See in what peace a Christian may die. –Addison’s last
words
As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on
earth. –Mikhail Bakunin
The passion for destruction is also a creative passion. –Mikhail Bakunin
Pray: To ask
the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner
confessedly unworthy. –Ambrose Bierce
The covers of this book are too far apart. –Ambrose
Bierce
After one look at this planet, any visitor from outer space
would say, “I WANT TO SEE THE MANAGER”. –William Burroughs
Life’s too short for chess. –Henry J. Brown
If you attack the establishment long enough and hard
enough, they will make you a member of it. –Art Buchwald
Beauty in distress in much the most affecting beauty.
–Edmund Burke
What millions died that Caesar might be great! –Thomas
Campbell
“I’m very brave generally”, he went on in low voice:
“only today I have a headache”. –Alice
in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
“When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said in rather a
scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor
less”. –Lewis Carroll, Alice in
Wonderland
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for those we
despise, we don’t believe in it at all. –Noam Chomsky
Life is too short to stuff a mushroom. –Shirley Conran
Do you see this egg? With
this egg you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the
world. –Denis Diderot
It is said that desire is a product of will, but the
converse is in fact true: will is a
product of desire. –Denis Diderot
The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion.
–Denis Diderot
The philosophers have never killed any priests, whereas the
priests have killed a great many philosophers. –Denis Diderot
(Of Lillian Hellman) Much has been written about her
enemies. She picked them with care
and God knows they deserved her. –Jules Feiffer
I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use. –Galilei Galileo
We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals.
We come as enemies. As the
wolf bursts into the flock, so we come. –Joseph Göebbels, Nazi Minister for
Enlightenment
God makes stars. I
just produce them. –Samuel Goldwyn
When the devil quotes Scripture its not really to deceive,
but simply that the masses are so ignorant of theology that somebody has to
teach them, the elementary texts before he can seduce them. –Paul Goodman
An armed society is a polite society. –Robert Heinlen
There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of
it. –Alfred Hitchcock
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
–Eric Hoffer
“More” is as effective a revolutionary slogan as was
ever invented by the doctrinaires of dissent.
The American, who cannot learn to want what he has, is a permanent
revolutionary. –Eric Hoffer
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the
boot that kicks them first. –Eric Hoffer
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to
deceive themselves. –Eric Hoffe
Sensuality reconciles us to the human race.
The misanthropy of old is due in large part to the fading of the magic
glow of desire. –Eric Hoffer
Take away hatred from some people and you have men without
faith. –Eric Hoffer
The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow
old gracefully. –Eric Hoffer
There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to
overestimate people; we are laying for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting
them down to size. –Eric Hoffer
The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a
hater of mankind as the totalitarian who wants to turn them into puppets.
–Eric Hoffer
We are told that talent creates its own opportunities.
But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own
opportunities, but its own talents. –Eric Hoffer
Every institution not only carries with it the seeds of its
own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival. –William Ralph
Inge
A skeptic finds Dallas
absurd. A publicist thinks the
public doesn’t. –Clive James
The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people any worse than they are. –Karl Krauss
Conscience: self-esteem with a halo. –Irving Layton
Idealist-a cynic in the making. –Irving Layton
In Pierre Eliot Trudeau, Canada has at last produced a
political leader worthy of assassination. –Irving Layton
My neighbor
doesn’t want to be loved
as much as
he wants to be envied. –Irving Layton
If you are a dog and your owner suggest that you wear a
sweater…suggest that he wear a tail. –Fran Lebowitz
If you are of the opinion that the contemplation of suicide
is sufficient evidence of your poetic nature, do not forget that actions speak
louder than words. –Fran Lebowitz
The most common error made in matters of appearance is the
belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of
one’s soul shine through. If
there are places on your body where this is possible, you are not attractive -
you are leaking. –Fran Lebowitz
Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you
might imagine. You need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease
or major motion-picture star. If
your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use the word
“collectible” as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified success.
–Fran Lebowitz
You can fool all of the people all of the time if the
advertising is right and the budget is bug enough. –Joseph E. Levine
Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists.
–Joseph de Maistre
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. –Paradise
Lost, John Milton
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely
according to conscience above all liberties. John Milton, Areopagitica
Take this and be henceforth among the Gods
Thyself a Goddess. –John Milton, Paradise Lost
They also serve who only stand and wait. –John Milton
As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for
socialism is its adherents. –George Orwell
The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.
–J. Enoch Powell
The bourgeois are other people. –Jules Renard
Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to
give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. –Jean Rostand
God owns heaven but he craves earth. -Anne Sexton
Nature abhors a hero.
For one thing he violates the law of the conservation of energy.
For another, how can it be survival of the fittest when the fittest keeps
putting himself in situations where he is most likely to be creamed? –Solomon
Short
The weeping of an heir is laughter in disguise. –Publius
Syrus
There is no good…in living in a society where you are
merely the equal of everybody else…The true pleasure of life if to live with
your inferiors. –William Makepeace Thackeray
Cynicism is the humor of hatred. –Herbert Beerbohm Tree
But the peasants-how do the peasants die, Tolstoy’s last words, attributed
Clothes make the man.
Naked people have little or no influence on society. –Mark Twain
Get you facts first. Then
you can distort them as much as you please. –Mark Twain
In the first place, God made idiots.
This was for practice. Then
he made school boards. –Mark Twain
Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief
denied even to prayer. –Mark Twain
Wagner’s music is better than it sounds. –Mark Twain
We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents. A person, who has for untold centuries maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race and political head of the whole of it, must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order. –Mark Twain
Perhaps one day this to will be pleasant to remember. –The
Aeneid, Virgil, Roman poet, 70-19 BC
The gates of Hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent and easy the way:
But, to return and view the cheerful skies;
In this, the task and mighty labor lies. –Virgil, The
Aeneid
If there hadn’t been nay women, we’d still be squatting
in caves eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our
girlfriends. And they tolerated it
and let us go ahead and play with our toys. –Orson Welles
Silence is never an option. –Elie Wiesel
It is no longer enough to be lusty.
One must be a sexual gourmet. –George F. Will
Making the world safe for hypocrisy. –Thomas Wolfe
They came. They
saw. They did a little shopping.
–German street graffiti in West Berlin following reunification
Never advise anyone to go to war or marry. –Spanish proverb