Quotes to inspire and reflect

The law, wherein, as in a magic mirror, we see reflected, not only our own lives, but the lives of all men that have been!

 

The law embodies the story of a nation’s development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics.

 

Vengeance imports a feeling of blame, and an opinion, however distorted by passion, that a wrong has been done. It can hardly go very far beyond the case of a harm intentionally inflicted: even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.

 

He comes of the Brahmin caste of New England. This is the harmless, inoffensive, untitled aristocracy referred to, and which many readers will at once acknowledge.

 

The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed.

 

Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system.

 

The state should, I think, be called “Anaesthesia.” This signifies insensibility. . . . The adjective will be “Anaesthetic.” Thus we might say the state of Anaesthesia, or the anaesthetic state.

 

[ Of Thomas à Becket, 1170 :] Who will deliver me from this turbulent Priest?

 

And if I should live to be

 

I’m OK—You’re OK.

 

A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone.

 

Outside the Kingdom of the Lord there is no nation which is greater than another. God and history will remember your judgment!

 

Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: . . . until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation; . . . until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; . . . until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; . . . until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.

 

De toutes les aberrations sexuelles, la plus singulière est peut-être la chasteté .

 

Soldiers! When it is announced that a respected and beloved leader has died for our freedom in the course of a battle, do not grieve, do not lose hope! Observe that anyone who dies for his country is a fortunate man, but death takes what it wants, indiscriminately, in peacetime as well as in war. It is better to die with freedom than without it.

 

Preach the gospel all the time—if necessary, use words.

 

The so-called white races are really pinko-gray.

 

I am known in parts of the world by people who have never heard of Jesus Christ.

 

I do not know, but I feel it happen and am in agony.

 

No justice, no peace.

 

[ Advice to writers :] First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. . . . Habit is persistence in practice.

 

I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

 

We’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all!

 

[ On turning his attention to long-term objectives :] Oh, the vision thing.

 

[ Maintaining that he was not involved in discussions of trading arms for hostages in 1985 :] We were not in the loop.

 

[ Remark after vice-presidential debate with Geraldine Ferraro :] We tried to kick a little ass last night.

 

The big mo [momentum].

 

What is at stake is more than one small country; it is a big idea: a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind—peace and security, freedom and the rule of law.

 

The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: By the grace of God, America won the Cold War.

 

The liberation of Kuwait has begun. In conjunction with the forces of our coalition partners, the United States has moved under the code name Operation Desert Storm to enforce the mandates of the United Nations Security Council.

 

We have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order—a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations.

 

[ Referring to United States actions against Iraq :] A line has been drawn in the sand.

 

[ Of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait :] This will not stand.

 

Time and again in this century, the political map of the world was transformed. And in each instance, a new world order came about through the advent of a new tyrant, or the outbreak of a bloody global war, or its end. Now the world has undergone another upheaval, but this time, there’s no war.

 

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral purpose. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.

 

We are a nation of communities, of tens and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious, social, business, labor union, neighborhood, regional, and other organizations, all of them varied, voluntary, and unique . . . a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.

 

I want a kinder, gentler nation.

 

[ Of Ronald Reagan’s proposals to increase government revenues by reducing taxes :] Voodoo economics.

 

[ On the Iran-Contra scandal :] Clearly, mistakes were made.

 

A paranoid is someone who has all the facts.

 

Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes. Woodstock rises from his pages.

 

The title means exactly what the words say: NAKED Lunch—a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.

 

Just look there (another Heavy Metal Boy sank through the earth’s crust and we got some good pictures . . . ).

 

Manuscripts don’t burn.

 

The Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children.

 

I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.

 

Proud and insolent youth, prepare to meet thy doom.

 

[ Explaining how to fly :] You just think lovely wonderful thoughts and they lift you up in the air.