H

 

Jake liked his women the way he liked his kiwi fruit: sweet yet tart, firm-fleshed yet yielding to the touch, and covered with short brown fuzzy hair.

Jonathan S. Haas

 

After all, if one's imagination readily grants full human rights to future AI programs, robots, dolphins, and extraterrestrial aliens, mere color and gender can't seem very important any more.

Hacker's Dictionary

 

This book fills a much-needed gap.

Moses Hadas (1900-1966) in a review

 

I found out something really strange that evening. No matter how terrible something is, no matter if your own world is crumbling into little pieces, the rest of life goes on as if nothing at all were happening.

Irwin Hadley from the book “Abby, My Love”

 

It's hard to stay anonymous in the spotlight. If you don't want strangers to recognize you in public, don't perform on stage or in front of a camera in the first place. Either stay in the shadows or stop complaining about the fame you asked for.
Duane Alan Hahn

 

That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude.

Alexander Haig (b. 1924) American politician TV interview (1983)

 

    INTERVIEWER: What has the study of biology taught you about the Creator, Dr. Haldane?
    HALDANE: I'm not sure, but He seems to be inordinately fond of beetles.

J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist

 

Reality is the cage of those who lack imagination.

J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist

 

A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy - the smile that accepts a lover before words are uttered, and the smile that lights on the first born babe, and assures it of a mother’s love.

Thomas C. Haliburton

 

Why are they so afraid of a few hundred thousand people with assault weapons?

Jim Hamblin (contemp.) member of the "Texas Constitutional Militia"

 

...that was the first thing I had to learn about her, and maybe the hardest I’ve ever learned about anything--that she is her own, and what she gives me is of her choosing, and the more precious because of it. Sometimes a butterfly will come to sit in your open palm, but if you close your hand, one way or the other, it--and its choice to be there--is gone.

Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) American novelist Dragonsbane

 

They said that dragons did not entrap with lies but with the truth, and she knew he had read accurately the desire of her soul.
Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) American novelist Dragonsbane

Grief closed her throat, the grief of roads untaken, of doors not opened, of songs unsung -- the human grief of choice.
Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) American novelist Dragonsbane

Having so little, we share among ourselves to make any of it worth having. We do what we do because the consequences of not caring enough to do it would be worse.
Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) American novelist Dragonsbane

 

Defeat will only make us dead, not honourable.

Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) American novelist

 

God protect us from what we may one day get used to.

Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) American novelist

 

There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep on growing until I die. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer.
Pete Hamill

DOLPH: It’s not the fur or the fangs that make you a monster, not always. Sometimes, it’s just where you draw the line.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer Blue Moon (1998)

 

I didn't question God's wisdom. I figured He knew what He was doing, and if He didn't, I really didn't want to know.

Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer Burnt Offerings (1998)

 

I guess I don't entirely trust God. I never doubt Him, but His motives are too beyond me. Through a glass darkly and all that. Just once I'd like to see through the damn glass clearly.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer Bloody Bones

There's something about a gun just lying around…that tempts people.  There is an almost physical itch to pick it up, point it, go bang-bang.  You either make a gun safe, unloaded or locked up, or you keep it on your body where you can control it.  Those are the rules.  Deviating from the rules is what lets eight-year-old kids blow the heads off their baby sisters.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer Burnt Offerings (1998)

 

There had to be a circle of Hell where you were eternally fourteen, eternally in junior high. One of the lower circles.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963) American writer Bloody Bones

 

Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish statesman, UN Secretary-General

 

We cannot afford to forget any experience, not even the most painful.

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish statesman, UN Secretary-General Markings (1951)

 

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist Speech, "I Am an American Day," New York (21 May 1941)

 

I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist Speech, "I Am an American Day," New York (21 May 1941)

 

That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end.

Lise Hand (contemp.) British journalist Describing the late Irish journalist Veronica Guerin

 

It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.

G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) British mathematician

 

If someone said on Christmas Eve,
'Come see the oxen kneel . . .'
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist, poet "Oxen"

 

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Sir John Harrington (1561-1612) English courtier and writer "Of Treason"

 

The problem with the postmodern idea that "truth is subjective" is the way most of its adherents (the louder ones, anyway) seem to think that means reality -- objective reality, where atoms are combined to form certain shapes and therefore are not combined to form certain other shapes -- is therefore as fungible as their own mushy thought processes. Wiser minds know that facts are facts, even if imperfect humans cannot perceive them with 100-percent accuracy and therefore misinterpret or deny them. That's why the goal should be to get as close to the truth as possible, not to just throw up one's hands and claim that there mustn't be any truth to get close to.

Andrea Harris (contemp.) "The Spleenville Journal" (24 Dec. 2002)

 

The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.

Corra Harris (1869-1935) American author [nee White]

 

If we stop caring about our heroes, we stop caring about what they died for.

Ralph Harris

 

If you want to know what a man's character is really like, don't ask him to tell you his creed or his code (for everyone has a prettified public version of these), but ask him to tell you the living person he most admires - for hero worship is the truest index of a man's private nature.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author

 

Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author

 

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape-hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author

 

The surest indication of a mediocre mind is its belief that everything can be explained.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author

 

We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice -- that is, until we have stopped saying, "It got lost," and say, "I lost it."

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author

 

Human beings of all societies in all periods of history believe that their ideas on the nature of the real world are the most secure, and that their ideas on religion, ethics and justice are the most enlightened. Like us, they think that final knowledge is at last within reach. Like us, they pity the people in earlier ages for not knowing the true facts. Unfailingly, human beings pity their ancestors for being so ignorant and forget that their descendants will pity them for the same reason.

Edward Harrison (contemp.) Anglo-American cosmologist, astrophysicist

New Scientist, "The Uncertainty of Knowledge" (24 Sep 1987)

 

There's a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they'd eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn't true.

Dr. Ian Hart (contemp.) British media professor, film producer
Univ. of Hong Kong ITForum, Paper #20, "Between the Idea and Reality … the Case for Qualitative Research" (1997)

 

Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.

Josephine Hart (b. 1942) Irish-English author

 

Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed.

Jan de Hartog (b. 1914) Dutch author and playwright [pseud. F. R. Eckman]

 

In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.

Paul Harvey (b. 1918) American commentator and journalist [b. P. H. Aurandt]

 

For a woman there is nothing more erotic than being understood.

Molly Haskell

 

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Václav Havel (b. 1936) Czech poet, politician

 

Death was an indifferent gambler. Sometimes, he allowed but one throw of the dice. And sometimes many. He was content to let the dice fall as they may, because no matter how the game progressed, in the end, he would always be the only one left standing at the table.

Simon Hawke ( ) The Iron Throne

 

Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

Stephen Hawking (b. 1942) English physicist, author A Brief History of Time (1988)

 

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

Stephen Hawking (b. 1942) English physicist, author

 

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer

 

The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is, to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer

 

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer The Scarlet Letter

 

In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.... It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.

S.I. Hayakawa

 

The truth is that there is only one terminal dignity - love. And the story of a love is not important - what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.

Helen Hayes

 

From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.

Helen Hayes

 

There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts a tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

William Hazlitt

 

I don't like using my brain, and avoid doing so whenever possible. Overuse dulls a sharp blade.

Richard Heathfield, comp.lang.c

 

Hell is truth seen too late.

Georg Hegel (1770-1831) German philosopher (also attrib. H.G. Adams, Tryon Edwards, John Locke, Anatole France)

 

No matter what side of an argument you're on, you always find some people on your side that you wish were on the other side.

Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) Lithuanian-American violinist

 

Never judge someone by who he's in love with; judge him by his friends. People fall in love with the most appalling people. Take a cool, appraising glance at his pals.

Cynthia Heimel (contemp.) American feminist, humorist, writer

 

A man will call a woman 'bitch' when he can't control her, when she won't do his bidding, when she's not compliant to his needs. I like this in a word.

Cynthia Heimel (contemp.) American feminist, humorist, writer

 

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.

Cynthia Heimel (contemp.) American feminist, humorist, writer

 

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) German poet and critic Almansor: A Tragedy (1823)

 

Companionship, partnership, mutual reassurance, someone to laugh with and grieve with, loyalty that accepts foibles, someone to touch, someone to hold your hand -- these things are marriage, and sex is but the icing on the cake.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer

 

Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Time Enough for Love

 

If you can't change your mind, are you sure you still have one?

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer

 

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who love Nature while deploring the artificialities with which Man has spoiled ‘Nature.’ The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of Nature—but beavers and their dams are.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Time Enough for Love

 

To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer

 

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for every thing I do.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer

 

Intangibles are the most honest merchandise anyone can sell. They are always worth whatever you are willing to pay for them and they never wear out. You can take them to your grave untarnished.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer The Man Who Sold the Moon

 

At least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come from policemen, that "news" is not something that happens to other people.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer The Number of the Beast

 

A thousand reasoned opinions are never equal to one case of diving in and finding out. Galileo proved that and it may be the only certainty we have.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Time Enough for Love

 

Don’t ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun--and neither can stop the march of events.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Time Enough for Love

 

Good intentions are no substitute for knowing how a buzz saw works.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Time Enough for Love

 

A person who takes smug pride in telling the blunt truth is a sadist, not a saint.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer To Sail Beyond the Sunset

 

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Time Enough for Love

 

You can have peace or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer

 

Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs had better get used to it.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Time Enough for Love

 

Progress is made by lazy men looking for an easier way to do things.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer

 

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue--and thoroughly immoral--doctrine that ‘violence never solves anything’ I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer


Advice to all explorers: Do not roam the universes without a spare can opener.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer The Number of the Beast

 

Never encourage a man to cook breakfast; it causes him to wonder if women are necessary.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer The Number of the Beast

 

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin; the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer Lazarus Long

 

We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us.

Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer

 

There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them.

Werner Heisenberg (1905-1976) German physicist

 

When I want an answer from you, I will look at you, which will be as seldom as possible.

Joseph Heller Catch-22

 

The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.

Joseph Heller Catch-22

 

Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?

Lillian Hellman (1906-1987) American playwright, screenwriter

 

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.

Lillian Hellman (1906-1987) American playwright, screenwriter Letter to HUAAC

 

A friend encourages your dreams and offers advice--but when you don’t follow it, they still respect and love you.

Doris Wild Helmering

Democracy used to be a good thing, but now it has gotten into the wrong hands.

Jesse Helms (b. 1921) American conservative politician

 

Always do sober what you said you would do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer

 

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer

 

Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

 

Every damn thing is your own fault, if you're any good.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer Green Hills of Africa

 

I can't believe how much I've grown up over the years. I used to think life was just drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll. Thank God I had the guts to change and develop more mature values. Now it's wine, women and song.

Marian Henley (contemp.) American cartoonist ("Maxine") Maxine

 

Carpe Diem -- For the Romans, 'Seize the carp' meant to grab a fish for yourself now. Not to wait, not even to take time to cook it, but to eat of life and enjoy. For tomorrow you may die. We who are about to eat raw fish salute you.

Jeffrey Henning

 

Where have all the little white flowers gone? - he said lackadaisically.

David Henry

 

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American revolutionary and orator

 

That’s the way it is here in Muppet Central. The fantasy always wins.

Jim Henson

 

Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.

Katherine Hepburn (b. 1907) American actress

 

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

Katherine Hepburn (b. 1907) American actress

 

Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.

Katherine Hepburn (b. 1907) American actress

 

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers -- you can blame anyone but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change, you're the one who has got to change. It's as simple as that, isn't it?

Katherine Hepburn (b. 1907) American actress

 

The conception of two people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.

Sir Alan Patrick Herbert (1890-1971) English journalist and writer [pseud. Albert Haddock]

 

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Frank Herbert, Dune (See also Earthworm Jim, Petey)

 

Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.

Don Herold (1889-1966) American humorist, author

 

But doubt is as crucial to faith as darkness is to light. Without one, the other has no context and is meaningless. Faith is, by definition, uncertainty. It is full of doubt, steeped in risk. It is about matters not of the known, but of the unknown.

Rev. Carter Heywood (contemp.) American Episcopal priest, Lesbian, writer A Priest Forever

 

Those who agree with us may not be right, but we admire their astuteness.

Cullen Hightower (b. 1923) American salesman and writer

 

People seldom become famous for what they say until after they are famous for what they've done.

Cullen Hightower (b. 1923) American salesman and writer

 

We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating or complex -- but Congress can.

Cullen Hightower (b. 1923) American salesman and writer

 

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.

Napoleon Hill

 

If you lend a friend a hundred dollars and never see him again, it's worth it.
Van Alan Hill

 

What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowman. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study.

Rabbi Hillel (1st C. BC-1st C. AD) Jewish sage

 

Last Saturday morning, I concluded that there is nothing harder to find than a bottle of pancake syrup reshelved six inches away from its accustomed spot.

Burton Hillis (contemp.) American columnist, humorist

 

To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.

Hippocrates (c. 460-c.377 BC) Greek physician

 

Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director

 

There's nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director

 

We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director

 

Television has brought back murder into the home — where it belongs.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director London Observer (quoted) (19 Dec. 1965)

 

By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell -- and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed.

Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader Mein Kampf

 

I am a strict vegetarian. That is, I consume no meat from carnivorous animals. Chicken, however, is simply a rapid form of corn, while cows are grass, reprocessed for our convenience.

Allan Hjerpe (contemp.) American old harp singer RelHumor-L (4 Jan 1999)

 

Sometimes a man does not know how badly he is hurt until someone else probes the wound.
Robin Hobb


Not being able to think of a reply is not the same thing as accepting another’s world.
Robin Hobb

“Burrich. What I said to you earlier, I was angry, I was . . .”
“Right on target.” The sound he made might have been a laugh, if it had not been so freighted with bitterness.
“Only in the way that people who know one another best know how to hurt one another best,” I pleaded.

Robin Hobb

It is good to know well a man you are going to kill; it is not good to understand him.
Robin Hobb

But a wall that will not yield to a battering ram can still be breached by a gentle twining of ivy.
Robin Hobb

I do not confuse what was done to you with who you are.
Robin Hobb

 

I’m no more apt to lie than you are, but there are a hundred ways to hide the truth.
P C Hodgell

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) English poet

 

Intolerance is the "Do Not Disturb" sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee that covers our baldness.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

 

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

 

Woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

 

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

 

To know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

 

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms (1954)

 

There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its least worthy members.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

 

. . . when all the cities shall have long been dead and crumbled into dust, and all life shall be on the last verge of extinction on this globe; then, on a bit of lichen, growing on the bald rocks beside the eternal snows of Panama, shall be seated a tiny insect, preening its antennae in the glow of the worn-out sun, the sole survivor of animal life on this our earth -- a melancholy bug.
William Jacob Holland, The Moth Book

 

Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy fat women.

Nicole Hollander

 

It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.
John Andrew Holmes

 

The universe is not hostile, nor yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent.
John Hughes Holmes

 

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar

 

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar

 

It is by no means certain that our individual personality is the single inhabitant of these our corporeal frames ... We all do things both awake and asleep which surprise us. Perhaps we have co-tenants in this house we live in.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar The Guardian Ange (1867)

 

A man over ninety is a great comfort to all his elderly neighbours: he is a picket-guard at the extreme outpost; and the young folks of sixty and seventy feel that the enemy must get by him before he can come near their camp.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar The Guardian Ange (1867)

 

People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more than those who try to be "consistent."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice The Professor at the Breakfast Table

 

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice

 

The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice

 

When the outcome of a meeting is to have another meeting, it has been a lousy meeting.

Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) President of the US (1928-32)

 

The function of government is to protect me from others. It's up to me, thank you, to protect me from me.

Arthur W. Hoppe (1925-2000) American newspaper columnist, humorist, satirist

 

Many brave men lived before Agamemnon, but all unwept and unknown they sleep in endless night, for they had no poets to sound their praises.

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus] Odes

 

Dance for yourself. If someone understands, good. If not then no matter, go right on doing what you love.

Louis Horst

 

Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and the Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare!

Blair Houghton

 

Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) English scholar and poet

 

A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.

Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937) American journalist and author Country Town Sayings

 

For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin, but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

Bette Howland

 

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) English astronomer, author

 

Every man is a damn fool at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, printer, businessman

 

Genius is the capacity for evading hard work.
Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, printer, businessman

 

God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, printer, businessman

 

Live so that you can at least get the benefit of the doubt.

Kin Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist [Frank McKinney Hubbard]

 

I haven’t been wrong since 1961, when I thought I made a mistake.

Bob Hudson

 

You know as well as I do that the victim goes on trial with the accused.
Tanya Huff

 

One can dream of something more terrible than a hell where one suffers; it's a hell where one would get bored.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer

 

When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer

 

I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes - and the stars through his soul.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer

 

There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer

 

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician Speech in Madison, Wisconsin (23-Aug-1965)

 

“(When asked what love is like.)”It’s like you are 3 years old and you don’t go anywhere without your blanket or your favorite teddy bear. And whenever you aren’t with it, you feel an emptiness. But when you have your teddy bear or blanket back, you feel whole again, and it puts a smile on your face and a warm place in your heart. Such is love.”

Dave Hunt

 

    Q: If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you had better go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous — with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross — but it is not for the timid.

Maurice Hurley (contemp.) American television writer, producer [a.k.a. C.J. Holland] Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Q Who?"

 

Q: Out there, there are more wonders than you can ever imagine, and terrors to freeze your soul.

 

In elementary school, in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file line from smallest to tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower?
Warren Hutcherson

 

Reality, however utopian, is something from which people feel the need of taking pretty frequent holidays.
Aldous Huxley Brave New World

 

The great tragedy of Science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist

 

The chess board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But we also know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist

 

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist "On Elemental Instruction in Physiology" (1877)

 


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