Category: Quote of the Week

“Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.” – R. G. Collingwood (1889-1943), from ‘Speculum Mentis’ (1924)

“No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned…A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.” –  Samuel Johnson, as quoted In James Boswell’s ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’ (1791) Vol. 1, p. 348.

“Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity. Honour widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. 5 Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. And these things give …

“And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them. And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and …

“There was nothing dishonourable in not being blown about by every little modern wind. Better to have worth, to entrench, to be an oak of one’s own generation.” – John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

“I know many have been taught to think that moderation, in a case like this, is a sort of treason.” – Edmund Burke, from ‘Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America’ (1777)

“I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.” – Richard Rumbold (c.1622-85). On the scaffold, as quoted in T. B. Macauley’s ‘Histories of England’ Volume 1 (1849) Chapter 1

“If you believe in equal rights, then what do “women’s rights,” “gay rights,” etc., mean? Either they are redundant or they are violations of the principle of equal rights for all.” – Thomas Sowell

“Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.” – W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), from ‘Cakes and Ale’ (1930)

“If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed …

“Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak! Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, …

“We must distinguish between a man of polite learning and a mere scholar: the first is a gentleman and what a gentleman should be; the last is a mere book-case, a bundle of letters, a head stuffed with the jargon of languages, a man that understands every body but is understood by no body.” – Daniel Defoe ‘The Complete English Gentleman’ (written in 1728.)

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” – C.S. Lewis, as quoted in in Chapter 31 of Cyril Connolly’s ‘The Unquiet Grave’ (1944)

“The life so short, the craft so long to learn.” – Hippocrates (c.460-357 B.C.), from ‘Aphorisms’ sect. 1, para. 1 (translation by Chaucer). Often quoted in Latin as Ars longa, vita brevis.

“Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us O’er the world’s tempestuous sea; Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us, For we have no help but Thee.”  – James Edmeston (1791-1867), from Sacred Lyrics (1821) ‘Lead Us, Heavenly Father