“A man may be ungrateful but is less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor.”
Tel homme est ingrat, qui est moins coupable de son ingratitude que celui qui lui a fait du bien.
Maxim 96.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“T is sweeter for thee despairing
Than aught in the world beside,—Jessy!”
Jessy.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“From whose lips the streams of words ran sweeter than honey.”
I. 249 (tr. Richmond Lattimore); of Nestor.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
“Rather than bring peace and harmony, the EU will cause insurgency and violence.”
Quote by Nigel Farage on an article in the Zimbabwe Independent, regarding the EU winning the Nobel Peace Prize, 19 October 2012. Nobel Peace Prize really deserves a new name. http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2012/10/19/nobel-peace-prize-really-deserves-a-new-name/
2012
“In mathematics the art of asking questions is more valuable than solving problems.”
In re mathematica ars proponendi quaestionem pluris facienda est quam solvendi.
Doctoral thesis (1867); variant translation: In mathematics the art of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it.
“Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade.”
Source: (1776), Book I, Chapter VII, p. 72.
“All my foundation in virtue was no other than a total ignorance of vice.”
Page 40
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
“An uneasy rhythm of life
is more life like than an easy death.”
<span class="plainlinks"> Khorampa https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/khorampa/</span>
From Poetry
“Inflation itself proceeds at a speed faster than the measured speed of light.”
Source: Reinventing Gravity (2008), Chapter 6, Inflation And Variable Speed Of Light (VSL), p. 102
“I have more information in one place than anybody in the world.”
Commonly seen with the attribution "Jerry Pournelle, an absurd notion, apparently about the BIX BBS"
Clarified in a reply to reader email http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2view/view402.html#Saturday in Chaos Manor View 402, February 20-26, 2006
Attributed
“There is nothing harder than to be told that what we hold sacred is an idol.”
64
Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay (2001), "Jesus' fraternal relocation of God"
“A man must not swallow more beliefs than he can digest.”
Source: The Dance of Life http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300671.txt (1923), Ch. 5
“He is not mad. He is only more clever than you. It is not the same.”
Volume 4, Ch. 10
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)
“It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing.”
Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1011
Sunni Hadith
“There is no force more potent in the modern world than stupidity fueled by greed.”
Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990), Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 100
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Actually a statement by Joseph Brodsky, as quoted in The Balancing Act : Mastering the Competing Demands of Leadership (1996) by Kerry Patterson, p. 437.
However, compare to the similar Bradbury quotes from 1993 (Seattle Times) and 2000 (Peoria Journal) above.
Misattributed
“Hold on to your dreams, Kiall. They are more important than you realise.”
Source: Drenai series, Quest for Lost Heroes, Ch. 5
“It is better to present one image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous work.”
“Truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion.”
Aphorism 20
Novum Organum (1620), Book II
