John Salisbury Quotes & Sayings

If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- From a letter to Robert Hooke dated February 5th, 1676.
The metaphor was first recorded in 1159 by John of Salisbury and attributed to Bernard of Chartres:
Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis nos esse quasi nanos, gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvenimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea. — Isaac Newton

Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant. — John Of Salisbury

The common people say, that physicians are the class
of people who kill other men in the most polite and
courteous manner. — John Of Salisbury

Verily if with mine own eyes I had seen a priest of God, or any of those who wear the monastic garb, sinning, I would spread my cloak and hide him, that he might not be seen of any. — John Of Salisbury

A man is free in proportion to the measure of his virtues, and the extent to which he is free determines what his virtues can accomplish. — John Of Salisbury

Headphone aren't big enough these days. Why not just throw a couple of stereo speakers in a full face motorcycle helmet. — Dov Davidoff

Accurate reading on a wide range of subjects makes the scholar; careful selection of the better makes the saint. — John Of Salisbury

Just received western union tellagram via carrier pigieon from mexican cousin Juan, Apparently he just got hired by wwe ... And would like me to watch his first match tonight in salisbury md, I'll be there. — John Cena

With his Policraticus (1159), John of Salisbury had become the most famous Christian writer to compare society to a human body and to use that analogy to justify a system of natural inequality. In Salisbury's formulation, every element in the state had an anatomical counterpart: the ruler was the head, the parliament was the heart, the court was the sides, officials and judges were the eyes, ears and tongue, the treasury was the belly and intestines, the army was the hands and the peasantry and labouring classes were the feet. — Alain De Botton

There was Arctic John, a businessman from Salisbury who doesn't hold water, Bruce Knott, a social worker from Cumberland who spends his lunch hour picking his bum, and Judith Glycerine, the reformation pig. — St John Morris

She turned back to the door fishing her key out of her purse. Once the key was in the lock, the door flew open revealing darkness. All she had time for was a squeak before she was abruptly pulled in the house by her shirt. The door slammed shut and locked behind her with a clank of sliding metal. — Nicole Rae

Just as the soul animates the body, so, in a way, meaning breathes life into a word. — John Of Salisbury

Let him who is not come to logic be plagued with continuous and everlasting filth — John Of Salisbury

I very much use Bill Willingham's approach on 'Fables,' which is that rather than having an end point to a series, I have an end point for the various story lines. — Chris Roberson

The system glorified by John of Salisbury and John Fortescue, was unjust in a thousand all too obvious ways, but it offered those on the lowest rungs one notable freedom: the freedom not to have to take the achievements of quite so many people in society as reference points - and so find themselves severely wanting in status and importance as a result. — Alain De Botton

No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. — Winston S. Churchill

Seeking is a necessary preliminary to finding, and one who cannot endure the hardship of inquiry cannot expect to harvest the fruit of knowledge. — John Of Salisbury

We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours. — John Of Salisbury

Among all the liberal arts, the first is logic, and specifically that part of logic which gives initial instruction about words ... [T]he word "logic" has a broad meaning, and is not restricted exclusively to the science of argumentative reasoning. [It includes] Grammar [which] is "the science of speaking and writing correctly-the starting point of all liberal studies." — John Of Salisbury

They beg to a Silver king, and spit upon Red queens. — Victoria Aveyard

He who will not when he may, may not when he will. — John Of Salisbury

From his youth on , he had been accustomed to people's passing him and taking no notice of him whatever , not out contempt -as hehad once believed - But because they were quite unaware of his existence. There was no space surrounding him, no waves broke from him into the atmosphere, as with other people; he had no shadow, so to speak, to cast across another's face. Only if he ran right into someone in a crowd or in a street-corner collision would there be a brief moment of discernment; and th person en countered would bounce off and stare at him for a few seconds as if gazing at a creature that ought not even exist, a creature that, although undeniably there, in some way or other was not present- and would take to his heels and have forgotten him, Grenouille, a moment later ....... — Patrick Suskind

Profit maximization may be the 'end' but the means to achieve this end, is what matters, and that distinguishes a company in the corporate world and the market — Henrietta Newton Martin