All these quotations are taken from my 'Commonplace Wall' art installation at the Dominic Lagan Gallery. They also appear in 'On Opening Mr Keatley's Commonplace Book', which is an extended version of the Wall.
“Quiet calm deliberation disentangles every knot.”
— Sir William Schwenk Gilbert
I distrust haste and drama. I believe that good decisions begin in stillness, and that clarity of mind is essential for good choices. Goos process, good outcomes. The courage to wait, think and prepare is part of what makes a strategic data-based action effective when it finally comes. Other ways of saying the same thing are: “Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted” (Flt Lt Dominic Bruce), and Cervantes’s reminder that “Forewarned, forearmed: to be prepared is half the battle.” Bent Flyvbjerg’s modern counsel to “Think slow, act fast” and Jigoro Kano’s instruction to “Consider fully. Act decisively” both capture the same temperament: patient up to the point of decision, then firm. I also keep close at hand the warning “Never confuse movement with action” (Ernest Hemingway) and Joseph Conrad’s observation that “Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought.”
“You must be either the anvil or the hammer.”
— Goethe
I do not want to be shaped by circumstances, institutions, or other people’s expectations. A life is something made, not found, and that independence of mind is worth the discomfort it sometimes brings. William Blake’s declaration “I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s” sets out the stakes in stark terms. Judy Garland’s advice to “Be a first-rate version of yourself, not a second-rate version of someone else” and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s observation that “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment” both speak to the same struggle: the effort required to remain oneself under social pressure. Likewise Henry David Thoreau’s image of the man who “does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer” and Thomas Szasz’s claim that “The self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates” .
“Success in war depends more on moral than on physical qualities. Skill cannot compensate for want of courage, energy and determination.”
— 1909 British Army Field Service Regulations
Technical skill matters (that’s the bit of state education I do approve), but without courage, energy and determination, it is not enough. In moments of difficulty, what usually fails first is not ability, but nerve. Similarly, there is U. S. Grant’s blunt note that “In war anything is better than indecision,” and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s reminder that “What counts is not the size of the dog in the fight; it is the size of the fight in the dog.” Field Marshall Viscount Wavell’s observation that “In all professions, character is of greater importance than brains or experience” extends the principle beyond the battlefield, while Garson Kanin’s “Skill is often less important than will” underlines the same point in different words.
“Man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer
I need periods of withdrawal to think clearly and to remain myself. I recognise the same idea in other lines in my collection that treat solitude not as escape but as a condition for independence and creativity. These lines express my conviction that solitude is not a deficit but a resource, and that the freedom Schopenhauer describes depends on the capacity to be comfortably alone. Thomas de Quincy’s spare maxim “Solitude is essential to man” and Anneli Rufus’s comment that “People assume we loners are misanthropes. We just have a smaller tolerance for what it takes to be with others” both capture something of the social misunderstanding that surrounds solitary habits. Thomas Jefferson’s note that “One travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more” and Edward Gibbon’s “I was never less alone than when by myself” speak to the inner richness of being alone. Howard Barker’s reflection that “A solitary child invents friendships and invents his life… To be solitary is to invent” and Seneca the Elder’s description of “The primary sign of a well-ordered mind” as the ability to linger in one’s own company complete the thought for me.
“Gam zeh ya’avor.” (“This too shall pass.”)
— The ring of H. M. King Shlomo
This is about perspective, about understanding the transitory nature of most setbacks and low points, which is most useful (and comforting) when we are experiencing pain, grief, hurt, sadness etc. But above all, it points to the vital importance of accepting any new reality in our lives. Li Er’s observation that “Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath. Who knows where it ends?” and Count Leo Tolstoy’s remark that “The eternal error men make is to imagine that happiness consists of the realisation of their desires” both undercut the idea that any particular outcome will settle things once and for all. Albert Camus’s comment that “To be happy we must not be too concerned with others” adds an inner dimension: even if external conditions shift, a certain detachment can preserve equilibrium. For me, these quotations together support a stance of equanimity: accepting change, moderating expectations, and not tying my inner life too tightly to external conditions.
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
— Joseph Campbell
I believe we should treat fear not as a stop sign but as a signal pointing towards what really matters. Fear is often a reliable indicator of where growth is possible, and that the obstacles we dread often guard the insights, strengths or possibilities we most need. Plutarch’s observation that “Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly” and Helen Keller’s stark alternative that “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” both frame difficulty as intrinsic to any meaningful life. Albert Camus’s line about finding “an invincible summer” in the depths of winter and Fridtjof Nansen’s encouragement “Never stop because you are afraid – you are never so likely to be wrong” add further weight to the same idea.
“All truth passes through stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer
These lines express my belief that new or uncomfortable truths must be embraced, and that we must always be learning. Intellectual curiosity was drilled into me as a child. My Montessori-trained mother would never give me the answer to my endless what/why/how questions, rather she would always say ‘look it up’. Ayn Rand’s observation that “The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow” and George Orwell’s defence of unpopular speech – “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” – both capture different aspects of the same process. Dean Jonathan Swift’s remark that “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him” identifies the typical coalition against the innovator.
“Romantic love should be bracketed with gunpowder as man’s most disastrous invention.”
— Cecil Day‑Lewis
I see love and marriage as powerful tools for societal stability, in the same way as I see a free education system as a useful baby sitter keeping the streets safe, in the same way as the state's role as the 'night watchman' protecting property'. Most of what is taught in ordinary schools is useless for life, instantly forgotten, and could be taught by a robot. My mother taught me to read when I was three, and then pointed me towards the local library. As Churchill said “My learning was interrupted by my education”. But the system will last a long time before the teacher unions, politicians, civil servants, and other special interests are finally vanquished. Olympe de Gouges’s said that “Marriage is a tomb of trust and love” and Henri de Toulouse‑Lautrec’s comment that “Marriage is a dull meal with dessert at the beginning” undercuts romantic idealisation. Sir David Jason’s image of marriage as “like throwing yourself into a river when you only wanted a drink of water” and Ambrose Bierce’s definition of love as “a temporary insanity curable by marriage” are useful contrarian views. Simone de Beauvoir’s analysis of marriage as “a very alienating institution, for men as well as for women” and Katharine Hepburn’s wry suggestion that perhaps men and women “should live next door and just visit now and then” extend the critique to the structure of relationships themselves. H. G. Wells’s said “Men and women are incompatible things” and I agree. As an artist I see the pram in the hall as the enemy.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”
— Charles Dickens
This captures my approach to money: live within your means, avoid debt, keep desires in check. I see the same principle in other lines in my collection that treat financial discipline as a foundation for contentment. Will Rogers’s advice to “Save half of what you make, and live on just the other half” and Aristotle’s counsel to “Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit” both set out a similar rule of life. Nouriel Roubini’s warning “Borrow to invest, not to consume” adds a modern financial gloss, while Somerset Maugham’s remark that “Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five” acknowledges its enabling role. Andrew Carnegie’s “No idol is more debasing than money” and Gerald Brenan’s observation that “Those who have some means think that the most important thing in the world is love. The poor know that it is money” remind me that money is a tool, not a goal, and that its importance shifts with circumstance. For me, these quotations together express a belief that discipline in spending is more important than the size of income, and that contentment depends on keeping desires within reach.
“When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.”
— Lucius, Viscount Falkland
I am cautious about change for its own sake. I prefer continuity unless there is a clear reason to act. That is why I also value other remarks in my collection that balance conservation with the need for decisive reform when circumstances demand it. . Thomas Babington Macaulay’s formula “Reform, that we may preserve” and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s paradox “If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change” both capture the tension between stability and adaptation. John C. Calhoun’s comment that “The Government should be taught that the highest wisdom of a state is a wise and masterly inactivity” extends the idea to politics, while Palmerston’s sceptical “Change? Aren’t things bad enough already?” voices a good instinct to resist unnecessary disruption. However, when change is genuinely required, it should be undertaken decisively. Falkland’s maxim is, for me, the starting point: do not alter what does not need altering.
“The mystery is not how the world is, but that it is.”
— Wittgenstein
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s foundational question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” and Charles Darwin’s admission that “This whole question of Creation is too profound for human intellect. Let each man hope and believe what he can” both acknowledge the limits of explanation. Haldane’s “My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose” is a warning about making assumptions.
For me, these quotations express a stance of intellectual humility: doubt as a starting point, certainty as suspect, and mystery as an irreducible feature of the world. When you look up at the night sky and ask some scientist, ‘who made those?’ not only do they have no answer, they don’t even have a workable hypothesis. It’s this herd of elephants in the room that makes human beings understand how little they really know. It is also a good reminder that atheism is only for extremists, bigots, and ideologues.
“Opinions only lose their immunity when the circumstances in which they are expressed are such as to constitute their expression a positive instigation to some mischievous act.”
— J. S. Mill
There are probably more quotes in the book about freedom than any other subject. Mill is the touchstone. One of the most valuable questions you can ask in politics is ‘what would Mill do?’ These lines express my belief that a free society depends on protecting unpopular views, while recognising that speech which directly incites harm cannot claim the same immunity. I am much more alarmed about the rise of woke than the rise of AI. The former is my favourite candidate for killing us off, because it is setting up the conditions for violent conflict. If someone had told me thirty years ago that civil war was possible in the US or UK (two countries that have experienced that awful thing) I would have thought them idiotic or fanatic or unbalanced in the mind. Now I’m not so sure. George Orwell’s “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” and Noam Chomsky’s “If we do not believe in freedom of speech for those we despise, we do not believe in it at all” both set out a broad defence of free expression. Charles Bradlaugh’s “Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech” pushes that further, while Karl Popper’s “We claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant” marks a boundary.