Searching for a Quotation

Favorite Quotes

I began to write about something else this afternoon: the so-called Downing Street memo. In the process I opened the files in which I have been saving interesting quotations I have come upon over the past 30 or years. I was seeking a quotation I barely remembered about war and truth. In the process, I became so involved in reading what people have said about whatever that I have decided to share with you some of the ones that struck me a being especially relevant to this moment in time:

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. ~ Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)

Law stands mute in the midst of arms. ~ Cicero

Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear
inevitable by a competent historian. ~ Lee Simonson

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a
matter to be left to the politicians. ~ Charles De Gaulle

America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every
time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair. ~ Arnold Toynbee

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~ Hunter
S. Thompson

America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual intervention of civilization. ~ George
Clemenceau

An asylum for the sane in the United States would be empty. ~ Anonymous

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. ~ Gore Vidal

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress. ~ Mark Twain

The Americans will always do the right thing... after they've exhausted all the alternatives. ~ Winston Churchill

I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world. ~ Georges Duhamel

“O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.” ~ Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD)

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word. ~ Charles De Gaul

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. ~ Douglas Adams

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~ Ronald Reagan

I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. ~ Hunter . Thompson

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute. ~ Cicero

We don't know who we are until we see what we can do. ~ Martha Grimes

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. ~ Douglas Adams

I did eventually find the quotation I was seeking. It was by Boake Carter: In time of war the first casualty is truth.