Friday, December 10, 2004

Quotations #025

"The great impediment to action is, in our opinion, not discussion, but the want of that knowledge which is gained by discussion prepatory to action. For we have a peculiar power of thinking before we act and of acting too, whereas other men are courageous from ignorance but hesitate on reflection." -- Thucydides, "The Funeral Oration of Pericles"

"No great historical event is better calculated than the French Revolution to teach political writers and statesmen to be cautious in their speculations; for never was any such event, stemming from factors so far back in the past, so inevitable yet so completely unforeseen." -- Alexis De Tocqueville

"The day is short, the work is great, the workers are tired. But the rewards are great, and the master is pressing. You are not required to finish the job, but neither are you free to leave off from it." -- Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot.

"The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you." -- B.B. King

"History is more or less bunk. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today" -- Henry Ford

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