Return
Home
The
Credits
The
Cast
Act
1
Act
2
Act
3
The
Reviews
     
 
ALIBI --- ALIENATION --- ALLIANCES
ALLITERATION
ALONE --- ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE --- AMBITION

.
.
.

ALIBI

see: "BLAME"
see: "EXCUSE"
see: "FAILURE" for other related links


Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances
are the creatures of man. We are free agents, and man
is more powerful than matter.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and
Prime Minister [1868, 1874-1880].
_Vivian Grey_, v. II, bk. VI, ch. 7

He always has an alibi,
And one or two to spare:
At whatever time the deed took place--
Macavity wasn't there!
--T.S. Eliot (1888—1965)
Anglo-American poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats_ [1939], "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"

Poor men's reasons are not heard.
--German proverb

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive
than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle
anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth
anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good
today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid
alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak,
for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing
a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi
for not writing the greatest book and not painting the
greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended
and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi
often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the
attainment of a most marked achievement.
--Eric Hoffer (1902—1983)
American longshoreman, philosopher, and author who
received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982.
_The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms_ [1955]



ALIENATION

.
.

see: "ALONE" (below)
see: "UNHAPPINESS" for related links


The distance to my fellow man is for me a very long one.
--Franz Kafka (1883—1924)
Czech novelist.
_The Blue Octavo Notebooks_ [written 1917—1919, pub. in 1953]

Alienation is a form of living death. It is
the acid of despair that dissolves society.
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
_The Trumper of Conscience_ [1967]



Click picture to ZOOM
ALLIANCES

.
.

Photograph: President Truman signing
agreement to form NATO in 1949.

see: "WAR & PEACE" for related links


When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one, an unpitied
sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.
_Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents_ [23 April 1770]

[C]lose and intimate alliances with despots
are never safe to free states.
--Demosthenes (c.364—c.322 B.C.)
Athenian orator and statesman.
In _The Greatest Works of the Greatest Authors,
Ancient and Modern_, p. 340 [H.W. Hagemann Pub. Co., 1894].

The moment we engage in confederations, or alliances
with any nation we may from that time date the down-
fall of our republic.
--Andrew Jackson {Old Hickory} (1767—1845)
American military hero and 7th president of the United States [1829—1837].
To James Branch, criticizing John Quincey Adams [3 March 1826],
quoted in Robert V. Remini _Andrew Jackson & the Course of American Freedom_ [1981].

-

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all
nations, entangling alliances with none.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
In his first Inaugural Address [4 March 1801].


I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United
States never to take an active part in the quarrels
of Europe. Their political interests are entirely
distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their
balance of power, their complicated alliances,
their forms and principles of government, are
all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal
war.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
In a letter to James Madison [11 June 1823].

-

We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies.
Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it
is our duty to follow.
--Lord Palmerston [Henry John Temple] (1784—1865)
British politician.
Speech in House of Commons [1 March 1848].

Our greatest advantage in coping with tribes
so powerful is that they do not act in concert.
Seldom is it that two or three states meet
together to ward off a common danger. Thus,
while they fight singly, all are conquered.
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
_The Life of Cneaus Julius Agricola_

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent
alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American
Revolution [1775—1783] and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
"Farewell Address", Philadelphia, Pa. [19 September 1796]




ALLITERATION

.
.

see: "LANGUAGE" for related links


Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism, are all
very good words for the lips: especially prunes and
prism.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_Little Dorrit_, Book II, Chapter 5 [1857—1858]

Patience, persistence and perspiration make
an unbeatable combination for success.
--attributed to Napoleon Hill (1883—1970)
American journalist, lawyer, and author of self-help books.

-

Whether you ascribe importance to euphony . . . must
depend on the sensitiveness of your ear. A great
many readers, and many admirable writers, are devoid
of this quality. Poets as we know have always made
a great use of alliteration. They are persuaded that
the repetition of a sound gives an effect of beauty.

I do not think it does in prose. It seems to me that
in prose alliteration should be used only for a special
reason; when used by accident it falls on the ear very
disagreeably.

--W. Somerset Maugham (1874—1965)
English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer.
_The Summing Up_, ch. XIII [1938]

-



Click picture to ZOOM
ALONE

.
.

see: "LONELINESS"
see: "SOLITUDE"
see: "INDIVIDUALITY" for other related links
see: "UNHAPPINESS" for other related links


The person who tries to live alone will not succeed
as a human being. His heart withers if it does not
answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he
hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds
no other inspiration.
--Pearl S. Buck (1892—1973)
American author noted for her novels of life in China;
winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_To My Daughters, With Love_ [1967]

I alone am left on earth!
To whom nor relative nor blood remains,
No! not a kindred drop that runs in human veins.
--Thomas Campbell (1777—1844)
Scottish poet.
"Gertrude of Wyoming", pt. III, st. XVII [1809]

Ech man for hymself.
--Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343—1400)
English poet.
_The Canterbury Tales_ [c. 1387]

Better be alone than in bad company.
--John Clarke (1596—1658)
Comp. _Proverbs: English and Latine_ [1639]

We live, as we dream — alone.
--Joseph Conrad [Teodor Jσzef Konrad Nalecz-Korzeniowski] (1857—1924)
Polish-born English novelist.
_Heart of Darkness_, ch. I [1902]

Let sleeping dogs lie—who wants to rouse 'em?
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_David Copperfield_, ch. 39 [1850]

I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said,
'I want to be *let* alone.' There is all the
difference.
--Greta Garbo [Greta Lovisa Gustafsson]
(1905—1990) Swedish actress.
Quoted in John Bainbridge _Garbo_ [1955].

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he
advances through life, he will soon find himself
left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship
in a constant repair.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] (entry for 1755).

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives
himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do
without him is still more mistaken.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_, XCIII [1665]

The fountain of my heart dried up within me,—
With nought that loved me, and with nought to love,
I stood upon the desert earth alone.
And in that deep and utter agony,
Though then, then even most unfit to die
I fell upon my knees and pray'd for death.
--Charles Robert Maturin (1782—1824)
Irish novelist and dramatist.
_Great Truths by Great Authors_, p. 110 [1856]

The old—like children—talk to themselves, for they
have reached that hopeless wisdom of experience
which knows that though one were to cry it in the
streets to multitudes, or whisper it in the kiss to
one's beloved, the only ears that can ever hear
one's secret are one's own.
--Eugene O'Neill (1888—1953)
American and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936.
_Lazarus Laughed_ [1927]

The bonds that unite another person to ourself exist only
in our mind. Memory as it grows fainter relaxes them, and
notwithstanding the illusion by which we would fain be
cheated and with which, out of love, friendship, politeness,
deference, duty, we cheat other people and we exist
alone. Man is the only creature that cannot emerge from
himself, that knows his fellows only in himself; when he
aserts the contrary he is lying.
--Marcel Proust (1871—1922)
French novelist.
_Remembrance of Things Past_ [1913-1927] "The Sweet Cheat Gone"

If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company.
--attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre (1905—1980)
French philosopher, novelist, and dramatist;
winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature.

It is a rather pleasant experience to be alone in a bank at night.
--Willie Sutton (1901—1980)
American criminal.
In Quentin Reynolds _I, Willie Sutton_, ch. 5 "On My Own and Into Sing Sing" [1953].

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten
by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger,
a much greater poverty than the person who has
nothing to eat.
--Mother Teresa (1910—1997)
Roman Catholic nun and missionary.
Quoted in William Safire & Leonard Safir
_Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice_ [1989].

Language has created the word loneliness to express the
pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the
glory of being alone.
--Paul Johannes Tillich (1886—1965)
German-born American theologian.
_The Eternal Now_ [1963] "Loneliness and Solitude"

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you
esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be
alone than in bad company.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
"Rules of Civility" [1747], collected in Charles Moore
_George Washington's Rules of Civilty and Decent
Behavior in Comapany and Conversation_ [1926].



ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

.
.

see: "HEALTH" for related links


I now begin the journey that will lead me into the
sunset of my life. I know that for America there will
always be a bright dawn ahead.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.
Letter to the American people revealing he had Alzheimer's [5 November 1994].


TOPICAL

... According to the New York Post’s Liz Smith, while accepting
an award from the National Board of Review, [George] Clooney
wisecracked, “Charlton Heston announced again today that he
is suffering from Alzheimer's.”

When asked about the statement, Clooney told Smith, “I don't care.
Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle Association. He
deserves whatever anyone says about him.”

--James Hirsen
_The Left Coast Report_
"A Political Look at Hollywood" [28 January 2003]



AMBITION

.
.

see: "SUCCESS" for related links


Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite.
--Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.
Attributed in Frank Jenners Wilstach _A Dictionary of Similes_, p. 6 [1916].

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?
--Robert Browning (1812—1889)
English poet.
_Andrea del Sarto_ [1855]

You have greatly ventured, but all must do
so who would greatly win.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p.17 [15th ed. 1894].

Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power,
that avarice makes concerning wealth; she begins by
accumulating power, as a mean to happiness, and she
finishes by continuing to accumulate it, as an end.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CXLVIII [1821 ed.]

Ambition is the mind's immodesty.
--Sir William Davenant [also spelled D'Avenant] (1606—1668)
English poet, playwright, and theater manager.
"Gondibert" [1650]

First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.
--Epictetus (55—135)
Greek philosopher.
_The Moral Discourses of Epictetus_, ch. xxiii
"Concerning such as read and dispute ostentatiously"

Slight not what's near through aiming at what's far.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.
_Rhesus_, 482

The tragedy is that so many have ambition and so few have ability.
--attributed to William Feather (1889—1981)
American author and publisher.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
--Thomas Gray (1716—1771)
English poet.
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" l. 36 [1751]

One can never consent to creep when one
feels an impulse to soar.
--Helen Keller (1880—1968)
American author and educator who was blind and deaf.
_The Story of My Life_, p. 393 [1924 ed.]

The trouble with being number one in the
world — at anything — is that it takes a
certain mentality to attain that position
in the first place, and that is something
of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so
that once you do achieve number one,
you don't relax and enjoy it.
--Billie Jean King (b. 1943)
American professional tennis player.
_Billie Jean_ [1982]

The ambitious deceive themselves when they propose
an end to their ambition; for that end, when attained,
becomes a means.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_, XXXII [1665]

Most people would succeed in small things if they were
not troubled with great ambitions.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
"Table Talk," collected in _Prose Works_ [1857]

[Ambition] is so powerful a passion in the human breast,
that however high we reach we are never satisfied.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
_The Discourses_ [1517]

Be nice to people on your way up because
you'll meet them on your way down.
--Wilson Mizner (1876—1933)
American playwright.
Quoted in Evan Esar _The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations_ [1949].

If love and ambition should be in equal balance, and come
to jostle with equal force, I make no doubt but that the last
would win the prize.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p. 20 [15th ed. 1894].

Go for the moon. If you don't get it,
you will still be heading for a star.
--Willis Reed (b. 1942)
American professional basketball player.
Quoting one of his high school coaches;
in Bill Bradley _Life on the Run_ [1976].

Who soars too near the sun, with golden wings, melts them.
--_The Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell_, a play
c. 1600 attributed to John Heywood or William Shakespeare.

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what
you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of
mankind achieve the second.
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946)
American-born man of letters.
_Afterthoughts_ [1931]

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that but the really great make you
feel that you, too, can become great.
--attributed to Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.

We cross the prairie as of old
The pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free!
--John Greenleaf Whittier (1807—1892)
American poet.
"The Kansas Emigrants" [1854]

-

It is better to be a has-been than a never-was.
--anon
In "Locomotive Engineers Journal", vol. 39, p. 304 [January 1905]


end page



| ABILITY - ABUSE | ACADEMY AWARDS - ACCUSATION | ACHIEVEMENT - ACQUAINTANCE | ACTION/S | ACTORS / ACTING | ACTUARIES - ADVERSARIES | ADVERSITY - ADVERTISING | ADVICE | AFFAIRS - AFGHANISTAN | AGE | AGNOSTICS - AIRPLANES | ALCOHOL | ALIBI - AMBITION | AMERICA PAGE 1 (A-M) | AMERICA PAGE 2 (N-Z) | AMERICANS | AMERICAN INDIANS | AMERICAN REVOLUTION | AMUSEMENT - ANCESTORS | ANGER | ANIMAL RIGHTS - ANIMALS | ANIMOSITIES - APATHY | APOLOGY & APPEARANCE | APPEASEMENT | APPLAUSE - APRIL | ARCHAEOLOGISTS - ARCHITECTURE | ARGUMENT | ARISTOCRACY - ART | ASHAMED - ASTROLOGY | ATHEISM | ATOM BOMB - ATTRACTION | AUSTRALIA | AUTHORITY - AUTOMOBILES | AUTUMN - AWARENESS |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
| Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews |
 
     



Copyright © 2012, someworthwhilequotes.com. All rights reserved.