Quotes
Quotes about Wit
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. . . .
Thy spirit, Independence, let me share! Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye, Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.
It is only because the world looks on his talent with such a frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important.
Answer them [critics] with silence and indifference. It works better, I assure you, than anger and argument. . . .
A lover without discretion is no lover at all.
I find that a man is as old as his work. If his work keeps him from moving forward, he will look forward with the work. - Wisdom for Our Time.
Everything without tells the individual that he is nothing; everything within persuades him that he is everything.
Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being, as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.
Strange, that some of us, with quick alternate vision, see beyond our infatuations, and even while we rave on the heights, behold the wide plain where our persistent self pauses and awaits us.
Spontaneously to God should turn the soul, Like the magnetic needle to the pole; But what were that intrinsic virtue worth, Suppose some fellow, with more zeal than knowledge, Fresh from St. Andrew's College, Should nail the conscious needle to the north?
Deserted, at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed; On the bare earth exposed he lies, With not a friend to close his eyes.
And all to leave what with his toil he won, To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son.
What's ill-got scarce to a third heir descends, Nor wrongful booty meets with prosperous ends. [Lat., De male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius paeres, Nec habet eventus sordida praeda bonos.]
Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer: Hast thou the knack? pamper it not with liking; But if thou want it, buy it not too deare Many affecting wit beyond their power, Have got to be a deare fool for an houre.
For 'tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar, and 't shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines And blow them at the moon.
We are completely in bed with the Israelis to the detriment of the wellbeing of the Palestinians spoken on the Diane Rehm Show.
An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay, And glides in modest innocence away.
He's armed without that's innocent within.
I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it--but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
Now musing o'er the changing scene Farmers behind the tavern screen Collect; with elbows idly press'd On hob, reclines the corner's guest, Reading the news to mark again The bankrupt lists or price of grain. Puffing the while his red-tipt pipe He dreams o'er troubles nearly ripe, Yet, winter's leisure to regale, Hopes better times, and sips his ale.
In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung.
The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day. Now spurs the lated traveller apace To gain the timely inn, and near approaches The subject of our watch.
Much madness is divinest sense To a discerning eye; Much sense the starkest madness. 'Tis the majority In this, as all, prevails Assent, and you are sane; Demur,--you're straightway dangerous, And handled with a chain.
He appears mad indeed but to a few, because the majority is infected with the same disease. [Lat., Nimirum insanus paucis videatur, eo quod Maxima pars hominum morbo jactatur eodem.]
There has never been any great genius without a spice of madness. [Lat., Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit.]
