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MACARTHUR (DOUGLAS)
MAD --- MAFIA --- MAGIC --- MAINE
MAJORITY (THE) --- MAKING A DIFFERENCE
MAKING A POINT --- MAKING THE BEST --- MALICE

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see: "PEOPLE" for related links
see: "WAR & PEACE" for related links


Anoynmous: Have you ever met Douglas MacArthur?
Eisenhower: Not only have I met him ma'am; I studied
dramatics under him for five years in Washington and
four years in the Philippines.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953-61].
Quoted in William Manchester, _American Caesar_ [1978].

MacArthur's physical courage is legendary; it is quite safe
to say that no general officer in modern history, let alone
a theater commander, ever took such risks. Time and again,
in both world wars, he has exposed himself to brutal fire
in a manner reckless — but casual — almost beyond belief.
He never wears a steel helmet, and seldom carries arms.
He stalks a battlefront like a man hardly human, not only
arrogantly but lazily. [...] Japan is a country notorious (until
recently at least) for its addition to political assassination;
but MacArthur never takes any but the most primitive
precautions. He enters and leaves the Dai-Ichi four times
a day, every day of the year, and invariably a crowd of from
fifty to a hundred Japanese assembles by the doorway to
watch him [...] and MacArthur is never (nowadays)
accompanied by a guard of any kind.
--John Gunther (1901—1970)
American author.
_The Riddle of MacArthur_ [1951]

-

[Upon relieving MacArthur] Truman [...] said, characteristically,
of the hostile polls: 'I wonder how far Moses would have gone
if he had taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have
preached if he had taken a poll in the land of Israel? ... It isn't
polIs that count. It is right and wrong, and leadership — men
with fortitude, honesty and a belief in the right that make epochs
in the history of the world.' But gradually the rage died down,
and MacArthur's own highly emotional appearance before a
joint session of Congress was more a valedictory than a gesture
of defiance. The conviction gradually spread that Truman had
been right, and many now see the episode as his finest hour, a
forceful and perhaps long overdue reassertion of the elective,
civil power over an undoubted military hero who had ignored
the constitutional chain of command.

The truth is, Truman kept in mind, which MacArthur did not,
that the object of US intervention in Korea was not to start a
third world war, but to prevent one. That is what it did. The
war settled down to a stalemate. Negotiations scaled down
and eventually ended (July 27, 1953) the fighting, though the
country remained divided and the cease fire line tense. The
war was costly. US casualties included 33,629 battle deaths,
20,617 non-hostile deaths, and 103,284 wounded. There
were in addition, 8177 missing and, of the 7,140 servicemen
made prisoner, only 3,746 were repatriated.

--Paul Johnson (b. 1928)
British historian.
_A History of the American People_, pp. 824-25 [1997]

-

Here is the victor announcing the verdict to the
prostrate enemy. He can exact his pound of flesh
if he so chooses. He can impose a humiliating
penalty if he so desires. And yet he pleads for
freedom, tolerance, and justice.
--Toshikazu Kase (1903—2004)
Japanese politician, ambassador to the United States.
On Douglas MacArthur at the Japanese surrender in
_Journey to the 'Missouri'_ [1950].

[It was at] Essey, [France] where MacArthur won his fifth Silver
Star for gallant leadership. Arriving moments after the village fell,
he found near a chateau "a German officer's horse saddled and
equipped standing in a barn, a battery of guns complete in every
detail, and the entire instrumentation and music of a regimental
band." The salient had been wiped out. Entire Lehr, Saxon, and
Lanwehr regiments were being herded into prisoner pens. In Saint-
Mihiel embarrassed doughboys [American infantrymen] were being
embraced by French patriarchs who toasted them with hoarded
kirsch and displayed American flags copied from photographs, the
stripes all black. It was a great triumph, and MacArthur should
have been jubilant. He wasn't: "In Essey I saw a sight I shall never
quite forget. ... Men, women, and children plodded along in mud
up to their knees carrying what few household effects they could.
... On other fields in other wars, how often it was to be repeated
before my aching eyes." It was that vein of compassion which set
him apart from the Pattons of the army. He could be ostentatious
and ruthless, and as he had demonstrated in the Visayas and in
Mexico, he was a killer. Yet his attitudes toward war would always
be highly ambivalent, exulting in triumph while pitying the victims
of battle. One cannot help speculating what might have become of
him if his parents hadn't raised him to be a soldier.
--William Manchester (1922—2004)
American historian.
_American Caesar_ [1978], "Charge: (1917-1918)"

I fired [General Douglas MacArthur] because he wouldn't
respect the authority of the President. That's the answer
to that. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of
a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law
for generals. If it was, half to three quarters of them
would be in jail.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].
Interview with the author, in Merle Miller's
_Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman_ [1974].



MAD(NESS)

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see: "ANGER"
see: "INSANITY"
see: "PARANOIA"
see: "PSYCHIATRY"
see: "RAGE"
see: "HEALTH" for other related links
see: "THE MIND" for other related links
see: "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links


No great genius has ever existed
without some touch of madness.
--Aristotle (384—322 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
Attributed by Seneca in "De Tranquillitate Animi"
_Moral Essays_, section 17.

& note:

Genius is more often found in a
cracked pot than in a whole one.
--E.B. [Elwyn Brooks] White (1899—1985)
American essayist and literary stylist.
"Lime" [1944]

-

Paul, thou art beside thyself; much
learning doth make thee mad.
--Bible
"Acts" 26:24

-

MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Devil's Dictionary_ [1911]


All are lunatics, but he who can analyze
his delusions is called a philosopher.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce_, vol. VIII [1911]

-

All poets are mad.
--Robert Burton (1577—1640)
English scholar, cleric, and author.
_The Anatomy of Melacholy_ "Democritus to the Reader" [1624]

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Alice ... was a little startled by seeing the
Cheshire-Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few
yards off. The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice.
It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had
very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt
it ought to be treated with respect.

"Cheshire-Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she
did not at all know whether it would like the name:
however, it only grinned wider. "Come, it's pleased
so far," thought Alice, and she went on. ... "What
sort of people live here?"

"In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right
paw round, "lives a Hatter and in that direction,"
waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit
either you like: they're both mad."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice
remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat:
"we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How
do you know I'm mad?" said Alice "You must be,"
said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

--Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832—1898)
English writer and logician.
_Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_, ch. 6 [1865]

-

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Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians
go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom.

I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only
say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.

--G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936)
English essayist, novelist, and poet.
_Orthodoxy_, ch. 2 [1908]

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It's a mad world. Mad as Bedlam.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_David Copperfield_, ch. 14 [1850]

Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.
--Phyllis Diller (b. 1917)
American comedian.
_Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints_ [1966]

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Absalom and Achitophel_, pt. I, l. 163 [1681]

Only the stoical and the cynical can preserve a measure
of stability; yet stoicism is the wisdom of madness and
cynicism the madness of wisdom. So none escapes.
--Bergen Evans (1904-1978)
American lexicographer and educator.
_The Natural History of Nonsense_ [1945]

The world is so full of simpletons and madmen,
that one need not seek them in a madhouse.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
[17 March 1830] _Conversations with Goethe_ (Johann Peter Eckermann) [1836-48],
as quoted in Bill Swainson (ed.) _Encarta Book of Quotations_ [2000].

Better mad with the rest of
the world than wise alone.
--Baltasar Graciαn (1601—1658)
Spanish Jesuit philosopher.
_The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647]

To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad.
--Usually attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.

The man is either mad, or he is making verses.
--Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65—8 BC)
Roman poet.
_Satires_, II, 7, 117, as quoted in Kate Louise Roberts
_Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 607 [1922].

A fixed idea ends in madness or heroism.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.
_Quatrevingt-treize_ (Ninety-Three) [1874]

Don't get mad, get even.
--Joseph P. Kennedy (1888—1969)
American financier.
In Ben Bradlee _Conversations With Kennedy_ [1975].

Every one is more or less mad on one point.
--Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936)
English writer and poet.
_Plain Tales from the Hills_ [1888]

Mad, bad and dangerous to know.
--Lady Caroline Lamb (1785—1828)
English wife of 2nd Viscount Melbourne.
Diary entry on her meeting with Lord Byron [March 1812].

I look back upon my frenzy at times with a gloomy kind
of envy; for, while it lasted, I had many, many hours of
pure happiness. Dream not, Coleridge, of having tasted
all the grandeur and wildness of fancy, till you have
gone mad! All now seems to me vapid, comparatively
so.
--Charles Lamb (1775—1834)
English essayist.
Letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge in
_The Works of Charles Lamb_ [1837].

In the whole vast building all was uproar. Telephones, megaphones
and gramophones were ringing throughout the building. Elevators
flew up and down stopping nowhere.
--Stephen Butler Leacock (1869—1944)
Canadian humorist.
"Who Do You Think Did It?"

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They called me mad, and I called them
mad, and damn them, they outvoted me.
--Nathaniel Lee (c.1653—1692)
English dramatist.
In R. Porter _A Social History of Madness_ [1987].

& see:

[When asked why he had been committed to Bedlam:]
I and the world happened to have a slight difference
of opinion; the world said I was mad, and I said the
world was mad. I was outvoted and here I am.
--Richard Brothers (1757—1824)
British religious leader.
Quoted in "The London Literary Gazette" [24 June 1820].

-

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that
they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses
slowly, and one by one.
--Charles Mackay (1814—1889)
Scottish poet and newspaperman.
_Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds_ [1841]

Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did
not make you mad. There was truth and there was
untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against
the whole world, you were not mad.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_ [1949]

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad
would amount to another form of madness.
--Blaise Pascal (1623—1662)
French mathematician, physicist, and moralist.
_Pensees_ [1670], No. 414

Books have led some to learning and others to madness.
--Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304—1374)
Italian scholar, poet, and Humanist.
Quoted in Charles Isaac Elton & Mary Augusta Elton
_The Great Book-Collectors_, p. 45 [1893].

Every madman thinks all other men are mad.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Maxims_

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We are mad not only individually, but nationally. We
check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what
of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering
whole peoples? ... Deeds that would be punished
by loss of life when committed in secret are praised
by us because uniformed generals have carried them
out.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC—65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
"On the Usefulness of Basic Principles"
_Moral Letters to Lucilius_ tr. Richard M. Gummere [1918]


There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC—65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
_De tranquillitate animi_ (On Tranquility of the Mind) 17.

-

Though this be madness, yet
there is method in't.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Hamlet_, II, ii [1601]

Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us
believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of
innocent pride, and the man of genius and the
aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics
because genius and aristocrat are entirely
unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions
and vagaries of the crowd.
--Dame Edith Sitwell (1887—1964)
British poet and critic.
_Taken Care Of: The Autobiography of Edith Sitwell_, ch. I [1965]

Mad as a hatter.
--William Makepeace Thackeray (1811—1863)
English novelist.
_Pendennis_, ch. X [1848-50]

When we remember that we are all mad, the
mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Notebook_ [1935]

-

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.
--anon.



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MAFIA

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see: "CRIME & PUNISHMENT" for related links


There were flowers all over the place. Gangsters
have this thing about flowers. They think whoever
sends the biggest arrangement cares the most.
--Calogero Anello (Lillo Brancato)
In the film _A Bronx Tale_ [1993], screenplay by
Chazz Palminteri, directed by Robert De Niro.

-

MAFIA VALENTINES

My love for you,
it came and went.
So now your feet are
in wet cement.

--

I picked up this card
from a slim selection.
But that's all they offer
in witness protection.
Love, J. Doe

--

Violets are blue, roses are red.
I blew up your car — so why ain't you dead?

--

Lust is fleeting,
True love lingers.
Be mine always,
And you'll keep your fingers.

-

Q: What's the difference between an American actuary
and a Sicilian actuary?

A: The American actuary knows how many people will
die in a given year. The Sicilian actuary knows
their names.

-



MAGIC/MAGICIANS

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see: "MIRACLES"
see: "MYSTERY"
see: "ENTERTAINMENT, HOBBIES, & LEISURE ACTIVITIES" for other related links
see: "OCCUPATIONS" for other related links


As any honest magician knows, true magic inheres in
the ordinary, the commonplace, the everyday, the mystery
of the obvious. Only petty minds and trivial souls yearn
for supernatural events, incapable of perceiving that
everything -- everything! -- within and around them is
pure miracle.
--Edward Abbey (1927—1989)
American author.
_Abbey's Road_ [1979]

Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.
--Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917—2008)
English science-fiction writer.
_Profiles of the Future_ [1962] (Clarke's Third Law)

^

Edward Drinker Cope (1840—1897)
American paleontologist.

A Quaker, Cope refused to take a gun with him on his
fossil-hunting forays, despite the fact that these led
him into territories populated with hostile Indians.
On one occasion, finding himself surrounded by a
distinctly unfriendly band, Cope distracted his captors
from their murderous intentions by removing and
putting back his false teeth. Enthralled by this
performance, they made him do it over and over
again and eventually released him unharmed.

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

I bet you, Ziggie, a hundred bucks that he ain't here.
--Charles Dillingham (1868—1934)
American theatrical director and producer.
Whispered to Florenz Ziegfield as they carried
Harry Houdini's casket as pall-bearers. (Attributed)

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Widely acclaimed throughout the agency, [CIA Deputy
Director John E.] McLaughlin was an accomplished
magician. On a bookshelf in his office next to Tenet's,
he kept a photo of Harry Houdini.

[. . . ]

When the leader of a Latin American country visited
the CIA, McLaughlin asked him if he could borrow a
dollar bill. In front of the man's eyes, McLaughlin
folded the bill into small segments, then unfolded
it and produced a five-dollar bill.

He then reached into his pocket and gave the
astonished chief of state a dollar bill back. "I'd
like to hire you as our finance minister," the
man said.

--Ronald Kessler (b. 1947)
American journalist and author.
_The CIA at War_, ch. 7 [2003]

-

Every sorcerer should explore as much of the world as he can,
for travel is enlightening. There are certain circumstances, such
as a major spell gone awry, or an influential customer enraged
at the size of your fee, where travel becomes more enlightening
still.
--_The Teachings of Ebenezum_, Volume 5


A wizard cannot do everything; a fact most magicians are
reticent to admit, let alone discuss with prospective
clients. Still, the fact remains that there are certain
objects, and people, that are, for one reason or another,
completely immune to any direct magical spell. It is for
this group of beings that the magician learns the subtleties
of using indirect spells. It also does no harm, in dealing
with these matters, to carry a large club near your person
at all times.
--_The Teachings of Ebenezum_, Volume 8

-

-----

conjure (verb) ['kahn-jκ(r)]:
1. To swear by oath or something sacred;
2. To entreat or beg someone by some secret or sacred power;
3. To call upon some spirit;
4. To accomplish with the help of unseen spirits or powers.

diablerie [dee-AHB-luh-ree], noun:
1. Sorcery; black magic; witchcraft.
2. Representation of devils or demons in words or pictures.
3. Mischievous conduct; deviltry.

elixir (noun) [κ-'lik-sκr]:
1. Like the philosopher's stone, a substance believed to have the
power to change base metal into gold;
2. A magic potion with a miraculous curative or restorative effect,
sometimes believed to prolong life indefinitely.

juju [JOO-joo], noun:
An object superstitiously believed to embody magical powers.

legerdemain (noun) [le-jr-dκ-'meyn or 'le-jr-dκ-meyn]:
Sleight of hand, deceitful cleverness.

mojo [MOH-joh], noun:
1. Personal magnetism; charm.
2. The art or practice of casting magic spells; magic; voodoo.
3. An object, as an amulet or charm, that is believed to carry
a magic spell.

philter [FIL-tur], noun:
1. A potion or charm supposed to cause the person
taking it to fall in love.
2. A potion or charm believed to have magic power.

prestidigitation [pres-tuh-dij-uh-TAY-shuhn], noun:
Skill in or performance of tricks; sleight of hand.

thaumaturgy [THAW-muh-tuhr-jee], noun:
The performance of miracles or magic.
A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a thaumaturgist or thaumaturge.



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MAINE

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see: "PLACES" for related links


Don't ever ask directions of a Maine native.
... 'Somehow we think it funny to misdirect
people and we don't smile when we do it,
but we laugh inwardly. It is our nature.'
--a Maine native in: John Steinbeck (1902—1968)
American novelist, _Travels With Charley_ [1962].

There are only two things that ever make the front page in
Maine papers. One is a forest fire and the other is when a
New Yorker shoots a moose instead of the game warden.
--Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977)
American film comedian.
In a letter to "Variety" [23 August 1934],
quoted in his _The Groucho Phile_ [1976].

I am lingering in Maine this winter, to fight wolves
and foxes. The sun here is less strong than Florida's,
but so is the spirit of development.
--E.B. [Elwyn Brooks] White (1899—1985)
American essayist and literary stylist.
"A Report in January" [1958] in _Essays of E.B. White_ [1977].

-

'Have you lived here all your life?'
'Not yet.'
--anon. Mainer response to the age-old question.



MAJORITY (THE)

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see: "MINORITY"
see: "PUBLIC OPINION"
see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links


The antiquity and general acceptance of
an opinion is no assurance of its truth.
--Pierre Bayle (1647—1706)
French philosopher.
Attributed in Norman Lewis Torrey _Les Philosophes
_The Philosophers of the Enlightenment ..._ [1960].

-

A man in the right, with God on his side,
is in the majority, though he be alone.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.
In Henry Ward Beecher and Edna Dean Proctor, _Life Thoughts: Gathered
From the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher_ [1858].

& see:

One, on God's side, is a majority.
--Wendell Phillips (1811—1884)
American abolitionist and reformer.
"Harper's Ferry" Lecture in Brooklyn, N.Y. [1 November 1859].

-

It was proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to
think with the masses or majority, merely because the
majority were the majority. Truth does not change
because it is or is not believed by a majority of people.
--Giordano [Filippo] Bruno (1548—1600)
Italian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician.
In Coulson Turnbull _Life and Teachings of Giordano Bruno_ [1913].

It is the job of thinking people, not to
be on the side of the executioners.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won
the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Attributed in Howard Zinn _A People's
History of the United States_ [1980].

It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute
public opinion for law. This is the usual form in
which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
--James Fenimore Cooper (1789—1851)
American novelist.
_The American Democrat_ [1838]

-

'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_, ch. 13 [1837]

-

One and God make a majority.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey]
(c.1818—1895)
American abolitionist, reformer, and writer.
Quoted in James Willis Westlake _Common-School
Literature, English And American ..._, Part III [1877].
(See John Knox, below.)

Nor is the people's judgment always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Absolam and Achitophel_ [1681]

Majorities, the argument of fools, the strength of the weak.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Journal_, [1846], undated entry.

If 50 million people believe a foolish
thing, it is still a foolish thing.
--attributed to Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844—1924)
French novelist, man of letters, and winner
of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921.

-

In matters of conscience, the law
of the majority has no place.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule.
In "Young India" [4 August 1920].


Strength of numbers is the delight of the timid.
The valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule.
_Young India_ [17 June 1926]

-

Nothing is more revolting than the majority; for it consists
of few vigorous predecessors, of knaves who accommodate
themselves, of weak people who assimilate themselves, and
the mass that toddles after them without knowing in the
least what it wants.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
In "Sprilche in Prosa", as quoted by Walter Arnold Kaufmann
in _Discovering the Mind: Goethe, Kant, and Hegel_ [2009 ed.].

As ten millions of circles can never make a square,
so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the
smallest foundation to falsehood.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.
_The Vicar of Wakefield_, ch. 8 [1766]

Majority rule is not founded — anymore than emperor's
rule — on reason or justice. There is no reason or justice
in making two men subject to three men ... Do robbery
and murder cease to be what they are if done by ninety-
nine percent of the population?
--Auberon Herbert (1838—1906)
English writer, philosopher, and member of Parliament.
_The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State_ [1885]

Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of
the population — the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we
can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world,
it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority. But I'll be
damned if that means it's right that the fools should dominate
the intelligent.
--Henrik Ibsen (1828—1906)
Norwegian playwright.
_An Enemy of the People_, act IV [1882]

One man with courage makes a majority.
--Andrew Jackson [Old Hickory] (1767—1845)
American military hero and 7th president of the United States [1829-37].
Attributed in "Washington Post" [7 February 1964].

-

I readily ... suppose my opinion wrong,
when opposed by the majority.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
Letter to James Madison [31 July 1788].


All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that
though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail,
that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the
minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws
must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
First Inaugural Address [4 March 1801].

-

^

Benjamin Jowett (1817—1893)
English classical scholar.

Jowett once submitted a matter to the vote of
the dons of Balliol College. The result did not
please him, he announced. 'The vote is twenty-
two to two. I see we are deadlocked.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

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]

A man with God is always in the majority.
--John Knox (1505 to 1515—1572)
Scottish religious leader.
Quoted in Inscription on Reformation Monument, Geneva, Switzerland.
(See Frederick Douglass, above.)

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that
they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses
slowly, and one by one.
--Charles Mackay (1814—1889)
Scottish poet and newspaperman.
_Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds_ [1841]

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote;
a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a
minority; the political function of rights is precisely
to protect minorities from oppression by majorities.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_The Virtue of Selfishness_ [1964]

All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.
--James Barrett "Scotty" Reston (1909—1995)
Scottish-born American journalist; two-time
winner of the Pulitzer Prize for reporting.
Quoted in Michael Rogers _Political Quotes_, p. 11 [1982].

How a minority,
Reaching majority,
Seizing authority,
Hates a minority!
--Leonard H. Robbins (1877—1947)
American author.
"Minorities"

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is
no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd;
indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of
mankind, a wide-spread belief is more likely to
be foolish than sensible.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_Marriage and Morals_, ch. 5 [1929]

The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.
--Friedrich von Schiller (1759—1805)
German poet, historian, and dramatist.
_Mary Stuart_, II, iii [1800]

He whose honor depends on the mob must day
by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and
scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the
mob is varied and inconstant, and therefore if
a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies
quickly.
--Benedict de Spinoza (1632—1677)
Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the foremost exponent of 17th century Rationalism.
_Ethics_, pt. IV [1677]

-

Any man more right than his neighbors
constitutes a majority of one.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Civil Disobedience_ (essay) [1849]


I hear many condemn these men because they
were so few. When were the good and the brave
ever in a majority?
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_A Plea for Captain John Brown_ [1859]

-

If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed,
that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of
the majority, which may at some future time urge
the minorities to desperation and oblige them to
have recourse to physical force. Anarchy will then
be the result, but it will have been brought about
by despotism.
--Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)
French historian and politician.
_Democracy in America_ [1835]

-

Hain't we got all the fools in town on our
side? And ain't that a big enough majority
in any town?
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_, ch. 26 [1884]


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] in _Mark Twain's Notebook_,
ed. Albert Bigelow Paine [1935].


We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the
drove is going, and then go with the drove.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
Quoted in Harriet Elinor Smith _Autobiography of Mark Twain_ [2010].

-

It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.
--Virgil (70—19 B.C.)
Roman poet.
Quoted by Francis Bacon in _Essays_ [1625],
Essay XXIX "Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates".



MAKING A DIFFERENCE

.
.

see: "KINDNESS" for related links
see: "LIFE" for related links


He has no enemy, you say;
My friend your boast is poor,
He who hath mingled in the fray
Of duty that the brave endure
Must have made foes. If he has none
Small is the work that he has done.
He has hit no traitor on the hip;
Has cast no cup from perjured lip;
Has never turned the wrong to right;
Has been a coward in the fight.
--Anton Alexander Auersperg [pseu. Anastasius Grόn] (1806—1876)
Austrian poet.
Quoted in Kate Louise Roberts
_Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 221 [1922].

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies,
my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or
a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a
garden planted. Something your hand touched some
way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die,
and when people look at that tree or that flower you
planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do,
he said, so long as you change something from the
way it was before you touched it into something that's
like you after you take your hand away. The difference
between the man who just cuts lawns and a real
gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn cutter
might just as well not have been there at all; the
gardner will be there for a lifetime.
--Ray Bradbury (b. 1920)
American science fiction author.
_Fahrenheit 451_ [1953]

We don't have to be "successful," only valuable.
We don't have to make money, only a difference,
and particularly in the lives society counts
least and puts last.
--William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924—2006)
American clergyman and peace activist.
_Credo_ [2004], "Faith, Hope, Love"

UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It's not.
--Theodor Seuss Geisel [Dr. Seuss] (1904—1991)
American writer and illustrator of children's books.
_The Lorax_ [1971]

-

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
--Edward Everett Hale (1822—1909)
American clergyman, writer, and chaplain of the Senate.
"Ten Times One is Ten" [1870]

& see:

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything,
but I can do something. And that which I can do,
by the grace of God, I will do.
--anon.
Quoted in Dwight Lyman Moody
_One Thousand and One Thoughts from My Library_ [1898].

-

Try to be of some use to others.
--Joseph Hall (1574—1656)
English bishop, moral philosopher, and satirist.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 41 [1886].

We are here to make a better world. No amount of
rationalization or blaming can preempt the moment
of choice each of us brings to our situation here on
this planet. The lesson of the '60s is that people who
cared enough to do right could change history. We
didn't end racism but we ended legal segregation.
We ended the idea that you could send half-a-million
soldiers around the world to fight a war that people
do not support. We ended the idea that women are
second-class citizens. We made the environment
an issue that couldn't be avoided. The big battles
that we won cannot be reversed. We were young,
self-righteous, reckless, hypocritical, brave, silly,
headstrong and scared half to death. And we were
right. I regret nothing.
--Abbie Hoffman (1936—1989)
Social and political activist.
Vanderbilt University [April 1989] (last public speech.)

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
--attributed to William James (1842—1910)
American philosopher.

Of those that spin out life in trifles, and die without a
memorial, many flatter themselves with high opinions
of their own importance, and imagine that they are
every day adding some improvement to human life.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Idler_ (essays in the newspaper "The Universal Chronicle"
from 1758—1760) [Issue of 5 August 1758]

-

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul. [...]

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_ [1839]

-

To give up the task of reforming society is to
give up one's responsibility as a free man.
--Alan Stewart Paton (1903—1988)
South African author.
Article in "The Saturday Review" [1967].

Men have been taught that the highest virtue is
not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give
that which has not been created. Creation comes
before distribution — or there will be nothing
to distribute. The need of the creator comes
before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet
we are taught to admire the second-hander who
dispenses gifts he has not produced above the
man who made the gifts possible.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_The Fountainhead_ [1943] pt. 4, "Howard Roark" Ch. XVIII

-

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering
if they made a difference in the world. But, the
Marines don't have that problem.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981-89].
[Attributed 1985 comment.]


We've done our part. And as I walk off into the
city streets, a final word to the men and women
of the Reagan revolution, the men and women
across America who for eight years did the work
that brought America back. My friends: We did
it. We weren't just marking time. We made a
difference. We made the city stronger, we made
the city freer, and we left her in good hands.
All in all, not bad, not bad at all.

And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless
the United States of America.

--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981-89].
[1989 Farewell Address]

-

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901-09].
In _The Works of Theodore Roosevelt: Through the Brazilian
Wilderness and Papers on Natural History_ [1914].

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be
"happy." I think the purpose of life is to be useful,
to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above
all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to
have made some difference that you lived at all.
--Leo Rosten (1908—1997)
Polish-born American writer and social scientist.
_Passions and Prejudices_ [1978]

We should all be obliged to appear before a board
every five years, and justify our existence to its
satisfaction on pain of liquidation.
--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.]
_Everybody's Political What's What?_ [1944]

A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account
was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the
world may be different, because I was important in the life of a boy.
--Forest E. Witcraft (1894—1967)
American scouting administrator.
"Within My Power" _Scouting_ (magazine) [October 1950]



MAKING A POINT

.
.

see: "ARGUMENT"
see: "DEBATE"


If you have an important point to make, don't try to be
subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once.
Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third
time — a tremendous whack!
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940-45, 1951-55].
Attributed in "Field and Stream" [August 1971].



MAKING THE BEST

.
.

see: "OPTIMISM"
see: "POSITIVE ATTITUDE"


The world (and my self) seem to me this morning, in light of recent
context, evil, exhausting and hopeless, not to mention nauseating
and infuriating and incurable, yet I am thoroughly glad I am in it
and alive.
--James Agee (1909—1955)
American novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic.
In James Harold Flye _Letters of James Agee to Father Flye_ [1962].

Better is half a loaf than no bread.
--John Heywood (1497—1580)
English playwright.
_Proverbs_ [1546]

The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure. Now, if I were a
grave-digger, or even a hangman, there are some people I could work
for with a great deal of enjoyment.
--Douglas Jerrold (1803—1857)
English playwright and journalist.
Quoted in _The Knickerbocker_ vol. LII [November 1858].

I have heard a good story of our friend Charles Fox. When his
house [...] was on fire, he found all effort to save it useless, and
being a good draughtsman, he went up the next hill to make a
drawing of the fire! the best instance of philosophy I ever heard.
--Robert Southey (1774—1843)
English poet.
Letter to Joseph Cottle [1800] reprinted in Joseph Cottle
_Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey_ [1847].

Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
Attributed in "Virginia Forests" (mag.) [1949].

A man travelling across a field encountered a tiger.
He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice,
he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung
himself over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from
above. Trembling, the man looked down to where,
far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only
the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one
black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine.
The man then saw a luscious strawberry near him.
Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the
strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted.
--Zen Poem



MALICE

.
.

see: "ABUSE"
see: "ANGER"
see: "CALUMNY"
see: "GOSSIP"
see: "HATRED"
see: "LYING"
see: "MEANNESS"
see: "REVENGE"
see: "SCORN"
see: "SLANDER"
see: "SNEER"
see: "WICKED"
see: "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for other related links
see: "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links


In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice
or ill will to any human being, and even
compassionating those who hold in bondage
their fellow men, not knowing what they do.
--John Quincy Adams (1767—1848)
6th President of the United States.
Letter to A. Bronson [30 July 1838].

I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that
no small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.
_A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our
Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful_, pt i [1756]

I have never taken anybody's life, but I have often
read obituary notices with considerable satisfaction.
--Clarence Darrow (1857—1938)
American lawyer.
Testimony before congressional committee [1 February 1926].

Rancor is an outpouring of a feeling of inferiority.
--Josι Ortega y Gasset (1883—1955)
Spanish philosopher.
_Meditations on Quixote_ [1911]

We kill everybody, my dear. Some with bullets,
some with words, and everybody with our deeds.
We drive people into their graves, and neither
see it nor feel it.
--Maxim Gorky (1868—1936)
Russian writer and revolutionary.
_Enemies_ [1906]

Insolence is not logic; epithets
are the arguments of malice.
--Robert Green Ingersoll (1833—1899)
American politician and orator known as "The Great Agnostic."
"The Christian Religion", pt. 2 in _The North American Review_
[November 1881].

Whatever be the motive of insult, it is always best to
overlook it; for folly scarcely can deserve resentment,
and malice is punished by neglect.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Rambler_ (English twice-weekly journal) [15 February 1752]

Malice is only another name for mediocrity.
--Patrick Kavanagh (1904—1967)
Irish poet.
_Collected Prose_ [MacGibbon & Kee, 1967]

Malice, scorned, puts out itself; but, argued,
gives a kind of credit to a false accusation.
--Philip Massinger (1583—1640)
English Jacobean and Caroline playwright.
_The Maid of Honour_, III, iii [c. 1621]

There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.
--Jean Moliθre [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622—1673)
French comic dramatist.
_Tartuffe_, I. i [1664]

Malice sucks up the greater past of its
own venom, and poisons itself with it.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
"Of Repentance," in _Essays_ [1588].

There are different ways of assassinating a
man — by pistol, sword, poison, or moral
assassination. They are the same in their
results except the last is more cruel.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804-15].
In _Napoleon in His Own Words: From the French of Jules Bertaut_ [1916].

When malice is joined to envy, there is given
forth poisonous and feculent matter, as ink
from the cuttle-fish.
--Plutarch (A.D. 46?—119?)
Greek philosopher and biographer.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p. 321 [10th ed. 1884].

Publish not men's secret faults, for by disgracing
them you make yourself of no repute.
--Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 1213—1292)
Iranian poet.
_Gulistan_ (Rose Garden) [1258]

-

But it is Schadenfreude, a mischievous delight in the misfortunes of
others, which remains the worst trait in human nature. It is a feeling
which is closely akin to cruelty, and differs from it, to say the truth,
only as theory from practice. In general, it may be said that it takes
the place which pity ought to take — pity which is its opposite, and
the true source of all real justice and charity [....]

Envy, although it is a reprehensible feeling, still admits of some
excuse, and is, in general, a very human quality; whereas the
delight in mischief [Schadenfreude] is diabolical, and its taunts
are the laughter of hell.

--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
"On Human Nature" in _Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer_,
tr. T. Bailey Saunders [1889].

& see:

What a fearful thing it is that any language should have a word expressive
of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others, for the existence
of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more
than one is such a word to be found ... In Greek epichairekakia, in the
German, 'Schadenfreude'.
--R. C. Trench (1807—1886)
Irish Archbishop of Dublin, theologian, poet, and amateur philologist.
_On the Study of Words_, (ed. 3) II. 29. [1852]

& see:

He who is malicious is also envious, since if the envious man is
pained at another's possession or acquisition of good fortune,
he is bound to rejoice at the destruction or non-acquisition of
the same.
--Aristotle (384—322 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
"The Art of Rhetoric" [Written 350 B.C.]

-

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
nor set down aught in malice.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Othello_, v, ii [1602-04]

When the tongue is the weapon, a man may strike where he cannot
reach; and a word shall do execution both further and deeper than
the mightiest blow.
--Bishop Robert South (1634—1716)
English theologian and author.
Attributed in Samuel Johnson _A Dictionary
of the English Language_ [1805 ed.].

It is very unfair in any writer to employ ignorance and
malice together, because it gives his answerer double
work.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
Attributed in _Encyclopaedia Londinensis_ [1810].

The highlight of my baseball career came in
Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium when I
saw a fan fall out of the upper deck. When he
got up and walked away, the crowd booed.
--Bob Uecker (b. 1935)
American Major League baseball player, broadcaster, and actor.
In "Quotes That Say It All About '92,"
"San Francisco Chronicle" [30 December 1992].

-----

calumniate (verb) [kκ-'lκm-nee-eyt]
To make malicious statements known to be false in
an effort to harm someone's reputation or character.

gybe, gibe, jibe (verb):
1. Spelled: "gybe": To swing a fore-and-aft sail or its boom
from one side of the vessel to the other when the wind is
behind you or (intransitive) the action itself.
2. Spelled "gibe": To taunt or jeer someone
3. Spelled "jibe" and used mostly in the U.S.: To agree, or
fit; to correlate or be in alignment with.


end page



| MACARTHUR (DOUGLAS) - MALICE | MAN - MARINES | MARRIAGE | MARTYRS - MAUGHAM (WILLIAM SOMERSET) | McCARTHY - MEANNESS | MEDIA (THE) | MEDICINE - MEMORIAL DAY | MEMORIES - MEMORY | MEN - MEN v. WOMEN | MENTAL ILLNESS - MILK | MIND (THE) - MINDING OWN BUSINESS | MINNESOTA - MISERY | MISFORTUNE - MISSOURI | MISTAKES | MISTAKEN IDENTITY - MODESTY | MONEY | MONROE - MOON | MORAL ASSASINATION - MORALITY | MORNING - MOUNTAINS | MOVIE DIALOGUE - MUSHROOMS | MUSIC - MYTHOLOGY |
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