Quotes Library

February 3, 2025

Revolution: n., a bursting of the boilers which usually takes place when the safety valve of public discussion is closed.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914), American writer, The Enlarged Devil’s Dictionary (1906), Seldes p.42

Is this not the danger of so-called cancel culture? That in blocking the speech of others, it makes them martyrs, when public exposure would probably render them has-beens in no time?

Public discussion does not always resolve controversy, and frequently aggravates it. But the failure to try it can lead to less pleasant consequences. People must be allowed to vent, even if the steam they blow is nonsense.


More Quotes

March 21, 2025
[Of two fellow congressmen] They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.
December 12, 2025
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to the level of incompetence…in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent
July 16, 2025
The model of a modern Prime Minister would be a kind of grotesque composite freak
Page 116 of 122