The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.
H. L. Mencken 1880 - 1956
1880 - 1956
Entire Collection
I think that tastes, odours, colours, and so on... reside only in the consciousness. Hence, if the living creature were removed, all these qualities would be wiped away and annihilated.
Galileo Galilei 1564 - 1642
1564 - 1642
The future is inevitable and precise, but it may not occur. God lurks in the gaps.
Jorge Luis Borges 1899 - 1986
1899 - 1986
Historically, all ethics undoubtedly begin with religion; but I do not now deal with historical questions. I do not ask who was the first lawgiver. I only maintain that it is we, and we alone, who are responsible for adopting or rejecting some suggested moral laws; it is we who must distinguish between the true prophets and the false prophets. All kinds of norms have been claimed to be God-given. If you accept 'Christian' ethics of equality and toleration and freedom of conscience only because of its claim to rest upon divine authority, then you build on a weak basis; for it has been only too often claimed that inequality is willed by God, and that we must not be tolerant with unbelievers. If, however, you accept the Christian ethics not because you are commanded to do so but because of your conviction that it is the right decision to take, then it is you who have decided.
Karl Popper 1902 - 1994
1902 - 1994
Is not the pleasure of feeling and exhibiting power over other beings, a principal part of the gratification of cruelty?
John Fletcher 1579 - 1625
1579 - 1625
‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - ...
1830 - 1886
Opening of poem commonly known as ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’
I can mention many moments that were unforgettable and revelatory. But the most single revelatory three minutes was the first time I put on scuba gear and dived on a coral reef. It's just the unbelievable fact that you can move in three dimensions.
David Attenborough born 1926
born 1926
Happy birthday to you.
Credited with writing the original lyrics to ‘Good Morning to All,’ while her sister Mildred J. Hill composed the melody. The tune later became popular as ‘Happy Birthday to You’.
Credited with writing the original lyrics to ‘Good Morning to All,’ while her sister Mildred J. Hill composed the melody. The tune later became popular as ‘Happy Birthday to You’.
The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
Albert Einstein 1879 - 1955
1879 - 1955
There is a humility about genuine love that is rather horrible in some ways.
George Orwell 1903 - 1950
1903 - 1950
Any colour—so long as it’s black.
Henry Ford 1863 - 1947
On the colour choice for the Model T Ford : Knowles, E. (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1863 - 1947
On the colour choice for the Model T Ford : Knowles, E. (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Perpetual war for perpetual peace.
Charles A. Beard 1874 - 1948
1874 - 1948
My life is spent in a perpetual alternation between two rhythms, the rhythm of attracting people for fear I may be lonely, and the rhythm of trying to get rid of them because I know that I am bored.
C. E. M. Joad 1891 - 1953
1891 - 1953
But once you have a belief system everything that comes in either gets ignored if it doesn't fit the belief system or get distorted enough so that it can fit into the belief system. You gotta be continually revising your map of the world.
Robert Anton Wilson 1932 - 2007
1932 - 2007
When you can't have what you want, it's time to start wanting what you have.
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
Cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.
Lord Chesterfield 1694 - 1773
1694 - 1773
The reason I don't worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I'll take those odds every fucking day.
Jon Stewart born 1962
born 1962
This thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.
1892 - 1979
Used in 'Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy' (2017). With thanks to C-Lee
Hard was their lodging, homely was their food; For all their luxury was doing good.
Samuel Garth 1661 - 1719
1661 - 1719
Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.
1903 - 1950
Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen eighty-four. London: Secker & Warburg.
In philosophy methods are unimportant; any method is legitimate if it leads to results capable of being rationally discussed. What matters is not methods or techniques but a sensitivity to problems, and a consuming passion for them; or, as the Greeks said, the gift of wonder.
Karl Popper 1902 - 1994
1902 - 1994
Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it.
1856 - 1950
As quoted in The World (15 November 1893)
For us, nothing is more important than to live as we choose. This is not because we value freedom more than people did in earlier times. It is because we have identified the good life with the chosen life.
John Gray born 1948
born 1948
Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic 'progress' leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.
J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 - 1973
1892 - 1973