Some Favorite Quotes
“For all that has been, thanks – to all that will be, yes.” — Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), Swedish diplomat
“The thing which is the most outstanding and the most desirable to all healthy and good and well-off persons, is a peaceful life with honor.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE-43 BCE), Pro Sestio, xlv, 98
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” — Anatole France (1844-1924), French author
“Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), American humorist
“Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.” — J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), The Lord Of the Rings
“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.” — Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish theologian
“I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.” — Diogenes (412-323 BCE)
The only sonnet I know by heart:
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
Foul’d by these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body’s end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.”
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnet 146
And, a prayer:
All-Knowing Zeus,
Give me what is best for me,
Avert evil from me, though it be the thing I prayed for;
And give me the good which from ignorance I do not ask.
