Bergen Evans Quotes

• Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.

  Bergen Evans

  Memorial Day, Freedom, Fear

  "The Natural History of Nonsense". Book by Bergen Evans, 1946.

  48 Copy quote

• The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical, to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts.

  Bergen Evans

  Trust, Wisdom, Men

  15 Copy quote

• Leadership is more likely to be assumed by the aggressive than by the able, and those who scramble to the top are more often motivated by their own inner torments.

  Bergen Evans

  Leadership, Able, Motivated

  Bergen Evans (1954). “The Spoor of Spooks: And Other Nonsense”, New York : Knopf

  10 Copy quote

• That is the essence of a witch-hunt, that any questioning of the evidence or the procedures in itself constitutes proof of complicity.

  Bergen Evans

  Essence, Witch, Proof

  14 Copy quote

• Authors are magpies, echoing each other's words and seizing avidly on anything that glitters.

  Bergen Evans

  Writing, Glitter, Magpies

  23 Copy quote

• The mere abhorrence of vice is not a virtue at all.

  Bergen Evans

  Vices, Virtue, Abhorrence

  17 Copy quote

• Stoicism is the wisdom of madness and cynicism the madness of wisdom.

  Bergen Evans

  Wisdom, Madness, Cynicism

  10 Copy quote

• There is no necessary connection between the desire to lead and the ability to lead, and even less the ability to lead somewhere that will be to the advantage of the led.

  Bergen Evans

  Inspirational, Leadership, Desire

  Bergen Evans (1954). “The Spoor of Spooks: And Other Nonsense”, New York : Knopf

  11 Copy quote

• Words are one of our chief means of adjusting to all the situations of life. The better control we have over words, the more successful our adjustment is likely to be.

  Bergen Evans

  Mean, Successful, Adjusting

  Bergen Evans (1963). “The word-a-day vocabulary builder”, Ballantine Books

  10 Copy quote

• Legislators who are of even average intelligence stand out among their colleagues. . . . A cultured college president has become as much a rarity as a literate newspaper publisher. A financier interested in economics is as exceptional as a labor leader interested in the labor movement. For the most part our leaders are merely following out in front; they [only] marshal us in the way that we are going.

  Bergen Evans

  Leadership, College, Average

  Bergen Evans (1954). “The Spoor of Spooks: And Other Nonsense”, New York : Knopf

  15 Copy quote

• Wisdom is meaningless until your own experience has given it meaning, and there is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.

  Bergen Evans

  Wisdom, Given, Selection

  10 Copy quote

• Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

  Bergen Evans

  Liars, Lying, Indispensable

  14 Copy quote

• We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

  Bergen Evans

  Past, May

  "The natural history of nonsense". Book by Bergen Evans, 1946.

  10 Copy quote

• It (the dash ) is a comfortable punctuation mark since even the most rigorous critic can seldom claim that any particular example of it is a misuse. Its overuse is its greatest danger, and the writer who can't resist dashes may be suspected of uncoordinated thinking.

  Bergen Evans

  Writing, Thinking, Punctuation Marks

  13 Copy quote

• We see what we want to see, and observation conforms to hypothesis.

  Bergen Evans

  Want, Hypothesis, Observation

  The Natural History of Nonsense A Tale of a Tub

  4 Copy quote

• The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical. . . . Any man who for one moment abandons or suspends the questioning spirit has for that moment betrayed humanity.

  Bergen Evans

  Men, Humanity, Religion

  9 Copy quote

• An honorable man will not be bullied by a hypothesis.

  Bergen Evans

  Men, Honorable Man, Bullied

  The Natural History of Nonsense A Tale of a Tub

  12 Copy quote

• For the most part our leaders are merely following out in front; they do but marshal us the way that we are going.

  Bergen Evans

  Leader, Way, Following

  Bergen Evans (1954). “The Spoor of Spooks: And Other Nonsense”, New York : Knopf

  9 Copy quote

• There is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.

  Bergen Evans

  Selection

  8 Copy quote

• Speech is highly elliptical. It would scarcely be endurable otherwise. Ellipsis is indispensable to the writer or speaker who wants to be brief and pithy, but it can easily cause confusion and obscurity and must be used with skill.

  Bergen Evans

  Writing, Skills, Confusion

  7 Copy quote

• Most civilized lives are measured out with coffee spoons.

  Bergen Evans

  Coffee, Spoons, Civilized

  4 Copy quote

• Many studies have established the fact that there is a high correlation between vocabulary and intelligence and that the ability to increase one's vocabulary throughout life is a sure reflection of intellectual progress.

  Bergen Evans

  Reflection, Vocabulary, Intellectual

  Bergen Evans (1963). “The word-a-day vocabulary builder”, Ballantine Books

  5 Copy quote

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