Solomon (-990–-931 BC) king of Israel and the son of David
Proverbs 19:11, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
“What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.”
No. 249 (15 December 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
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Joseph Addison226
politician, writer and playwright 1672–1719Related quotes
“A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.”
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14 November 1760
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George Chapman The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron
Act IV, scene i.
The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608)
“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.”
Francis Bacon book Essays
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Essays (1625)
Variant: Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.
Martin Esslin (1918–2002) Playwright, theatre critic, scholar
Introduction : The absurdity of the Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd (1961)
Context:  "Absurd" originally means "out of harmony," in a musical context. Hence its dictionary definition: "out of harmony with reason or propriety; incongruous, unreasonable, illogical." In common usage, "absurd" may simply mean "ridiculous," but this is not the sense in which Camus uses the word, and in which it is used when we speak of the Theatre of the Absurd. In an essay on Kafka, Ionesco defined his understanding of the term as follows: "Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose.... Cut from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless."
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher
Source: The City of God and the True God as its Head (In Royce’s “The Conception of God: a Philosophical Discussion Concerning the Nature of the Divine Idea as a Demonstrable Reality”), p.96
Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) Russian-born French philosopher and statesman
Source: Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit, assembled by Raymond Queneau, edited by Allan Bloom, translated by James H. Nichols, Jr. (1969), p. 36
Context: Now, this I is essential. For Man, and consequently the Philosopher, is not only Consciousness, but also- and above all-Self-Consciousness. Man is not only a being that thinks - i.e., reveals Being by Logos, by Speech formed of words that have a meaning. He reveals in addition -also by Speech - the being that reveals Being, the being that he himself is, the revealing being that he opposes to the revealed being by giving it the name Ich or Selbst, I or Self.
“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
“Human nature with all its infirmities and depravation is still capable of great things.”
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
Letter to Abigail Adams (29 October 1775), published Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife, Vol. 1 (1841), ed. Charles Francis Adams, p. 72
1770s
Context: Human nature with all its infirmities and depravation is still capable of great things. It is capable of attaining to degrees of wisdom and goodness, which we have reason to believe, appear as respectable in the estimation of superior intelligences. Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute. The virtues and powers to which men may be trained, by early education and constant discipline, are truly sublime and astonishing. Newton and Locke are examples of the deep sagacity which may be acquired by long habits of thinking and study.