— Antisthenes Greek philosopher -444 - -365 BC
§ 5
From Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius
Original: (el) κρεῖττόν ἐστι μετ᾿ ὀλίγων ἀγαθῶν πρὸς ἅπαντας τοὺς κακοὺς ἢ μετὰ πολλῶν κακῶν πρὸς ὀλίγους ἀγαθοὺς μάχεσθαι.
— Clarence Darrow American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union 1857 - 1938
As quoted in Infidels and Heretics : An Agnostic's Anthology (1929) edited by Clarence Darrow and Wallace Rice, p. 206
— Robert Atkyns (judge) Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Lords 1621 - 1710
11 How. St. Tr. 1206.
Trial of Sir Edward Hales (1686)
— Thomas Carlyle Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher 1795 - 1881
Goethe.
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
Variant: Clever men are good, but they are not the best.
— Wilkie Collins, book The Woman in White
Source: The Woman in White
— John Steinbeck American writer 1902 - 1968
Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)
Context: We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God.
Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world — of all living things.
The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfectibility is at hand.
Having taken Godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.
Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.
So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man — and the Word is with Men.
— Tanith Lee, book Volkhavaar
Source: Volkhavaar (1977), Chapter 15 (p. 133)
— Eric Hoffer, book The True Believer
The True Believer (1951), Part Four: Beginning and End
— Paul Goodman, book Growing Up Absurd
Source: Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 153.
— Michel De Montaigne, book Essays
Book iii. Chap 2. Of Repentance
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: Few men have been admired by their own households.
— Siddharth Katragadda Indian writer 1972
page 55
Dark Rooms (2002)
— George Berkeley, book Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous
Philonous to Hylas. The Second Dialogue. This appears in a passage first added in the third edition, (1734)
Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713)
— Edwin Howard Armstrong American electrical engineer and inventor 1890 - 1954
As quoted in "Edwin Armstrong : Pioneer of the Airwaves" by Yannis Tsividis http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Spring2002/Armstrong.html
Unsourced variant: Men like to substitute words for reality and then argue about the words.
— Benjamin Disraeli British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister 1804 - 1881
Part 1, Chapter 21.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Contarini Fleming (1832)
— Augustine Birrell British politician 1850 - 1933
"In the Name of the Bodleian"
In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays
— Pindar Ancient Greek poet -517 - -437 BC
Fragment 159; page 387
— Oliver Cromwell English military and political leader 1599 - 1658
Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
— George Washington first President of the United States 1732 - 1799
Letter to Major-General Robert Howe (17 August 1779), published in "The Writings of George Washington": 1778-1779, edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (1890)
Paraphrased variants:
Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder
1770s
— Robert G. Ingersoll Union United States Army officer 1833 - 1899
The Great Infidels (1881)
