Collection of Quotations

Injustice

2008-03-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller as a favour.
Jane Welsh Carlyle, 19th-Century Scottish Poet

"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first - verdict afterwards."
From Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

We have accumulated a wealth of historical experience which confirms our belief that the scales of American justice are out of balance.
Angela Yvonne Davis, American Civil Rights Activist and Educator

Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
Cicero, 1st-Century B.C. Roman Statesman, Orator, and Writer

National injustice is the surest road to national downfall.
William Evarts, 19th-Century American Lawyer

Justice delayed is justice denied.
William E. Gladstone, 19th-Century British Statesman

Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?
Lillian Hellman, American Dramatist

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American Clergyman and Civil Rights Leader

A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.
Seneca, 1st-Century B.C. Roman Statesman and Philosopher

One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.
Ida B. Wells, American Journalist

Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.
Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General

That which is not just is not law.
William Lloyd Garrison, American Abolitionist

If it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine [government].
Henry David Thoreau, American Writer

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Youth

2007-11-19T20:12:00.002-08:00

I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance if allotted length.
Helen Keller

The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age.
Lucille Ball

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Oscar Wilde

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
Franz Kafka

Wrong

2007-11-19T20:12:00.001-08:00

Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
Malcolm X

Worth

2007-11-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
Lord Chesterfield

Work

2007-11-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.
Charles Lamb

My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.
Helen Keller

The more one works, the more willing one is to work.
Lord Chesterfield

Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (In Life of Oscar Wilde, H. Pearson)
Oscar Wilde

Work is the greatest thing in the world, so we should always save some of it for tomorrow.
Don Herold

Words

2007-11-19T20:09:00.001-08:00

Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
Robert Benchley

If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it.
Calvin Coolidge

Oh! don't use big words. They mean so little. (An Ideal Husband, Third Act)
Oscar Wilde

The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
Napoleon

The more you say, the less people remember.
Francois Fenelon

Women

2007-11-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

That woman speaks eighteen languages and can't say "No" in any of them.
Dorothy Parker

All women are good - good for nothing, or good for something.
Miguel De Cervantes

Faithful women are all alike. They think only of their fidelity and not of their husbands.
Jean Giraudoux

I'm not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blonde.
Dolly Parton

In politics, if you want anything said ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.
Margaret Thatcher

I think the key is for women not to set any limits.
Martina Navratilova

My name is Raquel Welch. I am here for Visual Effects. And I have two of them. [presenting Best Visual Effects Oscar]
Raquel Welch

Women have a passion for mathematics. They divide their age in half, double the price of their clothes, and always add at least five years to the age of their best friend.
Marcel Achard

Women should be obscene and not heard.
Groucho Marx

Women will never be as successful as men because they have no wives to advise them.
Dick Van Dyke

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.
Groucho Marx

...my dear boy, no woman is a genius. They are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals. (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Oscar Wilde

A woman who cannot make her mistakes charming, is only a female. (Lord Arthur Savile's Crime)
Oscar Wilde

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.
Oscar Wilde

A woman begins by resisting a man's advances, and ends by blocking his retreat.
Oscar Wilde

The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analyzed, women… merely adored. (An Ideal Husband)
Oscar Wilde

Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years. (The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 3)
Oscar Wilde

When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Oscar Wilde

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Oscar Wilde

Wit

2007-11-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
Somerset Maugham

The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.
Oscar Levant

Wit ought to be glorious treat like caviar. Never spread it about like marmalade.
Noel Coward

Wisdom

2007-11-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
George Orwell

The brighter you are, the more you have to learn.
Don Herold

The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about others things.
Bertrand Russell

To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Benjamin Disraeli

Wisdom comes with winters.
Oscar Wilde

Without experience one gains no wisdom.
Chinese Proverb

Whore

2007-11-19T20:02:00.002-08:00

You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think. (When asked to use the word "horticulture" correctly in a sentence)
Dorothy Parker

Welfare

2007-11-19T20:02:00.001-08:00

The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.
Helen Keller

Weight

2007-11-19T20:01:00.000-08:00

Do I look heavyish to you? I feel heavyish. Put a note on my desk in the morning, "Think thin." (to his secretary in North by Northwest).
Cary Grant

Thank you for calling the Weight Loss Hotline. If you'd like to lose a half pound right now, press one 18,000 times.
Randy Glasbergen

Warehouse

2007-11-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

One of the best warehouses I ever saw was the Vatican in Rome.
Arnold Wesker

War

2007-11-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

As long as war is regarded as wicked it will always have its fascinations. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
Oscar Wilde

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
Bertrand Russell

Walking

2007-11-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is.
Ellen DeGeneres

Vote

2007-11-19T19:51:00.004-08:00

Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.
Robert Byrne

Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.
Frank Dane

We'd all like to vote for the best man but he's never a candidate.
Kin Hubbard

Vision

2007-11-19T19:51:00.003-08:00

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
Helen Keller

Virtues

2007-11-19T19:51:00.001-08:00

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
Bertrand Russell

Vice Presidents

2007-11-19T19:50:00.002-08:00

We expect the Salvadorean officials to work towards the extermination of human rights.
Dan Quayle

Vice

2007-11-19T19:50:00.001-08:00

He hadn't a single redeeming vice.
Oscar Wilde

Vain

2007-11-19T19:49:00.002-08:00

To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself.
Sir Max Beerbohm

Vague

2007-11-19T19:49:00.001-08:00

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.
Bertrand Russell

Undertaker

2007-11-19T19:46:00.001-08:00

It is the overtakers that keep the undertakers busy.
William Pitts

Understanding

2007-11-19T19:43:00.000-08:00

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.
Groucho Marx

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
Helen Keller

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it is just possible that you haven't grasped the situation.
Jean Kerr

The motto should not be;

Forgive one another;

rather,

Understand one another.

Emma Goldman

Ugly

2007-11-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

Bessie, you're ugly. And tomorrow morning I will be sober but you will still be ugly. (When accused by Labour Parliamentarian Bessie Braddock of being drunk).
Oscar Wilde

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
Groucho Marx

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly. ('The Picture of Dorian Gray' 1891)
Oscar Wilde

Last week I stated that this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister and now wish to withdraw that statement.
Mark Twain

Tyranny

2007-11-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
Bertrand Russell

Truth

2007-11-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Albert Einstein

Get your facts first, and then you can distort 'em as much as you please.
Mark Twain

I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true.
Dorothy Parker

I offer my opponents a bargain; if they will stop telling falsehoods about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
Adlai Stevenson

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Oscar Wilde

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Oscar Wilde

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill

The greater the truth the greater the libel.
Lord Ellenborough

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. (The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895, Act I)
Oscar Wilde

Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Albert Einstein

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
Oscar Wilde

Truth is the stongest bond that exsits between two people. if you lie or break a promise then you have broken that bond, which only time can heal.
Tosha Vecchio

Trust

2007-11-19T19:38:00.003-08:00

Just truth yourself, then you will know how to live.
Goethe

Troubles

2007-11-19T19:38:00.001-08:00

There is nothing so consoling as to find that one's neighbour's troubles are at least as great as one's own.
George Moore

Tribulations

2007-11-19T19:37:00.002-08:00

Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. (De Profundis)
Oscar Wilde

The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.
Helen Keller

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
Helen Keller

Trap

2007-11-19T19:37:00.001-08:00

Trapped, like a trap in a trap.
Dorothy Parker

Tombstone

2007-11-19T19:35:00.002-08:00

I told you I was ill. (Engraved on tombstone)
Spike Milligan

That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment. (But the One on the Right,' in New Yorker, 1929)
Dorothy Parker

This is on me. (suggested for her tombstone)
Dorothy Parker

Tolerance

2007-11-19T19:35:00.001-08:00

The highest result of education is tolerance.
Helen Keller

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
Helen Keller

Time

2007-11-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.
Charles Lamb

Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
Dale Carnegie

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
Rabindranath Tagore

The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.
Lord Chesterfield

Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.
Albert Einstein

Time is never wasted when you're wasted all the time.
Catherine Zandonella

We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.
Jeff Marder

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Groucho Marx

Thought

2007-11-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

I do not think thinking about a situation does much good. One knows by instinct what one can do.
A.C. Benson

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin - more even than death .... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
Bertrand Russell

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact they do so.
Bertrand Russell

My guess is that well over eighty percent of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought.
H.L. Mencken

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.
Helen Keller

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
Bertrand Russell

The world of politics is always twenty years behind the world of thought.
John Jay Chapman

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann

Whether you think you can or wherther you think you can't, you're right!
Henry Ford

Thesaurus

2007-11-19T19:31:00.000-08:00

What's another word for thesaurus?
Steven Wright

Theatre

2007-11-19T19:29:00.002-08:00

A play should give you something to think about. When I see a play and understand it the first time, then I know it can't be much good.
T.S. Eliot

Acting is not a profession for adults.
Laurence Olivier

Can you imagine being wonderfully overpaid for dressing up and playing games?
David Niven

He'll never write a good play again. (On hearing that Eugene O'Neill was giving up drinking.)
George Bernard Shaw

I adore not being me. I'm not very good at being me. That's why I adore acting so much.
Deborah Kerr

I grew a beard for Nero, in Quo Vadis, but MGM thought it didn't look real, so I had to wear a false one.
Peter Ustinov

I learned two things at RADA: first that I couldn't act; second that it didn't matter.
Wilfred Hyde White

If all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players, where do all the audiences come from?
Denis Norden

Nobody likes my acting except the public.
John Wayne

The most important thing in acting is honesty. Once you've learned to fake that, you're in.
Sam Goldwyn

The most precious thing in speech are the pauses.
Ralph Richardson

The scenery was beautiful, but the actors got in front of it.
Alexander Woollcott

There has been more complaints about our inaudible actors. Perhaps they do not wish to interrupt the conversation in the stalls and boxes. (5 Nov 1933)
Sunday Express

Was she a great actress? Yes, I think so. Of course women act all the time. It is easier to judge a man.
Iris Murdoch

Terror

2007-11-19T19:29:00.001-08:00

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
Oscar Wilde

Temptation

2007-11-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.
Oscar Wilde

I can resist everything except temptation.
Oscar Wilde

Sometimes it takes courage to give in to temptation.
Oscar Wilde

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Oscar Wilde

There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desireable.
Mark Twain

Temper

2007-11-19T02:57:00.001-08:00

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
Oscar Wilde

Television

2007-11-19T02:56:00.000-08:00

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
Groucho Marx

Teamwork

2007-11-19T02:55:00.000-08:00

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
Helen Keller

Teaching

2007-11-19T02:51:00.000-08:00

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.
Albert Einstein

Those who can do, those who can't teach.
George Bernard Shaw

Teacher

2007-11-19T02:50:00.004-08:00

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.
Bertrand Russell

Teach

2007-11-19T02:50:00.003-08:00

Those who can do, those who can't teach.
George Bernard Shaw

Tax

2007-11-19T02:50:00.001-08:00

In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin

Taste

2007-11-19T02:49:00.001-08:00

A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika.
Dorothy Parker

I have the simplest of tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
Oscar Wilde

Talent

2007-11-19T02:48:00.002-08:00

She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B. (speaking of Katharine Hepburn)
Dorothy Parker

Symptoms

2007-11-19T02:48:00.001-08:00

Symptoms are a way for your body to say, "Listen to me talk for a change."
Carl A. Hammerschlag

Sunshine

2007-11-19T02:47:00.001-08:00

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
Helen Keller

Suffering

2007-11-19T02:45:00.000-08:00

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.
Bertrand Russell

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Kathleen C. Thelsen

Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. (De Profundis)
Oscar Wilde

The man who suffers from a sense of sin is suffering from a particular kind of self-love. In all this vast universe the thing that appears to him of most importance is that he himself should be virtuous. It is a grave defect in certain forms of traditional religion that they have encouraged this particular kind of self-absorption. (The Conquest of Happiness)
Bertrand Russell

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. (Autobiography (1872 - 1970))
Bertrand Russell

Success

2007-11-15T00:22:00.002-08:00

Back of every achievement is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.
Brooks Hays

Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
Bertrand Russell

Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.
Groucho Marx

He was his own greatest invention.
John Osborne

If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut. (Observer, Jan. 15, 1950)
Albert Einstein

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.
Mark Twain

People who go to prison are not just criminals but, by definition, unsuccessful criminals.
The Times

Success is a poison that chould only be taken late in life and then only in small doses.
Anthony Trollope

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.
Oscar Wilde

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill

Success is the brand on the brow of the man who aimed too low.
John Masefield

Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.
Anthony Trollope

The worst use that can be made of success is to boost of it.
Arthur Helps

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein

When you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself.
Robert J. Lamont

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
Vernon Howard

Stupidity

2007-11-15T00:22:00.001-08:00

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein

There is no sin except stupidity.
Oscar Wilde

Stubborn

2007-11-15T00:21:00.002-08:00

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Douglas Adams

Strenght

2007-11-15T00:21:00.001-08:00

We all have enough strength to bear the misfortunes of others.
Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Statistics

2007-11-15T00:20:00.002-08:00

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans are suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.
Rita Mae Brown

Sports

2007-11-15T00:20:00.001-08:00

If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf.
Bob Hope

Speech

2007-11-15T00:19:00.000-08:00

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
Mark Twain

There is but one pleasure in life equal to that of being called on to make an after dinner speech, and that is not being called on to make one.
Charles Dudley Warner

Soul

2007-11-15T00:18:00.001-08:00

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. (The picture of Dorian Gray)
Oscar Wilde

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
Oscar Wilde

Solution

2007-11-15T00:17:00.000-08:00

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
Bertrand Russell

Society

2007-11-15T00:16:00.002-08:00

Do not speak ill of society, Algie. Only people who can't get in do that. (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Oscar Wilde

The brotherhood of man is not a mere poet's dream: it is a most depressing and humiliating reality.
Oscar Wilde

Socialism

2007-11-15T00:16:00.001-08:00

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.
Norman Mailer

Smoking

2007-11-15T00:14:00.000-08:00

A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?
Oscar Wilde

A woman is an occasional pleasure but a cigar is always a smoke.
Groucho Marx

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.
Mark Twain

I like my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.
Groucho Marx

I make it a rule never to smoke while I'm sleeping.
Mark Twain

I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine.
HL Mencken

I smoke ten to fifteen cigars a day. At my age I have to hold on to something.
George Burns

If I cannot smoke in heaven, then I shall not go.
Groucho Marx

I'm not really a heavy smoker any more. I only get through two lighters a day now.
Bill Hicks

Smile

2007-11-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.
W C Fields

There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all.
Anonymous

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. They are but trifles, to be sure but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
Anonymous

Sleep

2007-11-15T00:12:00.000-08:00

A young man asked me how I liked being a governor. I replied that I liked it. When I go home at night, I sleep like a baby : sleep for an hour and then wake up and cry for an hour.
Winfield Dunn, Governor of Tennessee

I have orders to be awakened at any time in the case of a national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.
Ronald Reagan

I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.
Ronald Reagan

If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late.
Henry Youngman

Slavery

2007-11-15T00:11:00.002-08:00

The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture, and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.
Oscar Wilde

Sincerity

2007-11-15T00:11:00.001-08:00

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Oscar Wilde

Sin

2007-11-15T00:10:00.000-08:00

Sin is geographical.
Bertrand Russell

Sin is the only real colour element left in modern life. (The picture of Dorian Gray)
Oscar Wilde

There is no sin except stupidity.
Oscar Wilde

When he followed the instincts which God had transmitted to him from his ancestry of beasts of prey, he called it sin and asked God to forgive him. (A Free Man's Worship 1903)
Bertrand Russell

Silence

2007-11-15T00:08:00.000-08:00

Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
Robert Benchley

Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.
Meister Eckhart

Simplicity

2007-11-15T00:02:00.001-08:00

I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Oscar Wilde

Sight

2007-11-15T00:01:00.001-08:00

Use the light that dwells within you to regain your natural clarty of sight.
Lao Tzu

Sharing

2007-11-14T23:58:00.002-08:00

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him, his own.
Benjamin Disraeli

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
George Eliot

Sex

2007-11-14T23:58:00.001-08:00

When the authorities warn you of the dangers of having sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.
Matt Groening

Serious

2007-11-14T23:57:00.002-08:00

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. (Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I)
Oscar Wilde

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
Oscar Wilde

Serenity

2007-11-14T23:57:00.001-08:00

Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.
Oscar Wilde

Separation

2007-11-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

Promise you won't forget me, because if I thought you would, I'd never leave.
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Senses

2007-11-14T23:55:00.002-08:00

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Oscar Wilde

Not the senses I have but what I do with them is my kingdom.
Helen Keller

Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.
Helen Keller

Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived.
Helen Keller

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller

Self-pity

2007-11-14T23:55:00.001-08:00

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.
Helen Keller

Selfish

2007-11-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Oscar Wilde

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Oscar Wilde

Secret

2007-11-14T23:53:00.002-08:00

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
Bertrand Russell

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
Groucho Marx

Season

2007-11-14T23:53:00.001-08:00

Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. (De Profundis)
Oscar Wilde

Scoundrel

2007-11-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

I've always thought respectable people scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face every morning for signs of my becoming a scoundrel.
Bertrand Russell

Science

2007-11-14T23:48:00.000-08:00

All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.
Bertrand Russell

But all who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things: That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than to be a slave. Many people desire these things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can be refuted by science: Mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy. (From the essay 'The Science to Save Us From Science')
Bertrand Russell

Change is scientific, progress is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.
Bertrand Russell

Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself.
Bertrand Russell

From now on every generation will be aware that it could be the last generation on earth.
Stuart Blanche

Gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.
Albert Einstein

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
Albert Einstein

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
Albert Einstein

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. (attributed)
Albert Einstein

It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.
Albert Einstein

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.
Bertrand Russell

Science is the record of dead religions.
Oscar Wilde

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.
Helen Keller

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
Bertrand Russell

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. ("Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium", 1941)
Albert Einstein

Surely if all the human race is obliterated the Creator will look rather foolish. But to whom?
George Lyttelton

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Oscar Wilde

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
Albert Einstein

The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking and thus we are being driven unarmed towards a catastrophe.
Albert Einstein

The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it - the speed of his acceptance.
E.B. White

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. (Telegram, 24 May 1946)
Albert Einstein

Through the release of atomic energy, our generation has brought into the world the most revolutionary force since prehistoric man's discovery of fire. This basic force of the universe cannot be fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalism.
Albert Einstein

When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.
Albert Einstein

Whereas in art nothing worth doing can be done without genius, in science even a very moderate capacity can contribute to a supreme achievement.
Bertrand Russell

Sceptics

2007-11-14T23:47:00.000-08:00

God is love, but get it in writing.
Gypsy Rose Lee

Scandal

2007-11-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. (Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act III)
Oscar Wilde

Satire

2007-11-13T23:59:00.002-08:00

When Kissinger can get the Nobel Peace Prize, what is there left for satire? (On Henry Kissinger)
Tom Lehrer

Salmon

2007-11-13T23:59:00.001-08:00

You piss me off you Salmon... You're too expensive in restaurants.
Eddie Izzard

Sailors

2007-11-13T23:58:00.002-08:00

Sailors ought never to go to church. They ought to go to hell, where it is much more comfortable.
HG Wells

Romance

2007-11-13T23:58:00.001-08:00

Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing nowadays.
Oscar Wilde

Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.
Oscar Wilde

Rogue

2007-11-13T23:57:00.003-08:00

Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue cleverer than another.
Oscar Wilde

Revolution

2007-11-13T23:57:00.001-08:00

Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering.
Tom Stoppard

Revenge

2007-11-13T23:56:00.000-08:00

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill- treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ’The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words he epitomized the history of the human race. (Education and the Social Order [London: Allen & Unwin, 1932])
Bertrand Russell

Restaurants

2007-11-13T23:55:00.003-08:00

You piss me off you Salmon... You're too expensive in restaurants.
Eddie Izzard

Respect

2007-11-13T23:55:00.001-08:00

This is the final test of a gentleman; his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.
William Lyon Phelps

Resolutions

2007-11-13T23:54:00.002-08:00

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Oscar Wilde

Resistance

2007-11-13T23:54:00.001-08:00

I can resist everything except temptation.
Oscar Wilde

Resignation

2007-11-13T23:53:00.001-08:00

I have all the Christian virtues – except resignation. (In resisting stepping down at the usual retirement age of 75)
Lord Alfred Denning

Reputation

2007-11-13T23:52:00.002-08:00

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.
Oscar Wilde

Repentance

2007-11-13T23:52:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'.
Charlie Brown

Religion (3)

2007-11-13T23:47:00.000-08:00

Sailors ought never to go to church. They ought to go to hell, where it is much more comfortable.
HG Wells

Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality.
Kahlil Gibran

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bertrand Russell

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'.
Charlie Brown

Thank God I'm an atheist.
Luis Buñuel

The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell. The lovely thin paper with a bit of matress stuffing in it, if you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted.
Brendan Behan

The good news is that Jesus is coming back. The bad news is that he's really pissed off.
Bob Hope

The highest praise of God consists in the denial of Him by the atheist, who finds creation so perfect that he can dispense with a creator.
Marcel Proust

The Lord will provide, dear, but you must give him some help.
Sir Hugh Casson

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.
George Burns

There seems to be a terrible misunderstanding on the part of a great many people to the effect that when you cease to believe you may cease to behave.
Louis Kronenberger

Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
Oscar Wilde

Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.
Helen Keller

What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.
Albert Einstein

When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.
Peter O'Toole

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?
Quentin Crisp

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.
Emo Philips

Why do born-again people so often make you wish they'd never been born the first time?
Katherine Whitehorn