Alacrity Quotes

• Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.3, Hayes Barton Press

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• He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Believe, Thinking, Difficulty

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1216, Delphi Classics

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• Give me a bowl of wine. I have not that alacrity of spirit Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.

  William Shakespeare

  Cheer, Wine, Giving

  William Shakespeare (2008). “Richard III”, p.124, Palgrave Macmillan

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• If, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army sailing through the clouds neither wall, nor mountains, nor seas could afford any security.

  Samuel Johnson

  Inspirational, Funny, Wall

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.270, Harvard University Press

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• A beaver does not, as legend would have it, know which direction the tree will fall when he cuts it, but counts on alacrity to make up for lack of engineering expertise.

  Ann Zwinger

  Fall, Cutting, Engineering

  Ann Zwinger (1970). “Beyond the Aspen Grove”, p.192, Big Earth Publishing

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• Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Art, Novelty

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.195

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• I don't mind how many letters I receive from one who interests me as much as you do. The receptive part of correspondence I can carry on with much alacrity. It is writing answers that I groan over.

  George Eliot

  Writing, Mind, Answers

  George Eliot (1860). “Life and Letters”, p.635

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• ... Don [Hewitt, 60 Minutes exec producer] told me, "You have set broadcast journalism back 20 years." Naturally, I was both proud and elated although too modest to say so, but broadcast journalism recovered with alacrity, my contract wasn't renewed, and the incident was forgotten.

  Nicholas von Hoffman

  Years, Proud, Journalism

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• He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity. A fool is a natural proselyte, but he must be caught young, for his convictions, unlike those of the wise, harden with age.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Wise, Believe, Thinking

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1216, Delphi Classics

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• If a bell failed to ring, if a stove smoked, if a wheel on a machine stuck, you knew at once where to look and did so with alacrity; you found the defect and knew how to cure it. But the thing within you, the secret mainspring that alone gave meaning to life, the thing within us that alone is living, alone is capable of feeling pleasure and pain, of craving happiness and experiencing it- that was unknown. You knew nothing about that, nothing at all, and if the mainspring failed there was no cure. Wasn't it insane?

  Hermann Hesse

  Pain, Feelings, Secret

  Hermann Hesse (1974). “Kingsor's Last Summer”

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• I honor most those to whom I show least honor; and where my soul moves with great alacrity, I forget the proper steps of ceremony.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Moving, Self, Soul

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.186, Stanford University Press

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• The State always moves slowly and grudgingly towards any purpose that accrues to society's advantage, but moves rapidly and with alacrity towards one that accrues to its own advantage; nor does it ever move towards social purposes on its own initiative, but only under heavy pressure, while its motion towards anti-social purposes is self-sprung.

  Albert J. Nock

  Moving, Self, Doe

  "Our Enemy, the State" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 51), 1935.

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• I was also surprised by the alacrity and dedication we devote to the damaging exercise of remembering, which after all brings nothing good and serves only to hinder our normal functioning, like those bags of sand athletes tie around their calves for training.

  Juan Gabriel

  Athlete, Exercise, Dedication

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• They smiled in their pains and laughed to scorn those who inflicted torments on them, resigned up their souls with great alacrity, expecting to receive them again.

  Josephus

  Pain, Healing, Past

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• Mrs Thatcher tells us she has given the French President a piece of her mind... not a gift I would receive with alacrity.

  Denis Healey

  Mind, President, Pieces

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• After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus."

  James Boswell

  Philosophy, Science, Feet

  James Boswell (1998). “Life of Johnson”, p.333, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Strange is the vigour in a brave man's soul. The strength of his spirit and his irresistible power, the greatness of his heart and the height of his condition, his mighty confidence and contempt of danger, his true security and repose in himself, his liberty to dare and do what he pleaseth, his alacrity in the midst of fears, his invincible temper, are advantages which make him master of fortune.

  Thomas Traherne

  Heart, Greatness, Men

  "The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne, B.D". Book edited by Bertram Dobell, London: Bertram Dobell, p. LVII, "Christian Ethicks" (1675), 1903.

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• It should be done with the same degree of alacrity and nonchalance that you would display in authorizing a highly intelligent trained bear to remove your appendix.

  Daniel S. Greenberg

  Intelligent, Degrees, Done

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• The poems in Helena Mesa’s virtuosic first book, Horse Dance Underwater, run with such speed, verve, and alacrity they leave you breathless, exhilarated, and transformed as if the purest kind of song had lifted you into the air.  By this quickness of language finding lyric speech, Mesa’s poems remind us of art’s joyous and ecstatic effects.

  Michael Collier

  Running, Song, Art

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• By multiplying the means of gratification, by promoting the introduction and circulation of the precious metals, those darling objects of human avarice and enterprise, it serves to vivify and invigorate the channels of industry, and to make them flow with greater activity and copiousness. The assiduous merchant, the laborious husbandman, the active mechanic, and the industrious manufacturer,-all orders of men, look forward with eager expectation and growing alacrity to this pleasing reward of their toils.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Mean, Men, Order

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.58, Coventry House Publishing

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• Atheists put on false courage and alacrity in the midst of their darkness and apprehensions, like children who, when they fear to go in the dark, will sing for fear.

  Alexander Pope

  Atheist, Children, Dark

  Alexander Pope, Alexander Chalmers (1807). “A Supplementary Volume to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Containing Pieces of Poetry, Not Inserted in Warburton's and Warton's Editions : and a Collection of Letters, Now First Published”, p.119

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• There are, indeed, few merrier spectacles than that of many windmills bickering together in a fresh breeze over a woody country; their halting alacrity of movement, their pleasant business, making bread all day with uncouth gesticulation; their air, gigantically human, as of a creature half alive, put a spirit of romance into the tamest landscape.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Country, Air, Wind

  Robert Louis Stevenson, June Skinner Sawyers (2002). “Dreams of elsewhere: the selected travel writings of Robert Louis Stevenson”, Neil Wilson Pub Ltd

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