EVIL - EXECUTIONS


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	EVIL --- EVOLUTION --- EXAGGERATION EXAMPLE --- EXCESS --- EXCITEMENT EXCUSES --- EXECUTIONS . . . EVIL [QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS] see: ANTI-SEMITISM FIDEL CASTRO CRIME GENOCIDE HATE ADOLPH HITLER HOLOCAUST KU KLUX KLAN INHUMANITY LYNCHING MISANTHROPY MONSTERS NAZI GERMANY OPPRESSION RAPE OF NANKING SIN SLAVERY TERRORISM TORTURE TREASON TYRANNY WAR WICKED WORLD TRADE CENTER DISASTER WRONG I would far rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils. --Aeschylus (525—456 B.C.) Greek tragic dramatist. _The Suppliants_ l. 453 I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. --W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973) English-born poet and man of letters. "September 1, 1939" [1940] Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. --Francis Bacon (1561—1626) English philosopher and essayist. _Essays_ [1625], 22, "Of Cunning" [Iris] Chang learned from her research [of the Nanking atrocities] that "civilization itself is tissue-thin." She adds "Some quirk in human nature allows even the most unspeakable acts of evil to become banal within minutes, provided that they occur far enough away to pose no personal threat." --Ralph Kinney Bennett _Reader's Digest_ [September 1998], "The Woman Who Wouldn't Forget" Now a new symbol dominates the New York skyline, and the philosopher Plotinus offers the best account of it. According to Plotinus, evil is neither a demon nor Satan nor any kind of being. Evil is an absence. In the skyline now, there is an empty space where the twin towers used to be. I gaze out my study window, where I am used to seeing the towers, and I can hardly believe what I see. I see nothing. Smoke and sky. It is the symbol of absolute evil. --Paul Berman, "Under the Bridge" in _The New Republic_ [24 September 2001]. - 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" [1770] There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men. --Edmund Burke (1729—1797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. _Reflections on the Revolution in France_ [1790] It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph. --attributed to Edmund Burke (1729—1797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. (see John Stuart Mill, below) - An evil, at its birth, is easily crushed, but it grows and strengthens by endurance. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC) Roman orator and statesman. Quoted in D. E. MacDonnel _A Dictionary of Quotations in Most Frequent Use..._ [5th ed., 1809]. - He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are three things that never stand still. --C.C. Colton (1780—1832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CCCCLVII [1821 ed.] There is this of good in real evils, they deliver us while they last from the petty despotism of all that were imaginary. --C.C. Colton (1780—1832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CCXIX [1826 ed.] - The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. --Joseph Conrad [Teodor Józef Konrad Nalecz-Korzeniowski] (1857—1924) Polish-born English novelist. _Under Western Eyes_, pt 2, ch. 4 [1911] As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy. --Christopher Dawson (1889—1970) _The Judgement of the Nations_ [1942] We believe at once in evil; we only believe in good upon reflection. Is not this sad? --Madame Dorothée Deluzy (1747—1830) French actress. Quoted in Theodore Taylor (pseud. of John Camden Hotten) The Golden Treasury of Thought_ p. 88 [1874]. We cannot do evil to others without doing it to ourselves. --Joseph Francois Eduard Desmahis French poet. In Louis Klopsch _Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 84 [1896]. [Of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon at a reunion of former presidents:] There they were, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Evil. --Bob Dole (b. 1923) Republican senator and majority leader and unsuccesful candidate in the 1996 presidential election. Speech at Gridiron Club dinner, Washington D.C. [26 March 1983]. Oh, tell me, who first declared, who first proclaimed that man only does nasty things because he does not know his own real interests; and that if he were enlightened, if his eyes were opened to his real normal interests, man would at once cease to do nasty things, would at once become good and noble because, being enlightened and understanding his real advantage, he would see his own advantage in the good and nothing else… . Oh, the babe! Oh, the pure, innocent child! --Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821—1881), Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer. _Notes from the Underground_ [1864] The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man. --attributed to Albert Einstein (1879—1955) German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. - Curses always recoil on the head of him who imprecates them. If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. "Compensation" in _Essays_, First Series [1841] & note: No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. --Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey] (c.1818—1895) American abolitionist, reformer, and writer. Speech at Civil Rights Meeting, Washington DC [22 October 1883.] - - See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. --"Forum" [February 1913] & note: Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil. --"The Dallas Morning News" [9 July 1905] - If you do what you should not, you must bear what you would not. --Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_ [1872]. In my humble opinion non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good. --Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948) Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule. Speech in Ahmadabad [23 March 1922]. I herewith commission you to carry out all preparations with regard to ... a final solution of the Jewish question in those territories of Europe which are under German influence. --Hermann Goering (1893—1946) German Nazi leader. Instructions to Reinhard Heydrich [31 July 1941]. Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter. --Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist. _The Good Natur'd Man_ [1768] Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. --Haile Selassie I [Tafari Makonnen] (1892—1975) Emperor of Ethiopia [1930—1974]. In an address to the General Assembly, United Nations, N.Y.C.. - No propagation or multiplication is more rapid than that of evil, unless it be checked; no growth more certain. --Julius Charles Hare (1795—1855) English cleric and author. _Guesses at Truth_ [1827] (Co-written with brother Augustus) It is a proof of our natural bias to evil, that gain is slower and harder than loss in all things good; but in all things bad getting is quicker and easier than getting rid of. --Julius Charles Hare (1795—1855) English cleric and author. _Guesses at Truth_ [1827] (Co-written with brother Augustus) When will talkers refrain from evil speaking? When listeners refrain from evil hearing. At present there are many so credulous of evil that they will receive suspicions and impressions against persons whom they don't know, from a person whom they do know — an authority good for nothing. --Julius Charles Hare (1795—1855) English cleric and author. _Guesses at Truth_ [1827] (Co-written with brother Augustus) - To respond to evil by committing another evil does not eliminate evil but allows it to go on forever. --Vaclav Havel (b. 1936) First President of the Czech Republic. Letter [5 November 1989]. Goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil. --Robert A(nson) Heinlein (1907—1988) American science-fiction writer. _Stranger In A Strange Land_ [1961] The man who does evil to another does evil to himself. --Hesiod (c. 700 B.C.) Greek poet. _Works and Days_, tr. Richmond Lattimore [1959] The great crimes of the twentieth century were committed not by money-grubbing capitalists but by dedicated idealists. Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler were contemptuous of money. The passage from the nineteenth to the twentieth century has been a passage from considerations of money to considerations of power. How naïve the cliché that money is the root of evil! --Eric Hoffer (1902—1983) American longshoreman, philosopher, and author who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982. _Working and Thinking on the Waterfront_ [1969] No one ever became thoroughly bad all at once. [Lat., Nemo repente venit turpissimus.] --Juvenal (c. 55—130) Roman satirist. _Satires_, II, 33 Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings. --Helen Keller (1880—1968) American author and educator who was blind and deaf. _My Religion_ [1927] What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents. --Robert F. Kennedy (1925—1968) American Democratic politician _The Pursuit of Justice_, pt. 3 "Extremism, Left and Right" [1964] To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968) American civil rights leader. _Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?_ [1967] The evil of our time is the loss of consciousness of evil. --attributed to Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895—1986) Indian spiritual philosopher. We believe no evil till the evil's done. --Jean de La Fontaine (1621—1695) French poet. _Fables_, Book I, fable 8 [1668] He who does not punish evil commands it to be done. --Leonardo da Vinci (1452—1519) Florentine painter, sculptor, musician, and scientist. _The Notebooks_ [1508—1518] Men have less lively perception of good than of evil. --Livy [Titus Livius] (59 BC—17 AD) With Sallust and Tacitus, one of the three great Roman historians. _Annales_, XXX, 21 It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _A Little Book in C Major_ [1916] - A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. --John Stuart Mill (1806—1873) English philosopher and social reformer. _On Liberty_, ch. I "Introductory" [1859] Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing. --John Stuart Mill (1806—1873) English philosopher and social reformer. "On Education" [1867] - Honi soit qui mal y pense. (Evil [shame] to him who thinks evil.) --The motto of the Most Noble Order of the Garter Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become one himself. When you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks back into you. --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900) German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture. _Beyond Good and Evil_, pt. 4 [1885-1886] A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and bad men. --Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809) English-American writer and political pamphleteer. "The American Crisis" no. 2 [13 January 1777] Never throw mud. You may miss your mark; but you must have dirty hands. --Joseph Parker (1830—1902) English Nonconformist divine. Quoted in Rev. Joseph Lucas (comp.) _Detached Links, Extracts From The Writings And Discourses Of Joseph Parker_ [1873]. Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. --Blaise Pascal (1623—1662) French mathematician, physicist, and moralist. _Pensées_ ("Thoughts"), no. 894 [1670 ed.] ...Arthur [Loesser] was the brother of the Broadway lyricist Frank Loesser, who said that, as between the siblings, he was "the eviler of the two Loessers." --James Penrose "Building a musical instrument and a company" A review of _Piano_ by James Barron in _The Wall Street Journal_ [15 July 2006]. Let us believe neither half of the good people tell us of ourselves, nor half the evil they say of others. --Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn (1792-1870) French-Swiss lyric poet. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 88 [1886]. We should consider it a lesser evil to suffer great wrongs and outrages than to do them. --Plato (427?—347 B.C.) Greek philosopher. _Episles_, tr. John Harward [1932] An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity. --Quintilian (c. 35—100) Roman rhetorician. Attributed in J. K. Hoyt & Anna L. Ward (eds.) _The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 521 [4th ed., 1882]. - There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, who is willing to sit out the course of any battle, willing to cash in on the blood of the innocent or to crawl on his belly to the guilty, who dispenses justice by condemning both the robber and the robbed to jail, who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway. In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. ... When men reduce their virtues to the approximate, then evil acquires the force of an absolute. --Ayn Rand (1905—1982) Russian-born American writer. _Atlas Shrugged_ [1957] The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles. --Ayn Rand (1905—1982) Russian-born American writer. _Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal_ [1966] - You may either win your peace or buy it; win it by resistance to evil; buy it by compromise with evil. --John Ruskin (1819—1900) English art and social critic. _The Two Paths_, lecture 5 [1859] Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows. --"The Shadow" (U.S. radio show 1930—1954) - Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _Julius Caesar_III, ii [1599] Hell is empty, And all the devils are here! --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _The Tempest_, I, ii [1611—1612] Men's evil manners live in brass, their virtues We write in water. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _King Henry VIII_, IV, ii [1613] - 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 [he didn't accept it.] _Candida_ [1897] Men think that evil must come in the disguise of a germ, or a bomb, or a raid, or an explosion, or a train wreck, or a bank failure, forgetful that the greatest grief can come to man under the disguise of human ideals. --Fulton John Sheen (1895—1979) Roman Catholic bishop; the first popular preacher to appear on television. _For God and Country_ [1941] - If any Senator now, in looking over the record of crime of all ages, can tell me of an association, a conspiracy, or a band of men who combined in their acts and in their purposes more that is diabolical than this Ku Klux Klan I should like to know where it is. They are secret, oath-bound; they murder, rob, plunder, whip, and scourge; and they commit these crimes, not upon the high and lofty, but upon the lowly, upon the poor, upon feeble men and women who are utterly defenseless. --Senator John Sherman of Ohio [18 March 1871] _Congressional Record_, quoted in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 641 [2004]. Cohan & Major note: Sherman was castigating the self-styled 'Invisible Empire' of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society founded in May 1866 to defend white interests by force. The name was a bastardization of the Greek word kuklos (circle). Headed by a Grand Wizard (the former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest), its members wore white hoods to protect their anonymity and burned fiery crosses in front of their black victims' houses. The Klan was formally disbanded in 1869 but its values persisted throughout the South. - To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good. ... Ideology — that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. --Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918) Russian novelist. _The Gulag Archipelago_, ch. 4 [1973] Those who corrupt the public mind as just as evil as those who steal from the public purse. --Adlai E. Stevenson (1900—1965) American Democratic politician. Speech in Albuquerque, New Mexico [12 September 1952]. - We should not believe every word and suggestion, but should carefully consider all things in accordance with the will of God. For such is the weakness of human nature, alas, that evil is often more readily believed and spoken of another than good. But perfect men do not easily believe every tale that is told them, for they know that man's nature is prone to evil, and his words to deception. --Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471) German ascetical writer. _The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420], bk. I, ch. 4 "On Prudence in Action" - - Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need. --Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694—1778) French writer and philosopher. _Candide_ [1759] tr. Richard Aldington [1929] Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. --attributed to Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694—1778) French writer and philosopher. - [The Frisco Doll (Mae West) speaking:] Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. --Mae West (1893—1980) American stage and film actress. "Klondike Annie" [1936 film] There is no denying that Hitler and Stalin are alive today ... they are waiting for us to forget, because this is what makes possible the resurrection of these two monsters. --"The Washington Post" [6 August 1980] ----- apotropaic (adjective) [æ-pê-trê-'pey-ik] Having the power or designed to ward off evil, as an apotropaic symbol or talisman. enormity (noun) [i-'nor-mê-tee] A monstrously abnormal act, an unspeakable atrocity or the state of being unspeakably atrocious. heinous (adj.) ['hey-nês] Outlandishly evil, extremely atrocious, abominable. machination [mack-uh-NAY-shuhn], noun: 1. The act of plotting. 2. A crafty scheme; a cunning design or plot intended to accomplish some usually evil end. maleficent (adj.) [mê-'le-fi-sint] Evil, intensely spiteful, causing harm to others. talisman (noun) ['tæ-liz-mên] An object with magic apotropaic powers, a charm to ward off evil and attract good fortune. Note: A talisman may take almost any form but an amulet is a charm worn around the neck to protect against evil and misfortune. EVOLUTION . . see: "LIFE" see: "SCIENCE" I confess freely to you, I could never look long upon a monkey, without very mortifying reflections. --William Congreve (1670—1729) English dramatist. Letter to Dennis [1695], in John C. Hodges (ed.) _William Congreve: Letters and Documents_ [1964]. - I have called this principle, by which, each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection. --Charles Darwin (1809—1882) English naturalist. _The Origin of Species_, ch. III [1859] The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient. --Charles Darwin (1809—1882) English naturalist. _The Origin of Species_, ch. III [1859] & see: This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection, or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.' --Herbert Spencer (1820—1903) English philosopher. _Principles of Biology_ [1864] - What is the question now placed before society with the glib assurance which to me is most astonishing? That question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence those new fangled theories. --Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881) British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 1874-80]. Speech at the Oxford Diocesan Conference. The quizzical expression of the monkey at the zoo comes from his wondering whether he is his brother's keeper, or his keeper's brother. --Evan Esar (1899—1995) American humorist. In Connie Robertson _Book of Humorous Quotations_, p. 62 [1998]. When you were a tadpole, and I was a fish, In the Palaeozoic time, And side by side in the sluggish tide We sprawled through the ooze and slime. --Langdon Smith (1858—1908) American journalist, writer and poet. "Evolution" [1895] - The aged hold far too obstinately to their outmoded ideas. Perhaps that is why the natives of the Fiji Islands kill their parents when they grow old. They facilitate evolution by garroting their ancestors. --unattributed in "The New Freeman" [1930-1931 U.S. magazine]. EXAGGERATION .. .. Remember, exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. . . see: "BRAGGING" see: "DISHONESTY" see: "LYING" see: "COMMUNICATION" for other related links Exaggerated sensitiveness is an expression of the feeling of inferiority. --Alfred Adler (1870—1937) Austrian psychologist. _Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind_ [1938] The speaking in perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love. --Francis Bacon (1561—1626) English philosopher and essayist. _Essays_ [1625] "Of Love" The older I get, the faster I was. --Charles Barkley (b. 1963) American professional basketball player. Bob Costa television interview [22 January 1995]. There's no disappointment in memory, and one's exaggerations are always on the good side. --George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880) English novelist. _Daniel Deronda_, ch. XXXV [1876] The biggest fish he ever caught were those that got away. --Eugene Field (1850—1895) American journalist and writer of children's verse. "Our Biggest Fish" An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper. --Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931) Lebanese poet. _Sand and Foam_ [1926] During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. --Al Gore (b. 1948) American politician. CNN television interview [9 March 1999]. - You should also know that we have birds called griffins who can easily carry an ox or a horse into their nest to feed their young. We have still another kind of birds who rule over all other fowl in the world. They are of fiery color, their wings are as sharp as razors, and they are called Yllerion. In the whole world there are but two of them. They live for sixty years, at the end of which they fly away to plunge into the sea. But first they hatch two or three eggs for forty days till the young ones come out. . . . Likewise, you would know that we have other birds called tigers who are so strong and bold that they lift and kill with ease an armored man together with his horse. Know that in one province of our country is a wilderness and that there live horned men who have but one eye in front and three or four in the back. There are also women who look similar. We have in our country still another kind of men who feed only on raw flesh of men and women and do not hesitate to die. And when one of them passes away, be it their father or mother, they gobble him up without cooking him. They hold that it is good and natural to eat human flesh and they do it for the redemption of their sins. This nation is cursed by God and it is called Gog and Magog and there are more of them than of all other peoples. With the coming of Antichrist they will spread over the whole world, for they are his friends and allies. --One of the forged Prester John's letters [c. 12th-14th cent.) Legendary Christian ruler of the East. - - Lord Ronald said nothing. He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse, and rode off in all directions. --Stephen Butler Leacock (1869—1944) Canadian humorist. __Nonsense Novels_ [1911] "Gertrude the Governess" Lord Nosh stood upon the hearthrug of the library. Trained diplomat and statesman as he was, his stern aristocratic face was upside down with fury. --Stephen Butler Leacock (1869—1944) Canadian humorist. _Nonsense Novels_ [1911] "Gertrude the Governess, or Simple Seventeen" - kap informs USENET of a 1997 walk in the woods: The trail started out very straight for about 2 miles and then it became pretty steep moving into switchbacks. We rested often despite Michael's encouragement to continue. To tell the truth the bottom half of my body could have gone on forever, my legs are strong — but the top half due to my smoking, lagged behind. There were times today when my top half was at least 1 mile behind my bottom half. It was an interesting sight to say the least. kap - Antiphanes said merrily that in a certain city the cold was so intense that words were congealed as soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed and became audible; so that the words spoken in winter were articulated next summer. --Plutarch (A.D. 46?—119?) Greek philosopher and biographer. "Of Man's Progress in Virtue" - He was so skinny, you could actually see through him in a bright light. At the beach, he once drank too much strawberry pop and looked like a tall thermometer. --Mike Royko (1932—1997) American journalist. _One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko_ [The University of Chicago Press, 1999] It rained hard enough to fill a wire basket. --attributed to Mike Royko (1932—1997) American journalist. - Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _King Henry V_, IV, iii [1598—1599] - The report of my death was an exaggeration. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. In the "New York Journal" [2 June 1897]. I was 6 feet 4 in those days, Now I am 5 feet 8 1/2 and daily diminishing in altitude, and the shrinkage of my principles goes on . . . . In those days you could have carried Kipling around in a lunch-basket; now he fills the world. I was young and foolish then; now I am old and foolisher. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. Quoted in Albert Bigelow Paine _Mark Twain: A Biography_ [3 vol., 1912]. - ^ Voltaire (1694—1778) French philosopher, writer, and wit. At the funeral of a certain nobleman, Voltaire declared, 'He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend — provided, of course, that he really is dead.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ Hyperbole . . ., a recognized figure of rhetoric, meaning an extravagant statement or assertion, which, when used for conscious effect, is not to be taken too seriously or too literally. Yet the hyperbole is often used unconsciously by the men of vivid yet unbalanced imagination whom the world sometimes calls liars and sometimes fools. --William Shepard Walsh (1854—1919) _Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities_ [Lippincott, 1892] Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years. --Oscar Wilde (1854—1900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _The Importance of Being Earnest_ , act III [1895] - It isn't difficult to make a mountain out of a molehill — just add a little dirt. --anon. ----- confabulate (verb) [kên-‘fæb-yu-leyt] To chat, converse; (psychology) to fill lapses of memory with fabrications that one believes are facts. The process is "confabulation," the person confabulating is a confabulator and the adjective is "confabulatory." dithyramb (noun) A passionate or inflated poem, speech, or writing. histrionic (adj.) [his-tree-'ahn-ik] Exaggerated or melodramatic in behavior or speech, extremely theatrical. hyperbole (noun) [hI-'pêr-bê-lee] Overstatement; a figure of speech that uses exaggeration for effect, without intending to be taken literally. perfervid [puhr-FUR-vid], adjective: Ardent; impassioned; marked by exaggerated or overwrought emotion. EXAMPLE . . see: "CHARACTER" see: "IMITATION" see: "INFLUENCE" see: "PERSUASION" If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. --Catherine Aird [Kinn Hamilton McIntosh] (b. 1930) English detective fiction writer. Quoted in "St. Louis Post Dispatch" [1 November 1989]. He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other. --Francis Bacon (1561—1626) English philosopher and essayist. Attributed in _The Millennial Harbinger_ [August 1860, no. VIII]. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. --James Baldwin (1924—1987) American author and playwright. _Nobody Knows My Name_, ch. 3 [1961] Whatever parent gives his children good instruction and sets them at the same time a bad example, may be considered as bringing them food in one hand and poison in the other. --John Balguy (1686—1748) English divine and philosopher. In James Comper Gray _The Biblical Museum. Old Testament_, p. 69 [1879]. A good example is the best sermon. --Thomas Fuller (1654—1734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732] You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. --Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist. Attributed in _The Children's Friend_, vol. XII [1913]. I am satisfied that we are less convinced by what we hear than by what we see. --Herodotus (484—c.425 BC) Greek author of the first great narrative history produced in the ancient world. In Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 154 [1908]. Do not let your deeds belie your words; lest when you speak in church someone may mentally reply, 'Why do you not practice what you profess?' --Saint Jerome (c. 340—c. 420) Translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. Letter LII to Nepotian [394], as quoted in Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (eds.) _A Select Library of Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church_, vol. VI [1893]. Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples. --attributed to François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. A worn-out sinner is sometimes found to make the best declaimer against sin. --Charles Lamb (1775—1834) English essayist. _The Works of Charles Lamb_, p. 528 [London: E. Moxon, 1852] Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882) American poet. _A Psalm of Life_ [1838] "Voices of the Night" - It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it. . . . Light-houses don't ring bells and fire cannon to call attention to their shining — they just shine. --Dwight Lyman Moody (1837—1899) American evangelist and publisher. Quoted in S. P. Linn _Golden Gleams of Thought_, p. 140 [1906, 9th ed.]. The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it. --Dwight Lyman Moody (1837—1899) American evangelist and publisher. Attributed in The Missionary Review [1936]. - It is a good thing to learn caution by the misfortunes of others. --Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.) Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave. Quoted by Sir Richard Steele in "The Guardian", # 147 [29 August 1713]. They asked Lucman, the fabulist, 'From whom did you learn manners?' He answered: 'From the unmannerly.' --Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 1184—1291?) Iranian poet. _The Gulistan_ (Rose Garden) [1258] The sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever preached on that subject. --George Savile [Lord Halifax] (1633—1695) English politician and essayist. _The Lady's New Year's Gift: or Advice to a Daughter_ [1688] 'A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful,' says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example. --Samuel Smiles (1812—1904) Scottish author. _Character_ [1883 ed.] Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Pudd'nhead Wilson_ [1894] ch. 19 epigraph: "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar" EXCESS . . see: "GLUTTONY" see: "GREED" I'm the foe of moderation, the champion of excess. If I may lift a line from a die-hard whose identity is lost in the shuffle, 'I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.' --Tallulah Bankhead (1903—1968) American actress. _Tallulah_ [1952] ^ Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937) British journalist and playright known especially for _Peter Pan_. 'You'll be sick tomorrow, Jack, if you eat any more chocolates,' said Sylvia Llewelyn- Davies to her young son. 'I shall be sick tonight,' said the child calmly as he helped himself to yet another. Barrie, who overheard this exchange, was so delighted with it that he incorporated it in _Peter Pan_ and paid the young Llewelyn-Davies a copyright fee of a halfpenny a performance. --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. --William Blake (1757—1827) English poet. _The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_ [1790—1793] "Proverbs of Hell" The excesses of our youth, are drafts upon our old age, payable with interest, about thirty years after date. --C.C. Colton (1780—1832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, LXXVI [1820] Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks. --Robert Heinlein (1907—1988) American science-fiction writer. _The Notebooks of Lazarus Long_ [1978] Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit. --W. Somerset Maugham (1874—1965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. _The Summing Up_ [1938] In everything the middle course is best: all things in excess bring trouble to men. --Titus Maccius Plautus (254—184 BC) Roman comic dramatist. _Poenulus_, I, 2, 29 ROSALIND: Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _As You Like It_ [1599] Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. --Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694—1778) French writer and philosopher. _Sept discours en vers sur l'homme_ [1738] ----- cloy KLOY, transitive verb: 1. To weary by excess, especially of sweetness, richness, pleasure, etc. 2. To become distasteful through an excess usually of something originally pleasing. fulsome (adjective) ['fêl-sêm] 1: Abundant, plentiful, copious (as a fulsome meal or harvest) hence, of a body, overly plump, fat and, perhaps, repugnantly so. 2: Exceeding the bounds of good taste, excessive in flattery and hence offensive, repugnant, repulsive in general. nimiety (noun) The state of being too much; excess. plethora (noun) ['ple-thê-rê] A superabundance of red cells in the blood; an (unhealthy) excess or superfluity of anything. surfeit (noun) ['sêr-fit] Excess, superfluity; overindulgence, especially of food and drink, and the suffering accompanying such overindulgence. EXCITEMENT . . see: "ACTION" see: "ADVENTURE" see: "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" Let's take a boat to Bermuda- Let's take a plane to Saint Paul- Let's take a kayak To Quincy or Nyack, Let's get away from it all. Let's take a trip in a trailer- No need to come back at all- Let's take a powder To Boston for chowder, Let's get away from it all. We'll travel 'round from town to town, We'll visit ev'ry state. I'll repeat "I love you, Sweet!" In all the forty-eight. Let's go again to Niag'ra, This time we'll look at the Fall. Let's leave our hut, Dear, Get out of our rut, Dear, Let's get away from it all. --Tom Adair (1913—1988) American lyricist. "Let's Get Away From It All" [1940 song] (music by Matt Dennis) - Be still, my beating heart, be still! --Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861—1907) English poet. "All One" [1910] [O]n general principles it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes. --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930) Scottish-born writer of detective fiction. _The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax_ [1911] [Of motorsport commentator Murray Walker:] Sounds, in his quieter moments, as if his trousers are on fire. --Clive [Vivian] James (b. 1939) Expatriate Australian writer, poet, and critic. ^ George C. Scott was once required to shoot a love scene with a certain voluptuous actress. "I apologize if I get an erection," he said getting into bed. "And I apologize if I don't." --anecdotage.com ^ If I don't feel like wearing a bra I don't wear one. I'd never let my nipples show at a state function — I'd be frightened the old men would have heart attacks. --Margaret Trudeau (b. 1948) Wife of the 15th Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau. Quoted in Arthur Johnson _Margaret Trudeau_ [1977]. ----- agog (adverb) [ê-'gahg] Intensely eager; keenly excited about something. frisson [free-SOHN], noun: A moment of intense excitement; a shudder; an emotional thrill. EXCUSES . . see: "ALIBI" see: "FAILURE" for other related links Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs. --Sir Max Beerbohm (1872—1956) English satirist and caricaturist. In obituary of music-hall comic Dan Leno _Saturday Review_ [5 November 1904]. 'I'm very brave generally,' he went on in a low voice: 'only today I happen to have a headache.' --Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832—1898) _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" [1865] There is something to be said for every error; but, whatever may be said for it, the most important thing to be said about it is that it is erroneous. --G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936) English essayist, novelist, and poet. _The Illustrated London News_ [25 April 1931] Experience informs us that the first defence of weak minds is to recriminate. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834) English poet, critic, and philosopher. _Biographia Literaria_ [1817] - The boy who is good at excuses is generally good for nothing else. --Samuel Foote (1720—1777) English dramatist and actor. _The Table-Talk and Bon-Mots of Samuel Foote_, p. 212, ed. William Cooke [1889] & note: He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. --Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. Attributed in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_ [1891]. - There was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust. --Francis, St, de Sales (1567—1622) French bishop. _Introduction to the Devout Life_ [1609] To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it. --William Hazlitt (1778—1830) English essayist. _Table Talk_ [1821—1822] "On the Difference Between Writing and Speaking" 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. --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] A man may fall many times but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him. --attributed to Elmer G. Leterman (1897—1982) American insurance executive and author. Quoted in Jacob Morton Braude _Speaker's Desk Book of Quips, Quotes, and Anecdotes_ [1966]. - He who excuses himself, accuses himself. --Gabriel Meurier (1530—1601) Flemish grammarian and writer. Quoted in _Trésor des Sentences_ [c.1950]. & see: Oftentimes excusing of a fault Doth make the fault worse by the excuse. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _The Life and Death of King John_, IV, ii [written c. 1596] - Don't let yourself be victimized by the age you live in. It's not the times that will bring us down, any more than it's society. When you put blame on the society, then you end up turning to society for the solution. Just like those poor neurotics at the Care Fest. There's a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that, you pay with your soul. It's not men who limit women, it's not straights who limit gays, it's not whites who limit blacks. What limits people is lack of character. What limits people is that they don't have the fcking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it. --Tom Robbins (b. 1936) American author. _Still Life with Woodpecker_ [1980] All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas Layin' in the sun, Talkin' bout the things They woulda-coulda-shoulda done... But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas All ran away and hid From one little did. --Shel Silverstein (1930—1999) Ameican poet and songwriter. In _Falling Up_ [1996]. ----- extenuating (adj.) [ik-'sten-yoo-yet-ing] Diminishing, providing an excuse. malinger [muh-LING-guhr], intransitive verb: To feign or exaggerate illness or inability in order to avoid duty or work. EXECUTIONS* . . see: "CRIME & PUNISHMENT" for related links If the death penalty is to be abolished, let those gentlemen, the murderers, do it first. --Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808—1890) French novelist and journalist. "Les Guêpes" [January 1849] I went out to Charing Cross, to see Major-general Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that position. --Samuel Pepys (1633—1703) English diarist and naval administrator. _Diary_ [13 October 1660] [On feeling the edge of the axe prior to his execution:] 'Tis a sharp remedy, but a sure one for all ills. --Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552—1618) English explorer and courtier. Quoted in D. Hume _History of Great Britain_ [1754]. end page \| EARS - ECONOMY (THE) \| EDUCATION \| EFFORT - ELEPHANTS \| ELOQUENCE - EMOTION \| EMOTIONS & FEELINGS \| EMPIRE - ENERGY \| ENGLAND - ENGLISH (THE) \| ENGLISH (LANGUAGE) \| ENLIGHTENMENT - ENVY \| ENTERTAINMENT, HOBBIES, & LEISURE ACTIVITIES \| EPITAPHS - EQUAL RIGHTS \| ERROR - EVIDENCE \| EVIL - EXECUTIONS \| EXERCISE - EYES \| \| A \| B \| C \| D \| E \| F \| G \| \| Return Home \| The Credits \| The Cast \| Act 1 \| Act 2 \| Act 3 \| The Reviews \|