Quotes and Aphorisms

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 23:30:08 -0400

There are a number of quotes and aphorisms that I find myself revisiting, and I wanted to keep a list somewhere convenient. You can read along. Where I could, I have noted a source.

Aphorisms

Bad news doesn’t get better with age.
When you’re in a hole, stop digging.
It’s never the crime, it’s the cover-up.
The question is never “how do they get away with that,” the question is “how do I get in on that.”—a favorite of a former colleague of mine.
You can’t save people from themselves.
If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.
Never wrestle with a pig: you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.—(Often credited to George Bernard Shaw, but I have not found a solid source. Shaw’s Wikiquote page tracks attribution questions.)
Great Britain and the United States are two nations devided by a common language.

Notable Personalities

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”—Mark Twain, attributed; see Wikiquote page.
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”—Frequently attributed to Twain, but not found it in his writing; see the misattributed list on his Wikiquote page.
“Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”—Most often attributed to Twain, and also commonly disputed. The sentiment goes back at least to Proverbs 26:4.
“I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.”—Commonly attributed to Albert Einstein
“Do not put off until tomorrow what can be put off till day-after-tomorrow just as well.”—Mark Twain
“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason,”—Definitely not Mark Twain
“War is the province of uncertainty; three-fourths of the things on which action in war is based lie hidden in the fog of uncertainty.”—Carl von Clausewitz
“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”—Ernest Hemingway, “Treasury of the Free World”. Book by Ben Raeburn. Introduction to the book, 1946.
“Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit softly”—Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: an Autobiography (1913)
“Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.”—Winston Churchill

Literature and Television

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886), aphorism 146.
“Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.”—Gildor, in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1.
“The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”—Kosh, in “Believers” (Babylon 5, season 1), written by David Gerrold.
“There comes a time when you look into the mirror and realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors.”—Londo, in “Chrysalis” (Babylon 5, season 1).
“You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.”—Marcus Cole to Dr. Franklin, in “A Late Delivery from Avalon” (Babylon 5, season 3).
“Decisions are made by those who show up.”—President Bartlett, The West Wing (written by Aaron Sorkin)
“Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it.”—President Bartlett, The West Wing (written by Aaron Sorkin)
“There’s literally no one in the world that I don’t hate right now.”—Toby Zigler, The West Wing (written by Aaron Sorkin)
“A day can really slip by when you’re deliberately avoiding what you’re supposed to do.”—Bill Watterson, There’s Treasure Everywhere (Calvin and Hobbes, #10)

Music

The sun is the same in a relative way
But you’re older
Shorter of breath
And one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught
Or half a page of scribbled lines.—Pink Floyd, Time
Be more heart, and less attack—NEEDTOBREATHE, More Heart, Less Attack
Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage—Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here

History