Origine: Life and Fate
„Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long.“
— Robert Burton, libro L'anatomia della malinconia
Section 2, member 1, subsection 2, A Digression of the nature of Spirits, bad Angels, or Devils, and how they cause Melancholy.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I
„The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of cause.“
— Larry Niven, libro The Legacy of Heorot
Origine: The Legacy of Heorot (1987), Chapter 22 “The Last Grendel” (p. 231; quoting William James)
— Robert LeFevre American libertarian businessman 1911 - 1986
Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, “Unlimited Government” (Dec. 29, 1961).
„The idea of the thing was attacked by good and bad men, in good faith and bad.“
— R. A. Lafferty, libro Fourth Mansions
Origine: Fourth Mansions (1969), Ch. 4
Contesto: "There was a later time when sincere men tried to build an organization as wide as the world to secure the peace of the world. It had been tried before and it had failed before. Perhaps if it failed this time it would not be tried again for a very long while. The idea of the thing was attacked by good and bad men, in good faith and bad. The final realization of it was so close that it could be touched with the fingertips. A gambler wouldn't have given odds on it either way. It teetered, and it almost seemed as though it would succeed. Then members of that group interfered."
"And it failed, O'Claire?"
"No. It succeeded, Foley, as in the other case. It succeeded in so twisted a fashion that the Devil himself was puzzled as to whether he had gained or lost ground by it. And he isn't easily puzzled."
„The good needs fear no law,
It is his safety and the bad man's awe.“
— Philip Massinger, The Old Law
The Old Law (c. 1615–18; printed 1656), with Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.
— Theodore Roosevelt American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858 - 1919
Letter http://www.trsite.org/content/pages/speaking-loudly (1 September 1903), Oyster Bay, New York
1900s
— Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer
IX. On Providence, Fate, and Fortune.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
— H.L. Mencken American journalist and writer 1880 - 1956
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
„A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul.“
— John le Carré, libro The Mission Song
The Mission Song (2006)
„The scoundrel has his good qualities, and the good man his weaknesses.“
— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, libro Les Liaisons dangereuses
Le scélérat a ses vertus, comme l'honnête homme a ses faiblesses.
Letter 32: Madame de Volanges to Madame la Présidente Tourvel. Trans. P.W.K. Stone (1961). http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Liaisons_dangereuses_-_Lettre_32
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
— William James American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist 1842 - 1910
Letter to E.L. Godkin (24 December 1895)
1890s
— Orson Scott Card American science fiction novelist 1951
Origine: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 11.
— Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer
IX. On Providence, Fate, and Fortune.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
Contesto: To believe that human things, especially their material constitution, are ordered not only by celestial beings but by the celestial bodies is a reasonable and true belief. Reason shows that health and sickness, good fortune and bad fortune, arise according to our deserts from that source. But to attribute men's acts of injustice and lust to fate, is to make ourselves good and the Gods bad. Unless by chance a man meant by such a statement that in general all things are for the good of the world and for those who are in a natural state, but that bad education or weakness of nature changes the goods of Fate for the worse. Just as it happens that the Sun, which is good for all, may be injurious to persons with ophthalmia or fever.
„It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.“
— Henry Fielding, libro The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Origine: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
— George Raymond Richard Martin American writer, screenwriter and television producer 1948
On a panel with R. Scott Bakker in Semana Negra, Spain (2008)
— Alexis De Tocqueville French political thinker and historian 1805 - 1859
Letter to Eugene Stoffels (Jan. 3, 1845) as quoted by Thomas Molnar, The Decline of the Intellectual (1961) Ch. 11 "Intellectual and Philosopher"
Original text:
Les hommes ne sont en général ni très-bons, ni très-mauvais : ils sont médiocres. [...] L'homme avec ses vices, ses faiblesses, ses vertus, ce mélange confus de bien et de mal, de bas et de haut, d'honnête et de dépravé, est encore, à tout prendre, l'objet le plus digne d'examen, d'intérêt, de pitié, d'attachement et d'admiration qui se trouve sur la terre; et puisque les anges nous manquent, nous ne saurions nous attacher à rien qui soit plus grand et plus digne de notre dévouement que nos semblables.
1840s
„An honest man's word is as good as his bond.“
— Miguel de Cervantes Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright 1547 - 1616
Origine: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV, Ch. 34.
— W. Somerset Maugham, libro The Summing Up
Ch. 4, p. 11 http://books.google.com/books?id=Ma3RAAAAMAAJ&q=%22There+is+a+sort+of+man+who+pays+no+attention+to+his+good+actions+but+is+tormented+by+his+bad+ones+this+is+the+type+that+most+often+writes+about+himself%22&pg=PA11#v=onepage
The Summing Up (1938)
— Carlos Castaneda Peruvian-American author 1925 - 1998
