QUOTES ON “I”

IDEAS

To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.
ANATOLE FRANCE

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!
H. L. MENCKEN

We use ideas merely to justify our evil, and speech merely to conceal our ideas.
VOLTAIRE

The history of ideas is the history of the grudges of solitary men.
E. M. CIORAN

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones. JOHN CAGE

IDEALISM

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality the cost becomes prohibitive.
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.

Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.
JOHN GALSWORTHY

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
H. L. MENCKEN

I’m an idealist: I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way.
CARL SANDBURG

When they come down from their ivory towers, idealists are apt to walk straight into the gutter.
LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH

The idealist is incorrigible—if he is turned out of his heaven, he makes an ideal of his hell.
FRIEDRICH WILHELM NIETZSCHE

The idealist walks on his toes, the materialist on his talons.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL

IDIOT

Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
AMBROSE BIERCE

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

I went to a convent in New York and was fired finally for my insistence that the Immaculate Conception was spontaneous combustion.
DOROTHY PARKER

IMMORALITY

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
H. L. MENCKEN

IMMORTALITY

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
JAMES THURBER

Immortality is the condition of a dead man who doesn’t believe he is dead.
H. L. MENCKEN

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
SUSAN ERTZ

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.
WOODY ALLEN

IMPIETY

Impiety, n. Your irreverence toward my deity.
AMBROSE BIERCE

INANIMATE OBJECTS

Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories—those that don’t work, those that break down and those that get lost.
RUSSELL BAKER

INCOME

It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.
OSCAR WILDE

INFLATION

Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.
MILTON FRIEDMAN

A dollar saved is a quarter earned.
JOHN CIARDI

INFORMATION

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.
GERTRUDE STEIN

INSANITY

Insanity: a perfectly rational adjustment to the insane world.
R. D. LAING

INSIDER

You can be a rank insider as well as a rank outsider.
ROBERT FROST

INSINCERITY

What people call insincerity is simply a method by which we can multiply our personalities.
OSCAR WILDE

INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Instant gratification takes too long.
CARRIE FISHER

INTELLECTUALS

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people’s values.
GERALD BRENAN

INTELLIGENCE

There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence.
HENRY ADAMS

I would like to take you seriously but to do so would affront your intelligence.
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.

INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

An intelligence service is, in fact, a stupidity service.
E. B. WHITE

INTELLIGENTSIA

A large section of the intelligentsia seems wholly devoid of intelligence.
G. K. CHESTERTON

IRELAND AND THE IRISH

Every St. Patrick’s Day every Irishman goes out to find another Irishman to make a speech to.
SHANE LESLIE

Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.
BRENDAN BEHAN

IRONY

Irony is the hygiene of the mind.
ELIZABETH BIBESCO