SOME OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES
I often use quotes
when teaching my class. A great quote
can say, in a few words, what many are thinking and feeling. For me, and hopefully for my classes, they
provide a stimulus for thinking of important issues, or, sometimes, just
thinking. These are some of my
favorites.
(Warning:
Some of the quotations collected here may be considered to be controversial and
might be offensive to some. These are
direct quotes and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of myself or of the
faculty or administration of
Relating to government
and politics, in general:
Abraham Lincoln:
“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.”
H. L. Mencken:
"I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time."
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
"Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages."
"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right."
Will
"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."
“This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer.”
“The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”
"A fool and his money are soon elected."
"I do not belong to any organized political party: I'm a democrat."
"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
P. J. O'Rourke:
"The mystery of government is not how
Thomas Jefferson:
“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.”
“Information is the currency of democracy”
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
Winston Churchill:
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
Tacitus:
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
"Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians."
Bob Wells:
"For every action there is an equal and opposite government program."
Voltaire:
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
"An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination."
Mark Twain:
"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
"There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress."
Otto Von Bismark:
"Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied."
Eric Idle:
“A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate.”
Thomas Jefferson:
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
Benjamin Franklin:
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
William Pitt:
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
George Bernard Shaw:
“
Plato:
“The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
Mark Twain:
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either."
Benito Mussolini:
"The truth is that men are tired of liberty."
Daniel Webster:
“Knowledge is the only fountain both of love and the principles of human liberty.”
Robert Frost:
“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.
Reflections the Human Condition
“The more I learn the more I realize I don’t know.” -Albert Einstein
“For the times, they are a changin'.” -Bob Dylan
“What’s goin’ on?” -Marvin Gaye
“The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things.”
-G.K. Chesterton
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” -Albert Einstein
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” -John Wooden
“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.” -Socrates
“As we were saying yesterday…” -Luis Ponce de Leon, resuming his lectures after five years’ imprisonment by the Inquisition.
“I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.” -Albert Einstein
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” -Albert Einstein
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein
“It isn’t so astonishing, the number of things that I can remember, as the number of things I can remember that aren’t so.” -Mark Twain
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” -Alan Watts
"The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom." -H.L. Mencken
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man." -Mark Twain
"I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. That's bad enough for me." -Mark Twain
"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." -Mark Twain
“The trouble with most of us is that we know too much that ain’t so.” -Mark Twain
“My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.”
-Aldous Huxley
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster.” -Frederick Wilhelm Nietsche
“It is not best that we all should think alike, it is differences of opinion that make horse races.” -Mark Twain
“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.” -John Locke
“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world it's own shame.” -Oscar Wilde
Zen and Philosophy
“When the student is ready, the Master appears.” Buddhist Proverb
“If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”
-Dogen
“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” -Louis Armstrong
“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” -Pablo Picasso
“It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning.” -P.D. Ouspensky
“The more you know the less you understand.” -Tao Te Ching
“The Tao is near and people seek it far away.” Mencius
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.”
-Basho
“If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes at you.” -Nietzsche
“Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind them….there is nothing.” -Satre
“The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.” -Robert M. Pirsig
“No snowflake falls in an inappropriate place.” -Zen saying
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.” -Shunryu Suzuki
“If you seek, how is that different from pursuing sound and form? If you don’t seek, how are you different from earth, wood, or stone? You must seek without seeking.”
-Wu-men
“Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” -Tom Stoppard
“What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?” -Bertolt Brecht
“Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” -Chinese Proverb
Elder Ting asked Lin-chi, “Master, what is the great meaning of Buddha’s teachings?”
Lin-chi came down from his seat, slapped Ting and pushed him away. Ting was stunned and stood motionless. A monk nearby said, “Ting, why do you not bow?” At that moment Ting attained great enlightenment.
Zen Koan
“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.” -Tao Te Ching
“Who has no faults? To err and yet be able to correct it is the best of all.” -Yuan-wu
“Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.” -D. T. Suzuki
Politicians That Somehow Live Up To All We Expect Of Them
"Outside of the killings,
-Marion Barry, former
"Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too." -Richard Nixon
“Do you know why God created woman? Because sheep can’t type.” -
“I would have made a good pope.” -Richard Nixon
"I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law." -David Dinkins, former New York City Mayor
“Democracy used to be a good thing, but now it has gotten into the wrong hands.”
-Former Senator Jesse Helms
“A zebra cannot change its spots.” -Al Gore
“The press says that the public has a right to know everything. That’s a lot of garbage.” -CIA spokesman George Lauder
“I wanna tell you, ladies and
gentlemen, that there’s not enough troops in the army
to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger
race into our theaters and swimming pools, into our homes and into our
churches.” -former Senator Strom Thurmond, 1948
Dan Quayle (in a
league all by himself):
"Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts."
"We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world."
"We have a firm commitment to NATO,
we are a 'part' of NATO. We have a firm commitment to
"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."
"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
"It is wonderful to be here in the great state of
"I was recently on a tour of
"I love
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
“Desert Storm was a stirring victory for the forces of aggression and lawlessness.”
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
“A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.”
Baseball – The Greatest of Games
“The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love.” -Bryant Gumbel
"Baseball is religion without the mischief." -Thomas Boswell
"There have been only two geniuses in the world: Willie
Mays and Willie Shakespeare."
-Tallulah Bankhead, Actress
“Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand.” -Wes Westrum
"You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you." -Roy Campanella
“You're only young once, but you can be immature forever.” -Larry Andersen relief pitcher
"Nothing flatters me more than to have it assumed that I could write prose-unless it be to have it assumed that I once pitched a baseball with distinction." - Robert Frost
“We're supposed to be perfect our first day on the job and then show constant improvement.” -Ed Vargo, former major league baseball umpire
“Any baseball is beautiful. No other small package comes as
close to the ideal in design and utility. It is a perfect object for a man's
hand. Pick it up and it instantly suggests its purpose: it is meant to be
thrown a considerable distance-thrown hard and with precision. Its feel and
heft are the beginning of the sport's critical dimensions; if it were a
fraction of an inch larger or smaller, a few centigrams heavier or lighter, the
game of baseball would be utterly different. Hold a baseball in your hand ...
Feel the ball, turn it over in your hand; hold it across the seam or the other
way, with the seam just to the side of your middle finger. Speculation stirs.
You want to get outdoors and throw this spare and sensual object to somebody
or, at the very least, watch somebody else throw it. The game has begun.”
--Roger Angell in Five Seasons
Yogi Berra, The Master:
"It ain't over till it's over."
"This is like deja vu all over again."
"You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six."
"I couldn't tell if the streaker was a man or a woman because it had a bag on it's head."
"You can observe a lot just by watchin'."
"In baseball, you don't know nothin'."
"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical"
"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."
"I want to thank all those who made this night necessary."
"I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early."
"You got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."
"Slump ? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin."
"It's pretty far, but it doesn't seem like it."
“How can you think and hit at the same time?”
And in the End
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” -Ursula K. Le Guin
“Life’s uncertain. Eat dessert first.” -Amy’s Ice Cream