text:
Beyond Good and Evil

Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Beyond Good and Evil] (1886) is a major 19th century philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Prelude

 * Es scheint, dass alle grossen Dinge, um der Menschheit sich mit ewigen Forderungen in das Herz einzuschreiben, erst als ungeheure und furchteinflössende Fratzen über die Erde hinwandeln müssen
 * It seems that in order to inscribe themselves upon the heart of humanity with everlasting claims, all great things have first to wander about the earth as enormous and awe-inspiring caricatures

 * Christenthum ist Platonismus für's „Volk“
 * Christianity is Platonism for the "people"

Aphorism 4

 * The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is here, perhaps, that our new language sounds most strangely. The question is, how far an opinion is life-furthering, life- preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing, and we are fundamentally inclined to maintain that the falsest opinions ...
 * Translator: Helen Zimmern

Aphorism 6

 * Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy has been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir; also that the moral (or immoral) intentions in every philosophy constituted the real germ of life from which the whole plant has grown.
 * 1966 edition, Translator: Walter Kaufmann

Aphorism 9

 * So you want to live 'according to nature?' Oh, you noble Stoics, what a fraud is in this phrase! Imagine something like nature, profligate without measure, indifferent without measure, without purpose and regard, without mercy and justice, fertile and barren and uncertain at the same time, think of indifference itself as power — how could you live according to this indifference? Living — isn't that wanting specifically to be something other than this nature? Isn't living assessing, preferring, being unfair, being limited, wanting to be different? And assuming your imperative to 'live according to nature' basically amounts to 'living according to life' — well how could you not? Why make a principle out of what you yourselves are and must be?

Aphorism 11

 * It seems to me that today attempts are made everywhere to divert attention from the actual influence Kant exerted on German philosophy, and especially to ignore prudently the value he set upon himself. Kant was first and foremost proud of his table of categories; with that in his hand he said: "This is the most difficult thing that could ever be undertaken on behalf of metaphysics".
 * 1966 edition, Translator: Walter Kaufmann

Aphorism 13

 * Physiologists should think twice before positioning the drive for self-preservation as the cardinal drive of an organic being. Above all, a living thing wants to discharge its strength — life itself is will to power -: self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent consequences of this.

Aphorism 26

 * Niemand lügt soviel als der Entrüstete.
 * No one is such a liar as the indignant man.

Aphorism 29

 * Independence is an issue that concerns very few people: — it is a prerogative of the strong. And even when somebody has every right to be independent, if he attempts such a thing without having to do so, he proves that he is probably not only strong, but brave to the point of madness. He enters a labyrinth, he multiplies by a thousand the dangers already inherent in the very act of living, not the least of which is the fact that no one with eyes will see how and where he gets lost and lonely and is torn limb from limb by some cave-Minotaur of conscience. And assuming a man like this is destroyed, it is an event so far from human comprehension that people do not feel it or feel for him: — and he cannot go back again! He cannot go back to their pity again!
 * Walter Kaufmann's translation: Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it even with the best right but without inner constraint proves that he is probably not only strong, but also daring to the point of recklessness. He enters into a labyrinth, he multiplies a thousandfold the dangers which life brings with it in any case, not the least of which is that no one can see how and where he loses his way, becomes lonely, and is torn piecemeal by some minotaur of conscience. Supposing one like that comes to grief, this happens so far from the comprehension of men that they neither feel it nor sympathize. And he cannot go back any longer. Nor can he go back to the pity of men.

Aphorism 33

 * "There is no other way: the feelings of devotion, self-sacrifice for one’s neighbor, the whole morality of self-denial must be questioned mercilessly and taken to court- no less than the aesthetics of “contemplation devoid of all interest” which is used today as a seductive hose for emasculation of art, to give it a good conscience"
 * trns: Walter Kauffmann

Aphorism 35

 * 'Truth' and the search for truth are no trivial matter; and if a person goes about searching in too human a fashion, I'll bet he won't find anything !

 * O Voltaire! O humaneness! O nonsense! There is something about "truth", about the search for truth; and when a human being is too human about it- "il ne cherche le vrai que pour faire le bien"- I bet he finds nothing.
 * Translated by Walter Kauffmann

Aphorism 42

 * Will they be new friends of "truth," these coming philosophers? Very probably, for all philosophers hitherto have loved their truths. But assuredly they will not be dogmatists. It must be contrary to their pride, and also contrary to their taste, that their truth should still be truth for every one--that which has hitherto been the secret wish and ultimate purpose of all dogmatic efforts. "My opinion is MY opinion:another person has not easily a right to it"--such a philosopher of the future will say, perhaps. One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to agree with many people. "Good" is no longer good when one's neighbour takes it into his mouth. And how could there be a "common good"! The expression contradicts itself; that which can be common is always of small value. In the end things must be as they are and have always been--the great things remain for the great, the abysses for the profound, the delicacies and thrills for the refined, and, to sum up shortly, everything rare for the rare.

Aphorism 54

 * People used to believe in 'the soul' as they believed in grammar and the grammatical subject: people said that 'I' was a condition and 'think' was a predicate and conditioned — thinking is an activity and a subject must be thought of as its cause. Now, with admirable tenacity and cunning, people are wondering whether they can get out of this net — wondering whether the reverse might be true: that 'think' is the condition and 'I' is conditioned, in which case 'I' would be a synthesis that only gets produced through thought itself.

Aphorism 55

 * There is a great ladder of religious cruelty, and, of its many rungs, three are the most important. People used to make human sacrifices to their god, perhaps even sacrificing those they loved the best ... Then, during the moral epoch of humanity, people sacrificed the strongest instincts they had, their 'nature,' to their god; the joy of this particular festival shines in the cruel eyes of the ascetic, that enthusiastic piece of 'anti-nature.' Finally: what was left to be sacrificed? In the end, didn't people have to sacrifice all comfort and hope, everything holy or healing, any faith in hidden harmony or a future filled with justice and bliss? Didn't people have to sacrifice God himself and worship rocks, stupidity, gravity, fate, or nothingness out of sheer cruelty to themselves? To sacrifice God for nothingness — that paradoxical mystery of the final cruelty has been reserved for the race that is now approaching: by now we all know something about this.

Aphorism 67

 * Die Liebe zu Einem ist eine Barbarei: denn sie wird auf Unkosten aller Übrigen ausgeübt. Auch die Liebe zu Gott.
 * Translation: Love of one is a piece of barbarism: for it is practised at the expense of all others. Love of God likewise.
 * Source: Projekt Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Penguin Classics edition, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, ISBN 014044923X

Aphorism 68

 * "Das habe ich getan" sagt mein Gedächtnis. Das kann ich nicht getan haben — sagt mein Stolz und bleibt unerbittlich. Endlich — gibt das Gedächtnis nach.
 * "I have done that", says my memory. "I cannot have done that" — says my pride, and remains adamant. At last — memory yields.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 69

 * One has only seen little of life, if one hasn't also seen the hand that mercifully — kills.

Aphorism 71
Helen Zimmern translation from German into English
 * To stage as astronomer, So long as thou feelest the stars as an ‘above thee’, Thou lackest the eye of the discerning one

Aphorism 74

 * Ein Mensch mit Genie ist unausstehlich, wenn er nicht mindestens noch zweierlei dazu besitzt: Dankbarkeit und Reinlichkeit.
 * Translation: A man with genius is unendurable if he does not also possess at least two things: gratitude and cleanliness.
 * Note: An earlier translation had "purity" in place of "cleanliness".
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 78

 * Anyone who despises himself will still respect himself as a despiser.

Aphorism 85

 * Die gleichen Affekte sind bei Mann und Weib doch im Tempo verschieden: deshalb hören Mann und Weib nicht auf, sich misszuverstehn.
 * Translation: The same emotions in man and woman are, however, different in tempo: therefore man and woman never cease to misunderstand one another.''
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 94

 * Reife des Mannes: das heisst den Ernst wiedergefunden haben, den man als Kind hatte, beim Spiel.
 * Translation: Mature manhood: that means to have rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play.''
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 98

 * Wenn man sein Gewissen dressirt, so küsst es uns zugleich, indem es beisst.
 * Translation: If one trains one's conscience it will kiss us as it bites.''
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 120

 * Die Sinnlichkeit übereilt oft das Wachsthum der Liebe, so dass die Wurzel schwach bleibt und leicht auszureissen ist.
 * Translation: Sensuality often makes love grow too quickly, so that the root remains weak and is easy to pull out.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 121

 * Es ist eine Feinheit, daß Gott griechisch lernte, als er Schriftsteller werden wollte, und ebenso dies, daß er es nicht besser lernte!
 * Translation: It was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author – and not to learn it better.
 * Variant: It is a curious thing that God learned Greek when he wished to turn author - and that he did not learn it better.

Aphorism 123

 * Even cohabitation has been corrupted—by marriage.

Aphorism 132

 * Man wird am besten für seine Tugenden bestraft.
 * Translation: One is punished most for one's virtues.
 * Note: An earlier translation had "best" in place of "most".
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 136

 * One seeks a midwife for his thoughts, another someone to whom he can be a midwife: thus originates a good conversation.

Aphorism 138

 * Wir machen es auch im Wachen wie im Traume: wir erfinden und erdichten erst den Menschen, mit dem wir verkehren — und vergessen es sofort.
 * Translation: What we do in dreams we also do when we are awake: we invent and fabricate the person with whom we associate — and immediately forget we have done so.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 143

 * Was wir am besten thun, von dem möchte unsre Eitelkeit, dass es grade als Das gelte, was uns am schwersten werde. Zum Ursprung mancher Moral.
 * Translation: Our vanity would have just that which we do best count as that which is hardest for us. The origin of many a morality.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 146

 * Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
 * Translation: He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale
 * Variant Translation: Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster; for if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.

Aphorism 149

 * Das, was ein Alter fühlt sich böse zu sein ist in der Regel ein vorzeitiges Widerhall dessen, was ehemals als gut - der Atavismus eines alten ideal.
 * Translation: That which an age feels to be evil is usually an untimely echo of what was formerly considered good - the atavism of an old ideal.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 151

 * Ein Talent haben ist nicht genug: man muss auch eure Erlaubniss dazu haben, — wie? meine Freunde?
 * Translation: It is not enough to possess a talent: one must also possess your permission to possess it — eh, my friends?
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 153

 * Was aus Liebe getan wird, geschieht immer Jenseits von Gut und Böse.
 * Translation: What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
 * Source; Gutenberg-DE
 * Translated by Helen Zimmern

Aphorism 156

 * Der Irrsinn ist bei Einzelnen etwas Seltenes, — aber bei Gruppen, Parteien, Völkern, Zeiten die Regel.
 * Translation: Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, epochs it is the rule.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

 * Alternate translation: Insanity in individuals is something rare--but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
 * Source:Beyond Good and Evil/Chapter IV Wikisource
 * Translation source: Helen Zimmern

Aphorism 157

 * Der Gedanke an den Selbstmord ist ein starkes Trostmittel: mit ihm kommt man gut über manche böse Nacht hinweg.
 * Translation: The thought of suicide is a powerful solace: by means of it one gets through many a bad night.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 160

 * Man liebt seine Erkenntniss nicht genug mehr, sobald man sie mittheilt.
 * Translation: One no longer loves one's knowledge enough when one has communicated it.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 169

 * Viel von sich reden kann auch ein Mittel sein, sich zu verbergen.
 * Translation: To talk about oneself a great deal can also be a means of concealing oneself.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 171

 * In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.

Aphorism 176

 * Die Eitelkeit Andrer geht uns nur dann wider den Geschmack, wenn sie wider unsre Eitelkeit geht.
 * Translation: The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our vanity.
 * Translated by Helen Zimmern

Aphorism 177

 * Ober Das, was "Wahrhaftigkeit" ist, war vielleicht noch Niemand wahrhaftig genug.
 * Translation: With regard to what "truthfulness" is, perhaps nobody has ever been sufficiently truthful.
 * Translated by Helen Zimmern

Aphorism 179

 * Die Folgen unsrer Handlungen fassen uns am Schopfe, sehr gleichgültig dagegen, dass wir uns inzwischen "gebessert" haben.
 * Translation: The consequences of our actions take us by the scruff of the neck, altogether indifferent to the fact that we have "improved" in the meantime.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translation source: Hollingdale

Aphorism 187

 * Kurz, die Moralen sind auch nur eine Zeichensprache der Affekte.
 * Translation: In short, systems of morals are only a sign-language of the emotions.
 * Source: Gutenberg-DE
 * Translated by Helen Zimmern

Aphorism 195

 * The Jews — a people "born for slavery" as Tacitus and the whole ancient world says, "the chosen people" as they themselves say and believe — the Jews achieved that miracle of inversion of values thanks to which life on earth has for a couple of millennia acquired a new and dangerous fascination — their prophets fused "rich", "godless", "evil", "violent", "sensual" into one and were the first to coin the word "world" as a term of infamy. It is in this inversion of values ... that the significance of the Jewish people resides: with them there begins the slave revolt in morals.

Aphorism 217

 * Selig sind die Vergesslichen: denn sie werden auch mit ihren Dummheiten "fertig."
 * Blessed are the forgetful: for they "get the better" even of their blunders.

Aphorism 227

 * Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?

Aphorism 257

 * Every enhancement of the type "man" has so far been the work of an aristocratic society—and it will be so again and again—a society that believes in the long ladder of an order of rank and differences in value between man and man, and that needs slavery in some sense or other.

Aphorism 261

 * Vanity is an atavism.

Aphorism 287

 * It is some basic certainty which the noble soul has about itself, something which does not allow itself to be sought out or found or perhaps even to be lost. The noble soul has reverence for itself.
 * What is noble? What does the word “noble” still mean to us today? What betrays, what allows one to recognize the noble human being, under this heavy, overcast sky of the beginning rule of the plebs that makes everything opaque and leaden?
 * It is not actions that prove him – actions are always open to many interpretations, always unfathomable – nor is it “works.” Among artists and scholars today one finds enough of those who betray by their works how they are impelled by a profound desire for what is noble; but just this need for what is noble is fundamentally different from the needs of the noble soul itself and actually the eloquent and dangerous mark of its lack. It is not the works, it is the faith that is decisive here, that determines the order of rank – to take up again an ancient religious formula in a new and more profound sense: some fundamental certainty that a noble soul has about itself, something that cannot be sought, nor found, nor perhaps lost.
 * The noble soul has reverence for itself.

Misattributed

 * A moral system valid for all is basically immoral.
 * Generally attributed to Nietzsche, this is a quotation from Curtis Cate's Friedrich Nietzsche: A Biography (2003) and is the author's interpretation of Nietzsche's Aphorism 221.

title: Beyond Good and Evil


text:
Talk:Beyond Good and Evil

From the translation by R. J. Hollingdale, ISBN 014044923X -- Jimregan 13:35, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I've just been looking at the PG etext linked to from the Nietzsche article, and there's a bit of a difference in the translations of the quotes I had:

 * "A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possess at least two things besides: gratitude and purity."

 * "One is punished best for one's virtues."

 * "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee."

Which versions are preferable? -- Jimregan 14:12, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Personally I prefer the current versions on Wikiquote, however personal preference doesn't count for much. Is there any way we can verify one set as being more definitive than the other? Actually since I assume all of these were originally in German, we should have the German originals (which I assume have only one version), and then the translations (see Template for the formatting). Nanobug 14:48, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Therein lies the problem - I don't have access to a German source. If I find one somewhere, I think I remember enough German to extract the relevant portions. I'm currently trawling through Public domain resource -- Jimregan 19:36, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Found two; the one I'm using and a Project Gutenberg etext -- Jimregan 21:18, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

"If one trains one's conscience it will kiss us as it bites."
I always thought the "kiss" was something... bad. Not "kick", seems I just didn't notice the word. Anyone care to give their interpretation of this quote?

I don't take it as 'bad', merely the showing of compassion, gentle remonstration while righting our thinking to the correct path...

Krishna: Thou grievest where no grief should be! thou speak'st Words lacking wisdom! for the wise in heart Mourn not for those that live, nor those that die. Nor I, nor thou, nor any one of these, Ever was not, nor ever will not be, For ever and for ever afterwards. All, that doth live, lives always! To man's frame As there come infancy and youth and age, So come there raisings-up and layings-down Of other and of other life-abodes, Which the wise know, and fear not. This that irks-- Thy sense-life, thrilling to the elements-- Bringing thee heat and cold, sorrows and joys, 'Tis brief and mutable! Bear with it, Prince! As the wise bear. The soul which is not moved, The soul that with a strong and constant calm Takes sorrow and takes joy indifferently, Lives in the life undying! That which is Can never cease to be; that which is not Will not exist. To see this truth of both Is theirs who part essence from accident, Substance from shadow. Indestructible, Learn thou! the Life is, spreading life through all; It cannot anywhere, by any means, Be anywise diminished, stayed, or changed. But for these fleeting frames which it informs With spirit deathless, endless, infinite, They perish. Let them perish, Prince! and fight! He who shall say, "Lo! I have slain a man!" He who shall think, "Lo! I am slain!" those both Know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain! Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams! Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever; Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!

http://manybooks.net/pages/anonetext00bgita10/12.html

Study points:

- Vedanta invented by ancient Aryans - All life is continuous, nothing created or destroyed - Idea and Order more important than individual lives - Reality is like dreams or thoughts

Atomism page?

 * As far as materialistic atomism goes: this is one of the most well-refuted things in existence. In Europe these days, nobody in the scholarly community is likely to be so unscholarly as to attach any real significance to it, except as a handy household tool (that is, as an abbreviated figure of speech).
 * Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886), Part I. On the prejudices of philosophers

What page is this on? CensoredScribe (talk) 00:56, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Beyond Good and Evil


text:
Edward Lear

Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and his limericks, a form which he popularised.

Quotes

 * There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, "It is just as I feared!— Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!"
 * Book of Nonsense, Limerick 1 (1846).

 * How pleasant to know Mr. Lear! Who has written such volumes of stuff! Some think him ill-tempered and queer, But a few think him pleasant enough.
 * How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear, st. 1 (1871).

 * His mind is concrete and fastidious, His nose is remarkably big; His visage is more or less hideous, His beard it resembles a wig.
 * How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear, st. 2.

 * Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.
 * "The Jumblies", st. 1, in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871).

 * They went to sea in a sieve, they did; In a sieve they went to sea; In spite of all their friends could say.
 * "The Jumblies", st. 1, in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871).

 * Calico Pie, The little Birds fly Down to the calico tree, Their wings were blue, And they sang "Tilly-loo!" Till away they flew,— And they never came back to me!
 * Calico Pie, st. 1 (1871).

 * Calico Jam, The little Fish swam, Over the syllabub sea, He took off his hat, To the Sole and the Sprat, And the Willeby-Wat,— But he never came back to me!
 * Calico Pie, st. 2.

 * Who, or why, or which, or what, Is the Akond of Swat?
 * The Akond of Swat, l. 1 (1877).

 * On the top of the Crumpetty Tree The Quangle Wangle sat, But his face you could not see, On account of his Beaver Hat.
 * The Quangle Wangle's Hat, st. 1 (1877).

 * When awful darkness and silence reign Over the great Gromboolian plain, Through the long, long wintry nights. When the angry breakers roar As they beat on the rocky shore;— When Storm-clouds brood on the towering heights Of the Hills of the Chankly Bore
 * The Dong with the Luminous Nose, st. 1 (1877).

 * The Pobble who has no toes Had once as many as we; When they said, "Some day you may lose them all;"— He replied, — "Fish fiddle de-dee!"
 * The Pobble Who Has No Toes, st. 1 (1877).

 * It's a fact the whole world knows, That Pebbles are happier without their toes.
 * The Pobble Who Has No Toes, st. 6.

 * Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee! We think no Birds so happy as we! Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill! We think so then, and we thought so still!
 * The Pelican Chorus, chorus (1877).

 * On a little heap of Barley Died my aged uncle Arly, And they buried him one night;— Close beside the leafy thicket;— There, his hat and Railway-Ticket;— There, his ever-faithful Cricket;— (But his shoes were far too tight.)
 * Incidents in the Life of my Uncle Arly, st. 7 (1895).

The Owl and the Pussycat (1871)

 * The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, "O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
 * St. 1.

 * Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl! How charmingly sweet you sing! O let us be married! too long we have tarried: But what shall we do for a ring?"
 * St. 2.

 * They sailed away for a year and a day To the land where the bong-tree grows.
 * St. 2.

 * "Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
 * St. 3.

 * They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, The moon, They danced by the light of the moon.
 * St. 3.

The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bongy-Bò (1877)

 * On the Coast of Coromandel Where the early pumpkins blow, In the middle of the woods Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò. Two old chairs, and half a candle,— One old jug without a handle,— These were all his worldly goods.
 * St. 1.

 * There he heard a Lady talking, To some milk-white Hens of Dorking,— 'Tis the lady Jingly Jones! On that little heap of stones Sits the Lady Jingly Jones!
 * St. 2.

 * I would be your wife most gladly! (Here she twirled her fingers madly,) But in England I've a mate! Yes! you've asked me far too late, For in England I've a mate.
 * St. 5.

title: Edward Lear


text:
The Antichrist

The Antichrist (Der Antichrist) is a German philosophical book by Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1895.

 * What is good? — All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad? — All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? — The feeling that power increases — that a resistance is overcome.
 * Aphorism 2

 * The weak and ill-constituted shall perish: first principle of our philanthropy. And one shall help them to do so.
 * Aphorism 2

 * I call an animal, a species, an individual depraved when it loses its instincts, when it chooses, when it prefers what is harmful to it.
 * Aphorism 6

 * Pity on the whole thwarts the law of evolution, which is the law of selection.
 * Aphorism 7.

 * The very word 'Christianity' is a misunderstanding--at bottom there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.
 * Aphorism 39.
 * Note: Often misquoted as "The last Christian died on the cross"

Unsorted quotes

 * The Christian church has left nothing untouched by its depravity. It has made of every value, a dis-value; of every truth, a lie; of every kind of integrity, a vileness of soul.

title: The Antichrist


text:
Talk:Julius Caesar

Graffiti
Where should the graffiti versions of "Veni, vidi, vici" ("Vidi, vici, veni", "Vici, veni, VD") be put? -- Jimregan 18:56, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Probably on List of misquotations. Nanobug 14:34, 15 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * How about a separate page for Famous graffiti? Such as 'Kilroy was here', etc. with a bit of history. -- Gaurav 17:56, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Julius Caesar's last words will always be a forum of great debate......graffiti shouldn't be (A Adamson)

This is what I have done, and I am Caesar.
Does anybody know whether the following quote is actually by Julius Caesar?

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done, and I am Caesar."

 * This statement has also been wrongly attributed to William Shakespeare, but the actual author is unknown. The article on it at Snopes.com states : "No record of this quote has been found prior to its appearance on the Internet in late 2001." I have now added a "Misattributions" section with this in it. ~ Achilles † 06:23, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Question
I recall Caesar saying something about war giving the right to the victors to give whatever conditions they want to the vanquished (or something along those lines). Any further information on this?
 * That was Brennus -- the Latin is "Vae Victis" Jhf 01:02, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

"Iacta alea est" or "Alea iacta est"?
Since both versions of this phrase have a lot of currency, I looked around and discovered an online source in Latin of Suetonius' Divus Iulius, which shows in Paragraph 33 that the phrase is "Iacta alea est." This is also the version used in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. I will include a link to the Suetonius in my revision of the quote. - InvisibleSun 13:45, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

GNU Fortune
I love treason but hate a traitor. -- Gaius Julius Caesar

Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Julius Caesar. --Antiquary 16:12, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
 * As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can.

 * Ignavi coram morte quidem animam trahunt, audaces autem illam non saltem advertunt.

 * It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.

In regards to this quote, (it is easier) I found several sources dating back to at least 1910 of a harvard professor. The latin for this quote is "qui se ultro morti offerant facillus reperiuntur quam qui dolorem patienter ferant" from Caesar's bellum gallicum book 7. I don't know how to properly insert this on his wiki page so please assist

 * The future of the world rests on my shoulders and the gods of the seas rest in my hand.

 * To prefer my friendship to that of those who have always been his and my bitter enemies, by whose machinations the country has been brought to its present impasse.
 * In a request from Caesar to Pompey for a resolution to the impending civil war.

"Fear itself"
Moved from the main article, because this alleged quote has no source, neither primary nor a secondary source referring to the origin of this legend. —85.178.66.138 16:27, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Nihil nobis metuendum est, praeter metum ipsum. [Nota bene: Which is the historical source from Antiquity that contains this Latin saying, allegedly by Caesar? It seems to be completely unkown/invented/dubious. There is a similar one by Seneca (Ep. Mor. ad Luc. 3.24.12: scies nihil esse in istis terribile nisi ipsum timorem), but Seneca is not Caesar.]
 * We have not to fear anything, except fear itself.
 * By legend [Nota bene: What legend? A modern internet legend? 19th century false scholarship? Shakespeare again? Mediaeval legend about Caesar? An ancient rumor? Sources please.] Caesar told it to his wife Calpurnia, who was praying him not to go to the Senate, where, as she saw in dream, he would die.

Defeat at the hands of Belgae
When exactly was Julius Caesar defeated by the the Belgae? I can't seem to trace a single historical reference to this fact.

 * This is the wrong place for such a question and also I don't know the answer. IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 21:48, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

 * It is not the wrong place to ask, because the user is referring to a dubious remark that is currently in the article, viz. that "Caesar suffered his greatest military defeat at the hands of the Belgae, the humiliation reaching Rome, and infuriating the man who then set out on one of Rome's biggest campaigns to crush the Republic's most feared rebels once and for all." In fact, Caesar defeated the Belgae, not the other way around. ~ DanielTom (talk) 22:06, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

 * Yes, DanielTom, the question likely refers to that quotation in the article; I didn't notice this. This being known, the question originally asked is in fact relevant. I removed the commentary for it being unsourced and 'dubious' as you say. IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 00:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

Gallia est pacata.
This raised an eyebrow for me because it's not S-O-V, which, while not impossible, isn't really typical or "good form." I looked it up, and I can't find any reliable source that mirrors this exact wording.

However, this appears to be an abbreviation and S-V-O shortening of "His rebus gestis[,] Gallia omni pacata est," or, "These things having been accomplished/these things having been done, all Gaul is pacified." Not going to lie, I find "all Gaul was pacified," is much cooler a quote anyway, but wouldn't it be more accurate to put this on the page?

It's supported by these sources:

 * https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0002%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D34%3Asection%3D1 (primary)
 * https://www.jstor.org/stable/641011
 * https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/360180 (appears to be ibid, a shorter excerpt)

If there are no objections to this, I'm adding it to the page. I should add that my Latin isn't great, and I find conflicting information about the exact translation. Seeing "est" makes me think it should be "all Gaul is pacified" but this is likely just a construction I don't recognize since my Latin is so rusty. As a result I'm adding it as "was," but if anyone with more experience has confidence in manual translation I would appreciate it. Delukiel (talk)

Editing this later to say that I double checked this with people who know way more than me and it should be was. Delukiel (talk)

title: Talk:Julius Caesar


text:
Bill Shankly

William Shankly (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish football player and manager, who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool.

Quotes

 * A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.
 * Quoted by John Toshack in Kevin McCarra, "How Benítez built Liverpool," The Guardian (2006-01-21)

 * At a football club, there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters.
 * "Bill Shankly: Life, death and football", The Guardian (2009-10-18)

 * Someone said to me 'To you football is a matter of life or death!' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that'.
 * An interview on a Granada Television chat-show, hosted by Shelley Rohde on Wednesday 20th of May 1981

 * The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It's the way I see football, the way I see life.

Disputed

 * Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.
 * Attributed to Shankly in 2013, thirty years after Shankly's death. However, very similar sayings are found anonymously from the late twentieth-century. Harrington and Kavanagh, Prayer for Parish Groups: Preparing and Leading Prayer for Group Meetings, p. 32, 1998

title: Bill Shankly


text:
Alexander Kronrod

Aleksandr (Alexander) Semenovich Kronrod (October 22, 1921 – October 6, 1986) was a Soviet mathematician and computer scientist, best known for the Gauss-Kronrod quadrature formula which he published in 1964. Earlier, he worked on computational solutions of problems emerging in theoretical physics. He is also known for his contributions to economics, specifically for proposing corrections and calculating price formation for the USSR.

Quotes

 * Chess is the Drosophila of artificial intelligence.
 * Attributed to Kronrod in: Ronald Chrisley, Sander Begeer (2000). Artificial Intelligence: Critical Concepts. p. 520

 * An idea is nothing, its implementation everything.
 * Attributed to Kronrod in: Landis, E. M., Yaglom, I. M., Remembering AS Kronrod, The Mathematical Intelligencer 24.1 (2002) p. 22-30

title: Alexander Kronrod


text:
Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, logician, physicist and theologian''.
 * Note: All quotes from the Pensées are on that page.

Quotes

 * For as old age is that period of life most remote from infancy, who does not see that old age in this universal man ought not to be sought in the times nearest his birth, but in those most remote from it?
 * Preface to the Treatise on Vacuum (c.1651)

 * Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
 * I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
 * Provincial Letters: Letter XVI (4 December 1656)
 * Literally: I made this one [letter] longer only because I have not had the leisure to make it shorter.
 * Such statements have also been attributed to Mark Twain, T.S. Eliot, Cicero, and others besides, but this article at Quote Investigator concludes that Pascal's statement is likely the original source of the phrase.

 * People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.
 * De l'Art de persuader ["On the Art of Persuasion"], written 1658; published posthumously.

 * Mahomet established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ, by commanding his followers to lay down their own lives.
 * Thoughts on Religion and Philosophy (W. Collins, 1838), Ch. XVI, p. 202

 * FEU. Dieu d'Abraham, Dieu d'Isaac, Dieu de Jacob, non des philosophes et savants. Certitude. Certitude. Sentiment. Joie. Paix.
 * FIRE. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars. Certainty. Certainty. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
 * Note on a parchment stitched to the lining of Pascal's coat, found by a servant shortly after his death, as quoted in Burkitt Speculum religionis (1929), p. 150

It is not well to be too much at liberty. It is not well to have all we want. How many kingdoms know nothing of us! The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.
 * When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which I fill, or even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, or now rather than then. Who has set me here? By whose order and design have this place and time been destined for me?—Memoria hospitis unius diei prætereuntis.
 * "The Misery of Man Without God": "Man's Disproportion," The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal translated from the Text of M. Auguste Molinier Tr. C. Kegan Paul (1885)

Discourses on the Condition of the Great

 * In order to enter into a real knowledge of your condition, consider it in this image: A man was cast by a tempest upon an unknown island, the inhabitants of which were in trouble to find their king, who was lost; and having a strong resemblance both in form and face to this king, he was taken for him, and acknowledged in this capacity by all the people.

 * Thus he had a double thought: the one by which he acted as king, the other by which he recognized his true state, and that it was accident alone that had placed him in his present condition.

 * Do not imagine that it is less an accident by which you find yourself master of the wealth which you possess, than that by which this man found himself king.

 * If it had pleased them [the legislators] to order that this wealth, after having been possessed by fathers during their life, should return to the republic after their death, you would have no reason to complain of it.

 * The whole title by which you possess your property, is not a title of nature but of a human institution.

 * This right which you have, is not founded any more than his upon any quality or any merit in yourself which renders you worthy of it. Your soul and your body are, of themselves, indifferent to the state of boatman or that of duke; and there is no natural bond that attaches them to one condition rather than to another.

 * If you act externally with men in conformity with your rank, you should recognize, by a more secret but truer thought, that you have nothing naturally superior to them.

 * If the public thought elevates you above the generality of men, let the other humble you, and hold you in a perfect equality with all mankind, for this is your natural condition.

 * Do not mistake yourself by believing that your being has something in it more exalted than that of others.

 * What would you say of that man who was made king by the error of the people, if he had so far forgotten his natural condition as to imagine that this kingdom was due to him, that he deserved it, and that it belonged to him of right? You would marvel at his stupidity and folly. But is there less in the people of rank who live in so strange a forgetfulness of their natural condition?

 * All the excesses, all the violence, and all the vanity of great men, come from the fact that they know not what they are: it being difficult for those who regard themselves at heart as equal with all men... For this it is necessary for one to forget himself, and to believe that he has some real excellence above them, in which consists this illusion that I am endeavoring to discover to you.

 * If, being duke and peer, you would not be contented with my standing uncovered before you, but should also wish that I should esteem you, I should ask you to show me the qualities that merit my esteem. If you did this, you would gain it, and I could not refuse it to you with justice; but if you did not do it, you would be unjust to demand it of me; and assuredly you would not succeed, were you the greatest prince in the world.

 * What is it, in your opinion, to be a great nobleman? It is to be master of several objects that men covet, and thus to be able to satisfy the wants and the desires of many. It is these wants and these desires that attract them towards you, and that make them submit to you: were it not for these, they would not even look at you; but they hope, by these services... to obtain from you some part of the good which they desire, and of which they see that you have the disposal.

 * God is surrounded with people full of love who demand of him the benefits of love which are in his power: thus he is properly the king of love.

 * You are in the same manner surrounded with a small circle of persons... full of desire. They demand of you the benefits of desire... You are therefore properly the king of desire. ...equal in this to the greatest kings of the earth... It is desire that constitutes their power; that is, the possession of things that men covet.

 * It is not your strength and your natural power that subjects all these people to you. Do not pretend then to rule them by force or to treat them with harshness. Satisfy their reasonable desires; alleviate their necessities; let your pleasure consist in being beneficent; advance them as much as you can, and you will act like the true king of desire.

 * There are some men who expose themselves to damnation so foolishly by avarice, by brutality, by debauches, by violence, by excesses, by blasphemies! ...it is always a great folly for a man to expose himself to damnation... He must despise desire and its kingdom, and aspire to that kingdom of love in which all the subjects breathe nothing but love, and desire nothing but the benefits of love.

Conversation on Epictetus and Montaigne

 * In reading this author [ Montaigne ] and comparing him with Epictetus, I have found that they are assuredly the two greatest defenders of the two most celebrated sects of the world, and the only ones conformable to reason, since we can only follow one of these two roads, namely: either that there is a God, and then we place in him the sovereign good; or that he is uncertain, and that then the true good is also uncertain, since he is incapable of it.

 * If it is pleasing to observe in nature her desire to paint God in all his works, in which we see some traces of him because they are his images, how much more just is it to consider in the productions of minds the efforts which they make to imitate the essential truth, even in shunning it, and to remark wherein they attain it and wherein they wander from it, as I have endeavored to do in this study.

 * The source of the errors of these two sects, is in not having known that the state of man at the present time differs from that of his creation; so that the one, remarking some traces of his first greatness and being ignorant of his corruption, has treated nature as sound and without need of redemption, which leads him to the height of pride; whilst the other, feeling the present wretchedness and being ignorant of the original dignity, treats nature as necessarily infirm and irreparable, which precipitates it into despair of arriving at real good, and thence into extreme laxity.

 * These two states which it is necessary to know together in order to see the whole truth, being known separately, lead necessarily to one of these two vices, pride or indolence, in which all men are invariably led before grace, since if they do not remain in their disorders through laxity, they forsake them through vanity, so true is that which you have just repeated to me from St. Augustine, and which I find to a great extent; for in fact homage is rendered to them in many ways.

 * One, knowing the duties of man and being ignorant of his impotence, is lost in presumption, and that the other, knowing the impotence and being ignorant of the duty, falls into laxity; whence it seems that since the one leads to truth, the other to error, there would be formed from their alliance a perfect system of morals. But instead of this peace, nothing but war and a general ruin would result from their union; for the one establishing certainty, the other doubt, the one the greatness of man, the other his weakness, they would destroy the truths as well as the falsehoods of each other. So that they cannot subsist alone because of their defects, nor unite because of their opposition, and thus they break and destroy each other to give place to the truth of the Gospel. This it is that harmonizes the contrarieties by a wholly divine act, and uniting all that is true and expelling all that is false, thus makes of them a truly celestial wisdom in which those opposites accord that were incompatible in human doctrines.

 * These philosophers of the world place contrarieties in the same subject; for the one attributed greatness to nature and the other weakness to this same nature, which could not subsist; whilst faith teaches us to place them in different subjects: all that is infirm belonging to nature, all that is powerful belonging to grace. Such is the marvelous and novel union which God alone could teach, and which he alone could make, and which is only a type and an effect of the ineffable union of two natures in the single person of a Man-God.

On the Spirit of Geometry

 * C'est une maladie naturelle à l'homme de croire qu'il possède la vérité directement…
 * It is a natural illness of man to think that he possesses the truth directly…
 * Section I
 * Variant translation: It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.

The Art of Persuasion

 * As translated by O. W. Wright Full text online at Bartleby

 * No one is ignorant that there are two avenues by which opinions are received into the soul, which are its two principal powers: the understanding and the will.

 * All men are almost led to believe not of proof, but by attraction. This way is base, ignoble, and irrelevant; every one therefore disavows it. Each one professes to believe and even to love nothing but what he knows to be worthy of belief and love.

 * I do not speak here of divine truths... because they are infinitely superior to nature: God alone can place them in the soul... I know that he has desired that they should enter from the heart into the mind, and not from the mind into the heart, to humiliate that proud power of reasoning that pretends to the right to be the judge of the things that the will chooses; and to cure this infirm will which is wholly corrupted by its filthy attachments.

 * Whilst in speaking of human things, we say that it is necessary to know them before we can love them...the saints on the contrary say in speaking of divine things that it is necessary to love them in order to know them, and that we only enter truth through charity.

 * They [men] have corrupted this [God's supernatural] order by making profane things what they should make of holy things, because in fact, we believe scarcely any thing except which pleases us.

 * God only pours out his light into the mind after having subdued the rebellion of the will by an altogether heavenly gentleness which charms and wins it.

 * Of the truths within our reach... the mind and the heart are as doors by which they are received into the soul, but... few enter by the mind, whilst they are brought in crowds by the rash caprices of the will, without the council of reason.

 * Several particular maxims... are as powerful, although false, in carrying away belief, as those the most true.

 * As soon as the soul has been made to perceive that a thing can conduct it to that which it loves supremely, it must inevitably embrace it with joy.

 * A doubtful balance is made between truth and pleasure, and... the knowledge of one and the feeling of the other stir up a combat the success of which is very uncertain, since, in order to judge of it, it would be necessary to know all that passes in the innermost spirit of the man, of which man himself is scarcely ever conscious.

 * It is necessary to have regard to the person whom we wish to persuade, of whom we must know the mind and the heart, what principles he acknowledges, what things he loves; and then observe in the thing in question what affinity it has with the acknowledged principles, or with the objects so delightful by the pleasure which they give him.

 * The art of persuasion consists as much in that of pleasing as in that of convincing, so much more are men governed by caprice than by reason!

 * The principles of pleasure are not firm and stable. They are different in all mankind, and variable in every particular with such a diversity that there is no man more different from another than from himself at different times.

 * There are hardly any truths upon which we always remain agreed, and still fewer objects of pleasure which we do not change every hour, I do not know whether there is a means of giving fixed rules for adapting discourse to the inconstancy of our caprices.

 * This art, which I call the art of persuading, and which, properly speaking, is simply the process of perfect methodical proofs, consists of three essential parts: of defining the terms of which we should avail ourselves by clear definitions, of proposing principles of evident axioms to prove the thing in question; and of always mentally substituting in the demonstrations the definition in the place of the thing defined.

 * If we do not secure the foundation, we cannot secure the edifice.

 * A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of the art of persuading.

 * Rules for Definitions. I. Not to undertake to define any of the things so well known of themselves that the clearer terms cannot be had to explain them. II. Not to leave any terms that are at all obscure or ambiguous without definition. III. Not to employ in the definition of terms any words but such as are perfectly known or already explained.

 * Rules for Axioms. I. Not to omit any necessary principle without asking whether it is admittied, however clear and evident it may be. II. Not to demand, in axioms, any but things that are perfectly evident in themselves.

 * Rules for Demonstrations. I. Not to undertake to demonstrate any thing that is so evident of itself that nothing can be given that is clearer to prove it. II. To prove all propositions at all obscure, and to employ in their proof only very evident maxims or propositions already admitted or demonstrated. III. To always mentally substitute definitions in the place of things defined, in order not to be misled by the ambiguity of terms which have been restricted by definitions.

 * These eight rules [above] contain all the precepts for solid and immutable proofs.

 * Five [of the above] rules are of absolute necessity, and cannot be dispensed with without essential defect and often without error.

 * Rules necessary for definitions. Not to leave any terms at all obscure or ambiguous without definition; Not to employ in definitions any but terms perfectly known or already explained.

 * Rules necessary for axioms. Not to demand in axioms any but things perfectly evident.

 * Rules necessary for demonstrations. To prove all propositions, and to employ nothing for their proof but axioms fully evident of themselves, or propositions already demonstrated or admitted; Never to take advantage of the ambiguity of terms by failing mentally to substitute definitions that restrict or explain them.

 * These five rules [above] form all that is necessary to render proofs convincing, immutable, and to say all, geometrical; and the eight rules together render them even more perfect.

 * It is necessary to show that there is nothing so little known [as the above rules], nothing more difficult to practice, or nothing more useful and universal.

 * As to the objection that these rules are common in the world, that it is necessary to define every thing and to prove every thing, and that logicians themselves have placed them among their art, I would that the thing were true and that it were so well known... But so little is this the case, that, geometricians alone excepted, who are so few in number that they are a single in a whole nation and long periods of time, we see no others that know it.

 * If they have entered into the spirit if these rules, and if the rules have made sufficient impression on them to become rooted and established in their minds, they will feel how much difference there is between what is said here and what a few logicians may perhaps have written by chance approximating to it in a few passages of their works.

 * All who say the same things do not possess them in the same manner; and hence the incomparable author of the Art of Conversation pauses with so much care to make it understood that we must not judge of the capacity of a man by the excellence of a happy remark that we heard him make. ...let us penetrate, says he, the mind from which it proceeds... it will oftenest be seen that he will be made to disavow it on the spot, and will be drawn very far from this better thought in which he does not believe, to plunge himself into another, quite base and ridiculous.
 * Montaigne, Essais, liv. III, chap. viii.—Faugère

 * I would inquire of reasonable persons whether this principle: Matter is naturally wholly incapable of thought, and this other: I think, therefore I am, are in fact the same in the mind of Descartes, and in that of St. Augustine, who said the same thing twelve hundred years before. ...I am far from affirming that Descartes is not the real author of it, even if he may have learned it only in reading this distinguished saint; for I know how much difference there is between writing a word by chance without making a longer and more extended reflection on it, and perceiving in this word an admirable series of conclusions, which prove the distinction between material and spiritual natures, and making of it a firm and sustained principle of a complete metaphysical system, as Descartes has pretended to do. ...it is on this supposition that I say that this expression is as different in his writings from the saying in others who have said it by chance, as in a man full of life and strength, from a corpse.
 * see St. Augustine, Civitate Dei, 1. XI, c. xxvi

 * One man will say a thing of himself without comprehending its excellence, in which another will discern a marvelous series of conclusions, which makes us affirm that it is no longer the same expression, and that he is no more indebted for it to the one from whom he has learned it, than a beautiful tree belongs to the one who cast the seed, without thinking of it, or knowing it, into the fruitful soil which caused its growth by its own fertility.

 * Logic has borrowed, perhaps, the rules of geometry, without comprehending their force... it does not thence follow that they have entered into the spirit of geometry, and I should be greatly averse... to placing them on a level with that science that teaches the true method of directing reason.

 * The method of not erring is sought by all the world. The logicians profess to guide it, the geometricians alone attain it, and apart from science, and the imitations of it, there are no true demonstrations.

 * Nothing is more common than good things: the point in question is only to discriminate them; and it is certain that they are all natural and within our reach and even known to all mankind.

 * It is not among extraordinary and fantastic things that excellence is to be found, of whatever kind it may be. We rise to attain it and become removed from it: it is oftenest necessary to stoop for it.

 * The best books are those, which those who read them believe they themselves could have written.

 * Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common.

 * I make no doubt... that these rules are simple, artless, and natural.

 * The mind must not be forced; artificial and constrained manners fill it with foolish presumption, through unnatural elevation and vain and ridiculous inflation, instead of solid and vigorous nutriment.

 * One of the principal reasons that diverts those who are entering upon this knowledge so much from the true path which they should follow, is the fancy that they take at the outset that good things are inaccessible, giving them the name great, lofty, elevated, sublime. This destroys everything. I would call them low, common, familiar: these names suit it better; I hate such inflated expressions.

Quotes about Pascal

 * I was very fortunate. I was curious and handicapped as a young person. And so I read everything I could get my hands on and I have a good memory. And I have a lot of energy. It's a blessing. So I continued to learn. I'm hungry for knowledge still. Not every young person is blessed or visited with that combination. So he or she desperately needs to go to a university and be introduced to some of the great ideas of humankind. One needs to worry over the question of "Why am I here, what am I doing here of all things in this place, this life?" One needs to know Aristotle and Plato. One needs it desperately. One must have Leopold and Pascal. Must! I mean desperately, if one is to be at ease anywhere. One should have read the African folk tale to see what the West African calls deep thinking. One must worry over ideas that if I come forward how far do we have to go before we meet? And when we meet will I go through you and you go through me and continue until we meet someone else? This is an African concept. Do we stay once we meet or do I actually go right through you and pass through you and continue on that road. Is that what life is? All this knowledge is available at universities and one is more likely to run into a great teacher at a university than one is at a pool hall. It just follows.
 * 1986 interview in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989)

It surely is a fitting subject for mystic contemplation that the principle of reasoning by recurrence, which is so basic in pure mathematics, and the theory of probabilities, which is the basis of all deductive sciences, were both conceived while devising a scheme for the division of stakes in an unfinished match of two gamblers.
 * It is significant that we owe the first explicit formulation of the principle of recurrence to the genius of Blaise Pascal... Pascal stated the principle in a tract called The Arithmetic Triangle which appeared in 1654. Yet... the gist of the tract was contained in the correspondence between Pascal and Fermat regarding a problem in gambling, the same correspondence which is now regarded as the nucleus from which developed the theory of probabilities.
 * Tobias Dantzig, Number: The Language of Science (1930)

§56, referencing Pensées
 * What Pascal said of an effective religion is true of any effective doctrine: It must be "contrary to nature, to common sense and to pleasure."
 * Eric Hoffer, The True Believer (1951)

Encyclical Populorom Progressio''] (1967)
 * Man infinitely surpasses man.
 * Pope Paul VI, [http://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum.html ''

 * Pascal scornfully said that simple workmen had been able to convince of error those great men that are called 'philosophers'. It was, then, these unlearned men... who were most ready to believe 'what they saw with their eyes and touched with their hands'.
 * Reijer Hooykaas, Religion and the Rise of Modern Science (2000)

 * To philosophize is always to rehabilitate the essential importance of the human dimension, and hence the dignity of man. This was the meaning of the Socratic quest, and also the meaning of Pascal's anguish at the threshold of the Cartesian revolution in science. In this respect, Pascal is an even more significant figure of philosophy than Socrates: his was the first brutal reaction to the claim of science to remove man from his position as a privileged being in creation; nobody has so far been able to improve upon his demonstration why science is unsatisfactory to give man meaning and to fill his heart with joy.
 * Thomas Molnar, The Decline of the Intellectual (1961) Ch. 11 "Intellectual and Philosopher"

 * Pascal was no obscurantist, but he measured how far science (esprit de géometrie) may go and become irrelevant to the problems of human destiny. The achievements of science are not denied by this stand, nor are they dismissed as the ostrich with its head burrowed in sand dismisses reality. What is asserted is that our original endowments as they reflect on the data of experience, are, with all their limitations and imperfections, the only necessary and indispensable means by which we confront existence, the only weapon commensurate with our struggle.
 * Thomas Molnar, The Decline of the Intellectual (1961) Ch. 11 "Intellectual and Philosopher"

 * Pascal is a judicious critic of Descartes, not opposing him at all points, but opposing him nevertheless, on points that are fundamental. He perceived, first, that the Cartesian desire for certain knowledge was based upon a false criterion of certainty. Descartes must begin with something so sure that it cannot be doubted, and was led, as a consequence, to believe that all genuine knowledge is technical knowledge. Pascal avoided this conclusion by his doctrine of probability: the only knowledge that is certain is certain on account of its partiality; the paradox that probable knowledge has more of the whole truth than certain knowledge. Secondly, Pascal perceived that the Cartesian raisonnement is never in fact the whole source of the knowledge involved in any concrete activity. The human mind, he asserts, is not wholly dependent for its successful working upon a conscious and formulated technique; and even where a technique is involved, the mind observes the technique 'tacitement, naturellement et sans art' . The precise formulation of rules of inquiry endangers the success of the inquiry by exaggerating the importance of method. Pascal was followed by others, and indeed much of the history of modern philosophy revolves round this question. But, though later writers were often more elaborate in their criticism, few detected more surely than Pascal that the significance of Rationalism is not its recognition of technical knowledge, but its failure to recognize any other: its philosophical error lies in the certainty it attributes to technique and in its doctrine of the sovereignty of technique; its practical error lies in its belief that nothing but benefit can come from making conduct self-conscious.
 * Michael Oakeshott, "Rationalism in Politics" in Rationalism in Politics and other essays (1962)

 * Pascal is the only great mathematician whose standing is equally great among writers. Moreover, his devotion to the Jansenist ideal of serving the needy had one enduring practical consequence: his idea of a public transportation system. Shortly before his death... Pascal saw the inauguration of the world's first omnibus service. Coaches could be taken from the Porte Sainte-Antoine to the Luxembourg in Paris for 5 sous, with the profits being directed to the relief of the poor.
 * , Mathematics and Its History (1989)

 * To treat the living body as a mechanism was repugnant, and seemed even ludicrous, to Pascal.
 * D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form (1917)

 * Against Pascal I say: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of the philosophers is the same God.
 * Paul Tillich, Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality

 * Pascal's Thoughts are not a book. We must bear this observation in mind, if we are to judge of them aright. They are not a book; perhaps they may be two, or even more. They are — if we must give them a name and define them — they are Pascal himself — whole Pascal, excepting in so far as he was a geometrician, properly so called, and a natural philosopher. The Thoughts are only the papers on which this great man threw out, from time to time, all that occupied his powerful mind, until the excess of physical malady reduced him to complete inaction, and put, so to speak, the seals upon his genius. Great pains have been taken, and not without success, to reduce these scattered materials, by means of art, into a kind of whole. Sometimes, perhaps, the secret of the writer has been guessed; possibly, in certain cases, his intention has been entirely misunderstood.
 * Alexandre Rodolphe Vinet, Studies on Pascal 1859

 * Pascal proves nothing in favour of Religion, unless that a man of genius may be foolish on some subjects, and is but a child, when he is weak enough to listen to his prejudices.
 * Baron d'Holbach, Good Sense without God, or, Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas (1772) (London: W. Stewart & Co., ca. 1900) (Project Gutenberg e-text), chap. 167

Misattributed

 * There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man...
 * See quote about a "gouffre infini" on the Pensées page.

Disputed

 * La netteté d’esprit cause aussi la netteté de la passion; c’est pourquoi un esprit grand et net aime avec ardeur, et il voit distinctement ce qu’il aime.
 * Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.
 * Discours sur les passions de l'amour ('Discourse on the Passions of Love'), doubtfully attributed to Pascal.

 * Knowledge is like a sphere, the greater its volume, the larger its contact with the unknown.

title: Blaise Pascal


text:
Talk:Life

Anyone else notice?
When you go to edit this article, it says Editing Life if only it was possible

 * Hahaha, brilliant! "Life is too important to be taken seriously" - Oscar Wilde (who shares the same birthday as me)

Sub-themes
What do people think of the current section headings: Inspiring; Life as a form of Death; Silly? Do you think they are:
 * 1) a great idea
 * 2) useful in concept but with slight changes (Perhaps Silly could be renamed to something else?)
 * 3) a bad idea

Maybe section headings within theme pages could be regarded as sub-themes, assuming a theme divided somewhat neatly into sub-themes (a lthough above a certain size the page would split into separate pages and link to each other)? Nanobug 02:36, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)

quotes from fictional characters
I don't think fictional characters should be quoted without either reference to the source of the quote, or the fact that the character is fictional... example Jack Handy = not a person, fictional 'character'  Saturday Night Live?, therefore without attribution, possible copyright issue, regardless of that though, it seems wrong to mix say Bart Simpson with Thomas Paine... comments?66.245.206.16 17:35, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)Pedant 17:36, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Acutally, Jack Handey (note spelling) is a real person.

Quotes by possible unnotable
Moved following quote here. Person has no wp page, no wq page, and seems to be an average New-Zealand economist. If anyone disagrees, please provide evidence of notability here and move quote back to page. Thanks ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 09:01, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Anonymous
The following quote does not actually appear in any episode of "The Office" and was in the public domain beforehand (quoted in a University of Bath aeronautical engineering thesis (gas turbine film cooling) in 2000 as John Bedfield):

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - Rickey Gervais in "The Office"

I would like to question the validity of the quote, “Life's a game it can't be won only played.* **Unknown Philosopher** (2010)” as it is probably a spurious quotation without any known source.
 * "Anonymous" quotes can be included if they are cited to notable sources that quote them. This isn't, and I am removing it as patently made up. ~ Ningauble 16:44, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Questionable Quote
"Man is like a spark. Some will start a fire, but most will burn out quickly." Decent quote, but its attributed to J. Michael Delaney. Who the hell is that? Anyone know? Google doesn't.

Positive

 * It's all about options. Once one disappears, there are many others.
 * Dinesh Ranasinghe

 * I grew up knowing I could have had a million different lives. It makes your life mysterious and your imagination go wild.
 * KT Tunstall

 * Life is a waterfall; we're one in the river and one again after the fall.
 * Serj Tankian

 * A gentleman can live through anything.
 * William Faulkner

 * A man is like a spark. Some will start a fire, but most will burn out quickly.
 * J. Michael Delaney, 1923

 * If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
 * Henry David Thoreau, Walden: or, Life in the Woods (1854), Vol. 1, p. xli.
 * Often partially misreported as beginning with "Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air", or "Have you built your castles in the air?".

 * Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.
 * James Dean
 * Probably a hoax. Dean died in 1955; the earliest reference in print to this quote is in 1999. BD2412 T 19:45, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

 * Every day is my best day; this is my life. I'm not going to have this moment again.
 * Bernie Siegel

 * I love life so much sometimes it just brings a tear to my eye... Losing my mind was definitely the best thing to ever happen to me.
 * Vincent James Alia, American Philosopher & Psychologist

 * Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.
 * Louisa May Alcott

 * Life is like pizza, When it's good, It's really good. When it's bad, it's still pretty good.
 * Unknown

 * Life isn't what you want it to be, it's what you make it become.
 * Anthony Ryan

 * The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.
 * Oscar Wilde, reported in Epigrams: An anthology (1952), p. 102.

 * The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
 * William James

 * I am waiting for a sign that will indicate to me what meaning I must give to my life, but right now my existence is satisfactory.
 * Lucy Lawless

 * I've created my own path and I'm content with that.
 * Mandy Moore

 * If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
 * Joan Collins

 * It is never too late to be what you might have been.
 * George Eliot

 * Let us endeavor to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
 * Mark Twain

 * Let's live today, let's live tomorrow, and let's live the day after that - even if it means living in eternal pain.
 * Vash the Stampede (Trigun)

 * Life is a challenge, meet it; life is love, share it; life is a dream, realize it; life is a game, play it.
 * Sri Sathya Sai Baba

 * Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression, and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
 * Leon Trotsky

 * Life is like riding a bicycle. You don't fall off unless you plan to stop pedaling.
 * Claude Pepper

 * Live all you can - it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?
 * Henry James, Ambassadors (1903)

 * Live to love life, and love to live life
 * Sammy Gouti

 * Man is happy only as he finds work worth doing — and does it well.
 * E. Merrill Root, American Writer
 * Man performs and engenders so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything.
 * William Faulkner

 * May you live all the days of your life.
 * Jonathan Swift

 * Others have done it before me. I can, too.
 * William Faulkner

 * Purpose of mankind: To better yourself and all that you know by seeking knowledge and truth, while at the same time never forgetting that all life is as equally important as your own.
 * Jeffrey C. Keene II

 * The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
 * William Faulkner

 * Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
 * Dale Carnegie

 * You are alive. So live.
 * Tomi Miyasaki

 * You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her.
 * Ebrahim Ajmal

 * When nothing is sure, everything is possible.
 * Margaret Drabble (b. 1939), English Novelist

 * Humans can choose the type of life they want to live. The important thing is that you choose life...and then...live!
 * Dr. Naomi Hunter from Metal Gear Solid

 * Life is a sequence of moments, live each moment to its fullest and you're bound to live a happy life
 * Clive Helleputte

 * I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirm the worth of life as an end in itself.
 * Oliver Wendell Holmes

 * Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
 * Friedrich Nietzsche

 * There is no wealth but life.
 * John Ruskin

Cynical

 * Life Is Hell
 * Owais Rizvi

 * Life is a dead-baby joke.
 * Vincent James Alia

 * Life is a bad game, imperfect and unfair. Let us play it well.
 * Bilal Said

 * Life comes with lousy odds. You wouldn't want to bet on it.
 * Tom Stoppard

 * Life, don't talk to me about life.
 * Marvin (the paranoid android) in Douglas Adams' philosophical treatise The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, c. 11 [10]

 * Life is a manure sandwich. The more dough you have, the less it tastes like manure.
 * Elevator wall, Columbia University, 1981

 * Life is strange. If you don't believe me, just live longer.
 * Andre L. Noel

 * Life... is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates. You're stuck with this undefinable whipped-mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while, there's a peanut butter cup, or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast, the taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits, filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts, and if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you've got left is a... is an empty box... filled with useless, brown paper wrappers.
 * Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files

 * Life — and I don't suppose I'm the first to make this comparison — is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.
 * Death in "Death Talks About Life" by Neil Gaiman

 * There have to be clouds for there to be silver linings.
 * Emily Potter

 * Life is a zoo in a jungle.
 * Peter de Vries

 * Anger is a wind which blows the lamp of the mind.
 * Fabian Lawrence

 * After all we can do....life is still a terminal disease.
 * Stanley Wells

 * Life is just a bowl of pits.
 * Rodney Dangerfield

 * The meaningless absurdity of life is the only incontestable knowledge accessible to man.
 * Leo Tolstoy

 * It is not true that life is one damn thing after another — it's one damn thing over and over.
 * Edna St. Vincent Millay

 * Yes, that's the worst of living — you get older every day
 * Reverend P. F. How

 * Life is like a butterfly: it doesn't last long.
 * Anonymous

Philosophical: in relation to death

 * The primary question about life after death is not whether it is a fact, but even if it is, what problems that really solves.
 * Ludwig Wittgenstein

 * Let us endeavor so to live that, when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.
 * Mark Twain

 * The meaning of life is that it ends.
 * Franz Kafka

 * Live by the gun, Die by the gun.
 * Tupac Amaru Shakur

 * Why are we running to live, if we're just living to die?
 * Gabriel Espinosa

 * Do not seek death; death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.
 * Dag Hammarskjold

 * The inevitability of death is the greatest affirmation of life.
 * Aaron Leonardi

 * Must not all things in the last be swallowed by death?
 * Plato

 * Either get busy living, or get busy dying.
 * Andy, in Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King

 * I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.
 * Gilda Radner

 * I'm not afraid of death. It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.
 * Jean Giraudoux, Amphitryon

 * If man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
 * Martin Luther King, Jr.

 * Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterward. These are games; one must first answer.
 * Albert Camus

 * Sometimes, dead is bettah
 * Jud Crandall, in Pet Sematary, by Stephen King

 * To live is to die.
 * Cliff Burton

 * We are born with two incurable diseases, life, from which we die, and hope, which says maybe death isn't the end.
 * Andrew Greeley

 * We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.
 * Charles Bukowski

 * What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal.
 * John Howe

 * While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.
 * Leonardo Da Vinci

 * Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there.
 * Robert Hunter

 * What else can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?
 * Death, in Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

 * Risk many things in life. But not life itself.
 * Stephane Decker

 * When you believe in eternity, life is irrelavent.
 * Nosliw Leahkim

 * We do what we must because we can, for the good of all of us (except the ones who are dead) but there's no use crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying until you run out of cake, and the science gets done and you make a neat gun for the people who are still alive'
 * Still Alive from Portal

 * I want to live 'til I die.
 * Stanley Wells

Philosophical: other

 * Life, man is given as something worthy of sacrifice in the way of His love; free will, as exemplary of justice, is the mechanism by which one's choice in that sacrifice must be made.
 * Walter Grant IV

 * Life is like how you look yourselves in the mirror,you always should think you are beautiful.
 * Sathish V & Sandip Kumar Chauhan

 * Some people live to be. I just live.
 * Susie de la Chappelle

 * Each person that has ever lived has had the same problem. They wanted to be remembered by everyone for what they were. To be forgotten is worse than death. People wanted to be remembered by other things than books and stories. But in the end that's all we can be remembered by. There's nothing you can do at this points but live. But when I'm to die I want to be remembered by one thing. I want people to say "He was the type of person that believed and saw the good in others even when they couldn't believe or see it in themselves." That is how I want to be remembered.
 * John M. Ludwig

 * ...for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence. Why atoms take this trouble is a bit of a puzzle. Being you is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, your atoms don't actually care about you — indeed, don't even know that you are there. They don't even know that they are there. They are mindless particles, after all, and not even themselves alive. (It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.) Yet somehow for the period of your existence they will answer to a single overarching impulse to keep you you.
 * Bill Bryson, *A Short History of Nearly Everything

 * We each carry the weight of personal choice and the responsibility for playing our part in furthering the persistence of life. At the same time, we each hold within the possibility for an awareness of the lightness at work in existence, the ultimate illusion of the material world, the absence of meaning beyond the meaning of that which presents itself to us.
 * Martin G. Walker, LIFE! Why We Exist... And What We Must Do to Survive

 * Life is like a farm, one wrong step and you're in DEEP SHIT!!!
 * Todd Lynch

 * I don't believe in miracles — I rely on them.
 * Karl Rahner

 * Lives aren't handed out somewhere, they're rewarded. And that reward, that priceless reward is only given out once. It's so fragile that one little tear, one little scratch, can destroy it.
 * Adrian Serna

 * I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt

 * If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt

 * Living a life is a hard thing to do, clutching it in your grasp and protecting it is easy for some, but not for others.
 * Adrian Serna

 * If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
 * Anatole France

 * In the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer.
 * Albert Camus

 * If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.
 * Ashleigh Brilliant

 * Is that your own life you're living?
 * Rachelle Ferrell, Intro. on her CD Individuality

 * It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy ... Let's go exploring!
 * Calvin, in It's a Magical World by Bill Watterson

 * Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.
 * Christopher Morley, US author & journalist, 1890-1957

 * Life is a great bundle of little things.
 * Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

 * Life was such a wheel that no man could stand upon it for long. And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again.
 * Stephen King. Closing lines of The Stand (1978)

 * Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour.
 * Stephen Leacock

 * A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt

 * Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.
 * Carl Sandburg

 * ...nothing is desperately important and the joy of life is just looking at it.
 * Alec Guinness

 * Opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work.
 * Thomas Edison

 * The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt

 * Reality is a term for people who refuse to see things as they can be, so that they might be, instead seeing things as they are, and lazily assuming that's how they'll always be.
 * Walter White

 * The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
 * Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, 1988

 * So many people tiptoe through life, so carefully, to arrive, safely, at death.
 * Tony Campolo

 * Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else's life, not even your own child's.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt

 * The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there isn't any.
 * Yogi Berra

 * The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.
 * Jim Rohn

 * The real world: no time to do it right, but always time to do it over.
 * Rex Jaeschke

 * There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.
 * Christopher Morley, US author & journalist, 1890-1957

 * There's no point in living, if you can't feel alive.
 * Shirley Ann Manson, in song performed by Garbage, The World Is Not Enough

 * To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.
 * T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), American Poet

 * We are a wondrous gathering of atoms formed into an incredible being, capable of experiencing our own existence. While we live this experience we must be thankful for it, and live it fully. When it ends, we return to what we were before it began. What we create and leave behind is our gift to those who will follow us. We return to the universe as we came from it, to be recreated, and recycled into the infinite all.
 * Allan Revich

 * What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this.
 * Epictetus, Roman Philosopher (55-135 AD)

 * With dried blood stiff on my temples I climbed the hill, cursing the satanic way of men, yet knowing myself vile, for they had not known what they were doing, but I betrayed an innocent; and the tears— weak whiskey tears— would not wash from my brow the blood of a little brother." [after a killing of a badger by villagers]
 * Henry Williamson, The Village Book (1930)

 * Without music life would be a mistake
 * Friedrich Nietzsche

 * Life isn't easy unless you behave as though it is.
 * David Gelvin

 * The special way of growing that real living things employ is exponential growth. Another way of saying this is that living things grow by local doubling.
 * Richard Dawkins

 * Life is...contradictory.
 * Ryan Mclean

 * Life's a game, you have to play if you want to win
 * Joris Van den Broeck

 * Life is like an incessant series of problems, all difficult, with brutal choices, and a time limit. The worst thing you can do is to make no choice, waiting for the ideal conclusion to present itself.
 * [Chapel the Evergreen]

 * A world without suffering is a world without life.
 * Keith Azzopardi

 * We've been evolving for millions of years, how come life still feels so short?
 * James Richard Hand

 * Life doesn't revolve around what you need to know, it revolves around what you need to understand.
 * Ganesh Nana, New Zealand Economist

 * Life give us too much freedom, but not enough options
 * Vincent James Alia

 * There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
 * Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931)

 * Life is a journey, you know; and a lot of journeys, you go out, you come back.
 * Yusuf Islam [Cat Stevens], English musician. From an interview on London Tonight, an ITV (UK) television news programme, 8th December 2009

 * If you're not living life on the edge, you're not taking up enough room.
 * Neil Morrissey, (UK actor)

 * Life is an incurable disease.
 * Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

 * I believe everyone decision is neither wrong or right because it affects your life no matter what! So how can you affect you life in a wrong way? It's your life, You choose how it goes.
 * Scott Thomson

 * Reality has become a commodity.
 * True talk from Stephen Colbert

 * The man who has no inner life is a slave to his surroundings.
 * Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821-1888)

 * If everything went the way we want it to in life, then we'd never learn.
 * Scott Thomson

 * The joke of life is the fall of dignity.
 * Mack Sennett

 * Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.
 * Samuel Butler (1835-1902), Notebooks, ‘Life’ 7

 * In life, everything will be ok...As long as you don't define ok.
 * Justin Mogilski

 * Life is like a "Potluck supper" whatever is available is acceptable.
 * Hemanth Kumar S

 * My secret to a long, healthy life is to always keep working. It keeps me busy and happy, and gives me a reason to stay alive.
 * Johannes Heesters (Dutch-German actor, singer, entertainer and media-personality, worlds oldest living performer)

Humorous

 * The BBC would like to make a correction: several weeks ago, a singer was on this program singing a song to the effect that life was a bowl of cherries. The BBC would like to point out that Life is not a bowl of cherries, but rather Life is a state of being categorized by organic metabolic reactions. The BBC would also like to apologize to one viewer who, in an attempt to take his own life, instead took a bowl of cherries, and was then promptly sick in the upstairs lavatory.
 * Not the Nine O'Clock News

 * Ever since I was a kid, I've always been a real deep thinker and stuff.
 * Billy Ray Cyrus

 * Always look on the Bright Side of Life
 * Eric Idle

 * Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life. If you happen to miss the one you care about, everything else in life becomes eerily easy.
 * Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

 * Hush. For we are going to stay buried here in this tomb together for a very, very long time, so hug me!
 * Juan Ruflo

 * I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.
 * Woody Allen

 * Life's a Laugh and Death's a Joke,its true.You'll see its all a Show,keep 'Em laughing as You go,just Remember that the last Laugh is on You
 * Eric Idle,Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

 * You wish that you could do something this ugly, and make it look this good.
 * Blake Allen

 * I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.
 * Jack Handey

 * I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.
 * Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

 * Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.
 * Nick "Pretty Boy" Romano (John Derek), Knock on Any Door (1949)

 * If it turns out to be a joke at the end, I'm going to be so pissed at whoever started it.
 * AnaMia Padilla

 * If your parents never had children, chances are ... neither will you.
 * Dick Cavett

 * Life: adjusting a necktie in a funhouse mirror.
 * James Geary

 * Life! – Don't talk to me about life!
 * Marvin the psychotic android

 * Life is gamble at terrible odds — if it was a bet, you wouldn't take it.
 * Tom Stoppard

 * Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it.
 * Dave Barry

 * Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering — and it's all over much too soon.
 * Woody Allen

 * Life is like a sewer — what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
 * Tom Lehrer

 * Life is too important to be taken seriously.
 * Oscar Wilde

 * Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove.
 * Ashleigh Brilliant

 * You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
 * Evan Esar

 * Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
 * David Brent in "The Office" [NB this source is a falsehood given the quote existed before the office]

 * Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.
 * Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump

 * I can face anything in life, except difficulties.
 * Aditya.R

 * After forty if it doesn't hurt it's not working.
 * Stanley Wells

 * Life is like underwear. Should be changed twice daily.
 * Ray Bradbury

 * Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.
 * Thomas La Mance

 * My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.
 * Louis Adamic

 * If life were perfect, it would be boring.
 * J. Chan

 * One learns in life to keep silent and draw one's own confusions.
 * Cornelia Otis Skinner

Verse

 * After the final no there comes a yes
 * And on that yes the future world depends
 * No was the night. Yes is this present sun.
 * Wallace Stevens, "The Well Dressed Man with a Beard"

 * My friend, the things that do attain The happy life be these, I find: The riches left, not got with pain: The fruitful ground, the quiet mind.
 * Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Martial's Quiet Life.

 * Isn't your life extremely flat With nothing to grumble at?
 * W. S. Gilbert

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
An editor has made the following comment regarding the quote, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away":
 * This mystery has been solved! While sourcing quotes for a book I'm writing, I was shocked to find this popular quote in a 1989 thirty-two-page booklet on Tahitian dance. (Tahitian Choreographies, Dance Fantasy Productions, August 1, 1989, page 36.) I called the author, Vicki Corona, on April 17, 2012, and she said that, to the best of her knowledge, the quote was hers because she always wrote original material for the series of dance booklets she produced. This book is by far the earliest publication of this quote that I could find. Conclusion: Credit Vicki Corona.

I moved this here from the main page. Cheers! BD2412 T 18:17, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Life


text:
Paul Desmond

 Paul Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld; 25 November 1924 – 30 May 1977) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known as a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for writing "Take Five".

Unsourced

 * I could only write at the beach, and I kept getting sand in my typewriter.
 * His reason for not pursuing a literary career

 * I hate the way he writes. I kind of love the way he lives, though.
 * On writer Jack Kerouac

 * I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player, as well as a special award in 1961 for quietness.

 * I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.
 * About his distinctive light sound

 * I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.
 * About the value of practice

 * I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.
 * About his playing style

 * It's like living in a house where everything's painted red.
 * On Ornette Coleman's playing

 * Not for me. If I want to tune everybody out, I just take off my glasses and enjoy the haze.
 * On contact lenses

 * Sometimes I get the feeling that there are orgies going on all over New York City, and somebody says, `Let's call Desmond,' and somebody else says,'Why bother? He's probably home reading the Encyclopedia Britannica.'

 * Well, that I'm not playing better.
 * When asked by Gene Lees what accounted for the melancholy in his playing

 * Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can’t be taught.

 * You're beginning to sound like a cross between David Frost and David Susskind, and that is a cross I cannot bear.
 * His response to the annoying banality of an interviewer

title: Paul Desmond