Quotes A - C (1/4)
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
- Lord Acton, letter, 5 April 1887
Success has made failures of many men.
- Cindy Adams
A teacher affects eternity; no one can tell where his influence stops.
- Henry B. Adams
No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean,
for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
- Henry B. Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams", 1907
One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.
- Henry B. Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams", 1907
Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has
always been the systematic organization of hatreds.
- Henry B. Adams
It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
- Alfred Adler, 1939
Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us.
- Roy Adzak, in "Contemporary Artists", 1977
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.
- Aesop
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
- Aesop
Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.
- Aesop
We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified.
- Aesop
The paper burns, but the words fly away.
- Ben Joseph Akiba
I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humour.
- Edward Albee
Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.
- Conte Vittorio Alfieri
Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never play cards with a man named Doc.
And never lie down with a woman who's got more trouble than you.
- Nelson Algren, "What Every Young Man Should Know"
A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do
nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done.
- Fred Allen
Most of us spend the first 6 days of each week sowing wild oats,
then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.
- Fred Allen
Leisure time is that five or six hours when you sleep at night.
- George Allen
A study of economics usually reveals that the best time
to buy anything is last year.
- Marty Allen
80% of success is just showing up.
- Woody Allen
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.
I want to achieve it through not dying.
- Woody Allen
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a
large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.
- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people.
The good ones slept better ... while the bad ones seemed
to enjoy the waking hours much more.
- Woody Allen, "Side Effects" 1981
Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on the weekend.
- Woody Allen
Sex without love is an empty experience,
but as empty experiences go it's one of the best.
- Woody Allen
The difference between sex and death is that with death
you can do it alone and no one is going to make fun of you.
- Woody Allen, in "New York Tribune", 1975
The lion and the calf shall lie down together
but the calf won't get much sleep.
- Woody Allen
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.
- Woody Allen
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
- Muhammad Ali, in "Time", 1978
Tuez-les tous! Dieu reconnitra les seins!
(Kill-them all! God will recognize his own!)
- Arnaud Amaury, Bishop of Citeaux
Doing easily what others find difficult is talent;
doing what is impossible for talent is genius.
- Henri-Frdric Amiel, "Journal", 1883
In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the
sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order.
- Idi Amin Dada, 1976
God has been replaced, as he has all over the West,
with respectability and air conditioning.
- Imamu Amiri Baraka, "Home", 1966
Every nation sincerely desires peace; and all nations pursue courses
which if persisted in, must make peace impossible.
- Sir Norman Angell
Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity
of opportunity to be otherwise.
- Maya Angelou, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", 1969
Death is life's answer to the question 'Why?'
- anonymous
God is not dead. He is alive and working on a less ambitious project.
- anonymous
If you love something, set it free.
If it doesn't return, it was never yours anyway.
If it does, love it forever.
- anonymous
In March July, October, May,
The Ides are on the fifteenth day,
The Nones the seventh: all other months besides
Have two days less for Nones and Ides.
- anonymous
Never argue with a fool - people might not know the difference.
- anonymous
Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three.
- anonymous
The fewer clear facts you have in support of an opinion,
the stronger your emotional attachment to that opinion.
- anonymous
Vote early and vote often.
- anonymous, on US election banners, 1850's
You're never alone with schizophrenia.
- anonymous
Resolved, that the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause
for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.
- Susan B. Anthony
Examine what is said, not who speaks.
- Arabian Proverb
Women like silent men. They think they're listening.
- Marcel Archard
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness,
and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
- Aristotle
We make war that we may live in peace.
- Aristotle
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
- Aristotle
Wit is cultured insolence.
- Aristotle
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
- Neil Armstrong
What passes for optimism is most often the effect on an intellectual error.
- Raymond Aron, "The Opium of the Intellectuals", 1957
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
- Isaac Asimov
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
- Isaac Asimov
We are still speaking the same language,
but neither of us is hearing the other.
- Hafez Assad, on Syrian relations with Egypt, in "Time", 3 April 1989
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator,
but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
- W. H. Auden
Tomorrow the bicycle races through suburbs on summer evenings.
But today the struggle.
- W. H. Auden
Poets live in dreams and die in hunger.
- Augustine in "Le Chateau de ma Mere"
Lord give me chastity - but not yet.
- Saint Augustine
If Gary Hart had seen Fatal Attraction two years ago,
he'd probably be President.
- Bruce Babbitt, 1988 Presidential Campaign
If you love someone, set them free;
If they come back they're yours;
If they don't they never were
- Richard Bach, "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull"
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
- Francis Bacon, 1624
Rebellions of the belly are the worst.
- Francis Bacon
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
- Francis Bacon
It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
- Walter Bagehot, "Biographical Studies", 1863
Be careful what you set your heart upon - for it will surely be yours.
- James Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name" 1961
Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart;
for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.
- James Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name" 1961
The future is like heaven - everyone exalts it,
but no one wants to go there now.
- James Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name", 1961
Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
- George Ball
It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason
that it is more difficult to be witty every day
than to say pretty things from time to time.
- Honor de Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage", 1829
Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster
that devours everything: familiarity.
- Honor de Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage", 1829
No man should marry until he has studied anatomy
and dissected at least one woman.
- Honor de Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage", 1829
The duration of passion is proportionate
with the original resistance of the woman.
- Honor de Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage", 1829
Virtue, perhaps, is nothing more than politeness of soul.
- Honor de Balzac
It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.
- Tallulah Bankhead
Nobody can be exactly like me. Even I have trouble doing it.
- Tallulah Bankhead
Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture
available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want.
The most terrifying thing is what people do want.
- Clive Barnes, in "New York Times", 1969
Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow
such a conventional thing to happen to him.
- John Barrymore, dying words
Every man has a right to be wrong in his opinions.
But no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
- Bernard Baruch
Half the work that is done in the world is to make things
appear what they are not.
- E. R. Beadle
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
- Simone de Beauvoir
What is an adult? A child blown up by age.
- Simone de Beauvoir, "La Femme rompue", 1967
Now comes the mystery.
- Henry Ward Beecher, dying words, 8 March 1887
For those who like this sort of thing,
this is the sort of thing they like.
- Max Beerbohm
Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it's done,
they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
- Brendan Behan
The most important things to do in this world are to get something
to eat, somthing to drink and somebody to love you.
- Brendan Behan, in "Weekend", 1968
Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work
he is supposed to be doing at that moment.
- Robert Benchley
Don't make me speak in a New Language,
Just let me tell you the way that I feel about you.
I sure don't want to offend anyone,
But if you take away my words, how can I tell you the truth?
- Moe Berg of TPOH
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
- Hector Berlioz, "Almanach des lettres franaises"
When it comes to a fork in the road, take it.
- Yogi Berra
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
- Psalms 90:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
- Psalms 111:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
- Proverbs 1:7
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
- Proverbs 16:18
Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise;
When he closes his lips, he is counted prudent.
- Proverbs 17:28
It is better to be a live dog than a dead lion.
For the living know that they shall die - the dead know nothing.
- Ecclesiastes
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
- Ecclesiastes 9:11
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other,
or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches.
- Matthew 6:24
And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?
- Matthew 6:27
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
- John 15:13
When I was a child, I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;
when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
- I Corinthians 13:11 (Revised Standard Version)
Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Belladonna, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison.
A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Bore, n: a person who talks when you wish him to listen.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Conservative, n: a statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as
distinguished from a Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Cynic, n: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are,
not as they ought to be.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Marriage, n: the state or condition of a community
consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves,
making in all, two.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Spring beckons! All things to the call respond;
the trees are leaving and cashiers abscond.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
Yankee, n: In Europe, an American.
In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander.
In the Southern States the word is unknown. (See DAMYANK.)
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" 1911
No man is a hero to his valet.
- Anne-Marie Bigot de Cornuel
The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
- Josh Billings, "The Kicker"
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.
- Otto von Bismarck
Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.
- Otto von Bismarck
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.
- Sir William Blackstone
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
- William Blake
A conclusion is the place where you get tired of thinking.
- Arthur Bloch
The first sign of a nervous breakdown is when you start
thinking your work is terribly important.
- Milo Bloom
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes
which can be made, in a narrow field.
- Niels Bohr
No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical.
- Niels Bohr
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
- Niels Bohr
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the
opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
- Niels Bohr
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
- Derek Bok, 1978
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.
If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.'
They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'
- Clare Boothe Luce
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home,
but unlike charity, it should end there.
- Clare Boothe Luce
No good deed goes unpunished.
- Clare Boothe Luce
When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.
- James H. Boren
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
- Victor Borge
Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand,
but we must build as if the sand were stone.
- Jorge Luis Borges, 1972
We never know whether we are victors or whether we are defeated.
- Jorge Luis Borges, "Borges On Writing", 1974
It is possible to store the mind with a million facts
and still be entirely uneducated.
- Alec Bourne, "A Doctor's Creed"
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue
to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant
may prove to be our executioner.
- General Omar Bradley
God runs electromagnetics by wave theory on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday, and the Devil runs them by quantum
theory on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
- William Bragg
Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.
- Werner von Braun
Man in the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft...
and the only one that can be mass-produced with unskilled labor.
- Werner von Braun
Grub first, then ethics.
- Bertolt Brecht
I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
- Ashleigh Brilliant
Please don't ask me what the score is, I'm not even sure what the game is.
- Ashleigh Brilliant
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first,
and call whatever you hit the target.
- Ashleigh Brilliant
No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
- Jacob Bronowski, in "Encounter", 1971
If Presidents don't do it to their wives, they do it to the country.
- Mel Brooks
Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.
- Sam Brown, in "Washington Post", 1977
Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow.
- Matthew Browne, "Lilliput Levee"
As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically
reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children.
- Anita Bryant, 1977
Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.
- William F. Buckley
I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob.
- William F. Buckley
Before you kill something make sure you have something better
to replace it with; something better than political opportunist
slamming hate horseshit in the public park.
- Charles Bukowski, "Notes of a Dirty Old Man", 1969
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke (possibly misattributed)
Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy
driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.
- George Burns
Never do today what you can do tomorrow.
Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.
- Aaron Burr
Language is a virus from outer space.
- William S. Burroughs
All I was appealing for was an endorsement, not suggesting you endorse it.
- George Bush, 3 March 1992
Hay, hey, nihaoma. Hey, yeah, yeah.
Heil, heil -- a kind of Hitler salute.
- George Bush, 29 March 1992
I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens,
nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.
- George Bush, 27 August 1988
I've got to be careful I don't overcheerlead on this economy.
- George Bush, 1 November 1991
I hope I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, anti-racism.
- George Bush, in "New York Times", 17 January 1992
I think there were some differences, there's no question, and
will still be. We're talking about a major, major situation here...
I mean, we have got a major rapport-relationship of economics,
major in the security, and all of that and we should not lose sight of.
- George Bush, 10 January 1992
I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever.
I don't care what the facts are.
- George Bush, Chicago campaign stop, 27 August 1988
If you're worried about caribou, take a look at the arguments that were
used about the pipeline. They'd say caribou would be extinct. You've got
to shake them away with a stick. They're all making love lying up
against the pipeline and you've got thousands of caribou up there.
- George Bush, 31 October 1991
It's no exaggeration to say the undecideds could go one way or another.
- George Bush, 21 October 1988
It would be inappropriate for the President of the United States
to try to fine-tune for the people of Hungary how they ought to eat -
how the cow out to eat the cabbage, as we say in the United States.
- George Bush, in "Philadelphia Inquirer",
13 July 1989
The caribou love [the Alaska oil pipeline].
They rub up against it, and they have babies.
- George Bush, 1988
and again "New York Times", 3 April 1989
The final lesson of Viet Nam is that no great nation
can long afford to be sundered by a memory.
- George Bush, 1989 Inaugural Address
There is no difference between me and the president on taxes.
No more nitpicking. Zip-ah-de-doo-dah. Now it's off to the races!
- George Bush
To kind of suddenly try to get my hair colored, and dance up and down
in a miniskirt or do something, you know, show that I've got a lot of jazz
out there and drop a bunch of one-liners, I'm running for president of
the United States... I kind of think I'm a scintillating kind of fellow.
- George Bush, 26 April 1988
We have a complicated three-way conundrum at this point.
- George Bush, 30 December 1989
We [Reagan and Bush] have had our successes, we have had our failures,
we have had sex.
- George Bush, 1988
We love your adherence to democratic principles.
- George Bush speaking to Ferdinand Marcos, June 1981
You cannot be president of the United States if you don't have faith.
Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the Civil War
and all that stuff. You can't be. And we are blessed. So don't feel
sorry for - don't cry for me, Argentina.
- George Bush, 15 January 1992
An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.
- Nicholas Murray Butler
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense
to know how to lie well.
- Samuel Butler, "Notebooks", 1912
Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.
- Samuel Butler
If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.
- Samuel Butler
Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.
- Samuel Butler
Look before you leap
for as you sow, ye are like to reap.
- Samuel Butler, 1663
Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven.
Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?
- Samuel Butler, "Notebooks", 1912
The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.
- Samuel Butler, "The Fair Haven", 1873
One was never married, and that's his hell; another is, and that's his plague.
- Robert Burton, 1651
For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
- Lord Byron, "Don Juan", 1818
The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true.
- James B. Cabell, "The Silver Stallion" 1926
Men willingly believe what they wish.
- Julius Caesar
What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story.
And the greatest good is little enough:
for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams.
- Pedro Calderon de la Barca, "Life is a Dream"
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that
events are knowable and that life has direction and order.
That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change.
We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
- Calvin, "Calvin & Hobbes"
I suppose if we couldn't react to things that didn't make sense,
we couldn't react to a lot of life.
- Hobbes, "Calvin & Hobbes"
It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.
- Arthur Calwell, 1968
An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought.
- Simon Cameron
Distance lends enhancement to the view.
- Thomas Campbell
Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic.
- Albert Camus, "The Rebel", 1951
We are all special cases.
- Albert Camus
When I sell liquor, its called bootlegging; when my patrons serve
it on Lake Shore Drive, its called hospitality.
- Al Capone
You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun
than you can with a kind word alone.
- Al Capone
Anyone who can walk to the welfare office can walk to work.
- Al Capp, in "Esquire", 1970
It is long accepted by the missionaries that morality is inversely
proportional to the amount of clothing people wore.
- Alex Carey
Remember, inside every silver lining... there's a dark cloud.
- George Carlin, "The Hippy-Dippy Weatherman", 1965
"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be,
and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!"
- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
In time of war the first casualty is truth.
- Boake Carter
Because of the greatness of the Shah, Iran is an island of stability
in the Middle East.
- Jimmy Carter, 31 December 1977
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie!" till you can find a rock.
- Wynn Catlin
As long as people will accept crap,
it will be financially profitable to dispense it.
- Dick Cavett, in "Playboy", 1971
The first step towards knowledge is to know that we are ignorant.
- Richard Cecil
Everything beautiful has its moment and then passes away.
- Luis Cernuda, "Las Ruinas"
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
- Miguel de Cervantes
Every man is as God made him, ay, and often worse.
- Miguel de Cervantes
Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends.
- Coco Channel
I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women,
French to men, and German to my horse.
- Charles V, King of France
In some cases non-violence requires more militancy than violence.
- Cesar Chavez
A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.
- G. K. Chesterton
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies;
probably because generally they are the same people.
- G. K. Chesterton
I prefer old age to the alternative.
- Maurice Chevalier
Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternatives.
- Maurice Chevalier
He who asks is a fool for five minutes,
but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
- Chinese proverb
The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.
- Chinese proverb
I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
- Chuang Tzu
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
- Winston Churchill
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
- Winston Churchill
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum,
sodomy and the lash.
- Winston Churchill
Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.
- Winston Churchill, speech, January 1952
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
- Winston Churchill
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared
for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
- Winston Churchill
I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
- Winston Churchill
I like a man who grins when he fights.
- Winston Churchill
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us.
Pigs treat us as equals.
- Winston Churchil
If you go on with this nuclear arms race,
all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
- Winston Churchill
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government
except all the others that have been tried.
- Winston Churchill
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
- Winston Churchill, "My Early Life", 1930
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth,
but most times he will pick himself up and carry on.
- Winston Churchill
Mr Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has much to be modest about.
- Winston Churchill
Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
- Winston Churchill
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings;
the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
- Winston Churchill
There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
- Winston Churchill
A university is what a college becomes when
the faculty loses interest in students.
- John Ciardi
Preparation, knowledge, and discipline can deal with any form of danger.
- Tom Clancy, "THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER", 1984
Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?
- Ramsey Clark
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of the Future", 1962
It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God,
but to create him.
- Arthur C. Clarke
Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
- Arthur C. Clarke
You're either part of the solution or part of the problem.
- Eldridge Cleaver, 1968
The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
- Eldridge Cleaver, "Soul on Ice", 1968
America is the only nation in history which miraculously
has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without
the usual interval of civilization.
- Georges Clemenceau, 1 December 1945
War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.
- Georges Clemenceau
Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
- Charles Caleb Colton
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
- Confucius
If we don't know life, how can we know death?
- Confucius
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
- Confucius
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
- Confucius
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
- Confucius
When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them;
when we see persons of a contrary character,
we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
- Confucius
Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn'd.
- William Congreve, "The Mourning Bride"
Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones
who will be writing about you.
- Cyril Connolly, "Journal and Memoir" 1983
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
- Cyril Connolly, "The Unquiet Grave" 1945
Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime,
but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
- Cyril Connolly, "The Unquiet Grave" 1945
The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.
- Cyril Connolly, "Journal and Memoir" 1983
Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite.
Islanded between the arms the inhabitants argue for a lifetime
as to which is the main river.
- Cyril Connolly, "The Unquiet Grave" 1945
Youth is a period of missed opportunities.
- Cyril Connolly, "Journal and Memoir" 1983
The horror! The horror!
- Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness", 1902
You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
- Joseph Conrad, "Lord Jim", 1900
I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and
invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people.
- Calvin Coolidge, Speech, 21 September 1928
One of the best things (slave traders) did for you was
to drag your ancestors over here in chains.
- William Coors, Coors Brewing Company, 1984
A good memory is needed after one has lied.
- Pierre Corneille
We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.
- Pierre Corneille
I don't know the key to success,
but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
- Bill Cosby
Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.
- Laurence Coughlin
A man feared that he might find an assassin;
Another that he might find a victim.
One was more wise than the other.
- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
A man said to the universe, "Sir, I exist." "However," replied the universe,
"the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."
- Stephan Crane, "War is Kind", 1899
I stood upon a high place, and saw, below, many devils,
running, leaping, and carousing in sin.
One looked up, grinning, and said, "Comrade! Brother!"
- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
I walked in a desert.
And I cried,
"Ah, God, take me from this place!"
A voice said, "It is no desert."
I cried, "Well, but---
"The sand, the heat, the vacant horizon."
A voice said, "It is no desert."
- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
I was in the darkness;
I could not see my words
Nor the wishes of my heart.
Then suddenly there was a great light---
"Let me into the darkness again."
- Stephan Crane, "The Black Riders and Other Lines", 1895
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset.
- Crowfoot, 1890, last words
There is growing evidence that smoking has pharamacological ...
effects that are of real value to smokers.
- Joseph F. Cullman III (Pres. of Phillip Morris) Annual Report to Stockholders, 1962
There are no atheists in the foxholes.
- William Thomas Cummings, 1942
