“Many have been the wise speeches of fools, though not so many as the foolish speeches of wise men.”
Thomas Fuller (1608-61) quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail May 29, 2000
“Those who maintain that, provided he is good, a man is happy on the rack or surrounded by great disasters, is talking nonsense, whether intentionally or not.”
Aristotle, Ethics
“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”
W.C. Fields (I have encountered other variants but this one is the earliest I’ve seen)
“How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame man recognizes that we are walking straight, while a lame mind says that it is we who are limping. But for that we should feel sorry rather than angry.”
Blaise Pascal Pensées
“Imagination decides everything: it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the world’s supreme good.”
Blaise Pascal Pensées
“We still have to learn how to live peacefully, not only with our fellow men but also with nature and, above all, with those Higher Powers which have made nature and have made us; for, assuredly, we have not come about by accident and certainly have not made ourselves.”
E.F. Schumacher Small Is Beautiful
“Descartes once joked about common sense that it must be universal, because he had yet to meet anyone who didn’t claim to have it.”
Michael Potemra in National Review Jan. 27, 2003 (I believe he was referring to the opening line of Discours de la Méthode: “Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée: car chacun pense en être si bien pourvu que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute autre chose n’ont point coutume d’en désirer plus qu’ils en ont.”)
“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.”
Lao-Tsu in the “Tao Teh King” [sic] quoted in Anthony Robbins Unlimited Power