One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating the obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down thirty-foot well, are you all right? [Ford's new theory for this:] If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working.
- Douglas Adams (1952-2001), The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), Chapter 5
Desinent homines tum demum stultescare quando esse desinent.
[Men will cease to be fools only when they cease to be men.]
- Robert Burton (1577-1640), Democritus to the Reader, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
Every multitude is mad, bellua multorum capitum [a many-headed beast], precipitate and rash without judgement, stultum animal, a roaring rout.
- Horace (Quintius Horatius Flaccus) (65-8 BC), Vulgus Insanum
One can make this generalisation about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit...
- Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Il Principe [The Prince] (1531), Chapter XVII
Die Erde, sagte Er, hat eine Haut; und diese Haut hat Krankheiten. Eine diese Krankheiten heißt zum Beispiel: "Mensch".
[The Earth, he says, has a skin; and this skin has illnesses. One of these illnesses is called, for example: "Human".]
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) Also Sprach Zarathustra [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] (1884)
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do so.
- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts.
- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
HASTINGS: O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in air of your good looks
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Richard III (?1590), Act III, Scene IV
I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Nothing astonishes people so much as common sense and plain dealing.
Given their freedom to do so, most men choose to imitate each other.
Last edited: 10 May 2006
Compiled by Dr. Æ: nps@zeta.org.au