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“Gentlemen, I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec tomorrow.”
Source : 1759 To his troops,12 Sep, after reciting Thomas Gray's 'Elegy, Written in a Country Churchyard' the evening before storming the ramparts of Quebec and dying a hero's death on the Plains of Abraham the following day. Quoted in Francis Parkman Montcalm and Wolfe (1884).
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“It must never be forgotten that the purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous is to sober up alcoholics. There is no religious or spiritual requirement for membership. No demands are made on anyone. An experience is offered which members may accept or reject. That is up to them.”
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“If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by the other.”
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“Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favourable do nothing.”
Source : William Feather (1949). “The Business of Life”
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“Heuristic is an algorithm in a clown suit. It’s less predictable, it’s more fun, and it comes without a 30-day, money-back guarantee.”
Source : Steve McConnell (2004). “Code Complete”, p.12, Pearson Education
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“Brave, bold men, these are what we want. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas.”
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“Writers like Twain, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, Carolyn Chute, Alice Walker, so many others that I read coming up as a writer, that helped form my ideas of what it means to be American - and an American writer. I'm always in conversation with them.”
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“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”
Source : John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.160, Hackett Publishing
