You can’t learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.
W. Somerset Maugham
Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.
Thomas Jefferson
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.
Eric Hoffer
If you waste your time a-talkin’ to the people who don’t listen / To the things that you are sayin’ who do you think’s gonna hear? / And if you should die explainin’ how the things that they complain about / Are things they could be changin’ who do you think’s gonna care? / There were other lonely singers in a world turned deaf and blind / Who were crucified for what they tried to show / And their voices have been scattered by the swirling winds of time / ‘Cos the truth remains that no-one wants to know
Kris Kristopherson, "To Beat the Devil"
A right is not what someone gives you, it’s what no one can take from you.
Ramsey Clark