QOTD category archive

Publilius Syrus:

I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.

Ambrose Bierce:

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

E. G. Marshall:

What man’s conscience is so clear he can pass an officer of the law without a slight fluttering in his heart?

Mark Twain:

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.

Niccolo Machievelli:

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

John Ruskin:

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

E. G. Marshall:

It is not only ostriches who bury their heads in the sand.

P. T. Barnum:

Money is in some respects life’s fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.

Richard Hofstadter:

Anti-intellectualism … has been present in some form and degree in most societies; in one it takes the form of the administering of hemlock, in another of town-and-gown riots, in another of censorship and regimentation, in still another of Congressional investigations.

Robert van Gulik, in the voice of Judge Dee:

He recognized in the manager that distressing type of witness, a man with no eyes and a fertile imagination.

van Gulik, Robert, The Chinese Gold Murders (New York: Harper Collins, 2004), p. 166.

F. Scott Fitzgerald:

Either you think — or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

Grover Cleveland:

The ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those aboard.

Kerry Greenwood, in the voice of Phryne Fisher:

Never press your luck unless you have to.

Greewood, Kerry, Dead Man’s Chest (Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, 2010), p. 223.

Benjamin Rush:

Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights.

Jacob Aagaard:

We always say, one day we will laugh at this. I always try to make sure that this one day is today . . . .

Hans Selye:

It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.

John Jay:

Distrust naturally creates distrust, and by nothing is good-will and kind conduct more speedily changed than by invidious jealousies and uncandid imputations, whether expressed or implied.

Kerry Greenwood:

The cat didn’t care what he was called as long as he was always called for dinner.

Greenwood, Kerry, Dead Man’s Chest (Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, 2010), p. 100.

Barry Commoner:

No action is without its side effects.

Marcus Garvey:

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.