“Words, like glass, obscure when they do not aid vision.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Source: The Will of the Empress
“Words, like glass, obscure when they do not aid vision.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Linus Pauling (1901–1994) American scientist
… The twenty-five percent is for error.
Pauling's reply to an audience question about his ethical system, following his lecture circa 1961 at Monterey Peninsula College, in Monterey, California.
1990s
Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695) Nun, scholar and poet in New Spain
¿En perseguirme, mundo, qué interesas?
¿En qué te ofendo, cuando sólo intento
poner bellezas en mi entendimiento
y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas?
Sonnet 146, as translated by Edith Grossman in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Works (2014)
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 2
Context: Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.
Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments
Alec and Magnus, pg. 406
The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Radio Interview for BBC Radio 3 (17 December 1985) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105934 <br class="br">Second term as Prime Minister
Fyodor Dostoyevsky book Notes from Underground
Part 2, Chapter 9 (pages 108-109)
Notes from Underground (1864)
“I put my faith in me, and do you know why? Because I have never lost!”
David Gemmell book The King Beyond the Gate
Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 18
Context: "We don't seem to be overflowing with luck." "You make your own. I put no faith in gods, Lake. Never have. If they exist, they care very little— if at all— about ordinary mortals. I put my faith in me, and do you know why? Because I have never lost!"
Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist
Julie Barenson, Chapter 15, p. 163
2000s, The Guardian (2003)