Category: Thought

Ἄλλος γάρ τ’ ἄλλοισιν ἀνὴρ ἐπιτέρπεται ἔργοις.

Each man delights in the work that suits him best.

Homer, The Odyssey, Book XIV (Robert Fagles, trans., 1996), line 228.

Keep violence in the mind where it belongs.

Brian Aldiss, Barefoot in the Head (1969).

Οὐ μὲν σχέτλια ἔργα θεοὶ μάκαρες φιλέουσιν,
ἀλλὰ δίκην τίουσι καὶ αἴσιμα ἔργ’ ἀνθρώπων.

The blessed gods have no love for crime.
They honor justice, honor the decent acts of men.

Homer, The Odyssey, Book XIV (Robert Fagles, trans., 1996), lines 83–84.

You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt (Chief Joseph), “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs” (1879), The North American Review, 128 (269), 412–433.

Δειλαί τοι δειλῶν γε καὶ ἐγγύαι ἐγγυάασθαι.

Worthless is as worthless does.

Homer, The Odyssey, Book VIII (Martin Hammond, trans., 2000), line 351. This is variously translated. William Cullen Bryant (1871) has Vulcan say these words: “little is the worth of pledges given For worthless debtors.” Richmond Lattimore’s rendering (1965; 1991) is ungainly but follows the Greek closely: “The business of wretches is wretched even in guarantee giving.” Stanley Lombardo’s version (2000) is especially elegant: “Worthless is the surety assured for the worthless.” Robert Fitzgerald (1998), however, breezes by the poetry here: “I should not swear to a scoundrel’s honor.”

Any sale not made by all is not valid. The late sale is bad. It was made by a part only. Part do not know how to sell. It requires all to make a bargain for all. All red men have equal rights to the unoccupied land. The right of occupancy is as good in one place as in another. There can not be two occupations in the same place. The first excludes all others. It is not so in hunting or traveling; for there the same ground will serve many, as they may follow each other all day; but the camp is stationary, and that is occupancy. It belongs to the first who sits down on his blanket or skins which he has thrown upon the ground; and till he leaves it no other has a right.

Tecumseh to Governor Harrison (August 1810).

I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.

William J. Locke, Simon the Jester (1910).

The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy, the building of a house, the writing of a novel, the demolition of a bridge, and, eminently, the finish of a voyage.

John Galsworthy, One More River (1933), first chapter.

Recognizing the structure of your psychology doesn’t mean that you can easily rebuild it.

Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas (2003), chapter 34, musing of the title character.

Carnage added to carnage does not equal peace.

Brian Aldiss, “Basis for Negotiations,” Who Can Replace a Man? (1965), p. 152.