Spence Quotes & Sayings

Today the courts are choked with lawsuits brought by people against the New King. When they sue each other as a result of an automobile accident they in fact sue the King, for both parties are likely insured ... Steadily the courts have become clearing-houses for the insurance industry. — Gerry Spence

The Town Clerkship, however, was the means of giving me a lesson in electoral methods. — Catherine Helen Spence

Lawyers should be chosen because they can demonstrate a history rich in human traits, the ability to care, the courage to fight, the will to win, a concern for the human condition, a passion for justice and simple uncompromising honesty. These are the traits of the lawyer. — Gerry Spence

When we acknowledge the kingdom of the self, we will no longer accept slavery either for ourselves or for others, no matter how it is disguised. — Gerry Spence

If you tell the truth, it becomes a part of your past. If you lie, it becomes a part of your future. — John Spence

Prejudice locks the mind. Nothing can enter. Nothing true can escape. — Gerry Spence

The research side of academic life is often viewed from the outside as a solo and, at times, lonely activity. In fact, it is quite the opposite: a communal activity in significant part where interaction and interchange generate ideas and critiques of them. — Michael Spence

Riding a bull must be a bit like flying an ultralight. You get up there and have an exhilarating ride, but then you still have to get down. — Susan Spence

My drug of choice is historical research. — E. Lee Spence

Globalization has redefined the competition for employment and incomes in the United States. Tradeoffs will have to be made between the two. — Michael Spence

Once slavery in America was not seen as radical. It became, instead, a revolutionary idea that slaves should be freed. When we have lived under a pernicious power long enough, no matter how oppressive, we grow so accustomed to the yoke that its removal seems frightening, even wrong. — Gerry Spence

At the end of the day - the long day of your life - as people stand around your grave no one will talk about how big your house was, or how many cars you owned, or your boat or plane ... they will only talk about ONE thing and ONE thing ONLY: LOVE! How much you loved them and how much they loved you. So the goal then is to live a life of love. That is all. — John Spence

I cherish the fantasy, even the hope, of adventures in other realms to come. But how can we choke out that most precious of all gifts, life, with the rope of religion around our necks? It chokes out freedom with dogma. It pinions us to the stake of superstition. — Gerry Spence

As Mr. R. U. Sayee has well said: 'It should be clear a priori that fairy lore must have developed as a result of modifications and accretions received in different countries and at many periods, though we must not overlook the part played by tradition in providing a mould that to some extent determines the nature of later additions.' It must also be self-evident that a great deal of confusion has been caused by the assumption that some spirit-types were fairies which in a more definite sense are certainly not of elfin provenance. In some epochs, indeed, Faerie appears to have been regarded as a species of limbo to which all 'pagan' spirits - to say nothing of defeated gods, monsters, and demons - could be banished, along with the personnel of Olympus and the rout of witchcraft. Such types, however, are usually fairly easy of detection. — Lewis Spence

Our willingness to openly reveal our feelings in our argument nearly always builds our credibility. — Gerry Spence

The new and most powerful union of all will be a union of one one man, one woman, one worker with special skills, an inquiring mind, and an independent attitude, his creativity intact, his love of life blooming. The union of one will be peopled by one man or one woman who is alive . Such a person is always sought by the intelligent manager. — Gerry Spence

Our prejudices :;we all have them are part of our personality structure. The problem is that our prejudices may lie lurking at the bottom of the subterranean mind where the slowly ooze up and color our thinking without our knowing it. — Gerry Spence

There are only two races (and they are not distinguished by color): those who are free and those who are not. — Gerry Spence

Roll the Dice and Watch Them Come Up Snake Eyes Eve — Jackson Spence

Forget vampires," he laughed dismissively.
"Who wants to drink blood for eternity? What we have discovered is far more seductive and a great deal more dangerous ... — Pat Spence - Blue Moon

If a person wants to be a part of your life, they will make an obvious effort to do so. Think twice before reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay. — John Spence

Sorry," I said, realizing I was taking my frustrations out on her. "I'm still getting over Soph," I said, referring to my old prep school friend.
Sophie Price was the most beautiful girl you'd ever met. Seriously. Take it from someone who's met Bar Refaeli in person. Soph was even more stunning. Especially since she'd had a personality makeover. I'd never regret anything as much as I would not making her fall in love with me.
"You can't make anyone fall, Spence. Either they do or they don't."
"I said that out loud?"
"Duh and it's been two years, Spencer. You seriously need to get over her. She's with that Ian guy anyway, right?"
"Right."
"That hot South African guy named Ian," she concluded.
"Thanks."
"That hot saffy named Ian who gives his life to mutilated Ugandan orphans and worships the ground Sophie walks on."
I stopped and glared at her. "That'll do, Bridge. — Fisher Amelie

Don't think of cost. Think of value. — John Spence

It must not be thought, however, that in pagan Ireland Fairyland was altogether conceived as a Hades or place of the dead. We have already seen that in some of its types and aspects it was inherently nothing of the sort; as when, for example, it came to be confused with the Land of the Gods. In all likelihood these separate paradises and deadlands of a nature so various were the result of the stratified beliefs of successive races dwelling in the same region. A conquering race would scarcely credit that its heroes would, after death, betake themselves to the deadland of the beaten and enslaved aborigines. The gods of vanquished races might be conceived as presiding over spheres of the dead for which their victors would have nothing but contempt, and which, because of that very contempt, might come to be conceived as hells or places of a debased and grovelling kind, pestiferous regions which only the spirits of despised "natives" or the undesirable might inhabit. — Lewis Spence

I could teach an eighth-grader in twenty minutes how to brief a case. Yet for all three years in most law schools the casebook method of learning the law is still in. The matriculating young lawyer is as qualified to represent a client with the education he has suffered through as a doctor who has never seen a patient, who has never held a scalpel in his hand and who learns surgery by having read text books about it and becomes skilled in surgery, if ever, after having stacked up piles of corpses who represent his pathetic learning process. — Gerry Spence

Successful argument is a communication between the acknowledged authority of both parties to the argument. — Gerry Spence

Nothing in the world is as fearsome as a bloody, battered opponent who will never surrender. — Gerry Spence

If we turn now to such vestiges of cult as are associated otherwise than with time and season, we discover a definite recognition of the survival of these nearly a century ago. Keightley, the old fairy mythologist, who did such yeoman service in the collection of much valuable elfin lore, says, as long ago as 1850, when referring to the confused nature of his subject: 'Indeed it could not well be otherwise, when we recollect that all these beings (the larger and greater fairies) once formed part of ancient and exploded systems of religion and that it is chiefly in the traditions of the peasantry that their memorial has been preserved. — Lewis Spence

We tend to think that employment is employment, and we don't ask the question: is this rewarding employment? Research establishes pretty clearly that typical notions of happiness - that more is better - really don't correspond to the way people think and feel. — Michael Spence

The Internet ... has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction. — Gerry Spence

The combination of a workable basic formula and the capacity to improve over time is what one hopes for in any aspect of society: business, government, the non-profit sector. — Michael Spence

I look back to a happy childhood. — Catherine Helen Spence

Some discussion of the nature and temperament of the fairies is necessary in view of its possible bearing on their origin. J. G. Campbell tells us that in the Highlands of Scotland they were regarded as "the counterparts of mankind, but substantial and unreal, outwardly invisible." They differ from mortals in the possession of magical power, but are strangely dependent in many ways on man. They are generally considered by the folk at large as of a nature between spirits and men. "They are," says Wentz, "a distinct race between our own and that of spirits. — Lewis Spence

Faced with the pain of freedom, man begs for his shackles. — Gerry Spence

Be happy. Be yourself. If others don't like it, then let them be. Happiness is a choice. Life isn't about pleasing everybody. — John Spence

You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren't busy denying them. Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. — John Spence

We are defined by how we use our power. — Gerry Spence

When someone tells you, "You've changed," it might simply be because you've stopped living your life their way. — John Spence

To freely bloom - that is my definition of success. — Gerry Spence

I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you're the greatest woman on earth. I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do, and how you are with Spencer, "Spence," and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that's all about being straight and good. I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you bring their food, and clear their tables and never get that they just met the greatest woman alive. And the fact that I get it makes me feel good, about me. — Mark Andrus

Susan Boggs, a black runaway interviewed in Canada in 1863, said of the religious slave masters: 'Why the man that baptized me had a colored woman tied up in his yard to whip when he got home that very Sunday and her mother ... was in church hearing him preach. He preached, You must obey your masters and be good servants.- That is the greater part of the sermon, when they preach to the colored folks ... ' — Gerry Spence

For the next hour, Joanne clung to Spence's back, comfortable now with the enforced physical intimacy, loving the wind on her face, the swoops and dizzying corners , the way other bikers saluted as if she and Spence belonged, with them, to a select club. — Bobby Hutchinson

Without argument the species would parish. — Gerry Spence

The art of arguing is the art of living. We argue because we must, because life emends it, because, in the end, life itself is but an argument. — Gerry Spence

One way to measure the size of a company, industry, or economy is to determine its output. But a better way is to determine its added value - namely, the difference between the value of its outputs, that is, the goods and services it produces, and the costs of its inputs, such as the raw materials and energy it consumes. — Michael Spence

Everyone wants to argue. Everyone does. Everyone needs to. — Gerry Spence

Habits, good or bad, can always be traced back to your own thinking. — John Spence

The function of the law is not to provide justice or to preserve freedom. The function of the law is to keep those who hold power, in power. — Gerry Spence

We were brought up in the school that teaches: You do what the script tells you. Deliver the goods without comment. Live it-do it-or shut up. After all, the writer is what's important. If the script is good and you don't get in its way, it will come off okay. I never discussed a script with Spence [Spencer Tracy]; we just did it. The same with Hank [Henry Fonda] in On Golden Pond. Naturally and unconsciously we joined into what I call a musical necessity-the chemistry that brings out the essence of the characters and the work. — Katharine Hepburn

The worst enslaving trait of all is greed. I rail against the substitution of money for worth. The idea that the endless accumulation of dead money can furnish a meaningful life to sold-out souls is the supreme lie offered by the system of free enterprise. — Gerry Spence

The so-called godly man may be more likely to do serious wrong than a man who deeply questions himself. The 'godly man' often zealously follows religious precepts that, in the end, justify an unjust injury to others, while the questioning man, addressing his own conscience, may have the better chance to consider all the circumstances and come to the just decision. — Gerry Spence

The stain of prejudice is often indelible. — Gerry Spence

Because you've got balls of steel.'
I hated when people said that, like it assumed strength and being a male were synonymous. There was strength in being a woman. 'Spence, I don't have balls. Good thing, too, because they'd look terrible in the lingerie I'm wearing. — Cora Carmack

Teach the child to respect that which is not respectable and you teach the child the first requirement of slavery: submission to unjust authority. Children are persons. They are small persons whose perfect souls have not yet been ground through the meat grinder of slavery. — Gerry Spence

In all likelihood fairies of larger stature were ancient gods in a state of decay, while their diminutive congeners were the swarming spirits of primitive imagination. — Lewis Spence

People do what seems easy and convenient, not what is best for them. — John Spence

Making one person smile can change the world - maybe not the whole world, but their world. — John Spence

You cannot change what you refuse to confront. — John Spence

Few people repent at leisure after taking the high road. — Walter Spence

We must begin to train lawyers the minute they walk into law school to tell the truth. They must immediately begin to learn the business of representing people. They must be assigned cases the first day. — Gerry Spence

The written word has its limits and its challenges, for the primal sound in the whole world is that made by the human voice, and the likeness of this human voice must be rendered in dots and strokes ... Yet I never forget that the voice, too, is important ... Don't mumble or hesitate. Speak ... in a loud voice, clearly, and without fear. — Jonathan D. Spence

Money in doses disproportionate to our needs enslaves. — Gerry Spence

Hours of research can cut months of field work. — E. Lee Spence

Skepticism, not cleanliness, is next to godliness. Skepticism is the father of freedom. It is like the pry that holds open the door for truth to slip in. — Gerry Spence

One of the people that wrote a forward to my book is Gerry Spence, whom I admire. Gerry is a friend of mine, and Gerry's perhaps the leading criminal defense attorney in the country. — Vincent Bugliosi

Although everyone does benefit from lower-priced goods and services, people also care greatly about the chance to be productively employed and the quality of their work. Declining employment opportunities feel real and immediate; the rise in real incomes brought by lower prices does not. — Michael Spence

Maybe the most dangerous thing about the "Illuminati" isn't that such a master cabal has ever existed, but that some people believe it should and wreak havoc under the delusion they run the world. — Richard B. Spence

My father once said about being a parent that it is the only thing you do that requires a very long period of learning, and at about the time that you are becoming competent, you don't need the skills anymore. Notwithstanding this modest assessment of their parenting skills, they were wonderful parents. — Michael Spence

Successful people willingly do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. — John Spence

The best antidote for crime is justice. The irony we often fail to appreciate is that the more justice people enjoy, the fewer crimes they commit. Crime is the natural offspring of an unjust society. — Gerry Spence

There is nothing so costly to the state as a ruined life — Catherine Helen Spence

I dream of a time when the people will retake their airways and use them to achieve a voice to rediscover democracy, and to see the divine potential of man. — Gerry Spence

Robert Kirk believed the fairies to be the doubles or, as he called them, the 'co-walkers' of men, which accompanied them through life, and thought that this co-walker returned to Faerie when the person died. — Lewis Spence

In America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them. — Gerry Spence

Sometimes people don't notice the things others do for them until they stop doing them. — John Spence

Today the insatiable quest for profit promotes the new slavery. In bewildering ways, the new is more pernicious than the old, for the New American Slave is told he is free, and he clings to that myth as if his life depended upon it, a suspicion that cannot be totally ignored. — Gerry Spence

To sum up: all nature-spirits are not the same as fairies; nor are all fairies nature-spirits. The same applies to the relationship of nature-spirits and the dead. But we may safely say that a large proportion of nature-spirits became fairies, while quite a number of the dead in some areas seem to take on the character of nature-spirits. We cannot expect any fixity of rule in dealing with barbaric thought. We must take it as it comes. It bears the same relationship to "civilized" or folk-lore theory as does the growth of the jungle to a carefully designed and meticulously labelled botanical garden. As Victor Hugo once exclaimed when writing of the barbaric confusion which underlies the creative function in poetry: 'What do you expect? You are among savages! — Lewis Spence

We die, he said.
We die, I said. And kn owing this how do we live?
Knowing this, we live.
We live. — Alan Spence

A key theme is that human history, behavior and reality are governed not by what we know but by what we believe. — Richard B. Spence

I had seen Adelaide the dearest and the cheapest place to live in. — Catherine Helen Spence

Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. The miracle is to make a single friend who will stand by your side even when hundreds are against you. — John Spence

Thank you to Giulia Fani, Joan Spence and my sister for the rooms and desks they loaned me. — Moez Surani

I think I was well brought up, for my father and mother were of one mind regarding the care of the family. — Catherine Helen Spence

What you do today determines who you will be tomorrow. — John Spence

Quite a number of writers comment on the decidedly human character of the fairies, but it must be obvious that practically all supernaturals partake of human traits, more usually unpleasant ones, being as they are the projections of man's fear and imagination and created by him, psychologically, in his own image. Fairies are frequently described as being peevish, irritable, and revengeful to a degree. Grant Stewart says rather unmercifully of the Scottish fairies that their appetites are as keen as their inclinations are corrupt and wicked. — Lewis Spence

You are the average of your five closest associates. — John Spence

I am not as concerned about choosing the right words as I am in letting the words flow naturally. — Gerry Spence

Digitally enabled supply chains initially increased efficiency and dramatically shortened lead times. Capital was mobile; labor, less so. Economic activity (production, research, design, etc.) moved to any accessible country or region that had relatively inexpensive labor and human capital. — Michael Spence

...that in every timeline of life there are no words that can transcend the things we feel. — Christian Strayhorn Spence

There are no rules that say lawyers cannot write or speak from their heart. Passion has never been formally outlawed, although it is a little-known experience among most lawyers and nearly all academicians. — Gerry Spence

Poetry is a kind of ingenious nonsense (Spence, Anecdotes — Isaac Barrow

After the break up of the municipality and the loss of his income my father lost health and spirits. — Catherine Helen Spence

Whatever you fill your brain with and whoever you spend your time with ... will determine your life a decade from now. — John Spence

If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair, you're fooling yourself. That's like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn't eat him. — John Spence

To excel in the art of domestic argument, one must master the art of losing. — Gerry Spence

There are times when I wish I could go back and change the course of my life. Make different choices ... But the past cannot be changed, and we carry our choices with us, forward, into the unknown. We can only move on. Do you remember that I told you that at Spence? — Libba Bray

Wilton Spencer," she said softly, "why do you have to be so damned smart?"
Spence smiled. "Darned smart," he said; then he wiped her tears away and kissed her on the tip of her nose. — Jackie French Koller

Arguments do not erase prejudice any more than arguments erase scars, whether psychological or physical. — Gerry Spence

invest simultaneously in the agricultural sector, in education, in productivity-enhancing technology and its dissemination, and in infrastructure that enables connectivity to the rest of the economy. — Michael Spence

No artist's masterpiece can match a mother's creation of a successful child, one who has been freed to explore and to grow ... Success is measured not only by who we are, but by what gifts we give. As the old chief said, "The gift is not complete until it is given again." Ah, the mother whose gift to the world is a person ! — Gerry Spence