The problem with providing bios of people say cool things is realizing when people tend to die.
So I run a (much more active) side blog, focused on quotations: WIST.info (WIST = “Wish I’d Said That”). Quotations have been a labor of love for me for a lot of years, the close thing I have to a pure personal hobby.
A sample quotation … about quotations
I have about 3,000-odd people who I quote there, and for each I track name, birth/death date, a few words of biography, and an image. Because knowing who said something, when, and what their background is can be useful in understanding what was said. Also, I’m a history geek, so there’s that.
For the last month or so I’ve been slowly crawling through that list of quoted folk to confirm, for those of the contemporary era, if they are still alive. It’s kind of embarrassing (as an history geek) to cite someone who died five years ago with just his birth date. Unprofessional, you know.
Anyway, updating biography snippets to include death dates has been kind of disturbing, emotionally. I have to check everyone where I just have a birth date, no matter what it is. But I can, actuarially, make a few preliminary assumptions.
Folk born in the 1910s are almost certainly dead.
Folk born in the 1920s-30s are probably dead, but not necessarily. And not jumping to that conclusion is important, because I have a parent and a couple of in-laws that fall into that category and they are not dead and I do not want them to be, so I keep rooting (and keep wincing).
On the other hand, folk born in the 1990s (and later) are probably not dead … but they need to be checked any, because accidents, disease, drug abuse, etc. may very well have taken such people.
And then there are people in-between. Like, oh, say, myself, born in the 1960s. A majority are not dead (yet), but a disturbingly large minority are, again due to accidents, disease, abuse, or just an “early” death.
Remember, Man, that dust thou art and to dust thou shall return.
I have not reached my Biblical three-score-years-and-ten, and an still enough below the US average (esp. given my economic bracket) that it’s not too worrisome. But being reminded by research that Things Happen, and there are famous people born later than me who have gone to join the Choir Invisible is … not reassuring.
And that I have loved ones who are on the far side of those numbers, even less so.
Memento Mori – “Vanitas” by Philippe de Champaigne
One would think collecting quotations would be, like collecting stamps, an very cool and unemotional and non-risky passtime.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), was eminently quotable (though his tendency to re-use key phrases in multiple sermons, speeches, and writings, sometimes drives a quotation collector to distraction). Here are a few thoughts from him from my quotation collection that I find germane even today, over fifty years after King’s killing.
We must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
“A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” radio broadcast, CBC (Canada) (24 Dec 1967)
King’s focus on peaceful protest and civil disobedience remains a challenge to this day.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
“Beyond Vietnam,” speech, Clergy and Laity Concerned, Riverside Church, New York City (4 Apr 1967)
King was writing during the Vietnam War, but the issue is just as real today.
Now Jesus himself saw the power that competition holds over men. He did not ignore it. Yet he does something with the conception of competition that hadn’t been done before. He takes the conception which has been used for lower purposes and rescues it from many of its dangers, by suggesting a higher method of its use. This is how he applied the term to his disciples. He saw them in danger of using it for low purposes. They wanted to compete for reputation and position — “which of them should be accounted greatest?” Jesus says so, if you must use the power of competition, if you must compete with on another, make it as noble as you can by using it on noble things. Use it for a fine, unselfish thing. “He that is greatest among you shall serve.” Use it for human good. Who shall be the most useful. Compete with one another in humility. See which can be the truest servant. It seems that Christ says, “Use it, but use it for higher and holier purposes. Use it not to surpass one another in esteem, but use it to increase the amount of usefulness and brother-help.” Such conceptions of competition lead to the surprising and ennobling position that there can be competition without hate and jealousy. Behold! You can struggle to beat and yet rejoice to be beaten.
King had a repertoire of turning around familiar talking points — in this case, rejecting the idea of competition being necessarily bad, but noting that it depends on what one is competing for.
We must not seek to use our emerging freedom and our growing power to do the same thing to the white minority that has been done to us for so many centuries. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man. We must not become victimized with a philosophy of black supremacy. God is not interested merely in freeing black men and brown men and yellow men, but God is interested in freeing the whole human race.
“Give Us the Ballot,” Speech, Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, DC (1957)
King always made it clear that the struggle for equal rights for blacks was to the benefit of all Americans, not just blacks.
In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.
“Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (17 Nov 1957)
King saw the power of love going beyond sentiment to actual action.
We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.
“Loving Your Enemies,” sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (17 Nov 1957)
The summary of King’s teachings on peaceful protest and civil disobedience.
Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
“Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (17 Nov 1957)
Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning. It is the lifting of a burden or the canceling of a debt. The words “I will forgive you, but I’ll never forget what you have done” never explain the real nature of forgiveness. Certainly one can never forget, if that means erasing it totally for his mind. But when we forgive, we forget in the sense that the evil deed is no longer a mental block impeding a new relationship. Likewise, we can never say, “I will forgive you, but I won’t have anything further to do with you.” Forgiveness means reconciliation, a coming together again. Without this, no man can love his enemies. The degree to which we are able to forgive determines the degree to which we are able to love our enemies.
“Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (25 Dec 1957)
Forgiveness is hard.
This simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of his acts are not quite representative of all that he is. We see him in a new light. We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.
“Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (25 Dec 1957)
In a time of division like today, words for thought.
Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
“On Being a Good Neighbor,” sec. 2, sermon, A Gift of Love (1963)
We sometime hear that the problems of poverty should be left to private charity. But even if that were adequate to meet the need (and it never has), it merely treats the symptoms.
The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism, but practical atheism — that’s the most dangerous type. And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service. And there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don’t. We say with our mouths that we believe in him, but we live with our lives like he never existed. That is the ever-present danger confronting religion. That’s a dangerous type of atheism.
“Rediscovering Lost Values,” sermon, Second Baptist Church, Detroit (28 Feb 1954)
I have more respect for considered atheists than those who claim to follow a religion but, by their actions, do not.
As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I possess a billion dollars. As long as millions of people are inflicted with debilitating diseases and cannot expect to live more than thirty-five years, I can never be totally healthy even if I receive a perfect bill of health from Mayo Clinic. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
“Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution,” Commencement Speech, Morehouse College, Atlanta (2 Jun 1959)
Empathy and compassion.
It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.”
“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” sermon, National Cathedral, Washington, DC (31 Mar 1968)
Sometimes waiting is appropriate. But sometimes it’s an easy excuse for not acting.
We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.
“The Birth of a New Age,” speech, Alpha Phi Alpha banquet, Buffalo (11 Aug 1956)
It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the glaring noisiness of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. It may be that our generation will have repent not only for the diabolical actions and vitriolic words of the children of darkness, but also for the crippling fears and tragic apathy of the children of light.
“The Christian Way of Life in Human Relations,” speech, General Assembly fo the National Council of Churches, St Louis (4 Dec 1957)
A frequent theme of King’s, nudging audiences who thought of themselves too easily as the “good guys.”
Any church that violates the “whosoever will, let him come” doctrine is a dead, cold church, and nothing but a little social club with a thin veneer of religiosity.
“The Drum Major Instinct,” sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta (4 Feb 1968)
It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law can’t make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important also.
“The Other America,” speech, Stanford University (14 Apr 1967)
A riot is the language of the unheard.
“The Other America,” speech, Stanford University (14 Apr 1967)
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
“The Trumpet of Conscience,” Steeler Lecture (Nov 1967)
I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will be still rocky places of frustration and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. We may again with tear-drenched eyes have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.
“Where Do We Go From Here?” Southern Christian Leadership Conference Presidential Address (16 Aug 1967)
My personal disillusionment with the church began when I was thrust into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery. I was confident that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would prove strong allies in our just cause. But some became open adversaries, some cautiously shrank from the issue, and others hid behind silence. My optimism about help from the white church was shattered; and on too many occasions since, my hopes for the white church have been dashed. There are many signs that the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. Unless the early sacrificial spirit is recaptured, I am very much afraid that today’s Christian church will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and we will see the Christian church dismissed as a social club with no meaning or effectiveness for our time, as a form without substance, as salt without savor. The real tragedy, though, is not Martin Luther King’s disillusionment with the church — for I am sustained by its spiritual blessings as a minister of the gospel with a lifelong commitment: The tragedy is that in my travels, I meet young people of all races whose disenchantment with the church has soured into outright disgust.
Playboy interview (Jan 1965)
King’s disappointment with white Christian church response to his message came through repeatedly — and with justification.
Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion. Such a religion is the kind the Marxists like to see — an opiate of the people.
Stride Toward Freedom (1958)
King focused on civil rights, legal equality before the law. But he also was a proponent of economic rights and justice as well.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
“I’ve Been To The Mountaintop,” speech, Memphis (3 Apr 1968)
King’s last public speech. He was assassinated the following day.
What do I want from a President? A lot of stuff I haven’t gotten from Trump.
As mentioned in the previous post, I collect quotations at my Wish I’d Said That (WIST) site. Here are some quotations I’ve picked up over the years on the presidency, and leadership, in consideration of what I think of as being a President, of being presidential.
It will not surprise you to discover I find a tremendous contrast between Donald Trump and these ideals. To me it’s a reminder of what we’ve lost the last four years, and have an opportunity to regain.
Links go to the original quotation on WIST, which may have additional sourcing information or notes.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.
¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
“To the People of Sangamo County,” speech running for Illinois state legislature (9 Mar 1832)
A politician, for example, is a man who thinks of the next election; while the statesman thinks of the next generation.
¶ James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888) American theologian and author
“Wanted, a Statesman!”, Old and New Magazine (Dec 1870)
Although in our country the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and measures, yet in his official action he should not be the President of a part only, but of the whole people of the United States. While he executes the laws with an impartial hand, shrinks from no proper responsibility, and faithfully carries out in the executive department of the Government the principles and policy of those who have chosen him, he should not be unmindful that our fellow-citizens who have differed with him in opinion are entitled to the full and free exercise of their opinions and judgments, and that the rights of all are entitled to respect and regard.
¶ James K. Polk (1795-1849) American lawyer, politician, US President (1845-1849)
Inaugural Address (4 Mar 1845)
You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.
¶ Sam Rayburn (1882-1961) American lawyer and politician
Quoted in The Leadership of Speaker Sam Rayburn, Collected Tributes of His Congressional Colleagues, House Doc. 87-247 (1961)
For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us — recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:
First, were we truly men of courage — with the courage to stand up to one’s enemies — and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one’s associates — the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?
Secondly, were we truly men of judgment — with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past — of our mistakes as well as the mistakes of others — with enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candor to admit it.
Third, were we truly men of integrity — men who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the men who believed in us — men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?
Finally, were we truly men of dedication — with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?
Courage — judgment — integrity — dedication — these are the historic qualities … which, with God’s help … will characterize our Government’s conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead.
¶ John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address to the Massachusetts legislature (9 Jan 1961)
It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.
¶ Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Letter to the Smothers Brothers (Nov 1968)
The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.
¶ James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
The Federalist #57 (19 Feb 1788)
Dishonor in public life has a double poison. When people are dishonorable in private business, they injure only those with whom they deal or their own chances in the net world. When there is a lack of honor in Government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.
¶ Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Address, Des Moines, Iowa (30 Aug 1951)
Ultimately, a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
¶ Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, orator
Speech, Labor Leadership Assembly for Peace (Nov 1967)
PRESIDENT, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom — and of whom only — it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.
¶ Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
The measure of leadership is not the quality of the head, but the tone of the body. The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.
¶ Max De Pree (b. 1924) American businessman and writer Leadership Is An Art (1987)
Your public servants serve you right.
¶ Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech, Los Angeles (11 Sep 1952)
The best foreign policy is to live our daily lives in honesty, decency, and integrity; at home, making our own land a more fitting habitation for free men; and abroad, joining with those of like mind and heart, to make of the world a place where all men can dwell in peace.
¶ Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Inaugural Gabriel Silver lecture, Columbia University (23 Mar 1950)
The legislative job of the President is especially important to the people who have no special representatives to plead their cause before Congress — and that includes the great majority. The President is the only lobbyist that 150 million Americans have. The other 20 million are able to employ people to represent them — and that’s all right, it’s the exercise of the right of petition — but someone has to look after the interests of the 150 million that are left.
¶ Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Press and Union Club, San Francisco (25 Oct 1956)
To serve the Public faithfully, and at the same time please it entirely, is impracticable.
¶ Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher Poor Richard’s Almanack (Oct 1758)
The politician in my country seeks votes, affection and respect, in that order…. With few notable exceptions, they are simply men who want to be loved.
¶ Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) American journalist
Address at London Guildhall (19 Oct 1959)
I believe that the public temper is such that the voters of the land are prepared to support the party which gives the best promise of administering the government in the honest, simple, and plain manner which is consistent with its character and purposes. They have learned that mystery and concealment in the management of their affairs cover tricks and betrayal. The statesmanship they require consists in honesty and frugality, a prompt response to the needs of the people as they arise, and a vigilant protection of all their varied interests.
¶ Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) American President (1885–1889, 1893–1897)
Letter accepting Democratic nomination for President (8 Aug 1884)
When I ran for Presidency of the United States, I knew that this country faced serious challenges, but I could not realize — nor could any man realize who does not bear the burdens of this — how heavy and constant would be those burdens.
¶ John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
“Radio and TV Report to the American People on the Berlin Crisis” (25 Jul 1961)
The first rule of democracy is to distrust all leaders who begin to believe their own publicity.
¶ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
“On Heroic Leadership,” Encounter (Dec 1960)
I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.
¶ Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1933-1945)
Presidential nomination acceptance speech, Chicago (2 Jul 1932)
Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have confidence in their leader.
¶ Omar Bradley (1893-1981) American general
Personal interview with Edgar Puryear (15 Feb 1963)
Quoted in Edgar Puryear, 19 Stars : A Study in Military Character and Leadership (1981).
You have heard the story, haven’t you, about the man who was tarred and feathered and carried out of town on a rail? A man in the crowd asked him how he liked it. His reply was that if it was not for the honor of the thing, he would much rather walk.
¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
When asked how he enjoyed being President. (Attributed (1861))
Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
¶ John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
(Attributed)
The worst error a president can make is to assume the automatic implementation of his own decisions. In certain respects, having able subordinates aggravates that problem, since strong personalities tend to have strong ideas of their own. Civil government operates by consent, not by command; the President’s task, even within his own branch of government, is not to order but to lead.
¶ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic The Age of Roosevelt: The Coming of the New Deal, ch. 33, sec. 3 (1959)
The second office of this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid misery.
¶ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Elbridge Gerry (13 May 1797)
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
¶ John Buchan (1875-1940) Scottish novelist, poet, and politician; Governor-General of Canada (1935 -1940) Montrose and Leadership (1930)
All presidents start out to run a crusade, but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely, the presidency.
¶ Alistair Cooke (1908-2004) Anglo-American essayist and journalist Talk About America, ch. 6 (1981)
He serves his party best who serves the country best.
¶ Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) American attorney, soldier, politician, US President (1877-81)
Inaugural address (5 Mar 1877)
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.
¶ Max De Pree (b. 1924) American businessman and writer Leadership Is An Art (1989)
You can lead an organization through persuasion or formal edict. I have never found the arbitrary use of authority to control an organization either effective or, for that matter, personally interesting. If you cannot persuade your colleagues of the correctness of your position, it is probably worthwhile to rethink your own.
¶ Alan Greenspan (b. 1926) American economist, bureaucrat
“Federal Reserve’s Chairman Blends Eye for Politics with Economic Skills,” New York Times (26 Jul 1990)
The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. That’s the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership. All our great Presidents were leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.
¶ Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1933-1945)
In The New York Times Magazine (11 Sep 1932)
If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
¶ Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter to John Thaxter (29 Sep 1778)
I despise toadies who suck up to their bosses; they are generally the same people who bully their subordinates.
¶ David Ogilvy (1911–1999) British advertising executive Confessions of an Advertising Man, ch. 1 (1963)
Do you know what makes a leader? It’s the man or woman who can persuade people to do what they ought to do — and which they sometimes don’t do — without being persuaded. They must also have the ability to persuade people to do what they do not want to do and like it.
¶ Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Annapolis (24 May 1952)
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Sedition, A Free Press, and Personal Rule,” Kansas City Star (7 May 1918)
You convey too great a compliment when you say that I have earned the right to the presidential nomination. No man can establish such an obligation upon any part of the American people. My country owes me no debt. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope. My whole life has taught me what America means. I am indebted to my country beyond any human power to repay.
¶ Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, President of the US (1928-32)
Letter to George Moses (14 Jun 1928)
When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.
¶ Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, ch. 15 (1973)
Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.
¶ Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer Billions and Billions, ch. 14 “The Common Enemy” (1997)
The intoxication of power rapidly sobers off in the knowledge of its restrictions and under the prompt reminder of an ever-present and not always considerate press, as well as the kindly suggestions that not infrequently come from Congress.
¶ William Howard Taft (1857-1930) US President (1909-13) and Chief Justice (1921-1930)
Speech, Lotus Club (16 Nov 1912)
The leader holds his position purely because he is able to appeal to the conscience and to the reason of those who support him, and the boss holds his position because he appeals to fear of punishment and hope of reward. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
¶ Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Speech, Binghamton, New York (24 Oct 1910)
The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.
¶ Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, School Culture Rewired, ch. 3 (2015)
Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.
¶ Norman Schwarzkopf (b. 1934) American military leader
(Attributed)
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
¶ Colin Powell (b. 1937) American military leader, Secretary of State My American Journey, ch. 2 (2003)
I praise loudly, I blame softly.
¶ Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great]
Letter (23 Aug. 1794)
If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled subordinates, then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.
¶ Dee W. Hock (b. 1929) American businessman
“Unit of One Anniversary Handbook,” Fast Company (28 Feb 1997)
No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary.
¶ John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, American Newspaper Publishers Association (27 Apr 1961)
We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.
¶ Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, orator
“The Birth of a New Age,” speech, Alpha Phi Alpha banquet, Buffalo (11 Aug 1956)
The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgment — social, political, or ethical — can raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him.
¶ John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
“America and Americans” (1966)
Divide and rule, the politician cries;
Unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
¶ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist Sprüche in Prosa (1819)
The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
¶ Ralph Nader (b. 1934) American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist
Time Leadership Conference, Washington, DC (Sep 1976)
You can judge a leader by the size of the problem he tackles — people nearly always pick a problem their own size, and ignore or leave to others the bigger or smaller ones. The chief executive should be thinking about the long-term changes which will bring growth or decay to different parts of the enterprise, not fussing over day-to-day problems. Other people can cope with the waves, it’s his job to watch the tide.
¶ Antony Jay (b. 1930) English writer, broadcaster, director Management and Machiavelli: An Inquiry into the Politics of Corporate Life, ch. 17 (1967)
For a man of sensitivity and compassion to exercise great powers in a time of crisis is a grim and agonizing thing.
¶ Richard Hofstadter (1916-1970) American historian and intellectual The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It, Part 5, ch. 7 (1958)
Referring to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
It is loyalty to great ends, even though forced to combine the small and opposing motives of selfish men to accomplish them; it is the anchored cling to solid principles of duty and action, which knows how to swing with the tide, but is never carried away by it — that we demand in public men, and not sameness of policy, or a conscientious persistency in what is impracticable.
¶ James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“Abraham Lincoln” (1864), My Study Windows (1871)
Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength. It is idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
¶ Dee W. Hock (b. 1929) American businessman
In M. Mitchell Waldrop, “Dee Hock on Management,” Fast Company (Oct/Nov 1996)
The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.
¶ Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
(Attributed)
Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly. This is true about Mr. Wilson now and it has been true about all our Presidents in the past. It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the President and about every one else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy.
¶ Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909) Kansas City Star (7 May 1918)
Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.
¶ Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61) Markings (1955) [tr. Sjoberg & Auden (1964)]
The job of getting people really wanting to do something is the essence of leadership. And one of the things a leader needs occasionally is the inspiration he gets from the people he leads. The old tactical textbooks say that the commander always visits his troops to inspire them to fight. I for one soon discovered that one of the reasons for my visiting the front lines was to get inspiration from the young American soldier. I went back to my job ashamed of my own occasional resentments or discouragements, which I probably — at least I hope I concealed them.
¶ Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Republican State Chairmen, Denver (10 Sep 1955)
You can’t do the biggest things in this world unless you handle men; and you can’t handle men if you’re not in sympathy with them; and sympathy begins in humility.
¶ George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937) American journalist, author, magazine editor Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son (1901)
The high sentiments always win in the end, the leaders who offer blood, toil, tears, and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.
¶ George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“The Art of Donald McGill” (Sep 1941)
Oh, if there is a man out of hell that suffers more than I do, I pity him.
¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed (1862))
Our trouble is that we do not demand enough of the people who represent us. We are responsible for their activities. … We must spur them to more imagination and enterprise in making a push into the unknown; we must make clear that we intend to have responsible and courageous leadership.
¶ Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist Tomorrow Is Now (1963)
God give us men. The time demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and willing hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking ….
¶ J. G. Holland (1819-1881) American novelist, poet, editor [Josiah Gilbert Holland; pseud. Timothy Titcomb]
“Wanted” (1872)
Some thoughts about elections, voting, and democracy
I collect quotations at my Wish I’d Said That (WIST) site. Aaand, every couple of years, on election day, I pull out some thoughts from the past that I find pertinent to our present.
This one’s a bit longer than usual, but it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.
Links provided are to the WIST site, which often has original sourcing and additional notes on each quotation.
Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves — and the only way they could do this is by not voting.
¶ Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1933-1945)
Radio address (5 Oct 1944)
It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
¶ John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) Irish lawyer and politician
Speech before Privy Council, Dublin (10 Jul 1790)
Whatever the laws may provide, however lofty may be their sentiments, a man without a vote is a man without protection.
¶ Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
Annual Message to Congress (1 Dec 1862)
This is a column for everyone who ever said, “I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in politics,” or, “There’s nothing I can do about it,” or, “Hey, they’re all crooks anyway.” … I’ve got one word for all of you: Katrina. … This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.
¶ Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins] The Progressive (Oct 2005)
Build movements. Vote with your values, but vote strategically. Voting isn’t a Valentine. It’s a chess move.
¶ Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961) American writer, historian, activist
Facebook (17 Oct 2016)
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
¶ George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his liberty, if he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop him. And the temptation is to some natures a very great one. Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded. In common life we shirk it by forming habits, which take the place of self-determination. In politics party-organization saves us the pains of much thinking before deciding how to cast our vote.
¶ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar Elsie Venner, ch. 18 (1859)
If there is distrust out there — and there is — perhaps it is because there is so much partisan jockeying for advantage at the expense of public policy. At times it feels as if American politics consists largely of candidates without ideas, hiring consultants without convictions, to stage campaigns without content. Increasingly the result is elections without voters.
¶ Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) US President, (1974-77) [b. Leslie Lynch King, Jr.]
Speech, Profiles in Courage Award Acceptance, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library (2001)
There are worse things than losing an election; the worst thing is to lose one’s convictions and not tell the people the truth.
¶ Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
(Attributed)
We’d all like t’vote fer th’best man, but he’s never a candidate.
¶ Kin Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist [Frank McKinney Hubbard] Abe Martin’s Primer (1914)
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
¶ William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
(Attributed)
Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions — without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
¶ Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1933-1945)
Annual Message to Congress (6 Jan 1941)
The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.
¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech, Cooper Union, New York City (27 Feb 1860)
Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
¶ John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
(Attributed)
The single most dangerous thing you can do in politics is shut off information from people who don’t agree with you. Surround yourself with sycophants, listen only to the yea-sayers … then stick a fork in it, you’re done.
¶ Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
“Election Denial” (3 Apr. 2001)
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
¶ Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (11 Nov 1947)
Pessimism about man serves to maintain the status quo. It is a luxury for the affluent, a sop to the guilt of the politically inactive, a comfort to those who continue to enjoy the amenities of privilege.
¶ Leon Eisenberg (1922-2009) American psychiatrist and medical educator
“The Human Nature of Human Nature,” Science (14 Apr 1972)
Bad officials are elected by good people who do not vote.
¶ George Jean Nathan (1892-1958) American editor and critic
(Attributed)
But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wicked situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any for of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.
¶ James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Speech at the Virginia Convention (20 Jun 1788)
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal — that you can gather votes like box tops — is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.
¶ Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Comment, after his presidential nomination acceptance speech, Chicago (18 Aug 1956)
But freedom isn’t free. It shouldn’t be a bragging point that, “Oh, I don’t get involved in politics,” as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn’t insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.
¶ William “Bill” Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host. When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden (2002)
We are not a cynical people. The will to believe lingers on. We like to think that heroes can emerge from obscurity, as they sometimes do; that elections do matter, even though the process is at least part hokum; that through politics we can change our society and maybe even find a cause to believe in.
¶ Ronald Steel (b. 1931) American writer, historian, and professor
“The Vanishing Campaign Biography,” New York Times (5 Aug 1984)
CALVIN: When I grow up, I’m not going to read the newspaper and I’m not going to follow complex issues and I’m not going to vote. That way I can complain when the government doesn’t represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn’t work and justify my further lack of participation.
HOBBES: An ingeniously self-fulfilling plan.
CALVIN: It’s a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them.
¶ Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
¶ Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Signing of the Voting Rights Act (6 Aug 1965)
Monarchy is like a sleek craft, it sails along well until some bumbling captain runs it into the rocks. Democracy, on the other hand, is like a raft. It never goes down but, dammit, your feet are always wet.
¶ Fisher Ames (1758-1808) American politician, orator
(Attributed)
Every honest and God-fearing man is a mighty factor in the future of the Republic. Educated men, business men, professional men, should be the last to shirk the responsibilities attaching to citizenship in a free government. They should be practical and helpful — mingling with the people — not selfish and exclusive. It is not necessary that every man should enter into politics, or adopt it as a profession, or seek political preferment, but it is the duty of every man to give personal attention to his political duties. They are as sacred and binding as any we have to perform.
¶ William McKinley (1843-1901) US President (1897-1901)
Speech, Woodstock, Connecticut (4 July 1891)
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
“On Slavery and Democracy” (fragment) (1858?)
It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.
[Я считаю, что совершенно неважно, кто и как будет в партии голосовать; но вот что чрезвычайно важно, это – кто и как будет считать голоса.]
¶ Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
Comment (1923)
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
¶ Robert M. Hutchins (1899-1977) American educator and educational philosopher Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)
Democracy does not give the people the most skillful government, but it produces what the ablest governments are frequently unable to create: namely, an all-pervading and restless activity, a superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable from it and which may, however unfavorable circumstances may be, produce wonders.
¶ Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician Democracy in America, 1.14 (1835) [tr. Reeve and Bowen (1862)]
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
¶ James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
Letter to B. A. Hinsdale (21 Apr 1880)
Look at the tyranny of party — at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty — a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes — and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern Master.
¶ Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“The Character of Man” (23 Jan 1906), in The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)
The deadliest enemies of nations are not their foreign foes; they always dwell within their borders. And from these internal enemies civilization is always in need of being saved. The nation blest above all nations is she in whom the civic genius of the people does the saving day by day, by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties; by the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders to rabid partisans or empty quacks.
¶ William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
“Robert Gould Shaw: Oration upon the Unveiling of the Shaw Monument” (31 May 1897)
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.
¶ Oscar Ameringer (1870-1943) German-American political activist, Socialist organizer, author, politician The American Guardian
Another point of disagreement is not factual but involves the ethical/moral principle […] sometimes referred to as the “politics of moral witness.” Generally associated with the religious left, secular leftists implicitly invoke it when they reject LEV on the grounds that “a lesser of two evils is still evil.” Leaving aside the obvious rejoinder that this is exactly the point of lesser evil voting — i.e. to do less evil, what needs to be challenged is the assumption that voting should be seen a form of individual self-expression rather than as an act to be judged on its likely consequences. […] The basic moral principle at stake is simple: not only must we take responsibility for our actions, but the consequences of our actions for others are a far more important consideration than feeling good about ourselves.
¶ Noam Chomsky (b. 1928) American linguist and activist
“An Eight Point Brief for LEV (Lesser Evil Voting)” (15 Jun 2016) [with John Halle]
I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. And whenever their weakness is exposed, the people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure. I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation. Nor do most people — all the people who believe advertisements, and think in catchwords and spread rumours. The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.
¶ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer and scholar [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Equality,” The Spectator (27 Aug 1943)
Let us not be afraid to help each other — let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and Senators and Congressmen and Government officials but the voters of this country.
¶ Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1933-1945)
Speech, Marietta, Ohio (8 Jul 1938)
Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have the right to vote. … Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes. … No law that we now have on the books … can insure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it. … There is no Constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States’ rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.
¶ Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Congress (15 Mar 1965)
It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
¶ James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) American novelist
“On the Disadvantages of Democracy,” The American Democrat (1838)
The test of a democracy is not the magnificence of buildings or the speed of automobiles or the efficiency of air transportation, but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people.
¶ Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
“Try Democracy,” The Home Magazine, Vol. 11, # 4 (Apr 1935)
It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques — techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American Way of Life.
¶ Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1965) American politician (US Senator, Maine)
“Declaration of Conscience,” Congressional Record, vol. 96, 81st Congress, 2d. sess. (1 Jun 1950)
Political strategies and tactics are not jealous lovers. You don’t have to be monogamous. Direct Action will not feel betrayed if you also vote from time to time — you can be poly in your tactics. And I am. Of course I vote! If you’re a woman, or a person of color, or a person who doesn’t own property, or even a white male who doesn’t belong to the nobility, centuries of struggle and many deaths have bought you the right to vote. I vote to keep faith with peasant rebels and suffragist hunger strikers and civil rights workers braving the lynch mobs of the South, if for no other reason. But there is another reason — because who we vote for has an enormous impact on real peoples’ lives.
¶ Starhawk (b. 1951) American writer, activist, feminist theologian [b. Miriam Simos]
“Pre-Election Day Thoughts,” blog post (7 Nov 2016)
Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. And it would be wrong to expect a general remedy from them alone. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.
¶ Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
“New Year’s Address to the Nation” (1 Jan 1990)
There has been a certain cynical genius to what some of these folks have done in Washington. What they’ve realized is, if we don’t get anything done, then people are going to get cynical about government and its possibilities of doing good for everybody. And since they don’t believe in government, that’s a pretty good thing. And the more cynical people get, the less they vote. And if turnout is low and people don’t vote, that pretty much benefits those who benefit from the status quo.
¶ Barack Obama (b. 1961) American politician, US President (2009-2017)
Speech, Purchase, New York (29 Aug 2014)
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
¶ Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer, diplomat, politician Democracy in America, Vol. 1, ch. 13 (1835)
Democracy postulates community of interest or loyal patriotism. When these are absent it cannot long exist.
¶ William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)
This is the affirmation on which democracy rests … [W]e can all be responsible … We become what we do. So does the world we live in, if enough of us do it — whether “it” be good or detestable. This is the burden of freedom: that it is all our fault or our credit.
¶ Herbert Agar (1897-1980) American journalist and historian
“The Perils of Democracy” (1966)
To give the victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
¶ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech fragment (c. 18 May 1858)
You have probably heard / seen all of these quotations, and may have even reforwarded them on to friends and family. If you do so in the future, please attribute them correctly.
This is the cover page of the program for +James Hill‘s graduation. As a quotations wonk, my brain klaxons started whooping as soon as I sat down and saw (a) a quote attributed to Albert Einstein that (b) really didn’t sound like Einstein.
A quick check at the Quote Investigator site (thank you, Internet!) confirmed that this is not something Einstein said. Rather, a gent named John A. Shedd gets credit for it.
Of course, it’s not proof-positive that Einstein never said it. But if someone can come up with a citation that’s not a Pinterest or Etsy page, I’d love to see it.
And all that said, it’s not a bad motto for a high school senior class, even if my friend Mary notes that ships at shore are not necessarily safe.
On the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Via WIST:
I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will be still rocky places of frustration and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. We may again with tear-drenched eyes have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.
— “Where Do We Go From Here?” Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1967)
A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
— “Beyond Vietnam,” speech, Clergy and Laity Concerned, Riverside Church, New York City (4 Apr 1967)
“Which of them shall be accounted greatest?” Let the churches stop trying to outstrip each other in the number of their adherents, the size of its sanctuary, the abundance of wealth. If we must compete let us compete to see which can move toward the greatest attainment of truth, the greatest service of the poor, and the greatest salvation of the soul and bodies of men. If the Church entered this kind of competition we can imagine what a better world this would be.
— “Cooperative Competition / Noble Competition,” sermon outline
We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: “Love your enemies , bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” Then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: “He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword.” And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations that failed to follow this command. We must follow nonviolence and love.
— “Give Us the Ballot,” Speech, Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, DC (1957)
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood; that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
— “I Have a Dream,” speech, Washington, DC (28 Aug 1963)
Segregation is a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our democratic health can be realized. The underlying philosophy of segregation is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of democracy and Christianity and all the sophisms of the logicians cannot make them lie down together.
— “Keep Moving from This Mountain,” Spelman College (10 Apr 1960)
We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.
— “Loving Your Enemies,” sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (17 Nov 1957)
This simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of his acts are not quite representative of all that he is. We see him in a new light. We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.
— “Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (25 Dec 1957)
As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I possess a billion dollars. As long as millions of people are inflicted with debilitating diseases and cannot expect to live more than thirty-five years, I can never be totally healthy even if I receive a perfect bill of health from Mayo Clinic. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
— “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution,” Commencement Speech, Morehouse College, Atlanta (2 Jun 1959)
It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.”
— “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” sermon, National Cathedral, Washington, DC (31 Mar 1968)
It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the glaring noisiness of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. It may be that our generation will have repent not only for the diabolical actions and vitriolic words of the children of darkness, but also for the crippling fears and tragic apathy of the children of light.
— “The Christian Way of Life in Human Relations,” speech, General Assembly of the National Council of Churches, St Louis (4 Dec 1957)
Any church that violates the “whosoever will, let him come” doctrine is a dead, cold church, and nothing but a little social club with a thin veneer of religiosity.
— “The Drum Major Instinct,” sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta (4 Feb 1968)
And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important — wonderful. If you want to be recognized — wonderful. If you want to be great — wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
— “The Drum Major Instinct,” sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta (4 Feb 1968)
The time is always right to do what’s right.
— “The Future of Integration” Finney Chapel, Oberlin College (22 Oct 1964)
It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law can’t make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important also.
— “The Other America,” speech, Stanford U. (1967)
A riot is the language of the unheard.
— “The Other America,” speech, Stanford U. (1967)
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
— “The Trumpet of Conscience,” Steeler Lecture (Nov 1967)
We must honestly admit that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged smallhearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity. The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages cutthroat competiotion and selfish ambition that inspire men to be more I-centered than thou-centered.
— “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” ch. 3 (1967)
The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well being. Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.
— Pilgrimage to Non-Violence (1960)
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.
— Strength to Love (1963)
The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.
— Strength to Love, 2.3 (1963)
Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.
— Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958)
True peace is not merely the absence of tension; It is the presence of justice.
— Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, ch. 2 (1958)
To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother’s keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right. It is a way of allowing his conscience to fall asleep. At this moment the oppressed fails to be his brother’s keeper. So acquiescence — while often the easier way — is not the moral way. It is the way of the coward.
— Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 11 “Three Ways of Meeting Oppression” (1958)
Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.
— The Trumpet of Conscience (1967)
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
— Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
We are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
— Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? ch. 3 (1967)
To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.
— Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 3.2 (1967)
If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation. All tyrants, past, present and future, are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations, no matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power and how malignant their evil.
— Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Address, New York City (12 Sep 1962)
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
We are challenged on every hand to work untiringly to achieve excellence in our lifework. Not all men are called to specialized or professional jobs; even fewer rise to the heights of genius in the arts and sciences; many are called to be laborers in factories, fields and streets. But no work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. If a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
— Sermon, New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago (9 Apr 1967)
It is all right to tell a man to lift himself up by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself up by his own bootstraps.
— Sermon, Passion Sunday, National Cathedral (31 Mar 1968)
With Selma and the voting rights bill one era of our struggle came to a close and a new era came into being. Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a coup of coffee?
— Speech to Striking Sanitation Workers, Memphis, Tennessee (18 Mar 1968)
Less than a century ago, the laborer had no rights, little or no respect, and led a life which was socially submerged and barren. He was hired and fired by economic despots whose power over him decreed his life or death. […] American industry organized misery into sweatshops and proclaimed the right of capital to act without restraints and without conscience. […] The inspiring answer to this intolerable and dehumanizing existence was economic organization through trade unions. The worker became determined not to wait for charitable impulses to grow in his employer. He constructed the means by which fairer sharing of the fruits of his toil had to be given to him or the wheels of industry, which he alone turned, would halt and wealth for no one would be available.
This revolution within industry was fought bitterly by those who blindly believed their right to uncontrolled profits was a law of the universe, and that without the maintenance of the old order, catastrophe faced the nation. But history is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it by raising the living standards of millions. Labor miraculously created a market for industry, and lifted the whole nation to undreamed-of levels of production. Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.
— Speech, AFL-CIO Convention, Miami (11 Dec 1961)
If a man hasn’t discovered something that he would die for, he isn’t fit to live.
Speech, Detroit (23 Jun 1963)
On some positions cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it is politic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is it is popular?” But conscience asks the question, “Is it right?” There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.
— Speech, Santa Rita, Calif., (14 Jan 1968)
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
— Sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church (4 Feb 1968)
So in my daily quotation binging, I posted this particular one from Hartley Coleridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley_Coleridge), the eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was writing about the practice by periodicals of the time of including little snippets or "excerpts" from famous works to fill out column space or break between major stories.
The impression one gets from the full quotation is that some people thought this was a Bad Thing, as it pulled material out of context and it discouraged people from seeking out and reading the originals ("Hey, I already read that cool quotation everyone knows from John Dryden — why read the whole thing?").
Hartley, on the other hand, was all for the practice, as something that would spread out "gems" to entice people who might not otherwise even think of reading that Dryden work — or, even better, provide at least some inspiration and enlightenment for people who simply didn't have access to Dryden.
The quotation — part of a footnote lamenting being unable to figure out where a given reference to the subject of his biographical essay came from, only that he had read the excerpt in a periodical — itself turned out to be highly popular and quotable. It was "excerpted" in a number of magazines and newspapers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The problem is, that, in keeping with the practice of the time, these excerpts didn't include a full citation, or even a title. And, in most cases, they just used the last name of the author.
The result? When you look up this quote (or the somewhat edited version that made all the excerpts), most sources, even from the era, attribute it to Hartley's father, the "famous" Coleridge. (That Hartley sank into alcoholic obscurity didn't help his cause.)
In sum, his sentiment about excerpts became itself an excerpt, but because of the shoddy practices of the day about excerpts it only attracted attention to his father's work.
Rand Paul seems to think that it's "pedantry" that a quote that "everyone know" came from someone famous isn't actually believe to have come from that person according to creditable scholars and archivists. It's enough that he (and, he believes, most folk) believe it's true for it to be, in fact, true.
Which is a very political way of looking at the truth, but not quite what I'd be looking for in a president.
I discovered (because of a link error I was tracking down) that one of the entries in my WIST quotations site is actually referenced in North Carolina's English Language Arts Common Core materials as a text exemplar for 9-10th grade students. It's a portion of a speech by Learned Hand back in 1941.
That's kind of cool. Hopefully when N Carolina rejiggers its ed standards to get rid of the Great Satan of Common Core (sigh), it will still be seen as something worthwhile for Tarheel teens.
Speech, “I Am an American Day,” New York (21 May 1941)
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and
In the case of the Burke quote, I'm pleased to note that in my WIST quotation database (http://wist.info/burke-edmund/819/) I properly note that this is an unverified quotation; in fact I do so in the context of that quote that may (or may not) be the inspiration for it.
It's for just this reason that I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find the source (online) for anything I put into WIST — either a link to the actual source text (unless it's widely known) or, at a minimum, a citation of the source. If I can't source it, I note it as "(Attributed)" as a warning sign. I also use "(Unverified)" in some cases where there has been some effort to track it down by experts. Where it's been definitively debunked (as best as such can be), it's "(Spurious)"
When I do look up and find a quotation in the source material I often provide a longer context (multiple sentences) for quotations — and, yes, the meaning is often subtly shaded (if not outright changed) by that context. At a minimum it frequently adds depth of meaning to what was said (if not an additional quotation or two).
Porter suggests some principles for users of quotations which are a good idea, in general, but probably more as ideals that one best simply realize where one's falling short:
Principle 1 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with an author but no source assume that it is probably bogus.
You certainly shouldn't assume it's authentic, or accurately quoted. That even applies on building inscriptions. Treat it as a jumping-off point to learn more, or simply as a cautionary note.
Unless it's a quote that's been distributed as an Internet graphic. In which case you should believe it implicitly, because It's a Pretty Picture on the Internet!
Principle 2 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with a full source assume that it is probably being misused, unless you find good evidence that the quoter has read it in the source.
As with the previous principle, I'd rather phrase this as a cautionary warning: don't assume that, even with a citation, that the original author meant the same thing in context.
That said, sometimes inspirational words are of value, even out of context. They just shouldn't be assume to reflect the actual sentiments of the original author.
Principle 3 (for quoters) Whenever you make a quotation, give the exact source.
Fair enough. I do my best. Sometimes it's not a completely appropriate forum to provide a full footnote (and, honestly, if I can get something down to a chapter number, I don't mind omitting the page number from the book).
Principle 4 (for quoters) Only quote from works that you have read.
This one I have to disagree with. It's certainly a good idea to quote from material you're familiar with, but hardly practical.
I might throw in a principle myself here: when we're talking about quoting the Bible, most of the above principles apply in spades.
I try to regard quotation collection (and use) as something of an academic pursuit, even as a hobby. There's both the truths (or interest) of the words themselves, but also of the framework they fall into (the people who said them, the era, the source material). Taking shortcuts in the latter tends to reduce the former to Hallmark greeting card babble. In which case, why bother?
In my copious free time I maintain a quotations blog. And each year I run the numbers, look at what's most popular, etc. And … here they are.
~~Admin – Doing the Numbers: 3/2014 | WIST
Another year, another “State of the WIST” post. I last ran this report a year ago. Let’s start with the raw count: So, yeah, nice, steady progress. Genera
My quotations for the day for my WIST quotation site, curated specifically for the day:
“If we meet someone who owes us a debt of gratitude, we remember the fact at once. How often we can meet someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude without thinking of it at all!”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist Elective Affinities, 2.4 “From Ottilie’s Journal” (1809) [tr. Hollingdale (1971)]
“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.”
— Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech-Austrian Jewish writer
“Investigations of a Dog” (1922)
“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter
Sermons and soda water the day after.”
— George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet Don Juan, 2.178 (1819-24)
“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.”
— Aesop (620?-560? BC) Legendary Greek storyteller
“Androcles,” Fables [tr. Jacobs (1894)]
“Did God set grapes a-growing, do you think,
And at the same time make it sin to drink?
Give thanks to Him who foreordained it thus–
Surely He loves to hear the glasses clink!”
— Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer Rubáiyát [tr. Le Gallienne (1897)]
Every whisper of infamy is industriously circulated, every hint of suspicion eagerly improved, and every failure of conduct joyfully published by those whose interest it is that the eye and voice of the public should be employed on any rather than themselves.
— Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic The Rambler, #76 (8 Dec 1750)
'Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant? Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh? We are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only by incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don’t know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness.'
— Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), “An Agnostic’s Apology,” Fortnightly Review (1876)
“An Agnostic’s Apology,” Fortnightly Review (1876)
Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most……
Quotes on an Election Day | ***Dave Does the Blog
Thoughts on Election Day: For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us — recording whether in our brief s…
"For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protections to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation. The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of the commonwealth; who insists that the creature of man’s making shall be the servant and not the master of the man who made it."
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
— Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), US President (1933-1945) Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1937)
"We are most likely to get angry and excited in our opposition to some idea when we ourselves are not quite certain of our own position, and are inwardly tempted to take the other side." — Thomas Mann
