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EVIL --- EVOLUTION --- EXAGGERATION
EXAMPLE --- EXCESS --- EXCITEMENT
EXCUSES --- EXECUTIONS

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EVIL

[QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS]

see:

ANTI-SEMITISM

FIDEL CASTRO

CRIME

GENOCIDE

HATE

ADOLPH HITLER, HOLOCAUST

KU KLUX KLAN

INHUMANITY

LYNCHING

MISANTHROPY

MONSTERS

NANKING

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"

-

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]


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.


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]

-

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.

-

No propagation or multiplication is more rapid than
that of evil, unless it be checked; no growth more
certain.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.


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.


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.

-

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary;
men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
--Joseph Conrad [Teodor Jσzef 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 Dorothιe 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 (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]

Between two evils, choose neither;
between two goods, choose both.
--Tryon Edwards (1809—1894)
American theologian.

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.
--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.

-

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.

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..

-

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.
--Augustus William Hare (1792—1834)
British essayist.


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.
--Augustus William Hare (1792—1834)
British essayist.

-

To respond to evil by committing another evil
does not eliminate evil but allows it to go on
forever.
--Vaclav Havel (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 naοve the clichι
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

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.
--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 [1668], Fable 8

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.

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.
_Pensιes_ ("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.

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.

-

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_ [1859], lecture 5

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_ [1599], act III, sc.2, l. 75


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_, act 4, sc. 2, l. 45 [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_.
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 641.
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 devildoing 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 (1918— )
Russian novelist.

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],
Book 1, Chapter 4: "On Prudence in Action"

-

[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]


TOPICAL

This quote by a Pakistani journalist is attributed to Osama bin Laden:

"We prefer death. The United States prefers life. That is the difference
between us."

Very interesting. Perhaps it is my classical western imperialistic insensitive
conditioning, but it also seems that this is the difference between "good"
and "evil."

--James Leroy Wilson
http://www.partialobserver.com/ArticleDisplay.cfm?ArticleID=284

-----

apotropaic (adjective) [ζ-pκ-trκ-'pey-ik]
Having the power or designed to ward off evil, as
an apotropaic symbol or talisman.

enormity (noun) [i-'nor-mκ-tee]
A monstrously abnormal act, an unspeakable atrocity
or the state of being unspeakably atrocious.

heinous (adj.) ['hey-nκs]
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.) [mκ-'le-fi-sint]
Evil, intensely spiteful, causing harm to others.

talisman (noun) ['tζ-liz-mκn]
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

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see: "LIFE"
see: "SCIENCE"


-

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, 1874-1880].
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"

-

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].




Click picture to ZOOM
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.

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 (1963— )
American professional basketball player.
Bob Costa television interview [22 January 1995]

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 (1948— )
American politician.
CNN television interview [9 March 1999].
(The Internet was created in the 1970s.)

-

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.

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.

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, 3 [1598—1599]

-

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_.


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].

-

^

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 Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

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.

-

It isn't difficult to make a mountain out
of a molehill — just add a little dirt.
--anon.

-----

confabulate (verb) [kκn-‘fζb-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-'pκr-bκ-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].

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_ [1961], ch. 3

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].

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing
others; it is the only means.
--attributed to Albert Einstein
and others.

A good example is the best sermon.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732]

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].

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"

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.

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"


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;
Addressed to Those Who Think_ [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]

ROSALIND: Why then, can one desire
too much of a good thing?
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_As You Like It_ [1599]

-----

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.
Ex.: The opulence, the music, the gouty
food — all start to cloy my senses.
-- Jeffrey Tayler, "The Moscow Rave part two:
I Have Payments to Make on My Mink", _Atlantic_ [December 31, 1997]

fulsome (adjective) ['fκl-sκm]
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
ih-MY-uh-tee, noun:
The state of being too much; excess.
Ex.: "What a nimiety of ... riches have we
here! I am quite undone."
--James J. Kilpatrick,
"Buckley: The Right Word," National Review [23 December 1996]

plethora (noun) ['ple-thκ-rκ]
A superabundance of red cells in the blood;
an (unhealthy) excess or superfluity of
anything.

surfeit (noun) ['sκr-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]

Besides, on 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]

I'm still looking for a man who could
excite me as much as a baked potato.
--Laura Flynn McCarthy

-----

agog (adverb) [κ-'gahg]
Intensely eager; keenly excited about something.

frisson [free-SOHN], noun:
A moment of intense excitement; a shudder; an emotional thrill.
Ex.: As every parent knows, children have a love-hate relationship
with stories about monsters. They love the frisson of hearing about
such terrifying creatures as the Cyclops -- but hate to think about
what they might do if they bumped into one.
"Strange but true: One in the eye for all those Homer-phobes",
Daily Telegraph, June 21, 1998



EXCUSES

.
.

see "FAILURE" for 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]

-

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.

-

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]

-

He who excuses himself, accuses himself.
--Gabriel Meurier (1530—1601)
Flemish grammarian and writer.
Quoted in _Trιsor des Sentences_ [c.1950.]

& see:

Oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault worse by the excuse.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_King John_ [c. 1596], iv. 2.

-

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 f*cking nerve
or imagination to star in their own movie, let
alone direct it.
--Tom Robbins (1936— )
American author.
_Still Life with Woodpecker_ [1980]

-----

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 Guκpes" [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]

'Tis a sharp remedy, but a sure one for all ills.
--Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552—1618)
English explorer and courtier.
(On feeling the edge of the axe prior to his execution,)
in D. Hume _History of Great Britain_ [1754].


end page



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