All Quotes

"This mortal Don Quixote died and descended into hell, which he entered lance on rest, and freed all the condemned, as he freed the galley slaves, and he shut the gates of hell, and tore down the scroll that Dante saw there and replaced it by one on which was written "Long live hope!" and escorted by those whom he had freed, and they laughing at him, he went to heaven. And God laughed paternally at him, and this divine laughter filled his soul with eternal happiness."

"And the other Don Quixote remained here among us, fighting with desperation. And does he not fight out of despair? ...But "despair is the master of possibilities," as we learn from Salazar y Torres (Elegir al enemigo, Act I.), and it is despair and despair alone that begets heroic hope, absurd hope, mad hope. Spero quia absurdum [I hope because it is absurd], it ought to have been said, rather than credo [Credo quia absurdam — I believe because it is absurd]."

"The philosophy of Bergson, which is a spiritualist restoration, essentially mystical, medieval, Quixotesque, has been called a demi-mondaine philosophy. Leave out the demi; call it mondaine, mundane. Mundane — yes, a philosophy for the world and not for philosophers, just as chemistry ought to be not for chemists alone. The world desires illusion (mundus vult decipi) — either the illusion antecedent to reason, which is poetry, or the illusion subsequent to reason, which is religion. And Machiavelli has said that whosoever wishes to delude will always find someone willing to be deluded. Blessed are they who are easily befooled!"

"Science does not give Don Quixote what he demands of it. "Then let him not make the demand," it will be said, "let him resign himself, let him accept life and truth as they are." But he does not accept them as they are, and he asks for signs, urged thereto by Sancho, who stands by his side. And it is not that Don Quixote does not understand what those understand who talk thus to him, those who succeed in resigning themselves and accepting rational life and rational truth. No, it is that the needs of his heart are greater. Pedantry? Who knows!... And he wishes, unhappy man, to rationalize the irrational and irrationalize the rational. And he sinks into despair of the critical century whose two greatest victims were Nietzsche and Tolstoi. And through this despair he reaches the heroic fury of which Giordano Bruno spoke — that intellectual Don Quixote who escaped from the cloister — and became an awakener of sleeping souls (dormitantium animorum excubitor), as the ex-Dominican said of himself — he who wrote: "Heroic love is the property of those superior natures who are called insane (insano) not because they do not know, but because they over-know (soprasanno).""

"But our Don Quixote, the inward, the immortal Don Quixote, conscious of his own comicness, does not believe that his doctrines will triumph in this world, because they are not of it. And it is better that they should not triumph. And if the world wished to make Don Quixote king, he would retire alone to the mountain, fleeing from the king-making crowds, as Christ retired alone to the mountain when, after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, they sought to proclaim him king. He left the title of king for the inscription written over the cross."

"I hope, reader, that some time while our tragedy is still playing, in some interval between acts, we shall meet again. And we shall recognize one another. And forgive me if I have troubled you more than was needful and inevitable, more than I intended to do when I took up my pen proposing to distract you from your distractions. And may God deny you peace, but give you glory!"

"And killing time is perhaps the essence of comedy, just as the essence of tragedy is killing eternity."

"I would say that teleology is theology, and that God is not a "because," but rather an "in order to.""

"Let us go on committing suicide by working among our people, and let them dream life just as the lake dreams the sky."

"One of those leaders of what they call the social revolution has said that religion is the opiate of the people. Opium...opium...opium, yes. Let us give them opium so that they can sleep and dream."

"Your own philosophy condemns you and supports us."

"We admired Dr. King. We felt his loss as our own. The tragedy rekindled memories of the great martyrs of all time who gave their lives so that men might live and grow. We thought of the great men in your own country who fell to the assassin's bullet and of Mahatma Gandhi's martyrdom here in this city, this very month, twenty-one years ago. Such events remain as wounds in the human consciousness, reminding us of battles, yet to be fought and tasks still to be accomplished. We should not mourn for men of high ideals. Rather we should rejoice that we had the privilege of having had them with us, to inspire us by their radiant personalities."

"The great need in the world today is for for nations to so define their national interest that it makes for greater harmony, greater equality and justice and greater stability in the world."

"We believe in freedom with a passion that only those who have been denied it for so long can understand it, We believe in equality because so many in our nation have been denied for so long, we believe in human worth for that is the basis for all our current work in India."

"A nation's strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others."

"India wants to avoid a war at all costs but it is not a one-sided affair, you cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."

"There are grave misgivings that the discussion on ecology may be designed to distract attention from the problems of war and poverty."

"There are moments in history when brooding tragedy and its dark shadows can be lightened by recalling great moments of the past."

"All unprejudiced persons objectively surveying the grim events in Bangladesh since March 25 have recognized the revolt of 75 million people, a people who were forced to the conclusion that neither their life, nor their liberty, to say nothing of the possibility of the pursuit of happiness, was available to them."

"Dacca is now the free capital of a free country."

"You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose."

"My father was a statesman, I'm a political woman. My father was a saint. I'm not."

"I was ever charitable and good to the poor, and scorn to take the bread out of another man's mouth. On the other side, by our Lady, they shall play me no foul play. I am an old cur at a crust, and can sleep dog-sleep when I list. I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes. I know where the shoe wrings me. I will know who and who is together. Honesty is the best policy, I will stick to that. The good shall have my hand and heart, but the bad neither foot nor fellowship. And in my mind, the main point of governing, is to make a good beginning."

"Nadie nace enseñado, y de los hombres se hacen los obispos, que no de las piedras."

"A good name is better than riches."

"I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion."

"An honest man's word is as good as his bond."

"Heaven's help is better than early rising."

"I have other fish to fry."

"There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things."

"But all in good time."

"Matters will go swimmingly."

"Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves."

"Good wits jump; a word to the wise is enough."

"Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness — its opposite — never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes."

"What a man has, so much he's sure of."

"The pot calls the kettle black."

"They had best not stir the rice, though it sticks to the pot."

"Good wits jump; 45 a word to the wise is enough."

"You may as well expect pears from an elm."

"Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world."

"You cannot eat your cake and have your cake; 48 and store 's no sore."

"Diligence is the mother of good fortune."

"What a man has, so much he is sure of."

"When a man says, "Get out of my house! what would you have with my wife?" there is no answer to be made."

"Mum's the word."

"This peck of troubles."

"When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome."

"If a governor comes out of his government rich, they say he has been a thief; and if he comes out poor, that he has been a noodle and a blockhead."

"Many count their chickens before they are hatched; and where they expect bacon, meet with broken bones."