Quotes

N. K. Jemisin photo

“There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.”

Source: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010), Chapter 4 (p. 36)

Fausto Cercignani photo

“An exception is nothing else than a rule that applies exceptionally.”

Fausto Cercignani (1941) Italian scholar, essayist and poet

Examples of self-translation (c. 2004), Quotes - Zitate - Citations - Citazioni

Mark Twain photo

“It is more trouble to make a maxim than it is to do right.”

Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. III
Following the Equator (1897)

H. G. Wells photo

“I had rather be called a journalist than an artist.”

H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English writer

Letter to author Henry James (8 July 1915)

Thomas Brooks photo

“Godly lives convince more than miracles themselves.”

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan

The Secret Key To Heaven, 1665

Johann Gottfried Herder photo

“The craving for a delicate fruit is pleasanter than the fruit itself.”

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic

Der Appetit nach einer schönen Frucht ist angenehmer als die Frucht selbst.
Christoph Martin Wieland (ed.) Der deutsche Merkur vol. 20 (1781) p. 214; cited from Bernhard Suphan (ed.) Herders sämmtliche Werke (Berlin Weidmann, 1888) vol. 15, p. 307. Translation from Maturin M. Ballou Pearls of Thought (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1881) p. 13

“The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.”

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 511
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

Barry Humphries photo

“There is no more terrible fate for a comedian than to be taken seriously.”

Barry Humphries (1934) Australian comedian and actor

My Life as Me: A Memoir (2002)

François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“It is more disgraceful to distrust than to be deceived by our friends.”

Il est plus honteux de se défier de ses amis que d'en être trompé.
Variant translation: It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
Maxim 84.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Chris Murphy photo

“They have fundamentally different problems than other people.”

Chris Murphy (1973) American politician

On Washington politicians, "Chris Murphy: ‘Soul-Crushing’ Fundraising Is Bad For Congress" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/chris-murphy-fundraising_n_3232143.html, Huffington Post, 7 May 2013.

Sigmund Freud photo

“At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.”

Totem and Taboo : Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1913)
1910s

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon photo

“Genius is nothing else than a great aptitude for patience.”

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) French natural historian

La génie n'est utre chose qu'une grande aptitude à la patience.
Narrated by Herault de Séchelles ( La visite à Buffon, ou Voyage à Montbard http://www.atramenta.net/lire/voyage-a-montbard/3508, 1790), when speaking of a talk with Buffon in 1785. (Not in Buffon's works.) Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Jonathan Swift photo

“Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Earlier proverb, quoted in James Howell's English Proverbs (1659)
Better belly burst than good drink lost.
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2

“The function of logic in mathematics is critical rather than constructive.”

George Frederick James Temple (1901–1992) British mathematician

100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)

“Money is much more exciting than anything it buys.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Caitlín R. Kiernan photo

“Magick may be no more than the willful invocation of awe.”

Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer

11 December 2006
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2006

John Lancaster Spalding photo

“The seeking for truth is better than its loveless possession.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 182

“Either be silent or say something better than silence.”

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 960
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

Karel Čapek photo

“Nothing is stranger to man than his own image.”

R.U.R. (1920)

Theodore Winthrop photo

“Civilization without its appliances is weaker than barbarism.”

The Canoe and the Saddle: Adventures Among the Northwestern Rivers and Forests (1863), ch. ix: Via Mala.