Search
Topics
Quotes
“Pearl Harbor the movie, arguably, was worse than the invasion itself.”
Not Sold Out (2002)
“Nothing makes a man feel older than a young woman.”
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 69, “Wind or Women’s Fancy” (p. 512)
“There is no moral authority for government other than to enforce the Universal Ethic.”
Source: The Soul of Liberty (1980), p. 103
“In the anarchic world of international politics, it is better to be Godzilla than Bambi.”
"China's Unpeaceful Rise", Current History (2006) vol. 105 (690) p. 162
“The power he exercises is no more dictatorial than, for example, Roosevelt's was.”
On Mao Zedong, in The Long March (1957), as quoted in "Mao and the Australian Maoists" by Keith Windschuttle, in Quadrant (October 2005) http://www.sydneyline.com/Mao%20and%20Australian%20Maoists.htm
General sources
“The best prayers have often more groans than words.”
This has also been attributed to Buchan, but is again from John Bunyan, Discourse on Prayer.
Misattributed
“There comes a time when the nation is more important than an individual.”
After he was ousted as the Vice president of Kenya by the 2nd president of Kenya, Daniel Toroitich arap Moi on 18 March 2002. Life and times of Professor George Saitoti http://www.kenyan-post.com/2012/06/life-and-times-of-prof-george-saitoti.html
“Nothing in a language is less translatable than its modes of understatement.”
Source: The Death of Tragedy (1961), Ch. III (p. 104).
“In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes lecture delivered at Harvard (1958); quoted in The Rhetoric of Our Times (1969) by J. Jeffery Auer, p. 124.
Extra-judicial writings
“Hamm: Can there be misery (he yawns) loftier than mine?”
Endgame (1957)
“The business of the Christian is nothing else than to be ever preparing for death”
Fragment XI
Fragments
“I'd rather live in Bohemia than in any other land.”
In Bohemia.
“India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator.”
Speech at Royal Albert Hall, London (18 March 1931).
The 1930s
“Economics deals with the behavior of commodities rather than with the behavior of men.”
Attributed to Kenneth Boulding in: Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, New York: Truman Talley Books, E.P. Dutton, 1986, p. 21.
1980s
“Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people.”
The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains (1945)
Context: There is an ancient Chinese fable called "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains". It tells of an old man who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain. His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way. He called his sons, and hoe in hand they began to dig up these mountains with great determination. Another graybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively, "How silly of you to do this! It is quite impossible for you few to dig up those two huge mountains." The Foolish Old Man replied, "When I die, my sons will carry on; when they die, there will be my grandsons, and then their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity. High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower. Why can't we clear them away?" Having refuted the Wise Old Man's wrong view, he went on digging every day, unshaken in his conviction. God was moved by this, and he sent down two angels, who carried the mountains away on their backs. Today, two big mountains lie like a dead weight on the Chinese people. One is imperialism, the other is feudalism. The Chinese Communist Party has long made up its mind to dig them up. We must persevere and work unceasingly, and we, too, will touch God's heart. Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people. If they stand up and dig together with us, why can't these two mountains be cleared away?
“Commonplace life has shipwrecks worse than in Shakespearean dramas.”
Light (1919), Ch. XIX - Ghosts
Context: She goes into her room and disappears. Before I went to the war we slept in the same bed. We used to lie down side by side, so as to be annihilated in unconsciousness, or to go and dream somewhere else. Commonplace life has shipwrecks worse than in Shakespearean dramas. For man and wife — to sleep, to die.) But since I came back we separate ourselves with a wall.
“Joy is deeper than sorrow, for all joy seeks eternity.”
Academy of Achievement interview (2006)
Context: In our culture, we think that happy and color is trivial, that black and darkness is deeper. But Nietzsche said — which is a line that I firmly believe — "Joy is deeper than sorrow, for all joy seeks eternity." And if you see Grendel, you'll see, as he's on the edge of the abyss, ready to leap to his death, he sings, "Is it joy I feel? Is it joy I feel?" And it's so, so moving. You can have a lot of different explanations for the ending of that opera, but there is something so palpable that you will feel when he sings those lines.
“Men are more often bribed by their loyalties and ambitions than by money.”
United States v. Wunderlich, 342 U.S. 98, 103 (1951)
Judicial opinions
“To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter.”
As quoted in The Life of Milarepa: A New Translation from the Tibetan (1977) by Tsangnyön Heruka, as translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, p. 12
Context: In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace.