There seems to be a kind of order in the universe, in the movement of the stars and the turning of the earth and the changing of the seasons, and even in the cycle of human life. But human life itself is almost pure chaos. Everyone takes his stance, asserts his own rights and feelings, mistaking the motives of others, and his own.
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American Short-Story Writer, Novelist
We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Order marches with weighty and measured strides; disorder is always in a hurry.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
There is a time and place for everything.
—Common Proverb
Order is Heaven’s first law; and this confessed, some are, and must be, greater than the rest, more rich, more wise; but who infers from hence that such are happier, shocks all common sense. Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; bliss is the same in subject or in king.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Life refuses to be embalmed alive. The more prolonged the halt in some unrelieved system of order, the greater the crash of the dead society.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
Every great man exhibits the talent of organization or construction, whether it be in a poem, a philosophical system, a policy, or a strategy. And without method there is no organization nor construction.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The order of the world is always right—such is the judgment of God. For God has departed, but he has left his judgment behind, the way the Cheshire Cat left his grin.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Fretfulness of temper will generally characterize those who are negligent of order.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state.—As the beams to a house, as the bones to the body, so is order to all things.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Good order is the foundation of all good things.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Order means light and peace, inward liberty and free command over one’s self; order is power.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Method will teach you to win time.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
We have art in order not to die of the truth.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
A place for everything, everything in its place.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
The less of routine, the more of life.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.
—Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) Canadian Urbanologist, Author
There are persons who are never easy unless they are putting your books and papers in order—that is according to their notions of the matter—and hiding things, lest they should be lost, where neither the owner nor anybody else can find them. If anything is left where you want it, it is called litter. There is a pedantry in housewifery, as well as in the gravest concerns. One complained that whenever his maid-servant had been in his library, he could not get comfortably to work again, for several days.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
When liberty destroys order, the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Order is power.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
His vocation was orderliness, which is the basis of creation. Accordingly, when a letter came, he would turn it over in his hands for a long time, gazing at it meditatively; then he would put it away in a file without opening it, because everything had its own time.
—Salvatore Satta (1902–75) Italian Jurist, Novelist
The highest order of mind is accused of folly, as well as the lowest. Nothing is thoroughly approved but mediocrity. The majority has established this, and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
There is no course of life so weak and Scottish as that which is ordered by orders, method, and discipline.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre, observe degree, priority and place, insisture, course, proportion, season, form, office, and custom, in all line of order.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
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