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Camus
“There exists an obvious fact that seems utterly moral: namely, that a man is always a prey to his truths.”
-- Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” -
James Branch Cabell
"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."
-- James Branch Cabell -
Mark Twain
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
-- Mark Twain
[Source: The film "The Big Short" (2015)] -
E. M. Cioran
Always keen for the provocative statement, Cioran speaks of the Jews in this excerpt.
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“If they do not possess a monopoly on subtlety, the fact remains, nonetheless, that their form of intelligence is the most disturbing there is, the oldest; it is as if they know everything, have always known everything, since Adam, since … God ( Read more... ) -
Andrew Sullivan
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.”-- Henry David Thoreau ( Read more... ) -
Vince Foster
“Before we came here, we thought of ourselves as good people.”-- Vince Foster ( Read more... ) -
Hobbes
From Hobbes’s account of the civil wars, this excerpt expresses his disdain for the Parliament that would take down its king.
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9/11
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
-- Samuel Beckett
Roger Cohen invokes this quote for his column on the anniversary of 9/11, noting how many observers feel that we have grown apart and polarized as a people as much as ever.
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Schopenhauer
“Take away from life the few moments of religion, art and pure love, and what is left but a series of trivial thoughts?”
-- Arthur Schopenhauer
[Source: Rudiger Safranski, “Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy”] -
Ann Coulter
"A word to those of you out there who have yet to be offended by something I have written or said: Please be patient. I am working as fast as I can."
-- Ann Coulter (2006)
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