Gladstone Quotes

Pendergast thought for a moment. Finally, his silvery eyes turned to her. "Failure is always useful."

"A nice thought. But personally? I think failure sucks." Gladstone slumped down in her chair, trying to get comfortable. After so many hours, it was difficult.

"The question failure asks is: what don't we know that we don't know?"

"Whoa, man," Lam said. "That's deep. ~ Douglas Preston

Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to haunt for happiness ~ William Ewart Gladstone

Man is to be trained chiefly by studying and by knowing man. ~ William E. Gladstone

You wander through this city, and wonder if anything you do will make up for the horror that keeps the world turning. To live, you rip your own heart from your chest and hide it in a box somewhere, along with everything you ever learned about justice, compassion, mercy. You throw yourself into games to mark the time. And if you yearn for something different: what would you change? Would you bring back the blood, the dying cries, the sucking chest wounds? The constant war? So we're caught between two poles of hypocrisy. We sacrifice our right to think of ourselves as good people, our right to think our life is good, our city is just. And so we and our city both survive. ~ Max Gladstone

The brain shuts down, and the soul watches from a distance as the body tumbles at ever-increasing speed toward doom. This is because, though instinct is good at many things, it's stupid about death. ~ Max Gladstone

Swimming for his life, a man does not see much of the country through which the river winds, and I probably know little of these years through which I busily work and live, beyond this, how sin and frailty deface them, and how mercy crowns them. ~ William E. Gladstone

I was brought up to hate and fear liberty. I came to love it. That is the secret of my whole career. ~ William Ewart Gladstone

Music is one of the most forceful instruments for governing the mind and spirit of man. ~ William F. Gladstone

If Gladstone fell in the Thames, that would be a misfortune. But if someone fished him out again, that would be a calamity. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Always know the shape you take - know it so well you can shift it to your purpose, so well the form gives way to formlessness again. What is a grain but a seed? And from a seed, you can grow anything. Like, say, a family. ~ Max Gladstone

This is all-out, give-no-mercy warfare. The survival of civilization is at stake. What do we do now? All eyes turned toward Meina Gladstone. ~ Anonymous

You have no power here," Jace said. His voice quivered less than Kai expected.
Ms. Kevarian cocked her head to one side. "Interesting assertion. I can speak, at least, and words have power wherever they are heard. ~ Max Gladstone

On May 13, he met the official announcement that England recognized the belligerency of the Confederacy. This beginning of a new education tore up by the roots nearly all that was left of Harvard College and Germany. He had to learn - the sooner the better - that his ideas were the reverse of truth; that in May, 1861, no one in England - literally no one - doubted that Jefferson Davis had made or would make a nation, and nearly all were glad of it, though not often saying so. They mostly imitated Palmerston who, according to Mr. Gladstone, "desired the severance as a diminution of a dangerous power, but prudently held his tongue." The sentiment of anti-slavery had disappeared. ~ Henry Adams

Citizens may recoil from paying for the news, he noted, because they see it as a natural right. But in the absence of consumer coin, the media must be fueled by advertisers seeking consumers and investors pursuing profit. Novelty and drama pay to keep the presses rolling, and so the "news" that supposedly informs reason becomes the dog wagged by its own tail. ~ Brooke Gladstone

Gladstone, how sad do you have to get before you stop making jokes? ~ Wayne Gladstone

Gods, like men, can die. They just die harder, and smite the earth with their passing. ~ Max Gladstone

But music didn't make my mother nervous. She was more concerned about the agenda of women who thought it was a good idea to wear pastel, shoulder-padded suits while they all marched single file toward a better tomorrow. ~ Wayne Gladstone

Whatever else one might think of poets, they are excellent barometers for metaphysical shenanigans. Not as good as proper prophets, but these are fallen times. ~ Max Gladstone

Emma Gladstone had learned a few hard lessons by the age of two-and-twenty. Charming princes weren't always what they seemed. Shining armor went out of fashion with the Crusades. And if fairy godmothers existed, hers was running several years late. Most of the time, a girl needed to rescue herself. ~ Tessa Dare

It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right. ~ William E. Gladstone

There has not been a piece of technology designed to save labor that has not increased labor. Word processors allow you to do what your secretary used to do for you. The Internet, BlackBerries, iPhones, yes they keep you tethered, but that's not the main problem. It's that along with increasing personal productivity, they increase the expectation of productivity. It no longer becomes a bonus to do the work of one and a half men, but the norm. And then when everyone's working at one hundred and fifty percent capacity, they can fire a third of the workforce and still maintain output. ~ Wayne Gladstone

What would your life look like without today's obstacles in front of you? ~ Jerry Gladstone

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear. ~ William Ewart Gladstone

I am certain, from experience, of the immense advantage of strict account-keeping in early life. It is just like learning the grammar then, which when once learned need not be referred to afterwards. ~ William E. Gladstone

[The British constitution] presumes more boldly than any other the good sense and the good faith of those who work it. ~ William E. Gladstone

There is a limit to the work that can be got out of a human body or a human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is still wiser who, from among the things that he can do well, chooses and resolut ~ William E. Gladstone

A thousand prickling tender touches lit upon her, as if she was caught in a rainstorm and the raindrops were love. ~ Max Gladstone

You wonder at power yoked to service. You wonder because you have come into power young and are learning that power comes through the acceptance of a bond. But if to have power is to be bound, then what is power? ~ Max Gladstone

It's art. If you're looking at it, it's working. ~ Max Gladstone

Do not ignore dreams. They are a line from the past to the future. All nightmares are real. ~ Max Gladstone

Of the whole sum of human life no small part is that which consists of a man's relations to his country, and his feelings concerning it. ~ Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone

It's barely changed since the faceless colour committee originally selected it in 1908 when the first map of the Underground was designed and the Bakerloo conclusively became brown, a very early twentieth-century brown, which brings something of the nineteenth century with it - the colour of Sherlock Holmes's pipe, a Gladstone bag, a grandfather clock. ~ Paul Morley

Gods, like humans," he said, "are order imposed on chaos. With humans, the imposition is easy to see. Millions of cells, long twisted chains of atoms, so much bone and blood and juice, every piece performing its function. When one of those numberless pumps refuses to beat, when one of those infinitesimal pipes gets blocked, all the pent-up chaos springs forward like a bent sword, and the soul is lost to the physical world unless something catches it first. ~ Max Gladstone

The oppression of a majority is detestable and odious; the oppression of a minority is only by one degree less detestable and odious. ~ William E. Gladstone

A rational reaction against irrational excesses and vagaries of skepticism may * * * readily degenerate into the rival folly of credulity. ~ William E. Gladstone

Life with through punches at you and sometimes knock you down. Learn to take the hit ,but more importantly learn to get back up and keep punching every single day! ~ Jerry Gladstone

The ship did not respond to queries. Without the ship, there could be no fatline relay to the Ousters, the Web, or anywhere else beyond Hyperion. Normal comm bands were down. 'Could the ship have been destroyed?' Sol asked the Consul. 'No. The message is being received, just not responded to. Gladstone still has the ship in quarantine.' Sol squinted out over the barrens to where the mountains shimmered in the heat haze. Several klicks closer, the ruins of the City of Poets rose jaggedly against the skyline. 'Just as well,' he said. 'We have one deus ex machina too many as it is.' Paul ~ Dan Simmons

No murderer had before or has since caused such a sensation, passed so quickly into folklore or gained an image – top hat, cape and Gladstone bag – that is truly iconic: as instantly recognisable as Sherlock Holmes's deerstalker and meerschaum pipe, and as capable of conveying a meaning understood around the world – even by people who know nothing about the Ripper or what he did, or that he, unlike Holmes, actually existed. ~ Paul Begg

You never appreciate things so much as in their absence. ~ Max Gladstone

If Germany is to become a colonizing power, all I say is, God speed her! She becomes our ally and partner in the execution of the great purposes of Providence for the advantage of mankind. ~ William E. Gladstone

Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, they can't hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and trouble. ~ William E. Gladstone

Budgets are not merely affairs of arithmetic, but in a thousand ways go to the root of prosperity of individuals, the relation of classes and the strength of kingdoms. ~ William E. Gladstone

Keeping this journal causes tension as much as it calms it. The writing busies my hands and occupies my mind, but there's something about the pen scratching against the thick textured paper that makes my words take on an uncomfortable weight. Online, words flow almost as quickly as thoughts without revision or purpose, the way they do when you're alone or with someone who's fallen in love with you. ~ Wayne Gladstone

To call a man a characteristically Oxford man is, in my opinion, to give him the highest compliment that could be paid to any human being. ~ William E. Gladstone

The INFP possesses strong principles, especially when it comes to morals and what he thinks is right and wrong. When his inner values are in harmony with the values of the company, then he can become a very useful member of the team. ~ Louise Gladstone

Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race. ~ William E. Gladstone

But the point is, the talking heads are wrong. The loss won't bring back a simpler time. Only a search for something new to fill the void. ~ Wayne Gladstone

Gladstone .. spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question, ... ~ W.C. Sellar

Be "that person" with grit. Remain dedicated, determined and strong in the face of adversity! ~ Jerry Gladstone

She tried not to think in capital letters. It was a bad habit. If you weren't careful, pretty soon you'd find yourself Going to the Store to Buy a Carton of Milk - or worse, speaking German. ~ Max Gladstone

Tongues and odors mixed on the air: Iskari and motor oil, sweat and leather, Camlaander and Archipelagese and some Shining Empire dialect like silk-muffled cymbals. ~ Max Gladstone

Contract for Services Rendered, Alt Coulumb Kos Everburning to Royal Iskari Navy," she translated. "Since the common names are all the same, each contract needs a unique reference so we can tell which one we're talking about. ~ Max Gladstone

I think maybe Gladstone had it right. I think my father did. They understood that the meaning of life is connected, inextricably, to the meaning of death; that mourning is a romance in reverse, and if you love, you grieve and there are no exceptions---only those who do it well and those who don't. ~ Thomas Lynch

The hopelessness of the Turkish Government should make me witness with delight its being swept out of the countries which it tortures. Next to the Ottoman Government nothing can be more deplorable and blameworthy than jealousies between Greek and Slav and plans by the States already existing for appropriating other territory. Why not Macedonia for the Macedonians as well as Bulgaria for the Bulgarians and Serbia for the Serbians? ~ William E. Gladstone

You people get so closed up inside those little brains. Their structure changes in response to thought, you know, like your muscles respond to use. The used parts bulk up. Bad training develops uneven strength; it takes time and painful work to balance unbalanced muscles. ~ Max Gladstone

Religious men often think about death, and Abelard had given some thought to his last words. "I told you so" had not been on the list. The ~ Max Gladstone

Faith is a state of constant examination and openness. In faith we must be vulnerable. Only in this seeming weakness do we live with God. ~ Max Gladstone

Failure is success if we learn from it. ~ William Ewart Gladstone

To desperation," he said, and raised his glass. She raised hers as well, toward the altar.
"And to bleeding hearts," she added, and they drank. ~ Max Gladstone

Be careful. As if something's going to jump us in a library."
"You might be surprised."
"What do you mean?"
"You know how people say a book is really gripping?"
"Don't tell me ... " Cat trailed off.
"Libraries can be dangerous. ~ Max Gladstone

Stay strong, be a warrior and keep moving forward under any and all conditions. ~ Jerry Gladstone

The book must of necessity be put into a bookcase. And the bookcase must be housed. And the house must be kept. And the library must be dusted, must be arranged, must be catalogued. What a vista of toil, yet not unhappy toil! ~ William E. Gladstone

All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes. ~ William E. Gladstone

I was tenaciously opposed by the governor and deputy-governor of the Bank, who had seats in parliament, and I had the City for an antagonist on almost every occasion. ~ William E. Gladstone

It is no use for the honorable member to shake his head in the teeth of his own words. ~ William E. Gladstone

The resources of civilization are not yet exhausted. ~ William E. Gladstone

Great demons lived between the stars, and in them, beings immense in power and size, who sucked the marrow from suns and sang songs that drove galaxies mad. There ~ Max Gladstone

You cannot fight against future. Time is on its side. ~ William E. Gladstone

You can win the world, she said, if you're willing to lose your soul. ~ Max Gladstone

Belbroughton Road, Linton Road, Bardwell Road. The houses there are quite normal. They are ordinary sizes and have ordinary chimneys and roofs and gardens with laburnum and flowering cherry. Park Town. As you go south they are growing. Getting higher and odder. By the time you get to Norham Gardens they have tottered over the edge into madness: these are not houses but flights of fancy. They are three storeys high and disguise themselves as churches. They have ecclesiastical porches instead of front doors and round norman windows or pointed gothic ones, neatly grouped in threes with flaring brick to set them off. They reek of hymns and the Empire, Mafeking and the Khyber Pass, Mr Gladstone and Our Dear Queen. They have nineteen rooms and half a dozen chimneys and iron fire-escapes. A bomb couldn't blow them up and the privet in their gardens has survived two World Wars. ~ Penelope Lively

A shadow follows her. She has no proof, but she knows, as bones know their breaking stress. ~ Max Gladstone

We know quite well that the people of the Northern States have not yet drunk of the cup
they are still trying to hold it far from their lips
which all the rest of the world see they nevertheless must drink of. We may have our own opinions about slavery; we may be for or against the South; but there is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made, what is more than either, they have made a nation. ~ William Ewart Gladstone

My only hope for the world is in bringing the human mind into contact with divine revelation. ~ William E. Gladstone

He drinks the life of those who come too close to him. Steals their youth. Also," she said after a pause, "he moisturizes. ~ Max Gladstone

We cannot save our clients from themselves. Someday in your career, Elayne, you will represent a man - almost certainly a man - who wants you to help him barter his soul to a demon for three wishes. When that day comes you may refuse his business, you may try to change his mind, but in the end if hell he wants, hell he will achieve. ~ Max Gladstone

Who should open the door of success for you...you that's who! ~ Jerry Gladstone

Meina Gladstone sat at the head of the long table and felt the peculiar and not-unpleasant sense of separateness which comes from far too little sleep over far too long a period. ~ Dan Simmons

Has anything happened in Australia since the eighties? I mean, besides Nemo being reunited with his dad? ~ Wayne Gladstone

Be inspired with the belief that life is a great and noble calling; not a mean and groveling thing that we are to shuffle through as we can, but an elevated and lofty destiny. ~ William E. Gladstone

To serve Armenia is to serve civilization. ~ William E. Gladstone

The American Revolution was a vindication of liberties inherited and possessed. It was a conservative revolution. ~ William E. Gladstone

I have observed friendships as one observes high holy days: breathtakingly short, whirlwinds of intimate behavior, frenzied carousing, the sharing of food, of wine, of honey. Compressed, always, and gone as soon as they come. ~ Max Gladstone

You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side. ~ William E. Gladstone

Xxx you can't escape yourself, and you're the only thing that hurts you in the long run. ~ Max Gladstone

In the age of hyper technology and cookie crumbs, you can only trust a man in a mask. Everyone else has too much to lose. ~ Wayne Gladstone

You don't know me. How dare you presume to know me? Are you really so arrogant to believe you can sum up a man by his online presence? I have memories and feelings that have never seen the glow of a computer screen. Ideas that have never set foot online. ~ Wayne Gladstone

Abelard did not look up from the god at his feet. ~ Max Gladstone

as eminent political theorist Hannah Arendt saw back in 1951: "Would-be totalitarian rulers usually start their careers by boasting of their past crimes and carefully outlining their future ones. ~ Brooke Gladstone

I stare at the flush two blankets bring to her cheek and try to divine her dreams. ~ Wayne Gladstone

Patriotism is a virtue, no doubt: and it is a duty to cherish patriotism in ourselves and others. But patriotism means wishing well to our country, and the question is what is this "well". Lord Beaconsfield would say "material prosperity, grandeur, increase of power and territory"; Mr. Gladstone would say "that our country may act virtuously". If patriotism is an extension of the feeling which we have about our relatives, Mr. Gladstone is surely right; we wish our relatives to be good men in the first instance, and then successful men, if success is compatible with goodness. I cannot understand how many excellent people fail to feel thus about their country too; it would seem to me that exactly in the proportion in which we realise the fact that a nation is only a very overgrown family which has kept open house for some centuries will be our anxiety that this country should act as a good man would act; and that patriotism consists in wishing this. ~ Henry Parry Liddon

Humans need to dream, you know. It's how the mind breathes. ~ Max Gladstone

For half a century he had stood too close to darkness, and some it crept into his bones. ~ Max Gladstone

The Queen has done all she could on the dreadful subject of vivisection, and hopes that Mr. Gladstone will speak strongly against such a practice which is a disgrace to humanity ... ~ Queen Victoria

Practice honest self-reflection to learn and better who you are ~ Jerry Gladstone

A page lay on his desk. His fingers held a pen. With these tools he built a world. Perhaps the world he built lived behind his eyes and was transmitted to the page by the instrument of ink, or else it lived beneath the page somehow, his pen's progress sculpting form out of a purer white than sculptor's marble. ~ Max Gladstone

From the time I took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I began to learn that the State held, in the face of the Bank and the City, an essentially false position as to finance. The Government itself was not to be a substantive power, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned. ~ William E. Gladstone

Pulling her wrist from his mouth was as hard as turning from the gates of paradise. She fell back off the bed and sat down hard on the tile floor. The vampire snarled and rose to a crouch, silhouetted by the last rays of the setting sun. Her blood stained his lips and his chin. "What the hell were you doing?" Cat's mouth fell open. "What. I mean." He wiped the blood off his chin with his fingers and regarded it in fascination and disgust. "Seriously, woman. What is wrong with you? Haven't you ever heard of consent?" She ~ Max Gladstone

I think that the principle of the Conservative Party is jealousy of liberty and of the people , only qualified by fear ; but I think the principle of the Liberal Party is trust in the people, only qualified by prudence . ~ William E. Gladstone

The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the practice of all the physicians of all the countries in the would. ~ William E. Gladstone

Well, reading Twitter's a lot like staring at an ant farm," Tobey explained while wiping some cheese from his mouth. "Except without all the productivity. ~ Wayne Gladstone