Sad and heartbreaking quotes
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Source: Freedom from Fear (1991)
Context: It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those one loves. Dosa-gati is taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one bears ill will, and moga-gati is aberration due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption. Just as chanda-gati, when not the result of sheer avarice, can be caused by fear of want or fear of losing the goodwill of those one loves, so fear of being surpassed, humiliated or injured in some way can provide the impetus for ill will. And it would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched.
“You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right.”
“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever.”
“Play Mozart in memory of me— and I will hear you.”
Murmured by Chopin on his death-bed.
Source: The opera reader, Biancolli, 1953, p. 271
“Nothing eases suffering like human touch.”
Source: Chess Meets of the Century
“When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion.”
Quoted in 3:439 Herndon's Lincoln (1890), p. 439 http://books.google.com/books?id=rywOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA439&dq=%22when+i+do+good+i+feel+good%22: Inasmuch as he was so often a candidate for public office Mr. Lincoln said as little about his religious code as possible, especially if he failed to coincide with the orthodox world. In illustration of his religious code I once heard him say that it was like that of an old man named Glenn, in Indiana, whom he heard speak at a church meeting, and who said: "When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion."
Posthumous attributions
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”
Dinner was soon followed by tea and coffee, a ten miles' drive home allowed no waste of hours; and from the time of their sitting down to table, it was a quick succession of busy nothings till the carriage came to the door, and Mrs. Norris, having fidgeted about, and obtained a few pheasants' eggs and a cream cheese from the housekeeper, and made abundance of civil speeches to Mrs. Rushworth, was ready to lead the way.
Misattributed
Source: Said by Fanny Price in a 1999 adaptation of Mansfield Park. Actual quote:
Senator Barack Obama’s speech to supporters after the Feb. 5 2018 nominating contests, as provided by Federal News Service and released in the New York Times (5 February 2008) https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05text-obama.html
2008
“A very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.”
Letter to Richard Burke
Source: in R. B. McDowell and William B. Todd (eds), The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Vol. 9: I: The Revolutionary War, 1794-1797; II: Ireland. p. 647
“Sweet as sugar. Hard as ice. Hurt me once. I'll kill you twice.”
“There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.”
Plato, Phaedo