The Sword of the Dawn (1968)
Source: Book 2, Chapter 11 “The Parting” (p. 380)
“We will not think noble because we are not noble.”
Candide (1956)
Context: We will not think noble because we are not noble. We will not live in beautiful harmony because there is no such thing in this world, nor should there be. We promise only to do our best and to live out our lives. Dear God, that's all we can promise in truth.
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Lillian Hellman 20
American dramatist and screenwriter 1905–1984Related quotes
“There are some times when I think acting can be a noble profession.”
Vera Farmiga
(1973) American actress
As quoted in " A Film of One's Own http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/magazine/03actesses.html" by Lynn Hirschberg at The New York Times (September 3, 2006)
Paul Newman
(1925–2008) American actor and film director
Quoted in "Paul Newman's Road To Glory", interview with Paul Fischer, Film Monthly (2002-07-01)
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 50 : Gargantua's speech to the vanquished.
Context: Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it.
Being unwilling therefore any way to degenerate from the hereditary mildness and clemency of my parents, I do now forgive you, deliver you from all fines and imprisonments, fully release you, set you at liberty, and every way make you as frank and free as ever you were before.
Michael Scheuer
(1952) American counterterrorism analyst
Al-Jazeera TV on September 11 and 12, 2005
2000s
Kurt Vonnegut
book
Palm Sunday
"Palm Sunday", a sermon delivered at St. Clement's Church, New York City (ndg), originally published in The Nation as "Hypocrites You Always Have With You" (ndg)
Palm Sunday (1981)
Context: Jokes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking and striving anymore. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward — and since I can start thinking and striving again that much sooner.
Jalal Talabani
(1933–2017) Iraqi politician
Speaking about loss of life of British soldiers, to students at Cambridge University — reported in Deutsche Press-Agentur staff (May 11, 2007) "Iraqi president says soldiers die for 'noble cause'", Deutsche Press-Agentur.
