Surest Quotes
More Surest Quotes
A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection.
andré maurois— Ariel (1923)
The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.
henry l. stimson— The Bomb and the Opportunity (March 1946)
The passion of hatred is so durable and so inveterate that the surest prognostic of death in a sick man is a wish for reconciliation.
— Les haines sont si longues et si opiniâtres que le plus grand signe de mort dans un homme malade, c'est la réconciliation
— Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères (1688), De l'Homme 108.
All students, members of the faculty, and public officials in both Mississippi and the Nation will be able, it is hoped, to return to their normal activities with full confidence in the integrity of American law. This is as it should be, for our Nation is founded on the principle that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny.
— John F. Kennedy's Radio and Television Report to the Nation on the Situation at the University of Mississippi (30 September 1962).
The city’s architecture is the surest sign that Goa evolved independently of the rest of India. In the small old quarters of Fontainhas and Sao Tomé, winding alleyways are lined with Portuguese-style houses, boasting distinctive red-tiled roofs, wooden window shutters and rickety balconies decorated with bright pots of petunias.
— Lonely Planet, in “Introducing Panaji”
The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.
— 1936 My TenYears in a Quandary.
It is alone that part of the external universe which we call material which acts on man through his senses — that part of which we ordinarily feel our knowledge to be the surest; but in reality, strangely enough, as will soon appear, this is one of the aspects of the external world, of which we can know nothing.
Richard Maurice Bucke— Ch. 1 : Lines of Cleavage
The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.
jane welsh carlyle— Journal entry (August 1849)
The Common lawes of the Realme should by no means be delayed for the law is the surest sanctuary, that a man should take, and the strongest fortresse to protect the weakest of all, lex et tutissima cassis.
edward coke— Institutes of the Laws of England, Second Part, vol. 1 (1642), Notes to Ch. XXIX of the Charter [Magna Carta], paragraph 1391 [1]
But often faltering feetCome surest to the goal;And they who walk in darkness meetThe sunrise of the soul.
henry van dyke— Reliance, st. 2.
My conscience is my crown,Contented thoughts my rest;My heart is happy in itself,My bliss is in my breast.Enough I reckon wealth;A mean the surest lot,That lies too high for base contempt,Too low for envy's shot.
robert southwell— Line 9; p. 57.
I would say that the surest measure of a man's or a woman's maturity is the harmony, style, joy, and dignity he creates in his marriage, and the pleasure and inspiration he provides for his spouse.
— Quoted in Older & Wiser Edited by G. B. Dianda and B. J. Hofmayer (1995)
Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing.
stanhope, philip, 4th earl of chesterfield— October 9, 1747.
I would suggest to my honourable Friend that the foreign investor is at least as discouraged by high national debt for that, as all example shows, is the surest precursor of high taxation.
john james cowperthwaite— March 24, 1966, page 213.
The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.
Denis Diderot— "Refutation of Helvétius" (written 1773-76, published 1875)
Sincerity is the surest road to confidence.
david lloyd george— Speech at Aberystwyth (3 August 1928)
National injustice is the surest road to national downfall.
william ewart gladstone— Speech, Plumstead (30 November 1878)
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior "righteous indignation" this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats."
aldous huxley— Crome Yellow (1921).[disputed—see talk page]
As the mental endowment of a man varies with the organisation of his accumulated experiences, the better endowed he is, the more readily will he be able to remember his whole past, everything that he has ever thought or heard, seen or done, perceived or felt, the more completely in fact will he be able to reproduce his whole life. Universal remembrance of all its experiences, therefore, is the surest, most general, and most easily proved mark of a genius.
otto weininger— pp. 114-115
The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. That remark in itself wouldn't make any sense if quoted as it stands.
— Robert Benchley, in "Quick Quotations" in My Ten Years in a Quandary and How They Grew (1936).
When tempted, the shortest and surest way is to act like a little child at the breast; when we show it a frightful monster, it shrinks back and buries its face in its mother's bosom, that it may no longer behold it.
françois fénelon— p. 578. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweethearts, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.
— Westward Hoe, Act II, scene ii. See also Wine, Friendship.
We are persuaded that good Christians will always be good citizens , and that where righteousness prevails among individuals the Nation will be great and happy. Thus while just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government it's surest support.
— George Washington, in The Washington Flyer, American Association of Christian Schools, 27 September 2013
The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
— As quoted in The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors (1853) by Everard Berkeley, p. 34
Yoga practice can make us more sensitive to subtler sensations in the body. Paying attention to and staying with finer sensations within the body is one of the surest ways to steady the wandering mind .
— Ravi Ravindra, in “Yoga and You”
The surest pledge of a deathless name Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herons of Elmwood, Stanza 9; Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 787-90.
I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
— Bill Watterson, in his comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes (spoken by the character Calvin).
