
“I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
Sinclair on The Jungle in Cosmopolitan, October 1906
Douglas Jerrold's Wit, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
Sinclair on The Jungle in Cosmopolitan, October 1906
“Atheism alone is the surest way to morality.”
The Need of Atheism
Context: Because morality is a social necessity, the moment faith in god is banished, man's gaze turns from god to man and he becomes socially conscious. Religious belief prevented the growth of a sense of realism. But atheism at once makes man realistic and alive to the needs of morality. Atheism alone is the surest way to morality. Those who oppose atheism in any form betray their vested interests in inequality of some kind of other.
“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.”
“The surest way to smartness is through massive dumbness.”
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995), New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (1999)
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
“The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.”
Source: "Quick Quotations" in My Ten Years in a Quandary and How They Grew (1936)
Context: The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. That remark in itself wouldn’t make any sense if quoted as it stands.
“The surest way to be unhappy is try to be happy all the time.”
Source: Master of Space and Time (1984), Chapter 23, “The Way Uptown” (p. 180)
As quoted in Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor, Odd Comparisons and Proverbs (1891) by Adam Woolever