LITERARY BITS for January 11

 

Here are some memorable quotes from authors born on January 11:

from American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), who wrote 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers:

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.

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from American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910), author of The Principles of Psychology and The Will to Believe:

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

To change one’s life:

1. Start immediately.

2. Do it flamboyantly.

3. No exceptions.

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from American novelist Alice H. Rice (1870-1942), who wrote Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch:

Life is made up of desires that seem big and vital one minute and little and absurd the next. I guess we get what's best for us in the end.

Adversity may call out dormant powers that have never before been suspected.

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From South African author and anti-apartheid activist Alan Paton (1903-1988), author of Cry, the Beloved Country:

But the one thing that has power completely is love, because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.

I shall no longer ask myself if this or that is expedient, but only if it is right. I shall do this, not because I am noble or unselfish, but because life slips away, and because I need for the rest of my journey a star that will not play false to me, a compass that will not lie…

There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man.

God forgives us...who am I not to forgive?