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CONFESSION --- CONFIDENCE --- CONFORMITY
CONFUSION --- CONGRESS
CONQUEST

.
.
.

CONFESSION


see: "CONSCIENCE"
see: "REGRET"
see: "RELIGION"
see: "TRUTH"

-

Confession is good for the soul.
--David Fergusson _Scottish proverbs_ [c. 1641]

& see:

An honest confession is good for the
soul, but bad for the reputation.
--anon.

-

Should we all confess our sins to one another
we would all laugh at one another for our lack
of originality.
--Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931)
Lebanese poet.
_Sand and Foam_ [1926]





CONFIDENCE

.
.

see: "BELIEF"
see: "BOLDNESS"
see: "COURAGE"
see: "FAITH"
see: "SELF-CONFIDENCE"
see "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links
see "SUCCESS" for other related links


Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours.
--Richard Bach (1936— )
American writer.
_Illusions_ [1977]

When young, we trust ourselves too much, and we trust others
too little when old. Rashness is the error of youth, timid caution
of age. Manhood is the isthmus between the two extremes; the
ripe and fertile season of action, when alone we can hope to
find the head to contrive, united with the hand to execute.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words;
Addressed to Those Who Think_ [1820]

Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights
that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret
of making his dreams come true. This special secret,
it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They
are curiosity, confidence, courage and constancy and
the greatest of these is confidence. When you believe
in a thing, believe in it all the way.
--Walt Disney (1901—1966)
American film producer, cartoon artist and
the creator of Disneyland.
In Allan Zullo
_Wise Guys: Brilliant Thoughts And Big Talk From Real Men_, p. 37 [2005].

For they can conquer who believe they can.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.

Confident because of our caution.
--Epictetus (55—135)
Greek philosopher

Men often become what they believe themselves
to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it
makes me incapable of doing it. But when I
believe I can, then I acquire the ability to
do it even if I didn't have it in the
beginning.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic
movement against British rule.

If you have no confidence in self you are twice
defeated in the race of life. With confidence,
you have won even before you have started.
--Marcus Garvey (1887—1940)
Jamaican born journalist, crusader
for black nationalism.

In love, in war, in conversation, in business,
confidence and resolution are the principal
things.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
"On the Qualifications Necessary to Success in Life"
_Table Talk_ [1821-1822]

Those who believe that they are exclusively in the
right are generally those who achieve something.
--Aldous Huxley (1894—1963)
English novelist {grandson of T.H. Huxley}.

The confidence which we have in ourselves gives
birth to much of that which we have in others.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
In Kate Louise Roberts
_Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 129 [1922].

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could
do it so well that no one could find fault.
--John Henry Newman (1801—1890)
English theologian and leader of the
Oxford movement, later Cardinal.

Lack of confidence is not the result of difficulty;
the difficulty comes from a lack of confidence.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
In Stephen S. Young
_Super Smart: 180 Challenging Thinking Activities..._, p. 44 [2005].

It is easy - terribly easy - to shake a man's faith
in himself. To take advantage of that to break a
man's spirit is devil's work.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925.
_Candida_ [1897]

Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are
sure of yourself; but do not relinquish it
because someone else is not sure of you.
--Stewart E White (1873—1946)
American author.

There are few mortals so insensible that their affections cannot
he gained by mildness, their confidence by sincerity, their hatred
by scorn or neglect.
--Johann Georg Zimmermann (1728—1795)
Swiss philosophical writer and physician.

-----

aplomb [uh-PLOM], noun:
Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession; confidence; coolness.
Ex.: For all the slings and arrows, he seems almost preternaturally good-natured;
set upon by a group of drunken revelers at dinner in Des Moines,... he weathers
their boozy blandishments and inevitable potato jokes with admirable grace and
aplomb.
--"Quayle Running Against His Own Image," _Los Angeles Times_ [1 August 1999]

temerity (noun)
temerarious (adj.)
Boldness: reckless confidence that might be offensive




CONFORMITY

.
.

see: "HABIT"
see: "IMITATION"
see "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links
see "INDIVIDUALITY" for other related links


You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on
its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in
that position you can make a crowd of men.
--Sir Max Beerbohm (1872—1956)
English satirist and caricaturist.
_Zuleika Dobson_ [1911]

Has there ever been a society which has died
of dissent? Several have died of conformity in
our lifetime.
--Jacob Bronowski (1908—1974)
Polish-born mathematician and humanist.
Speech given 19 March 1953 at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
and published in Science and Human Values,
"The Sense of Human Dignity," sct. 5, 1961.

When they are at Rome, they do there as
they see done.
--Robert Burton (1577—1640)
English scholar, cleric, and author.
_The Anatomy of Melacholy_ [1621-1651]

The young always have the same
problem-how to rebel and conform
at the same time. They have now
solved this by defying their
parents and copying one another.
--Quentin Crisp [Denis Pratt] (1908—1999)
English writer.
_The Naked Civil Servant_ [1968]

'It's always best on these occasions to do what
the mob do.' 'But suppose there are two mobs?'
suggested Mr. Snodgrass. 'Shout with the
largest,' replied Mr. Pickwick.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_The Pickwick Papers_ [1837]

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of
sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
--T.S. Eliot (1888—1965)
Anglo-American poet, critic, and dramatist.
_The Hollow Men_ [1925]

-

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Essays_ [1841] "Self-Reliance"


Do not go where the path may lead, go instead
where there is no path and leave a trail.
--attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.

-

Do as most do, and few will speak ill of thee.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.

If you see in any given situation only what
everybody else can see, you can be said
to be so much a representative of your
culture that you are a victim of it.
--S. I. (Samuel Ichiye) Hayakawa (1906—1992)
English professor and academic; U.S. Senator
from California [1977—1983].

-

The so-called nonconformists travel in groups
and woe unto him who doesn't conform.
--Eric Hoffer (1902—1983)
American longshoreman, philosopher,
and author who received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 1982.
_Life_ [24 March 1967]


What greater reassurance can the
weak have than that they are like
anyone else?
--Eric Hoffer (1902—1983)
American longshoreman, philosopher,
and author who received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 1982.
_The Passionate State of Mind_ [1955]

-

The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.
--Japanese Proverb

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and
the enemy of growth.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961—1963].
Address to the United Nations, New York City [25 September 1961].

Success, recognition, and conformity are the
bywords of the modern world where everyone
seems to crave the anesthetizing security of
being identified with the majority.
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
_Strength to Love_ [1963]

To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742—1799)
German scientist and drama critic.
"Notebook E", Aphorism 11
_Aphorisms_, [1765-1799]

How much time he gains who does not look
to see what his neighbor says or does or
thinks, but only at what he does himself,
to make it just and holy.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.
_Meditations_, trans. Maxwell Staniforth [1964]

The only law which is really lived up to wholeheartedly
and with a vengeance is the law of conformity.
--Henry Miller (1891—1980)
American novelist and essayist.
_The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud_, ch. 1 [1946]

Once conform, once do what others do because
they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all
the finer senses of the soul.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
In Connie Robertson
_The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations_ p. 291 [1998].

Like childhood, old age is irresponsible, reckless,
and foolhardy. Children & old people have everything
to gain and nothing much to lose. It's middle-age
which is cursed by the desperate need to cling to
some finger-hold halfway up the mountain, to conform,
not to cause trouble, to behave well.
--John Mortimer (1923— )
English barrister and author.
_Murderers & Other Friends_

-

There's nothing in this world more instinctively
abhorrent to me than finding myself in agreement
with my fellow humans.
--Malcolm Muggeridge (1903—1990)
British writer, broadcaster, and journalist.
Radio broadcast [29 April 1955]


Never forget that only dead fish
swim with the stream.
--Malcolm Muggeridge (1903—1990)
British writer, broadcaster, and journalist.
[quoting a supporter}, in "Radio Times" [9 July 1964]

-

What is wanted—whether this is admitted or not—
is nothing less than a fundamental remoulding,
indeed weakening and abolition of the individual:
one never tires of enumerating and indicating all
that is evil and inimical, prodigal, costly,
extravagant in the form individual existence
has assumed hitherto, one hopes to manage
more cheaply, more safely, more equitably,
more uniformly if there exist only large
bodies and their members.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
"Daybreak" [1881]

To do exactly as your neighbors do is the
only sensible rule.
--Emily Post (1873—1960)
American authority on social behavior.
_Etiquette_ ch. 33 [1922]

Good qualities are easier to destroy than bad
ones, and therefore uniformity is most easily
achieved by lowering all standards.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
"Modern Homogeneity", _The Will to Doubt_ [1958]

-

Every generation laughs at the old fashions,
but follows religiously the new.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Walden_ [1854]


If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however
measured or far away.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Walden_ [1854]

-

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the
majority, it's time to pause and reflect.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
[13 October 1904] _Mark Twain's Notebook_, Albert Bigelow Paine [1935]

We are half ruined by conformity, but
we should be wholly ruined without it.
--Charles Dudley Warner (1829—1900)
American newspaperman, author, editor, and publisher.
_My Summer in a Garden_ [1871]

If you stand up and are counted, you may get
yourself knocked down. But remember this:
A man flattened by an opponent can get up
again. A man flattened by conformity stays
down for good.
--Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874—1956)
American industrialist and founder of IBM.

-

A well-beaten path does not always
make the right road.
--anon.

-----

lemming (noun)
1. A rodent with a small thick furry body and furry feet that lives
in subarctic regions. Lemmings are noted for their mass migrations
in search of food during population explosions, which has given rise
to the myth that they flock to the sea to drown themselves.
2. doomed conformist: a member of a large group of people who
blindly follow one another on a course of action that will lead to
destruction for all of them

procrustean (adj.) [pro-'krκs-ti-yκn]
Forcibly imposing conformity to an arbitrary or inappropriate
standard.
Etymology: The eponym is Procrustes, a colorful highwayman
of Greek mythology, who failed to grasp the concept of human
diversity. He considered the size of his iron bed to be standard
since it fit him. From this he concluded that everyone should fit
it. Every traveler passing his house was stopped and tied to the
bed. If the traveler was too short, he was stretched to fit it. If
he was too long, surgical adjustments were made to his legs
with an axe. Theseus eventually reduced Procrustes' size by
a head.

sequacious (adj.)
[see-'kwey-shκs]
(1) Inclined to follow rather than lead,
conformist, following others in thought
and behavior;
(2) continuing in a consistent direction,
as a line of reasoning.




CONFUSION

.
.

see "THE MIND" for related links


The mere attempt to examine my own confusion
would consume volumes.
--James Agee (1909—1955)
American novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic.

I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was
bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone (1734—1820)
American pioneer who blazed the Wilderness Trail.
Remark [June 1819] quoted in Chester Harding _My Egotistigraphy_ [1866].

When I wrote that only God and I knew
what I meant. Now only God knows.
--Robert Browning (1812—1889)
English poet.
Answering a question from a Robert Browning Club member.

There are no differences but differences
of degree between different degrees of
difference and no difference.
--William James (1842—1910)
American philosopher.
_The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy_ [1899]

The self is a relation that relates itself to itself
or is the relation's relating itself to itself in
the relation; the self is not the relation but is
the relation's relating itself to itself.
--Sφren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)
Danish philosopher.
"The Sickness Unto Death"

-

Hell's broken loose.
--Robert Greene (1558—1592)
English playwright.
_Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ [acted 1594]

& note:

All Hell broke loose.
--John Milton (1608—1674)
English poet.
_Paradise Lost_ [1667], bk. 4, l. 917

-

^

From the Blue Earth (Minn.) Faribault County Register.

About 18,000 deer in the state will take part in a
postcard survey asking them to report information
about wild turkey sightings while hunting.
--_New Yorker_ (magazine) [24 December 2007]

^

I suppose three important things certainly come to my mind
that we want to say thank you. The first would be our family.
Your family, my family—which is composed of an immediate
family of a wife and three children, a larger family with
grandparents and aunts and uncles. We all have our
family, whichever they may be.
--Dan Quayle (1947— )
Vice-President of the United States [1989—1993].

There are no words I can use
And keep the meaning from being confused
And I couldn't stand to let them be abused
By you...
--Cat Stevens (1947— )
Singer-songwriter, born Stephen Demetre Georgiou in London.
Changed his name to Yusuf Islam after converting to Islam.
"Foreigner"

If you can't convince them, confuse them.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].

Ay, now the plot thickens very
much upon us.
--George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
(1628—1687) English politician.
_The Rehearsal_ [written 1663, performed 1671]

-----

abstruse (adjective) [ζb-'strus]
Concealed, hidden, recondite; difficult to understand.

addle [AD-'l], verb:
1. to make or become muddled or confused
2. to make or become rotten or putrid

befuddled (adj.)
Perplexed by many conflicting situations or
statements; filled with bewilderment.
Synonyms: bewildered, confounded, baffled,
mixed-up, bemused.

bemuse (verb) [bi-'myuz]
To confuse, daze, bewilder; to cause
someone to be absorbed in thought.

conundrum (noun)
Something that is puzzling or confusing

flummox [FLUM-uhks], transitive verb:
To confuse; to perplex.
Ex.: And when a poll's results happen to upset the conventional
wisdom, or confound the experts, or flummox the pundits, then
that's a poll to remember.
--Michael Kagay, "Unexpected Results Make for Memorable Polls,"
_New York Times_, March 23, 2000

imbroglio (noun) [im-'brol-yo]
A confused tangle or mess; an intricately woven
plot or set of circumstances; an embroilment.

nebulous (adj.) ['ne-byκ-lκs]
Vague, blurred, unclear, as a nebulous promise; cloudy, hazy.

nonplus
on-PLUHS, transitive verb:
To cause to be at a loss as to what to think, say,
or do; to confound; to perplex; to bewilder.

obfuscate [OB-fuh-skayt], transitive verb:
1. To darken or render indistinct or dim.
2. To make obscure or difficult to understand
or make sense of.
3. To confuse or bewilder.

tumult [TOO-mult; TYOO-mult], noun:
1. The commotion or agitation of a crowd, usually accompanied with great noise, uproar, and confusion of voices; hurly-burly; noisy confusion.
2. Violent commotion or agitation, with confusion of sounds; as, "the tumult of the elements."
(tumultuous, adjective)

turbid [TUR-bid], adjective:
1. Muddy; thick with or as if with roiled sediment; not clear;
-- used of liquids of any kind.
2. Thick; dense; dark; -- used of clouds, air, fog, smoke, etc.
3. Disturbed; confused; disordered.
Ex.: Rough or smooth, the Irish Sea at Blackpool is always
turbid. Beneath the murk float unspeakable things.
--David Walker,
"Is Labour right to end its affair with Blackpool? YES says David,"
_Independent_, [26 March 1998]

welter (noun) ['wel-tκr]
(1) A roiling, tumultuous state, a turmoil;
(2) a confusion or confused mass.



Click picture to ZOOM
CONGRESS

.
.

Photograph: Herbert Hoover addressing
a Joint Session of Congress


see "POLITICS" for related links


I look at the Senators and pray for the country.
--Edward Everett Hale (1822—1909)
American clergyman, writer, and chaplain of the Senate.
When asked, "Do you pray for the Senators?"
quoted in Van Wyck Brooks, _New England: Indian Summer_ [1940].

Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the
general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].

Give us clear vision, that we may know where to stand
and what to stand for — because unless we stand for
something, we shall fall for anything.
--Peter Marshall (1902—1949)
Clergyman, author, and Senate chaplain.
In a Senate prayer [1947].

Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and
says nothing. Nobody listens — and then everybody
disagrees.
--Boris Marshalov
Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [March 1941].

-

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that
there is no distinctly native American criminal class
except Congress.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897],
ch. 8 epigraph: "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"


Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were
a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
Quoted in Albert Bigelow Paine _Mark Twain: A Biography_ [1912].


The chances are that a man cannot get into congress
now without resorting to arts and means that should
render him unfit to go there.
--Mark Twain &
Charles Dudley Warner _The Gilded Age_, ch. 50 [1873]

-

This is the Senate of equals, of men of individual
honor and personal character, and of absolute
independence. We know no masters, we
acknowledge no dictators. This is a hall for
mutual consultation and discussion; not an
arena for the exhibition of champions.
--Daniel Webster (1782—1852)
American orator and politician.
In a speech in the U.S. Senate [26 January 1830].



CONQUEST

.
.

see: "IMPERIALISM"
see "WAR & PEACE" for other related links


Why doesn't the United States take over the
Monarchy and unite with England? England
does have important assets. Naturally the
longer you wait, the more they will dwindle.
At least you could use it for a summer resort
instead of Maine.
--W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973)
English-born poet and man of letters.
"February 1947" in Nicholas Jenkins (ed)
_The Table Talk of W.H. Auden_ [1990].

To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.
--Buddha [Gautama] (c. 6th—4th century B.C.)
Founder of Buddhism.

He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
Must look down on the hate of those below.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ [1812-1818], canto III, st. 45

We shall not make Britain's mistake. Too wise
to try to govern the world, we shall merely own
it. Nothing can stop us.
--Ludwell Denny (1894—1970)
American journalist and writer.
_America Conquers Britain_ [1930]

They conquer who believe they can.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.

It's not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
--Edmund Hillary (1919—2008)
New Zealand mountaineer.

I candidly confess that I have ever looked on
Cuba as the most interesting addition which
could ever be made to our system of States.
The control which, with Florida, this island
would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and
the countries and isthmus bordering on it,
as well as those whose waters flow into it,
would fill up the measure of our political
well-being.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
In a letter to James Monroe [24 October 1823].

Divide and conquer.
--saying (Latin)

The only conquests that are permanent and leave no
regrets are our conquests over ourselves.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].

We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past
time, there has been a ceaseless devouring of the
weak by the strong.
--Herbert Spencer (1820—1903)
English philosopher.

Veni, vidi, vici! (I came, I saw, I conquered!)
--Suetonius [Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus] (c. 69—c. 122)
Roman biographer and antiquarian.
_Julius Caesar_ [c. 120]

All the territorial possessions of all the political establishments
in the earth — including America, of course — consist of pilferings
from other people's wash. No tribe, howsoever insignificant,
and no nation, howsoever mighty, occupies a foot of land that
was not stolen.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897]

-----

depredation [dep-ruh-DAY-shun], noun:
1. An act of plundering or despoiling; a raid.
2. [Plural] Destructive operations; ravages.


end page



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