Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

—Lillian Hellman

Fanaticism is a monster that pretends to be the child of religion.

—Voltaire

Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.

—Emo Phillips

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is the folly of too many, to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of a kingdom.

—Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) via The QI Elves on Twitter

The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.

—Friedrich Nietzsche

Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent.

—Franz Fanon

In this day and age, when the increasing complexity of modern life leaves one barely any time for reading …

—Proust (1919) (via James Gleick)

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.

—Herman Melville

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

—Eric Hoffer

I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

—Jerome K. Jerome

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

—Thomas Henry Huxley

Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.

-Voltaire

Just because nobody complains doesn’t mean all parachutes are perfect.

—Benny Hill

Know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything’s different.

—Bill Watterson

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

—H. L. Mencken

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

—Carl Jung

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.

—Bertolt Brecht

It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.

—Malcolm Forbes

A wet man does not fear rain.

—Russian Proverb

Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.

—Benjamin Jowett

Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.

—George Jean Nathan

The innocent feel guilty, the guilty feel nothing.

—Estonian Movie 1944

An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.

—Jef Mallett

"Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.

—W.E.B. Du Bois

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.

—Sir Terry Pratchett

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.

—Pierre Beaumarchais

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.

―Anatole France

It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he already thinks he knows.

―Epictetus

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

—Sir William Osler

To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.

—George Orwell

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

―Kenneth Galbraith

The big thieves hang the little ones.

―Czech Proverb

Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.

―Marcus Aurelius

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

—Dwight Eisenhower

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

―Grey’s Law

The master’s tools will never be used to dismantle the master’s house.

―Audre Lorde

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

―James Baldwin

Man is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him.

―Paul Eldridge

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.

―John Kenneth Galbraith

Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains; thieves of public property in riches and luxury.

―Cato the Elder

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

― Benjamin Franklin

The best way out is always through.

― Robert Frost