October 2008 Quotes

Yeah, with all of these men linin' up to get neutered
It's hip now to be feminized
But I don't highlight my hair, I've still got a pair
Yeah honey, I'm still a guy
- Brad Paisley (I'm Still A Guy)

The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps.
- Robert Jordan (The Fires of Heaven)

Power went with standing high, but so did blame for the failures of those beneath you.
- Robert Jordan (The Fires of Heaven)

Sometimes…we must do things we would rather not.
- Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

…he was way past foolishness and dwelling in the land of idiocy.
- Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

The will of the people…practically means the will of the most numerous or the most active part of the people
- John Stuart Mill (On Liberty)

In politics it is almost a triviality to say that public opinion now rules the world. The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses…And what is still a greater novelty, the mass do not now take their opinions from dignitaries in Church or State, from ostensible leaders, or from books. Their thinking is done for them by men much like themselves, addressing them or speaking in their name, on the spur of the moment, through the newspapers.
- John Stuart Mill (On Liberty)

Virtually every politician gains support by compromise. He alters his views to win the support of as many different people and groups as he can.
- Robert A. Liston (Politics: From Precinct to Presidency)

…the ultimate power of government must of necessity reside in the people.
- James Wilson

…the two [political] parties were like two bottles. Each bore a label denoting the kind of liqour it contained, but each was empty.
- Richard Hofstadter (The American Political Tradition)

The business of government is to organize the common interest against the sepcial interests.
- Woodrow Wilson

No Canadian, it has been said, is more inconsistent than he who follows one party consistently.
-J. Murray Beck (Pendulum of Power: Canada's Federal Elections)

The Canadian Forum…doubted if "a party whose heart is outside of Canada [could] ever become very interested in Canadian reconstruction…"
- J. Murray Beck (Pendulum of Power: Canada's Federal Elections)

Man is never less entitled to be called Homo Sapiens than when he is engaged in performing his first duty of citizenship
- John W. Dafoe

Apes were invented because politicians were needed.
- Isaac Asimov (Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain)

…people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.
- J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

The trouble with him is he's so used to knowing, he sometimes forgets that others occasionally don't know.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

The times choose when children must grow up…
-Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Eloquence, when at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection…
- David Hume (An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding)

So great has been the fear of the power of the writer through history that books have been burned in the belief that the putting to flame of the printed word also destroyed the spirit which lived in the word.
- Kay Boyle (On Writing By Writers)

Some observers…are convinced that the pursuit of money and temporary pleasure is killing all other powers of the spirit and corrupting society.
- Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

That was the trouble with talking. Sometimes, you said more than you wanted.
- Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

And is there any pleasure you can name that is greater and keener than sexual pleasure?
No; nor any that is more like frenzy.
- Francis MacDonald Cornford (The Republic of Plato)

Thus I cannot conclude anything from this except that my nature is not entirely and universally cognizant of all things. And at this there is no reason to be surprised, since man, being of a finite nature, is also restricted to a knowledge of a limited perfection.
- Rene Descartes (Meditations on First Philosophy)

I've seen many people with status, but I'm still looking for a happy one.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

…men well paid often failed to stay bought.
- Bruce Hutchison (Mr. Prime Minister 1867-1964)

A pretty woman, still quite young, does somehow distract a man's mind from his troubles more effectively than most things would.
- Isaac Asimov (Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain)

Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain,
Not balmy sleep to laborers faint with pain,
Not showers to larks, nor sunshine to the bee,
Are half so charming as thy sight to me.
- Alexander Pope (Autumn)

So dies her love, and so my hopes decay.
- Alexander Pope (Autumn)