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Essay Quotes Flashcards

0
Q

Calvin Coolidge on Education

A

•”Education will not [take the place of persistence]: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press on’ has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race.”

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1
Q

Albert Einstein on Human Nature

A

•”Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.”

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2
Q

Samuel Beckett: Miscellaneous

A
  • “We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom, our ideals.” (Human nature? Disintegration)
  • “What do I know of man’s destiny? I could tell you more about radishes.”
  • “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.”
  • “There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet.”
  • “The tears of the world are a constant quality. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops.”
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3
Q

Oscar Wilde on Democracy, Government, and Power

A
  • “Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.”
  • “Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”
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4
Q

Camille Paglia on Education

A

•”Education has become a prisoner of contemporaneity. It is the past, not the dizzy present, that is the best door to the future.”

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5
Q

Martin Luther King Jr.

A
  • “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
  • “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetuate it.”
  • “The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.”
  • “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
  • “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.”
  • “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
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6
Q

Voltaire on Government and Power

A
  • “As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.”
  • “It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”
  • “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
  • “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.”
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7
Q

Julius Caesar on Human Nature

A
  • “Men willingly believe what they wish.”

* “As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.”

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8
Q

Virgil (classical Roman port)

A
  • “Who asks whether the enemy were defeated by strategy or valor?”
  • “Evil is nourished and grows by concealment.”
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9
Q

Frank Kafka on human nature

A

“There are questions we could not get past if we were not set fee from them by our very nature.”

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10
Q

Winston Churchill on progress and work

A
  • “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
  • “Without victory there is no survival.”
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11
Q

Napoleon Bonaparte on human nature

A
  • “Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self-interest.”
  • “A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.”
  • “Greatness be nothing unless it be lasting.”
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12
Q

Jean-Paul Sartre on human nature and the value of progress

A
  • “Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.”
  • “I hate victims who respect their executioners.”
  • “All human actions are equivalent… and all are on principle doomed to failure.”
  • “Hell is other people.” (From the play No Exit)
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13
Q

Albert Einstein

A

German-born theoretical physicist

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14
Q

Calvin Coolidge

A

30th U.S. President, advocate for small government.

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15
Q

Samuel Beckett

A

Irish-born avant-gard writer, highly minimalist, known for bleak outlook.

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16
Q

Oscar Wilde

A

Irish writer and prominent aesthete

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17
Q

Albert Einstein on Intellectual Endeavors/Technology and Society

A

•”Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.”

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18
Q

Oscar Wilde on Human Nature

A

•”The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing.”

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19
Q

Camille Paglia

A

Modern-day American author, professor, “dissident feminist”

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20
Q

Camille Paglia on Art

A

•”Popular culture is the new Babylon, into which do much art and intellect now flow.”

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21
Q

Martin Luther King Jr.

A

American pastor, leader in African-American Civil Rights Movement

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22
Q

Voltaire

A

French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, advocate of civil liberties

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23
Q

Julius Caesar

A

Roman general, statesman, author of Latin prose

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24
Q

Virgil

A

Classical Roman poet

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25
Q

Frank Kafka

A

20th-century existentialist fiction writer, author of The Trial and Metamorphosis

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26
Q

Winston Churchill

A

Led the U.K. during WWII

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27
Q

Napoleon Bonaparte

A

French military and political leader during the French Revolution

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28
Q

Jean-Paul Sartre

A

20th century French existentialist writer/philosopher

29
Q

John F. Kennedy

A

35th President

30
Q

JFK on human virtues

A
  • “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.”

* “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

31
Q

Theodore Roosevelt

A

26th U.S. President

32
Q

Theodore Roosevelt on altruism and human virtues

A

“Far and away the best prize that life can offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

33
Q

Woodrow Wilson

A

28th U.S. President, leading intellectual of the Progressive era.

34
Q

Woodrow Wilson on government

A

“No nation is for to sit in judgment upon any other nation.”

35
Q

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A

19th century American transcendentalist author, proponent of individualism.

36
Q

Ralph Waldo Emerson on human virtues/ human nature.

A
  • “It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.”
  • “Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self.”
37
Q

Daniel Webster

A

Leading American statesman during Antebellum period

38
Q

Daniel Webster on just government

A
  • “Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.”
  • “A mass of men equals a mass of opinions.”
  • “Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may.”
39
Q

Tom Stoppard

A

20th Century playwright renowned for use of humor.

40
Q

Tom Stoppard on life

A

“Life is a gamble, at terrible odds—if it was a bet, you wouldn’t take it.”

41
Q

Sinclair Lewis

A

20th Century American novelist, author of Babbitt

42
Q

Sinclair Lewis on human virtues

A

“Pugnacity is a form of courage, but a very bad form.”

43
Q

Thomas Jefferson

A

3rd U.S. President, author of Declaration of Independence

44
Q

Thomas Jefferson on just government

A

“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.”

45
Q

Florence Nightingale

A

English nurse, came to prominence tending to soldiers during Crimean War

46
Q

Florence Nightingale on altruism and human virtue

A
  • “I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.”
  • “How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.”
  • “The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, then narrow narrower.”
47
Q

Virginia Woolf

A

20th century English modernist writer, author of To the Lighthouse

48
Q

Virginia Woolf on human nature

A

“Really, I don’t like human nature unless all candied over with art.”

49
Q

Socrates

A

Ancient Greek philosopher, teacher of Pluto

50
Q

Socrates on human virtues/nature

A
  • “Life contains but two tragedies. One is to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.”
  • “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.”
  • “From the deepest desires often comes the deadliest hate.”
51
Q

Socrates on justice/citezenship

A
  • “I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”
  • “Nothing is to be preferred before justice.”
  • “Let him that would move the world, first move himself.”
52
Q

John Locke

A

17th century English philosopher influential in the Enlightenment

53
Q

John Locke on human nature

A

•”The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.”

54
Q

Thomas Hobbes

A

17th century English Philosopher

55
Q

Thomas Hobbes on life and human nature

A
  • “Leisure is the mother of Philosophy.”

* “The life of man: solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

56
Q

Henry David Thoreau

A

Transcendentalist writer, author of Walden

57
Q

Henry David Thoreau on human life/nature/virtues

A
  • “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
  • “Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.”
  • “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.”
58
Q

Immanuel Kant

A

18th century German philosopher

59
Q

Immanuel Kant on human virtues

A
  • “Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.”
  • “Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.”
60
Q

Gertrude Stein

A

A ante-grade American writer who lives as an expatriate on Francw

61
Q

Gertrude Stein on money

A

•”Money is always there, but the pockets change.”

62
Q

Mohammad Gandhi

A

Political and spiritual leader of Indian Independence Movement

63
Q

Mohammad Gandhi on life

A
  • “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”

* “God comes to the hungry in the form of food.”

64
Q

Mohammad Gandhi on just government

A
  • “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”
  • “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
65
Q

William Shakespeaee

A

16th century poet, playwright, and actor

66
Q

William Shakespeare from The Taming of the Shrew

A

“There’s small choice in rotten apples.”

67
Q

William Shakespeare from Sonnet 102

A

“Sweets grown common lose their dear delight.”

68
Q

William Shakespeare from King Lear

A

“The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”

69
Q

William Shakespeare from Hamlet

A

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”

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