The
measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never
be found out.
Thomas
Babington Macauley (1800-1859)
English writer and politician
The
Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because
it gave pleasure to the spectators.
Thomas
Babington Macauley (1800-1859)
English writer and politician
He
knew that the essence of war is violence, and that moderation in war is
imbecility.
Thomas
Babington Macauley (1800-1859)
English writer and politician
of John Hampden, English statesman
killed in battle (1643)
Umm. Systems analysts rarely call their parents from across the country in response to mysterious problems. Still more rarely do they disappear. It is not part of the technical mentality to disappear.R.A. MacAvoy, Tea with the Black Dragon
God
is merciful. He will not do everything and thus take away our free will and
that share of glory that belongs to us.
Niccolò
Macchiavelli (1469-1527) Italian political
philosopher
The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every
way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore,
if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must learn how not to be virtuous . .
. according to need.
Niccolò
Macchiavelli (1469-1527) Italian political
philosopher
A best friend is found when
you suddenly see that you need someone and they are there. And you almost don’t
even have to explain your pain, because they already know.
A. MacDonald
Being rich isn’t
about money. Being rich is a state of mind. Some of us, no matter how much
money we have, will never be free enough to take time to stop and eat the heart
of the watermelon. And some of us will be rich without ever being more than a
paycheck ahead of the game.
Harvey Mackay
TV
is passive; computers are active. TV is just a really, really good screensaver.
Bill Machrone (contemp.) American technology columnist, editor PC Week
Godzilla's
approach
My mouth agape in horror
I just bought that car
Donald A.
Macpherson (contemp.) Canadian writer
I'm for the death penalty, I'm pro-abortion, I'm pro-assisted
suicide,I'm pro-regular suicide. Anything that'll get the traffic moving.
Bill Maher
You can tell whether a man is
clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
Naguib Mahfouz Egyptian Writer and Nobel Prize winner
Be circumspect in
your liaisons with women. It is better to be seen at the opera with a man than
at mass with a woman.
De Maintenon
You
can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has
his freedom.
Malcolm X (1925-1965) American revolutionary, religious leader [b. Malcolm
Little] (1965)
You're
not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong
is wrong, no matter who says it.
Malcolm X (1925-1965) American revolutionary, religious leader [b. Malcolm
Little]
This
book is dedicated to my brilliant and beautiful wife without whom I would be
nothing. She always comforts and consoles, never complains or interferes, asks
nothing, and endures all. She also writes my dedications.
Albert Paul
Malvino (contemp.) American electrical
engineer, scientist, writer
A speech is like
a love affair. Any fool can start it, but to end it requires considerable
skill.
Lord Mancroft
Our deepest fear is not that
we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It
is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who
am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you
not to be? You are a child of god. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel
insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of god that is within
us. It isn’t just some of us, it is everyone. And as we let our own light
shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from out own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Nelson Mandela
HAYWOOD:
There are those in our own country, too, who today speak of the protection of
country, of survival. A decision must be made, in the life of every nation, at
the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat, when it seems the
only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon
what is expedient. To look the other way. Only the answer to that is — survival
as what?
Abby Mann (b. 1927) American film, television writer, producer [a.k.a. Ben
Goodman]
Judgment at
It is easier to be accepted by our society as a murderer than
as a homosexual.
Abby Mann (b. 1927) American film, television writer, producer [a.k.a. Ben
Goodman]
Unfaithfulness
in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well
borrow a person's money as his time.
Horace Mann (1796-1859) American educator
Time has no divisions to mark
its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the
beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we
mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.
Thomas Mann
The
pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the
same books.
Katherine
Mansfield (1888-1923) New Zealander
author Letter (1928)
The
mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in
the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool
that nobody's fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by
the mind.
Katherine
Mansfield (1888-1923) New Zealander
author The Journal of Katherine Mansfield
(1927)
Failure is not an
option. It comes bundled with your Microsoft product.
Ferenc Mantfeld
The
longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and
the same thing.
Marcus
Aureleus (121-180) Roman emperor (161-180)
There
is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as
expectation of something better tomorrow.
Orison Swett
Marden (1848-1924) American magazine editor
Among
life's perpetually charming questions is whether the truly evil do more harm
than the self-righteous and wrong.
Jon Margolis (contemp.) American journalist
If
a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light -- not in one flamboyant
hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.
Beryl
Every
time we start thinking we're the center of the universe, the universe turns
around and says with a slightly distracted air, "I'm sorry. What'd you say
your name was again?"
Margaret
Maron (contemp.) American writer
An
idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.
Donald
Marquis (1878-1937) American journalist and
humorist
We pay for the mistakes of
our ancestors, and it seems only fair that they should leave us the money to
pay with.
Donald
Marquis (1878-1937) American journalist and
humorist
Ours
is a world where people don't know what they want and are willing to go through
hell to get it.
Donald
Marquis (1878-1937) American journalist and
humorist
Lord,
when we are wrong, make us willing to change; and when we are right, make us
easy to live with.
Rev. Peter
Marshall (1902-1949) American religious
leader
If
the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business
telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films
he may watch.
Justice
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
US Supreme Court From a unanimous
court opinion (1969)
Allowing
an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss Manners"]
If
you can't be kind, at least be vague.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
It
is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your
help.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
We
are all born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we
are fit to participate in society.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Ideological
differences are no excuse for rudeness.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Miss Manner's
Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
The
invention of the teenager was a mistake. Once you identify a period of life in
which people get to stay out late but don't have to pay taxes — naturally,
nobody wants to live any other way.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Miss Manner's Guide to Excruciatingly Correct
Behavior (1982)
DEAR
MISS MANNERS:
Can you tell me a tactful way of letting a friend know that
she is getting too fat?
GENTLE READER:
Can you tell Miss Manners a tactful reason for wanting to do
so?
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct
Behavior (1982)
Miss
Manners' meager arsenal consists only of the withering look, the insistent and
repeated request, the cold voice, the report up the chain of command, and the
tilted nose. Also the ability to dismiss inferior behavior from her mind as
coming from inferior people. You will perhaps point out that she will never
know the joy of delivering a well-deserved sock in the chops. True — but she
will never inspire one, either.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct
Behavior (1982)
The
proper use of embarrassment is as a conscience of manners. As your conscience
might trouble you if you do anything immoral, your sense of embarrassment
should be activated if you do anything unmannerly. As conscience should come
from within, so should embarrassment. Hot tingles and flushes are quite proper
when they arise from your own sense of having violated your own standards,
inadvertently or advertently, but Miss Manners hereby absolves everyone from
feeling any embarrassment deliberately imposed by others.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Miss Manners'
Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982)
There
are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered:
entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates
with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest
suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the
entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection IS the
entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food
be omitted.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct
Behavior (1982)
When
Miss Manners observes people behaving rudely, she never steps in to correct
them. She behaves politely to them, and then goes home and snickers about them
afterward. That is what the well-bred person does.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist [a.k.a. "Miss
Manners"]
Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct
Behavior (1982)
GARIBALDI:
No boom?
SINCLAIR: No boom.
IVANOVA: No boom *today*. Boom tomorrow. There's *always* a
boom tomorrow. What? Look,
somebody's got to have some damn perspective around here! Boom. Sooner or
later. *BOOM*!
Christy Marx (contemp.) American screenwriter
From the moment I
picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some
day I intend reading it.
Groucho Marx
(1895-1977)
I have learned the novice can
often see things that the expert overlooks. All that is necessary is not to be
afraid of making mistakes, or of appearing naive.
Abraham Maslow Eupsychian Management
Sainthood
emerges when you can listen to someone's tale of woe and not respond with a
description of your own.
Andrew V.
Mason MD (contemp.) American physician
All
that the Devil asks is acquiescence ... not struggle, not conflict.
Acquiescence.
Suzanne
Massie (contemp.) American writer, Russian
historian
There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things
break about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get
the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the summertime and the poor get it
in the winter.
Bat
Masterson
An
unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to
give up than the bad ones.
William
I
would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.
William
It is not true that suffering
ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the
most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
William
There
is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the
world at large with surprise and horror.
William
It is not a very pleasant
thing to recognise that for the young you are no longer an equal. You belong to
a different generation. For them your race is run. They can look up to you;
they can admire you; but you're apart from them, and in the long run they will
always find the companionship of persons of their own age more grateful than
yours.
William
I
have not been afraid of excess: excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents
moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
William
The
value of the average conversation could be enormously improved by the constant
use of four simple words: "I do not know."
Andre Maurois (1885-1967) French writer [pseud. of Émile Herzog]
Hate
is not the opposite of love; apathy is.
Rollo May (1909-1994) American psychotherapist
It
takes a lot less cold water to make a hot bath cold than it takes hot water to
make a cold bath hot.
Kevin McCallum
Your love for
your mother is something that you never completely comprehend until you are
separated by the miles from her warmth and her wonder.
Collin McCarty
The women adored him, because
unlike most men, they'd tell you, he paid attention to what they said. So they
might have believed, but he was just trying to catch a glimpse of himself in
their eyes.
Malachy McCourt
Is it true that I
have to apologize?
John McEnroe
The Lord’s Prayer is 66
words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, and there are 1,322 words in the
Declaration of Independence. Yet, government regulations on the sale of cabbage
total 26, 911 words.
David McIntosh
Confidence
comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.
Peter T.
McIntyre (contemp.) writer
And that is what evil does: forces us down dark pathways we
otherwise would not have trod.
Denis L. McKeirnan
The
nature documentaries are as absurdly action-packed as the soap operas, where a
life's worth of divorce, adultery, and sudden death are crammed into a weeks
worth of watching -- trying to understand "nature" from watching
_Wild Kingdom_ is as tough as trying to understand "life" from
watching _Dynasty_.
Bill McKibben (b. 1960) American environmentalist, writer The Age of Missing Information
Every society
honours its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.
Mignon McLaughlin
Without the media, there would be no terrorism.
Marshal McLuhan
Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of
the living room.
Marshal McLuhan
Yes,
risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called
sure-thing-taking.
Tim McMahon (contemp.) American investment banker
KINT:
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't
exist.
Christopher
McQuarrie (b. 1968) American screenwriter,
director The Usual Suspects (1995)
Having
someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old
human need.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist
Jealousy
is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read. It merely records
the degree of the lover's insecurity.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist
Always
remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist
"Mead's Maxim" (in John
Peers, comp., _1,001 Logical Laws_, p. 155, 1979)
Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist epigraph
A
leader who does not hesitate before he sends his nation to battle is not fit to
be a leader.
Golda Meir (1898-1978) Russian-American-Israeli politician, teacher
Those
who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh,
either.
Golda Meir (1898-1978) Russian-American-Israeli politician, teacher
It
is better to fail at originality than to succeed at imitation.
Herman
Melville (1819-1891) American writer
It
is hard to believe that a man is telling you the truth when you know you would
lie if you were in his place.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
Millions
long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy
Sunday afternoon.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom
even ordinarily respectable.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist Prejudices,
First Series
Most
people want security in this world, not liberty.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is
naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more
than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he
sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good
citizen driven to despair.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
I
believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it’s a limit
that’s very seldom mentioned. It’s the point where free speech begins to
collide with the right to privacy. I don’t think there are any other conditions
to free speech. I’ve got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I
haven’t got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody’s got a right to
be a nuisance to his neighbors.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
Penetrating
so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits
nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
Self-respect:
the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
The
world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical
with the discovery of truth — that the error and truth are simply opposite. They
are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one
error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid
pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort
to physics and chemistry.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
There
comes a time in every normal man's life when he must be tempted to spit on his
hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
A man loses his sense of direction after four drinks; a woman
loses hers after four kisses.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
Under
democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that
the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist
We
must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the
extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children
are smart.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
The
man who is thought to be poor never gets a fair chance. No one wants to listen
to him. No one gives a damn what he thinks or knows or feels. No one has any
desire for his good opinion. I discovered this principle early in life, and
have put it to use ever since.
I have got a great deal more out of men (and women) by having the name of being
a well-heeled fellow than I have ever got by being decent to them, or by
dazzling them with my sagacity, or by hard industry, or by a personal beauty
that is singular and ineffable.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist "Smart
Set" (May 1920)
Democracy
is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it
good and hard.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist A Book of Burlesques (1920)
We
owe to capital the fact that the medical profession, for example, is now really
useful to mankind, whereas formerly it was useful only to the charlatans who
practiced it. It took accumulated money to provide the long training that
medicine began to demand as it slowly lifted itself from the level of a sorry
trade to that of a dignified art and science -- money to keep the student while
he studied and his teachers while they instructed him, and more money to pay
for the expensive housing and materials that they needed. In the main, all that
money came from private capitalists. But whether it came from private
capitalists or from the common treasury, it was always capital, which is to say,
it was always part of an accumulated surplus. It never could have been provided
out of the hand-to-mouth income of a non-capitalistic society.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist Baltimore Evening Sun (
What
should be obvious and indisputable requires a public ceremonial to prove it!
Why not a day for wearing little tin bathtubs to prove that one bathes, in the
patriotic American manner, once a week? Why not white hatbands for gentlemen
who are true to their wives? It is precisely the mark of the cad that he makes
a public boast of what is inseparable from decency. He is the fellow who
marches grandly in preparedness parades to show off his valor, his patriotism,
his willingness to die for his country. He is the fellow who insults his mother
by making a spectacle of the fact that he is on good terms with her.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist
Baltimore Evening Sun (on Mothers Day and
wearing carnations to proclaim love for one's mother) (
Injustice
is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and
journalist Prejudices, Third Series (1922)
The
value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate.
Consider, for example, two of them: mere insatiable curiosity and the desire to
do good. The latter is put high above the former, and yet it is the former that
moves one of the most useful men the human race has yet produced: the
scientific investigator. What actually urges him on is not some brummagem idea
of Service, but a boundless, almost pathological thirst to penetrate the
unknown, to uncover the secret, to find out what has not been found out before.
His prototype is not the liberator releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting
up the fallen, but a dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of
rat-holes.
Henry Lewis
Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist Smart Set (August 1919)
The essence of success is
that it is never necessary to think of a new idea oneself. It is far better to
wait until somebody else does it, and then to copy him in every detail, except
his mistakes.
Aubrey Menen
Then
it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of
their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the
core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they
could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that
way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty,
no more greed. I suppose the big problem is that we would fall down and worship
each other.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
If there were no other proof
of the infinite patience of God with men, a very good one could be found in His
toleration of the pictures that are painted of Him.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
Prayer
and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart
has turned to stone.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
Art
enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
The
things I thought were so important -- because of the effort I put into them --
have turned out to be of small value. And the things I never thought about, the
things I was never able to either to measure or to expect, were the things that
mattered.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
The
truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more
you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer, because smaller things begin to
torture you in proportion to your fear of suffering.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
One
of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is to mind your
own business. Nothing is more suspicious, in a man who seems holy, than an
impatient desire to reform other men.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M.
Louis] "New
Seeds of Contemplation"
Thus,
we never see the one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethical and
political problems: that we are *all* more or less wrong.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M.
Louis] "New
Seeds of Contemplation"
I
think a man is known better by his questions than by his answers.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M.
Louis] Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, ch. 5 (1965)
Today
the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth
but of the world we were young in. Fear and resentment of what is new is really
a lament for the memories of our childhood.
Sir Peter
Metawar (1915-1987)
Thinking of him
is like breathing...it’s what you do. You love him everyday as naturally as
your heart beats. And your family and your friends are ready to send you to the
loony bin because either they’ve stopped believing in love or they forgot what
it’s like...they don’t believe in it, or maybe they don’t believe that you’re
in it. But you do. You know what it’s like to be in love: completely full
inside, completely happy. Like your whole life this far was really just a
preparation for being with him. A collection of heart-breaks and life’s lessons
leading you into the person you are, the person which perfectly compliments
him. The one you love.
Mary Pat Michalek
An age is called Dark, not because the light fails to
shine, but because people refuse to see it.
James
Michener
I played the
part, of course; I expressed the mandatory shock, outrage and sadness while
watching events unfold with co-workers. I was, in outward appearance, the very
picture of solemnity and sympathy. Inside, though, I was excited. I got the
same weird sense of roller-coaster joy I do when a hurricane comes up the coast
or a blizzard shuts down the city. In the chaos of the initial reports, I found
myself disappointed to find out that some of the early reports of additional
targets being hit were erroneous.
As the second
tower collapsed, I found myself with a terrible sense of satisfaction. It was
almost like, somewhere deep in the parts of my soul that don’t see the sun, I
was rooting for the event to be even bigger -- for it to cut so deeply through
the banality of daily life, that things would never be the same. I suspect I am
not alone. Whether it’s shark attacks, wars, school shootings or child
abductions, something in human nature gives people a sick thrill in such
horrific voyeurism. That’s what drives the infotainment industry we like to
call the nightly news. In the Civil War, spectators went out to watch the
battle.
Until fairly
recently, watching public executions was regular entertainment for the masses.
Few have the guts to admit it publicly, but we’re all monsters.
Michael Middleton, regarding the events of 9/11
Hey,
if you can't trust an unsigned and untraceable bit of Netlore, what *can* you
place your faith in?
Barbara
Mikkelson (contemp.) American urban folklorist
War
is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state
of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much
worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing
which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature
and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of
better men than himself.
John Stuart
Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and
economist
If
all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the
contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one
person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
John Stuart
Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and
economist On
We
can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false
opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
John Stuart
Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and
economist On
Where you used to
be there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around
in daytime, and falling into at night.
Edna
To dance is to be
out of yourself, larger, more powerful, more beautiful. This is power, it is
glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
Agnes De Mille
The jungle is
dark, but full of diamonds.
Arthur Miller (1915-
) American novelist
Death of a Salesman
The
biggest conspiracy has always been the fact that there is no conspiracy.
Nobody's out to get you. Nobody gives a shit whether you live or die. There,
you feel better now?
Dennis Miller (b. 1953) American comedian, television personality
Nothing ruins the mood during
foreplay more than the recurring image of your sixty-five-year-old homeroom
teacher trying to stretch a condom over a cucumber.
Dennis Miller (b. 1953) American comedian, television personality
Why should I or you give
somebody else - somebody who doesn’t even know us as a person - the power over
whether we feel good about ourselves or not?
Dennis Miller (b. 1953) American comedian, television personality
The
one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give
enough is love.
Henry Miller (1891-1980) American novelist
Laws
are only words written on paper, words that change on society's whim and are
interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges, and policemen.
Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a
fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally,
despite race, religion, or economic status, is a fool.
John J.
Miller (b. 1954) American writer Wild Cards IX (ed. George R. R. Martin),
"And Hope to Die" (1991)
Most
conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses.
Margaret
Miller
What
a pity human beings can't exchange problems. Everyone knows exactly how to
solve the other fellow's.
Olin Miller (contemp.) American writer
You
probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how
seldom they do.
Olin Miller (contemp.) American writer
Some people walk in the rain,
others just get wet.
Roger Miller
He smiles as he
walks away. Because it’s a good feeling, knowing you can walk away, knowing a
little sadness no longer blows your life to pieces.
Peter
Milligan Shade:
The Changing Man
You
can't stay in your corner of the
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright (Winnie the Pooh)
“I don’t see much
sense in that,” said Rabbit.
“No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began
it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.”
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English
poet and playwright
"Eeyore,
what *are* you doing there?" said Rabbit.
"I'll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in
the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak-tree? Wrong.
Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and
he'll always get the answer."
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright The House at Pooh Corner
Pooh
knew what he meant, but, being a Bear of Very Little Brain, couldn't think of
the words.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright The House At Pooh Corner
It is hard to be
brave, when you’re only a Very Small Animal.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright (Piglet)
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw.
“I just wanted to be sure of you.”
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright (Piglet and Pooh)
Sometimes, if you
stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping
slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to know.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright (Christopher Robin?)
People who don’t Think probably don’t have Brains; rather, they
have grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright (Eeyore)
The
next moment the day became very bothering indeed, because Pooh was so busy not
looking where he was going that he stepped on a piece of the
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright The House at Pooh Corner
"I have been Foolish and Deluded," said Pooh, "and I am a Bear
of No Brain at All."
"You're the Best Bear in All the World," said
Christopher Robin soothingly.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright Winnie-the-Pooh
"Good
morning, Eeyore," said Pooh.
"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily.
"If it *is* a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said
he.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright Winnie-the-Pooh
By the time it came to the edge of the forest the stream had
grown up, so that it was almost a river and being grown up it did not run and
jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more
slowly. For it knew not where it was going, and it said to itself, "There
is no hurry. We shall get there someday."
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright
It
is only to the individual faith of each that the Deity has opened the way to
salvation.
John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
De Doctrina Cristana, Preface
The
mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
Loneliness
is the first thing which God's eye nam'd not good.
John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
Tetrachordon
Many things can wait; the child cannot. Now is the time his
bones are being formed, his mind is being developed. To him, we cannot say
tomorrow; his name is today.
Gabriela Mistral
Until you lose
your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really
is.
Margaret Mitchell
She had never
understood either of the men she had loved and so she had lost them both. Now,
she had a fumbling knowledge that, had she ever understood Ashley, she would
never have loved him; had she ever understood Rhett, she would have never lost
him. She wondered forlornly if she had ever really understood anyone in the
world.
Margaret Mitchell, Gone
With the Wind
The
world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We
reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that
hides the infinite from us.
Maria
Mitchell (1818-1889) American astronomer,
educator
I
never saw a mob rush across town to do a good deed.
Wilson Mizner (1876-1933) American screenwriter and wit
It
infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.
Molière (1622-1673) French actor and playwright [pen name of Jean-Baptiste
Poquelin]
It
is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are
accountable.
Molière (1622-1673) French actor and playwright [pen name of Jean-Baptiste
Poquelin]
If
you're sure you understand everything that's going on, you're hopelessly
confused.
Walter
Mondale (b. 1928) American politician,
diplomat
Those who danced
were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
Angela Monèt
You will either
die on the gallows or of a loathsome disease.
John Montague (to John Wilkes)
That depends on
whether I embrace your principles or your mistress.
John Wilkes, in reply
Confidence
in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.
Michel de
Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Don't
discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are
believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.
Michel de
Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
If
you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the
spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't
bother your head about it.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
No
man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them
deliberately.
Michel de
Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
No
man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living but that ten times in his
life he might not lawfully be hanged.
Michel de
Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
If
we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than
other people, which is difficult, since we think them happier than they are.
Charles-Lewis
de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
French political philosopher
The
tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare
as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
Charles-Lewis
de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
French political philosopher
Useless
laws weaken necessary laws.
Charles-Lewis
de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
French political philosopher
'E's
not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's
expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in
peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies!
'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the
bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the
bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
Monty Python (contemp.) British comedy troupe And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)
Character
is what you are in the dark.
Dwight L.
Moody (1837-1899) American evangelist
We
sneer. We lampoon and ridicule the sniveling little oaf before his peers.... We
imply that even to have voiced such a question places him irretrievably in the
same category as the common pencil-sharpener.... The reason why we do this is
pretty straightforward. Firstly, in the dismal and confused sludge of opinion
and half-truth that make up all artistic theory and criticism, it is the only
question worth asking. Secondly, we don't know the answer and we're scared that
somebody will find out.
Alan Moore (b. 1953) British writer
Behind the
Painted Smile (on writers being asked
"Where do you get you get your ideas from?") (1983)
In fact, let us not mince words… the management is terrible! We’ve had a string of embezzlers, frauds, liars, and lunatics making a string of catastrophic decisions. This is plain fact. But who elected them? It was you! You who appointed these people! You who gave them the power to make decisions for you! While I’ll admit that anyone can make a mistake once, to go on making the same lethal errors century after century seems to me to be nothing short of deliberate. You have encouraged these malicious incompetents, who have made your working life a shambles. You have accepted without question their senseless orders. You have allowed them to fill your workplace with dangerous and unproven machines. All you had to say was “No.” You have no spine. You have no pride. You are no longer an asset to the company.
Alan Moore (b. 1953) British writer V For
Vendetta #5
“This is my favourite part,”
Daniel Keys Moran, The Last Dancer
Going
to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with
it.
Hannah More (1745-1833) English religious writer, educator Letter to her
sister (1775)
Age does not
protect you from love but love to some extent protects you from age.
Jeanne Moreau
Lack
of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may
have.
Arthur E.
Morgan (1878-1975) American engineer,
educator, humanist
All
cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but the
beauty is grim.
Christopher
Morley (1890-1957) American writer Where
the Blue Begins
You
have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
John,
Viscount Morley (1838-1923) English
politician and writer On Compromise
I’ll tell you this...no
eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
Jim Morrison
It's crazy, you walked into
the room that day, just like every other day...except this time.. my heart
skipped a beat.
Allison Mosher
Accept everything
about yourself - I mean everything. You are you and that is the beginning and
the end. No apologies, no regrets.
Clark Moustakas
He
is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.
H. H. Munro (1870-1916) Scottish writer [pseud. Saki]
A
little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
H. H. Munro (1870-1916) Scottish writer [pseud. Saki] The
Square Egg (1924)
When the tea is brought at
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care,
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there.
H. H. Munro (1870-1916) Scottish writer [pseud. Saki] "Milk for the Cat"
Logic
is an organized way of going wrong with confidence.
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) English writer
"