You ask what is the use of classification, arrangement, systemization? I answer you: order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject-the actual enemy is the unknown.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
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
Order is to arrangement what the soul is to the body, and what mind is to matter.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
When liberty destroys order, the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Routine is a ground to stand on, a wall to retreat to; we cannot draw on our boots without bracing ourselves against it.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
It is best to do things systematically, since we are only humans, and disorder is our worst enemy.
—Hesiod (f.700 BCE) Greek Poet
There is a time and place for everything.
—Common Proverb
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
As order is heavenly, where quiet is had,
So error is hell, or a mischief as bad.
—Thomas Tusser
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
For the world was built in order
Around the atoms march in tune;
Rhyme the pipe, and Time the warder,
The sun obeys them, and the moon.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
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
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
We have art in order not to die of the truth.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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
Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.
—Yehudi Menuhin (1916–99) American-born British Violinist, Conductor
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
Order is a great person’s need and their true well being.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
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
Good order is the foundation of all good things.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
However fiercely opposed one may be to the present order, an old respect for the idea of order itself often prevents people from distinguishing between order and those who stand for order, and leads them in practice to respect individuals under the pretext of respecting order itself.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
Method will teach you to win time.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
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
Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Fretfulness of temper will generally characterize those who are negligent of order.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
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