Mischief Quotes - page 6

An oft-heard description of the Supreme Court is that it is the ultimate protector in our society of the liberties of the individual. This phrase describes an important role of the Supreme Court, but by ignoring other equally important functions of the Court, it has a potential for mischief. (William Rehnquist)
Our opinion is that war to the death should be instantly proclaimed against them. Every machine of every sort should be destroyed by the well-wisher of his species. Let there be no exceptions made, no quarter shown; let us at once go back to the primeval condition of the race. If it be urged that this is impossible under the present condition of human affairs, this at once proves that the mischief is already done, that our servitude has commenced in good earnest, that we have raised a race of beings whom it is beyond our power to destroy and that we are not only enslaved but are absolutely acquiescent in our bondage.
Samuel Butler (novelist)
Well, then, the moment there is a patent case one can see it before the case is opened, or called in the list. How can we see it? We can see it by a pile of books as high as this invariably... Now, what is the result of all this? Why that a man had better have his patent infringed, or have anything happen to him in this world, short of losing all his family by influenza, than have a dispute about a patent. His patent is swallowed up, and he is ruined. Whose fault is it? It is really not the fault of the law; it is the fault of the mode of conducting the law in a patent case. This is what causes all this mischief.
William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher
Oh, those scoundrelly Charity Commissioners! [...] By the side of these anthropoid apes, the genuine bookworm, the paper-eating insect, ravenous as he once was, has done comparatively little mischief.
Augustine Birrell
The distinguishing mark of man is the, the instrument with which he does all his mischief.
George Orwell
At present I shall only give you my Opinion that tho' your Reasonings are subtle, and may prevail with some Readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general Sentiments of Mankind on that Subject, and the Consequence of printing this Piece will be a great deal of Odium drawn upon your self, Mischief to you and no Benefit to others. He that spits against the Wind, spits in his own Face.
Benjamin Franklin
And where is the Prince who can afford to so cover his country with troops for its defense, as that ten thousand men descending from the clouds, might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief, before a force could be brought together to repel them.
Benjamin Franklin
He who has a mind to do mischief will always find a pretense.
Publilius Syrus
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men; which both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public.
Francis Bacon
Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts; put your vision to reality.
Bob Marley
Let not a woman's voice Be loud in council! for the things without, A man must care; let women keep within- Even then is mischief all too probable! (Aeschylus)
See what it is to play unfairWhere cheating is, there's mischief there.
William Blake
No one knows where he who invented the plow was born, nor where he died yet he has done more for humanity than the whole race of heroes who have drenched the earth with blood and whose deeds have been handed down with a precision proportionate only to the mischief they wrought.
Charles Caleb Colton
Only a very base person forgets when he is done some shame or mischief.
Chrétien de Troyes
An evil plan does mischief to the planner.
Hesiod
Once you give an NFL player permission to have thoughts, you invite all kinds of mischief.
Matt Taibbi
It is a giggle full of high spirits and merry mischief, proof that we never lose our girlish selves, no matter what sort of women we become.
Libba Bray
Tequila, scorpion honey, harsh dew of the doglands, essence of Aztec, crema de cacti; tequila, oily and thermal like the sun in solution; tequila, liquid geometry of passion; Tequila, the buzzard God who copulates in midair with the ascending souls of dying virgins; tequila, firebug in the house of good taste; O tequila, savage water of sorcery, what confusion and mischief your sly, rebellious drops do generate!
Tom Robbins
The trickster's function is to break taboos, create mischief, stir things up. In the end, the trickster gives people what they really want, some sort of freedom.
Tom Robbins
[L]aws against Holocaust denial have done more harm than good. On a practical political level, I think that they give very intolerant mischief makers a cheap and easy way to pose as something more exalted than what they actually are, as sort of martyrs of free speech.
Christopher Caldwell
The King of Prussia is innately a bad neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and the sea has never prevented them from doing her great mischief. (Marie Antoinette)
Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.
Christian Nestell Bovee
The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour.
Kenneth Rexroth
It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.
William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper
What care, what wisdom, is of suffisance The stroke of secret mischief to prevent, Unless the Sovereign Guardian from on high Supply the strength of frail Humanity?
Luís de Camões