If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. HAMMURABI (1792 - 1750 B.C.) Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. AESOP (c. 570 BC) The man who runs away may fight again. DEMOSTHENES (338 B.C.) Can the leopard change his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. JEREMIAH (700 B.C.) When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done. ROBERT BURTON, attributed to ST. AMBROSE (387 A.D.) Never inspect the teeth of a gift horse. ST. JEROME (400 A.D.) Aye me! For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Act I, Sc. I, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", 1595) All is not gold that glisters. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (as spoken by Sancho Panza, 1615) Beauty's but skin deep; nay, it is not so: It floats but on the skin beneath the skin. JOHN DAVIES of HEREFORD (1616) 'Charity begins at home,' is the voice of the world; yet is every man his greatest enemy, and, as it were, his own executioner. SIR THOMAS BROWNE (1642) Our Constitution is in actual operation. Everything appears to promisethat it will last; but in this world, nothing is certain but death andtaxes. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1789) Our country, right or wrong! STEPHEN DECATUR (1816) My country, right or wrong is like saying, my mother, drunk or sober. G.K. CHESTERTON 'Tis strange, -- but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction: if it could be told. GEORGE GORDON (LORD BYRON, 1823) A dark horse which had never been thought of ... rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph. BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1831) The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughoutour land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages; and unless some of its missionaries penetrate there, and erect banking houses and other pious shrines, there is no knowing how long the inhabitants may remain in their present state of contented poverty. WASHINGTON IRVING (1836) Beneath the rule of men entirerly great, The pen is mightier than the sword. EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON (1839) What would not I give to wander Where my old companions dwell? Absence makes the heart grow fonder: Isle of Beauty, fare thee well! THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY (1844) 'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1850) Go west, young man! JOHN BABSONE LANE SOULE (from the Terre Haute, IN, "Express", 1851; reprinted by Horace Greely's New York "Tribune", referring to Erie Co., PA) The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation .... HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1854) Blood is thicker than water. COMMODORE JOSEPH TATTNALL (1859, attributed to a 1670 book of Scottish quotations by John Ray) War is hell, boys! Attributed to GEN. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN (1863) The only good Indians I ever saw were dead. GENERAL PHILIP SHERIDAN (on being introduced to Commanche Chief Toch-a-way, 1869) The public be damned! Attributed to WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT (who denied saying it, in 1882) Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX (1883) Nobody loves you when you're down and out. JOHN LENNON (1974) I'm from Missouri, you've got to show me. WILLARD DUNCAN VANDIVER (1899) Haste maketh waste. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) When the sun shineth, make hay. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) Look ere ye leap. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) Two heads are better than one. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) Love me, love my dog. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) Beggars should be no choosers. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) All is well that ends well. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) The fat is in the fire. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) I know on which side my bread is buttered. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) One good turn asketh another. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) A penny for your thought. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) "A franc for your thoughts." "In America, my thoughts only get a penny." "I'm willing to be overcharged." ILSA LASLOW (speaking first), and RICK BLANE from "Casablanca" (1943) Rome was not built in one day. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) Better late than never. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) An ill wind that bloweth no man to good. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) The more the merrier. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) You cannot see the wood for the trees. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) This hitteth the nail on the head. JOHN HEYWOOD (1497? - 1580?) I have put my genius into my life. I have put only my talent into my work. OSCAR WILDE Nothing succeeds like excess. OSCAR WILDE Going through customs in New York City: "I have nothing to declare except my genius." OSCAR WILDE A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. OSCAR WILDE All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That is his. OSCAR WILDE One's real life is often the life that one does not lead. OSCAR WILDE One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing. OSCAR WILDE The basis of optimism is sheer terror. OSCAR WILDE When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers. OSCAR WILDE It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. OSCAR WILDE Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing. OSCAR WILDE Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. OSCAR WILDE Men always want to be a woman's first love; women like to be a man's last romance. OSCAR WILDE Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. OSCAR WILDE The difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. OSCAR WILDE The worst form of tyranny the world has ever known: the tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts. OSCAR WILDE Everyone is born a king, and most people die in exile. OSCAR WILDE Simple pleasures -- are the last refuge of the complex. OSCAR WILDE In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. OSCAR WILDE What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. OSCAR WILDE The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. OSCAR WILDE Being natural is simply a pose. OSCAR WILDE Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. OSCAR WILDE Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. OSCAR WILDE The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast. OSCAR WILDE Duty is what one expects from others. OSCAR WILDE Frank Harris has been invited to all the great houses in England -- once. OSCAR WILDE Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty. OSCAR WILDE He doesn't act on the stage -- he behaves. OSCAR WILDE I like men who have a future and women who have a past. OSCAR WILDE By persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation. OSCAR WILDE He hasn't a single redeeming vice. OSCAR WILDE I must decline your invitation owing to a subsequent engagement. OSCAR WILDE She who hesitates is won. OSCAR WILDE In America, the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience. OSCAR WILDE There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. OSCAR WILDE Taking champagne on his deathbed: "I am dying beyond my means." OSCAR WILDE If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end -- I wouldn't be a bit surprised. DOROTHY PARKER Writing about Katherine Hepburn's performance: "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." DOROTHY PARKER Suggesting an epitaph for her own gravestone: "Excuse my dust." DOROTHY PARKER Asked to use "horticulture" in a sentence: "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think." DOROTHY PARKER On a London actress who had broken a leg: "How terrible! She must have done it sliding down a barrister." DOROTHY PARKER A girl's best friend is her mutter. DOROTHY PARKER Wit has truth in it. Wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words. DOROTHY PARKER Telegram to a friend who had a baby: "Congratulations, we all knew you had it in you." DOROTHY PARKER On learning that Pres. Calvin Coolidge had died: "Why, I never even knew that he was alive!" DOROTHY PARKER The only -ism that Hollywood believes in is plagiarism. DOROTHY PARKER On hearing that Claire Booth Luce was always kind to her inferiors: "And where does she find them?" DOROTHY PARKER On a drunk who kept insisting he was talented: "Look at him, a rhinestone in the rough." DOROTHY PARKER I was the toast of two continents: Greenland and Australia. DOROTHY PARKER Reviewing A.A. Milne's "House at Pooh Corner" and his use of coy words such as "tummmy," in her column "Constant Reader": "Tonstant Weader fwowed up." DOROTHY PARKER On Oscar Wilde: If, with the literate, I am Impelled to try an epigram, I never seek to take the credit; We all assume that Oscar said it. DOROTHY PARKER By the time you swear you're his, Shivering and sighing, And he vows his passion is Infinite, undying -- Lady, make a note of this: One of you is lying. DOROTHY PARKER Salary is no object; I only want to keep body and soul apart. DOROTHY PARKER Most good women are hidden treasures who are only safe because nobody looks for them. DOROTHY PARKER No man has ever been called a success without having been surrounded by admiring females. THOMAS WOODROW WILSON (28th President), as quoted by his daughter. Mr. Wilson bores me with his 14 points; why, God Almighty has only 10. GEORGES CLEMENCEAU, WWI Premier of France, on Woodrow Wilson Wilson, after all, stood for human decency. He stood weakly for human decency; but he stood where it is an honor to stand. SIGMUND FREUD and WILLIAM BULLIT in "Wilson: A Psychological Study" No, no, no, no. You've got that all wrong. Jimmy Stewart for governor, Ronald Reagan for best friend! Warner Bros. exec JACK WARNER, upon learning of Reagan's running for public office. For years the American Right had hungered for a national spokesman with political sex appeal ... [Reagan] looked sophisticated and urbane, even though his message was corny and parochial. JOSEPH LEWIS, in "What Makes Reagan Run", 1968 He's simplistic in a positive sense. He sees situations and problems very clearly. The measurements he uses are black and white, even if the problems aren't. CHARLES WICK, director of the US Information Agency, on Ronald Reagan I'm dissatisfied with the candidates of the major parties. You have [Carter] ... and on the other hand you have a man who is difficult to understand because he has his feet in his mouth most of the time. STANLEY MARCUS, former chairman of Neiman-Marcus, on Ronald Reagan Ronnie knows how to relax. He doesn't take his problems home. ARTHUR BLOOMINGDALE, on Ronald Reagan, 1980 External experience seems filtered into his rhetorical shell like Tang to an astronaut -- powdered, sanitary, and lifeless. ROBERT SCHEER, journalist, on Ronald Reagan, 1980 He doesn't make snap decisions, but he doesn't tend to overthink, either. NANCY REAGAN, on Ronald Reagan, 1980 I'd like to harness their youthful energy with a strap. RONALD REAGAN, concerning student demonstrations in CA, 1966 The entire graduated income tax structure was created by Karl Marx. It has no justification in getting government revenue. RONALD REAGAN, 1966 We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it, and still be home by Christmas. RONALD REAGAN, 1966 Welfare recipients are a faceless mass waiting for a handout. RONALD REAGAN, 1966 A tree's a tree. How many do you need to look at? RONALD REAGAN, concerning expansion of Redwood National Park, 1967 If it's a bloodbath they want, let's get it over with. RONALD REAGAN, concering student demonstrations, 1970 It's just too bad we can't have an epidemic of botulism. RONALD REAGAN, concering the Hearst family's free food giveaway to the poor as partial ransom for their daughter, Patricia, kidnapped by the SLA in 1974. We have a different regard for human life than those monsters do. RONALD REAGAN, concerning the Communists, 1970 I'm not smart enough to lie. RONALD REAGAN, 1980