“There are worse things in life than being called a lady.”
A Visit With Irene Dunne (1977)
“There are worse things in life than being called a lady.”
A Visit With Irene Dunne (1977)
“The search for truth is more precious than its possession.”
This quote does appear in Einstein's 1940 essay "The Fundaments of Physics" which can be found in his book Out of My Later Years (1950), but Einstein does not claim credit for it, instead calling it "Lessing's fine saying".
Misattributed
“Better to have been a 'has-been' than a 'never was.”
White House press conference http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060802-3.html# (2 August 2006).
2000s
“The border with the Sahara can't be bigger than ours with Mexico.”
In a phone call to the Spain's foreign minister, Josep Borrell, in the context of Trump's idea for Spain to build a border wall across Sahara dessert to stem Spain's Mediterranean migrant crisis.
2010s, 2018, July
Source: Foreign minister: Trump advised Spain to build wall across Sahara to stop migrants https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/09/20/trump-spain-wall-sahara-desert/1365944002/
“Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.”
Supreme Occasions
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XVII - Material for a Projected Sequel to Alps and Sanctuaries
“To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.”
Remarks at a White House luncheon (26 June 1954)
Quoted in Churchill Urges Patience in Coping with Red Dangers, The New York Times, June 27, 1954 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00A10FE3458117A93C5AB178DD85F408585F9,
Has been falsely attributed to Otto von Bismarck.
But Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, speaking of this quote, noted that Churchill actually said, "Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war." Four years later, during a visit to Australia, Harold Macmillan said the words usually—and wrongly—attributed to Churchill: “Jaw, jaw is better than war, war.” Credit: Harold Macmillan.
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/quotes-falsely-attributed/
“The world economy diffuses rather than concentrates wealth.”
Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Three, Dynamics Of Political Economy, p. 85
“Even a most evil man is better than the devil!”
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), pp. 201-202; Jan Hus in Booklet against the Cook-priest in response to the rival priest who swore that Hus is worse than any devil.
“The web is more a social creation than a technical one.”
Weaving the Web (1999)
Context: The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect — to help people work together — and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. We clump into families, associations, and companies. We develop trust across the miles and distrust around the corner.
“Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.”
The Lion, The Ass, And The Fox Hunting.
“There is a good deal more to nothing than meets the eye.”
Preface
The Book of Nothing (2009)
“A part is greater than the whole;
By hints are mysteries told.”
Poems (1869), A Strip of Blue (1870)
Context: A part is greater than the whole;
By hints are mysteries told.
The fringes of eternity, —
God's sweeping garment-fold,
In that bright shred of glittering sea,
I reach out for and hold.
“Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones.”
Our America (1881)
Context: Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones.
There is no prow that can cut through a cloudbank of ideas. A powerful idea, waved before the world at the proper time, can stop a squadron of iron-clad ships, like the mystical flag of the Last judgement.
“We become more united in exile than in Palestine.”
Verk, edited by Kletzkin, xi. 277.
“I can think of nothing else than this machine.”
in a letter to a friend, Dr. Lind, April 29, 1765.
“There are monasteries where there is no discipline, and which are worse than brothels”
ut prae his lupanaria sint et magis sobria et magis pudica. There are others where religion is nothing but ritual; and these are worse than the first, for the Spirit of God is not in them, and they are inflated with self-righteousness. There are those, again, where the brethren are so sick of the imposture that they keep it up only to deceive the vulgar. The houses are rare indeed where the rule is seriously observed, and even in these few, if you look to the bottom, you will find small sincerity. But there is craft, and plenty of it — craft enough to impose on mature men, not to say innocent boys; and this is called profession. Suppose a house where all is as it ought to be, you have no security that it will continue so. A good superior may be followed by a fool or a tyrant, or an infected brother may introduce a moral plague. True, in extreme cases a monk may change his house, or even may change his order, but leave is rarely given. There is always a suspicion of something wrong, and on the least complaint such a person is sent back.
Letter to Lambertus Grunnius (August 1516), publised in Life and Letters of Erasmus : Lectures delivered at Oxford 1893-4 (1894) http://books.google.com/books?id=ussXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=%22is+no+discipline+and+which+are+worse+than+brothels%22&source=bl&ots=PnJjrkSLNB&sig=JPY0PhTf2YgYwJlf3uH2eTvCJeA&hl=en&ei=BGwXTNqTA5XANu6_pJ8L&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22is%20no%20discipline%20and%20which%20are%20worse%20than%20brothels%22&f=false edited by James Anthony Froude, p. 180
“A cowardly cur barks more fiercely than it bites.”
Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet.
VII, 4, 13.
Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt, Book VII
“All writers have concealed more than they revealed.”
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)
Context: One handles truths like dynamite. Literature is one vast hypocrisy, a giant deception, treachery. All writers have concealed more than they revealed.
“But freedom means more than the right to change masters.”
The Libertarian as Conservative (1984)
Context: Some people giving orders and others obeying them: this is the essence of servitude. Of course, as Hospers smugly observes, “one can at least change jobs,” but you can’t avoid having a job — just as under statism one can at least change nationalities but you can’t avoid subjection to one nation-state or another. But freedom means more than the right to change masters.