Great Throughts Treasury

"Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In property, inequality of conditions is the result of force, under whatever name it be disguised: physical and mental force; force of events, chance, fortune; force of accumulated property… In communism, inequality springs from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence. This damaging equation is repellent to the conscience, and causes merit to complain; for, although it may be the duty of the strong to aid the weak, they prefer to do it out of generosity, — they never will endure a comparison. Give them equal opportunities of labor, and equal wages, but never allow their jealousy to be awakened by mutual suspicion of unfaithfulness in the performance of the common task." - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

"It is better to excel in any single art than to arrive only at mediocrity in several, so moderate skill in several is to be preferred where one cannot attain to perfection in any. " - Pliny the Younger, full name Casus Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo NULL

"The present reeks of mediocrity and the atom bomb." - René Margritte, fully René François Ghislain Magritte

"Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute." - Silvio Pellico

"And, in this case, science could learn an important lesson from the literati — who love contingency for the same basic reason that scientists tend to regard the theme with suspicion. Because, in contingency lies the power of each person, to make a difference in an unconstrained world bristling with possibilities, and nudgeable by the smallest of unpredictable inputs into markedly different channels spelling either vast improvement or potential disaster." - Stephan Jay Gould

"Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no worth at all, if not perhaps, results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you will start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself." - Thomas Merton

"We will never have Fascism in England; no Englishman will dress up, not even for a revolution." - William Bolitho, pen name for Charles William Ryall

"Pascal told only half the story. He said man was a thinking reed. What man is, is a thinking reed and a walking genital." - Walker Percy

"My angel, oh my angel, perhaps our whole earthly existence is now but a pun to you, or a grotesque rhyme, something like dental and transcendental (remember?), and the true meaning of reality, of that piercing term, purged of all our strange, dreamy, masquerade interpretations, now sounds so pure and sweet that you, angel, find it amusing that we could have taken the dream so seriously (although you and I did have an inkling of why everything disintegrated at one furtive touch-- words, conventions of everyday life, systems, persons-- so, you know, I think laughter is some chance little ape of truth astray in our world." - Vladimir Nabokov, fully Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov

"There is a way of falling into error while on the way to truth." - Victor Hugo

"It is a pity that men cannot usually possess no talent without any desire to put others down." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

"This is a great sign of mediocrity always moderately to rent." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

"This is a reason to talk a lot to think little." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humor (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much." - J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien