“All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.”
Wise feeling
Wise Quotes — page 153 of 916
“The brain and the eye may have a contractual relationship in which the brain has agreed to believe what the eye sees, but in return the eye has agreed to look for what the brain wants.”
“I once asked [John] Lennon what he thought of what I do. He said 'it's great, but its just rock and roll with lipstick on'.”
“Icon. What is an icon? When someone is iconic it means they have established a certain kind of legacy possibly, and I think it does come with time. It's something in the arts, I feel. Maybe not, maybe it doesn't have to be in the arts exactly. I'm not really sure. But I don't think you are born an icon.”
“Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.”
“Some of what I wrote bordered on blasphemy....If there was a God, He would have to be truth. And in that case, candor--however impertinent--would be more pleasing to Him than posturing.”
“The Difference Between Art and Life is that Art is More Bearable”
“Isaiah Berlin once said that there are two kinds of writers, hedgehogs and foxes. He said the fox knows many things, the hedgehog knows just one thing. So Shakespeare is a typical fox; Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are typical hedgehogs. Now, I'm a typical hedgehog. I know just one thing, and I repeat it over and over again. I try to approach it from different angles to make it look different, but it's the same thing.”
“Rather than caring about whether or not you are known, strive to be worth knowing.”
“The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.”
“If the people are governed by laws and punishment is used to maintain order, they will try to avoid the punishment but have no sense of shame. If they are governed by virtue and rules of propriety are used to maintain order, they will have a sense of shame and will become good as well.”
“Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.”
“Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.”
“In the long run, your human capital is your main base of competition. Your leading indicator of where you're going to be 20 years from now is how well you're doing in your education system.”
“It is not the temptations you have, but the decision you make about them that counts.”
“Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself - to be is to be related.”
“Good men seek it by the natural means of the virtues; evil men, however, try to achieve the same goal by a variety of concupiscences, and that is surely an unnatural way of seeking the good. Don't you agree?”
“Don't be too clever for an audience. Make it obvious. Make the subtleties obvious also.”
“Like great works, deep feelings always mean more than they are conscious of saying.”
“But a priest's life is not supposed to be well-rounded; it is supposed to be one-pointed - a compass, not a weathercock.”