J.F.C. Fuller

“National armies fight nations, royal armies fight their like; the first obey a mob, always demented, and the second a king, generally sane”. –J.F.C. Fuller

Louis Nizer

“I know of no higher fortitude than stubbornness in the face of overwhelming odds”. –Louis Nizer

Richard Crashaw

“Life that dares send A challenge to his end, And when it comes, say, Welcome, friend!” — Richard Crashaw

Frederick Rolfe

“Brisk and prompt to war, soft and not in the least able to resist calamity, fickle in catching at schemes, and always striving after novelties — French characteristics remained unaltered twenty centuries after Julius Caesar made a note of them for all time”. –Frederick Rolfe

Charles Lamb

“Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength”. –Charles Lamb

Ernest Bramah

“A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment”. –Ernest Bramah

Douglas Bader

“Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools”. –Douglas Bader

Charles Dibdin

“For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame. And be shot at for sixpence a day”. –Charles Dibdin

William Whewell

“Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation”. –William Whewell

John Heywood

“When all candels be out, all cats be grey”. –John Heywood

Charles Reade

“The fortunate man is he who, born poor, or nobody, works gradually up to wealth and consideration, and, having got them, dies before he finds they were not worth so much trouble”. –Charles Reade

F.H. Bradley

“The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge”. –F.H. Bradley

Mahatma Gandhi

“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs”. –Mahatma Gandhi

Henry Liddon

“The life of man is made up of action and endurance; and life is fruitful in the ratio in which it is laid out in noble action or in patient perseverance”. –Henry Liddon

John Bonham

“Drumming was the only thing I was ever good at”. –John Bonham

Matthew Arnold

“I am a Liberal, yet I am a Liberal tempered by experience, reflexion, and renouncement, and I am, above all, a believer in culture”. –Matthew Arnold

Elizabeth Gaskell

“People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people’s minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues”. –Elizabeth Gaskell

Hugh Kingsmill

“Writers are idolized not because they love their fellow men, which is never a recommendation and in extreme instances leads to crucifixion, but because their self-love is in tune with current fears and desires, and in giving it expression they are speaking for an inarticulate multitude”. –Hugh Kingsmill

Alfred Austin

“Is life worth living? Yes, so long As there is wrong to right”. –Alfred Austin

Edith Cavell

“I have no fear nor shrinking; I have seen death so often that it is not strange or fearful to me”. –Edith Cavell

Harold Pinter

“US foreign policy could be defined as follows: kiss my ass or I’ll kick your head in”. –Harold Pinter

George Saintsbury

“Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it”. –George Saintsbury

Antonín Dvořák

“I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States”. –Antonín Dvořák

Stephen Leacock

“I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so”. –Stephen Leacock

James Allen

“He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it”. –James Allen

J.G. Ballard

“Human beings today… are surrounded by huge institutions we can never penetrate: the City, the banking system, political advertising conglomerates, vast entertainment enterprises. They’ve made themselves user friendly, but they define the tastes to which we conform. They’re rather subtle, subservient tyrants, but no less sinister for that”. –J.G. Ballard

Vernon Richards

“Violence as a means breeds violence; the cult of personalities as a means breeds dictators — big and small — and servile masses; government — even with the collaboration of socialists and anarchists — breeds more government. Surely then, freedom as a means breeds more freedom, possibly even the Free Society!” –Vernon Richards

William Wallace

“We come here with no peaceful intent, but ready for battle, determined to avenge our wrongs and set our country free”. –William Wallace

King Henry VIII

“Alas, how can the poor souls live in concord when you preachers sow amongst them in your sermons debate and discord? They look to you for light and you bring them darkness”. –King Henry VIII

Francis Quarles

“Even such is man, whose glory lends His life a blaze or two, and ends”. –Francis Quarles

George Washington

“Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life”. –George Washington

Mary Shelley

“It is decided as you may have expected; all judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape”. –Mary Shelley

Israel Zangwill

“Scratch the Christian and you find the pagan — spoiled”. –Israel Zangwill

Charles Dickens

“The law is an ass”. –Charles Dickens

Ronald Firbank

“The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain”. –Ronald Firbank

Robert Southey

“Yet leaving here a name, I trust, That will not perish in the dust”. –Robert Southey

Geoffrey Chaucer

“For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde, Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde”. –Geoffrey Chaucer

Ethan Allen

“It is bad policy to fear the resentment of an enemy”. –Ethan Allen

William Blake

“When I tell any Truth it is not for the sake of Convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who Do”. –William Blake

Goldwin Smith

“The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect or party”. –Goldwin Smith

Syd Barrett

“I think young people should have a lot of fun, but I never seem to have any”. –Syd Barrett

Yasser Arafat

“For whoever stands by a just cause and fights for the freedom and liberation of his land from the invaders, the settlers, and the colonialists cannot possibly be called terrorist, otherwise the American people in their struggle for liberation from the British colonialists would have been terrorists; the European resistance against the Nazis would be terrorism, the struggle of the Asian, African, and Latin American people would also be terrorism…” –Yasser Arafat

Osbert Sitwell

“Hell has a climate, but no situation. It lies in the spirit, and not in space”. –Osbert Sitwell

Bob Hope

“A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don’t need it”. –Bob Hope

John Stuart Mill

“A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself”. –John Stuart Mill

William Shakespeare

“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well”. –William Shakespeare

H.H. Asquith

“It is against British interests that France should be wiped out…” –H.H. Asquith

Max Beerbohm

“I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him”. –Max Beerbohm

William Hazlitt

“When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest”. –William Hazlitt

Kristen Nygaard

“The world language is English as spoken by foreigners”. –Kristen Nygaard

Benito Mussolini

“Race! It is a feeling, not a reality… Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today. Amusingly enough, not one of those who have proclaimed the ‘nobility’ of the Teutonic race was himself a Teuton. Gobineau was a Frenchman, Houston Chamberlain, an Englishman; Woltmann, a Jew; Lapouge, another Frenchman”. –Benito Mussolini

Duke of Wellington

“Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained”. –Duke of Wellington

King Henry IV

“The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody’s word about them”. –King Henry IV