One of my pet peeves involves the way that many writers, bloggers, and others use quotations in their work. Quotations are great, but so is taking the time to track down the real source of the quote. “Martin Luther King once said” is somewhat helpful, but too often the quote has been altered since its creation, and taking the time to find a source (or at least clarify that the real source can’t be found) strikes me as an essential part of the process of creating content, both to honor the source of the quotation and to honor the time and attention of the reader. Even in cases where identifying the first use of a phrase is problematic, helping the reader to understand the context of the quote (the identity of the source, the overall context of their work, etc.) is very helpful in grasping the full meaning and, perhaps, to begin to understand the fullness of the intent of the words.
So, as I do my work of writing and creating content, I sometimes come across a helpful quote that has been included in something that I am using as a source or inspiration. Generally, I try to track down the original source; when I find it, I include it here so that others might not need to duplicate my efforts. In some cases (i.e. Kevin Watson’s work on John Wesley quotes), I am simply directing you to others who have spent time on this kind of thing as well.
Enjoy, and I hope that this is helpful to someone out there. If you have corrections to any of this, please let me know!
John Rawls: The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice.
This quote has been floating around on the interwebs recently, attributed to John Rawls: The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice. The quote seems to be derived from Rawls' 1971 book A Theory of Justice. The source text...
Edward O. Wilson: We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology
In a debate at the Harvard Museum of Natural History on September 9, 2009, the late sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson offered this (this may not be the only citable source for this quote - note that, in the fuller quotation included later in this post, he says that this...
George Santayana: Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it
This quote is sometimes provided as an "it's been said" sort of attribution, without any citation, and there are multiple variants of the wording itself. Generally, it is understood to originate in the writings of the Spanich-American philosopher George Santayana...
Martin Luther King, Jr.: the Nonconforming Minority
I first encoutnered this quote in an article by Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, current (as of 2024) President of Sojourners. The article, titled A 'Nonconforming Minority Can Defeat Christian Nationalism, is posted here. Here's the full quote from the article: One of my...
Billy Graham: The Hard Right has No Interest in Religion Except to Manipulate It
This is a valid quotation, and Dr. Graham offers it as he is recalling his interactions with Rev. Jerry Falwell, the leader of the Moral Majority Inc. "I told him to preach the Gospel. That's our calling. I want to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of...
Someone: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled…
The 1995 movie The Usual Suspects has a great line in it, spoken by Kevin Spacey's character near the end: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Where did this come from? Was it Baudelaire? Sort of, but variants go back at...
The Methodist insistence on life vs dogma…
The Methodist insistence has not been so much upon opinion as upon life. Its distinguishing mark is not so much what men believe, as what they are, what they experience, how they act. The unique traditions of Methodism are, therefore, to be sought in patterns of...
Peter Senge: A collective IQ of 63…
...how can a team of committed managers with individual IQs above 120 have a collective IQ of 63? This quote comes from Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline (1990), page 9. It is in a subsection titled "Team Learning."
Thomas Merton: When I criticize a system…
Correctly attributed to Thomas Merton: When I criticize a system, they think I criticize them - and that is of course because they fully accept the system and identify themselves with it. The entire quote is provided in a book - Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years...
George Erasmus: Where common memory is lacking…
George Erasmus, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (in what we now refer to as Canada) and a member of the Dene Nation, offers this deeply insightful quote: Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no...