Felipe González favourite quotes (page 10)

“For three years I was immersed in a depression, I did not know how to assimilate the loss of my voice, which was a reality.”

José José (1948–2019) Mexican singer

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/551253.html

“Well, I like people a lot. I could define myself as a pacific being, a lover of nature, music and people. The qualities that I admire the most in the human being is the capacity of getting along with its similars in holy peace.”

José José (1948–2019) Mexican singer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExtaUyCkYaY

“His Excellency Don José Palafox [famous Spanish general, who recaptured Zaragoza from the French army) called me to go to Zaragoza this week in order to see and examine the ruins of that city, with the intention that I should paint the glories of its inhabitants, something from which I cannot be excused because the glory of my native land [Goya was born in Zaragoza] interests me so much.”

Francisco De Goya (1746–1828) Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)

letter c. 1809, to the Secretary of the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid; as quoted by Robert Hughes, in: Goya. Borzoi Book - Alfred Knopf, New York, 2003; p. 282 & note 13
Goya gave in this way his excuse he gave the Secretary of the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, explaining why he could not be at the inauguration of the portrait, Goya had made of king Ferdinand VII, recently
1800s

“It was the greatest learning summer of my whole life, but then came the fall, and I was told that I’d have to go back to school again. “NO WAY, JOSÉ!” I screamed, because I now knew that at school they were trying to “break” us, not “amanzar” us.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Burro Genius: A Memoir (2004)

“The caressing, melodious tones of humility and flattery never sang in the ears of the clerk Senhor José, these have never had a place in the chromatic scale of feelings normally shown to him.”

José Saramago book All the Names

Source: All the Names (1997), p. 8

“I came to the conclusion – as one invariably does in philosophy – that I was up against a primary cause and therefore an insoluble one.”

José Maria Eça de Queiroz book José Matias

Concluí, como se conclui sempre em Filosofia, que me encontrava diante duma Causa Primaria, portanto impenetrável.
"José Matias" (1897), collected in Contos (1902); translation by Luís Marques from The Yellow Sofa & Three Portraits (1993) p. 152.

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Often paraphrased as "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
Compare: "One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision." B. Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951). Compare also: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming (1919).
See also: Dunning-Kruger effect, Historical Antecedents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect#Historical_antecedents.
1930s, Mortals and Others (1931-35)

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

"A Liberal Decalogue" http://www.panarchy.org/russell/decalogue.1951.html, from "The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism", New York Times Magazine (16/December/1951); later printed in The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1969), vol. 3: 1944-1967, pp. 71-2
1950s
Context: The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand.”

Bertrand Russell book A History of Western Philosophy

Source: 1940s, A History of Western Philosophy (1945)

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

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.”

Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Notebook entry, January or February 1894, Mark Twain's Notebook, ed. Albert Bigelow Paine (1935), p. 240 http://books.google.com/books?id=DjBVlb7cBSIC&pg=PA240
Variant: If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“Big Brother is Watching You.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Lord Darlington, Act III
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

“You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet