“Ah, this life! If you do something good, someone else is sure to think it bad; if you are kind to one person, you’re sure to harm another.” August Strindberg, 1901, “A Dream Play.”
“In 1790, in the interest of humanity, Guillotin invented the expediting machine which solves all the problems to which capital punishment gives rise.” Honoré de Balzac, 1838-1847, “A Harlot High and Low.”
“Oh, he’s a wondrous talker, and has the power
To tell you nothing hour after hour:
If, by mistake, he ever came to the point,
The shock would put his jawbone out of joint.”
Molière, 1666, “The Misanthrope,” translation by Richard Wilbur.
“For the last three days he screamed incessantly. It was unendurable. I cannot understand how I bore it; you could hear him three rooms off. Oh, what I have suffered!” Leo Tolstoy, 1886, “The Death of Ivan Ilych.”
“Oh! So you bought books, did you? You will never make a good business man. A man who buys books isn’t fit to print them.” Honoré de Balzac, 1837-1843, “Lost Illusions.”
“It drags you down, this life. You’re surrounded by crackpots, nothing but crackpots, you live with them for two, three years and, little by little, without noticing it, you turn into a crackpot yourself.” Anton Chekhov, 1898, “Uncle Vanya.”
“I am presently under the influence of hashish, gin, bad poetry, love, morphine and hunger.” 1935 Edna St. Vincent Millay letter, published 1952, “Letters of Edna St Vincent Millay.”
“Keeps busy! Doing what? Reading novels, evil books, books against religion where they make fun of priests by quoting Voltaire.” Gustave Flaubert, 1856, “Madame Bovary.”
“I came to tell you that I hate you instinctively, that it seems to me I have always known you, and always hated you!” Alexandre Dumas, 1844, “The Count of Monte Cristo.”
” ‘That one? Yes, she’s a good dog, gets what she’s after,’ answered Ilágin indifferently, of the red-spotted bitch Erzá, for which, a year before, he had given a neighbor three families of house serfs.” Leo Tolstoy, 1867, “War and Peace.”
“It was not laziness if he was a rich man. Only the poor were lazy. Just as only the poor were ignorant. A rich man who didn’t know anything was spoiled or independent.” John Steinbeck, 1952, “East of Eden.”
“Then it’s no different now.” “No different.” “There must be some difference.” “Only in a single man alone–only in one man alone. There’s the only power–one man alone. Can’t depend on anything else.” John Steinbeck, 1961, “The Winter of Our Discontent.”
“The secret is to cause every caste to fear its superiors and be contemptuous of its inferiors.” James Jones, 1951, “From Here to Eternity.”
“Reactionaries! Traitors to the principles of the permanent revolution!” Aldous Huxley, 1962, “Island.”
“It is very unhappy, but too late to be helped, the discovery we have made, that we exist. That discovery is called the Fall of Man. Ever afterwards, we suspect our instruments.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844, “Experience.”
“And for my part I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man’s moral senses—the very easiest to be deadened when wakened: and in some never wakened at all. We grieve at being found out, and at the idea of shame or punishment; but the mere sense of wrong makes very few people unhappy in Vanity Fair.” William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848, “Vanity Fair.”
“It is a very common error of some unscrupulously infidel-minded, selfish, unprincipled, or downright knavish men, to suppose that believing men, or benevolent-hearted men, or good men, do not know enough to be unscrupulously selfish, do not know enough to be unscrupulous knaves.” Herman Melville, 1852, “Pierre; or, The Ambiguities.”
“You are so accustomed to listen to flatterers, that my frankness will seem to you intolerable.” 1890 translation, “Labor, According to the Bible, by the peasant Bondareff.”
“We do not know where death awaits us, so let us await for it everywhere.” Michel de Montaigne, 1580, “Essays.”
“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” Book of Ecclesiastes.
“For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Book of Matthew.
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” Book of John.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Book of Romans.
Confucius, “The Analects.”
“The Master said: ‘One does not worry about the fact that other people do not appreciate one. One worries about not appreciating other people.”
“The Master said: ‘The gentleman has universal sympathies and is not partisan. The small man is partisan and does not have universal sympathies.”
“The Master said: ‘It is humaneness which is the attraction of a neighborhood. If from choice one does not dwell in humaneness, how does one obtain wisdom?”
“The Master said: ‘Only one who is humane is able to like other people and dislike other people.”
“The Master said: ‘In his attitude to the world the gentleman has no antagonisms and no favoritisms. What is right he sides with.”
“The Master said: ‘I am fortunate. If I have faults, other people are certain to be aware of them.”
“The Master said: ‘I have never come across anyone who admires virtue as much as he admires sexual attraction.”
“The Master said: ‘Regard loyalty and good faith as your main concern. Do not make friends of those who are no up to your own standard. If you commit a fault, do not shrink from correcting it.”
“What I call a great minister serves his ruler in accordance with the Way, and when it is impossible to do so he resigns.”
“The Master said: ‘If it comes to assassinating their father or ruler, they would surely not obey.”
“Why must one read books before one can be considered to have learnt.’ The Master said: ‘This is why I hate those who have persuasive tongues.”
“Yuan Si asked about shame. ‘The Master said: Whether the Way prevails in the state or not, to be concerned only with one’s salary is shameful.”
“The Master said: ‘Anyone who possesses virtue is bound to possess eloquence, but anyone who possesses eloquence does not necessarily possess virtue.”
“The Master said: ‘If a man does not anticipate deception and does not reckon on bad faith, but on the other hand is aware in good time when they occur, he is a man of quality, isn’t he?”
“The Master said: ‘Gentlemen are proud but not quarrelsome. They are sociable but do not form parties.”
“The Master said: ‘Gentlemen do not promote someone because of what he says, and do not reject what is said because of who said it.”
“Zigong asked: ‘Is there a single word such that one could practice it throughout one’s life?’ The Master said: “Reciprocity perhaps? Do not inflict on others what you yourself would not want wish done to you.”
“Credere, Obbedire, Combattere.”
“Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.”
“I alone can fix this.”