“The situation is not as bad as it seems – it’s worse.”
A Greek Olympic official quoted in Maclean’s July 7, 2000
“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.”
Abba Eban (it was emailed by a friend without further attribution, and is widely cited online but again without any specific reference that I could find to when and where he said it)
Ralph von “Koenigswald’s discoveries [of early humans called the Solo People in Java] might have been even more impressive still but for a tactical error that was realized too late. He had offered locals ten cents for every piece of hominid bone they could come up with, then discovered to his horror that they had been enthusiastically smashing large pieces into small ones to maximize their income.”
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything
“Nose to the grindstone, eyes on the hills.”
Peter F. Drucker Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Principles and Practices
“A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.”
C.S. Lewis, quoted in Joseph Pearce Literary Converts
“paring knives that were duller than a throne speech…”
Bruce Ward in Ottawa Citizen December 27, 2002
“You have not come back from hell with empty hands.”
A handwritten note from André Malraux to Whittaker Chambers about his book Witness, quoted by William F. Buckley Jr. in National Review August 6, 2001 (adding “I remembered the gratitude Chambers felt” on receiving it.
“Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.”
Charles Mackay Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds