‘But that night as I drove back to Montreal, I at least discovered this: that there is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and that the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.’ — John Hugh MacLennan, The Watch That Ends The Night
‘Un intellectuel est quelqu'un dont l'esprit se regarde lui-même.’ — Albert Camus
‘I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by 'arisch'. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. ... But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people... I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.’ — J. R. R. Tolkien, 25 July 1938 letter in response to German governmental enquiries about his origins
‘Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln
Und die andern sind im Licht
Und man siehet die im Lichte
Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht.’ — Berthold Brecht, Die Dreigroschenoper
‘With such correspondences it is small wonder that many Indo-Europeanists were content to view the Proto-Indo-European pantheon as little more than the theomorphization of the major elements of nature. To pres beyond this level of comparison required a certain amount of linguistic legerdemain which yielded rarely accepted equations. Some, for example, could point to the possible linguistic similarity between Kerberos, the guardian dog of the Greek Hades, and the epithet sabala ‘spotted, varicoloured’ (*kerbero?), the standard epithet of one of the dogs of Yama, the Indic god of the dead. And even after more force than the comparative method in linguistics will normally allow, all one gains by postulating such a correspondence is the somewhat incongruous image of a Proto-Indo-European canine guard of the realm of the dead who answered to the name of ‘Spot!’’ — J. P. Mallory, In Search of the Indo-Europeans
‘[W]e are a people with special rights guaranteed to us by promises and treaties. We do not beg for these rights, nor do we thank you... we do not thank you for them because we paid for them... and God help us the price we paid was exorbitant. We paid for them with our culture, our dignity, and our self-respect. We paid and paid and paid...’ — Chief Dan George, My Very Good Friends, quoted in Will Ferguson's Why I Hate Canadians
‘Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden.’ — Rosa Luxemburg
‘A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.’ — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love
‘All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.’ — H. L. Mencken
‘But Orcs and Trolls spoke as they would, without love of words or things; and their language was actually more degraded than I have shown it. I do not suppose that any will wish for a closer rendering, though models are easy to find. Much the same sort of talk can still be heard among the orc-minded; dreary and repetitive with hatred and contempt, too long removed from good to retain even verbal vigour, save in the ears of those to whom only the squalid sounds strong.’ — J. R. R. Tolkien, Appendix F, The Lord of the Rings
‘Die ganzen Zahlen hat der liebe Gott gemacht, alles andere ist Menschenwerk.’ — Leopold Kronecker
‘Une dictature est un pays dans lequel on n'a pas besoin de passer toute une nuit devant son poste pour apprendre le résultat des élections.’ — Georges Clemenceau
‘La guerre, c'est une chose trop grave pour la confier des militaires.’ — Georges Clemenceau
‘I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirize George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporize them.’ — Tom Lehrer
‘The audiences like to think that satire is doing something. But, in fact, it is mostly to leave themselves satisfied. Satisfied rather than angry, which is what they should be.’ — Tom Lehrer, 1
‘His [Lehrer's] favourite quote on the subject is from British comedian Peter Cook, who, in founding the Establishment Club in 1961, said it was to be a satirical venue modelled on “those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War”.’ — Tom Lehrer, Sydney Morning Herald interview with Lehrer
‘The lowest depth to which people can sink before God is defined by the word 'journalist'. If I were a father and had a daughter who was seduced I should despair over her; I would hope for her salvation. But if I had a son who became a journalist and continued to be one for five years, I would give him up.’ — Søren Kierkegaard, The Last Years: Journals 1853-1855