The History of Oracles, and the Cheats of the Pagan Priests (1688)
Context: It was to little purpose to excuse the matter, by saying, that the badness of the Verses was a kind of Testimony that they were made by a God, who nobly scorn'd to be tyed up to rules and to be confined to the Beauty of a Style. For this made no impression upon the Philosophers; who, to turn this answer into ridicule, compared it to the Story of a Painter, who being hired to draw the Picture of a Horse tumbling on his Back upon the ground, drew one running full speed: and when he was told, that this was not such a Picture as was bespoke, he turned it upside down, and then ask'd if the Horse did not tumble upon his back now. Thus these Philosophers jeered such Persons, who by a way of arguing that would serve both ways, could equally prove that the Verses were made by a God, whether they were good or bad.<!--pp. 219-220
“Human mind is capable of making up excuses to justify actions no matter how bad they were”
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Ali Al-Wardi 39
Iraqi sociologist 1913–1995Related quotes
“But no one, no matter how intelligent, could make good inferences from bad data.”
Source: The Heritage Universe, Transcendence (1992), Chapter 11 (p. 126)
“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”
Introduction to Treasury of the Free World (1946)
Source: Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Reference
Context: An aggressive war is the great crime against everything good in the world. A defensive war, which must necessarily turn to aggressive at the earliest moment, is the necessary great counter-crime. But never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.
“Any excuse for non-performance, no matter how valid, weakens character.”
“The cynic puts all human actions into two classes — openly bad and secretly bad.”
Lectures to Young Men: On Various Important Subjects (1856) Lecture IV : Portrait Gallery
Miscellany
Context: The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. The cynic puts all human actions into two classes — openly bad and secretly bad.
马云调侃谷歌退出:中国将制定未来游戏规则 http://china.ibtimes.com/articles/20100120/-2014431602.htm