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Common Quotes

“You, your families, your friends and your countries are to be exterminated by the common decision of a few brutal but powerful men. To please these men, all the private affections, all the public hopes, all that has been achieved in art, and knowledge and thought and all that might be achieved hereafter is to be wiped out forever. Our ruined lifeless planet will continue for countless ages to circle aimlessly round the sun unredeemed by the joys and loves, the occasional wisdom and the power to create beauty which have given value to human life.”

MenHumansHas BeensArtCountryMightAgeJoyValuesGivenDecisionPowerfulCommonSunForeverPlanetsPleaseAnd LoveRoundsAffectionCirclesHuman LifeOur FamilyBrutalRuinedOccasionalHereafterLifelessPowerful Man
Author:Bertrand Russell
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“I myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself. When Anne Sexton admonished me, "We are all writing God's poem," I took it to mean there should be no competition between writers because we are all involved in a common project, a common prayer. But to Gore's and Norman's generation, particularly those male writers who served in the second world war, the prizefighter paradigm remains.”

WorldShouldWritingMeanWarHardHatePrayerCommonGenerationsInvolvedProjectsRemainsCompetitionMalesWar Of The WorldsParadigmGoreSecond World WarSelf Hate
Author:Erica Jong
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“As the Deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid. This wisdom, such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change.”

PeopleMenGivingHumansKindStillsLife IsGivenCommonSubjectsFitBlessingGood ThingsAdmireHuman LifeGreekModerationObservingDeitiesSplendidLikelihoodFelicityVicissitudes
Author:Solon
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“I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common. If you see it, black and white people, both sides look to see the differences, they don't look at what they have together. Men and women, and old and young, and so on. And this is a disease of the mind, the way I see it. Because in actual fact, men and women have much more in common than they are separated.”

PeopleIfsMenWayMindLooksFactsTogetherYoungSidesBlackDifferencesWhiteCommonDiseaseMen And WomenDividesBlack And WhiteBoth SidesAstounded
Author:Doris Lessing
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“I awoke from The Sickness at the age of forty-five, calm and sane, and in reasonably good health except for a weakened liver and the look of borrowed flesh common to all who survive The Sickness... When I speak of drug addiction I do not refer to keif, marijuana or any preparation of hashish, mescaline, Banisteriopsis caapi, LSD6, Sacred Mushrooms or any other drugs of the hallucinogen group... There is no evidence that the use of any hallucinogen results in physical dependence.”

LooksUseAgeSpeakResultsCommonFiveGroupsDrugEvidenceSacredAddictionCalmFleshPreparationSicknessFortyMarijuanaSaneDependenceBorrowedGood HealthLiverDrug AddictionMushroomsDrug AddictHallucinogensHashish
Author:William S. Burroughs
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“It may be expecting too much to expect most intellectuals to have common sense, when their whole life is based on their being uncommon -- that is, saying things that are different from what everyone else is saying. There is only so much genuine originality in anyone. After that, being uncommon means indulging in pointless eccentricities or clever attempts to mock or shock.”

MayMeanDifferentWholeLife IsCommonToo MuchWhole LifeCleverGenuineCommon SenseShockOriginalityExpectingPointlessMockUncommonEccentricityExpecting Too Much
Book:Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays
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“I don't need to praise anything so justly famous as Frost's observation of and empathy with everything in Nature from a hornet to a hillside; and he has observed his own nature, one person's random or consequential chains of thoughts and feelings and perceptions, quite as well. (And this person, in the poems, is not the "alienated artist" cut off from everybody who isn't, yum-yum, another alienated artist; he is someone like normal people only more so - a normal person in the less common and more important sense of normal.)”

PeopleNeedsWellsPersonsImportantFeelingsArtistCommonCuttingNormalPerceptionEmpathyPraiseObservationChainsFrostThoughts And FeelingsHornets
Author:Randall Jarrell
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“(The processes are) doubly ruinous: they impoverish the earth by hastily removing, for the benefit of a few generations, the common resources which, once expended and dissipated, can never be restored; and second, in its technique, its habits, its processes, the paleotechnic period is equally inimical to the earth considered as a human habitat, by its destruction of the beauty of the landscape, its ruining of streams, its pollution of drinking water, its filling the air with a finely divided carboniferous deposit, which chokes both life and vegetation.”

HumansEarthProcessWaterCommonGenerationsAirHabitPeriodsBenefitsResourcesDestructionDrinkingTechniqueLandscapeStreamsDividedPollutionFillingChokeHabitatDepositsDrinking WaterVegetation
Author:Lewis Mumford
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“Barring love and war, few enterprises are undertaken with such abandon, or by such diverse individuals, or with so paradoxical a mixture of appetite and altruism, as that group of avocations known as outdoor recreation. It is, by common consent, a good thing for people to get back to nature. But wherein lies the goodness, and what can be done to encourage its pursuit?”

PeopleWarDoneLyingIndividualCommonKnownGroupsGoodnessGood ThingsPursuitEnterpriseAbandonGet BackAppetiteDiverseAltruismConsentMixturesRecreationParadoxicalLove And WarOutdoor Recreation
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“What had really caused the women's movement was the additional years of human life. At the turn of the century women's life expectancy was forty-six; now it was nearly eighty. Our groping sense that we couldn't live all those years in terms of motherhood alone was "the problem that had no name." Realizing that it was not some freakish personal fault but our common problem as women had enabled us to take the first steps to change our lives.”

YearsFirstsHumansProblemTurnsNamesTermRealizingCommonStepsOur LivesCenturyMovementSixFaultsMotherhoodHuman LifeFortyFirst StepsEightyExpectancyLife Expectancy
Author:Betty Friedan
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“Organization is not only directly linked to unity, but a natural development of that unity. Accordingly, the leaders' pursuit of that unity is also an attempt to organize the people, requiring witness to the fact that the struggle for liberation is a common task." "Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.”

PeopleFactsNaturalDecisionCommonLeaderStruggleDevelopmentTasksOrganizationUnityPursuitWitnessLiberationOrganizeLinkedManipulateLiberatedImposing
Author:Paulo Freire
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“His (Deschamps') complaint of court life was the same as is made of government at the top in any age: it was composed of hypocrisy, flattery, lying, paying and betraying; it was where calumny and cupidity reigned, common sense lacked, truth dared not appear, and where to survive one had to be deaf, blind, and dumb.”

MadeGovernmentAgeLyingCommonBlindCourtCommon SenseDumbHypocrisyBetrayComplaintsFlatteryDeafCalumny
Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
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“Many common problems are caused by wrong attitudes. People see themselves as the center of the universe and judge everything as it relates to them. Naturally you won't be happy that way. You can only be happy when you see things in proper perspective: all human beings are of equal importance in God's sight, and have a job to do in the divine plan.”

PeopleWayHumansProblemJobsUniverseHuman BeingsCommonAttitudePlansDivineJudgingPerspectiveEqualSightImportanceRelateCenter Of The UniverseWrong Attitude
Book:Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words
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“Divine things are too deep to be expressed by common words. The heavenly teachings are expressed in parable in order to be understood and preserved for ages to come. When the spiritually minded dive deeply into the ocean of their meaning they bring to the surface the pearls of their inner significance. There is no greater pleasure than to study God’s Word with a spiritual mind.”

MindAgeSpiritualOrderPleasureCommonStudyGreaterTeachingDivineOceanUnderstoodSurfaceHeavenlySignificancePearlsParablesToo Deep
Author:Abdu'l-Bahá
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“I would never behave with so little dignity. Nor would I wish to be confronted in such a manner by anyone else. Vampires inspire screams, not squees. Involuntary urination is common, I grant, but it properly flows from a sense of terror, not an ecstatic sense of hero worship.”

LittlesWishCommonInspireHeroWorshipFlowDignityTerrorVampireBehaveGrantsScreamEcstaticInvoluntaryHero Worship
Book:Hammered (with bonus short story): The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Three
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“Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense. There are forty men of wit for one man of sense; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a loss for want of readier change.”

MenWantLossCommonHalfFineGoldWitCommon SenseFortyOne ManExalted
Book:The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., in Verse and Prose: With a Selection of Explanatory Notes
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“Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last. The acts of a nation may be triumphant by its good fortune; and its words mighty by the genius of a few of its children: but its art, only by the general gifts and common sympathies of the race.”

WritingMayChildrenArtTwoBookLastsThreeNationsCommonRaceGeniusUnderstoodFortuneDeedsAutobiographyGood FortuneTrustworthyManuscriptsTriumphantGreat Nations
Author:John Ruskin
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“God pity us indeed, for we are human, And do not always see, The vision when it comes, the shining change, Or, if we see it, do not follow it, Because it is too hard, too strange, too new, Too unbelievable, too difficult, Warring too much with common, easy ways, And now I know this, standing in this light, Who have been half alive these many years, Brooding on my own sorrow, my own pain, Saying "I am a barren bough. Expect, Nor fruit nor blossom from a barren bough."”

IfsKnowsWayYearsHumansHas BeensHardLightPainEasyDifficultMy OwnCommonHalfVisionToo MuchAliveStrangeSorrowStandingShiningFruitPityUnbelievableBarrenEasy WayBrooding
Author:Stephen Vincent Benet
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“Even as a child I was fascinated by death, not in a spiritual sense, but in an aesthetic one. A hamster or guinea pig would pass away, and, after burying the body, I'd dig it back up: over and over, until all that remained was a shoddy pelt. It earned me a certain reputation, especially when I moved on to other people's pets. "Igor," they called me. "Wicked, spooky." But I think my interest was actually fairly common, at least among adolescent boys. At that age, death is something that happens only to animals and grandparents, and studying it is like a science project.”

PeopleThinkingChildrenBodyHappensAgeSpiritualCertainInterestAnimalCommonBoysStudyProjectsMovedReputationWickedPetFascinatedAestheticPigsGrandparentPassing AwaySpookyMoved OnGuineaBuryingHamstersAll That RemainsGuinea PigsI Moved On
Author:David Sedaris
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“Nothing is more common than energy in money-making, quite independent of any higher object than its accumulation. A man who devotes himself to this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich. Very little brains will do; spend less than you earn; add guinea to guinea; scrape and save; and the pile of gold will gradually rise.”

MenLittlesSoulBodyEnergyCommonBrainRichFailingObjectsHigherGoldIndependentAddPursuitMaking MoneyAccumulationGuineaBecome Rich
Book:Self-help: With Illustrations of Charakter, Conduct and Perseverance
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“Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free. In every age its progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.”

MenYearsHas BeensAgeNextStrongNationsTermNaturalPoorCommonRaceLibertyEnemyProgressCenturyCrimeIgnoranceCivilizationYears AgoFruitDeedsSeedsLustEaseMotiveMatureDelicateSuperstitionsHarvestConquestGood DeedsCravingPoor ManPretextStrong ManAthensSowingNatural Enemies
Author:Lord Acton
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“Symons remarked that the most common and unhelpful illusion plaguing those who came to see him was the idea that they ought somehow, in the normal course of events, to have intuited long before they had finished their degrees, started families, bought houses and risen to the top of law firms - what they should properly be doing with their lives. They were tormented by a residual notion of having through some error or stupidity on their part missed out on their true calling.”

ShouldLongIdeasLawCoursesHouseCommonEventsOughtCallingDegreesNormalIllusionErrorsNotionStupidityFinishedFirmRisenResidualLaw Firms
Author:Alain de Botton
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“Christ has given us, not only the ritual of an ordinance, but the pattern for our lives, when He took the cup, and gave thanks. So common joys become sacraments, enjoyment becomes worship, and the cup which holds the bitter or the sweet skillfully mingled for our lives becomes the cup of blessing and salvation drank in remembrance of Him.”

JoyGivenChristCommonOur LivesSweetBlessingWorshipSalvationPatternsBitterThanksCupsEnjoymentRitualRemembranceSacramentsDrankOrdinances
Book:MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture
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“Panic: A highly underrated capacity thanks to which individuals are able to indicate clearly that something is wrong. Given their head, most humans panic with great dignity and imagination. This can be called democratic expression or practical common sense.”

HumansAbleIndividualGivenImaginationCommonExpressionCapacityDignityDemocraticPracticalsCommon SenseThanksPanicUnderrated
Book:The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense
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