“For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.”
– Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Category: Quote
Impediments
“The lesson is that you never know in life whether something is going to work out to your advantage, even if it seems to be a terrible impediment.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Legal Times, Justice Ginsburg Remembers Her First Steps in the Law, November 13, 2007
Snowflake
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
– Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, More Unkempt Thoughts (1964)
Accept the Rules
I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
~ Robert A Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
Ideas
How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?
~ Robert A Heinlein, Life-Line (1939)
Those people
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
~ Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992)
You too Brutus?
You too, Brutus, my son?
Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi?
– Julius Caesar
Defend me
“Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.”
Garantissez-moi de mes amis, écrivait Gourville proscrit et fugitif, je saurai me défendre de mes ennemis.
— Gabriel Sénac de Meilhan, Considérations sur l’esprit et les moeurs (1788): “De L’Amitié.”
Sénac de Meilhan was quoting Jean Hérault, sieur de Gourville (1625 – 1703).
Think
“Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.”
~ Doris Lessing
Mark Twain
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~ Mark Twain