Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
“When we played softball, I'd steal second base, feel guilty and go back.”
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
Sometimes attributed to Contact (1985), but the quote does not appear in that book. <br class="br">It appears attributed to Sagan in Judson Poling's 2003 book "Do Science and the Bible Conflict?", but without source. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Source: Via Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=Ondv5WzhYYYC&pg=PA21&dq=Sagan
“Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love.”
Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer
“Our joy does not have to be based on our circumstances.”
Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker
Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher
Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer
Source: The Other Side of the Story
Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer
Source: Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power Of Intimate Relationships
Patrick Lencioni (1965) American writer
Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
“A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.”
James C. Collins (1958) American business consultant and writer
Source: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
“Let's be friends based on mutual hate.”
Bryan Lee O'Malley (1979) Artist
Source: Scott Pilgrim, Volume 3: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
“Sex without smiling is as sickly and as base as vodka and tonic without ice.”
Stephen Fry book Moab Is My Washpot
Source: Moab Is My Washpot
Yōko Ogawa book The Housekeeper and the Professor
Source: The Housekeeper and the Professor
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist
Shamanism and the Archaic Revival http://www.matrixmasters.net/blogs/?p=1242
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor
Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.”
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
Brandon Sanderson book Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia
Source: Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia
“One must conform to the baseness of an age or become neurotic.”
Robert Musil (1880–1942) Austrian writer
“You're so far off base this time you can't even see the base!”
Eileen Wilks (1952) fiction writer
Source: On the Prowl
Isaac Asimov book Foundation
Part V, The Merchant Princes, section 13
Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)
Samuel Butler book The Way of All Flesh
Life, xvi
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part I - Lord, What is Man?
Source: The Way of All Flesh
Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
Bell Hooks book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
(1984)
Source: Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire
Tessa Gray, to Clary Fray, pg. 716
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: I feel a kinship with you, too, you who have lost both brother and father. I know you have been judged and spoken of as the daughter of Valentine Morgenstern, and now the sister of Jonathan. There will always be those who want to tell you who you are based on your name or the blood in your veins. Do not let people decide who you are. Decide for yourself. That freedom is not a gift; it is a birthright. I hope that you and Jace will use it.
Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon
Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
“Religion is based on the idea that God is an imbecile.”
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
“She'd wear shades of lipstick you'd expect to see around the base of a penis.”
Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters
Source: Invisible Monsters
“The best lies are based on the
truth, at least in part”
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel
Source: Clockwork Angel
“He was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. [about George Bush, Sr. ]”
Ann Richards (1933–2006) American politician
about George Bush, Sr. Earlier use by Barry Switzer<ref name="kcstar">[Tom, Shatel, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-12-14/sports/8604030680_1_big-eight-coach-aren-t-many-coaches-oklahoma, The Unknown Barry Switzer, Kansas City Star and Times, December 14, 1986, 2012-04-05]
Misattributed
Dave Barry (1947) American writer
Source: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657
“anger based on calculated reason is more dangerous than anger based on blind hate”
Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice
Source: Last Sacrifice
Richard Louv (1949) American journalist
Source: Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
Clifford Geertz book The Interpretation of Cultures
Source: The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), p. 29
“Strange as it may seem, my life is based on a true story”
Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer
Included as a quotation in The Great Quotations (1977) by George Seldes, p. 35, this appears to be a paraphrase of a summation of arguments of Bruno's speech in a debate at the College of Cambray (25 May 1588) which are not clearly presented as a direct translation of his statements:
: In an inspired speech Bruno, through the interpreter, Jean Hennequin, of Paris, declared the discovery of numberless worlds in the One Infinite Universe. Nothing was more deplorable, declared he, than the habit of blind belief, for of all other things it hinders the mind from recognizing such matters as are in themselves clear and open. It was proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people. However, he cautioned that they should not be influenced by the fervor of speech, but by the weight of his argument and the majesty of truth.
:* Coulson Turnbull in Life and Teachings of Giordano Bruno : Philosopher, Martyr, Mystic 1548 — 1600 (1913), p. 41
Disputed
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Source: The World As I See It
Context: How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving....
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer
Journal entry (1938), quoted in the Introduction to a 1994 edition of Of Mice and Men by Susan Shillinglaw, p. vii
Context: In every bit of honest writing in the world … there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.
“All love that has not friendship for its base,
Is like a mansion built upon the sand.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet
Love
Poetry quotes, New Thought Pastels (1913)
Ari Marmell (1974) D&D game writer
Source: Thief's Covenant
Julian Assange (1971) Australian editor, activist, publisher and journalist
[Julian Assange, monk of the online age who thrives on intellectual battle, The Guardian, 2010-08-01, 2010-08-01, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/01/julian-assange-wikileaks-afghanistan]
Ilana Mercer South African writer
Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa
2010s, <u>Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa</u> (2011)
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
1960s, Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)
Dani Rodrik (1957) Turkish Economist
Will China Rule the World? http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rodrik39
Hugo Diemer (1870–1937) American mechanical engineer
(1921, p. 10); Diemer quotes the ASCM committee
Factory organization and administration, 1910
Tina Fey (1970) American comedian, writer, producer and actress
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/01/01supdate.phtml
Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player
As quoted in "Sidelights on Sports: Monday Morning's Sports Wash" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XOANAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7387%2C128274 by Al Abrams, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Monday, October 2, 1972), p. 24 <br class="br">Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>
George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States
they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled.
2000s, 2005, Second Inaugural Address (January 2005)
Margery Allingham (1904–1966) English writer of detective fiction
The Oaken Heart