
As quoted in The Life and Writings of Thomas Jefferson : Including All of His Important Utterances on Public Questions (1900) by Samuel E. Forman, p. 429
Posthumous publications
From a presentation in Munich, Jan 1991, in response to an audience question on why his competitors complained about his business practices.
As quoted in The Life and Writings of Thomas Jefferson : Including All of His Important Utterances on Public Questions (1900) by Samuel E. Forman, p. 429
Posthumous publications
“People are more inclined to believe in bad intentions than in good ones.”
La gente è più acconcia a credere il male che il bene.
Third Day, Sixth Story
The Decameron (c. 1350)
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”
Letter (6 September 1910) to his father, John Coolidge, who had been elected to the Vermont State Senate; in Your Son Calvin Coolidge, as cited in Silent Cal’s Almanack: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge (2011), Ed. David Pietrusza, Bookbrewer, "Legislation".
1910s, Letter to John Coolidge (1910)
“I believe more in the goodness of bad people than i do in the badness of good people.”
Source: A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard (1911), p. 18.
"Give!" (26 March 1944)
Variant translation: People will always follow a good example; be the one to set a good example, then it won't be long before the others follow.
Tales from the Secret Annex
“Example, whether it be good or bad, has a powerful influence.”
Letter to Lord Stirling (5 March 1780)
1780s