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“Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull.”

Alan Bennett (1934) English actor, author

"Alas! Deceived", p. 367 (1993).
Writing Home (1994)

“I can cure the gout or stone in some, sooner than Divinity, Pride, or Avarice in others”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 9
Religio Medici (1643), Part II

“From you, my boy, I expect no less than the completely preposterous and utterly calamitous.”

David Brin book Earth

Part V (p. 250)
Earth (1990)

“Research to me is as important, or more important, than the writing. It is the foundation upon which the book is built.”

Leon Uris (1924–2003) American novelist

Explaining how all his novels were researched; quoted in his Guardian obituary, 2003 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/jun/25/guardianobituaries.books

“Has the Republic of Korea ever been more obviously unloved than in this year of "Hell Chosun?"”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, Still the Unloved Republic (December 2016)

“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Let Us Have Faith (1940)

“Only Napoleon did more than I have done. But I am definitely taller.”

Silvio Berlusconi (1936) Italian politician

As quoted in Reuters (9 February 2006), "Berlusconi's boundless modesty: first it's Napoleon, now he's Jesus" by John Hooper, in The Guardian (13 February 2006) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/13/italy.johnhooper, and "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/20/italy <br class="br">2006

“They who truly know have had to unlearn hardly less than they have had to learn.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Variant: They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn.
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 90

“The power of the pen is far greater than those people suppose who have not proved it by experience.”

Giovanni Boccaccio book The Decameron

Le forze della penna sono troppo maggiori che coloro non estimano che quelle con conoscimento provato non hanno.
Eighth Day, Seventh Story
The Decameron (c. 1350)

“Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"The Art of Donald McGill" (1941)

“He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and a smelly fish.”

José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist

This has long been attributed to Rizal as part of a poem, titled Sa Aking Mga Kabata (To My Fellow Children), he wrote at the age of 8, as quoted in " Community Celebrates Rizal Day" in Asian Journal USA (31 December 2007) http://asianjournalusa.com/community-celebrates-rizal-day-p3868-95.htm, but this has become disputed as highly unlikely in "Did young Rizal really write poem for children?" by Ambeth R. Ocampo, in Philippine Daily Inquirer (22 August 22 2011) http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/45479/did-young-rizal-really-write-poem-for-children <br class="br">Disputed

“A government is never more dangerous than when embarking on a self-defeating or downright suicidal course.”

William S. Burroughs book The Adding Machine: Collected Essays

"The Limits of Control"
The Adding Machine: Collected Essays (1985)

“Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses.”

Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) Italian criminologist

Die Welt (1909); also in A Treasury of Jewish Quotations (1985) by Joseph L. Baron.

“The ways in which we are similar are far more numerous than the ways in which we are different.”

Jennifer Beals (1963) American actress and a former teen model

Interview on Regis and Kelly Show (2004) http://www.jennifer-beals.com/media/videos/interviews/clips_interviews1.html#regis/.

“A man's own self is the last person to believe in him, and is harder to cheat than the rest of the world.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

1900s, Love Among the Artists (1900)

“Esteem money neither more nor less than it deserves, it is a good servant and a bad master.”

Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–1895) French writer and dramatist, son of the homonym writer and dramatist

N'estime l'argent ni plus ni moins qu'il ne vaut: c'est un bon serviteur et un mauvais maître.
Preface to Théatre complet de Al. Dumas fils (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1863) vol. 1, p. 4; translation from Ernest Smith Fields of Adventure (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1924) p. 99.

“Spending the day with you has been marginally better than watching mother die of cancer.”

Arthur M. Jolly (1969) American writer

DIane, Act I, Scene 2
Trash (2012)

“The future's a weirder place than we thought it would be when we were little kids.”

Cory Doctorow book For the Win

Source: For the Win

“It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

“… They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.”

Zadie Smith book White Teeth

Variant: Because this is the other thing about immigrants: they cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.
Source: White Teeth (2000)