Bendik Årdal > Bendik's Quotes

“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.”
― Machiavelli Niccolo, The Prince

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
― Aristotle

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
― Aristotle

“Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
― Aristotle

“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”
― Winston Churchill

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly.”
― Winston Churchill

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
― H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

“It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; and they will not make him envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify.

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question.”
― John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

“...the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.”
― Jeremy Bentham

“If a man happen to take it into his head to assassinate with his own hands, or with the sword of justice, those whom he calls heretics, that is, people who think, or perhaps only speak, differently upon a subject which neither party understands, he will be as much inclined to do this at one time as at another. Fanaticism never sleeps: it is never glutted: it is never stopped by philanthropy; for it makes a merit of trampling on philanthropy: it is never stopped by conscience; for it has pressed conscience into its service. Avarice, lust, and vengeance, have piety, benevolence, honour; fanaticism has nothing to oppose it.”
― Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

“Is it possible for a man to move the earth? Yes; but he must first find out another earth to stand upon.”
― Jeremy Bentham

“Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish”
― Julius Caesar

“If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.”
― Julius Caesar

“Let the die be cast! [Greek: Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος; contemporary Latin (mis)translation: Iacta alea est!]”
― Julius Caesar

“All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures.”
― Julius Caesar

“Divide and Conquer.”
― Julius Caesar

“I came to Rome when it was a city of stone ... and left it a city of marble”
― Julius Caesar

“Veni, vidi, vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered.)”
― Julius Caesar

“No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.”
― Julius Caesar

“Nonsense on stilts”
― Jeremy Bentham