Alger Quotes & Sayings

There is one thing diviner than duty, namely, the bond of obligation transmuted into liberty. — William Rounseville Alger

In the rest of Nirvana all sorrows surcease: Only Buddha can guide to that city of Peace Whose inhabitants have the eternal release. — William Rounseville Alger

Ah, could the soul, like the body, have a mirror! It has,
a friend. — William Rounseville Alger

The most terrible of all things is terror. — William Rounseville Alger

There is a structural difference between the way that Europe views Israel, and America views Israel. The European view is informed by the importance of colonialism in Europe's past. So for Europeans we are like Belgiums in the Congo, or the French in Alger, or the British in India. Strange interlopers in somebody else's land. But in fact, we [Israeli] have been here for 4,000 years. This is our ancestral homeland. — Benjamin Netanyahu

God hands gifts to some, whispers them to others. — William Rounseville Alger

Men often make up in wrath what they want in reason. — William R. Alger

Willmott, the English essayist, says poetry is the natural religion of literature. — William Rounseville Alger

In the nine heavens are eight Paradises; Where is the ninth one? In the human breast. Only the blessed dwell in th' Paradises, But blessedness dwells in the human breast. — William Rounseville Alger

When Joseph Smith, Jr. was there we had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that what I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger's was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deviated from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself. — Oliver Cowdery

James Taylor may be an all-American boy but he isn't Horatio Alger, and the lionizing of many rock stars by the rock press has as much to do with old fashioned rags-to-riches stories as does the straight culture's deification of its idols. — Jon Landau

Gypsy [Rose Lee] is as unique as she is timeless. Her story is classic Americana, and the strangest rags-to-riches saga you'll ever read; I like to call it Horatio Alger meets Tim Burton. — Karen Abbott

A crowd always thinks with its sympathy, never with its reason. — William R. Alger

The fierce ambitions of Carver Dana Andrews, son of a Baptist preacher, might well have been imagined by Horatio Alger, Jr.
or Samuel Goldwyn
but not the hidden costs behind those achievements. Carl Rollyson compassionately captures the man behind the movie star. — Marion Meade

Public opinion is a second conscience. — William R. Alger

But there also seems to be in our culture a curious cautiousness - "You'll get these abundant gratifications only if you don't feel too much, don't let on you want too much." The result is that, instead of conquering the world like Horatio Alger, we should wait passively until the genie of technology - which we don't push or influence, only await - brings us our appointed gratifications. All of this is a part of the rewards which go with belief in the vast myth of the machine in the twentieth century. — Rollo May

I had hundreds of books under my skin already. Not selected reading, all of it. Some of it could be called trashy. I had been through Nick Carter, Horatio Alger, Bertha M. Clay and the whole slew of dime novelists in addition to some really constructive reading. I do not regret the trash. It has harmed me in no way. It was a help, because acquiring the reading habit early is the important thing. Taste and natural development will take care of the rest later on. — Zora Neale Hurston

You're perfect. To me you are. You always will be. When you're small you think that about your parents. When you're old, you think that about your kids. You'll see. — Cristina Alger

Throughout the most trying phase of the Case, Nixon and his family, and sometimes his parents, were at our farm, encouraging me and comforting my family. My children have caught him lovingly in a nickname. To them, he is always "Nixie," the kind and the good, about whom they will tolerate no nonsense. His somewhat martial Quakerism sometimes amused and always heartened me. I have a vivid picture of him, in the blackest hour of the Hiss Case, standingby the barn and saying in his quietly savage way (he is the kindest of men): "If the American people understood the real character of Alger Hiss, they would boil him in oil. — Whittaker Chambers

The greatest strength you can have is to know your own strengths. You've got to figure out what you're good at and make the most of it. — Cristina Alger

The flower which we do not pluck is the only one which never loses its beauty or its fragrance. — William Rounseville Alger

In the future the way that Whittaker Chambers was able to carry out forgery by typewriter will be disclosed. — Alger Hiss

There are many boys, and men too, who, like Micky Maguire, have never had a fair chance in life. Let us remember that, when we judge them, and not be too hasty to condemn. — Horatio Alger Jr.

The God of merely traditional believers is the great Absentee of the universe. — William Rounseville Alger

The lower a man descends in his love, the higher he lifts his life. — William Rounseville Alger

The candidate was required to prepare himself by confession, fasting, and passing the night in prayer. — Horatio Alger

For a man to take it at thirty-four as a guide-book to what life holds is about as safe as it would be for a man of the same age to enter Wall Street direct from a French convent, equipped with a complete set of the more practical Alger books. — Ernest Hemingway,

Smearing good people like Lauchlin Currie [former administrative assistant to President Roosevelt], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgiveable ... Anyone knowing Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are the two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it. — Eleanor Roosevelt

True statesmanship is the art of changing a nation from what it is into what it ought to be. — William Rounseville Alger

The heart must glow before the tongue can gild. — William Rounseville Alger

I am amazed; until the day I die I shall wonder how Whittaker Chambers got into my house to use my typewriter. — Alger Hiss

I felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger: A man on the move, and just sick enough to be totally confident. — Hunter S. Thompson

But in spite of this material prosperity he was a slave. His work and his leisure consisted of feverish activity, punctuated by moments of listless idleness which he regarded as both sinful and unpleasant. Unless he was one of the furiously successful minority, he was apt to be haunted by moments of brooding, too formless to be called meditation, and of yearning, too blind to be called desire. For he and all his contemporaries were ruled by certain ideas which prevented them from living a fully human life. — Olaf Stapledon

...the whole of American life was organized around the cult of the powerful individual, that phantom ideal which Europe herself had only begun to outgrow in her last phase. Those Americans who wholly failed to realize this ideal, who remained at the bottom of the social ladder, either consoled themselves with hopes for the future, or stole symbolical satisfaction by identifying themselves with some popular star, or gloated upon their American citizenship, and applauded the arrogant foreign policy of their government. — Olaf Stapledon

He who is master of all opinions can never be the bigot of any. — William Rounseville Alger

He who has no wish to be happier is the happiest of men. — William R. Alger

Cunning is the dwarf of wisdom. — William Rounseville Alger

A fretful fancy is constantly flinging its possessor into gratuitous tophets. — William Rounseville Alger

Of all the portions of life it is in the two twilights, childhood and age, that tears fall with the most frequency; like the dew at dawn and eve. — William Rounseville Alger

How sublime is the audacious tautology of Mohammed, God is God! — William Rounseville Alger

Ignorance is the mother of suspicion. — William Rounseville Alger

Keep your working power at its maximum. — William Rounseville Alger

Nemesis is one of God's handmaids. — William Rounseville Alger

After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul's indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer. — William R. Alger

Laws are the silent assessors of God. — William Rounseville Alger

Tears are the tribute of humanity to its destiny. — William Rounseville Alger

I don't consider 'American Rose' to be a biography so much as a microcosm of 20th-century America, told through Gypsy's tumultuous life - it's 'Horatio Alger meets Tim Burton.' — Karen Abbott

And there was some trouble with Oliver Cowdery, and whisper said it was relating to a girl then living in his family; and I was afterwards told by Warren Parish, that he himself and Oliver Cowdery did not that Joseph had Fannie Alger as wife, for they were spied upon and found together. And I can now see that at Nauvoo, so at Kirtland, that the suspicion or knowledge of the Prophet's plural relation was one of the causes of apostasy and disruption at Kirtland, although at the time there was little said publicly on the subject. — Benjamin F. Johnson

A sigh can shatter a castle in the air. — William Rounseville Alger

[democrats] hated Richard Nixon, and no wonder. It was Nixon who sent Alger Hiss to jail, and Nixon who waged the Vietnam War after the Democrats gave up, — David Frum

Polite beggary is too common. — William Rounseville Alger

How inexplicable and enviable, never to want to be anywhere other than where you already are. — Cristina Alger

The No. 1 source in the State Department was Alger Hiss, who was then an assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State, Francis Sayre, the son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson. The No. 2 source in the same Department was Henry Julian Wadleigh, an expert in the Trade Agreements Division, to which he had managed to have himself transferred from the Agriculture Department. He had done so at the request of the Communist Party — Whittaker Chambers

The oat is the Horatio Alger of cereals, which progressed, if not from rags to riches, at least from weed to health food. — Waverley Root

Richard M. Nixon honestly believed in his bones that an organized conspiracy of liberal media insiders had literally been plotting against him ever since he broke Alger Hiss in 1948 (he never shifted course, and lost his soul). — Rick Perlstein

A blue eye is a true eye; Mysterious is a dark one, Which flashes like a spark sun! A black eye is the best one. — William Rounseville Alger

Aphorisms are portable wisdom, the quintessential extracts of thought and feeling. — William Rounseville Alger

False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis. — William R. Alger

I'm no expert, no natural-born talent, definitely no guru. As you'll soon learn, only through a colossal experiment in trial and error did I reach the sexual summit. Although I own up to having worn a cape in a few intimate scenarios, I don't possess supernatural powers of any kind. Perhaps my IQ is slightly above average, but Mensa isn't busting down my door. If pressed to define myself, I'd say I'm Horatio Alger between the sheets: a self-made swinging single male. . . with a hefty dose of Buster Keaton mixed in. — Daniel Stern

God's mills grind slow, But they grind woe. — William Rounseville Alger

Reserve may be pride fortified in ice; dignity is worth reposing on truth. — William Rounseville Alger

To appreciate and use correctly a valuable maxim requires a genius; a vital appropriating exercise of mind closely allied to that which first created it. — William R. Alger

What is the highest secret to victory and peace? To will what God wills, and strike a league with destiny. — William R. Alger

The institution of chivalry forms one of the most remarkable features in the history of the Middle Ages. — Horatio Alger

Fate is the friend of the good, the guide of the wise, the tyrant of the foolish, the enemy of the bad. — William Rounseville Alger

Proverbs are mental gems gathered in the diamond fields of the mind. — William R. Alger

For all my wanderings, I'm ordinary. I came to terms long ago with my littleness. A man is what he is--he can't rise so much as an inch above his shortcomings--Horatio Alger be damned! — Norman Lock

I would give more for the private esteem and love of one than for the public praise of ten thousand. — William Rounseville Alger

Public opinion is the atmosphere of society, without which the forces of the individual would collapse, and all the institutions of society fly into atoms. — William Rounseville Alger

The human heart has a sigh lonelier than the cry of the bittern. — William Rounseville Alger

Like the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, postmodernism seeks to institutionalize dishonesty as a legitimate school of thought. The idea of truth as the ultimate goal of the intellectual is discarded. In its place, scholars are asked to pursue political objectives
so long as those political objectives are the 'correct' ones. Postmodernism is not fringe within the community of scholars. It is central. This tells us a great deal about the life of the mind today. Peruse any university course catalogue, and you find names like Foucault, Derrida, and Barthes. Scour the footnotes of scholarly books and journals and a similar story unfolds. With the primacy of philosophies
postmodernism, Critical Theory, and even the right-leaning Straussianism
that exalt dishonesty in the service of supposedly noble causes, is it at all surprising that liars like Alfred Kinsey, Rigoberta Menchu, Alger Hiss, and Margaret Sanger have achieved a venerated status among the intellectuals? — Daniel J. Flynn

While some multimillionaires started in poverty, most did not. A study of the origins of 303 textile, railroad and steel executives of the 1870s showed that 90 percent came from middle- or upper-class families. The Horatio Alger stories of "rags to riches" were true for a few men, but mostly a myth, and a useful myth for control. — Howard Zinn

Three years in jail is a good corrective for three years at Harvard. — Alger Hiss

Common sense is the average sensibility and intelligence of men undisturbed by individual peculiarities. — William Rounseville Alger

Whether you attribute it to some mysterious triple package or to your own Horatio Alger story, to succeed in America is, somehow, to be complicit with the idea of America - which means that at some level you've made peace with its rather ugly past. — Vijay Iyer

Even pearls are dark before the whiteness of his teeth. — William R. Alger

Words of love, are works of love. — William R. Alger

The devil may be bullied, but not the Deity. — William Rounseville Alger

I had already been warned by other sources - and was soon to be warned by the Committee - that the Justice Department was preparing to move against me, that it was actively making plans to indict me, and not Alger Hiss, for perjury on the basis of my testimony before the House Committee. I felt that my testimony had offended the powers that for so long had kept from the nation the extent of the Communist infiltration of Government, and the official heights to which it had reached. Not Alger Hiss (for denying any of the truth), but I (for revealing part of the truth) was to be punished. — Whittaker Chambers

Heart's-ease is a flower which blooms from the grave of desire. — William Rounseville Alger

No period of my life has been one of such unmixed happiness as the four years which have been spent within college walls. — Horatio Alger

Frank Capra, Hollywood's Horatio Alger, lights with more cinematic know-how and zeal than any other director to convince movie audiences that American life is exactly like the 'Saturday Evening Post' covers of Norman Rockwell. 'It's A Wonderful Life,' the latest example of Capracorn, shows his art at a hysterical pitch. — Manny Farber

Beware the deadly fumes of that insane elation Which rises from the cup of mad impiety, And go, get drunk with that divine intoxication Which is more sober far than all sobriety. — William Rounseville Alger

Every man is his own greatest dupe. — William Rounseville Alger

The best aphorisms are ... portable wisdom, the quintessential extracts of thought and feeling. They furnish the largest amount of intellectual stimulus and nutriment in the smallest compass. About every weak point in human nature, or vicious spot in human life, there is deposited a crystallization of warning and protective proverbs. — William Rounseville Alger

Courage makes a man more than himself; for he is then himself plus his valor. — William Rounseville Alger

The line of life is a ragged diagonal between duty and desire. — William R. Alger

Thus the castle of each feudal chieftain became a school of chivalry, into which any noble youth, whose parents were from poverty unable to educate him to the art of war, was readily received. — Horatio Alger