Letter to William Makepeace Thackeray (1831); quoted in The Life of Edward FitzGerald, Translator of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyán (1947) by Alfred McKinley Terhune, p. 57.
Context: Having seen how many follow and have followed false religions, and having our reason utterly against many of the principal points of the Bible, we require the most perfect evidence of facts, before we can believe. If you can prove to me that one miracle took place, I will believe that he is a just God who damned us all because a woman ate an apple; and you can't expect greater complaisance than that to be sure.
John Hale
The Crucible (1953)
Context: Though our own hearts break, we cannot flinch; these are new times, sir. There is a misty plot afoot so subtle we should be criminal to cling to old respect and ancient friendships. I have seen too many frightful proofs in court — the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points!
Fluther Good, Act 1
The Plough and the Stars (1926)
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 38.
“How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!”
Book II, Ch. 16. Of Glory
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: How many valiant men we have seen to survive their own reputation!
“We have as many lives as we have points of view.”
Source: Invitation to Sociology (1963), p. 71
12 September 1936, Advice to the pupils of the Bishop Cotton School, Simla, also quoted in Speeches and Statements of the Marquess of Linlithgow, p. 19-20
Concerning the Jews (Harper's Magazine, Sept. 1899)
“We have to serve ourselves for many years before we gain our own confidence.”
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 104
