Category: Thought

A metafísica é uma consequência de estar mal disposto.

Metaphysics is a consequence of not feeling very well.

Fernando Pessoa, Tabacaria (1928), trans. Richard Zenith.

There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.

George Mason, Letter to the Committee of Merchants in London (June 6, 1766).

Mr. Chairman — A worthy member has asked, who are the militia, if they be not the people, of this country, and if we are not to be protected from the fate of the Germans, Prussians, &c. by our representation? I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.

George Mason, June 16, 1788, speech to the Virginia convention held to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.

Samuel Adams, in Essay published in The Advertiser (1748) and later reprinted in The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (1865)

ὅπου γὰρ ἰσχὺς συζυγοῦσι καὶ δίκη
ποία ξυνωρὶς τῆσδε καρτερωτέρα

For where might and justice are yoke-fellows —
What pair is stronger than this?

Aeschylus, Fragments of Uncertain Plays (#209), the Herbert Weir Smith translation (Loeb Library, Aeschylus II).

“So the princes thought, the fools!” . . .
“Why ‘fools’?” she demanded.
“Because they confuse that which they wish to be true with that which is true.”

Lin Carter, “Vault of Silence,” in Robert Hoskins (ed.) Swords Against Tomorrow (1970), p. 99 [ellipsis represents elision of a short descriptive passage].

Trouble comes looking for you if you’re a fool.

Gregory Benford, “To the Storming Gulf”(Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1985).

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (c. 478 BC), David Grene translation.

DOGE is a threat to the bureaucracy. It’s the first threat to the bureaucracy. Normally the bureaucracy eats revolutions for breakfast. This is the first time that they’re not, that the revolution might might actually succeed, that we could restore power to the people instead of power to the bureaucracy.  

Elon Musk, Joe Rogan Experience (#2281, 2025).

One of the principal objects of theoretical research is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.

Josiah Willard Gibbs, letter accepting the Rumford Medal (1881). Quoted in A. L. Mackay, Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London, 1994).