July Quotations

"To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful."
~~ Edward R. Murrow [1908-65]

"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
~~ Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 25:40)

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
~~ Samuel Johnson {favorite quote of Hunter S. Thompson [1937-2005]}

"Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?"
~~ William Saroyan [1908-81]

"The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy – the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops."
~~ William Saroyan [1908-81] in "The William Saroyan Reader" 1958

"Trashy books are as hard to write as good ones."
~~ Lev Grossman

"If the dream of self-invention is profoundly democratic, it is also an open invitation to fraud."
~~ David Samuels

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
~~ President Abraham Lincoln [1809-65] in a letter written to Col. William Elkins on 21 November 1864

"Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat."
~~ former U.S. Navy Secretary John Lehman

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
~~ Hunter S. Thompson [1937-2005]

"[President Bush]'s subversion of the Constitution outdoes anything that has gone before, and ... has created large social constituencies ready to support the flag-waving ideals of an incremental fascism."
~~ E.L. Doctorow

"Somehow, plutocracy has furtively triumphed over democracy."
~~ Steve Fraser

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
~~ Hunter S. Thompson [1937-2005]

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."
~~ Isaac Asimov

"If Job #1 for the next American president is getting us out of Iraq, Job #2 is leading the world's response to global climate change."
~~ Dave Contarino, manager of Bill Richardson's presidential campaign

"Inkstands and teacups are never so full as when one upsets them."
~~ Edith Wharton [1862-1937]

"Every novelist is a failed poet."
~~ F. Scott Fitzgerald [1896-1940]

"It is by attempting to reach the top at a single leap that so much misery is caused in the world."
~~ William Cobbett

"By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with."
~~ Duke Ellington [1899-1974]

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
~~ Hunter S. Thompson [1937-2005]

"[Creationists] who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution as not being adequately supported by facts seem to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all."
~~ Herbert Spencer [1820-1903] in an 1852 essay

"Persistence. That's the secret of a good detective."
~~ Earl Derr Biggers [1884-1933], creator of detective Charlie Chan

"The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation more than its wealth."
~~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

A FEW FROM Cesar E. Chavez [1927-93]

"You are never strong enough that you don't need help."

"It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful ... so they can realize their ambitions, so they can earn good livings, so they can accumulate the material things that this society bestows. Those are worthwhile goals. But it is not enough to progress as individuals while our friends and neighbors are left behind."

"The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating."

"Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return."

{many other such quotations are posted
on the Working Minds website}