To FootThe entries are selected purely on the basis that I personally like them. Corrections are welcome; but suggestions of other quotations, except where requested, are not.
Alfonso X, King of Castile and Leon
(1221-1284) :-
About the Ptolemaic system -
"If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon Creation,
I should have recommended something simpler."
Allegedly by Gaius Petronius Arbiter
(c. 210 BC or c. 60 AD) :-
"We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning
to form up into teams we would be reorganised. I was to learn later in
life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising; and a
wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while
producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralisation."
However, JimReeds confidently stated
that the quote is a modern invention - mid-c20.
Geoffrey A. Landis wrote :-
This quote is a fabrication. It comes from Robert Townsend's book
Up The Organization. Petronius didn't say it.
Bruce Bairnsfather
(1887-1959) :-
"Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it."
Fragments from France, I
Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) :-
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) :-
"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."
Sir Arthur Bryant cited this in Chap. 6 of his "Turn of the Tide" (Alan Brooke, '39-'43) :-
And so while the great ones depart to their dinner,
The secretary stays, growing thinner and thinner
Racking his brain to record and report
What he thinks that they think that they ought to have thought.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) (he is often mis-quoted) :-
Sir Arthur C Clarke (1917- ) :-
"Clinton's a queer sort of fellow and you never know exactly
what's going on in his mind."
Prelude to Space, Chap. XIX, ~85% through.
Charles Luttwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)
(1832-1898) :-
"The method employed I would gladly explain,
While I have it so clear in my head,
If I had but the time and you had but the brain -
But much yet remains to be said."
The Hunting of the Snark
Aelius Donatus (c4) :-
"Pereant, inquit, qui ante nos nostra dixerunt." :
"Confound the men who have made our remarks before us"
St Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Ch.1.
Sir Francis Drake's Prayer :-
"O Lord God, when Thou givest to Thy servants
to endeavour any great matter, grant us also
to know that it is not the beginning, but the
continuing of the same unto the end, until it
be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the
true glory."
May, 1587.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) :-
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" /
"Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler" /
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler" /
"Things should be as simple as possible, but not any simpler"
The quotation is variously given; the original may have been
in German, or repeated.
Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland
(1610-1649)
"When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change".
In Parliament, 1641 (repeated in debate on 1832 Reform Bill).
Said to have been re-used ("If ..."?) by
J F Kennedy (1917-1963),
re. the US electoral college.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) :-
"I think it would be a good idea."
when asked what he thought of Western civilization.
G H Hardy (1877-1947) :-
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that."
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) :-
"This supreme instance of Troy's goodness fell upon Gabriel's ears like
the thirteenth stroke of a crazy clock. It was not only received with
utter incredulity as regarded itself, but threw a doubt on all the
assurances that had preceded it."
Far from the Madding Crowd, Chap. 29
Is that the prime source?
Sills, P.J., of the Court of Appeal
of the State of California stated in Shea v. DMV :
"Or, as Lord Light, the fictional English judge created by A. P.
Herbert put it in Rex v. Haddock, "it is like the thirteenth stroke of a
crazy clock, which not only is itself discredited but casts a shade of
doubt over all previous assertions." (Herbert, Uncommon Law (Eyre
Methuen Ltd. 1974), p. 28.)".
In APH, "Misleading Cases in the Common Law", Lord Justice Frog,
p.36.
Brewer, entry for Clock, refers to St Paul's clock having struck thirteen.
G W F Hegel (1770-1831) :-
"What experience and history teach is this - that people and governments
never have learnt anything from history, or acted on principles deduced
from it."
Introduction to Philosophy of History.
E W Hornung (1866-1921) :-
"He has read everything, and, to his credit, written nothing." -
of A J Raffles. - - - ???
Perhaps instead :
"He has read everything and (to his credit in these days) never
written a line." - said by Raffles of Lord Thornaby -
"A Thief in the Night - The Criminologists' Club".
Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) :-
"'Dam’ good idea. Always force foreigner to learn English.'"
Alexis Ivan Alexandrov, in "The Black Cloud", Chap. 10, para 4.
See also below.
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) :-
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
(The Economist, 1999-12-18, p.47;
reply to accusation of inconsistency)
Donald E Knuth (1938- ) :-
"Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random"
The Art of Computer Programming Volume 2,
Seminumerical algorithms.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proven it correct, not
tried it."
Admiral Viscount Nelson (1758-1805) :-
"God save the Queen, Bless our dinners,
Make us thankful. Amen."
A Grace.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) :-
"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu
le loisir de la faire plus courte."
Lettres Provinciales, 1657
George Santayana (1863-1952,
U.S. philosopher, poet) :-
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
The Life of Reason, "Reason in Common Sense," ch. 12 (1905-6)
(New York: Scribners).
Reported 1999-07-29 by JJ that ODQ Ed 3 has
"...are condemned to fulfil it".
But ODQ Ed 4 and Bartlett have 'repeat'.
This quote applies to those who ask in Newsgroups
questions which have recently been answered there.
Friedrich von Schiller
(1759-1805) :-
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III, vi.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) :-
"... brevity is the soul of wit, ..."
Hamlet, II, ii, 90.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), :-
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world ;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
Man and Superman
Bob Shaw :-
"I refuse to have an emotional attachment to a piece of ground. At one
end of the scale it's called patriotism, at the other end of the scale
it's called gardening."
C P (Charles Percy) Snow (1905-80) :-
"I wouldn't mind so much that he's never written a book.
But I do think it's a pity that he's never read one."
"The Sleep of Reason" - Page 22
(in the "Strangers and Brothers" sequence)
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835-1910) :-
Robert Weisbuch ( - ) :-
"An engineer takes a problem and fixes it.
A humanist takes a problem and celebrates its complexity."
"Six Proposals to Revive the Humanities,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, March 29, 1999, page B4.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) :-
"I am not young enough to know everything."
"A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude."
Sources unknown.
St Matthew: Chapter 27, verse 5, tail.
"Go and do thou likewise" : St Luke: Chapter 10, Verse 37, tail; at the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
"Whatsoever thou doest, do it quickly" or similar ... "What you are about to do, do quickly" [New International Version] St John, Chapter 13, Verse 27.
??? The original of one about "Only speak if you can improve the silence".
Sir Winston Churchill - as above.
"May you live in interesting times!" - an 'ancient Chinese curse'.
(see
Get
a(n interesting) Life!)
"Time is nature's way to keep everything from happening at once." ... John A Wheeler
"Space is nature's way of preventing everything from being all in the same place." ...
... USE THEM WELL
Vladimir Arnost -
"Can you imagine the silence if everyone said only what he knows?"
-- Karel Capek
Julian Barker :-
"There is a coherent plan in the universe,
though I don't know what it is a plan for." --
Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001)
Philippe Detournay :-
"Heureux l'élève qui comme la rivière peut suivre
son cours sans sortir de son lit..."
Ed Dressel :-
The difference between theory and reality is much smaller in theory
then it is in reality.
Phil Edwards :-
"February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March."
-- Dr. J R Stockton
Steve Fulton :-
I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you
looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.
-- Poul Anderson
John Hall :-
"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
that man can never learn anything from history."
-- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Peter Hesketh :-
"I don't make predictions. I never have and I never will." --
Tony Blair
Neale Hind :-
"Insanity is hereditary - you get it from your children."
Vinzent Hoefler :-
"Intel CPUs are not defective, they just act that way." --
Henry Spencer
Chris Howell :-
"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who
annoy me."
Kitarak :-
Lawyer :- "Now sir, I'm sure you are an intelligent
and honest man--"
Witness :- "Thank you. If I weren't under oath,
I'd return the compliment."
Dirk@Loth :-
"The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I will
walk carefully."
-- Russian Proverb
Ron Lowe :-
"Wisdom comes in 10 parts, 9 of which are silence.
The tenth is brevity of language. (Old Scottish proverb)."
Mark Lowes :-
"One day I'll learn not to say yes when someone asks me if I can be
tempted into something."
Dave Mayall quoting from a .sig -
"There's a fixed amount of intelligence in the world, but the
population keeps growing."
oli! :-
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life
exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to
contact us." -- 'Calvin and Hobbes'
cartoon by Bill Waterson
Shez :-
I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when
looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated.
-- Poul Anderson
Stephen Sprunk :-
Those people who think they know everything
are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
-- Isaac Asimov
Bill Woods :-
"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."
-- Alexander Pope
"It did not last: the Devil howling, 'Ho,
Let Einstein be!' restored the status quo."
-- J. C. Squire
AWY quoting from a .sig :-
"Never argue with a fool.
For all you know, he may be doing the same."
"Crash" Dummy :-
"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
-- Mark Twain
Me, on suitable occasions :-