Quotes about fairness
page 10

Isaiah Berlin photo

“Everything is what it is: liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or culture, or human happiness or a quiet conscience.”

Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas

Five Essays on Liberty (2002), Two Concepts of Liberty (1958)

Thomas Carlyle photo
Bill O'Reilly photo
Barry Eichengreen photo
John Ralston Saul photo
Kurt Lewin photo
Hillary Clinton photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Robert Herrick photo
Anne Morrow Lindbergh photo
John Oldham (poet) photo

“Altho' your frailer part must yield to Fate,
By every breach in that fair lodging made,
Its blest inhabitant is more displayed.”

John Oldham (poet) (1653–1683) English satirical poet and translator

To Madam L. E. on her Recovery, 106; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922).

Théophile Gautier photo

“Yes, the work comes out more fair,
From a form that rebels against
Handling,
Verse, marble, onyx, enamel.”

Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) French writer

Oui, l'œuvre sort plus belle
D'une forme au travail
Rebelle,
Vers, marbre, onyx, émail.
"L'Art", line 1, in Émaux et Camées (1852; Genève: Librairie Droz, 1947) p. 130; Earl Jeffrey Richards (ed.) Christine de Pizan and Medieval French Lyric (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998) p. 32.

Lester B. Pearson photo

“When I came back to Ottawa I found myself faced with a very difficult parliamentary situation… I think it is fair to say that Mr St Laurent, on the basis of private discussions with the Opposition leaders, did not expect any serious division in the House of Commons over our policies on Suez. However, bitter division there was, and we were condemned strongly for deserting our two mother countries. The Conservative attack was led by Howard Green (who in June 1959 was to become Secretary of State for External Affairs). Green accused us of being the "chore boy" of the United States, of being a better friend to Nasser than to Britain and France, and claimed that our government "by its actions in the Suez crisis, has made this month of November 1956, the most disgraceful period for Canada in the history of this nation," and that it was "high time Canada had a government which will not knife Canada's best friends in the back." Any feeling of exaltation and conceit or euphoria at our success in avoiding a general war in the Middle East (if in fact we had avoided it by our actions) was dissipated for me by the vigour of the assaults on my conduct, my wisdom, my rectitude, my integrity, and my everything else by an embattled Conservative Opposition. It was a very vigorous debate reflected in the general election of the next year. But I have always believed, and I think the great weight of Canadian opinion strongly approved what we had done. Further, I am absolutely certain and will remain certain in my own mind that the New Commonwealth would have soon shattered over the issue had the British not backed down.”

Lester B. Pearson (1897–1972) 14th Prime Minister of Canada

Memoirs, Volume Two

Emma Goldman photo

“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

p. 219 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2162/2162-h/2162-h.htm#emancipation
The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation (1906)

“The morn was fair, the skies were clear,
No breath came o'er the sea.”

Charles Jefferys (1807–1865) British music publisher

The Rose of Allandale, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Studs Terkel photo

“I was born in the year the Titanic sank. The Titanic went down, and I came up. That tells you a little about the fairness of life.”

Studs Terkel (1912–2008) American author, historian and broadcaster

Regarding his 95th birthday in "Give 'Em Hell, Mr. Terkel" (16 May 2007) by Amy Goodman http://web.archive.org/web/20070613211416/http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/51990

John Ramsay McCulloch photo

“The principle of laissez-faire may be safely trusted to in some things but in many more it is wholly inapplicable; and to appeal to it on all occasions savors more of the policy of a parrot than of a statesman or a philosopher.”

John Ramsay McCulloch (1789–1864) Scottish economist, author and editor

John Ramsay McCulloch (1848; 156), cited in: Roderick Floud, et al. (2014), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, Volume 1. p. 363

Bernard Harcourt photo
John Dryden photo

“Bacchus, ever fair and ever young.”

John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 54.

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“Now, we are poor people, individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.
We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles, we don't need any Molotov cocktails, we just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda — fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)

Milo Yiannopoulos photo
Martin Farquhar Tupper photo

“The dews of Hermon rest upon thee now,
Fair saint and martyr! and yet once again
Faith, hope and charity, like gracious rain,
Fall on thy consecrated virgin brow.”

Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–1889) English writer and poet

Reconsecrated (15 May 1850), l. 1-4.
Ballads for the Times (1851)

“The firste fyndere of our faire langage.”

Thomas Occleve (1369–1426) British writer

The first finder of our fair language.
Source: Regement of Princes (c. 1412), Line 4978; vol. 3, p. 179; modernized-spelling version from Geoffrey Hughes A History of English Words (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000) p. 126.

Martin Farquhar Tupper photo
Bernie Sanders photo
Paul A. Samuelson photo
Felix Frankfurter photo

“It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950).
Judicial opinions

Margaret Chan photo

“Health systems are social institutions. They do far more for society than deliver babies and pills, like a post office delivering parcels. Properly managed and adequately financed, a fair and equitable health system contributes to social cohesion and stability.”

Margaret Chan (1947) Director-General of the World Health Organization

"Exclusive Interview with WHO's Dr. Margaret Chan" http://www.usaid.gov/news-information/frontlines/global-healthiraq/exclusive-interview-whos-dr-margaret-chan, April-May 2011.

Czeslaw Milosz photo

“A man should not love the moon.
An ax should not lose weight in his hand.
His garden should smell of rotting apples
And grow a fair amount of nettles.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator

"Should, Should Not" (1961), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz
King Popeil and Other Poems (1962)

Winston S. Churchill photo

“I am a sporting man. I always give them a fair chance to get away.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Asked why he missed so many trains and aeroplanes, as cited in My Darling Clementine (1963), Fishman, W.H. Allen : Star Books edition (1974), p. 218 ISBN 0352300191
Post-war years (1945–1955)

George William Curtis photo
John Bright photo
Mahmud of Ghazni photo
Titian photo
Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton photo
Maria Bamford photo
Bernardo Dovizi photo

“Fair is his end who loving well doth die.”

Bernardo Dovizi (1470–1520) Italian cardinal and playwright

Act I, scene II. — (Lidio).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 254.
La Calandria (c. 1507)

Thomas Hardy photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Benazir Bhutto photo
Mahela Jayawardene photo

“My role with England is to help develop their cricketers, and to help with how they should approach different challenges - like playing spin. The pools hadn't been decided when I agreed to do it. England didn't hire me to give information on the Sri Lankan team. They have analysts and coaches to do that. I'm quite disappointed to see those comments from the board, to be fair.”

Mahela Jayawardene (1977) Former Sri Lankan cricketer

Jayawardene on criticism from SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala, contending that his ten-day consulting role with England is largely geared toward player development and not toward providing specific tactical information, quoted on ESPN Cricket Info, "Jayawardene brushes off SLC president's criticism" http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/story/976925.html, February 27, 2016.
Quote

Francis Escudero photo
William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley photo
Anton Chekhov photo
Joni Madraiwiwi photo
Michael Drayton photo

“All strangers love her, will always find her fair,
Because such elegance, such happiness,
Will not be found in any town but this:
Paris is beyond compare.”

Eustache Deschamps (1346–1406) French poet

Tuit estrangier l'aiment et ameront,
Car pour deduit et pour estre jolis,
Jamais cité tele ne trouveront:
Riens ne se puet comparer a Paris.
"Quant j'ay la terre et mer avironnée", line 17; text and translation from Ian S. Laurie and Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi (eds.), David Curzon and Jeffrey Fiskin (trans.) Eustache Deschamps: Selected Poems (London: Routledge, 2003) pp. 62-63.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“AY, screen thy favourite dove, fair child,
Ay, screen it if you may,—
Yet I misdoubt thy trembling hand
Will scare the hawk away.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

A Child Screening a Dove from a Hawk. By Stewartson
The Troubadour (1825)

St. Vincent (musician) photo

“Your skin's so fair its not fair”

St. Vincent (musician) (1982) American singer-songwriter

"Your Lips Are Red"
Marry Me (2007)

Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned photo
Alexander Pope photo

“It is the Soldier, not the minister, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

Published on the George Patton Historical Society http://www.pattonhq.com/koreamemorial.html website. Also attributed through reading in the U.S. House http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r108:FLD001:H01969.
This poem is often attributed to Fr. Dennis Edward O'Brien. Father O'Brien apparently sent the poem to Dear Abbey, who incorrectly attributed it to him. Before his death, he was always quick to say that he had not written the verse.

Eli Siegel photo
Fethullah Gülen photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo
Jerome K. Jerome photo

“I can understand the ignorant masses loving to soak themselves in drink—oh, yes, it's very shocking that they should, of course—very shocking to us who live in cozy homes, with all the graces and pleasures of life around us, that the dwellers in damp cellars and windy attics should creep from their dens of misery into the warmth and glare of the public-house bar, and seek to float for a brief space away from their dull world upon a Lethe stream of gin. But think, before you hold up your hands in horror at their ill-living, what "life" for these wretched creatures really means. Picture the squalid misery of their brutish existence, dragged on from year to year in the narrow, noisome room where, huddled like vermin in sewers, they welter, and sicken, and sleep; where dirt-grimed children scream and fight and sluttish, shrill-voiced women cuff, and curse, and nag; where the street outside teems with roaring filth and the house around is a bedlam of riot and stench. Think what a sapless stick this fair flower of life must be to them, devoid of mind and soul. The horse in his stall scents the sweet hay and munches the ripe corn contentedly. The watch-dog in his kennel blinks at the grateful sun, dreams of a glorious chase over the dewy fields, and wakes with a yelp of gladness to greet a caressing hand. But the clod-like life of these human logs never knows one ray of light. From the hour when they crawl from their comfortless bed to the hour when they lounge back into it again they never live one moment of real life. Recreation, amusement, companionship, they know not the meaning of. Joy, sorrow, laughter, tears, love, friendship, longing, despair, are idle words to them. From the day when their baby eyes first look out upon their sordid world to the day when, with an oath, they close them forever and their bones are shoveled out of sight, they never warm to one touch of human sympathy, never thrill to a single thought, never start to a single hope. In the name of the God of mercy; let them pour the maddening liquor down their throats and feel for one brief moment that they live!”

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“"The gods would take him and leave me bereft, and I curse them!"
"I have cursed them for years," said Ista dryly. "Turnabout being fair."”

Lois McMaster Bujold (1949) Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA

Source: World of the Five Gods series, Paladin of Souls (2003), p. 379

Colin Wilson photo
Joseph Strutt photo
Karel Čapek photo
Matthew Arnold photo

“How fair a lot to fill
Is left to each man still.”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

"A Summer Night," Poems: Second Series, (1855), last stanza http://books.google.com/books?id=IzpcAAAAcAAJ&q=%22How+fair+a+lot+to+fill+Is+left+to+each+man+still%22&pg=PA210#v=onepage

John Bunyan photo

“It beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where 't is kept is lighter than vanity.”

Part I, Ch XIII : Vanity Fair
The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Part I

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
Edward Coote Pinkney photo

“I fill this cup to one made up
Of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex
The seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements
And kindly stars have given
A form so fair, that, like the air,
'Tis less of earth than heaven.”

Edward Coote Pinkney (1802–1828) American poet, lawyer, sailor, professor, and editor

A Health, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Each and All
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.

Perry Anderson photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Richard Stallman photo
Walter Scott photo
George Meredith photo

“More brain, O Lord, more brain! or we shall mar
Utterly this fair garden we might win.”

George Meredith (1828–1909) British novelist and poet of the Victorian era

St. 48.
Modern Love http://www.ev90481.dial.pipex.com/Meredith/modern_love.htm (1862)

Paul Krugman photo
Babe Ruth photo
Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“Her face, oh call it fair, not pale!”

Part II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

Alanis Morissette photo

“And I'm here, to remind you
Of the mess you left when you went away
It's not fair, to deny me
Of the cross I bear that you gave to me
You, you, you oughta know.”

Alanis Morissette (1974) Canadian-American singer-songwriter

You Oughta Know
Jagged Little Pill (1995)

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton photo

“What is your sex's earliest, latest care,
Your heart's supreme ambition? To be fair.”

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (1709–1773) British politician

Advice to a Lady (1731)

Harold Demsetz photo
Joyce Kilmer photo
John Ruysbroeck photo

“Contemplation The shining forth of That which is Unconditioned is as a fair mirror wherein shines the Eternal Light of God. It has no attributes, And here all the works of Reason fail. It is not God, But it is the Light whereby we see Him. Those who walk in the Divine Light discover in themselves the UnwalledEven though the eagle, king of birds, can with his powerful sight gaze steadfastly upon the brightness of the sun; yet do the weaker eyes of the bat fail and falter in the same It is neither thus nor thus, neither here nor there; for that which is Unconditioned hath enveloped all…Behold! such a following of the Way that is WaylessThe Love of God is a consuming Fire, which draws us out of ourselves and swallows us up in unity with God This revelation of the Father lifts the soul above the reason into the Imageless Nudity. There the soul is simple, pure, spotless, Empty of all things; And it is in this state of perfect emptiness that the Father manifests His Divine radiance is a knowing that is unconditioned,
For ever dwelling above the Reason.
Never can it sink down into the Reason,
And above it can the Reason never climb.
The shining forth of That which is Unconditioned is as a fair mirror.
Wherein shines the Eternal Light of God.
It has no attributes,
And here all the works of Reason fail.
It is not God, But it is the Light whereby we see Him.
Those who walk in the Divine Light of it
Discover in themselves the Unwalled.
That which Unconditioned,
Is above the Reason, not without it:
It beholds all things without amazement.
Amazement is far beneath it:
The contemplative life is without amazement.
That which is Unconditioned, it knows not what;
For it is above all, and is neither This nor That.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

The Twelve Beguines

Mobutu Sésé Seko photo
John Major photo

“John Major: What I don't understand, Michael, is why such a complete wimp like me keeps winning everything.
Michael Brunson: You've said it, you said precisely that.
Major: I suppose Gus will tell me off for saying that, won't you Gus?
Brunson: No, no, no … it's a fair point. The trouble is that people are not perceiving you as winning.
Major: Oh, I know … why not? Because…
Brunson: Because rotten sods like me, I suppose, don't get the message clear [laughs].
Major: No, no, no. I wasn't going to say that - well partly that, yes, partly because of S-H-one-Ts like you, yes, that's perfectly right. But also because those people who are opposing our European policy have said the way to oppose the Government on the European policy is to attack me personally. The Labour Party started before the last election. It has been picked up and it is just one of these fashionable things that slips into the Parliamentary system and it is an easy way to proceed.
Brunson: But I mean you … has been overshadowed … my point is there, not just the fact that you have been overshadowed by Maastricht and people don't…
Major: The real problem is this…
Brunson: But you've also had all the other problems on top - the Mellors, the Mates … and it's like a blanket - you use the phrase 'masking tape' but I mean that's it, isn't it?
Major: Even, even, even, as an ex-whip I can't stop people sleeping with other people if they ought not, and various things like that. But the real problem is…
Brunson: I've heard other people in the Cabinet say 'Why the hell didn't he get rid of Mates on Day One?' Mates was a fly, you could have swatted him away.
Major: Yeah, well, they did not say that at the time, I have to tell you. And I can tell you what they would have said if I had. They'd have said 'This man was being set up. He was trying to do his job for his constituent. He had done nothing improper, as the Cabinet Secretary told me. It was an act of gross injustice to have got rid of him'. Nobody knew what I knew at the time. But the real problem is that one has a tiny majority. Don't overlook that. I could have all these clever and decisive things that people wanted me to do and I would have split the Conservative Party into smithereens. And you would have said, Aren't you a ham-fisted leader? You've broken up the Conservative Party.
Brunson: No, well would you? If people come along and…
Major: Most people in the Cabinet, if you ask them sensibly, would tell you that, yes. Don't underestimate the bitterness of European policy until it is settled - It is settled now.
Brunson: Three of them - perhaps we had better not mention open names in this room - perhaps the three of them would have - if you'd done certain things, they would have come along and said, 'Prime Minister, we resign'. So you say 'Fine, you resign'.
Major: We all know which three that is. Now think that through. Think it through from my perspective. You are Prime Minister. You have got a majority of 18. You have got a party still harking back to a golden age that never was but is now invented. And you have three rightwing members of the Cabinet actually resigned. What happens in the parliamentary party?
Brunson: They create a lot of fuss but you have probably got three damn good ministers in the Cabinet to replace them.
Major: Oh, I can bring in other people into the Cabinet, that is right, but where do you think most of this poison has come from? It is coming from the dispossessed and the never-possessed. You and I can both think of ex-ministers who are going around causing all sorts of trouble. Would you like three more of the bastards out there? What's the Lyndon Johnson, er, maxim?
Brunson: If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.
Major: No, that's not what I had in mind, though it's pretty good.”

John Major (1943) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Andrew Culf, "What the `wimp' really said to the S-H-one-T", The Guardian, 26 July 1993.
'Off-the-record' exchange with ITN reporter Michael Brunson following videotaped interview, 23 July 1993. Neither Major nor Brunson realised their microphones were still live and being recorded by BBC staff preparing for a subsequent interview; the tape was swiftly leaked to the Daily Mirror.

Scott Adams photo

“The world isn't fair, but as long as it's tilting in my direction I find that there's a natural cap to my righteous indignation.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Dilbert blog, The Benefits of Getting Old, http://web.archive.org/20061111154839/dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/08/benefits_of_get.html, 2006-11-11 http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/08/benefits_of_get.html,

Frederick Rolfe photo
Walter Scott photo
James Gates Percival photo

“On thy fair bosom, silver lake,
The wild swan spreads his snowy sail,
And round his breast the ripples break
As down he bears before the gale.”

James Gates Percival (1795–1856) American geologis, poet, and surgeon

To Seneca Lake, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

L. Ron Hubbard photo

“The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease. FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations.
This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP.”

L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) American science fiction author, philosopher, cult leader, and the founder of the Church of Scientology

"Cancellation of Fair Game" (21 October 1968).
Scientology Policy Letters

“Death is an angel with two faces:
To us he turns
A face of terror, blighting all things fair;
The other burns
With glory of the stars, and love is there.”

Theodore Chickering Williams (1855–1915) American hymnwriter

A Thanatopsis, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Joseph Strutt photo
Begum Aga Khan photo
Norman Mailer photo
James Hamilton photo
James Macpherson photo
James Macpherson photo
Rebecca Latimer Felton photo

“I do not want to see a negro man walk to the polls and vote on who should handle my tax money, while I myself cannot vote at all. Is that fair?”

Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930) American politician

[Dittmer, John, Black Georgia in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920, 1980, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 978-0-252-00813-9, http://books.google.com/books?id=mW4gKvP1oZkC&lpg=PA121&dq=rebecca%20latimer%20felton%20see%20a%20negro%20man&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q=rebecca%20latimer%20felton%20see%20a%20negro%20man&f=false, 121].

“If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it.”

Jonathan Aitken (1942) Conservative Member of Parliament, former British government Cabinet minister

Criticising press reports that he had violated the ministerial code of conduct; he later started a libel trial, which ended in his conviction for perjury.
Statement of (10 April 1995); as quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, 3rd ed., (2007), p. 6.

Hannah Arendt photo