Martyrdom

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."
-Oscar Wilde

Mark Twain on ambition

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
~Mark Twain

Belief

If you can make god bleed,
The people will cease to believe in him.

The souls of the weary are drug by the tyranny of the wise and the foolish,
Tempted by the hands of fate,
The souls of the worthy will justify the feelings of the masses.

Out there, somewhere?

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
~Bill Watterson

Degradation

History is the transformation of tumultuous conquerors into silent footnotes. ~Paul Eldridge, Maxims for a Modern Man

The difference between scientists

"A physicist, biologist and a chemist were going to the ocean for the first time.
The physicist saw the ocean and was fascinated by the waves. He said he wanted to do some research on the fluid dynamics of the waves and walked into the ocean. Obviously, he was drowned and never returned.
The biologist said he wanted to do research on the flora and fauna inside the ocean and walked inside the ocean. He too, never returned.
The chemist waited for a long time and afterwards, wrote the observation, "The physicist and the biologist are soluble in ocean water".

Hesketh Pearson

“Our true Patron Saint is not St George but Sir John Falstaff….we are the most civilised people in the world, the reason being that we are the most humorous people in the world”

The English Genius, 1939

Events mostly unimportant

"History: An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools." ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

A Great Dust Heap

"History is a great dust heap." ~Thomas Carlyle, Obiter Dicta

Define historian

"Historian: A broad-gauge gossip." ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

What is a historian?

"Historian: an unsuccessful novelist." ~H.L. Mencken

Define: History

"History: gossip well told." ~Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary

Old Man History

"History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days." ~Winston Churchill

Career Requirements of a Politician

"He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career."

George Bernard Shaw

Post-event wisdom

"It is easy to be wise after the event."

Cognitive Heroics

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes."-Benjamin D'israeli

Chess Analogy

"After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box."
-Russian proverb

Cynical

"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult."

Flashy's Sufferance

"The point is I've made capital out of my dishonourable scars by adhering to one golden rule — Flashy's Sufferance, I call it: always convey, but never say, that your injury is a sight worse than it really is. It’s elementary, really. In convalescence this ensures sympathy, if you play it properly — the barely perceptible wince, the sharp little intake of breath, the faint smile followed by the quick shake of the head, and never a word of complaint from the dear brave boy — but far more importantly, in the heat of battle it enables you to feign mortal hurt and shirk any further part in the action."-George MacDonald Fraser, via Harry Flashman

The Age of Reason

"I was Catholic until I reached the Age Of Reason" -George Carlin