Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method (1637).
If a country can’t save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain!
Robert A. Heinlein, Guest of Honor speech at the 29th World Science Fiction Convention, Seattle, Washington (1961).
Beneficence is always free, it cannot be extorted by force, the mere want of it exposes to no punishment; because the mere want of beneficence tends to do no real positive evil.
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1776), § II, Ch. I.
I have nothing against artists. I had a rock band myself. My problem is that if you need a government subsidy to make art, you’re no longer an artist — you’re a public employee.
Javier Milei, president of Argentina, in conversation.
Every fool believes what his teachers tell him, and calls his credulity science or morality as confidently as his father called it divine revelation.
George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #39.
When the Truth deigns to come, her sister Liberty will not be far.
Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1795).
Si 50 millions de personnes disent une bêtise, c’est quand même une bêtise.
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France, as quoted in Listening and Speaking : A Guide to Effective Oral Communication (1954) by Ralph G. Nichols and Thomas R. Lewis, p. 74.
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
George Bernard Shaw, Candida (1894).
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1795).
Sed neque tam facilis res ulla est, quin ea primum
difficilis magis ad credendum constet, itemque
nil adeo magnum neque tam mirabile quicquam,
quod non paulatim minuant mirarier omnes.
For no fact is so simple we believe it at first sight,
Titus Lucretius Carus, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), Book II, lines 1026–1029 (tr. Stallings).
And there is nothing that exists so great or marvelous
That over time mankind does not admire it less and less.