A Century of Enthusiasm (2007)
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer
"Thomas Love Peacock: The Novel of Ideas" (1980)
1980s, The Second American Revolution (1983)
Variant: In any case, write what you know will always be excellent advice to those who ought not to write at all.
Source: The Essential Gore Vidal
Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher
Life Life to the Full, Christian Herald (UK), 14 April 2001
Source: The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship
Frances Wright (1795–1852) American activist
Independence Day speech (1828)
Context: There is, in the institutions of this country, one principle, which, had they no other excellence, would secure to them the preference over those of all other countries. I mean — and some devout patriots will start — I mean the principle of change.
I have used a word to which is attached an obnoxious meaning. Speak of change, and the world is in alarm. And yet where do we not see change? What is there in the physical world but change? And what would there be in the moral world without change?
“Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.”
John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1648–1721) English poet and notable Tory politician of the late Stuart period
Essay on Poetry (published 1723).
Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011) daughter of Joseph Stalin
Said to Malcolm Muggeridge, as quoted in Richard Ingrams (1996), Muggeridge: The Biography, p. 233
Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic
Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“One that desires to excel should endeavour in those things that are in themselves most excellent.”
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Giovanni della Casa (1503–1556) Roman Catholic archbishop
Source: Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners, p. 6
“I don’t expect perfection, I expect excellence.” I expect 100 percent effort in all you do.”
Steven D. Levitt (1967) American economist
When to Rob a Bank: ...And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants
