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Power may justly be compared to a great River, while kept within its due Bonds, is both Beautiful and Useful; but when it overflows its Banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemm'd, it bears down all before it, and brings Destruction and Desolation wherever it comes. If then this is the Nature of Power, let us at least do our Duty, and like wise Men (who value Freedom) use our utmost Care to support Liberty, the only Bulwark against lawless Power, which in all Ages has sacrificed to it's wild Lust and boundless Ambition, the Blood of the best Men that ever liv'd.

Andrew Hamilton

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Hamilton, Andrew. Argument in John Peter Zenger Trial. 1735, New York's City Hall, New York, NY, USA.

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We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.

William Ralph Inge

The Idea of Progress

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Inge, William Ralph. "The Idea of Progress." Romanes Lecture. 27 May 1920, The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, England, UK. Lecture.

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Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Robert Fulghum

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All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

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Fulghum, Robert. "Credo." All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. 1986.

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If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.

Gaston Bachelard

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The Poetics of Space

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Original Citation

Bachelard, Gaston. La Poetique de l'Espace [The Poetics of Space]. Presses Universitaires de France, 1948, ch. 1.

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Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space, translated by Maria Jolas. Penguin Classics, 2014, ch. 1.

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If we assume that the last breath of, say, Julius Caesar, has by now become thoroughly scattered through the atmosphere, then the chances are that each of us inhales one molecule of it with every breath we take.

James Jeans

An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases

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Jeans, James. An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases. Cambridge University Press, 1940, ch. 2.

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There can now be no doubt that it is Stalin rather than Hitler, who is the most alarming figure of the twentieth century. I say this-I say this not merely because Stalin killed more people than Hitler-though clearly he did-and not even because of Stalin was more of a psychopath than Hitler-although clearly he was. I say it because Stalin was not a one-off like Hitler, an eruption from nowhere. Stalin stands in a historical tradition of rule by terror which existed before him, which he refined, and which could exist again. His, not Hitler's, is the spectre that should worry us.

Robert Harris

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Archangel

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Harris, Robert. Archangel. Hutchinson, 1998, ch. 11.

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Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

Joseph Welch

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To Joseph McCarthy, on June 9th, 1954, defending the US Army against allegations of subversive activities.

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Welch, Joseph. Quoted in No Sense of Decency, written by Robert Shogun. Ivan R. Dee, 2009, ch. 10. Originally a speech "Have You No Sense of Decency?" Army-McCarthy Hearings. 9 June 1954, Washington, DC, USA.

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Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching

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Original Citation

Laozi [Lao Tzu]. 道德經 [Tao Te Ching]. c. 400 BC, ch. 37.

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Laozi [Lao Tzu]. "The Natural Way of Lao Tzu." A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, translated by Wing-Tsit Chan. Princeton University Press, 1969, ch. 37.

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The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.

Socrates

Quoted in Republic, by Plato

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Socrates. Quoted in Πολιτεία [Republic], written by Plato. c. 375 BCE.

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Socrates. Quoted in Republic, written by Plato, translated by Desmond Lee. Penguin Classics, 2007.

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Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

Socrates

Quoted in Republic, by Plato

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Socrates. Quoted in Πολιτεία [Republic], written by Plato. c. 375 BCE.

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Socrates. Quoted in Republic, written by Plato, translated by Desmond Lee. Penguin Classics, 2007.

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Friends have all things in common.

Plato

Phaedrus

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Phaedrus. Quoted in Φαῖδρος [Phaedrus], written by Plato. c. 370 BC, sect. 279c.

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Phaedrus. Quoted in "Phaedrus." Plato: Lysis; Symposium; Phaedrus, written by Plato, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2022, sect. 279c.

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How, then, might we contrive... One noble lie to persuade if possible the rulers themselves, but failing that the rest of the city?

Socrates

Quoted in Republic, by Plato

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Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Πολιτεία [Republic], written by Plato. c. 375 BCE.

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Socrates. Quoted in Republic, written by Plato, translated by Desmond Lee. Penguin Classics, 2007.

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The die is cast.

Julius Caesar

Quoted in Lives of the Caesars, by Suetonius

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Caesar, Julius. Quoted in De vita Caesarum [About the Life of the Caesars], by Suetonius. 121 AD.

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Caesar, Julius. Quoted in "Divus Julius." Lives of the Caesars, written by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves. Penguin, 2007, sect. 32.

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He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Aristotle

Politics

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Aristotle. Politics. 4th century BC, bk. 7.

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Aristotle. Politics, translated by R. F. Stalley and Sir Ernest Barker. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 7.

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Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.

Sun Tzu

The Art of War

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Original Citation

Sun Tzu. 孫子兵法 [The Art of War]. c. 475 BC, ch. 6.

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Sun Tzu. The Art of War: The Essential Translation of the Classic Book of Life, translated by John Minford. Penguin Classics, 2009, ch. 6.

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The strongest of all warriors are these two-Time and Patience.

Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace

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Tolstoy, Leo. "Война и миръ [War and Peace]." The Russian Messenger, 1865-1867. Serial.

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Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. Oxford University Press, 2010.

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Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing

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Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. London: Andrew Wise and William Aspley, 1600, act 3, sc. 1.

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Shakespeare, William. "Much Ado About Nothing." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 3, sc. 1.

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