Quotations Set 10

1. Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." - H.L. Mencken

2. The most important political office is that of private citizen. - Louis Brandeis, lawyer, judge, and writer (1856-1941)

3. What is history but a fable agreed upon? - Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

4. The reputation of power IS power. - Thomas Hobbes, English political philosopher (1588-1679)

5. Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods. - Neil Postman, professor and author (1931- )

6. History repeats itself because nobody listens. - Anonymous

7. To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman. - George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher (1863-1952)

8. Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. - Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (1924-1998)

9. Any man who has the brains to think and the nerve to act for the benefit of the people of the country is considered a radical by those who are content with stagnation and willing to endure disaster. - William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (1863-1951)

10. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. - Hanlon's Razor

11. Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams, cartoonist (1957- )

12. Those who say they give the public what it wants begin by underestimating public taste and end by debauching it. - T.S. Eliot, American-Anglo poet and critic (1888-1965)

13. Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament. - George Santayana, American philosopher (1863-1952)

14. Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. - Franklin P. Jones, businessman (1887-1929)

15. The man who never tells an unpalatable truth 'at the wrong time' (the right time has yet to be discovered) is the man whose success in life is fairly well assured. - Agnes Repplier, American essayist (1858-1950)

16. Scratch a pessimist, and you find often a defender of privilege. - Lord Beveridge, British economist (1879-1963)

17. If power corrupts, being out of power corrupts absolutely. - Douglass Cater, American author and educator

18. It isn't what they say about you, it's what they whisper. - Errol Flynn, Australian actor (1909-1959)

19. We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is disappearing. - R.D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (1927-1989)

20. It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know - and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything. - Joyce Cary, English author (1888-1957)

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