Quotes I - Q (3/4)
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
- Henrik Ibsen, "An Enemy of the People", 1882
The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.
- Henrik Ibsen, "An Enemy of the People", 1882
There is always something to upset the most careful of human calculations.
- Ihara Saikaku
Originality is undetected plagiarism.
- Dean W. R. Inge
Few rich men own their own property. The property owns them.
- Robert G. Ingersoll
To think contrary to one's era is heroism.
But to speak against it is madness.
- Eugene Ionesco
May the road rise to meet you
May the winds be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rains fall softly upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
- traditional Irish Blessing
It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
- Andrew Jackson
One man with courage makes a majority.
- Andrew Jackson
The will to win is worthless if you don't get paid for it.
- Reggie Jackson
It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are.
- Clive James, in "The Observer", 1976
A great many people think they are thinking
when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
- William James
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
- William James
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
- William James
If you understand everything, you must be misinformed.
- Japanese Proverb
To teach is to learn.
- Japanese Proverb
El amor es un camino que de repente aparece
y de tanto caminarlo se te pierde.
- Victor Jara, "El Amor es un Camino"
In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
I think [a black] ... could scarcely be found capable of
tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid.
- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia", 1787
Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.
- Thomas Jefferson
It is always the best policy to tell the truth, unless,
of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
- Jerome K. Jerome
To seek permission is to seek denial.
- Steve Jobs
Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.
- Pope John XXIII, 1978
I never trust a man unless I've got his pecker in my pocket.
- Lyndon B. Johnson
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River,
the headline that afternoon would read: PRESIDENT CAN'T SWIM.
- Lyndon B. Johnson
If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of
them is doing the thinking.
- Lyndon Baines Johnson
No member of our generation who wasn't a Communist
or a dropout in the thirties is worth a damn.
- Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
- Samuel Johnson
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
- Samuel Johnson, "Letter to Lord Chesterfield", 7 April 1775
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
- Samuel Johnson
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
- Samuel Johnson
Your manuscript is both good and original;
but the part that is good is not original,
and the part that is original is not good.
- Samuel Johnson
The heart has its prisons that intelligence cannot unlock.
- Marcel Jouhandeau, "De la grandeur"
Do you not know, my son, with what little understanding the world is ruled?
- Pope Julius III
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle
a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.
- Carl G. Jung
An ounce of emotion is equal to a ton of facts.
- John Junor
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
(Who watches the watchmen?)
- Juvenal, "Satires"
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
- Franz Kafka
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind
only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
- Franz Kafka
There are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring:
impatience and laziness.
- Franz Kafka
Trouble is only an opportunity in work clothes.
- Henry J. Kaiser
Plus a change, plus c`est la mme chose.
(The more things change, the more they remain the same.)
- Alphonse Karr, "Les Gupes", 1849
You do not destroy an idea by killing people;
you replace it with a better one.
- Edward Keating
Beauty is truth, truth beauty.
- John Keats
Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.
- John Keats, Correspondence, 1819
College isn't the place to go for ideas.
- Hellen Keller
If you wants to get elected president, you've got to think up
some memorable homily so's school kids can be pestered into
memorizin' it, even if they don't know what it means.
- Walt Kelly
We have met the enemy and he is us.
- Walt Kelly in "POGO"
It is much safer to obey than to rule.
- Thomas A. Kempis
If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.
- Florynce Kennedy, 1976
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country.
- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 20 January 1961
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor,
it cannot save the few who are rich.
- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 20 January 1961
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
- John F. Kennedy
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
will make violent revolution inevitable.
- John F. Kennedy, 12 March 1962
Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
- John F. Kennedy
We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind
in the history of the world - or to make it the last.
- John F. Kennedy
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy
Some men see things as they are and say why?
I dream things that never were and say 'Why not?'
- Robert F. Kennedy, in "Esquire", 1969
What is a magician but a practising theorist?
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
Without feeling there's no reason to live.
- Andr Kertsz, photographer, 1894-1985
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will
do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
- John Maynard Keynes
I wish I'd drunk more champagne.
- John Maynard Keynes, dying words
In the long run we are all dead.
- John Maynard Keynes, "The General Theory", 1936
In a fight you don't stop to choose your cudgels.
- Nikita Khruschev
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build
bridges even when there are no rivers.
- Nikita Khruschev
I am part of all I have read.
- John Kieran
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
- S"ren Kierkegaard, "Life"
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me,
but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the
the philanthropist to over-look the circumstances of
economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963
A woman is a woman. A good cigar is a smoke.
- Rudyard Kipling
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
- Rudyard Kipling
He travels the fastest who travels alone.
- Rudyard Kipling
The silliest woman can manage a clever man;
but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.
- Rudyard Kipling
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
- Rudyard Kipling
Diplomacy ... the art of restraining power.
- Henry Kissinger
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
- Henry Kissinger
The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.
- Henry Kissinger
The words `I am...' are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to.
The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you.
- A. K. Kitselman
We cannot unthink unless we are insane.
- Arthur Koestler
Television - a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well-done.
- Ernie Kovacs
Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
- Jonathan Kozol
Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength.
- Charles Lamb
People don't ask for facts in making up their minds.
They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.
- Robert Keith Leavitt
Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep.
- Fran Lebowitz
People find life entirely too time-consuming.
- Stanislaw J. Lec
When smashing monuments, save the pedestals - they always come in handy.
- Stanislaw Lec
When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground
from beneath your feet.
- Stanislaw Lec
It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it.
- Robert E. Lee, December 1862
To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
- Ursula K. Le Guin, "A Wizard of Earthsea", 1975
When smashing monuments, save the pedestals - they always come in handy.
- Stanislaw Lec
It's easier to be original and foolish than original and wise.
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
It is true that liberty is precious - so precious that it must be rationed.
- Nikolai Lenin
Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.
- John Lennon and Yoko Ono, "Beautiful Boy", 1980
Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive,
but what they conceal is vital.
- Aaron Levenstein
The world began without man, and it will complete itself without him.
- Claude Levi-Strauss, "Tristes Tropiques", 1955
Ask a man which way he is going to vote, and he will probably tell you.
Ask him, however, why, and vagueness is all.
- Bernard Levin, in "Daily Mail", 1964
A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat
without having his neighbor notice it.
- Trygve Lie
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
- Abraham Lincoln
I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way
the social and political equality of the white and black races --
I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors
of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry
with white people.
- Abraham Lincoln, during first Lincoln-Douglas debate, 21 August 1858
I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.
- Abraham Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
- Abraham Lincoln
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
- Abraham Lincoln
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong
impulse to see it tried on im personally.
- Abraham Lincoln
You can fool all the people some of the time,
and some of the people all the time,
but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
- Abraham Lincoln
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee,
and just as hard to sleep after.
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.
- Walter Lippmann
I have always thought the actions of men the best
interpreters of their thoughts.
- John Locke
Winning is not everything. It's the only thing.
- Vince Lombardi, 1965
The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand.
- Cesare Lombroso, "The Man of Genius"
Never try to outstubborn a cat.
- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
Tax reform means "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that
fellow behind the tree."
- Russell Long
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing,
while others judge us by what we have done.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
- Joe Louis, 1965
Cynicism - the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence.
- Russell Lynes
In war there is no substitute for victory.
- General Douglas MacArthur, Speech, 19 April 1951
There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
- General Douglas MacArthur, 1955
It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
Caminante, son tus huellas el camino, y nada m s;
caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.
- Antonio Machado, "Proverbios y cantares, VI"
To be alive at all involves some risk.
- Harold MacMillan, December 1959
All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death
than the animals that know nothing.
- Maurice Maeterlinck
Computers can figure out all kinds of problems,
except the things in the world that just don't add up.
- James Magary
It's only words... unless they're true.
- David Mamet
Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great
equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.
- Horace Mann, 1848
The atom bomb is a paper tiger...
Terrible to look at but not so strong as it seems.
- Mao Zedong
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
- Mao Zedong, "Quotations from Chairman Mao", 1966
Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.
- Mao Zedong, "Quotations from Chairman Mao", 1966
An optimist is a guy that has never had much experience
- Donald R. Perry Marquis, "archy and mehitabel", 1927
I've had a wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
- Groucho Marx
Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.
- Groucho Marx
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
- Groucho Marx
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing;
if you can fake that, you've got it made.
- Groucho Marx
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.
- Groucho Marx
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
- Karl Marx
Religion ... is the opium of the masses.
- Karl Marx, "Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right", 1844
Unrecognized faults lead to wasted efforts
- Joanot Martorell, "Tirant lo Blanc", 1490
Impropriety is the soul of wit.
- W. Somerset Maugham
The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
- W. Somerset Maugham
Love is only the dirty trick played on us
to achieve continuation of the species.
- W. Somerset Maugham, "A Writer's Notebook" 1949
I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.
- William H. Mauldin, "Up Front" 1944
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
- William G. McAdoo
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
- Charlie McCarthy
A still tongue makes a happy life.
- Patrick McGoohan (Number 6 in "The Prisoner")
Be seeing you!
- Patrick McGoohan (Number 6 in "The Prisoner")
Music makes a quiet mind.
- Patrick McGoohan (Number 6 in "The Prisoner")
Questions are a burden to others;
answers are a prison for oneself.
- Patrick McGoohan (Number 6 in "The Prisoner")
I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.
- George McGovern
A billion here, a couple of billion there -- first thing you
know it adds up to be real money.
- Everett McKinley Dirksen
I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.
- Marshall McLuhan
We don't know who it was that discovered water,
but we're pretty sure it wasn't a fish.
- Marshall McLuhan
Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate.
- Margaret Mead
The people here [in Nicaragua] are amazingly friendly, when you
figure we're here to overthrow their government.
- Richard Melton, US Ambassador to Nicaragua
The Navy is the asylum for the perverse, the home of the unfortunate.
- Herman Melville, "White Jacket"
A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence
and yet keep both ears to the ground.
- H. L. Mencken
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.
- H. L. Mencken, "A Mencken Chrestomathy", 1949
Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.
- H. L. Mencken
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
- H. L. Mencken
Men have a much better time of it than women:
for one thing, they marry later; for another thing they die earlier.
- H. L. Mencken
Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life,
there is actually no truth to be discovered;
there is only error to be exposed.
- H. L. Mencken, "Prejudices, Third Series", 1922
No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
- H. L. Mencken
On one issue at least, men and women agree; they both distrust women.
- H. L. Mencken
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
- H. L. Mencken
The American public knows what it wants,
and deserves to get it good and hard.
- H. L. Mencken
The older I grow the more I distrust
the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
- H. L. Mencken, "Prejudices, Third Series", 1922
There's always an easy solution to every human problem -
neat, plausible, and wrong.
- H. L. Mencken
Time is the great legalizer, even in the field of morals.
- H. L. Mencken, "A Book of Prefaces", 1917
Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now
pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.
- H. L. Mencken
When women kiss it always reminds one of prize fighters shaking hands.
- H. L. Mencken
It is the doom of men that they forget.
- Merlin, in Edmund Mallory's "Morte d'Artur"
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.
- Michelangelo
Conservatives are not necessarily stupid,
but most stupid people are conservatives.
- John Stuart Mill
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.
- John Stuart Mill
Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.
- Henry Miller, "Tropic of Capricorn"
Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.
- Henry Miller, "Tropic of Capricorn"
There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.
- Henry Miller, "The Colossus of Maroussi", 1941
It's better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.
- Milton, "Paradise Lost"
I bet the human brain is a kludge.
- Marvin Minsky
A good listener is not only popular everywhere,
but after a while he gets to know something.
- Wilson Mizner
Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.
- Wilson Mizner
I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education.
- Wilson Mizner
Some of the greatest love affairs I've known
have involved one actor, unassisted.
- Wilson Mizner
When you take stuff from one writer it's plagiarism;
but when you take it from many writers, it's research.
- Wilson Mizner
I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.
- Marilyn Monroe
Civility costs nothing, and buys everything.
- Mary Wortley Montagu
War hath no fury like a non-combatant.
- C. E. Montague
Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in,
and those inside equally desperate to get out.
- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
The value of life lies not in the length of days,
but in the use we make of them...
Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not
on your tale of years, but on your will.
- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1580
Obstacles are those frightful things you see
when you take your eyes off the goal.
- Hannah More
Only the sinner has the right to preach.
- Christopher Morley
There is only one success, to be able to spend your life in your own way.
- Christopher Morley
You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
- John Morley, "Rousseau", 1876
It's so easy to laugh
it's so easy to hate
it takes guts to be gentle and kind.
- Morrissey
Any party which takes credit for the rain
must not be surprised if its opponents blame it for the draught.
- Dwight Morrow
If the nation's economists were laid end to end,
they would point in all directions.
- Arthur H. Motley
Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty
without taking off your shoes.
- Mickey Mouse
As a student I learned from wonderful teachers
and ever since then I've thought everyone is a teacher.
- Bill Moyers, interviews on "Fresh Air", 1991
It is impossible to make anything foolproof
because fools are so ingenious.
- Edsel Murphy
Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.
- Edward R. Murrow
Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
- Edward R. Murrow
The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well off,
have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the
greatest misery without almost noticing them.
- Gunnar Myrdal
Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death
should not be an even greater one.
- Vladimir Nabokov, in "Time", 1981
Prophecy is the wit of a fool.
- Vladimir Nabokov
The speed of exit of a civil servant is directly proportional
to the quality of his service.
- Ralph Nader, "The Spoiled System"
Everybody is interesting for an hour, but few people can last more than two.
- V. S. Naipul, interview in "Time", 10 July 1989
When you win, nothing hurts.
- Joe Namath
A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.
- Napoleon, "Maxims" 1804-1815
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
- Napoleon, "Maxims" 1804-1815
If you wish to be a success in the world,
promise everything, deliver nothing.
- Napoleon
In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
- Napoleon
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
- Napoleon
Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
- Napoleon
Women are nothing but machines for producing children.
- Napolean, in "The Book of Insults", 1978
A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
- Ogden Nash
Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.
- Ogden Nash
Happiness is having a scratch for every itch.
- Ogden Nash
The trouble with a kitten is that when it grows up, it's always a cat
- Ogden Nash.
The genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves,
only complicated stupid moves which make the rest of us wonder
at the possibility that we might be missing something.
- Gamel Abdel Nasser
Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
- George Jean Nathan
I drink to make other people interesting.
- George Jean Nathan
Nobody believes the official spokesman ...
but everybody trusts an unidentified source.
- Ron Nesen, 1977
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know
what you're talking about.
- John von Neumann
Lack of will power has caused more failure than
lack of intelligence or ability.
- Flower A. Newhouse
Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
- Howard W. Newton
If I have seen far, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Sir Isaac Newton
O God, give us serenity to accept what cannot be changed,
courage to change what should be changed,
and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
- Reinhold Niebuhr, sermon, 1934
Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.
- Reinhold Niebuhr
They [Nazis] came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one left to speak up.
- Martin Niem"ller
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
- Fredrich Nietzsche
In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
- Friedrich Nietzsche, "Beyond Good and Evil", 1885 - 1886
One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Wer mit Ungeheuern kampft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird.
Und wenn du lange in einem Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund
auch in dich hinein.
(He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.
And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.)
- Friedrich Nietzsche, "Jenseits von Gut und Bose"
What does not destroy me, makes me strong.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
When a hundred men stand together,
each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
A ship is always referred to as "she"
because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder.
- Chester Nimitz, Speech, 13 February 1940
Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive,
and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
- Anais Nin
I have nothing to hide.
- Richard Nixon
I would have made a good pope.
- Richard Nixon
It is necessary for me to establish a winner image.
Therefore, I have to beat somebody.
- Richard M. Nixon
Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth -
to see it like it is, and tell it like it is -
to find the truth, to speak the truth, and live the truth.
- Richard Nixon. accepting the Presidential Nomination, 1968
Voters quickly forget what a man says.
- Richard Nixon
When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.
- Richard Nixon, in interview with David Frost, 19 May 1977
Your President is no crook!
- Richard Nixon
You can't underestimate the power of fear.
- Tricia Nixon
Laws were made to be broken.
- Christopher North
Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our own point of view.
- Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Return of the Jedi"
There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.
- Kenneth H. Olson, President of DEC, Convention of the World Future Society, 1977
The optimist thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds,
and the pessimist knows it.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" 1951
Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
- George Orwell
Liberal - a power worshipper without power.
- George Orwell
On the whole human beings want to be good,
but not too good and not quite all the time.
- George Orwell, collected essays
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
- George Orwell, "Animal Farm" 1945
Big Brother Is Watching You
- George Orwell, "1984", 1948
Who controls the past controls the future.
Who controls the present controls the past.
- George Orwell, "1984", 1948
At 50 everyone has the face he deserves.
- George Orwell, "Journals", 1949
Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives,
but on balance life is suffering and only the very young
or the very foolish imagine otherwise.
- George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant", 1950
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
- George Orwell, "1984", 1948
It is convenient that there be gods,
and, as it is convenient, let us believe there are.
- Ovid, "Ars Amatoria"
To be loved, be lovable.
- Ovid, "Ars Amatoria"
If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
- Thomas Paine
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
- Dorothy Parker
The chief product of an automated society
is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom.
- Cyril Parkinson
It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as
to fill the time available for its completion.
- C. Northcote Parkinson, in "The Economist", 1955
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
- Ellen Parr
If all men knew what others say of them,
there would not be four friends in the world.
- Blaise Pascal, 1656
Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.
- Blaise Pascal
Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.
- Blaise Pascal, "Penses", 1670
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor
of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply... For fear will
rob him of all if he gives too much.
- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
God forgives us. ... Who am I not to forgive?
- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
I have one great fear in my heart, that one day
when they [the whites of South Africa] have turned to loving,
they will find we [the blacks] are turned to hating.
- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
Then what is it worth, this mining industry? And why should it
be kept alive, if it is only our poverty that keeps it alive? ...
Is it we that must be kept poor so that others may stay rich?
- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another?
- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die? ...
Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand.
But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle,
is beyond all human wisdom.
- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
Yet [white] men [of South Africa] were afraid,
with a fear that was deep, deep in the heart,
a fear so deep that they hid their kindness, ...
They were afraid because they were so few.
And fear could not be cast out, but by love.
- Alan Paton, "Cry, The Beloved Country", 1948
To give up the task of reforming society is to
give up one's responsibility as a free man.
- Alan Paton, 1967
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do
and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
- George S. Patton, "War As I Knew It", 1947
Watch what people are cynical about,
and one can often discover what they lack.
- George S. Patton
Assuming that either the left wing or the right wing gained
control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.
- Pat Paulsen
The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but hold hands.
- Alexander Penney
Public office is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
- Boies Penrose, 1931
Always be sincere, even when you don't mean it.
- Irene Peter
An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow
why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
- Laurence J. Peter
A pessimist is a man who looks both ways when he crosses the street.
- Laurence Peter
Democracy is a process by which the people are free
to choose the man who will get the blame.
- Laurence Peter, "Peter's Quotations", 1977
Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.
- Laurence Peter
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
- Laurence Peter, "The Peter Principle" 1969
Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear
but forgetting where you heard it.
- Laurence Peter, "Peter's Quotations", 1977
A man who is always ready to believe what is told him will never do well.
- Gaius Petronius, "Satyricon"
Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.
- Wendell Phillips, Speech, 7 November 1860
What is defeat? Nothing but education,
nothing but the first step toward something better.
- Wendell Phillips
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
- Pablo Picasso
Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
- Pablo Picasso
God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant
and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things.
- Pablo Picasso
Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood.
- Augusto Pinochet
The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd.
The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places
no one has ever been.
- Alan Ashley-Pitt
The measure of man is what he does with power.
- Pittacus
If everybody's behavior can be explained by simple stupidity and greed,
there's no point in assuming a conspiracy.
- P. J. Plauger
Prosperity tries the fortunate: adversity the great.
- Pliny the Younger
I don't need a friend who changes when I change
and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
- Plutarch
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch
Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.
- Roman Polanski
Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.
- Polish proverb
Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.
- Alexander Pope
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
- Alexander Pope, "Essay on Criticism, 625"
If you do not raise your eyes you will think you are the highest point.
- Antonio Porchia, "Voces", 1968
One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.
- Antonio Porchia, "Voces", 1968
They talk most who have the least to say.
- Matthew Prior
A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.
- Herbert Prochnow
A good workman is known by his tools.
- Proverb
Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret,
especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.
- William Proxmire
Maxim 914: Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
- Publilius Syrus
Maxim 1070: I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
- Publilius Syrus
Practice is the best of all instructors.
- Publilius Syrus
I loved you. And love for you has not yet burned out of my soul. But
don't let my love cause you distress any more. I don't wish to bring you
grief. I loved you silently, hopelessly, sometimes in joy, sometimes in
jealousy. I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly. Ah, may God grant that
you be so loved by another.
- Aleksander Pushkin, "Ya Vas Lyubil"
Silence is better than unmeaning words.
- Pythagoras
Actually I'm a little bit envious of Murphy Brown.
At least she's guaranteed to come back this fall.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 1992
Although in public I refer to him as Mr. Vice President, in private
I call him George ... When I called him on the phone yesterday,
I called him George rather than Mr. Vice President. But in public,
it's Mr. Vice President because that's who he is.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 27 August 1988
Certainly I know what to do, and when I am Vice President - and
when I will be - there will be contingency plans under different
situations. And I'll tell you what - I'm not going to go out and
have a news conference about it, I'm going to put it in a safe and
keep it there! Does that answer the question?
- J. Danforth Quayle, 10 October 1988
From a historical basis, Middle East conflicts do not last a long time.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 2 October 1990
Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been,
and as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be.
- J. Danforth Quayle, on arrival in American Samoa, 25 April 1989
Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific.
It is IN the Pacific. It is a part of the United States
that is an island that is right here.
- J. Danforth Quayle
Hawaii is a unique state. It is a state that is by itself...
It is different than the other 49 states. Well all states
are different, but it's got a particularly unique situation.
- J. Danforth Quayle, "Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette", 11 October 1992
I am not part of the problem; I am a Republican.
- J. Danforth Quayle
I am the future!
- J. Danforth Quayle, 10 October 1988
I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom
and democracy - but that could change.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 22 May 1989
I don't watch it, but I know enough to comment on it.
- J. Danforth Quayle, commenting on "Murphy Brown", 21 May 92
I suppose three important things certainly come to my mind that
we want to say thank you. The first would be our family. Your family,
my family - which is composed of an immediate family of a wife and
three children, a larger family with grandparents and aunts and uncles.
- J. Danforth Quayle, "Des Moines Register", 23 November 1988
I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret
I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I
could converse with those people.
- J. Danforth Quayle, in "Time", 8 May 1989
I wear their scorn as a badge of honor.
- J. Danforth Quayle, commenting on the media elite, 9 June 1992
I would guess that there's adequate low-income housing in this country.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 27 October 1988
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.
- J. Danforth Quayle, to the Phoenix Republican Forum, 23 March 1990
If you give a person a fish, they'll fish for a day.
But if you train a person to fish, they'll fish for a lifetime.
- J. Danforth Qualye
It isn't pollution that's harming the environment.
It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.
- J. Danforth Quayle
It's rural America. It's where I came from. We always refer to ourselves
as real America. Rural America, real America, real, real, America.
- J. Danforth Quayle
Japan is an important ally of ours. Japan and the United States of
the western industrialized capacity, 60 percent of the GNP, two
countries. That's a statement in and of itself.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 2 October 1989
Mars is essentially in the same orbit... We have seen pictures where
there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, there is
oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.
- J. Danforth Quayle, interviewed on Cable Network News, 11 August 1989
May our nation continue to be the beakon [sic] of hope to the world.
- J. Danforth Quayle, Christmas card, 1989
My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and
we will never, never surrender to what is right.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 15 November 1991
One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Vice President,
and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 6 December 1989
People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions
and have a tremendous impact on history.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 28 September 1988
Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 18 September 1990
Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 8 September 1988
The American people will judge me on what I am saying.
- J. Danforth Quayle
[The Gulf War is] a stirring victory for the forces of aggression.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 11 April 1991
The real question of 1988 is whether we're going to go forward
to tomorrow or past to the -- to the back!
- J. Danforth Quayle, 17 August 1988
There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.
In other words, a good offense wins.
- J. Danforth Quayle, on "Star Wars", in "Time", 19 September 1988
This isn't a man who is leaving with his head between his legs.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 6 December 1991
Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 12 October 1990
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.
- J. Danforth Quayle
We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 21 September 1988
We are ready for any unforseen event which may or may not occur.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 18 September 1990
We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could
not have prevailed without them in "Red Storm Rising".
- J. Danforth Quayle
Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.
- J. Danforth Quayle, 20 July 1989
What a waste it is to lose one's mind or not to have a mind...
How true it is.
- J. Danforth Quayle, addressing the United Negro College Fund, 9 May 1989
Who would have predicted... that Dubcek, who brought the tanks
into Czechoslovakia in 1968 is now being proclaimed a hero in
Czechoslovakia. Unbelievable.
- J. Danforth Quayle
Why wouldn't an enhanced deterrent, a more stable peace, a better prospect
to denying the ones who enter conflict in the first place to have a
reduction of offensive systems and an introduction to defensive capability.
I believe that is the route this country will eventually go.
- J. Danforth Quayle
Religions tend to disappear with man's good fortune.
- Raymond Queneau, "A Model History"
A bachelor is a selfish, undeserving guy who has cheated some woman
out of a divorce.
- Don Quinn
