Quotes

Kim Harrison photo
John McCain photo

“Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

Source: Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir

Benjamin Disraeli photo

“Like all great travellers I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Book VIII, Chapter 4.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)

Lisa See photo
Aristarchus of Samos photo

“Proposition 18. The earth is to the moon in a ratio greater than that which 1259712 has to 79507, but less than that which 216000 has to 6859.”

Aristarchus of Samos ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician

p, 125
On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and the Moon (c. 250 BC)
Variant: Proposition 17. The diameter of the earth is to the diameter of the moon in a ratio greater than that which 108 has to 43, but less than that which 60 has to 19.

Annie Besant photo

“A prophet is always much wider than his followers, much more liberal than those who label themselves with his name.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Annie Besant the Life and Teachings of Muhammad (the Prophet of Islam) http://www.scribd.com/doc/178209678/Annie-Besant-the-Life-and-Teachings-of-Muhammad-the-Prophet-of-Islam

Michael Moorcock photo

“It is many years since I have wielded a weapon larger than a pen, borne anything weightier than a difficult problem in philosophy.”

Book 3, Chapter 5 “Five Heroes and a Heroine” (p. 467)
The Runestaff (1969)

Angelina Jolie photo
Hunter S. Thompson photo

“I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

W. Somerset Maugham photo
Joseph Joubert photo
John W. Gardner photo

“We have to face the fact that most men and women out there are more stale than they know, more bored than they care to admit.”

John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American politician

Quoted in "Self Renewal" (1964).

Robert Frost photo

“Something inspires the only cow of late
To make no more of a wall than an open gate,
And think no more of wall-builders than fools.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

" The Cow in Apple-Time http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cow-in-apple-time-the/"
1910s

Janusz Korwin-Mikke photo

“By the way, a shorter man earns less than a tall man. The blonde earns more than a brunette. They are different, and it should not be equalised. That’s all.”

Janusz Korwin-Mikke (1942) polish politician

Source: Good Morning Britain, 08 March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NEqlfWSOrQ

Mario Bunge photo

“If one aims to judge political movements, their deeds are far more important than their speeches, which are often masking rather than revealing.”

Mario Bunge (1919) Argentine philosopher and physicist

Emergence and Convergence (2003), p. 424.
2000s

David Brewster photo

“Man, made after God's image, was a nobler creation than twinkling sparks in the sky, or than the larger and more useful lamp of the moon.”

David Brewster (1781–1868) British astronomer and mathematician

More Worlds Than One: The Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian (1856), p. 207

Margaret Fuller photo

“To me it seems that it is madder never to abandon oneself, than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive, and a slave, than always to walk in armor.”

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist

"Free Hope" p. 131.
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (1844)
Context: Thou art greatly wise, my friend, and ever respected by me, yet I find not in your theory or your scope, room enough for the lyric inspirations, or the mysterious whispers of life. To me it seems that it is madder never to abandon oneself, than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive, and a slave, than always to walk in armor.

André Gide photo

“Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Literature and Ethics, entry for 1901
Journals 1889-1949

Louis Sullivan photo

“I am of those who believe that gentleness is a greater, surer power than force, and that sympathy is a safer power by far than is intellect.”

Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) American architect

Education (1902)
Context: I am not of those who believe in lackadaisical methods. On the contrary, I advocate a vigorous, thorough, exact mental training which shall fit the mind to expand upon and grasp large things and yet properly to perceive in their just relation the significance of small ones to discriminate accurately as to quantity and quality and thus to develop individual judgment, capacity and independence.
But at the same time I am of those who believe that gentleness is a greater, surer power than force, and that sympathy is a safer power by far than is intellect. Therefore would I train the individual sympathies as carefully in all their delicate warmth and tenuity as I would develop the mind in alertness, poise and security.
Nor am I of those who despise dreamers. For the world would be at the level of zero were it not for its dreamers gone and of today. He who dreamed of democracy, far back in a world of absolutism, was indeed heroic, and we of today awaken to the wonder of his dream.