A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Necessity
Necessity is beautiful.
Necessity 967 Let us build altars to the Beautiful Necessity. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Fate.
Negotiation
Negotiation leaves everyone disappointed.
Negotiation 89 JFK: A truly just solution will leave every nation somewhat disappointed. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Never corner an opponent; always let him save face.
Negotiation 108 Liddell Hart: Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save his face. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK tried to restore communication with his opponent and to find areas on which they could agree.
Negotiation 811 So his [Kennedy’s] first instinct after the missile crisis had been to restore communication with his adversary and resume the search for areas of common interest. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
True negotiations are not about victory or defeat.
Negotiation 581 JFK: “Negotiations…are not a contest spelling victory or defeat.” Sorenson, Kennedy
Orientals save face of individuals, Westerners, institutions.
Negotiation 230 Orientals must save the “face” of individuals; Anglo-Saxons must save the face of institutions. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
He came up on his opponent quietly.
Negotiation, metaphor 794 As John Randolph said of Van Buren, he ‘rowed to his object with muffled oars.’ Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
The mediator must be prepared to make everyone mad if it means progress.
Negotiations 654 JFK: The role of the mediator is not a happy one; we are prepared to have everybody mad if it makes some progress. Sorenson, Kennedy
Nemesis
Nemesis lets no offense pass unpunished.
Nemesis 292 ...that ancient doctrine of Nemesis, who keeps watch in the universe, and lets no offense go unchastised. Emerson, Compensation.
Neurosis
People who are neurotic go from doctor to doctor trying to find cures for what is not wrong with them.
Neurosis 107 There is a wandering group of neurotics in every city, running to each new doctor in the hopes of miracle cures for non-existent illnesses…thousands of bright, healthy men and women who need an illness, need a pain. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
New England
New England is the land of schools.
New England 29 …set out for New England, the land of schools. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.
News
All news is gossip and people who write it gossip mongers.
News 397 …all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Thoreau, Walden.
Most news could have been written twelve years ago and twelve years in the future.
News 397 …news which I seriously think a ready wit might write a twelvemonth or twelve years beforehand with sufficient accuracy. Thoreau, Walden.
Reading a newspaper 50 years old is not much different from reading the newspaper today.
Newspapers 71 J.P. Donleavy: Indeed, in Ireland, to read a local paper that’s 50 years old is not much different than reading today’s. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Night
Modern civilization is out of touch with the night.
Night 168 Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The experience of night is almost a religious emotion.
Night 176 Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Impressions of London streets at night.
Nighttime 53 [London streets in the evenings]: …the heavy lazy mist, which hangs over every object, makes the gas lamps look brighter, and the brilliantly-lighted shops more splendid, from the contrast they present to the darkness around. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
On nights like this, people at home make themselves snug and the envy of those who pass outside.
Nighttime 53 All the people who are at home on such a night as this, seem disposed to make themselves as snug and comfortable as possible; and the passengers in the streets have excellent reason to envy the fortunate individuals who are seated by their own firesides. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
Nonchalance
Maintaining my nonchalance costs me.
Nonchalance 200 I put down to the account of my expenses what it costs me to nourish and maintain my nonchalance Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Nonconformist
To be a man, one must be a nonconformist.
Nonconformist 261 Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. Emerson, Self-Reliance.
North and South
The North hungers for truth, the South for beauty.
North and South 169 [Spinoza] had the northern hunger for truth rather than the southern lust for beauty. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
Nostalgia
In the past, days were longer and slower.
Nostalgia 137 But Fielding lived when the days were longer…when summer afternoons were spacious, and the clock ticked slowly in the winter evenings. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
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