“Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.”
Franz Kafka book The Blue Octavo Notebooks
The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954)
“Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.”
Franz Kafka book The Blue Octavo Notebooks
The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954)
Richard Henry Horne (1802–1884) English poet and critic
The Laurel Seed; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 439.
“To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster:
Either condemn or crown your hatred.”
Qui se venge à demi court lui-même à sa peine:
Il faut ou condamner ou couronner sa haine.
Cléopâtre, act V, scene i.
Rodogune (1644)
“Damn it all, you can't have the crown of thorns and the thirty pieces of silver.”
Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) Welsh politician
On his position in the Labour Party (c. 1956), quoted in Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan: A Biography, Volume 2 (1973), p. 503
1950s
William Jones (1746–1794) Anglo-Welsh philologist and scholar of ancient India
Ode in Imitation of Alcæus, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Neither walls, theatres, porches, nor senseless equipage, make states, but men who are able to rely upon themselves", Aristides, Orations (Jebb's edition), vol. i. (trans. by A. W. Austin); By Themistocles alone, or with very few others, does this saying appear to be approved, which, though Alcæus formerly had produced, many afterwards claimed: "Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans, make a state; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls."—Ibid. vol. ii.
Charles Bowen (1835–1894) English judge
In the matter of Van Gelder's Patent (1888), 6 Rep. Pat. Cas. 28
Charles Wesley (1707–1788) English Methodist and hymn writer
Osborn G (1868), "The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley. Vol 4.", London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office. Page 219, at archive.org. https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofj04wesl
Richard Pipes (1923–2018) American historian
Source: Three “Whys” of the Russian Revolution (1995), pp. 17-18
Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) British businessman, politician, and statesman
Speech to the Eighty Club, London (28 April 1885), quoted The Times (29 April 1885), p. 10.
1880s
Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) British statesman; prime minister of the United Kingdom
Letter to the Mayor of Leicester, declining to speak at a recruitment meeting (September 1914), quoted in David Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald (Metro, 1997), p. 175
1910s
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838–1922) British academic, jurist, historian and Liberal politician
Letter to The Times (13 March 1876), p. 8, after Queen Victoria was given the title "Empress of India".
1870s
Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist
September 25, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown
Nick Drake (1948–1974) British singer-songwriter
At the Chime of a City Clock
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)
Guru Arjan (1563–1606) The fifth Guru of Sikhism
– Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, Letter to Murtaza Khan, On the execution of Guru Arjan. Sirhindi, Maktubat-i Imam-i Rabbani, I-iii, letter No. 193, pp. 95-6. Friedman Yohanan (1966), Shaikh Ahmad Sirhandi: An Outline of His Image in the Eyes of Posterity, Ph.D. Thesis, McGill University, pp. 110-112 (This is from records of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, composed after the punishment and execution of Guru Arjun)
Elizabeth Bisland Whetmore (1861–1929) American writer and journalist
The Abdication of Man https://archive.org/stream/jstor-25119048/25119048#page/n5/mode/2up.
“The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is for aught I know, a crowning mercy.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader
Letter to William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons (4 September 1651)
Lloyd Alexander The Chronicles of Prydain
Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book V : The High King (1968), Chapter 10 (King Math)
Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) Indian spiritual teacher
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
“Every noble crown is, and on earth will forever be, a crown of thorns.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
Bk. III, ch. 7.
1840s, Past and Present (1843)
Epifanio de los Santos (1871–1928) Filipino politician
Source: As a quote by Miss Norton ( Cablenews-American) from "Epifanio de los Santos Cristobal" by Libardo D. Cayco. National Heroes Day. University of the Philippines. 1934.
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1778) British politician
Speech in the House of Commons (1766), quoted in Parliamentary History of England (London, 1813), vol. 6, col. 195.
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in Edinburgh (25 September 1924), quoted in The Times (26 September 1924), p. 14
Early career years (1898–1929)
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker
In a letter to his mother, Paris, May 11, 1907; as quoted in Edward Hopper, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 27
1905 - 1910
Charles Darwin book The Voyage of the Beagle
Source: The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), chapter XVII: "Galapagos Archipelago" (second edition, 1845), entry for 8 October 1835, pages 377-378 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=390&itemID=F14&viewtype=image
Roy Turk (1892–1934) American songwriter
Song Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day) http://www.lyrics007.com/Bing%20Crosby%20Lyrics/Where%20The%20Blue%20Of%20The%20Night%20Meets%20The%20Gold%20Of%20The%20Day%20Lyrics.html
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
A History of the Lyre
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)
Edmund Waller (1606–1687) English poet and politician
On a Girdle (1664), st. 1.
Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Letter to J. C. C. Davidson (28 January 1919) on contemplating acceptance of government office, quoted in Robert Rhodes James (ed.), Memoirs of a Conservative: J. C. C. Davidson's Memoirs and Papers, 1910-1937 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), p. 95.
1910s
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician
Letter to his parents (9 March 1943), from Simon Heffer, Like the Roman. The Life of Enoch Powell (Phoenix, 1999), p. 75.
1940s
Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet
Già l'aura messaggiera erasi desta
A nunziar che se ne vien l'aurora:
intanto s'adorna, e l'aurea testa
Di rose, colte in Paradiso, infiora.
Canto III, stanza 1 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)
1860s, Oration at Ravenna, Ohio (1865)
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet
" The Man He Killed http://www.illyria.com/hardyman.html" (1902), lines 17-20, from Time's Laughingstocks (1909)
Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet
As armas e os Barões assinalados
Que da Ocidental praia Lusitana
Por mares nunca de antes navegados
Passaram ainda além da Taprobana,
Em perigos e guerras esforçados
Mais do que prometia a força humana,
E entre gente remota edificaram
Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram.
Stanza 1 (as translated by William Julius Mickle, 1776)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto I
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) writer and activist
And the Greatest of These is War.
Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917)
Theodore Tilton (1835–1907) American newspaper editor
Sir Marmaduke's Musings, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Henry Timrod (1828–1867) Poet from the American South
"Ode: Sung on the Occasion of Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead at Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S.C., 1867", st. 1 & 5
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
The Summer Rain, st. 3
“Tradition is the crown of the tyrant.”
Pierce Brown book Golden Son
Source: Golden Son (2015), Ch. 51: Golden Son
“Sydneian showers
Of sweet discourse, whose powers
Can crown old Winter’s head with flowers.”
Richard Crashaw (1612–1649) British writer
Wishes for the Supposed Mistress
Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter
Why Can't A Man Stand Alone?
Song lyrics, All This Useless Beauty (1996)
“Contentment has been worn as a crown by no end of sleepy heads.”
Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 104
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Speech in the House of Commons (3 April 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104910 <br class="br">First term as Prime Minister
Richard Harris Barham (1788–1845) British writer and priest
Poem: The Jackdaw of Rheims http://www.bartleby.com/246/108.html
Matthew Lewis (writer) (1775–1818) English novelist and dramatist
Lord Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), line 273.
Criticism
Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist
Preface of M. Quetelet
A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties (1842)
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in Nottingham (18 October 1887) referring to the Mitchelstown Massacre, quoted in The Times (19 October 1887), p. 6.
1880s
Michel Chossudovsky (1946) Canadian economist
Source: The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order - Second Edition - (2003), Chapter 19, Structural Adjustment in the Developed Countries, p. 303
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist
Composed at midnight, as quoted in The Poetical Works of Charles Lamb, p. 72.
Maurice Baring (1874–1945) English writer
"The Garland", from Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches.
Hasan Nizami Persian language poet and historian
Hasan Nizami, quoted from Goel, Sita Ram (2001). The story of Islamic imperialism in India. ISBN 9788185990231 Ch. 6
Esaias Tegnér (1782–1846) Swedish poet, professor and bishop
Canto XXIII, Stanza 13.
Fridthjof's Saga (1820-1825)
Jerry Falwell (1933–2007) American evangelical pastor, televangelist, and conservative political commentator
Paula Zahn Now (31 July 2006), as quoted in "CNN still fixated on Apocalypse predictors, still ignoring alleged invitation to White House, Capitol Hill" at Media Matters for America (1 August 2006) http://mediamatters.org/items/200608010007
George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter
By Still Waters (1906)
Mark Akenside book The Pleasures of the Imagination
Book I, line 500–511
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
Stafford Cripps (1889–1952) British politician
The Manchester Guardian (28 May 1934), quoted in Hugh Dalton, The Fateful Years. Memoirs 1931-1945 (London: Frederick Muller Ltd, 1957), p. 150.
R.S. Thomas (1913–2000) Welsh poet
"In a Country Church"
Song at the Year's Turning (1955)
Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan
Quotes from secondary sources, Smooth Stones Taken From Ancient Brooks, 1860
R. Venkataraman (1910–2009) seventh Vice-President of India and the 8th President of India
The Rediff Interview/R Venkataraman
“From the crown of our head to the sole of our foot.”
Thomas Middleton (1580–1627) English playwright and poet
A Mad World, my Masters (1605), Compare: "From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, 1 he is all mirth", William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 2.
Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780–1857) French poet and chansonnier
Qu'elle est jolie, translated by C. L. Betts; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 57.
“"I've lost a day!"—the prince who nobly cried,
Had been an emperor without his crown.”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 99. Suetonius says of the Emperor Titus: "Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for any that day, he broke out into that memorable and justly admired saying, ‘My friends, I have lost a day!'" Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Cæsars (translation by Alexander Thomson).
Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan (1873–1952) British judge
Source: A Man of Law's Tale (1952), On Education, p. 14
Charles James Fox (1749–1806) British Whig statesman
Speech to his constituents in Westminster (1784), quoted in W. T. Laprade, 'William Pitt and the Westminster Election', American Historical Review, 23 (1912), p. 263.
1780s
Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012) Cambodian King
Speech to the Council of the Throne (June 4, 1952), as quoted in Philip Short (2004) Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare, page 76.
Speeches
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician
Source: Letter to the Viceroy of India Lord Lytton (7 July 1876), quoted in S. Gopal, British Policy in India, 1858-1905 (Cambridge University Press, 1965), p. 115
Thomas Denison (1699–1765) British judge (1699–1765)
Memorial inscription, reported in Edward Foss, The Judges of England, With Sketches of Their Lives (1864), Volume 8, p. 266-268.
About
Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist
Source: The Reader Over Your Shoulder (1943), Ch. 4: "The Use and Abuse of Official English".
“I tell you we will cut off his head with the crown upon it.”
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader
To Algernon Sidney, one of the judges at the trial of Charles I (December 1648)
Mark Hopkins (educator) (1802–1887) American educationalist and theologian
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 61.
Cristoforo Colombo (1451–1506) Explorer, navigator, and colonizer
Variant translation: At two hours after midnight appeared the land, at a distance of two leagues. They handed all sails and set the treo, which is the mainsail without bonnets, and lay-to waiting for daylight Friday, when they arrived at an island of the Bahamas that was called in the Indians' tongue Guanahani.
As translated in Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1963) by Samuel Eliot Morison, p. 64
Journal of the First Voyage
Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) Scottish author
Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. XIII : Character — The True Gentleman
Bram Stoker book Dracula
I was touched by the tenderness of his tone, and asked why.
“Because I know!”
Professor Van Helsing to Dr. John Seward, in Dr. Seward's Diary entry for 22 September
Dracula (1897)
“Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown.”
Robert Greene (dramatist) (1558–1592) English author
Song, "Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content", line 1, from Farewell to Folly (1591); Dyce p. 309.
Mallika Sherawat (1976) Indian actress
[The Babe with Balls, http://www.binabakshi.com/journalism.htm, Bina Bakshi, May 2004]
“The way to bliss lies not on beds of down,
And he that has no cross deserves no crown.”
Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English poet
Esther (1621), Sec. 9, Meditation 9.
“Officially I've been crowned as Hip-Hop's Historian.”
Marcus Orelias (1993) American actor, rapper, songwriter, author and entrepreneur
Blackouts
20s A Difficult Age (2017)
Francisco Luís Gomes (1829–1869) Indo-Portuguese physician, writer, historian, economist, political scientist and MP in the Portuguese parli…
A Liberdade da Terra e a Economia Rural da India Portuguesa (1862), Introduction. Quoted by Teotonio R. de Souza in Essays in Goan history (1989), p. 137
A Liberdade da Terra e a Economia Rural da India Portuguesa (1862)
Thomas Guthrie (1803–1873) British divine
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 118.
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian
Source: Christianizing the Social Order (1912), p. 104