Quotations Set 26

1. It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. - Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809)

2. Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December's tsunami, when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran after the ebbing surf, and all the 'dumb' animals made for the hills. - B.R. Myers, author (1963- )

3. The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause. A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business. - Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

4. You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. - Naguib Mahfouz, writer (1911- )

5. I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. 'The first thing,' I said, 'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.' - Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

6. There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher. - Henry van Dyke, poet (1852-1933)

7. To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues. - John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

8. There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. - G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936)

9. Humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research. - Marie Curie, scientist, Nobel laureate (1867-1934)

10. Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. - Robert King Merton, sociologist (1910-2003)

11. We must not be frightened nor cajoled into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. We must go on struggling to be human, though monsters of abstractions police and threaten us. - Robert Hayden, poet and educator (1913-1980)

12. As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more. - Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910)

13. To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine. - Henry Ward Beecher, preacher and writer (1813-1887)

14. Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit. - George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)

15. What's done to children, they will do to society. - Karl A. Menninger, psychiatrist (1893-1990)

16. Force without wisdom falls of its own weight. - Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BCE)

17. The music than can deepest reach, / And cure all ill, is cordial speech. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

18. Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. - Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet (1809-1892)

19. All restraints upon man's natural liberty, not necessary for the simple maintenance of justice, are of the nature of slavery, and differ from each other only in degree. - Lysander Spooner, lawyer (1808-1887)

20. It's impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time. - Mignon McLaughlin, author (1915-)

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