"People need self-respect, but self-respect must be earned -- it cannot be self-respect if it's not earned -- and the only way to earn anything is to achieve it in the face of the possibility of failing."

Charles Murray (author)Politics See all quotes by Charles Murray (author) →

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“The United States Congress, acting with large bipartisan majorities, at the urging of the President, enacted as the law of the land that all children are to be above average.”

“Educational romanticism asks too much from students at the bottom of the intellectual pile, asks the wrong things from those in the middle, and asks too little from those at the top.”

“You’re out of touch with reality in that regard.”

Resonant Thoughts

"I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be…"

— John Quincy Adams

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"It’s not a matter of imaging, despite what a lot of people would feel that it is. I’ve never presented myself in a way that I don’t feel comfortable with; I’ve never presented myself in a way to appea…"

— Davey Havok

Music1975

#art

"He groaned slightly and winced, like Prometheus watching his vulture dropping in for lunch."

— P. G. Wodehouse

Religion1881–1975

#success

"It is no part of my creed that everybody ought to have the same income, for that would not guarantee that everybody would be equally happy. Happiness springs from within, not from without, but it may …"

— Neville Chamberlain

Politics1939–2018

#health