Michael Hall > Michael's Quotes

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You

“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”
― Aristotle, The Philosophy of Aristotle

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke

“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
― Edmund Burke

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”
― Anatole France

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”
― T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

“Be kind to people, be ruthless to systems.”
― Michael Brooks