On exactitude:
Le moyen infaillible de rajeunir une citation est de la faire exacte. Emile Faguet (1847-1916)
On transience:
Alles Vergaengliche ist nur ein Gleichnis. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
On advocacy:
Bring vor, was wahr ist; schreib so, dass es klar ist. Und verficht's bis es mit dir gar ist! Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906)
On reason:
El sueno de la razon produce monstruos. Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)
On fortitude:
I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory. Harold Pinter (1930-2008)
On purpose:
Live modestly and do serious things. Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994)
On perseverance:
I do not enter into that notion of varying ones plans to keep the Publick in good humour... I imagine myself driving a nail. I have driven it some way -- by persevering with this nail I may drive it home. John Constable (1776-1837)
On provisionality:
For the best principles, excepting divine, and mathematical, are but hypotheses; within the circle of which, we may indeed conclude many things, with security from error: but yet the greatest certainty, advanced from supposal, is still but hypothetical. So that we may affirm, that things are thus and thus, according to the principles we have espoused: but we strangely forget ourselves, when we plead a necessity of their being so in nature, and an impossibility of their being otherwise. Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680)
On cautious reasoning:
The "Origin" provided us with the working hypothesis we sought. Moreover, it did the immense service of freeing us for ever from the dilemma -- refuse to accept the creation hypothesis, and what have you to propose that can be accepted by any cautious reasoner? In 1857 I had no answer ready, and I do not think that anyone else had. A year later we reproached ourselves with dullness for being perplexed with such an inquiry. My reflection, when I first made myself master of the central idea of the "Origin" was, "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!" Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
On exerimental philosopy:
I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses. For whatever is not deduc'd from the phenomena, is to be called an hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy. Isaac Newton (1642--1727)
On skepticism:
I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
On equivocation:
Three reasons have been given for attacking Iraq. One is to get rid of weapons of mass destruction; the second is to destroy the link with al-Qaida; the third is to get rid of a bad regime. It depends which day of the week you talk to them, or perhaps to whom you talk, which one is emphasised. My personal opinion is that none of these three matter really. The decision to get rid of the regime was made a long time ago; it is nothing to do with al-Qaida. It is part of a policy of pursuing US dominance. Joseph Rotblat (1908-2005)
On character:
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
On race:
an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action Muhammad ibn Abdullah (circa 570-632 CE)
On responsibility:
The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority. Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)
On patriotism:
Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries, and to keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of man" -- with his mouth. Mark Twain (1835-1910)
On education:
If you work hard and diligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot. And that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole purpose of education. Harold Macmillan (1894-1986), quoting his tutor in classics
On political rights:
Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are, rather, forced on parliaments from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security... Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people... We compel respect from others when we know how to defend our dignity as human beings. This is not only true in private life, it has always been the same in political life as well. Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958)
On the wealth of nations:
All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. Adam Smith (1723-1790)
On justice:
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Desmond Mpilo Tutu (b. 1931)
On democracy:
I have hinted that what people are afraid of in democracy is less the thing itself than what they conceive to be its necessary adjuncts and consequences. It is supposed to reduce all mankind to a dead level of mediocrity in character and culture, to vulgarize men's conceptions of life, and therefore their code of morals, manners, and conduct - to endanger the rights of property and possession. But I believe that the real gravamen of the charges lies in the habit it has of making itself generally disagreeable by asking the Powers that Be at the most inconvenient moment whether they are the powers that ought to be. If the powers that be are in a condition to give a satisfactory answer to this inevitable question, they need feel in no way discomfited by it. James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)
On independence:
If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased. Katherine Hepburn (1907-2003)
On humanity:
What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult to each other? Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880)
On intellectual property:
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
On mathematics:
The science of numbers is at the root of all the sciences, the foundation of wisdom, the source of knowledge and the pillar of meaning. From the summary "al-Risalat al-Jami'a" of the encyclopedia "Rasa'il ikhwan as-safa' wa khillan al-wafa" by the Brethren of Purity, circa 1000 CE.Gallery:
