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FAMOUS UTTERANCES, BONS MOTS / PHRASES CÉLÈBRES, TRAITS D'ESPRIT Collected by Christian Lassure The art of prophecy is very difficult, especially with respect to the future. Mark Twain It is personalities, not principles that move the age. Oscar Wilde I’m not going to pay good money to join a club that lets in people like me. Groucho Marx I never think of the future. It arrives soon enough. Albert Einstein Progress is the realization of utopia. Oscar Wilde We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like? Jean Cocteau In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. G. K. Chesterton The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. George Bernard Shaw Imitation is the homage mediocrity pays to greatness. Oscar Wilde Speak softly and carry a bigstick: you will go far. Theodore Roosevelt The innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions. Machiavelli When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers. Oscar Wilde Sweet is war to those who know it not. Erasmus The CIA owns everyone of any major significance in the major media. CIA director William Colby The only thing on earth I know is serious is the culture of the vine. Voltaire Facts are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. John Adams Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances. Strong men believe in cause and effect. Ralph Waldo Emerson Everyone has two homelands, their own and La France. / Tout homme a deux patries : la sienne et la France. Thomas Jefferson Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. Groucho Marx I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Albert Einstein A fool learns from his experience. A wise person learns from the experience of others. Otto von Bismarck Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain After we have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Sherlock Holmes You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something in your life. Winston Churchill Insanity in individuals is something rare -- but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana The tyranny of the ignoramuses is insurmountable and assured for all time. Albert Einstein History is little more than the register of crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. Edward Gibbon Men use thoughts only to justify their wrongdoings, and words only to conceal their thoughts. Voltaire Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied. Otto von Bismarck The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke One cannot cross an abyss in two jumps. David Lloyd-George In times of universal deceit, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell A nation of sheep must in time beget a goverment of wolves. Edward R. Murrow Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. H. L. Mencken A sucker is born every minute. (old American adage) To a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail. Mark Twain We live in hope and die in despair. (old adage) Pride goes before a fall. (ancient admonition) Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King Never dig a hole deeper than you can climb out of. Gravedigger's maxim On the head of the thief the hat is burning. Hebraic proverb There is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea. Dr Samuel Johnson You will get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone. Al Capone Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton If we were discussing horses it would seem out of place to mix in donkeys and proceed to discuss them all together. Norman Totten, "Epigraphic research in America" The French are logical people, which is one reason the English dislike them so intensely. The other is that they own France, a country which we have always judged to be much too good for them. Robert Morley No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in Mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. Aldous Huxley Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hands. Kurt Vonnegut Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water. Einstein If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on the human face forever. George Orwell's 1984 Guest and fish stink after three days. (common saying) Capitalism is the astounding belief that the wretchedest of men will do the wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. J. F. Keynes People that vote decide nothing, people who count the votes decide everything. Joseph Stalin In this world, while it is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, to be a friend is fatal. Henry Kissinger English is the easiest language to speak badly. George Bernard Shaw Teachers teach, but only students can learn. (common knowledge) Whether the rock hits the egg or the egg hits the rock, the result is always the same. (Chinese proverb) Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason ? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason. Old english ditty attributed to Sir John Harrington, 1561-1612 Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. Denis Diderot When you lose, make sure you do not lose the lesson. (common saying) Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas. (common saying) First they ignore you, then they denounce you, and then they say that they knew what you were saying all the time. Gandhi Before beating your dog, first close the door. (common saying) It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk. Bertolt Brecht I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel prize. George Bernard Shaw Even while they teach, men learn. Seneca the Younger Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it. Fyodor Dostoyevsky Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein No great thing is created suddenly. Epictetus If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. Benjamin Franklin Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them. Albert Einstein The golden rule is that there are no golden rules. George Bernard Shaw It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong. Thomas Jefferson When war is declared, truth is the first casualty. Arthur Ponsonby, 1928 Civilization is a disease which is almost invariably fatal. Inge He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man. Dr. Samuel Johnson No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. Abraham Lincoln Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history. Aldous Huxley Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. Spoken by Prometheus, in The Masque of Pandora (1875) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow There is no word in French for "entrepreneur". George Bush to Tony Blair For every action, there is an equal and apposite reaction. Isaac Newton (Third law of motion) The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us. Bill Watterson That which can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. Christopher Hitchens It is easier to fool pople than to convince them that they have been fooled. (falsely attribued to Mark Twain) Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return. W. H. Auden He who defends everything, defends nothing. Frederick the Great If we don't learn from the mistakes of the past we are doomed to repeat them.George Santayana Hell is empty and all the devils are here.William Shakespeare, The Tempest We demand strict proof for opinions we dislike, but are satisfied with mere hints for what we're inclined to accept. John Henry Newman Scratch a translator and you'll find a writer underneath. (unknown origin) War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. (falsely attributed to Ambrose Pierce or Mark Twain) Fools rush in where angels fear to tread (Là où les anges n'osent mettre le pied, les sots se précipitent). Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 1711. To print, use landscape mode © Christian Lassure - English For Techies Augmented on May, 21st, 2008 - November 12th, 2008 - March 15th, 2009 - March 29th, 2009 - April 20th, 2009 - September 7th, 2011 - January 30th, 2012 - October 6th, 2012 - August 19th, 2014 - November 9th, 2014 - November 30th, 2017 - August 3rd, 2020 - July 9th, 2022 - December 19th, 2023 Complété le 21 mai 2008 - 12 novembre 2008 - 15 mars 2009 - 29 mars 2009 - 20 avril 2009 - 7 septembre 2011 - 30 janvier 2012 - 6 Octobre 2012 - 19 août 2014 - 9 novembre 2014 - 30 novembre 2017 - 3 août 2020 - 9 juillet 2022 - 19 décembre 2023 This page remains subject to additional edits / La présente page est susceptible d'être modifiée
more "famous utterances" / Autres phrases célèbres
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