the State," in
The State, 1918 (unfinished at his death).
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression
of free speech and assembly.
Men feared witches and burnt women.
It is the function of speech to free men
from the bondage of irrational fears.
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
Concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 376 (1927)
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard
to protect liberty when the government's purposes
are beneficent.
Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion
of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious
encroachment
by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, dissenting in
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1928).
The appalling thing about war
is that it kills
all love of truth.
Georg Brandes
Letters to Georges Clemenceau, March, 1915
In wine-drinking cultures,
children used to be given a few drops
of wine in their water to accustom them to the taste.
People grow up with wine at the dinner table;
it's part of the family meal.
Since children aren't prohibited from touching the stuff,
it doesn't become "forbidden fruit" like beer and wine do in our culture.
As a result, kids don't bend over backward
to get their hands on it when the adults aren't around,
and then proceed to get drunk.
Leslie Brenner
Fear of Wine: An Introductory Guide to the Grape, 1995
A meal without wine
is like a day without sunshine.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Physiologie du Gout, 1825.
A good heart will help you
to a bonny face . . . ."
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights, 1847
Nothing is lost
that we do not first see as lost.
Terry Brooks
Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold, 1986
A wise man is not governed by others,
nor does he try to govern them;
he prefers that reason alone prevail.
La Bruyere
Characters, 1688
We hate to see you go, old guy
Although we know it's time.
Though sadness fills our hearts right now
We'll not forget good times.
And smiles will soon replace our tears
For joy is what you brought.
No better job could have been done
of filling up our lives.
So go in peace our golden friend
You've earned your final rest.
You could not have done a better job
It's time to sleep at last.
Donald Ray Burger
Elegy for Toby, July 22, 1999, 1:07 pm
I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But, I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.
Gelett Burgess
The Purple Cow, 1895.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away,
for expedients,
and by parts.
Edmund Burke
Letter to Sherriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777
Kings are naturally lovers
of low company.
Edmund Burke
Speech on the Economical Reform, 1780
Power gradually extirpates from the mind
every humane and gentle virtue.
Edmund Burke
A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756
No passion
so effectually robs the mind
of all its powers of acting and reasoning
as fear.
Edmund Burke
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1756
The greater the power,
the more dangerous the abuse.
Edmund Burke
Speech, House of Commons, February 7, 1771.
If decisions were a choice between alternatives,
decisions would come easy.
Decision is the selection and formulation
of alternatives.
Kenneth Burke
Towards a Better Life, 1932.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
[Chorus]
For auld lang syne, my dear,
We twa hae rin about the braes,
We twa hae paidl't i' the burn,
And here 's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
Robert Burns
And never brought to min'?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne?
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit
Sin' auld lang syne.
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.
And gie's a hand o' thine;
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught
For auld lang syne.
And surely I'll be mine;
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!
Auld Lang Syne,1788
Indeed he knows not how to know
who knows not also how to un-know.
Sir Richard Francis Burton
The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yazdi.
He that complies against his will
is of his opinion still.
Samuel Butler
Hudibras, 1664
The great pleasure of a dog is
that you may make a fool of yourself with him
and not only will he not scold you,
but he will make a fool of himself too.
Samuel Butler
Note-Books, circa 1890.
The nearest approach
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to immortality on earth
is a government bureau.
James F. Byrnes
Speaking Frankly, 1947
The true university of these days
is a collection of books.
Thomas Carlyle
"The Hero as Man of Letters," in On Heroes and Hero Worship, 1841
To like and dislike the same things,
that is indeed true friendship.
Gaius Sallustius Crispus
Bellum Catilinae, 43 BC
It is one thing
to praise discipline,
and another to submit to it.
Miguel de Cervantes
The Dialogue of the Dogs, 1613
That which costs little
is less valued.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-1615
There is nothing so subject
to the inconstancy of fortune
as war.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-l6l5.
I begin to smell a rat.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-l6l5.
Forewarned, forearmed:
to be prepared
is half the victory.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote, 16l5
Every man is the son
of his own works.
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1615
Honesty's the best policy.
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-l6l5.
In great affairs men show themselves
as they wish to be seen,
in small things they show themselves
as they are.
Chamfort
Maximes et pensees, 1805
The office of government is not to confer happiness,
but to give men opportunity
to work out happiness for themselves.
William Ellery Channing
Christian Examiner, Sept/Oct, 1827
Attack another's rights
and you destroy your own.
John Jay Chapman
Letter, 1897
Women deprived of the company of men pine,
men deprived of the company of women
become stupid.
Anton Chekhov
Notebooks, 1892-1904
The theory of free speech,
that truth is so much larger and stranger
and more many-sided than we know of,
that it is very much better at all costs
to hear every one's account of it,
is a theory which has been justified on the whole
by experiment, but which remains
a very daring and even a very surprising theory.
It is really one of the great discoveries
of modern time.
G. K. Chesterton
Robert Browning, 1914
There is no such thing on earth
as an uninteresting subject;
the only thing that can exist
is an uninterested person.
G.K. Chesterton
Heretics, 1905
It is a curious fact
that as the government's revenues increase
so do its needs.
Frank Chodorov
The Income Tax: Root of All Evil, 1954
A government is as strong as its income.
Contrariwise, the independence of the people
is in direct proportion to the amount
of their wealth they can enjoy.
We cannot restore traditional American freedom
unless we limit the government's power
to tax.
Frank Chodorov
The Income Tax: Root of All Evil, 1954
Those who realize their folly
are not true fools.
Chuang Tse
Works, Fourth century, BC
Everyone is in favour of free speech.
Hardly a day passes without its being extolled,
but some people's idea of it
is that they are free to say what they like,
but if anyone says anything back,
that is an outrage.
Winston Churchill
Speech in House of Commons, October 13, 1943.
Laws are silent
in time of war.
Cicero
Pro Milone, 52 B.C.
Men do not realize
how great an income thrift is.
Cicero
Paradoxa stoicorum, 46 B.C.
Not to know what happened before one was born
is always to be a child.
Cicero
De oretore, circa 80 B.C.
The more laws,
the less justice.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
De Officiis, 44 B.C.
Philosophy is the best medicine
for the mind.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Tusculanes Disputationes 47-44 B.C.
It is far easier to make war
than to make peace.
Georges Clemenceau
Speech, July 14, 1919
The Bill of Rights is a born rebel.
It reeks with sedition.
In every clause it shakes its fist in the face of constituted authority.
Frank I. Cobb
LaFollette's Magazine, January, 1920
History has taught me
that rulers are much the same
in all ages, and under all forms of government;
that they are as bad as they dare to be.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Letter, 1798
In politics as in religion,
it so happens that we have less charity
for those who believe the half of our creed,
than for those that deny the whole of it.
Charles Caleb Colton,
Lacon, 1825.
Government that oppresses
is
more terrible than tigers.
Confucius
The Book of Rites, circa 500 B.C.
What is most needed for learning
is a humble mind.
Confucius
The Book of History, circa 500 B.C.
He will hew to the line of right,
let the chips fall where they may.
Roscoe Conkling
Speech nominating US Grant for a third term as President,
June 5, 1880.
The current near-hysterical preoccupation with safety
is at best a waste of resources
and a crimp on the human spirit,
and at worst an invitation
to totalitarianism.
Michael Crichton
State of Fear, 2004
"You just don't get it, do you?" Kenner said.
"You think civilization is some horrible, polluting human invention
that separates us from the state of nature.
But civilization doesn't separate us from nature, Ted.
Civilization protects us from nature."
Michael Crichton
State of Fear, 2004
I was, for some years, a member of Congress.
In my last canvass, I told the people of my District,
that,
if they saw fit to re-elect me,
I would serve them as faithfully as I had done;
but, if not,
they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas.
I was beaten, gentlemen, and here I am.
David Crockett
Speech on arrival in (Nacogdoches) Texas, January 5, 1836.
I have come to your country, though not, I hope, through any selfish motive whatever.
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I have come to aid you all that I can in your noble cause.
I shall identify myself with your interests, and all the honor that I desire is that of defending
as a high private,
in common with my fellow citizens,
the liberties of our common countries.
Davy Crockett
Speech on arrival at the Alamo, February 8, 1836.
When a dog bites a man
that is not news,
but when a man bites a dog,
that is news.
Charles A. Dana
New York Sun, 1882
Men would be great criminals
did they need as many laws as they make.
Charles John Darling
Scintillae Juris, 1877.
The affinities of all the beings of the same class
have sometimes been represented by a great tree.
I believe this simile largely speaks the truth.
As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds,
and these, if vigorous,
branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch,
so by generation I believe it has been
with the great Tree of Life,
which fills with its dead and broken branches
the crust of the earth,
and covers the surface
with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.
Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species, 1859
What is this life if,
full of care,
we have no time
to stand and stare.
W.H. Davies
Leisure, 1920.
I hear much of people's calling out
to punish the guilty,
but very few are concerned
to clear the innocent.
Daniel Defoe
An Appeal to Honor and Justice, 1715.
The reading of all good books
is like conversation
with the finest men of the past centuries.
Descartes
Discourse on Method, 1639
Burning is no answer.
Camille Desmoulins
Reply to Robespierre on the burning of Desmoulins' newspaper, Vieux Cordelier, January 7, 1794
Watch out for the fellow
who talks about putting things in order!
Putting things in order always means
getting other people under your control.
Denis Diderot
Supplement to Bougainville's "Voyage," 1796
From fanaticism to barbarism
is only one step.
Denis Diderot
Essai sur le merite de la vertu, 1745.
The shortest way to ruin a country
is to give power
to demagogues.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Antiquities of Rome, circa 20 B.C.
History is philosophy
teaching by examples.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Ars rhetorica, XI:2, 1st Century, BC
A love of liberty is planted by nature
in the breasts of all men.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Antiquities of Rome, circa 20 B.C.
No government can be long secure
without formidable opposition.
Benjamin Disraeli
Coningsby, 1844
How much easier it is
to be critical
than to be correct.
Benjamin Disraeli
Speech, January 24, 1860
Men are whipped oftenest
who are whipped easiest.
Frederick Douglass
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1881
No man can put a chain
about the ankle of his fellow man
without at last finding the other end
fastened about his own neck.
Frederick Douglass
Speech, October 22, 1883
A little learning, may be a dangerous thing,
but the want of learning
is a calamity to any people.
Frederick Douglass
Speech at Colored High School Commencement, Baltimore, Maryland, June 22, 1894.
The plot thickens.
Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
in "A Study in Scarlet," 1887
"Nothing clears up a case
so much as stating it
to another person."
Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
in "Silver Blaze," 1892
It is quite a three-pipe problem.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Red-Headed League," in
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892
You know my method.
It is founded upon the observance of trifles.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Remark by Sherlock Holmes in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, 1892
And not a girl goes walking
Along the Cotswold lanes
But knows men's eyes in April
Are quicker than their brains.
John Drinkwater
Cotswold Love.
The most may err
as grossly as the few.
John Dryden
Absalom and Achitophel, 1681.
Beware the fury of a patient man.
John Dryden
Marriage a la Mode, 1679.
Of all the tyrannies on human kind
The worst is that which persecutes the mind.
John Dryden
The Hind and the Panther 1687
Now, ye want to know
how to get from here tae there.
Well, I'll tell ye.
It's verra simple: don't obey.
If someone give you orders, ignore them.
Don't obey anything
but your own judgment.
Nicholas Dykes
Old Nick's Guide to Happiness: A Philosophical Novel, 2008
I regard smuggling as a right and proper activity.
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The smuggler is brave enough
to defy the parasites in Whitehall
and hopefully smart enough
to outwit their minions.
Smuggling is a noble business, always has been.
Nicholas Dykes
Old Nick's Guide to Happiness: A Philosophical Novel, 2008
I am long on ideas, but short on time.
I expect to live to be only about a hundred.
Thomas Alva Edison
quoted in Golden Book magazine, April, 1931
(Note: Edison lived to age 84.)
Try not to become a man of success
but rather
try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein
Life Magazine, May 2, 1955
Farming looks mighty easy
when your plow is a pencil,
and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Speech in Peoria, Illinois, September 25, 1956.
Books are the quietest and most constant
of friends . . .
and the most patient of teachers.
Charles W. Eliot
The Happy Life, 1896
A different taste in jokes
is a great strain on the affections.
George Elliot
Daniel Deronda, 1876
A chief event of life
is the day in which we have encountered
a mind
that startled us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: Second Series, 1844
If you put a chain
around the neck of a slave,
the other end fastens itself
around your own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: First Series, 1841
You shall have joy
or you shall have power,
said God;
you shall not have both.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, October, 1842
People seem not to see
that their opinion of the world
is also a confession of character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Conduct of Life, 1860
The less government we have, the better--
the fewer laws, and the less confided power.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays, 1844
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake
of dreaming that I am persecuted
whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, 1838
You will always find those
who think they know what your duty is
better than you know it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Self Reliance," Essays: First Series, 1841
Every man has his own vocation.
The talent is the call.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: First Series, 1841
The virtue of books
is to be readable.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Society and Solitude, 1870
This time,
like all times,
is a very good one,
if we but know
what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The American Scholar, 1837
The years teach much
which the days never know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Experience" in Essays (Second Series) 1844
Our first mistake is the belief that circumstance
gives the joy
which we give to the circumstance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Illusions," The Conduct of Life, 1860
Nothing great was ever achieved
without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays: First Series, 1841
What is a weed?
A plant whose virtues have not been discovered.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fortune of the Republic, 1878
Many eyes go through the meadow,
but few see the flowers in it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, 1834.
We learn geology
the morning after the earthquake.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Conduct of Life, 1860.
Knowledge is the antidote
to fear
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Society and Solitude, "Courage," 1870
Next to the originator of a good sentence
is the first quoter of it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Letters and Social Aims, 1875
Man exists for his own sake
and not to add a laborer to the State.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, 1839
It is the difficulties that show what men are.
Epictetus
Discourses, circa 50 to 120 A.D.
Let no one put off studying philosophy when he is young,
nor when old grow weary of its study.
For no one is too young or too far past his prime
to achieve the health of his soul.
The man who alleges that he is not yet ready for philosophy
or that the time for it has passed him by,
is like the man who says
that he is either too young or too old
for happiness.
Epicurus
Letter to Menoeceus, Fragment 122. Circa 300 BCE.
Quoted in The Essential Epicurus, translated by Eugene O'Connor
In the kingdom of the blind
the one-eyed man
is king.
Desiderius Erasmus
Adagia, 1500
The Press, my Lords,
is one of our great out-sentries;
if we remove it, if we hoodwink it,
if we throw it in fetters,
the enemy may surprise us.
Thomas Erskine
Defense of Thomas Paine, December 20, 1792
The man who knows when not to act
is wise.
To my mind,
bravery is forethought.
Euripides
The Suppliant Women, circa 420 BC
Whom the gods would destroy,
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they first make mad.
Euripides
Fragments, circa 429 to 406 B.C.
I do not trust fervor.
Every time it has burst out somewhere,
it has brought fire, famine, misery. . . .
And contempt for man.
Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent.
Frantz Fanon
Black Skins White Masks, 1988
Governments have ever been careful
to hold a high hand
over the education of the people.
They know, better than anyone else,
that their power is based almost entirely
on the school.
Hence, they monopolize it more and more.
Francisco Ferrer
The Origin and Ideals of the Modern School, Translated by Joseph McCabe, 1913.
Most all the time,
the whole year round,
there ain't no flies on me,
But jest 'fore Christmas
I'm as good as I kin be!
Eugene Field
"Jest 'fore Christmas," in Love-Songs of Childhood, 1894
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
The little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.
"Now don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue-
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!
Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place,
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.
Eugene Field,
Little Boy Blue, 18--
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly--and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
Edward Fitzgerald
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 18--.
And I cannot see,
why arms should be denied to any man
who is not a slave,
since they are the only
true badges of liberty.
Andrew Fletcher
A Discourse of Government with Relation to Militias, 1737
The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course
of larceny, murder, rapine, and barbarism.
We are always moving forward with high mission,
a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims
while incidentally capturing their markets,
to civilize savage and senile and paranoid peoples
while blundering accidentally
into their oil wells and metal mines.
John T. Flynn
As We Go Marching, 1944
In order that knowledge
be properly digested
it must have been swallowed
with a good appetite.
Anatole France
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, 1881
Those who have given themselves the most concern
about the happiness of peoples
have made their neighbors very miserable.
Anatole France
Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, 1881.
Some people would advise us
that there may be realities so frightening,
or so discouraging and demoralizing,
that we would be better off not knowing anything about them.
In my judgment, however,
it is nearly always more advantageous
to face the facts with which we must deal
than to remain ignorant of them.
After all, hiding our eyes from reality
will not cause any reduction of its dangers and threats . . . ."
Harry G. Frankfurt
On Truth, 2006
In any event, mere speed is not a test of justice.
Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, in
Deliberate speed is.
Deliberate speed takes time.
But it is time well spent.
First Iowa Coop. v. Power Comm'n, 328 U.S. 152, 188 (1946).
Human felicity is produced
not so much by great pieces of good fortune
that seldom happen,
as by little advantages
that occur every day.
Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography, 1731
Experience keeps a dear school,
yet Fools will learn in no other.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1743
The Golden Age
never was the present Age.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1750
The eye of the master
will do more work
than both his hands.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1758
Laziness travels so slowly,
that Poverty soon overtakes him.
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1756
We must indeed all hang together,
or most assuredly,
we shall all hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin
Remark on signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
In this world nothing is certain
but death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin
Letter to M Leroy, 1789
They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
The direct use of physical force
is so poor a solution
to the problem of limited resources
that is is commonly employed
only by small children
and great nations.
David Friedman
The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism, 1973
We call our schools free
because we are not free
to stay away from them
until we are sixteen.
Robert Frost
Introduction to Collected Poems, 1939
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
"The Road Not Taken, " in Mountain Interval, 1916
Passion, joined with power,
produceth thunder and ruin.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
A man surprised
is half beaten.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
'Tis better to suffer wrong
than do it.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
'Tis skill, not strength,
that governs a ship.
Thomas Fuller, M.D.
Gnomologia, 1732
No garden [is] without its weeds.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732.
The Mob has many Heads
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
but no Brains.
Thomas Fuller
Gnomologia, 1732
A wise man's question
contains half the answer.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
The Choice of Pearls, circa 1050
E pur si muove.
Italian for, "And yet it does move."
Attributed to Galileo Galilei
Parting remarks supposed to have been spoken under Galleleo's breath
after his public recantation of his heliocentric ideas,
upon his conviction by the Inquisition
for believing that the Earth was not the center of the Universe, 1633.
Better counsel comes overnight.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Emilia Galotti, 1772
Truth no more relies for success
on ballot boxes
than it does on cartridge boxes.
Political action is not moral action.
William Lloyd Garrison
The Liberator, March 13, 1846
More than any group we can think of,
Harleys and their owners
constitute the world's largest
and most active
mutual admiration society.
Paul Garson
Born to Be Wild: A History of the American Biker and Bikes, 1947 - 2002, 2003
It is time that we squarely face the fact
that institutional schoolteaching
is destructive to children.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
School is a twelve-year jail sentence
where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
By preventing a free market in education,
a handful of social engineers,
backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling--
teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, and others--
has ensured that most of our children
will not have an education,
even though they may be thoroughly schooled.
John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992
You aren't compelled to loan your car
to anyone who wants it,
but you are compelled to surrender you school-age child to strangers
who process children for a livelihood . . . .
Your great-great grandmother didn't have to surrender her children.
What happened?
John Taylor Gatto
The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation into the Problem of Modern Schooling, 2000
Truth is the daughter
of time.
Aulus Gellius, 130 to 175 A. D.
Noctis Atticae
The winds and waves
are always on the side
of the ablest navigators.
Edward Gibbon
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776
Everything has been said before,
but since nobody listens
we have to keep going back
and beginning all over again.
Andre Gide
Le Traite du Narcisse, 1891
Life is made up of interruptions.
W.S. Gilbert
Patience, I, 1881
During war we imprison
the rights of man.
Jean Giraudoux
Tiger at the Gates, 1935
It is familiarity with life
that makes time speed quickly.
When every day is a step in the unknown,
as for children,
the days are long with the gathering of experience.
George Gissing
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, 1903
Power is not happiness.
William Godwin
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, 1793
The project of a national education
ought uniformly to be discouraged,
on account of its obvious alliance
with national government.
This is an alliance of a more formidable nature
than the old and much contested alliance
of church and state.
William Godwin
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, 1793
Whenever government assumes to deliver us
from the trouble of thinking for ourselves,
the only consequences it produces
are those of torpor and imbecility.
William Godwin
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, 1793
The century is advanced,
but every individual begins afresh.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Maxims and Reflections, collection.
There is no greater fallacy than the belief
that aims and purposes are one thing,
while methods and tactics are another.
Emma Goldman
My Disillusionment in Russia, 1923
Censorship is an ancient evil,
and liberation from it
is the fuel of progress.
A.C. Grayling
"Information," from, The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century, 2005
Happiness is never as welcome
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
as changlessness.
Graham Greene
The Heart of the Matter, 1948
Good teaching
is a process of "drawing out"
rather than "stuffing in."
Dr. Martin Haberman
Star Teachers: The Ideology and Best Practice of Effective Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty, 2005
I had us moved into a corner
where I could put my back against a wall.
Wild Bill Hickok had once, just once,
made the mistake of sitting with his back to the door.
I'd hate to make him feel,
wherever he is,
that he'd died in vain.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
Certain people never learn
that if they push enough folks around long enough,
sooner or later they'll start shoving somebody who won't take it.
He'll blow right up in their faces
and demolish them and the surrounding landscape;
and they--those who are left--
will scream about how misunderstood and abused they are,
and why didn't somebody tell them
the guy was dangerous so they could be nice to him?
It never seems to occur to them
that there's a very simple answer:
just be nice to everybody.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
At eighteen months he weighed over a hundred pounds,
with enormous feet and a head like a bear.
His greeting was overwhelming,
like being mauled by a grizzly;
but I didn't mind.
I mean, it showed that he remembered me and, dammit,
love is where you find it.
There aren't that many humans around
eager to hug and kiss me.
Donald Hamilton
The Demolishers 1987
Mirian: "I guess I can put two and two together."
Nick: "Sometimes the answer's four," I said,
"and sometimes it's twenty-two."
Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man, 1934
Do not do an immoral thing
for moral reasons.
Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure, 1875
The right of a person to the product of his own labor
is the foundation of economic liberty.
The requirements of liberty in the economic realm
can be met in no other way.
The question at issue is how to distinguish
between what is mine and what is thine. . . .
There are three ways to handle this problem:
1. Each person may have whatever he can grab.
2. Some person other than the one who produces the goods and services
may decide who shall have the right of possession or use.
3. Each person may be allowed to have whatever he produces.
These three methods cover all the possibilities;
there are no others.
F.A. "Squatty" Harper
Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery, 1949
It would seem, then,
that the claim of one renowned person who said:
"Only well-fed people can be free,"
could more accurately be stated in reverse:
"Only free people can be well-fed."
F.A. "Squatty" Harper
Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery, 1949
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society,
is not a social program;
in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power-adoring tendencies
it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism;
and with its traditionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities
it will never, except in short periods of disillusionment,
appeal to the young and all those others
who believe that some changes are desirable
if this world is to become a better place.
Friedrich A. Hayek
The Road to Serfdom, 1944
To think justly
we must understand what others mean;
to know the value of our thoughts,
we must try their effect on other minds.
William Hazlitt
The Plain Speaker, 1826
The greatest offence against virtue
is to speak ill of it.
William Hazlitt
Sketches and Essays, 1839.
The more one's vocabulary
and writing (and reading)
ability increases . . .
the more one will use the dictionary!
Walter H. Head
A Born-Again View of Religion Versus A Philosophy of Thinking in Principles, 2001
Wherever they burn books
they will also, in the end,
burn human beings.
Heinrich Heine
Almansor, 1823
Individuals are kind and decent . . .
as individuals and to other individuals.
Eve is in no danger from her neighbors and friends,
and I am in no danger from mine.
But she is in danger from my neighbors and frineds--
and I from hers.
Robert A Heinlein
Methuselah's Children, 1958.
"You were a tramp, weren't you . . . ?"
"Not a tramp," Thomas corrected gently, "a hobo."
"Sorry--what's the distinction?"
"A tramp is a bum, a parasite, a man that won't work.
A hobo is an itenerant laborer
who prefers casual freedom
to security.
He works for his living,
but won't be tied down to one environment."
Robert A. Heinlein
Sixth Column, 1949
Government is a dirty business.
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
Oh, "tanstaafl.' Means "There ain't no such thing
as a free lunch."
Robert A Heinlein
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966
I don't argue with lasers;
you can neither bribe them
nor sweet-talk them.
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
It is not written in the stars
that I will always understand what is going on--
a truism that I often find damnably annoying.
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday, 1982
Detailed instructions
are the death
of initiative.
Robert A. Heinlein
Sixth Column, 1949
Detailed instructions
are the death
of initiative.
Robert A. Heinlein
Sixth Column, 1949
The universe is change;
our life is what our thoughts make it.
Chang Heng
Meditations,circa 78 -139 A.D.
I order you to hold a free election,
but forbid you to elect anyone but Richard my clerk.
Henry II
Writ to electors of the See of Winchester
regarding the election of a new bishop. 1173
A man begins to die,
that quits his desires.
George Herbert
Outlandish Proverbs, 1640.
Old wine and an old friend
are good provisions.
George Herbert
Jacula Prudentum, 1651
One sword keeps another
in the sheath.
George Herbert
Jacula Prudentum, 1651.
Every mile
is two in winter.
George Herbert
Jacula Prudentum, Published posthumously in 1652.
A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
Robert Herrick
"Delight in Disorder," in
Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, 1648
It is a deformity in some "radicals"
to imagine that, once they have found
the lowest or meanest motive
for an action or for a person,
they have correctly identified
the authentic or "real" one.
Many a purge or show trial
has gotten merrily under way in this manner.
Christopher Hitchens
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, 2006
The first thing naturally