“Many a man may look respectable, and yet be able to hide at will behind a spiral staircase.”
P.G. Wodehouse book Sunset at Blandings
Sunset at Blandings (1977 (posthumously published))
“Many a man may look respectable, and yet be able to hide at will behind a spiral staircase.”
P.G. Wodehouse book Sunset at Blandings
Sunset at Blandings (1977 (posthumously published))
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
No.15. Ivanhoe — REBECCA.
Literary Remains
Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
Richard Ames; chapter 16, p. 200
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
1963, Address at Vanderbilt University
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
The Human Sacrifice Channel? Crush-Video Arguments Get Creative http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/10/07/the-human-sacrifice-channel-crush-video-arguments-get-creative/ Wall Street Journal, (Oct, 2008). <br class="br">2000s
Sir John Bayley, 1st Baronet (1763–1841) British judge
R. v. Commissioners of Pagham (1828), 8 B. & C. 362.
Ilana Mercer South African writer
"What Ivanka wants, Ivanka gets." http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/04/what_ivanka_wants_ivanka_gets.html American Thinker, April 13, 2017 <br class="br">2010s, 2017
“He gave man speech, and speech created thought,
Which is the measure of the universe.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley Prometheus Unbound
Asia, Act II, sc. iv, l. 72
Prometheus Unbound (1818–1819; publ. 1820)
John Carroll (1944) Australian professor and author
Source: Break-Out from the Crystal Palace (1974), p. 95
“A fanatic is a man that does what he thinks th' Lord wud do if He knew th' facts iv th' case.”
Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936) author
Casual Observations http://books.google.com/books?id=rTUPAAAAYAAJ&q=&quot;A+fanatic+is+a+man+that+does+what+he+thinks+th'+Lord+wud+do+if+He+knew+th'+facts+iv+th'+case&quot;&pg=PA258#v=onepage, Mr. Dooley's Philosophy (1900)
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
The American Credo: A Contribution toward the Interpretation of the National Mind (1920)
1920s
“Xenophanes speaks thus:
And no man knows distinctly anything,
And no man ever will.”
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Pyrrho, 8.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 9: Uncategorized philosophers and Skeptics
Joseph Smith, Jr. book History of the Church
History of the Church, 6:308-309 (7 April 1844)
1840s, King Follett discourse (1844)
“If there's one thing you can say about mankind, there's nothing kind about man.”
Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor
"Misery is the River of the World", Blood Money (2002).
Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963) American missionary
Source: The Root of the Righteous (1955), Chapter 34.
“He will through life be master of himself and a happy man who from day to day can have said, "I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine."”
Ille potens sui
laetusque deget, cui licet in diem
dixisse "vixi: cras vel atra
nube polum pater occupato
vel sole puro."
Book III, ode xxix, line 41
John Dryden's paraphrase:
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He, who can call to day his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived to-day.
Odes (c. 23 BC and 13 BC)
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1920s, Viereck interview (1929)
Joseph Jacobs book English Fairy Tales
English Fairy Tales (1890), Preface to English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk
Arthur Desmond (1859–1929) New Zealnd writer
Rival Caesars (1903)
Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate
Source: Why Men Are the Way They Are (1988), p. 106.
Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) American politician
As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838&ndash;64 https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=%22The+principle+of+enslaving+human+beings+because+they+are+inferior%22&source=bl&ots=YA6W9JoaPr&sig=aO15r4OJEVD8bQUIjM34u42GjXg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM9vuXwsrLAhWJeD4KHWvpAUcQ6AEIHjAB#v=onepage&q=%22The%20principle%20of%20enslaving%20human%20beings%20because%20they%20are%20inferior%22&f=false (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 193 <br class="br">1860s, Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives (April 1860)
John Fowles book Daniel Martin
Daniel Martin (1977)
Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam
Sahih Bukhari 4:52:74i http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/052.sbt.html#004.052.074i <br class="br">Sunni Hadith
“Man is an eternal sophomore.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet
Opus Posthumous (1955), Adagia
“Man must be so weighed as though there were a God within him.”
Impendendus homo est, deus esse ut possit in ipso.
Book IV, line 407.
Astronomica
L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) American science fiction author, philosopher, cult leader, and the founder of the Church of Scientology
My Philosophy (1965) http://www.ronthephilosopher.org/phlspher/page84.htm.
“When a man’s success becomes commonplace to him, it is his success no longer.”
Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 104
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.
Hannah Senesh (1921–1944) Jewish poet and anti-nazi fighter in World War II
Will I succeed? Will I be able to fulfil God's command?
SENESH, Hannah, DAFNE, Reuven; PALGI, Yoel; SENESH, Catherine. Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary. London : Sphere, 1973. p. 92.
“He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.”
James Beattie (1735–1803) Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher
The Hermit
“For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose,
The best good man with the worst-natured muse.”
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) English poet, and peer of the realm
An allusion to Horace, Satire x. Book i. Compare: "Thou best-humour'd man with the worst-humour'd muse!", Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation, Postscript.
Other
Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967) French sculptor
c. 1960
Source: 1960 - 1968, Dialogues – conversations with.., quotes, c. 1960, pp. 153-154
Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857–1935) American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenist
The Earth Speaks to Bryan (1925), p. 8
Rudy Giuliani (1944–2001) American businessperson and politician, former mayor of New York City
October 2, 2016, on ABC's This Week <br class="br">Source: 'This Week' Transcript: Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Bernie Sanders" http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-rudy-giuliani-sen-bernie-sanders/story?id=42496702. ABC News. 2016-10-02. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
Jeff Flake (1962) American politician
Exchange between CNN reporter Jake Tapper and Flake after his announcement that he would not run for re-election in 2018 on 24 October 2017
John Prescott (1938) Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007)
Statement in the House of Commons (29 November 2006)
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian
p, 125
The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
Source: Earthsea Books, The Farthest Shore (1972), Chapter 8, "The Children of the Open Sea" (Ged)
Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast
Patheos, Satanic Panic and Exorcism in Schools? http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2016/09/21/satanic-panic-and-exorcism-in-schools/ (September 21, 2016)
Tad Williams (1957) novelist
Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Chapter 18, “A Net of Stars” (p. 262).
“What is man but a little soul holding up a corpse?”
Malcolm Lowry book Under the Volcano
Source: Under the Volcano (1947), Ch. X (p. 287)
Sarada Devi (1853–1920) Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna
[Swami Tapasyananda, Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother; Life and Conversations, 253]
David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) United States Navy admiral
Source: 1880s, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885), pp. 283–284
“Nothing makes a man feel older than a young woman.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 69, “Wind or Women’s Fancy” (p. 512)
Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam
He then addressed somebody, "O Unais! go to the wife of this (man) and stone her to death" So, Unais went and stoned her to death.
Narrated Abu Huraira and Zaid bin Khalid Al-Juhani [3, 49, 860]
Sunni Hadith
J. William Fulbright (1905–1995) American politician
Address to the Foreign Policy Association, New York City (October 20, 1945), in Fulbright of Arkansas: The Public Positions of a Private Thinker (1963)
H. Rider Haggard book King Solomon's Mines
Source: King Solomon's Mines (1885), Chapter 5, "Our March into the Desert"
William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) English mathematician and philosopher
As quoted by A. D'Abro, The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein https://archive.org/details/TheEvolutionOfScientificThought (1927)
James Fitzjames Stephen (1829–1894) Indian judge
Source: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873-1874), Ch. 5
Robert Louis Stevenson book A Child's Garden of Verses
Windy Nights, st. 1.
A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)
Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer
All Sex, All the Time.
City Journal (1998 - 2008)
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Stump Orator (May 1, 1850)
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero As King
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
The Present Age and of the Difference Between a Genius and an Apostle, translated by Alexander Dru (1962)
1840s, Two Ages: A Literary Review (1846)
Paul Goodman book Growing Up Absurd
Source: Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 14.
Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast
Patheos, Philosophistry http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2017/04/12/philosophistry/ (April 12, 2017)
William Winwood Reade (1838–1875) British historian
Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter II, "Religion", p. 138.
“A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere.”
Quisquis ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat.
Martial book Epigrammata
VII, 73.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)
Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader
Peace Bomb satsang, 11 October 1970, India Gate, New Delhi, India (translated from Hindi)
1970s
Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976) English theologian
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.245
Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) British businessman, politician, and statesman
Hear, hear.
On the Labour Party (7 July 1906), quoted in ‘The Chamberlain Celebration In Birmingham.’, The Times (10 July 1906), p. 11.
1900s
John Dos Passos (1896–1970) novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, painter
Interview, Feb 3 1964, reproduced in Talks With Authors, ed. Charles F. Madden
“But experience has shown that to be true which Appius says in his verses, that every man is the architect of his own fortune.”
Sed res docuit id verum esse, quod in carminibus Appius ait, fabrum esse suae quemque fortunae.
Sallust (-86–-34 BC) Roman historian, politician
I.i.2
Epistulae ad Caesarem senem
Alexis (-372–-270 BC) Athenian poet of Middle Comedy
Stobaeus, Florilegium, CV., 4.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
In letter to plantation manager, as quoted in The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/, by Henry Wiencek, Smithsonian Magazine, (October 2012) <br class="br">Attributed
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) German mathematician and physical scientist
As quoted by Robert Chambers, "Sir Isaac Newton and the Apple," The Book of Days (1832) Vol. 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=K0UJAAAAIAAJ, p. 757.
“I am afraid of a new barbarism which is killing
man's freedom.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet
ATV 179; p. 151
Karel Appel, a gesture of colour' (1992/2009)
Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–1881) Novelist, poet, editor
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 26.
Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director
The Chimneys of India Song, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).
Richard Sherman (American football) (1988) American football player
Posted on a website under the alias "RSherman25", quoted in "Richard Sherman Blasts 'Black Lives Matter' Activist" https://web.archive.org/web/20150916235759/http://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/dylan-gwinn/2015/09/14/richard-sherman-blasts-black-lives-matter-activist (14 September 2015), by Dylan Gwinn, NewsBusters (2015), Reston, Virginia: Media Research Center. Sherman has said that although he agreed with some of the sentiments expressed, he did not write or say this http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/video-richard-sherman-speaks-passionately-on-black-lives-matter/. <br class="br">Misattributed
John Edwin (1749–1790) English actor
The Eccentricities of John Edwin (second edition, 1791), vol. i. p. 74. These lines Edwin offers as heads of a "sermon". Longfellow places them in the mouth of "The Cobbler of Hagenau," as a "familiar tune". See "The Wayside Inn, part ii. The Student's Tale".
“Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.”
Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales
The Franklin's Tale, l. 11789
The Canterbury Tales
David Hume book A Treatise of Human Nature
Part 4, Section 7
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding
“A man who bets on greed and dishonesty won’t be wrong too often.”
Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast
Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter IX : Most males have an unhealthy tendency to obey laws., p. 82
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician
Source: The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872), p. 120 The Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. 3 (1892)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), History
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge
Concurring, Dennis v. United States, 339 U.S. 162, 184 (1950).
Judicial opinions
George Friedman (1949) American businessman and political scientist
Source: The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century (2009), p. 50
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist
Interview segment http://www.radiodiaries.org/mandela/t_movement.html on All Things Considered (NPR) broadcast (27 April 2004) <br class="br">2000s
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Source: The Doctrine of the Mean
Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist
"Why some Muslims want to kill the Yazidis by genocide" http://nypost.com/2014/08/17/why-some-muslims-want-to-destroy-the-yazidis-by-genocide/, New York Post (August 17, 2014). <br class="br">New York Post
Jack Donovan (1974) American activist, editor and writer
pg 125
A Sky Without Eagles (2014)
Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben (1806–1849) Austrian psychiatrist, poet and philosopher
The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)