Quotes about right
page 27
“Here's what breaks us: Even though we know better, we still want everything to be all right.”
Source: Love Is the Higher Law
Variant: Shane talking to Claire -
"In this whole screwed up town, you're the only thing that's always been right to me," He whispered. "I love you, Claire
Source: Lord of Misrule
"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962)
Perhaps the adjective "elderly" requires definition. In physics, mathematics, and astronautics it means over thirty; in the other disciplines, senile decay is sometimes postponed to the forties. There are, of course, glorious exceptions; but as every researcher just out of college knows, scientists of over fifty are good for nothing but board meetings, and should at all costs be kept out of the laboratory!
"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962; as revised in 1973)
On Clarke's Laws
Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven
“Never be afraid of doing the thing you know in your heart is right, even if others don't agree.”
Source: Dream When You're Feeling Blue
“Right. Because there’s no bigger sign of commitment than a Halloween dance”
Remarks at "Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland (18 February 1958) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx; Box 899, Senate Speech Files, John F. Kennedy Papers, Pre-Presidential Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
Pre-1960
Source: Bad Astronomy (2002), p. 47
Source: Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"
“It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.”
On her abortion, as quoted in You Might as well Live by John Keats (1970)
Source: You Might as Well Live: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker
36
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Presumably a paraphrase of "A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct" or of "Hunting for sport is an improvement ..." above.
Unlikely to be by Leopold, who knew that ethics involves not only doing the right thing, but also determining the right thing in the face of competing desirable criteria.
Misattributed
“If you're for the right thing, you do it without thinking.”
Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Source: The Tale of Despereaux
Source: The Song of Achilles
“Hard to say what's right when all I wanna do is wrong.”
“When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.”
“Does history record any case in which the majority was right?”
Source: A People's History of the United States
222
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Source: Minority Report
“When you are right, you cannot be too radical; When you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
1960s, Why We Can't Wait (1964)
Context: Someone once wrote: "When you are right, you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative." The Negro knows he is right.
Variant: Why do you need to gallop while you fly?"
"Why do humans have to sway their arms while they walk? I dunno boss, but it just feels right.
Source: The Last Olympian
33 min 20 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Heaven and Hell [Episode 4]
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. The worst aspect of the Velikovsky affair is not that many of his ideas were wrong or silly or in gross contradiction to the facts; rather, the worst aspect is that some scientists attempted to suppress Velikovsky's ideas. The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge and there is no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system, and the history of our study of the solar system shows clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.
“Americans Will Always Do the Right Thing — After Exhausting All the Alternatives.”
This is a modification of a March 1967 quote by Israeli politician Abba Eban who said, "Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources." Eban used various versions of this quote over the years. In 1979 he said, "My experience teaches me this: Men and nations do act wisely when they have exhausted all the other possibilities." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/
In a 1970 Congressional hearing, a version of the quote first referenced Americans. It was attributed to an unnamed Irishman. "And indeed, we often know how to do things by the philosophy that was expounded by another Irishman I know. He said that you can depend on Americans to do the right thing when they have exhausted every other possibility." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/
The earliest known attribution of the quote to Churchill occurred in 1980. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/
Misattributed
Source: The Little Sister (1949), chapter 1
Source: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Statement before his fight with George Foreman (31 March 1973)
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: The Constitution of the United States of America
“It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights.”
Source: The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad
Source: The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
“You may think there is a lot wrong with you, but there is also a lot right with you.”
Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
Source: Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your Spirit
Source: On the Edge
“You must do right before you feel good.”
“If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill.”
Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
1770s, Declaration of Independence (1776)
Context: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism
“The here and now is all we have, and if we play it right it's all we'll need.”
“The plain truth, I may as well admit it, is that I've never been really right in the head.”
Source: Journey to the End of the Night
“Sometimes one has suffered enough to have the right to never say: I am too happy.”
Source: The Black Tulip
“And now I'm right back where I started. Sober and miserable.”
Source: Evermore