“As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.”
1783, p. 519
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
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Samuel Johnson362
English writer 1709–1784Related quotes
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963
William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing
Variant: He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. He that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher
As translated by Lin Yutang
Alternative translations
Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, a veritable butterfly, enjoying itself to the full of its bent, and not knowing it was Chuang Chou. Suddenly I awoke, and came to myself, the veritable Chuang Chou. Now I do not know whether it was then I dreamt I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. Between me and the butterfly there must be a difference. This is an instance of transformation.
As translated by James Legge, and quoted in The Three Religions of China: Lectures Delivered at Oxford (1913) by William Edward Soothill, p. 75
Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a fluttering butterfly. What fun he had, doing as he pleased! He did not know he was Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and found himself to be Zhou. He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly had dreamed he was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction. This is what is meant by the transformation of things.
One night, Zhuangzi dreamed of being a butterfly — a happy butterfly, showing off and doing things as he pleased, unaware of being Zhuangzi. Suddenly he awoke, drowsily, Zhuangzi again. And he could not tell whether it was Zhuangzi who had dreamt the butterfly or the butterfly dreaming Zhuangzi. But there must be some difference between them! This is called 'the transformation of things'.
Once upon a time, Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about happily enjoying himself. He didn’t know that he was Chou. Suddenly he awoke and was palpably Chou. He didn’t know whether he were Chou who had dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming that he was Chou.
Context: Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now 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. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things.
Silvio Berlusconi (1936) Italian politician
On prosecutions against him, as quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi: I am inferior to no one in history" in The Guardian (10 October 2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/09/berlusconi-boast-best-in-history <br class="br">2009
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
The Serpent, in Pt. I, Act I
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States
Note about his Memoirs about a week before he died, as quoted in Famous Last Words (2001) by Alan Bisbort, p. 30.
1880s
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
John Burroughs, in "Religious Contrasts : Letters of Pantheist and a Churchman", in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 128, No. 4 (October 1921), p. 520.
Misattributed
“Although I am a pious man, I am not the less a man.”
Pour être dévot, je n'en suis pas moins homme.
Act III, sc. iii
Tartuffe (1664)
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Divinity