“I hate to lose more than I like to win.”
Larry Bird (1956) basketball player and coach
Douglas S. Looney (May 22, 1998) "Larry Bird : Doer and Teacher", Christian Science Monitor, p. 8.
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Quotes
“Soap prevented more deaths than penicillin. That’s technology, not science.”
John Lanchester (1962) British writer
The Case Against Civilization https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/18/the-case-against-civilization (September 18, 2017), The New Yorker.
“If your aspirations are not greater than your resources, you’re not an entrepreneur.”
C.K. Prahalad (1941–2010) Indian academic
C.K. Prahlad in: Art Kleiner, " The Life’s Work of a Thought Leader http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00043?gko=bcd57," in: Strategy & Business, August 9, 2010.
“"Poly" means more than one, and ticks are bloodsucking parasites.”
Kinky Friedman (1944) Singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician
Friedman quoting an aphoristic "definition" of "politics" from "some guy in Corpus"
Quoted in [Pauline, Arrillaga, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_el_gu/governor_kinky, On the Road with Texas Candidate Kinky, Associated Press (via Yahoo! News), 21 October 2006, 2006-10-21]
“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.”
Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–1889) English writer and poet
Of Discretion.
Proverbial Philosophy (1838-1849)
“As far as physicians go, chance is more valuable than knowledge.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book II, Ch. 37
Essais (1595), Book II
“The colour of the skin is less important than the spirit wich moves it.”
Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer
The Last Continent (1970)
“To live with them is far less sweet
Than to remember thee.”
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter
I saw thy Form.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.”
Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman
Book II, Ch. 20
Attributed
“I'm a humanist; I'd rather kill a man than a snake.”
Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire
"Serpents of Paradise", p. 18
Desert Solitaire (1968)
“Idleness and Pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments;”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Letter to Charles Thomson, 11 July 1765; also quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). The last sentence is sometimes misquoted as "If we can get rid of the former, we can get rid of the latter".
Epistles
Context: Idleness and Pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments; If we can get rid of the former we may easily bear the Latter.
“Thoughts which come at a call
Are no better than if they came not at all”
Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist
Life Without and Life Within (1859), A Greeting
Context: Thoughts which come at a call
Are no better than if they came not at all
Neither flower nor fruit,
Yielding no root
For plant, shrub, or tree.
“A system is more than the sum of its parts; it is an indivisible whole.”
Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist
It loses its essential properties when it is taken apart. The elements of a system may themselves be systems, and every system may be part of a larger system.
Ackoff (1973) "Science in the Systems Age: beyond IE, OR and MS." in: Operations Research Vol 21, pp. 664.
1970s
“How famous am I? No more famous than you.”
Justin Timberlake (1981) American singer and actor
Well, no, you are considerably more famous than I am. 'Says who? Fuck it. Kelly Osbourne's more famous than me.
Justin answering whether he knows just how famous he is.
Interview with the Observer Magazine
“There's no better guarantee of failure than convincing yourself that success is impossible...”
Max Tegmark book Our Mathematical Universe
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality (2014)
“If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely.”
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
“Worse than sin against God is sin against man.”
Sufyan al-Thawri (716–778) Muslim Scholar and founder of Thawri Madhhab
Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 29
“Never allow your memories to be better than your dreams.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) Non permettere mai ai tuoi ricordi di essere migliori dei tuoi sogni.
Source: prevale.net
“I’d rather be ruled by a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
The earliest published source for such a statement yet located is in Pat Robertson — Where He Stands (1988) by Hubert Morken, p. 42, where such a comment is attributed to Luther without citation.
Disputed
“Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.”
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) British writer and philosopher