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Life

Epiktet, Handbüchlein der Moral, 17 „Das Leben ist ein Schauspiel“

Bedenke: Du bist Darsteller eines Stücks, dessen Charakter der Autor bestimmt, und zwar eines kurzen, wenn er es kurz, eines langen, wenn er es lang wünscht. Will er, daß du einen Bettler darstellst, so spiele auch diesen einfühlend; ein Gleiches gilt für einen Krüppel, einen Herrscher oder einen gewöhnlichen Menschen. Deine Aufgabe ist nur, die dir zugeteilte Rolle gut zu spielen; sie auszuwählen, steht einem anderen zu.
(Translation: Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the author pleases to make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one. If it is his pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally. For this is your business, to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is another's.)

Captain Disillusion

Love with your heart, use your head for everything else!

Margaret Thatcher on consensus

The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus?’

https://www.ksta.de/kultur/buehne-yoga-nach-dem-massaker-28994710?cb=1612715214845

Toleranz definierte der Schriftsteller Patrick Süskind einst als „jenes lauwarme Gefühlsgemisch aus Ekel, Verachtung und Mitleid“.

Julia Kristeva in der FAZ

Eine weitere Sackgasse Europas ist der Hang zur Empörung, ein Wort, das inzwischen groß in Mode ist. In meinen Augen ist die Empörung romantisch, eine von Abwehr und Zorn geprägte und jugendlich-unreife Reaktion, die keine glaubwürdige Alternative benennt, weil sie keinerlei Interaktion mit dem anderen vorsieht. Sie denkt nicht an den anderen. Es ist eine Haltung, die zum Dogmatismus verleitet; sie ist ihrem Wesen nach totalitär und todbringend. Die Empörung ist eine europäische Sünde, ein negativer Narzissmus.
(Translation: Another of Europe's dead ends is the inclination towards outrage, a word, that's very much in fashion now. In my eyes outrage is romantic, a reaction characterised by defense and wrath, and juvenile-immature. A reaction that doesn't offer a believable alternative, because it allows for no interaction with the other at all. It soes not think about the other. It is an attitude that lures towards dogmatism; it is by its nature totalitarian and deathly. Outrage is a European sin, a negative narcissism.)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, p.93 (1891), quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

Attributed to Maurice Chevalier, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

Attributed to Bard of Cincinnati, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

Man has only a thin layer of soil between himself and starvation.

George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

You see things; and you say “Why?“ But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?“

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Attributed to Edmund Burke, but not found in his works, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

H. L. Mencken, A Book of Burlesques, 1924, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

Evil. That which one believes of others. It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.

Peter de Vries, The Mackerel Plaza, 1958, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.

Sidney J. Harris, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.

Edward Everett Hale, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything, But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair, 1870, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

I have always thought that every woman should marry, and no man.

Abraham Lincoln, 1859, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

It is said that an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.“ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride!—how consoling in the depth of affliction!

Gabriel Heatter, radio presenter during World War II, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

There is good news tonight.

Attributed to Bernard M. Baruch, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.

Baron George W. W. Bramwell, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

The matter does not appear to me now as it appears to have appeared to me then.

Attributed to William James, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

[A ship is always referred to as “she“] Because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder.

Friedrich Schiller, Don Carlos, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

Great souls endure in silence.

H. L. Mencken, The Divine Afflatus, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.

Bejamin Disraeli, quoted after Library of Congress: Respectfully quoted

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.

Der Kleine Brockhaus, 1925

Feminismus, weibisches Wesen bei Männern; auch Frauenbewegung.

(Translation: Feminism, effeminate nature in men; also: women's movement.)

Der Kleine Brockhaus, 1925

Frauenfrage, Probleme, die sich aus der Stellung der Frau zur Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft jeder Zeit ergeben. Vorkämpfer für die den Leistungen und Möglichkeiten der Frauen entsprechenden Rechte im 19. und 20. Jh. […]

(Translation: Question of women's rights, problems that result from women's postition in society, economy and science of the times. Campaigner for rights corresponding to women's accomplishments and potentialities in the 19th and 20th centuries.)