text:
Talk:List of people by name

Complaint
I'm sorry but I have to complain about these name-lists again. I said this once over on wikipedia before as well.

When you list names alphabetically, the first column in the persons name needs to be the letter you are using for the alphabetization. If you sort by the last name, the last name must begin in the first column. If you sort by the first name, then the first name must begin in the first column.

Its not that the first column is really special. But the first column is the only column that lines up from row to row when variable-width fonts are used (such as the Times font used on the Wikimedia sites). The eye needs to be able to scan down the rows until it comes to the letter its looking for. It can't do this if the list is sorted by last name, which is allowed to float freely in the middle of each name in a staggered fashion.

With the sorted letters in the middle of the rows, visitors must read every single item in the list up to the one they are looking for (to find the start of the last name on that row). The list might as well had not even been alphabetized.

So my suggestion is this:

Use Last, First Middle by convention. Beleave it or not, this is the convention most english speakers are most familiar with. And what about non-english users? Simple: they wouldn't be reading an English-only site to begin with. In the future if the site becomes multilingual, each language is going to get its own list anyway, thus allowing each language to use its own convention. I imagine many oriental languages would sort a list by the given name as well, except for those languages the given name happens to come first anyways, thus making the order of the names a non-issue. Other languages might have other conventions.

Just my 2 cents. Robert Lee

 * Yes, you did complain over at Wikipedia. It appears you do not have a consensus to do it over there - no-one so far has agreed with the idea, and three people (including myself), have disagreed. I assume Cimon avaro (who implemented your idea in Wikiquote) did not see the discussion over there. Hopefully we do not need to rehash the same thing here: Wikiquote, the sister project of Wikipedia, should use the same format as all the other lists on Wikipedia - First Name Last Name. I think the change to this page should be reverted until it is agreed in Wikipedia to change (which is unlikely to happen).

 * See discussion at en:Talk:Poet - I have added my reasons for not agreeing to this format there. Nanobug 13:00, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * I am sorry if I don't apologize ;) In fact My view is that either we go with the current piped link system with surneme first on the shown text, or alternatively we alphabetize the list by firstname. That would work fine for me. But please let's not list stuff in different style we alphabetize it by. -- Cimon avaro 10:07, 8 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * That's all I'm saying too. If its first name first then it has to be sorted by first name. Its not a style issue, its a usability issue. I'm not trying to cause trouble here. I want the wikipedia to succeed as much as the rest of the group. But some of the design flaws which are held onto for historical reasons drive me crazy. List formats are one of them. Anywho... 216.188.224.220

 * I just read it. I'd forgotten which page that was on...it was posted a long time ago. :o) I also didn't know about a meta discussion but found one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(lists) (using google). I guess this is the one your meant. Don't know. That page has many other links to various talk pages where other people like me have suggested it but I won't list all of those discussions here. Several authoritive bodies have dictated that all alphabetized list of people should be in last, first syntax. See http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/numbers.htm for a basic grammer lesson. These lists are mentioned at the bottom. I'll address your questions here since "Poet" no longer contains any lists and this is a newer topic:

 * My suggestion of alphabetizing by first name was moot. I wouldn't have done it that way, but suggested the alternative anyway. But I agree that lists should be sorted by last name so won't discuss it furthor here.

 * I do not agree that most people have a problem finding a name when the list is sorted First Name Last Name: You don't see that it slows you down when your eye has to move not only vertically but also horizonaly to scan within each name?

 * What about non-English names like Mao Zedong: Kept as Mao Zedong. If Mao is his surname (family name). One of the reasons we sort by family name is so that related people will appear together in the list. Mao would be in the 'M' section of course; as he already is. If you see this done incorrectly on this particular list (for Lu Xun) fix it (as of the time of this writting it is listed correctly however, and based on the history it always was).

 * Are we going to list Arc, Joan of: No. Look at the list (she is in there). Arc is where she is from not her last name. She is known only as "Joan" and she is from a place called "Arc". So she would be listed in "J" as "Joan of Arc".

 * The whole concept of accidental links is broken here: I don't know what you are refering too.

 * We are talking about a lot of lists, hundreds in fact: I know and this shouldn't stop us. Many of the WikiProjects are MUCH more cumbersome. The section on scottish clans is going to take many months or years if only one person participates. This is something that can be done at our lessure however.

Sorry about this pages having been changes without a consensus. No harm was done and I think the page looks much better now. I certainly find it easier to use. 216.188.224.220

 * So even though they had a vote on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (lists) and 79% of people voted for First Name Surname and against Surname, First Name, you still insist that we should use it here? Since I assume you wish to accept the majority vote, I can only deduce that you feel that not enough people voted to be a representative sample of Wikipedians (it was 19). If that is the case, why don't we decide how many we feel is enough, raise the issue (by putting extra links to it in a few places) so more people will hear it and go to the page where the voting is taking place (i.e. the above link), make up their own minds, and vote? Then when we have the specified number, we can accept whatever the majority vote is. Does that sound reasonable? I assure you that even though I personally like First Name Surname better, I will fully support whatever the majority decision turns out to be. Nanobug 12:49, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * It seems as if no-one wants to talk about this anymore. OK, how about a compromise? How about we consider this page equivalent to the Lists of people by name on Wikipedia, which are the only lists in Wikipedia that are ordered Surname, First Name? So we keep it permanently in this format, but leave other pages that list people in First Name Surname format, as per Wikipedia (unless we agree to change them later)? If no-one has any objections to this, we will assume we have reached a consensus. (Not too bad - only took us 10 weeks.) Nanobug 18:17, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I believe the listing for "Ben Gurion" should probably be corrected to "David Ben-Gurion" —Kalki 12:53, 17 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Maybe I'm missing something, but could someone please tell me why there are a number of names on this list that link to what apparently are currently nonexistent pages? Is this not meant to be an AFTER-the-fact list. . . ? --- Michael K. Smith 22:22, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * These are cases where someone added names and never followed up. It is the place where I usually start a new page for a person, but I do not recommend adding names here unless you are going to create the page. I have not bothered to erase all the extra names, figuring that I or someone else could eventually get around to creating a page. There are usually loose links like these floating around for months on some other pages. ~ Kalki 22:34, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Looking over the list I realize I am guilty of at least one of the omissions: I created the Hillary Clinton link and never followed through, forgetting about it while being caught up in other things… I will try to attend to that within the next day or two. ~ Kalki 22:41, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Category:People
There's no People category yet, unlike most of the other stuff on the main page. However, I'm not sure how we should go about it; after all, one category for all isn't enough, so we'll need subpages. The most likely way would be to subcategorize by last names. So would Category:A_People or Category:People:A for people with last names that start with A work? If not, anyone have any suggestions? -- [[User talk:LGagnon|LGagnon]] 01:38, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * It seems that categories would make a much easier means of organization than this list by hand. -- Tetraminoe 07:03, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Characters
I found here Dan Hibiki but he is not a real person, but a videogame character. In my opinion it is not a good idea to merge them - real significant and famous people and characters. How about we remove tose characters from this list? I think we don't need to create a new list because we have now categories and for characters there is already Category:Fictional characters.
 * Deleted. Cheers! BD2412 T 00:02, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Creating new pages -- discussion and vote notice
Many people are having problems creating a new page. There has been some progress in this area (some FAQs posted with various tricks, help page failure allows starting a page with one click, etc.), but virtually no documentation regarding it. Input box is a new mediawiki feature intended to make article creation more streamlined, as well as helping create correctly boiler-plated articles. I have started a discussion, and a vote, at Help talk:Starting a new page, and I urge everyone interested to join it. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 19:47, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Alphabetic order
Parts of this list are not in alphabetic order (i.e. Ford, Gerald - Ford, Harrison - Forbes, Malcolm - Ford, Henry), so it's pretty hard to use and synchronize with lists from wikiquotes in other languages. Why dont you build up the list automatically using categories? If you do so, nothing is missing and all names appear in the correct sort order. --Thomas 21:55, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

Second letter categorization
For the letter "A" I have included jumps to the second letter categorization used in the headings. I think this shoudl be done for all the letters that have second letter heading categorization - but wanted to get feedback before I attempted that work. Trodel 19:58, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

 * I would strongly appreciate it if you revert it, since it does significantly damage the quality of the work -- it is quite unsightly. While some mechanism of second-letter-navigation might be useful, this is not it. Thanks ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 21:46, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Not sure what you think is unsightly - could you explain? I have reverted for now - I am not sold on the "Jump to:" wording. It just seems dumb to have the easy nav to jump to the A's or in my case the M's when I was looking up a person, and then have to scroll through names when there existed divisions of the name list already - but no way to get there quickly.

I would suggest keeping it simple and but maybe something like this would be more appropriate:
 * Ab-Ak Al-At Au B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

or
 * A B C D E F G H I J K L Ma-Mar Mas-May Mc-Mi Mo-Mu N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The bold suggest your current location in the list - the A's or M's - with the ability to navigate to a different letter easily - this could be in addition to (or a replacement of) the list at the end. After further thought I think adding this inside the second level heading with the current sublist indicated in bold without a link would work best:

Ab-Ak

 * Ab-Ak Al-At Au B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

...
 * Abagnale, Frank
 * Abbey, Edward
 * Abel, Reuben

Mas-May

 * A B C D E F G H I J K L Ma-Mar Mas-May Mc-Mi Mo-Mu N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

...
 * Maslow, Abraham
 * du Masset, Alfred
 * Mataca, Petero

End of example
Any comments Trodel 22:51, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

 * Thanks for reverting. I dislike "in-band" instructions: "Jump To" just rubs me the wrong way (think of what would happen if this got printed!). I also don't care that much for in-band TOC, for roughly the same way (although it is less annoying than instructions). Perhaps we can have a second-letter TOC right at the beginning? ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 22:56, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't think we should limit the utility of using wikiquote, i.e. not take advantage of HTML because it might someday be printed. an in-band TOC already exists at the end of every letter - this proposed change has more utility than what currently exists. However, I see no reason to continue the discussion. Trodel 07:50, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Long page.
105 kb, as it stands, and I still have well over 200 names to add from Bartlett's 1919 Index alone. Perhaps we should consider splitting this into three or four subpages? BD2412 T 17:34, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Good idea. I'll see to it.-- Poetlister  22:43, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

The trouble with the new format of the page is that you may need to change the start and end points from time to time.-- Poetlister 22:07, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Rarely. Hey, lets just try and find the quotable people with the first and last possible positions on those pages, make entries on them, add them to the list (and adjust the main page) and be done with it! BD2412 T 05:28, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Leaders are judged by the lives and actions of their followers
Can someone let me know who said this: Leaders are judged by the lives and actions of their followers? I'd really appreciate your help

title: Talk:List of people by name


text:
Art Blakey

Art Blakey (October 11 1919 – October 16 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.

Quotes

 * [On a live performance] If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes, take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball. So we want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing.
 * Statement on the album At the Jazz Corner of the World (Blue Note, 1959).

 * [S]o go on and play, and if you make a mistake, make it loud so you won't make it next time.
 * Statement on the album A Night in Tunisia.

Quotes about Art Blakey

 * If Art Blakey's old-fashioned, I'm white.
 * Miles Davis, in

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Art Blakey


text:
George E. P. Box

George Edward Pelham Box (October 18, 1919 – March 28, 2013) was a British mathematician and professor of statistics at the University of Wisconsin, and a pioneer in the areas of quality control,, design of experiments and. He was the son-in-law of Sir Ronald Fisher.

Quotes

 * Statistical criteria should (1) be sensitive to change in the specific factors tested, (2) be insensitive to changes, of a magnitude likely to occur in practice, in extraneous factors.
 * G.E.P Box (1955); cited in: JOC/EFR (2006) "George Edward Pelham Box" at history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk, Nov 2006.

 * We have a large reservoir of engineers (and scientists) with a vast background of engineering know how. They need to learn statistical methods that can tap into the knowledge. Statistics used as a catalyst to engineering creation will, I believe, always result in the fastest and most economical progress…
 * Statement of 1992, quoted in Introduction to Statistical Experimental Design — What is it? Why and Where is it Useful? (2002) Johan Trygg & Svante Wold

 * All models are wrong; some models are useful.
 * For instance in George E. P. Box, William Hunter and Stuart Hunter, Statistics for Experimenters, second edition, 2005, page 440. See "All models are wrong".

Science and Statistics (1976)

 * George E. P. Box (1976) Science and Statistics Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 71, No. 356. (Dec., 1976), pp. 791-799

 * One important idea is that science is a means whereby learning is achieved, not by mere theoretical speculation on the one hand, nor by the undirected accumulation of practical facts on the other, but rather by a motivated iteration between theory and practice.
 * p. 791

 * Since all models are wrong the scientist cannot obtain a "correct" one by excessive elaboration. On the contrary following William of Occam he should seek an economical description of natural phenomena. Just as the ability to devise simple but evocative models is the signature of the great scientist so overelaboration and overparameterization is often the mark of mediocrity.
 * p. 792

 * The researcher hoping to break new ground in the theory of experimental design should involve himself in the design of actual experiments. The investigator who hopes to revolutionize decision theory should observe and take part in the making of important decisions.
 * p. 792

 * For the theory-practice iteration to work, the scientist must be, as it were, mentally ambidextrous; fascinated equally on the one hand by possible meanings, theories, and tentative models to be induced from data and the practical reality of the real world, and on the other with the factual implications deducible from tentative theories, models and hypotheses.
 * p. 792

 * A man in daily muddy contact with field experiments could not be expected to have much faith in any direct assumption of independently distributed normal errors.
 * p. 795

 * The penalty for scientific irrelevance is, of course, that the statistician's work is ignored by the scientific community.
 * p. 798

Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces (1987)

 * Box, G. E. P., and Draper, N. R., (1987), Empirical Model Building and Response Surfaces, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.

 * An innovative discussion of building empirical models and the fitting of surfaces to data. Introduces the general philosophy of response surface methodology, and details least squares for response surface work, factorial designs at two levels, fitting second-order models, adequacy of estimation and the use of transformation, occurrence and elucidation of ridge systems, and more. Some results are presented for the first time. Includes real-life exercises, nearly all with solutions.
 * Introduction, book summary

 * A mechanistic model has the following advantages: 1. It contributes to our scientiﬁc understanding of the phenomenon under study. 2. It usually provides a better basis for extrapolation (at least to conditions worthy of further experimental investigation if not through the entire range of all input variables). 3. It tends to be parsimonious (i.e, frugal) in the use of parameters and to provide better estimates of the response
 * p. 13-14 as cited in: Andrew Odlyzko (2010) Social Networks and Mathematical Models Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 9(1): 26-28 (2010)

 * Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful.
 * p. 74

 * Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.
 * p. 424,

An Accidental Statistician, 2010

 * George E.P. Box (2010) "An Accidental Statistician". On stat.wisc.edu, 3 June 2010

 * I want to tell you how I got to be a statistician. I was, of course, born in England and in 1939... when war broke out in September of that year, although I was close to getting a degree in Chemistry, I abandoned that and joined the Army. They put me in the Engineers (and when I see a bridge I still catch myself calculating where I would put the charges to blow it up). Before I could actually do any of that I was moved to a highly secret experimental station in the south of England. At the time they were bombing London every night and our job was to help to find out what to do if, one night, they used poisonous gas. Some of England's best scientists were there. There were a lot of experiments with small animals, I was a lab assistant making biochemical determinations, my boss was a professor of physiology dressed up as a colonel, and I was dressed up as a staff sergeant. The results I was getting were very variable and I told my colonel that what we really needed was a statistician. He said "we can't get one, what do you know about it?" I said "Nothing, I once tried to read a book about it by someone called R. A. Fisher but I didn't understand it". He said "You've read the book so you better do it", so I said, "Yes sir"

About George E. P. Box

 * [Box's 1960 paper Fitting empirical data is] a mature exposition of an important branch of statistics, to which the author has made great contributions. One feature of particular interest is practical discussion of genuinely nonlinear fitting problems and their solution with the help of tact and a special, publicly available, IBM-704 program. Another is insightful comments on the role of prior distributions in statistics.
 * Leonard Jimmie Savage in 1960s; cited in: JOC/EFR (2006) "George Edward Pelham Box" at history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk, Nov 2006.

 * George Box is, in the field of the quality sciences, the consummate ‘Renaissance man’ who has made significant and enduring contributions to the profession of quality control and the allied arts and sciences... [His] contributions encompass considerable scope and have already had lasting effect.
 * Frank Caplan (1996), then-editor of Quality Engineering, cited at George E.P. Box: Accomplishments in statisticsas at asq.org, 2013.

title: George E. P. Box


text:
Reuben Abel

 Reuben Abel is writer and editor of the Humanistic Pragmatist. Abel authored Man is the Measure. Here he discusses many different angles of philosophy on many different, but connected topics.

Aside from writing, he was a professor emeritus of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. The school is located in Manhattan. He passed away at the age of 85. His obituary can be found here:Abel Obituary

Quotes

 * The continuum in which we live is not the kind of place in which middles can be unambiguously excluded.
 * Pragmatism and the Outlook of Modern Science (1966)

 * Philosophies, like old soldiers, do not die, they merely fade away.
 * Pragmatism and the Outlook of Modern Science (1966)

If the claims of a philosopher contradicts those of a scientist, one or the other is confused or mistaken; but only prejudice will decide in advance. “Man is the Measure” 1976

title: Reuben Abel


text:
Noah Webster

Noah Webster (1758-10-16 – 1843-04-28) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, Bible translator and spelling reformer.

Quotes

 * The American states have gone far in assisting the progress of truth; but they have stopped short of perfection. They ought to have given every honest citizen an equal right to enjoy his religion and an equal title to all civil emoluments, without obliging him to tell his religion. Every interference of the civil power in regulating opinion, is an impious attempt to take the business of the Deity out of his own hands; and every preference given to any religious denomination, is so far slavery and bigotry.
 * Sketches of American Policy. (1785) p.27

 * Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.
 * An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (1787), p. 32

 * There iz no alternativ. Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it wil proov that we are less under the influence of reezon than our ancestors.
 * Preface to A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings (1790)
 * This quote illustrates the reformed spelling advocated by Webster.

title: Noah Webster


text:
Lee Iacocca

Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca (October 15, 1924 – July 2, 2019) was an American automobile executive best known for the development of the Ford Mustang and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and for reviving the Chrysler as its CEO during the 1980s. He was president and CEO of Chrysler from 1978 and chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992. He was one of the few executives to preside over the operations of two of the Big Three automakers.

Quotes

 * We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic.
 * Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (2007), Scribner, ISBN 1416532471

 * We were on a joyride, on free energy almost. [...] It seems to me we need something like the Manhattan Project. We need some urgency saying, "Here's what we should be doing. We've got to get off fossil fuels."
 * "The Long View: Iacocca Says Detroit Is Living in the Past", Morning Edition, NPR, 26 April 2007

 * It pains me to see my old company, which has meant so much to America, on the ropes. But Chrysler has been in trouble before, and we got through it, and I believe they can do it again. [...] Let's face it, if your car breaks down, you're not going to take it to the White House to get fixed. But, if your company breaks down, you've got to go to the experts on the ground, not the bureaucrats.

 * Safety doesn’t sell.
 * In 1972.

title: Lee Iacocca


text:
Demosthenes

Demosthenes (Δημοσθένης) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens, generally considered the greatest of the Greek orators.

Quotes

 * ὥσπερ γὰρ οἰκίας, οἶμαι, καὶ πλοίου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν τοιούτων τὰ κάτωθεν ἰσχυρότατ᾽ εἶναι δεῖ, οὕτω καὶ τῶν πράξεων τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ὑποθέσεις ἀληθεῖς καὶ δικαίας εἶναι προσήκει
 * For a house, I take it, or a ship or anything of that sort must have its chief strength in its substructure; and so too in affairs of state the principles and the foundations must be truth and justice.
 * Olytnhiac II, 10

 * The easiest thing in the world is self-deceit; for every man believes what he wishes, though the reality is often different.
 * Third Olynthiac, section 19 (349 BC), as translated by Charles Rann Kennedy (1852)
 * Variants:
 * A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
 * As quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (1987) by Robert Andrews, p. 255
 * There is nothing easier than self-delusion. Since what man desires, is the first thing he believes.

 * Delivery, delivery, delivery.
 * Response when asked to name the three most important components of rhetoric, as quoted in Institutio Oratoria (c. 95) by Quintilian; also in Unspoken : A Rhetoric of Silence (2004) by Cheryl Glenn, p. 150

 * The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
 * As quoted in The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors (1853) by Everard Berkeley, p. 34

 * It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.
 * Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 455.

 * No man can tell what the future may bring forth, and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
 * Ad Leptinem 162, as quoted in Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1897) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 511

 * The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once.
 * As quoted in Dictionary of foreign phrases and classical quotations (1908) by Hugh Percy Jones, p. 140

 * Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.
 * Olynthiacs; Philippics (1930) as translated by James Herbert Vince, p. 11

 * Whatever shall be to the advantage of all, may that prevail!
 * Speech against Philip II of Macedon (351 BC), in Olynthiacs; Philippics (1930) as translated by James Herbert Vince, p. 99

 * You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.
 * As quoted in Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 1 (1940), p. 472

Quotes about Demosthenes

 * Of orators, if I must choose you any, it shall be Demosthenes, both for the argument he handles, and for that his eloquence is more proper to a statesman than Cicero's.
 * Francis Bacon, Advice to Fulke Greville on his studies, quoted in The Oxford Authors: Francis Bacon, ed. Brian Vickers (1996), p. 105

 * Do you remember that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, "How well he spoke" but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, they said, "Let us march."
 * Adlai Stevenson, introducing John F. Kennedy in 1960, as quoted in Adlai Stevenson and The World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1977) by John Bartlow Martin, p. 549

title: Demosthenes


text:
Pearl S. Buck

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (born Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker; Chinese: 赛珍珠; Pinyin: Sài Zhēnzhū; 26 June 1892 – 6 March 1973), primarily known as Pearl S. Buck, was a prolific American writer. In 1938, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Quotes

 * For the truly creative mind in any field is no more than this — a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create — to create — to create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of beauty and meaning his very breath is cut off from him. He must create. He must pour out creation. By some strange unknown pressing inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.
 * "The Creative Mind at Work," William Vaughn Moody Foundation Lecture at the University of Chicago (January 1935)

 * An intelligent, energetic, educated woman cannot be kept in four walls — even satin-lined, diamond-studded walls — without discovering sooner or later that they are still a prison cell.
 * "America's Medieval Women," Harper's Magazine (August 1938)

 * There will be no real content among American women unless they are made and kept more ignorant or unless they are given equal opportunity with men to use what they have been taught. And American men will not be really happy until their women are.
 * Harper’s Magazine (August 1938), p. 232

 * A man is educated and turned out to work. But a woman is educated — and turned out to grass.
 * Of Men and Women (1941), Ch. 4

 * Profound as race prejudice is against the Negro American, it is not practically as far-reaching as the prejudice against women. For stripping away the sentimentality which makes Mother’s Day and Best American Mother Contests, the truth is that women suffer all the effects of a minority.
 * Of Men and Women (1941), Ch. 8

 * Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.
 * Of Men and Women (1941), Ch. 8

 * It is a shameful sign of our arrogance that our history departments have almost no Chinese history in them, our literature courses almost no Chinese literature, our philosophy departments almost none of the great Chinese systems of philosophy. And our religious schools have been the most arrogant of all. This ignorant arrogant mind has become fixed in its patterns. It is the pattern which considers anything not American to be inferior — unless it be English.
 * "China and the Federal Union" an address at the Federal Union organization, New York City (April 1942)

 * Euthanasia is a long, smooth-sounding word, and it conceals its danger as long, smooth words do, but the danger is there, nevertheless.
 * The Child Who Never Grew (1950), Ch. 2

 * Because psychologists have been able to discover, exactly as in a slow-motion picture, the way the human creature acquires knowledge and habits, the normal child has been vastly helped by what the retarded have taught us.
 * The Child Who Never Grew (1950)

 * I love people. I love my family, my children … but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.
 * As quoted in The New York Post (26 April 1959)

 * All things are possible until they are proved impossible — and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.
 * A Bridge for Passing (1962)

 * One does not live half a life in Asia without return. When it would be I did not know, nor even where it would be, or to what cause. In our changing world nothing changes more than geography. The friendly country of China, the home of my childhood and youth, is for the time being forbidden country. I refuse to call it enemy country. The people in my memory are too kind and the land too beautiful.
 * A Bridge for Passing (1962)

 * What is a neglected child? He is a child not planned for, not wanted. Neglect begins, therefore, before he is born.
 * Children for Adoption (1964). Ch. 3

 * The secret of joy in work is contained in one word — excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
 * The Joy of Children (1966)

 * Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. They are relentless survivors. They are the oldest civilized people on earth. Their civilization passes through phases but its basic characteristics remain the same. They yield, they bend to the wind, but they never break.
 * China, Past and Present (1972) Ch. 1

 * Ah well, perhaps one has to be very old before one learns how to be amused rather than shocked.
 * China, Past and Present (1972) Ch. 6

 * There was an old abbot in one temple and he said something of which I think often and it was this, that when men destroy their old gods they will find new ones to take their place.
 * As quoted in The Quotable Woman (1978) by Elaine T Partnow, p. 226. "When men destroy their old gods they will find new ones to take their place" has sometimes been quoted as her original statement, though she states that she herself is quoting an abbot.

 * The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.
 * As quoted in Know Your Limits — Then Ignore Them (2000) by John Mason, p. 46

 * The young do not know enough to be prudent, and so they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.
 * As quoted in An Apple for the Teacher: Fundamentals for Instructional Computing (1983) by George H. Culp and Herbert N. Nickles, p. 190; also in Youth Quake: A Manifesto (2002) by Cousin Sam, p. 31

'''Perhaps this sense of unity is a source of power I find in these volumes. They speak to persons of any religion or of none. They speak for the human heart and the searching mind...'''
 * Shri Guru Granth Sahib is a source book, an expression of man's loneliness, his aspiration, his longings, his cry to God and his hunger for communication with that being. I have studied the scriptures of other great religions, but I do not find elsewhere the same power of appeal to the heart and mind as I feel here in these volumes. They are compact in spite of their length, and are a revelation of the vast reach of the human heart varying from the most noble concept of God to the recognition and indeed the insistence upon the practical needs of the human body. There is something strangely modern about these scriptures and this puzzled me until I learnt that they are in fact comparatively modern, compiled as late as the sixteenth century, when explorers were beginning to discover the globe upon which we all live as a single entity divided only by arbitrary lines of our own making.
 * As quoted in Dharma : The Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh Traditions of India (2017) by Veena R. Howard, p. 21

The Chinese Novel (1938)

 * Nobel lecture (12 December 1938)

 * I grew up believing that the novel has nothing to do with pure literature. So I was taught by scholars. The art of literature, so I was taught, is something devised by men of learning. Out of the brains of scholars came rules to control the rush of genius, that wild fountain which has its source in deepest life. Genius, great or less, is the spring, and art is the sculptured shape, classical or modern, into which the waters must be forced, if scholars and critics were to be served. But the people of China did not so serve. The waters of the genius of story gushed out as they would, however the natural rocks allowed and the trees persuaded, and only common people came and drank and found rest and pleasure. For the novel in China was the peculiar product of the common people. And it was solely their property.

 * The Chinese novel was written primarily to amuse the common people. And when I say amuse I do not mean only to make them laugh, though laughter is also one of the aims of the Chinese novel. I mean amusement in the sense of absorbing and occupying the whole attention of the mind. I mean enlightening that mind by pictures of life and what that life means.

 * Did one man write Shui Hu Chuan, or did it grow to its present shape, added to, rearranged, deepened and developed by many minds and many a hand, in different centuries? Who can now tell? They are dead. They lived in their day and wrote what in their day they saw and heard, but of themselves they have told nothing.

 * Strangely enough, there were certain scholars who envied the freedom of obscurity, and who, burdened with certain private sorrows which they dared not tell anyone, or who perhaps wanting only a holiday from the weariness of the sort of art they had themselves created, wrote novels too, under assumed and humble names. And when they did so they put aside pedantry and wrote as simply and naturally as any common novelist. For the novelist believed that he should not be conscious of techniques. He should write as his material demanded.

 * A good novelist, or so I have been taught in China, should be above all else tse ran, that is, natural, unaffected, and so flexible and variable as to be wholly at the command of the material that flows through him. His whole duty is only to sort life as it flows through him, and in the vast fragmentariness of time and space and event to discover essential and inherent order and rhythm and shape. We should never be able, merely by reading pages, to know who wrote them, for when the style of a novelist becomes fixed, that style becomes his prison. The Chinese novelists varied their writing to accompany like music their chosen themes.

 * These Chinese novels are not perfect according to Western standards. They are not always planned from beginning to end, nor are they compact, any more than life is planned or compact. They are often too long, too full of incident, too crowded with character, a medley of fact and fiction as to material, and a medley of romance and realism as to method, so that an impossible event of magic or dream may be described with such exact semblance of detail that one is compelled to belief against all reason

 * Out of this folk mind, turned into stories and crowded with thousands of years of life, grew, literally, the Chinese novel. For these novels changed as they grew. If, as I have said, there are no single names attached beyond question to the great novels of China, it is because no one hand wrote them. From beginning as a mere tale, a story grew through succeeding versions, into a structure built by many hands.

 * The people of China forged their own literature apart from letters. And today this is what lives, to be part of what is to come, and all the formal literature, which was called art, is dead. The plots of these novels are often incomplete, the love interest is often not brought to solution, heroines are often not beautiful and heroes often are not brave. Nor has the story always an end; sometimes it merely stops, in the way life does, in the middle of it when death is not expected. In this tradition of the novel have I been born and reared as a writer.

 * The instinct which creates the arts is not the same as that which produces art. The creative instinct is, in its final analysis and in its simplest terms, an enormous extra vitality, a super-energy, born inexplicably in an individual, a vitality great beyond all the needs of his own living — an energy which no single life can consume. This energy consumes itself then in creating more life, in the form of music, painting, writing, or whatever is its most natural medium of expression. Nor can the individual keep himself from this process, because only by its full function is he relieved of the burden of this extra and peculiar energy — an energy at once physical and mental, so that all his senses are more alert and more profound than another man's, and all his brain more sensitive and quickened to that which his senses reveal to him in such abundance that actuality overflows into imagination. It is a process proceeding from within. It is the heightened activity of every cell of his being, which sweeps not only himself, but all human life about him, or in him, in his dreams, into the circle of its activity.

 * The street is noisy and the men and women are not perfect in the technique of their expression as the statues are. They are ugly and imperfect, incomplete even as human beings, and where they come from and where they go cannot be known. But they are people and therefore infinitely to be preferred to those who stand upon the pedestals of art.

 * Story belongs to the people. They are sounder judges of it than anyone else, for their senses are unspoiled and their emotions are free.

What America Means to Me (1943)

 * Race prejudice is not only a shadow over the colored — it is a shadow over all of us, and the shadow is darkest over those who feel it least and allow its evil effects to go on. It is not healthy when a nation lives inside a nation, as colored Americans are living inside America. A nation cannot live confident of its tomorrow if its refugees are among its own citizens. For it is never the one who suffers injustice who is the injured one, but the one who is unjust. Slavery bred a race of idle and shiftless white men, and race prejudice continues the evil work. White people who insist on their superority because of the color of the skin they were born with- can there be so empty and false a superiority as this? Who is injured the most by that foolish assumption, the colored or the white? In his soul it s the white man. It is the wise white people who ought now to be angry because of race prejudice, for as surely as night follows day our country will fail in its democracy because of race prejudice unless we root it out. We cannot grow in strength and leadership for democracy so long as we carry deep in our being this fatal fault.
 * p. 8

 * None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
 * Ch. 4

 * Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.
 * Ch. 10

 * It may be that religion is dead, and if it is, we had better know it and set ourselves to try to discover other sources of moral strength before it is too late.

 * Questions at home and school should be decided in the light of the future. It is a process of toughening, but not the sort of false physical thing that we have called toughening. Our boys and girls ought to know that the bully type, the false "tough," has been the first to break down under the actual fire of battle. The quiet, the calm, the determined have made the best soldiers. Why? Obviously the bully is insecure in himself- he blusters to muster his own courage. Children ought to know that. They ought to be taught to retort to the bully, "You're a coward or you wouldn't make such a noise about being brave. The really brave man simply acts brave- he doesn't have to talk about it."
 * p. 151-152

 * I believe with all my heart that jimcrow is wicked and I know that it is a rotten core in our society. I know that we cannot say that we are a full democracy so long as jimcrow exists anywhere in our country. I will fight against it and refuse to countenance it in all was that I can, as long as I live. And yet I know that were all jimcrow laws to be abolished tomorrow, the war for the lberation of mankind would still not be won here. There would still be those not free, not equal.
 * p. 183

 * I don't know whether Abraham Lincoln knew exactly what he was doing when he freed the slaves. Perhaps he did it only as a war measure. The war, you remember, dragged along without any heart in it. Nobody seemed to want to fight. There was everything to fight for- the Union, the preservation of a country whole- but the idea of union, even of country, did not seem enough to make men want to fight... There were even plenty of people, accustomed to the small compact nations of Europe, who thought that perhaps this great expanse of America should not be one country, that it might be better if it were divided into nations instead of states. But others were determined that the continual bickering and quarreling between the little nations of Europe should not be repeated here and they were determined to keep the country whole and large, and among these was Abraham Lincoln.
 * p. 192

 * The greatest blow for freedom that was ever struck in the world's history, perhaps, was when Abraham Lincoln decided that the slaves of the South were to be free and he freed them. The South collapsed. The gentlemen who could spend their time fighting, sure of supplies from slave-tended lands, began to starve and go ragged. Their homes began to fall into ruin and their families to be hungry. Their morale was broken. The war was really won by the pen upon the paper which wrote these words, "are and henceforward shall be free."
 * p. 193

 * I suppose Abraham Lincoln knew that was what would happen. He was very wise in the ways of men. He knew how people think and feel. Doubtless he knew that deeper than anything else in the hearts of men everywhere is the wish for simple freedom- freedom without any promises even of protection, of food, of security- just freedom. He knew that those people, so long bond, would leave even comfortable sheltered places where masters were kind, if they could only be free.
 * p. 194

 * Had Japan been a tenth as wise as Abraham Lincoln, had Hitler been a hundredth part as sensible, we today, the United States and England, would not have a chance in this war. Had those two enemies of ours coveted the lands upon subject peoples dwell today and had they whispered the magic word freedom to those peoples, they might have set half the world against us in a moment. But they have lost because they attacked lands already free, and because they have enslaved peoples accustomed to freedom. By this one thing alone, if by no other, they are doomed. They have misread the hearts and minds of men. By their enslavement of the peoples whom they have made subject by force of arms, they have aroused against themselves a greater force than can be found in any army, in any weapon. It is this- the will of men everywhere to be free. Let us learn today from Abraham Lincoln, as we fight this war still so far from victory. He could not win that war until he lit the fire in the hearts of men and women enslaved. Nothing had been enough to make men rise up and shout aloud for victory until that moment. A few men like war and enjoy it as a game. But most men and all women hate war. They will not fight with their whole hearts unless they are set aflame. And the torch is always the same words. Whisper those words and men and women will shout them aloud and sing them as they march. The words are simple but they are the most potent in the universe- they are the spiritual dynamite of victory. The words? "All persons held as slaves... are and henceforward shall be free."
 * p. 195

This I Believe (1951)

 * Full text online Read as a This I Believe radio broadcast in 1951 (some remarks from this essay have sometimes been cited as being from 1939).

 * I enjoy life because I am endlessly interested in people and their growth. My interest leads me to widen my knowledge of people, and this in turn compels me to believe in the common goodness of mankind. I believe that the normal human heart is born good. That is, it’s born sensitive and feeling, eager to be approved and to approve, hungry for simple happiness and the chance to live. It neither wishes to be killed, nor to kill. If through circumstances, it is overcome by evil, it never becomes entirely evil. There remain in it elements of good, however recessive, which continue to hold the possibility of restoration.

 * I believe in human beings, but my faith is without sentimentality. I know that in environments of uncertainty, fear, and hunger, the human being is dwarfed and shaped without his being aware of it, just as the plant struggling under a stone does not know its own condition. Only when the stone is removed can it spring up freely into the light. But the power to spring up is inherent, and only death puts an end to it. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.

 * Like Confucius of old, I am absorbed in the wonder of earth, and the life upon it, and I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life. If there is no other life, than this one has been enough to make it worth being born, myself a human being. With so profound a faith in the human heart and its power to grow toward the light, I find here reason and cause enough for hope and confidence in the future of mankind.

 * The common sense of people will surely prove to them someday that mutual support and cooperation are only sensible for the security and happiness of all. Such faith keeps me continually ready and purposeful with energy to do what one person can towards shaping the environment in which the human being can grow with freedom.

 * In the midst of possible world war, of wholesale destruction, I find my only question this: are there enough people now who believe? Is there time enough left for the wise to act? It is a contest between ignorance and death, or wisdom and life. My faith in humanity stands firm.

My Several Worlds (1954)

 * My Several Worlds : A Personal Record (1954)

 * I became mentally bifocal, and so I learned early to understand that there is no such condition in human affairs as absolute truth. There is only truth as people see it, and truth, even in fact, may be kaleidoscopic in its variety. The damage such perception did to me I have felt ever since, although damage may be too dark a word, for it merely meant that I could never belong entirely to one side of any question. To be a Communist would be absurd to me, as absurd as to be entirely anything and equally impossible. I straddled the globe too young.
 * p. 52

 * Every event has had its cause, and nothing, not the least wind that blows, is accident or causeless. To understand what happens now one must find the cause, which may be very long ago in its beginning, but is surely there, and therefore a knowledge of history as detailed as possible is essential if we are to comprehend the present and be prepared for the future. Fate, Mr. Kung taught me, is not the blind superstition or helplessness that waits stupidly for what may happen. Fate is unalterable only in the sense that given a cause, a certain result must follow, but no cause is inevitable in itself, and man can shape his world if he does not resign himself to ignorance.
 * p. 52 - 53

 * In any war a victory means another war, and yet another, until some day inevitably the tides turn, and the victor is the vanquished, and the circle reverses itself, but remains nevertheless a circle. … I came home more torn in heart than any child should be, for I saw that each side was right as well as wrong, and I yearned over both in a helpless fashion, unable to see how, history being what it was, anything now could be done.
 * p. 61

 * Chinese are wise in comprehending without many words what is inevitable and inescapable and therefore only to be borne.
 * p. 192

 * The wild winds had been sown and the whirlwinds were gathering... and I was reaping what I had not sown... None of us could escape the history of the centuries before any of us had been born, and with which we had nothing to do. We had not, I think, ever committed even a mild unkindness against a Chinese, and certainly we had devoted ourselves to justice for them, we had taken sides against our own race again and again for their sakes, sensitive always to injustices which others had committed and were still committing. But nothing mattered today, neither the kindness nor the cruelty. We were in hiding for our lives because we were white.
 * p. 208

 * There is something to be said for losing one’s possessions, after nothing can be done about it. I had loved my Nanking home and the little treasures it had contained, the lovely garden I had made, my life with friends and students. Well, that was over. I had nothing at all now except the old clothes I stood in. I should have felt sad, and I was quite shocked to realize that I did not feel sad at all. On the contrary, I had a lively sense of adventure merely at being alive and free, even of possessions. No one expected anything of me. I had no obligations, no duties, no tasks. I was nothing but a refugee, someone totally different from the busy young woman I had been. I did not even care that the manuscript of my novel was lost. Since everything else was gone, why not that?
 * p. 218

 * I am an inveterate homemaker, it is at once my pleasure, my recreation, and my handicap. Were I a man, my books would have been written in leisure, protected by a wife and a secretary and various household officials. As it is, being a woman, my work has had to be done between bouts of homemaking.
 * p. 239

 * Chinese were born, it seemed to me, with an accumulated wisdom, a natural sophistication, an intelligent naiveté, and unless they were transplanted too young, these qualities ripened in them. To talk even with a farmer and his family, none of whom could read or write, was often to hear a philosophy at once sane and humorous. If ever I am homesick for China, now that I am home in my own country, it is when I discover here no philosophy. Our people have opinions and creeds and prejudices and ideas but as yet no philosophy.
 * p. 244

 * Yet somehow our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members.
 * p. 337

 * We are not empire builders. How important this fact is no American who has not lived in Asia can appreciate. It goes against our conscience, which is a very tender part of the American spirit. Therefore we are learning how to hold our allies, not by force of arms and government, but by mutual benefit and friendship. So much is already clear... I am therefore hopeful. In spite of dismaying contradictions in individuals in our national scene, I feel the controlling spirit or our people, generous, decent, and sane. 'In this mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.
 * p. 407, This has sometimes been quoted as "In a mood of faith and hope..."

To My Daughters, With Love (1967)

 * Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame.
 * "First Meeting"

 * The bitterest creature under heaven is the wife who discovers that her husband’s bravery is only bravado, that his strength is only a uniform, that his power is but a gun in the hands of a fool.
 * "Love and Marriage"

 * The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.
 * "To You on Your First Birthday"

 * To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.
 * "To the Young"

 * You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.
 * "My Neighbor's Son"

 * Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.

 * Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.

 * Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.
 * pp. 137–138

Misattributed

 * We should so provide for old age that it may have no urgent wants of this world to absorb it from meditation on the next.
 * Edward Bulwer-Lytton

 * A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent, without giving any sound.
 * John Calvin, quoted in The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations (2001) by Martin H. Manser, p. 56

 * You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come into contact with a new idea.
 * John Nuveen, as quoted in The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham (2005) by Marshall Shelley, p. 303

Quotes about Buck

 * Buck's efforts on behalf of equality included tireless support for women's rights. She promoted modern birth control and called her friend Margaret Sanger "one of the most courageous women of our times," a person whose name "would go down in history" as a modern crusader for justice. In the 1930s and 1940s, Buck also spoke out repeatedly in support of an Equal Rights Amendment for women, at a time when opposition to it included the majority of organized women's groups.
 * Peter Conn in "Rediscovering Pearl Buck" from Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography (1996)

 * How does a woman of this magnitude and range slip away from our national consciousness? She has not exactly disappeared. Rather, as one reader of an earlier draft of this book shrewdly put it, she has been "hidden in plain sight," obscured beneath a caricature that belies her complexity and her achievement. … In the years after World War II, Buck's literary reputation shrunk to the vanishing point. She stood on the wrong side of virtually every line drawn by those who constructed the lists of required reading in the 1950s and 1960s.
 * Peter Conn in "Rediscovering Pearl Buck" from Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography (1996)

 * She was a spokesman on all sorts of issues: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the adoptability of disadvantaged children, the future of China, especially the battle for women's rights, for education. If you followed in her trail, as I did, you were put in touch with almost every major movement in the United States — intellectual, social, and political.
 * James Michener, interview with Donn Rogosin (March 1991).

 * The most influential Westerner to write about China since thirteenth-century Marco Polo.
 * "Why Doesn't Pearl Buck Get Respect?" by James Thomson in The Philadelphia Inquirer (24 July 1992), p. A15

title: Pearl S. Buck


text:
Arthur Ashe

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (10 July 1943 – 6 February 1993) was a prominent African American tennis player and an AIDS activist.

Quotes

 * True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
 * As quoted in Worth Repeating : More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes (2003) by Bob Kelly, p. 169

Days of Grace: A Memoir (1994)

 * I wish more of us could understand that our increasing isolation, no matter how much it seems to express pride and self-affirmation, is not the answer to our problems. Rather, the answer is a revival of our ancient commitment to God, who rules over all the peoples of the world and exalts no one over any other, and to the moral and spiritual values which were once legendary in America. We must reach out our hand in friendship both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy. We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and our young, our women as well as our men. I see nothing inconsistent between being proud of oneself and one's ancestors and, at the same time, seeing oneself first and foremost a member of the commonwealth of all races and creeds.
 * p. 186

 * I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now. Don’t be angry with me if I am not there in person, alive and well, when you need me. I would like nothing more than to be with you always. Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone. When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you. Camera, wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don’t know if you can get up again, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on.
 * Message to his daughter Camera, p. 341

title: Arthur Ashe