Along the electric wires the message came: 'He is no better, he is much the same.'

-Austin, Alfred
  'On the Illness of the Prince of  Wales'. There is some doubt about the authorship of this satiric poem, but it is usually credited to  Austin.

You are no better than you should be.

-Beaumont, Francis and Fletcher,John
  The Coxcomb, act 4, sc.3.

It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, thanwith a brawling woman in a wide house.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs 21:9.

To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

-Book of Common Prayer
Solemnization of Marriage, Betrothal.

Whenyou meet someone better thanyourself, turnyour thoughts to becoming his equal.When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.

-Confucius or K'ung Fu-tse,'The MasterK'ung'
c.479  BC  The Analects.

Tous les jours, a'   tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux. Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.

-Coue¤  , EŁ  mile
  De la suggestion et de ses applications. Maxim recommended by Coue¤   to his patients, to be repeated several times over on rising and on going to bed.

If way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the worst.

-Hardy,Thomas
  'De Profundis'.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: 'Givemea lightthat Imay tread safely intotheunknown.' Hawking And he replied: 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.'

-Haskins, Minnie Louise
  Desert,'God Knows'. Quoted by King George VI, Christmas address, 25 Dec1939.

Better if he had said something natural like,'Jesus, here we are.' SeeArmstrong 30:78.

-Hillary, Sir Edmund Percival
  Criticizing Neil  Armstrong's premeditated words on first stepping onto the moon. Quoted in the Sunday Times.

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  A Dictionary of the English Language, preface.

It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Remark,7  Apr. Quoted in  James Boswell  The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.3.

   Words just say what you want them to; they don't know any better.

-Kennedy, A(lison) L(ouise)
  'The Role of Notable Silences in Scottish History'.

If theTreasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury themat suitable depthsindisusedcoalmineswhich are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again†there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, thereal income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably becomea good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but as there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing.

-Keynes (of Tilton),John Maynard, 1st Baron
  The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

Though I've belted you and flayed you, By the livin'Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am,Gunga Din!

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  'Gunga Din'.

Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor. I see the better things, and approve; I follow the worse.

-Ovid full name Publius OvidiusNaso   4317
Metamorphoses, bk.7, l.20^1 (translated by Peter Green).

Better to use force when you should rather than when you must.

-Shultz, George P(ratt)
  On Soviet alarm at the prospect of US science'turned on' and venturing into the realm of space defence. Turmoil and Triumph.

Who will dare deny that theThird Estate contains within itself all that is needed to constitute a nation?† What would theThird Estate be without theprivileged classes? It would be a whole in itself, and a prosperous one. Nothing can be done without it, and everything would be done far better without the others.

-Sie'  yes
  Qu'est-ce que le tiers-e¤  tat?

The humble people of Cambodia are the most wonderful in the world.Their great misfortune is that theyalwayshaveterrible leaders who makethemsuffer.I am not sure I was much better myself, but perhaps I was the least bad.

-Sihanouk, Prince Norodom
  In an interview withWilliam Shawcross, author of Sideshow (1979).

Perhaps it is God's will to lead the people of South Africa through defeat and humiliation to a better future and a brighter day.

-Smuts,Jan Christian
  Speech at theVereeniging peace talks, 31 May.

It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge intime, toprotest againstchange, particularlychangefor the better.

-Steinbeck,John Ernest
  TravelsWith Charley In Search of America, pt.2.