“…conditioning usually reinforces instinct rather than overrides it.”
Matt Ridley (1958) economist
Source: The Red Queen (1993), Ch. 6
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“There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.”
N. K. Jemisin book The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Source: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010), Chapter 4 (p. 36)
“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
“It is more trouble to make a maxim than it is to do right.”
Mark Twain book Following the Equator
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. III
Following the Equator (1897)
“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)
“Godly lives convince more than miracles themselves.”
Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan
The Secret Key To Heaven, 1665
“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
“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)
“It is more disgraceful to distrust than to be deceived by our friends.”
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
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)
“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.
“At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.”
Sigmund Freud book Totem and Taboo
Totem and Taboo : Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1913)
1910s
“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. <br class="br">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).
“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
“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
“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
