Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. XIII : Character — The True Gentleman
Context: Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side. Dr. Johnson has said that the habit of looking at the best side of a thing is worth more to a man than a thousand pounds a year. And we possess the power, to a great extent, of so exercising the will as to direct the thoughts upon objects calculated to yield happiness and improvement rather than their opposites.
“Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.
- Humbug”
Source: The Phantom Tollbooth
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Norton Juster 40
American children's writer, academic, and architect 1929Related quotes
“Equality is the measure of all things, and bad behavior is less bad if everyone indulges in it.”
The Economist Sees No Evil http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_2_20_02td.html (February 20, 2002).
City Journal (1998 - 2008)
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”
Whilst a paraphrase this is based off of Aristotle's writings as Aristotle stated "For instance, it is thought that justice is equality, and so it is, though not for everybody but only for those who are equals; and it is thought that inequality is just, for so indeed it is, though not for everybody, but for those who are unequal" in https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aristotle-politics/1932/pb_LCL264.211.xml Politics, III. V. 8.
Misattributed
This first appears in 1974 in an explanation of Aristotle's politics in Time magazine, before being condensed to an epigram as "Aristotle's Axiom" in Peter's People (1979) by Laurence J. Peter
Notes, 1964-65; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: 'on Techniques' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/techniques-5
1960's
“Aristotle's axiom: The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”
Source: Peter's People and Their Marvelous Ideas
Joe Strummer: Putting a Scare into he Hearts of All Things Corporate (2002)
"Afterthoughts," p. 217-218
What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988)
Context: The only way to have real success in science, the field I’m familiar with, is to describe the evidence very carefully without regard to the way you feel it should be. If you have a theory, you must try to explain what’s good and what’s bad about it equally. In science, you learn a kind of standard integrity and honesty.