Quotes

Sophocles photo

“Numberless are the world's wonders, but none
More wonderful than man.”

Sophocles (-496–-406 BC) ancient Greek tragedian

Variant translation: There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man.
Source: Antigone, Line 333 (Ode I)

Theodor Mommsen photo

“Posterity has justified more the policy of conquest than that of concession.”

Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist and writer

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, From Caesar to Diocletian 1854-6
Context: It is not meant to be denied that in a policy of conquest consistency is a dangerous praise, and that Trajan after his fashion yielded in these enterprises more than was reasonable to the effort after external success, and went beyond the rational; but wrong is done to him when his demeanor in the East is referred to blind lust of conquest. He did what Caesar would have done had he lived. His policy is but the other side of that of Nero's statesmen, and the two are as opposite, as they are equally consistent and equally warranted. Posterity has justified more the policy of conquest than that of concession.

Trajan's Oriental Policy

Edward O. Wilson photo

“True character arises from a deeper well than religion.”

Edward O. Wilson (1929) American biologist

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)
Context: True character arises from a deeper well than religion. It is the internalization of moral principles of a society, augmented by those tenets personally chosen by the individual, strong enough to endure through trials of solitude and adversity. The principles are fitted together into what we call integrity, literally the integrated self, wherein personal decisions feel good and true. Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety.

Charles Francis Adams photo

“More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself.”

Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886) American historical editor, politician and diplomat (1807-1886)

As quoted in Washington's Birthday : Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse (1918) by Robert Haven Schauffler http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/5/1/4/15140/15140.htm, p. 143.
Context: More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself. If there be one quality more than another in his character which may exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it is the total disregard of self when in the most elevated positions for influence and example.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“It's easier for a Russian to become an atheist than for anyone else in the world.”

Part 4, Chapter 7 http://books.google.com/books?id=WuAKAQAAMAAJ&q="It's+easier+for+a+Russian+to+become+an+atheist+than+for+anyone+else+in+the+world"&pg=PA548#v=onepage
The Idiot (1868–9)

Pliny the Younger photo

“More cruel than death itself, to die at that particular conjuncture!”
O morte ipsa mortis tempus indignius!

Pliny the Younger (61–113) Roman writer

Letter 16, 6.
Letters, Book V

“Better sit still, men say, than rise to fall.”

Edward Fairfax (1580–1635) English translator

Book II, stanza 79
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

Winston S. Churchill photo

“There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.”

Radio broadcast (March 21, 1943), cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 21 ISBN 1586486381
The Second World War (1939–1945)

“All societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others.”

Geert Hofstede (1928) Dutch psychologist

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 137.

“What I’m not changes more than what I am.”

James Richardson (1950) American poet

#91
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)

John Heywood photo

“It is better to be
An olde mans derlyng, than a yong mans werlyng.”

John Heywood (1497–1580) English writer known for plays, poems and a collection of proverbs

It is better to be
An old man's darling than a young man's warling.
Part II, chapter 7.
Proverbs (1546)
Variant: It is better to be
An olde mans derlyng, than a yong mans werlyng.

“Loneliness, insomnia, and change: the fear of these is even worse than the reality.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Vittorio Alfieri photo

“Ofttimes the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.”

Spesso è da forte,
Più che il morire, il vivere.
Oreste, IV, 2; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 440.

José de San Martín photo

“A well-fought defeat is worth more than a casual victory.”

José de San Martín (1778–1850) Argentine general and independence leader

Una derrota peleada vale más que una victoria casual.
100 Masones Su Palabra (2010)

Ilana Mercer photo

“Dance, in general, has become more atavistic than artistic.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Hollywood: The No-Good, The Bad And The Beastly" http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/03/hollywood-no-good-bad-and-beastly.html Economic Policy Journal, March 7, 2014.
2010s, 2014

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Every star was once darker than the night, before it awoke.”

"Earth and Light," p. 57
The Sign and Its Children (2000), Sequence: “The Sign and the Dream”

“Half a revolution is not better than none… It may, in fact, be worse.”

James A. Champy (1942) American businessman

Source: Reengineering management, 1995, p. 3

Rudyard Kipling photo

“More men are killed by overwork than the importance of the world justifies.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

The Phantom 'Rickshaw http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/PhantomRickshaw/phantomrickshaw.html (1888).
Other works

“Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.”

An Wang (1920–1990) American businessman

Lessons : An Autobiography (1986)

“Every discovery takes place in more than a scientific context.”

Charles J. Pedersen (1904–1989) American organic chemist

in his Nobel lecture http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1987/pedersen-lecture.html, December 8, 1987.