Who Said It? · Memorable Quotes

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.

One of the sublimest things in the world is plain truth.

He who esteems trifles for themselves is a trifler; he who esteems them for the conclusions to be drawn from them, or the advantage to which they can be put, is a philosopher.

A life of pleasure makes even the strongest mind frivolous at last.

Refuse to be ill. Never tell people you are ill; never own it to yourself. Illness is one of those things which a man should resist on principle.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton - Richelieu
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.

Art and science have their meeting point in method.

Every man who observes vigilantly, and resolves steadfastly, grows unconsciously into genius.

"Know thyself," said the old philosopher, "improve thyself," saith the new. Our great object in time is not to waste our passions and gifts on the things external that we must leave behind, but that we cultivate within us all that we can carry into the eternal progress beyond.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton - Paul Clifford
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

What a mistake to suppose that the passions are strongest in youth! The passions are not stronger, but the control over them is weaker! They are more easily excited, they are more violent and apparent; but they have less energy, less durability, less intense and concentrated power than in the maturer life.

When people have no other tyrant, their own public opinion becomes one.

Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.

The same refinement which brings us new pleasures, exposes us to new pains.

- Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad.
Christina Rossetti - A Christmas Carol
In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.

Silence is more musical than any song.

- Christina Rossetti

We ust find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot - Romola
Our deeds are like children that are born to us;they live and act apart from our own will.

What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other?

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact.

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
George Eliot - Scenes of Clerical Life - Amos Barton
Every man who is not a monster, mathematician or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.
George Eliot - Middlemarch, Ch 8
But pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty.

It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness such as goes along with being a great man, by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves.
George Eliot - Middlemarch
Some people did what their neighbors did so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.
George Eliot - 1819-1880
It is never too late to become what we might have been.

When one is grateful for something too good for common thanks, writing is less unsatisfactory than speech-one does not, at least, hear how inadequate the words are.
George Eliot - The Mill On The Floss, Ch 9
Childhood has no forebodings, but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.

There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.

Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.

It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.

Wear a smile and have friends,
wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss, 1860
There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.
George Eliot - "Middlemarch", Book I, ch.1
Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.
George Eliot - a.k.a. Mary Ann Evans
Excessive literary production is a social offense.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

Can any man or woman choose duties? No more that they can choose their birthplace, or their father or mother.
George Eliot - Silas Marner (1861)
Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
George Eliot - Middlemarch
The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
George Eliot - internet
No evil dooms us hopelessly, except the evil we love, and desire to continue in and make no effort to escape from.
George Eliot - Romola, 1863
Our deeds are like children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our own will. Nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never: they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness.
George Eliot - Middlemarch
What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.
George Eliot - Felix Holt, the Radical, 1866
The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

- George Eliot

What we say and what we do ultimately comes back to us so let us own our responsibility, place it in our hands, and carry it with dignity and strength.

- Gloria Anzaldua

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.
Quintus Septimius Tertullianus - De Carne Christi
Out of the frying pan into the fire.

- Quintus Septimius Tertullianus - Adversus Valentinianos

It is not so important to know everything as to know the exact value of everything, to appreciate what we learn, and to arrange what we know.

Genius without religion is only a lamp on the outer gate of a palace; it may serve to cast a gleam on those that are without while the inhabitant sits in darkness.

One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act.

One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire help to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act.
Hannah More - 1775
Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

- Hannah More

Imitation is suicide.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch of a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Self-Reliance", 1841
Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims (Quotation and Originality)
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "American Civilization", The Atlantic Monthly, 1862
Hitch your wagon to a star.

What a new face courage puts on everything.

Science does not know its debt to imagination. Goethe did not believe that a great naturalist could exist without this faculty.

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

As we grow old?the beauty steals inward.

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Nature"
The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eyes and the heart of the child.

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the Stern Fact, the Sad Self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting the best property of all -- friends?

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he know that every day is Doomsday.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Conduct of Life
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

My evening visitors, if they cannot see the clock, should find the time in my face.

Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.

The peril of every fine faculty is the delight of playing with it for pride. Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief. Talent is mistaken for genius, a dogma or system for truth, ambition for greatest, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art.

There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love.

A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacles and opposition will but make us "like the fabled specter-ships," which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind.

Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Natural History of Intellect (1893)
The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Essay: Nature
To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone.

Insist on yourself; never imitate... Every great man is unique.

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power.

Nature hates calculators.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Society and Solitude: Works and Days, 1870
A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life; he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

Sooner of later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain to the song.

If eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; some men even to delight. This love of beauty is taste. Others have the same love in such success that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms. The creation of beauty is art.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Address on The Method of Nature, 1841
He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely...

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self Reliance (essay)
...the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness, the independence of solitude.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

I hate quotations.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

You must pay for conformity. All goes well as long as you run with conformists. But you, who are honest men in other particulars, know that there is alive somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the day when you meet him, you sink into the class of counterfeits.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Method of Nature (1841)
Talent finds its models, methods, and ends in society, exists for exhibition, and goes to the soul only for power to work. Genius is its own end, and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within.

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.

Take egotism out and you would castrate the benefactors.

We are prisoners of ideas.

Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "The Rhodora"
If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.

The greatest homage we can pay truth is to use it.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Who so would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - quoting a friend
Being perfectly well-dressed gives a feeling of tranquility that religion is powerless to bestow.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Common sense is as rare as genius.

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel.

A friend might well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.

The imbecility of men is always inviting the impudence of power.

Sooner of later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain to the song.

There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room for many.

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

We are students of words; we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing

Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.

Give all to love; obey thy heart.

Whoever is open, loyal, true; of humane and affable demeanour; honourable himself, and in his judgement of others; faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man....such a man is a true gentleman.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show for any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well -- he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.

The less government we have the better.

So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

I see her not dispirited, not weak, but well, remembering that she has seen dark times before, indeed with a kind of instinct that she sees a little better in a cloudy day.

What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves. Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find.

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Society and Solitude (1870)
As soon as there is life there is danger.

We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

Always do what you are afraid to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: Quotation and Originality, 1876
In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - (attributed)
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples.

Before we acquire great power, we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves.

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invated by worry, fret and anxiety.

To know one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

The only gift is a portion of thyself.

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

What you are shouts so loud in my ears I cannot hear what you say.

I hate quotations.

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

The more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Journals, 1839
The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence.

Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any.

A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.

The first wealth is health.

Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success.

Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - An Essay on Self-Reliance
To be great is to be misunderstood.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - New England Reformers, 1844
Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner.

The glory of friendship is not the outstreched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.

Here is the world, sound as a nut, perfect, not the smallest piece of chaos left, never a stitch nor an end, not a mark of haste, or botching, or second thought; but the theory of the world is a thing of shreds and patches.

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.

What a searching preacher of self-command is the varying phenomenon of health.

A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.

Self-trust is the essence of heroism

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Society and Solitude
The true test of a civilization is not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops?no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

There is nothing capricious in nature and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feel it.

The reward for a thing well done is to have done it.

A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Journal (May 1849)
Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: Progress of Culture, 1876
Every artist was first an amateur.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self Reliance
Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence, whether a man be behind it or no.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

The world belongs to the energetic.

There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant.

The people are to be taken in very small doses.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experience.

Ideas must work through the brains and arms of men, or they are no better than dreams.

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

We become what we think about all day long.

Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions.

People wish to be settled. It is only as far as they are unsettled that there is any hope for them.

Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him.

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

When you strike at a king, you must kill him.

Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.

For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary.

If a man knows the law, find out, though he live in a pine shanty, and resort to him. And if a man can pipe or sing, so as to wrap the imprisoned soul in an elysium; or can paint a landscape, and convey into souls and ochres all the enchantments of Spring or Autumn; or can liberate and intoxicate all people who hear him with delicious songs and verses; it is certain that the secret cannot be kept; the first witness tells it to a second, and men go by fives and tens and fifties to his doors.

The faith that stand on authority is not faith.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.

A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self-control is the rule.

Nothing, at last, is sacred; but the integrity of your own mind.

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors.

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be performed, at the same time that one is giving loud pledges of performance. The balking of the intellect, is comedy and it announces itself in the pleasant spasms we call laughter.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

Children are all foreigners.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Essays, First Series: Prudence, 1841
Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others with out getting a few drops on yourself.

Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.

Work is victory.

The next thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance.

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

I look on that man as happy, who, when there is question of success, looks into his work for a reply.

A friend might well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air?

He is great who confers the most benefits.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

What omniscience has music! So absolutely impersonal, yet every sufferer feels his secret sorrow soothed.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Journals, 1824
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.

Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass.

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity.

Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.
Robertson Davies - "The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks"
To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.

Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman. The right sort of woman can distinguish between Creative Lassitude and plain shiftlessness.

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.

The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness, and seem to find refreshment in doing so... That is a dark frivolity, but still frivolity.

Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them.
Robertson Davies - "A Voice from the Attic", 1960
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.
Robertson Davies - The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947
I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind... At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme, I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy, and wise in spite of themselves.
Robertson Davies - "Fifth Business"
He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities.

- Robertson Davies

Nevertheless the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.

. . . .When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer - say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep - it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best, and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them...

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

- Joesph Conrad - "Carnival of Wit"

A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.
Chuck Palahniuk
Which is worse: Hell or nothing?

This is why I loved the support groups so much. If people thought you were dying, they gave you their full attention. If this might be the last time they saw you, they really saw you? People listened instead of just waiting for their turn to speak. And when they spoke, they weren?t telling you a story. When the two of you talked, you were building something, and afterward you were both different than before.
Chuck Palahniuk
Someone bent on suicide won?t have much sense of humour left.
Chuck Palahniuk
People don?t want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.

- Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club

Wisdom comes with winters.

- Oscar Wildedmissions literature at Colby College.

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.

I am treating you as my friend asking you share my present minuses in the hope I can ask you to share my future pluses.

The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.

By health I mean the power to live a full, adult, living, breathing life in close contact with... the earth and the wonders thereof - the sea - the sun.

- Katherine Mansfield

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions
1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five
How nice--to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.
Kurt Vonnegut
Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
Kurt Vonnegut - Cold Turkey
Here?s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.
Kurt Vonnegut - slaughterhouse 5
Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.
Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions
The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were.
Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.
Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions
New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.
Kurt Vonnegut - Interview, Mcsweeneys.net
Well, the telling of jokes is an art of its own, and it always rises from some emotional threat. The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful.
Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
If you would be unloved and forgotten, be reasonable.
Kurt Vonnegut
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
Kurt Vonnegut - "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don?t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
Kurt Vonnegut - Timequake, 1997
I am eternally grateful.. for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.
Kurt Vonnegut - "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004
Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.
Kurt Vonnegut
We are what we pretend to be, but we better be very careful what we pretend.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
Kurt Vonnegut - "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004
One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.
Kurt Vonnegut - Hocus Pocus
During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American footsoldiers. Not one of them, however, had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice.
Kurt Vonnegut
Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.
Kurt Vonnegut - Hocus Pocus
Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
Kurt Vonnegut - Jr.
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughter-House 5
You know what I say to people when I hear they?re writing an anti-war book?? I say, "why don?t you write an anti-glacier book instead?"
What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that, too.
Kurt Vonnegut
I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.
Kurt Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan
A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.

- Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night

For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that you use it so little.

- Rachel Carson

Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre but they are more deadly in the long run.

I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.

I have spent most of my time worrying about thigs that have never happened.
Mark Twain - Greatly Exaggerated
The best coffee in Europe is Vienna coffee, compared to which all other coffee is fluid poverty.

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.
Mark Twain - Following the Equator (1897)
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.

Sacred cows make the best hamburgers.

I have never examined the subject of humor until now. I am surprised to find how much ground it covers. I have got its divisions and frontiers down on a piece of paper. I find it defined as a production of the brain, as the power of the brain to produce something humorous, and the capacity of percieving humor.

It is noble to teach oneself, it is still nobler to teach others.
Mark Twain - What Is Man? (1906)
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

Those who say truth is stranger than fiction have wasted their time on poorly written fiction.
Mark Twain - "A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling"
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g
j" anomali wonse and for all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud
hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Mark Twain - The Gorky Incident
Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

I am prepared to meet anyone, but whether anyone is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.

There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

"When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.
Mark Twain - Notebook, 1935
The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.
Mark Twain - Notebooks (1935)
What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

Get your facts first and then you can distort them as much as you wish.

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.

It could probably be show by facts and figures that there is no distinctively native American criminal class except Congress.

I was born modest. Not all over, but in spots.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

There ought to be a room in every house to swear in.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time.
Mark Twain - Following the Equator (1897)
It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you.

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

Golf is a good walk spoiled.
Mark Twain - Following the Equator (1897)
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him until he emerges on the other side of his atlantic with his verb in his mouth.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Great people are those who make others feel that they, too, can become great.
Mark Twain - The Mysterious Stranger, chapter 10 (1916)
[Humanity] has unquestionably one really effective weapon?laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution?these can lift at a colossal humbug?push it a little?weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.

How come we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.
Mark Twain - in Christian Science
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

Of the delights of this world man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.
Mark Twain - Speech in NYC, Jan. 22, 1906
The idea that no gentleman ever swears is all wrong; he can swear and still be a gentleman if he does it in a nice and benevolent and affectionate way.
Mark Twain - Following the Equator
A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.

Fleas can be taught nearly anything a congressman can.
Mark Twain - "Advice to Youth" Speech, 1882
If a person offend you and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures. Simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick.

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.

Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.

I never could tell a lie that anybody would doubt, nor a truth that anybody would believe.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible.
Mark Twain - The Mysterious Stranger, Chapter IX
[Mankind] is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong, but no matter, the crowd follows it.

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

If we had less statemanship we could get along with fewer battleships.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

I can live two months on a good compliment.

This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
Mark Twain - Notebooks (1935)
Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be led by the nose.
Mark Twain - inscription beneath his bust in the Hall of Fame
Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill always came together, who would escape hanging?

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds upon the heel that crushes it.

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

A patriot is mocked, scorned and hated; yet when his cause succeeds, all men will join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

George Washington as a boy was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth - he could not even lie.

Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principle one was that they escaped teething.
Mark Twain - (attributed)
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
Mark Twain - A Curious Dream (1872)
Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.

The holy passion of Friendship is so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.

Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
Mark Twain - The Mysterious Stranger
Are you so unobservant that you do not yet realize that sanity and hapiness are an impossible combination?

So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.

Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of.

In our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.

Golf is a good walk spoiled.
Mark Twain - Notebook, 1935
The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.

All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"--a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

Providence protects children and idiots. I know because I have tested it.

Carlyle said, "A lie cannot live"; it shows he did not know how to tell them.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.

In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.
Mark Twain - quoted in Mark Twain and I, Opie Read, 1940
Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we have expressed them to someone else.

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

In Marseilles they make half the toilet soap we consume in America, but the Marseillaise only have a vague theoretical idea of its use, which they have obtained from books of travel.

Never tell the truth to those unworthy of it....
Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.
Mark Twain - Following the Equator
The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession, what there is of it.

When in doubt, tell the truth.
Mark Twain - Speech in New York, Nov. 20, 1900
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
Mark Twain - Notebooks (1935)
Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.

Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

I did it partly because it was worth it, but mostly because I shall never have to do it again.

There are times when one would like to end the whole human race, and finish the farce.

Somewhere between the Angels and the French lies the rest of humanity.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Virtue has never been as respectable as money.

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.

Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
Mark Twain - Wearing White Clothes speech, 1907
I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts.

It has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake.

Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to bring the news to you.

We are always too busy for our children; we never give them the time or interest they deserve. We lavish gifts upon them; but the most precious gift, our personal association, which means so much to them, we give grudgingly.

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be - a Christian.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards
Mark Twain - Mark Twain In Eruption
Sane and intelligent human beings are like all other human beings, and carefully and cautiously and diligently conceal their private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general consumption.

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself.

There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift men to angelship.

Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

When you cannot get a compliment any other way pay yourself one.

I admire the serene assurance of those who have religious faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it--and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit on a hot stove lid again--and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
Mark Twain - "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Chapter 2
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
Mark Twain - The Diaries of Adam and Eve
How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it.

A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

"Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.

Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.

Man is the only animal that blushes -- or needs to.

I did not attend his funeral, but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved it.

At the beginning of a great national change, the patriot is a scarce man: scorned, ridiculed and forgotten. When his cause succeeds, however, all men will join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Mark Twain - "Is Shakespeare Dead?"
I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.

Golf is a good walk, ruined.

I never write Metropolis for seven cents because I can get the same price for city. I never write policeman because I can get the same money for cop.

We all have thoughts that would shame the devil.

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board

Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence -- and then success is sure.

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Adam, the first great benefactor of the human race: he brought death into the world.

Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.
Mark Twain - New York Journal, June 2, 1897
The report of my death was an exaggeration.
Mark Twain - Following the Equator (1897)
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

"One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than on all other days of the year put together. This proves, by the numbers left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.

We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
Mark Twain - What Is Man? (1906)
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

[He was] a solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity.

When I was fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have him around. When I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man.

Those that respect the law and love sausage should watch neither being made.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Mark Twain - Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.

October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. Others are July, January, April, September, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. (Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.)

- Mark Twain

Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shore, the scar of our racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. Our children are still taught to respect the violence which reduced a red-skinned people of an earlier culture into a few fragmented groups herded into impoverished reservations.

- John Kennedy - Autobiography of malcolm x

There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.

In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.

A better world shall emerge based on faith and understanding.
General Douglas MacArthur - His final address to the joint session of the congress
My soldiers ask of me, why surrender a military advantage in the field ... I could not answer.

Americans never quit.

There is no substitute for victory.

In war there is no substitute for victory.

There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.

There is no substitute for victory.

On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.

- General Douglas MacArthur

There is a fullness of all things, even of sleep and love.
Homer - The Odyssey
The gods, likening themselves to all kinds of strangers, go in various disguises from city to city, observing the wrongdoing and the righteousness of men.

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.
Homer - The Odyssey
Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. For fleeting dreams have two gates: one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those which pass through the one of sawn ivory are deceptive, bringing tidings which come to nought, but those which issue from the one of polished horn bring true results when a mortal sees them.

It is entirely seemly for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair. But when dogs shame the gray head and gray chin and nakedness of an old man killed, it is the most piteous thing that happens among wretched mortals.
Homer
Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than war.
Homer - The Odyssey
All men have need of the gods.

You will certainly not be able to take the lead in all things yourself, for to one man a god has given deeds of war, and to another the dance, to another lyre and song, and in another wide-sounding Zeus puts a good mind.
Homer - The Odyssey
There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.
Homer - The Odyssey
It is tedious to tell again tales already plainly told.
Homer - The Odyssey
For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers.
Homer - The Odyssey
A small rock holds back a great wave.

He lives not long who battles with the immortals, nor do his children prattle about his knees when he has come back from battle and the dread fray.
Homer
I detest that man who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks for another.
Homer - The Odyssey
Look now how mortals are blaming the gods, for they say that evils come from us, but in fact they themselves have woes beyond their share because of their own follies.
Homer - The Odyssey
Among all men on the earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards.

He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.

It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country.

Miserable mortals who, like leaves, at one moment flame with life, eating the produce of the land, and at another moment weakly perish.
Homer
Do thou restrain the haughty spirit in thy breast, for better far is gentle courtesy.

Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive than are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help.
Homer
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
Homer - The Odyssey
You ought not to practice childish ways, since you are no longer that age.
Homer - The Odyssey
Evil deeds do not prosper; the slow man catches up with the swift.

It was built against the will of the immortal gods, and so it did not last for long.
Homer - The Odyssey
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.
Homer - The Odyssey
May the gods grant you all things which your heart desires, and may they give you a husband and a home and gracious concord, for there is nothing greater and better than this -when a husband and wife keep a household in oneness of mind, a great woe to their enemies and joy to their friends, and win high renown.
Homer - The Odyssey
The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken.

If you are very valiant, it is a god, I think, who gave you this gift.

I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.

Even when someone battles hard, there is an equal portion for one who lingers behind, and in the same honor are held both the coward and the brave man; the idle man and he who has done much meet death alike.

A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

The fates have given mankind a patient soul.

Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen.
Homer - The Odyssey
All strangers and beggars are from Zeus, and a gift, though small, is precious.
Homer - The Odyssey
By their own follies they perished, the fools.

There is a strength in the union even of very sorry men.

Thus have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals: that they live in grief while they themselves are without cares; for two jars stand on the floor of Zeus of the gifts which he gives, one of evils and another of blessings.

A councilor ought not to sleep the whole night through, a man to whom the populace is entrusted, and who has many responsibilities.

Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it.

The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.

It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.
Homer - The Odyssey
We are quick to flare up, we races of men on the earth.
Homer - The Odyssey
It is equally wrong to speed a guest who does not want to go, and to keep one back who is eager. You ought to make welcome the present guest, and send forth the one who wishes to go.

The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside.
Homer - The Odyssey
Nothing feebler than a man does the earth raise up, of all the things which breathe and move on the earth, for he believes that he will never suffer evil in the future, as long as the gods give him success and he flourishes in his strength; but when the blessed gods bring sorrows too to pass, even these he bears, against his will, with steadfast spirit, for the thoughts of earthly men are like the day which the father of gods and men brings upon them.
Homer
It is equally offensive to speed a guest who would like to stay and to detain one who is anxious to leave.
Homer - The Odyssey
So it is that the gods do not give all men gifts of grace - neither good looks nor intelligence nor eloquence.
Homer - The Odyssey
The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly.
Homer - The Illiad
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.
Homer - The Odyssey
A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.

A generation of men is like a generation of leaves; the wind scatters some leaves upon the ground, while others the burgeoning wood brings forth - and the season of spring comes on. So of men one generation springs forth and another ceases.

- Homer - The Iliad

In England there are sixty different religions and only one sauce.

- Francesco Caracciolo - on alcohol

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.

Trifles go to make perfection,
And perfection is no trifle.

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.

- Michelangelo Buonarroti

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
The best [man] is like water.
Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them.
It dwells in [lowly] places that all disdain.
This is why it is so near to Tao.

The softest things in the world to overcome the hardest things in the world.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
The Way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure.
The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
Lao-Tzu - Tao Te Ching
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
To have little is to possess.
To have plenty is to be perplexed.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
To know that you do not know is the best.
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
When armies are mobilized and issues are joined,
The man who is sorry over the fact will win.

A good manager is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him.

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

The good man is the teacher of the bad,
And the bad is the material from which the good may learn.
He who does not value the teacher,
Or greatly care for the material,
Is greatly deluded although he may be learned.
Such is the essential mystery.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty,
There arises the recognition of ugliness.
When they all know the good as good,
There arises the recognition of evil.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
When the highest type of men hear Tao,
They diligently practice it.
When the average type of men hear Tao,
They half believe in it.
When the lowest type of men hear Tao,
They laugh heartily at it.
Without the laugh, there is no Tao.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
He who knows does not speak.
He who speaks does not know.

Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.
There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
And there is not greater disaster than greed.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
To be worn out is to be renewed.

Conquering others takes force, conquering yourself is true strength.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
The more laws and order are made prominent,
The more thieves and robbers there will be.

Arms are instruments of ill omen. . . . When one is compelled to use them, it is best to do so without relish. There is no glory in victory, and to glorify it despite this is to exult in the killing of men. . . . When great numbers of people are killed, one should weep over them with sorrow. When victorious in war, one should observe mourning rites.
Lao-Tzu - Tao te Ching
Learning builds daily accumulation, but the prictice of Tao builds daily simplification. Simplify and simplify, until all contamination from relative, contridictory thinking is eliminated. Then one does nothing, yet nothing is left undone. One who wins the world does so by not meddling with it. One who meddles with the world loses it.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.
Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
He who knows others is wise;
He who know himself is enlightened.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The journey of a thousand leagues begins from beneath your feet.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire.
Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu
I have three treasures. Guard and keep them:
The first is deep love,
The second is frugality,
And the third is not to dare to be ahead of the world.
Because of deep love, one is courageous.
Because of frugality, one is generous.
Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes the leader of the world.

- Lao-Tzu

If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.

If a man withdraws his mind from the love of beauty, and applies it as sincerely to the love of the virtuous; if, in serving his parents, he can exert his utmost strength; if, in serving his prince, he can devote his life; if in his intercourse with his friends, his words are sincere - although men say that he has not learned, I will certainly say that he has.
Confucius
Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
Confucius
He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue...[They are] gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.

Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.
Confucius
The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
Confucius
The superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions.
Confucius
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Confucius
He who merely knows right principles is not equal to him who loves them.
Confucius - nalects, IV.11
While the gentleman cherishes benign rule, the small man cherishes his native land. While the gentleman cherishes a respect for the law, the small man cherishes generous treatment.
Confucius
Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.
Confucius - Analects
They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

[The superior man] acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.
Confucius
He who will not economize will have to agonize.
Confucius
To govern is to correct. If you set an example by being correct, who would dare remain incorrect?

The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.

Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue.

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits [of the dead]?...While you do not know life, how can you know about death?

What the superior man seeks is in himself. What the mean man seeks is in others.
Confucius
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius
Study the past if you would define the future.
Confucius - Analects, IV.7
In his errors a man is true to type. Observe the errors and you will know the man.
Confucius
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Things that are done, it is needless to speak about...things that are past, it is needless to blame.
Confucius
The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

The superior man...does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow.
Confucius
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
Confucius
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
Confucius
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
Confucius
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
Confucius
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.
Confucius
When anger rises, think of the consequences.

He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.
Confucius - The Confucian Analects, bk. 11:11
While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits [of the dead]?...While you do not know life, how can you know about death?

There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth...lust. When he is strong...quarrelsomeness. When he is old...covetousness.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
Confucius
When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

I have not seen a person who loved virtue, or one who hated what was not virtuous. He who loved virtue would esteem nothing above it.

The cautious seldom err.
Confucius
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.

When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.
Confucius
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
Confucius
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.
Confucius
The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.
Confucius - Analects
A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do you know that his future will not be equal to our present?
Confucius
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius - Analects
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.

Have no friends not equal to yourself.
Confucius
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.
Confucius - Analects, XV.24
Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed.
Confucius
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow - I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.
Confucius
The superior man is modest in his speech, but excels in his actions.

The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.

The superior man cannot be known in little matters, but he may be entrusted with great concerns. The small man may not be entrusted with great concerns, but he may be known in little matters.
Confucius
It is not possible for one to teach others who cannot teach his own family.
Confucius - Analects, XIV.12
If a man remembers what is right at the sign of profit, is ready to lay down his life in the face of danger, and does not forget sentiments he has repeated all his life when he has been in straitened circumstances for a long time, he may be said to be a complete man.
Confucius
If a man take no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand
Confucius
If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.
Confucius
It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

The man who in view of gain thinks of righteousness; who in the view of danger is prepared to give up his life; and who does not forget an old agreement however far back it extends - such a man may be reckoned a complete man.
Confucius - Roots of Wisdom 4th edition
Humankind differs from the animals only by a little, and most people throw that away.

The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.
Confucius - Analects, IV.3
It is only the benevolent man who is capable of liking or disliking other men.

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
Confucius
Do not be desirous of having things done quickly. Do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand.
Confucius
I hear and I forget.
I see and I believe.
I do and I understand.
Confucius
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius
Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.

- Confucius - The Confucian Analects

I sing all kinds.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

Take care of the fans and they will sure as hell take care of you.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

Man, I was tame compared to what they do now, are you kidding ? All that I ever did was just jiggle.

- Elvis Presley

In this world no one rules by love; if you are but amiable, you are no hero; to be powerful, you must be strong, and to have dominion you must have a genius for organizing.

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.

- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Here stand I. I can do no other.

Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
Martin Luther - in front of his inquisitors at the Diet of Worms.
I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

At night always carry in your heart something from Holy Scriptures to bed with you, meditate upon it like a ruminant animal, and go softly to sleep; but this must not be too much, rather a little that may be well pondered and understood, that you may find a remnant of it in your mind when you rise in the morning.

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

It is pleasing to God whenever you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.

- Martin Luther

Science ... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.

Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-respect are the qualities which make a real gentleman or lady.

- Thomas Huxley

Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?

- Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen)

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt - 1916 (quoted in the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial CD-ROM)
Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent, experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it, if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

While my interest in natural history has added very little to my sum of achievement, it has added immeasurably to my sum of enjoyment in life.

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
Theodore Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt, an autobiography
Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.
Theodore Roosevelt - Speech in Chicago, 3 Apr. 1903
There is a homely old adage which runs: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.
Theodore Roosevelt - "Man in the Arena" Speech given April 23, 1910
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic, is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

When I say I believe in a square deal i do not mean ... to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again. Because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, he who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat".

The great virtue of my radicalism lies in the fact that I am perfectly ready, if necessary, to be radical on the conservative side.
Theodore Roosevelt - last words, 6 January 1919
Put out the light.

Do what you can with what you have where you are.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic, is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.
Theodore Roosevelt - The Man in the Arena
Far better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
Theodore Roosevelt - Labor Day speech at Syracuse, NY, Sept 7, 1903 ("Theodore Rex" - Edmund Morris)
The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt - Speech in New York, September 7, 1903
Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Do what you can with what you have, where you are.

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.

Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography
Practical efficiency is common, and lofty idealism not uncommon; it is the combination which is necessary, and the combination is rare
Theodore Roosevelt - Paris, Sorbonne 1910
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not Guilty."

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt - sign posted at his grave site
Spend and be spent.

- Theodore Roosevelt

Truth is so difficult to find that, when one hears it, it shines through.

Even the longest hours come to an end.
Jose Raul Bernardo - Silent Wing (Simon & Schuster, 1998)
When you tell the truth, people listen.
Jose Raul Bernardo - Silent Wing (Simon & Schuster, 1998)
Souls woven together by the gods can never be unraveled.
Jose Raul Bernardo - The Wise Women of Havana (HarperCollins, 2002)
Metaphors are the weapons of cowards.
Jose Raul Bernardo - The Wise Women of Havana (HarperCollins, 2002)
Happiness is a way of praying.
Jose Raul Bernardo - The Secret of the Bulls (Simon & Schuster, 1996
Art does not imitate life. Art is much more powerful than that. Art brings life back. And it does it by exposing the secrets we all carry inside.
Jose Raul Bernardo - The Wise Women of Havana (HarperCollins, 2002)
Happiness cannot be found--it must be created anew everyday.
Jose Raul Bernardo - Silent Wing (Simon & Schuster, 1998)
When honor and truth are at odds, let truth prevail.

- Jose Raul Bernardo - Silent Wing (Simon & Schuster, 1998) One of the Best Novels of 1998 (LA Times)

If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow.

Quality is the result of a carefully constructed cultural environment. It has to be the fabric of the organization, not part of the fabric.

Quality has to be caused, not controlled.

Selecting the right person for the right job is the largest part of coaching.

Successful people breed success.

You have to lead people gently toward what they already know is right.

Change should be a friend. It should happen by plan, not by accident.

Quality has to be caused, not controlled.

In a true zero-defects approach, there are no unimportant items.

You have to lead people gently toward what they already know is right.

Very few of the great leaders ever get through their careers without failing, sometimes dramatically.

Just being honest is not enough. The essential ingredient is executive integrity.

Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not.

Eliminating what is not wanted or needed is profitable in itself.

The great discoveries are usually obvious.

Being convinced one knows the whole story is the surest way to fail.

We can spend our whole lives underachieving.

Slowness to change usually means fear of the new.

- Philip Crosby - Reflections on Quality

Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when wrong to be put right.

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.

If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.

Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.

- Carl Schurz

An apprentice carpenter may want only a hammer and saw, but a master craftsman employs many precision tools. Computer programming likewise requires sophisticated tools to cope with the complexity of real applications, and only practice with these tools will build skill in their use.

- Robert L. Kruse - Data Structures and Program Design

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
Oliver Wendell Holmes - "The Poet at the Breakfast-Table", 1872
Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.

There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors with no aim beyond their facts are one-story men. Two-story men compare reason and generalize, using labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, and predict. Their best illuminations come from above through the skylight.

Beat a man with the strength of you argument, not with the strength of your arm.

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtaxed.

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.
Oliver Wendell Holmes - The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858
A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.

Between two groups of men that want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds I see no remedy except force... It seems to me that every society rests on the death of men.

Death tugs at my ear and says: "Live, I am coming."

The life of the law has not been logic but experience.

When I think of talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness, and where will you find this but in a woman?

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.

To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.

Every pursuit is great when greatly pursued.

Civilization is the process of reducing the infinite to the finite.

The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.

Greatness is not in were we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind, and somtimes agaisnt it - but sail we must. And not drift, nor lie at anchor.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it.

- Dudley Moore

Opinion has a significance proportioned to the sources that sustain it.

Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.

- Benjamin Cardozo

To really enjoy the better things in life, one must have first experienced the things they are better than.

- Oscar Homolka

Fettucine Alfredo is just Macaroni and cheese for adults

- Mitch Hedburg

I was working in a parking lot, which is a great place to learn the guitar. I sat in the booth and practiced all day long. And only two cars were stolen while I worked there.

- John Flansburgh

Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything.

Thus, be it understood, to demonstrate a theorem, it is neither necessary nor even advantageous to know what it means....[A] machine might be imagined where the assumptions were put in at one end, while the theorems came out at the other, like the legendary Chicago machine where the pigs go in alive and come out transformed into hams and sausages. No more than these machines need the mathematician know what he does.

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.

- Henri Poincare

People drain me, even the closest of friends, and I find loneliness to be the best state in the union to live in.
Margaret Cho
The first thing you lose on a diet is brain mass.
Margaret Cho - weblog, 01-27-04
Ugly. Is irrelevant. It is an immeasurable insult to a woman, and then supposedly the worst crime you can commit as a woman. But ugly, as beautiful, is an illusion.

I love drugs, but I hate hangovers, and the hatred of the hangover wins by a landslide every time.
Margaret Cho - weblog, 01-15-04
Love is the big booming beat which covers up the noise of hate.
Margaret Cho - weblog, 03-03-04
Maybe I wanted to hear it so badly that my ears betrayed my mind in order to secure my heart.
Margaret Cho - weblog, 01-18-04
Politics has less to do with where you live than where your heart is.
Margaret Cho - Margaret Cho Blog, 09-26-05
When people think the world of you, be careful with them.
Margaret Cho - weblog, 05-04-04
Some people are that - more than a parent, more than a role model, more than anything less than a religion.
Margaret Cho - weblog, 01-27-04
Thankfully, beauty is easier to remove than apply, and a swipe of demaquillage in the right direction and you are you once again.
Margaret Cho - weblog, 03-11-04
Try to love someone who you want to hate, because they are just like you, somewhere inside, in a way you may never expect, in a way that resounds so deeply within you that you cannot believe it.

- Margaret Cho - weblog, 10-30-03

Whatever their other contributions to our society, lawyers could be an important source of protein.

- Guindon cartoon caption

Talk of nothing but business, and dispatch that business quickly.

- Aldus Manutius - Placard on the door of the Aldine Press

A satirist is a man who discovers unpleasant things about himself and then says them about other people.

Some people have so much respect for their superiors they have none left for themselves.

- Peter McArthur

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

- Sandra Carey

Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.

- Carole Burnett

The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
Henry Ward Beecher - last words
Now comes the mystery.

Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.

Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep burning, unquenchable.

You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door.

We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning.

Our days are a kaleidoscope. Every instant a change takes place in the contents. New harmonies, new contrasts, new combinations of every sort. Nothing ever happens twice alike. The most familiar people stand each moment in some new relation to each other, to their work, to surrounding objects. The most tranquil house, with the most serene inhabitants, living upon the utmost regularity of system, is yet exemplifying infinite diversities.

Troubles are often the tools God fashions us for better things.

Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.

I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest who complained of bad luck.

Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable.

The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a "but".

Besides anarchy, the worst thing in this world is government.

Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years.
Henry Ward Beecher - Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.

Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry.

The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is a human owl, vigilant in darkness, and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice.
Henry Ward Beecher - last words, 8 March 1887.
Now comes the mystery.
Henry Ward Beecher - "Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit", 1887
The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.

It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship.

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

- Henry Ward Beecher

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.
Samuel Butler - Erewhon (1872)
It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.

All progress is based on a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Samuel Butler - In Festing Jones, Samuel Butler : A Memoir
When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

Logic is like the sword--those who appeal to it shall perish by it.
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh, Chapter 77
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being good, clever, or amiable.

Man, unlike the animals, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh
Then he saw also that it matters little what profession, whether of religion or irreligion, a man may make, provided only he follows it out with charitable inconsistency, and without insisting on it to the bitter end. It is in the uncompromisingness with which dogma is held and not in the dogma or want of dogma that the danger lies.
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh
He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most; God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us.

Logic is like the sword: those who appeal to it shall perish by it.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.
Samuel Butler - Notebooks, 1912
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Samuel Butler - The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case; God has written all the books.

The three most important parts a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money and his religious beliefs.

It has beeen said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.

Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty.

The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is

If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.

Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.

The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.

I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill.
Samuel Butler - 1835-1902
The difference between God and the historians consists above all in the fact that God cannot alter the past.

All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it.

All philosophies, if you ride them, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

It does not matter much what a man hates provided he hates something.

Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

- Samuel Butler

Eyes that see do not grow old.

- Nicaraguan Proverb

Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level.

- Max L. Forman

When we are chafed and fretted by small cares, a look at the stars will show us the littleness of our own intersts.

- Mara Mitchell

Gold for friends,
Lead for foes.

- Anastasio Somoza Garc - Dictator of Nicaragua 1936-1956

You know criticism when you get into this business. You accept the bad with the good, the tabloids and the positive side of it.

Is there a rehab center for Coke drinkers? I drink six to eight cans a day.

- Carmen Electra

The idea of an incarnation of God is absurd: why should the human race think itself so superior to bees, ants, and elephants as to be put in this unique relation to its maker? . . Christians are like a council of frogs in a marsh or a synod of worms on a dung-hill croaking and squeaking "for our sakes was the world created."

- Julian the Apostate

Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.

To harken to evil conversation is the road to wickedness.. (Pravis Assuescere Sermonibus Est Via Ad Rem Ipsam)
Anonymous - Graffito
God is not dead but alive and well and working on a much less ambitious project.

A man is known by the company he avoids.
Anonymous - French slogan
I am a Marxist--of the Groucho tendency.

Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better.

Civilization is a slow process of adopting the ideas of minorities.

Give a man a fire and keep him warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he will be warm for rest of his life.

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday.

A groundless rumor often covers a lot of ground.

By courage I repel adversity.
(Adversa Virtute Repello)

Unity in things necessary, liberty in things doubtful, charity in everything.

Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. Plan more than you can do, then do it.

It is wise to keep in mind that no success or failure is necessarily final.

You add insult to injury.
(Injuriae Addis Contumeliam)

Great minds think alike, and fools seldom differ.

A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

A friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you.

A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Efficiency is intelligent laziness.

When money talks, nobody notices what grammar it uses.

A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

Stupid is a boundless concept.

The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.

A dreamer lives for eternity.

If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.

Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice.

Someday is not a day of the week.

The best defense against the atom bomb is not to be there when it goes off.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits

A coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave just one.

Concern should drive us into action and not into depression.

Truth fears no questions.

Temper gets you into trouble. Pride keeps you there.

Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and the lessons afterwards.

There was a young man of Dundoo,
Whose limericks stopped at line 2.

Never argue with a fool. Someone watching may not be able to tell the difference.

A man has no more character than he can command in a time of crisis.

Liberals are very broadminded: they are always willing to give careful consideration to both sides of the same side.

No man deserves punishment for his thoughts.

Tis the advisor who suffers from bad advice.

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of.
Anonymous - As told in Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, "I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one. The grandson asked him, Which wolf will win the fight in your heart? The grandfather answered, The one I feed.

Dare to be wise.
(Sapere Aude)

Always imitate the behavior of the winners when you lose.

Experience is what causes a person to make new mistakes instead of old ones.

Change is good, but dollars are better.

I have decided that suicide is completely out of the question. I refuse to end the suffering of others... No, I must contemplate homicide and end the suffering of one... ME!!!

The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

Be alert to give service. What counts a great deal in life is what we do for others.

Whatever you undertake, act with prudence, and consider the consequences.
Anonymous - Proverb
To him that you tell your secret you resign your liberty.

If for a tranquil mind you seek,
These things observe with care:
Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,
And how, and when and where.

God helps those who help themselves.

A closed mind is a good thing to lose.

It usually takes a long time to find a shorter way.

May no portent of evil be attached to the words I say.
Anonymous - Greensleeves
Alas my love you do me wrong,
To cast me of discurteously;
And I have loved you so long,
Delighting in your company.

A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.

Practice random beauty and senseless acts of love.

The future belongs to those who dare.

There are no thanks for a kindness, which has been delayed.

A single fact can spoil a good argument.

Art is a deliberate recreation of a new and special reality that grows from your response to life. It cannot be copied; it must be created.

Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better.

To be free it is not enough to beat the system, one must beat the system every day.

A guilty conscience needs no accuser.

Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate it every day.

The fewer clear facts you have in support of an opinion, the stronger your emotional attachment to that opinion.

Victory is a political fiction.

It is light grief that can take counsel.

Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules. Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.

There are no traffic jams when you go the extra mile.

Better to get up late and be wide awake than to get up early and be asleep all day.

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity, or neglect.

Some people get angry because God put thorns on roses, while others praise him for putting roses among thorns.

Discretion is the better part of valor.

The more you know, the less you need to show.

A good exercise for the heart is to bend down and help another up.
Anonymous - Letter to the Editor, The Advocate
Soldiers who are not afraid of guns, bombs, capture, torture or death say they are afraid of homosexuals. Clearly we should not be used as soldiers; we should be used as weapons.

The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we give to others.

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.

Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.

- Anonymous

We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it.

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future one.

Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received.

We most often go astray on a well trodden and much frequented road.

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

No one can wear a mask for very long.
Seneca - Letters to Lucilius V
Fear keeps pace with hope. Nor does their so moving together surprise me; both belong to a mind in suspense, to a mind in a state of anxiety through looking into the future. Both are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present. Thus it is that foresight, the greatest blessing humanity has been given, is transformed into a curse.

What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
Seneca - Epistles
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

It is the sign of a weak mind to be unable to bear wealth.

Fate rules the affairs of mankind with no recognizable order.

Toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favourable to him.
Seneca - Epistles
Live among men as if God beheld you; speak to God as if men were listening.

The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.

It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.

A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude. If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it. But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself? Miserable is he who slights that witness.

The path of precept is long, that of example short and effectual.

We should every night call ourselves to an account; What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

What does reason demand of a man? A very easy thing--to live in accord with his nature.

Life without the courage for death is slavery.
Seneca - Moral Letters to Lucilius, 64 A.D.
Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy.

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us that injury that provokes it.

What once were vices are manners now.

Unjust dominion cannot be eternal.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his power.
Seneca - Epistles
If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.

Speech is the mirror of the mind.
(Imago Animi Sermo Est)

One hand washes the other.
(Manus Manum Lavet)

It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.

He who spares the wicked injures the good.

Many things have fallen only to rise higher.

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.

It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity.
Seneca - Epistles
The best ideas are common property.
Seneca - Epistles
Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

As was his language so was his life.
Seneca - Epistles
You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

All art is an imitation of nature.

Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.

Without an adversary prowess shrivels. We see how great and efficient it really is only when it shows by endurance what it is capable of.

There is no great genius free from some tincture of madness.

I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?

There is a noble manner of being poor and who does not know it will never be rich.

Let tears flow of their own accord: their flowing is not inconsistent with inward peace and harmony.
Seneca - Epistles
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

The first step towards amendment is the recognition of error.

An unpopular rule is never long maintained.

To be always fortunate, and to pass through life with a soul that has never known sorrow, is to be ignorant of one half of nature.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour the body.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

One should count each day a separate life.

To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind.

Be not too hasty either with praise or blame; speak always as though you were giving evidence before the judgement-seat of the Gods.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.

The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.

The mind is slow to unlearn what it learnt early.

It should be our care not so much to live a long life as a satisfactory one.

The arts are the servant; wisdom its master.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

To see a man fearless in dangers. untainted with lusts, happy in adversity, composed in a tumult, and laughing at all those things which are generally either coveted or feared, all men must acknowledge that this can be from nothing else but a beam of divinity that influences a mortal body.

It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted.
Seneca - Epistles
It is better, of cours, to know useless things than to know nothing.

While the fates permit, live happily; life speeds on with hurried step, and with winged days the wheel of the headlong year is turned.

I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better then the bad.

Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

Where reason fails, time oft has worked a cure.

It is pleasant at times to play the madman.

truth never perishes (Veritas numquam perit)

Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.
Seneca - Epistulae Morales
"Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life. "

The most onerous slavery is to be a slave to oneself.

He will live ill who does not know how to die well.
Seneca - Epistuloe ad Lucilium, Epis. LXX, 9
Everything may happen. (Omnio fieri possent.)

I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge.

It is rash to condemn where you are ignorant.

Where the speech is corrupted, the mind is also.
Seneca - 65 AD
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Seneca - Epistles
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

If virtue precede us every step will be safe.

Time heals what reason cannot.

Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool.

Dangerous is wrath concealed. Hatred proclaimed doth lose its chance of wreaking vengeance.

- Seneca

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

Of all the griefs that harass the distrest,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.

You must have taken great pains, sir; you could not naturally been so very stupid.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.

Being in a ship is like being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

Our aspirations are our possibilities.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.

Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind.
Samuel Johnson - (attributed)
Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.

You teach your daugthers the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

A cucumber should be well-sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.
Samuel Johnson - Life of Boerhaave
Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.

The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another

Americans are a race of convicts and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.

A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

Golf is a game in which you claim the privileges of age, and retain the playthings of childhood.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Samuel Johnson - Lives of the Poets
What we hope ever to do with ease we may learn first to do with diligence.

In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Grief is a species of idleness.
Samuel Johnson - Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

The world is not yet exhaused; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.
Samuel Johnson - Taxation No Tyranny
There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.

You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.

The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.
Samuel Johnson - Letter to Lord Chesterfield, 1775
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

Hope is necessary in every condition.

Abstinence is as easy to me, as temperance would be difficult.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed.

I hate mankind, for I think of myself as one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
Samuel Johnson - Rambler #18
There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.
Samuel Johnson - A Dictionary of the English Language
Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

I have found you an argument: but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

If you are idle, be not solitary. If you are solitary, be not idle.

Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.

When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.
Samuel Johnson - (attributed)
A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.
Samuel Johnson - Rasselas
Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
Samuel Johnson - (attributed; also attributed to Ann Landers)
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Hope itself is a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.

- Samuel Johnson

You can choose to be happy or sad and whichever you choose that is what you get. No one is really responsible to make someone else happy, no matter what most people have been taught and accept as true.

Words can be like baseball bats when used maliciously.

Thoughts are funny little things,
They can make paupers or make kings.

The birthplace of success for each person is in his Inner-Consciousness. The Inner-Consciousness will use whatever it is given. If constructive thoughts are planted positive outcomes will be the result. Plant the seeds of failure and failure will follow. And since the only real freedom a person has is the choice of what thoughts he will feed to his Inner-Consciousness he is totally responsible for the outcomes he gets.

Everyone values things differently. In other words, they place their own value on everything that affects their lives. Also from moment to moment they may even change their values. Such as a person, who values diamonds above all else, might be willing to trade a gallon of diamonds for a drink of water to save his life in a desert. What this means is value is a relative thing depending on a need or a perceived need. Yet, how many people will argue and even violently fight over the perceived value of something or some idea only later have an entirely different view point or value.

To be healthy, wealthy, happy and successful in any and all areas of your life you need to be aware that you need to think healthy, wealthy, happy and successful thoughts twenty four hours a day and cancel all negative, destructive, fearful and unhappy thoughts. These two types of thought cannot coexist if you want to share in the abundance that surrounds us all.

It is not the hours we put in on the job, it is what we put into the hours that counts.

The world will change for the better when people decide they are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the way the world is, and decide to change themselves.

Without relationships, no matter how much wealth, fame, power, prestige and seeming success by the standards and opinions of the world one has, happiness will constantly eluded him.

Never value the valueless. The trick is to know how to recognize it.

If you want to be truly successful invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. When you find it and focus on it and persevere your success will blossom.

Poor is the man who does not know his own intrinsic worth and tends to measure everything by relative value. A man of financial wealth who values himself by his financial net worth is poorer than a poor man who values himself by his intrinsic self worth.

Would you want to do business with a person who was 99% honest?

I was always puzzled by the fact that people have a great deal of trouble and pain when and if they are forced or feel forced to change a belief or circumstance which they hold dear. I found what I believe is the answer when I read that a Canadian neurosurgeon discovered some truths about the human mind which revealed the intensity of this problem. He conducted some experiments which proved that when a person is forced to change a basic belief or viewpoint, the brain undergoes a series of nervous sensations equivalent to the most agonizing torture.

When you have too much month for you paycheck, then what you need to do is realize that there is abundance all around you and focus on the abundance and not your lack and as night follows day abundance will come to you.

Everyone is in business for himself, for he is selling his services, labor or ideas. Until one realizes that this is true he will not take conscious charge of his life and will always be looking outside himself for guidance.

Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives. Unfortunately most of us are completely unaware of this fact and we do not monitor our thoughts with the care needed so that we can create in our lives the results we say we want. Since the great majority of people do not feel worthy and deserving of abundant good fortune, radiant good health and total success in all areas of their lives that overriding thought pattern controls the results people get. The first order of business of anyone who wants to enjoy success in all areas of his
her life is to take charge of the internal dialogue they have and only think, say and behavior in a manner consistent with the results they truly desire.

- Sidney Madwed

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-ight drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
John Le Carre
A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.
John Le Carre - Magnus Pym in "A Perfect Spy"
Sometimes we do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions not answers.

- John Le Carre - "The Chancellor Who Agreed To Play Spy, in The New York Times, May 8, 1974

Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

Big shots are only little shots who kept on shooting.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

One of the most appalling comments on our present way of life is that half of all the beds in our hospitals are reserved for patients with nervous and mental troubles, patients who have collapsed under the crushing burden of accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows. Yet a vast majority of those people would be walking the streets today, leading happy, useful lives, if they had only heeded the words of Jesus: "Have no anxiety about the morrow"; or the words of Sir William Osler; "Live in day-tight compartments.

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do.

When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us: power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness. Our enemies would dance with joy if only they knew how they were worrying us, lacerating us, and getting even with us! Our hate is not hurting them at all, but our hate is turning our own days and nights into a hellish turmoil.

If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment; you indicate that I have made an impression on you. Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.

The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie - How To Win Friends and Influence People
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain -- and most fools do.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming more interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

It is the way we react to circumstances that determines our feelings.

- Dale Carnegie

The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954, chapter 2
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Gandalf on Saruman, The Two Towers
The treacherous are ever distrustful.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Mandos, The Silmarillion, Of the Flight of the Noldor
Their Oath shall drive them, and yet betray them, and ever snatch away the very treasures that they have sworn to pursue.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring, spoken by Boromir
For though I do not ask for aid, we need it.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Little by little, one travels far.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring
Courage is found in unlikely places.
J. R. R. Tolkien
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it reflects the generally small reach of their imagination.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Return of the King
I have no help to send, therefore I must go myself.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works...
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954
All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise.
J. R. R. Tolkien
The world has changed.
I see it in the water.
I feel it in the Earth.
I smell it in the air.
Much that once was is lost,
For none now live who remember it.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
All that we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit
What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
J. R. R. Tolkien - Spoken by Aragorn
The deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last...
The great battle of our time.
J. R. R. Tolkien
...for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Valour needs first strength, then a weapon.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Spoken by Faramir
I love you. I used to pity your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, still i would love you.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord Of the Rings, Book Four, Chapter One
Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.
J. R. R. Tolkien
There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over... Faint to my ears came the gathered rumour of all lands: the springing and the dying, the song and the weeping, and the slow everlasting groan of overburdened stone.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit
His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring, spoken by Elrond
He should not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Still round the corner there may wait,
A new road or a secret gate.
J. R. R. Tolkien
With hope or without hope we will follow the trail of our enemies. And woe to them, if we prove the swifter!
J. R. R. Tolkien
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Letter to Michael Tolkien, March 1941
Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.

- J. R. R. Tolkien - The Two Towers

I looked with chameleon eyes upon the changing face of the world, looked with anonymous vision upon my uncompleted self.
Anais Nin
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anais Nin
We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.
Anais Nin
The personal, if it is deep enough, becomes universal, mythical, symbolic.
Anais Nin
When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.
Anais Nin
Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anais Nin - "Winter of Artifice"
Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
Anais Nin
Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.
Anais Nin
Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anais Nin
I walk ahead of myself in perpetual expectancy of miracles.
Anais Nin
Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back; a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.
Anais Nin
There are only two kinds of freedom in the world; the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounces possessions.
Anais Nin
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin
If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness. For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation.

- Anais Nin - House of Incest

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.

In the long run we are all dead.

The avoidance of taxes is the only pursuit that carries any reward.

Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.

In the long run, we are all dead.

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.

Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.

Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.

- John Maynard Keynes

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

When you are in any contest you should work as if there were - to the very last minute - a chance to lose it.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her citizens cannot cure.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired in the final analysis, is a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and not clothed.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
Dwight D. Eisenhower - speech, April 2, 1957
We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.
Dwight D. Eisenhower - From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1963
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower - Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

Before all else, we seek, upon our common labor as a nation, the blessings of Almighty God.

On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that all their efforts shall not have been in vain.

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
Dwight D. Eisenhower - A speech to the National Defense Executive Reserve Conference in Washington, DC on Nov. 14, 1957
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle.

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and co-operation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

I can think of nothing more boring for the American people than to have to sit in their living rooms for a whole half hour looking at my face on their television screens.

We merely want to live in peace with all the world, to trade with them, to commune with them, to learn from their culture as they may learn from ours, so that the products of our toil may be used for our schools and our roads and our churches and not for guns and planes and tanks and ships of war.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another.

You can teach someone who cares to write columns, but you can?t teach someone who writes columns to care.

In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.

All in all, I am not surprised that the people who want to unravel the social contract start with young adults. Those who are urged to feel afraid, very afraid, have both the greatest sense of independence and the most finely honed skepticism about government.

The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.

- Ellen Goodman

Calendars are for careful people, not passionate ones.
Chuck - The World According to Chuck weblog, October 14, 2003
This is the best kind of voyeurism, hearing joy from your neighbors.

- Chuck - The World According to Chuck weblog, September 8, 2003

We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things?[but] there are times when we stop. We sit sill. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.

- James Carroll - O Magazine, October 2002

Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art.

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Man has responsibility, not power.

- Tuscarora proverb

Ritual is the way you carry the presence of the sacred. Ritual is the spark that must not go out.

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix.

Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.

- Christina Baldwin

Nancy Reagan fell down and broke her hair.

For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.

The Hollywood tradition I like best is called "sucking up to the stars."

I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing.

If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.
Johnny Carson - people magazine special issue
I knew a man who gave up smoking, drinking, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.
Johnny Carson - Playboy Interview - December 1967
Who could follow Carson? Well, believe me, somebody can - and will.

- Johnny Carson

Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of being.

It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how they are themselves.

There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Religion is a defense against the experience of God.

In studying the history of the human mind one is impressed again and again by the fact that the growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and that each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement. One could almost say that nothing is more hateful to man than to give up even a particle of his unconsciousness. Ask those who have tried to introduce a new idea!

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off.

We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.
Carl Jung - "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", 1962
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.

Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

To me dreams are part of nature, which harbors no intention to deceive but expresses something as best it can.

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

Sometimes, indeed, there is such a discrepancy between the genius and his human qualities that one has to ask oneself whether a little less talent might not have been better.

All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.
Carl Jung - "On the Psychology of the Unconciousness", 1917
Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

Creative powers can just as easily turn out to be destructive. It rests solely with the moral personality whether they apply themselves to good things or to bad. And if this is lacking, no teacher can supply it or take its place

An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.

The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.

I have always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way.

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something that people call God.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
Carl Jung - "Modern Man in Search of a Soul"
The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.

- Carl Jung

It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.

- Konrad Lorenz

When you can think of yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear, you are near contentment.

If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts.

Few cases of eyestrain have been developed by looking on the bright side of things.

One should be more concerned about what his conscience whispers than about what other people shout.

Children begin by loving their parents. As they grow older, they judge them. Sometimes they forgive them.

If people did not prefer reaping to sowing, there would not be a hungry person in the land.

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, just what does an empty desk mean?

You can buy education, but wisdom is a gift from God.

If you get up one time more than you fall, you will make it through.

If happiness could be brought, few of us could pay the price.

The more you talk to yourself, the more apt you are to lie.

Get into the habit of asking yourself if what you are doing can be handled by someone else.

Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it sparkles in the setting of modest self-distrust; and never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive any injury.

It is impossible to make wisdom hereditary.

What we are doing at the moment is more that just one thing added to the rest; it is a memoir.

Practical observation commonly consists of collecting a few facts and loading them with guesses.

A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.

Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth - a sense of humor.

Religion is a man using a divining rod. Philosophy is a man using a pick and shovel.

He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance

Prejudice is the reasoning of fools.

To save time is to lengthen life.

A man is getting along on the road to wisdom when he begins to realize that his opinion is just an opinion.

A patient going to a doctor for his first visit was asked, "And whom did you consult before coming to me?"
"Only the village druggist," was the answer.
"And what sort of foolish advice did that numbskull give you?" asked the doctor, his tone and manner denoting his contempt for the advice of the layman.
"Oh," replied his patient, with no malice aforethought, "he told me to come and see you."

A college education never hurt anybody who was willing to learn after he got it.

No poet sings because he must sing. At least no great poet does. A great poet sings because he chooses to sing

Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it.

Wise men are not always silent, but they know when to be.

Many of us have heard opportunity knocking at our door, but by the time we unhooked the chain, pushed back the bolt, turned two locks, and shuts off the burglar alarm - it was gone.

Freedom is a package deal - with it comes responsibilities and consequences.

Enthusiasm is that kindling spark which marks the difference between the leaders in every activity and the laggards who put in just enough to "get by."

It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.

Cheerfulness greases the axles of the world.

Gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind

You know how you hate to be interrupted, so why are you always doing it to me.

Freedom also includes the right to mismanage your own affairs.

It never occurs to some politicians that Lincoln is worth imitating as well as quoting.

Make service your first priority, not success and success will follow.

Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy and understanding.

A patient man is one who can put up with himself.

One thing about the school of experience is that it will repeat the lesson if you flunk the first time.

The hardest work in the world is that which should have been done yesterday.

There is a growing suspicion that what the world needs now is a religion that will cover the other six days of the week.

The best way to end a war is not to begin it.

Practicing the Golden Rule is not a sacrifice; it is an investment.

Spare minutes are the Gold-dust of time; the portions of life most fruitful in good and evil; the gaps through which temptations enter.

The price is what you pay; the value is what you receive.

Think highly of yourself, for the world takes you at your own estimate.

If wisdom were on sale in the open market, the stupid would not even ask the price.

Many people seem to think that opportunity means a chance to get money without earning it.

"What made the deepest impression upon you?" inquired a friend one day of Lincoln, "when you stood in the presence of the Falls of Niagara, the greatest of natural wonders?" ---- "The thing that stuck me most forcibly when I saw the Falls," Lincoln responded with the characteristic deliberation, "was where in the world did all that water come from?"

Some have half-baked ideas because their ideals are not heated up enough.

Flattery looks like friendship, just like a wolf looks like a dog.

Beware of the man who knows the answer before he understands the question.

Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly ever acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.

It is strange that we do not temper our resentment of criticism with a thought for our many faults which have escaped us.

Time invested in improving ourselves cuts down on time wasted in disapproving of others.

The biggest shortage of all is the shortage of common sense.

It is a pleasure to give advice, humiliating to need it, normal to ignore it.

Where ambition ends happiness begins.

If you had it all to do over, would you fall in love with yourself again?

Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances.

Early civilizations complained about still earlier ones, much as we do about both

An expert gossiper knows how much to leave out of a conversation

Hate pollutes the mind.

The guilty catch themselves.

We are born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy.

It is usually best to be generous with praise, but cautious with criticism.

A little tact and wise management may often evade resistance, and carry a point, where direct force might be in vain.

Shortchange your education now and you may be short of change the rest of your life.

Successful leaders have the courage to take action where others hesitate.

Acknowledgment - If you wish your merit to be known, acknowledge that of other people.

The best answer to answer to anger is silence.

Age withers only the outside.

Our children seem to have wonderful taste, or none - depending, of course, on whether or not they agree with us.

After all, life is really simple; we ourselves create the circumstances that complicate it.

Successful men follow the same advice they prescribe for others.

The deadliest contagion is majority opinion.

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Where we go and what we do advertises what we are.

So few people think. When we find one who really does, we call him a genius

The secret of success is to do all you can do without thought of success.

Catch your people doing something right and let them know you appreciate it.

If someone offers to furnish a sure test, ask what the test was which made the sure test sure.

The written word can be erased - not so with the spoken word.

Excellence is best described as doing the right things right - selecting the most important things to be done and then accomplishing them 100% correctly.

Perpetual worry will get you to one place ahead of time - the cemetery.

No poet sings because he must sing. At least no great poet does. A great poet sings because he chooses to sing.

Vacant minds must have their uses, yet it seems a pity to waste first-class bodies on them.

Peace won by the compromise of principles is a short-lived achievement.

Someone has described science as an orderly arrangement of what, at the moment, seems to be facts.

Enthusiasm is very good lubrication for the mind.

"Oh," replied his patient, with no malice aforethought, "he told me to come and see you."

The brain that bubbles with phrases has hard work to collect its thoughts.

"Luck" is a very good word if you put a P before it.

People who know the least always argue the most.

Advice is the only commodity on the market where the supply always exceeds the demand.

One thing you can give and still keep is your word.

If you look for the positive things in life; you will find them.

The truly educated man is that rare individual who can separate reality from illusion.

It would take battalions of angels to protect us from our dreaded dangers, though in a long lifetime few of the dangers come to anything.

Opportunities are often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be listening.

So live that your memories will be part of your happiness.

Behind every successful man there are usually a lot of unsuccessful years.

One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our need from our greed.

A conscience is like a baby. It has to go to sleep before you can.

If the truth be known, most successes are built on a multitude of failures.

A good laugh is sunshine in a house.

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

Humor - the perfect relationship of the parts to the whole.

The good Lord gave me a brain that works so fast that in one moment I can worry as much as it would take others a whole year to achieve.

Desire for security keeps littleness little and threatens the great with smallness.

Life is tragic for those who have plenty to live on and nothing to live for.

Many things are worse than defeat,and compromise with evil is one of them.

The best leader is the one who has the sense to surround himself with outstanding people and self-restraint not to meddle with how they do their jobs.

Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them

Luck always seems to be against the man who depends on it.
Author Unknown - (apocryphal)
The tipping custom originated in England when small sums were dropped into a box marked T.I.P.S. --TO INSURE PROMPT SERVICE.

There is one way to handle the ignorant and malicious critic. Ignore him.

Having supplied them with names, omnipotence, justice, knowledge, Providence, - what are they?

If a man defrauds you one time, he is a rascal; if he does it twice, you are a fool.

An expert knows all the answers - if you ask the right questions.

Nine out of ten people who change their minds are wrong the second time too.

People are changed, not by coercion or intimidation, but by example.

Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.

Create the kind of climate in your organization where personal growth is expected, recognized and rewarded.

Why keep on enacting laws when we already have more than we can break.

Let your friends be the friends of your deliberate choice.

If we miraculously became the people we hate, how lovable we would find ourselves.

The best mind might be the wisest mind if it were a mind alone that produces wisdom.

A fellow who says he has never told a lie has just told one.

A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.

The greatest paradox of them all is to speak of "civilized warfare."

You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea

Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck.

Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

Peace may cost as much as war, but it is a better buy.

Our wisdom comes usually from our experience, and our experience comes largely from our experience.

Some people lose their health getting wealth and then lose their wealth gaining health.

To feel "fit as a fiddle" you must tone down your middle.

Find expression for a sorrow and it will become dear to you. Find expression for a joy, and you will intensify its ecstasy.

Every success is built on the ability to do better than good enough.

When thoughts fails of words, they find imagination waiting at their elbow to teach a new language without words.

Like swift water an active mind never stagnates.

Hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it.

Good habits are formed; bad habits we fall into.

A handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning.

Results are what you expect, and consequences are what you get.

No one finds life worth living; he must make it worth living.

Opinions are the cheapest commodities in the world.

Religion is meant to be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions.

Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

Imagination is the pontoon bridge making way for the timid feet of reason.

We cannot be too earnest, too persistent, too determined, about living superior to the herd-instinct.

A good marriage winds up as a meeting of minds, which had better be pretty good to start with.

The average person living to age 70 has 613,000 hours of life. This is too long a period not to have fun.

It is better to live richly than to die rich.

Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue.

The man who has strong opinions and always says what he thinks is courageous - and friendless.

The shortest answer is the doing the thing.

Most people pay too much for the things they get for nothing.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquest of it.

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner, neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify for usefulness and happiness. The storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse the faculties, and excite the invention, prudence, skill and fortitude or the voyager. The martyrs of ancient times, in bracing their minds to outward calamities, acquired a loftiness of purpose and a moral heroism worth a lifetime of softness and security.

Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes

The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.

Thinking things has been done through the ages; knowing things remains to be done.

Criticism is the disapproval of people, not for having faults, but having faults different from your own.

Education is not received. It is achieved.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of faith.

Nothing improves the memory more than trying to forget.

No punishment of the unrighteous has ever been too severe in the eyes of the righteous.

He who ashamed of his poverty would be equally proud of his wealth.

Too many people run out of ideas long before they run out of words.

None of us are responsible for all the things that happen to us, but we are responsible for the way we act when they do happen.

To live so that you would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip, is to have lived well

It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside.

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Replying to the tributes paid to him at a testimonial dinner, Herbert Bayard Swope said; "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure. Try to please everybody."

When you laugh, be sure to laugh at what people do and not at what people are.

Nature abhors a vacuum. When a head lacks brains, nature fills it with conceit.

The human mind must believe in something, so why not let it believe what it does believe.

One look around us ought to show that all our arbitrary measures and bounds have been clamped on us by mankind.

Before a diamond shows its brilliancy and prismatic colors it has to stand a good deal of cutting and smoothing.

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. You cannot escape the results of your thoughts.

A great fortune in the hands of a fool is a great misfortune.

Life is too short to be taken seriously.

The size of a man is measured by the size of the thing that makes him angry.

A good name, like good will, is attained by many actions and may be lost by one.

Before a man can wake up and find himself famous he has to wake up and find himself.

Friendship is love with understanding.

Love is to man an embarrassment, even a word; it is to a woman an excuse for existence, especially the word.

Children are natural mimics; they act like their parents in spite of every effort to teach them good manners.

There are many roads to hate, but envy is the shortest of them all.

Outstanding leaders appeal to the hearts of their followers - not their minds.

- Author Unknown

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.
Louis Pasteur - 1822-1895
Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind.

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit. Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of inventions.

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.
Louis Pasteur - lecture 1854
In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.

- Louis Pasteur

Give all to love; obey thy heart.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Conduct of Life
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Here is the world, sound as a nut, perfect, not the smallest piece of chaos left, never a stitch nor an end, not a mark of haste, or botching, or second thought; but the theory of the world is a thing of shreds and patches.

It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence, whether a man be behind it or no.

Take egotism out and you would castrate the benefactors.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Essay: Nature
To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone.

People wish to be settled. It is only as far as they are unsettled that there is any hope for them.

If a man knows the law, find out, though he live in a pine shanty, and resort to him. And if a man can pipe or sing, so as to wrap the imprisoned soul in an elysium; or can paint a landscape, and convey into souls and ochres all the enchantments of Spring or Autumn; or can liberate and intoxicate all people who hear him with delicious songs and verses; it is certain that the secret cannot be kept; the first witness tells it to a second, and men go by fives and tens and fifties to his doors.

We become what we think about all day long.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

What omniscience has music! So absolutely impersonal, yet every sufferer feels his secret sorrow soothed.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

To know one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

I hate quotations.

Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success.

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel.

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

As we grow old?the beauty steals inward.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

A friend might well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

The world belongs to the energetic.

Insist on yourself; never imitate... Every great man is unique.

Nature hates calculators.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch of a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.

Nothing, at last, is sacred; but the integrity of your own mind.

The imbecility of men is always inviting the impudence of power.

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.

Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experience.

The glory of friendship is not the outstreched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Society and Solitude: Works and Days, 1870
A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life; he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Journals, 1824
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Address on The Method of Nature, 1841
He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary.

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity.

Who so would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Science does not know its debt to imagination. Goethe did not believe that a great naturalist could exist without this faculty.

Sooner of later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain to the song.

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.

What a new face courage puts on everything.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Journal (May 1849)
Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.

The less government we have the better.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacles and opposition will but make us "like the fabled specter-ships," which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind.

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - (attributed)
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Whoever is open, loyal, true; of humane and affable demeanour; honourable himself, and in his judgement of others; faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man....such a man is a true gentleman.

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.

If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: Quotation and Originality, 1876
In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - An Essay on Self-Reliance
To be great is to be misunderstood.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "American Civilization", The Atlantic Monthly, 1862
Hitch your wagon to a star.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.

There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant.

A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air?

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines.

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

The people are to be taken in very small doses.

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

I hate quotations.

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room for many.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invated by worry, fret and anxiety.

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

The peril of every fine faculty is the delight of playing with it for pride. Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief. Talent is mistaken for genius, a dogma or system for truth, ambition for greatest, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art.

Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think.

We are prisoners of ideas.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

You must pay for conformity. All goes well as long as you run with conformists. But you, who are honest men in other particulars, know that there is alive somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the day when you meet him, you sink into the class of counterfeits.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: Progress of Culture, 1876
Every artist was first an amateur.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any.

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.

Ideas must work through the brains and arms of men, or they are no better than dreams.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

I see her not dispirited, not weak, but well, remembering that she has seen dark times before, indeed with a kind of instinct that she sees a little better in a cloudy day.

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Method of Nature (1841)
Talent finds its models, methods, and ends in society, exists for exhibition, and goes to the soul only for power to work. Genius is its own end, and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

The only gift is a portion of thyself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Self-Reliance", 1841
Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.

Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.

Sooner of later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain to the song.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

What a searching preacher of self-command is the varying phenomenon of health.

Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.

My evening visitors, if they cannot see the clock, should find the time in my face.

A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he know that every day is Doomsday.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims (Quotation and Originality)
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.

If eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

The reward for a thing well done is to have done it.

Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

I look on that man as happy, who, when there is question of success, looks into his work for a reply.

All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; some men even to delight. This love of beauty is taste. Others have the same love in such success that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms. The creation of beauty is art.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves. Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find.

A friend might well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Self-trust is the essence of heroism

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely...

We are students of words; we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing

We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing.

Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.

Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.

We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting the best property of all -- friends?

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

The next thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

What you are shouts so loud in my ears I cannot hear what you say.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self Reliance (essay)
...the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness, the independence of solitude.

Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

The faith that stand on authority is not faith.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

The greatest homage we can pay truth is to use it.

The more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show for any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others with out getting a few drops on yourself.

When you strike at a king, you must kill him.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

Common sense is as rare as genius.

You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.

To be great is to be misunderstood.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Society and Solitude
The true test of a civilization is not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops?no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.

There is nothing capricious in nature and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feel it.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him.

The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be performed, at the same time that one is giving loud pledges of performance. The balking of the intellect, is comedy and it announces itself in the pleasant spasms we call laughter.

Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified.

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Nature"
The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eyes and the heart of the child.

Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self Reliance
Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - New England Reformers, 1844
Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner.

The first wealth is health.

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness.

Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Society and Solitude (1870)
As soon as there is life there is danger.

A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self-control is the rule.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Natural History of Intellect (1893)
The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Journals, 1839
The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence.

Imitation is suicide.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same.

Before we acquire great power, we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

People only see what they are prepared to see.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - "The Rhodora"
If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.

Children are all foreigners.

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the Stern Fact, the Sad Self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well -- he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - quoting a friend
Being perfectly well-dressed gives a feeling of tranquility that religion is powerless to bestow.

For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure.

There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Essays, First Series: Prudence, 1841
Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.

Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples.

Work is victory.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hell, we spent $200 Billion to get a scared guy who needed a shave out of a fox-hole! And he may even die of prostate cancer before we even get a chance to try him, dammit!

- Ted Turner - A speech to the McCallie School in Chattanooga, TN

Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.

Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.
John Updike - Problems and Other Stories
America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.
John Updike - Rabbit Redux
You can never get the smell of smoke out. Like the smell of failure in life.

Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews.

- John Updike

If a million people see my movie, I hope they see a million different movies.
Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions.

- Quentin Tarantino - Referring to the movie Pulp Fiction

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.

No man is defeated without until he is defeated within.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience by which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.
Eleanor Roosevelt - My Day
People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Friendship with oneself is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.

I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Women are like teabags. You dont know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.

A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

If you lose money you lose much,
If you lose friends you lose more,
If you lose faith you lose all.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt - My Day
People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

Never be bored, and you will never be boring.

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home?so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: The neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

If someone betrays you once, it?s their fault; if they betray you twice, it?s your fault.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

When in doubt, duck.

Too many people overvalue what they are, and undervalue what they are not.

Men who never get carried away should be.

You can judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing to them or for them.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always make you less than you are.

- Malcolm Forbes

You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.

Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it.

What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death.

Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it.

We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it.

I think Superman should go on the Larry King show and announce that he would come back to life if people in all 50 states wanted him to.

Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.

The most valuable function performed by the federal government is entertainment.

As long as humanity has been human, it has looked toward the heavens and dreamed that some day, some way, there would be giant federal contracts involved.

What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth ? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad.
Dave Barry - "The Taming of the Screw"
Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking.
Dave Barry - "The Taming of the Screw"
The only really good place to buy lumber is at a store where the lumber has already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture, finished, and put inside boxes.

Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.

Sharks are as tough as those football fans who take their shirts off during games in Chicago in January, only more intelligent.
Dave Barry - "Sweating Out Taxes"
All the big corporations depreciate their possessions, and you can, too, provided you use them for business purposes. For example, if you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, a business-related newspaper, you can deduct the cost of your house, because, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger in a landmark 1979 tax decision: "Where else are you going to read the paper? Outside? What if it rains?"

What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death.

Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face.

And, of course, you have the commercials where savvy businesspeople Get Ahead by using their MacIntosh computers to create the ultimate American business product: a really sharp-looking report.

- Dave Barry

This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men.

- Captain J. A. Hadfield

To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox - O Magazine, February 2004
All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon sand.

To sin in silence while others doth protest makes cowards out of men.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.

The dark today leads into light tomorrow;
There is no endless joy,
...and yet no endless sorrow.

No question is ever settled until it is settled right.

Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox - Old postcard
So many Gods, so many creeds
So many ways that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
is all this sad world needs.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
Charles M. Schulz - Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"
Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.

Life is like a ten-speed bike; most of us have gears we never use.
Charles M. Schulz - Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"
Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
Charles M. Schulz - as "Charlie Brown", Peanuts, cartoon strip
Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.

- Charles M. Schulz

Instant gratification takes too long.

Instant gratification takes too long.

- Carrie Fisher

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

- Carl Reiner

The married are those who have taken the terrible risk of intimacy and, having taken it, know life without intimacy to be impossible.

- Carolyn Heilbrun

No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.

- Thomas Carlye

Beware of programmers who carry screwdrivers.

- Leonard Brandwein

All confidence which is not absolute and entire, is dangerous. There are few occasions but where a man ought either to say all, or conceal all; for, how little so ever you have revealed of your secret to a friend, you have already said too much if you think it not safe to make him privy to all particulars.

Let us have a care not to disclose our hearts to those who shut up theirs against us.

- Francis Beaumont

My girlfriend sleeps in a queen-sized bed and I sleep in a court jester-sized bed.
Steven Wright
Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line. He caught every other fish.
Steven Wright - Standup Comedy Routine
I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time". So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.
Steven Wright
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
Steven Wright - Standup Comedy Routine
I installed a skylight in my apartment. The people who live above me are furious!
Steven Wright
Cross-country skiing is great if you live in a small country.
Steven Wright
When I have a kid, I wanna put him in one of those strollers for twins, then run around the mall looking frantic.
Steven Wright
Today I met with a subliminal advertising executive for just a second.
Steven Wright
If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?
Steven Wright
Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect.
Steven Wright
If a word in the dictionary were mispelled, how would we know?
Steven Wright
If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happen if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
Steven Wright
I have an existential map. It has "You are here" written all over it.
Steven Wright
Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.
Steven Wright
I have the worlds largest seashell collection. You may have seen it, I keep it spread out on beaches all over the world.
Steven Wright
They say the sun never sets over the British Empire, but it rises every morning. The sky must get awfully crowded.
Steven Wright
Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.
Steven Wright
Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.
Steven Wright
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
Steven Wright
If God dropped acid, would he see people?
Steven Wright
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
Steven Wright
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
Steven Wright
My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted.
Steven Wright
I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out.
Steven Wright - Standup Comedy Routine
I just bought a microwave fireplace. You can spend an evening in front of it in only eight minutes.
Steven Wright
If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happen if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
Steven Wright
If God dropped acid, would he see people?
Steven Wright
Every now and then I like to lean out my window, look up and smile for a satellite picture.

- Steven Wright - I Have a Pony

Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed: for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.
Rene Descartes
I know not if I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or if I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
Rene Descartes
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Rene Descartes
Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.
Rene Descartes
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
Rene Descartes
I think; therefore I am.
Rene Descartes
In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.
Rene Descartes
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Rene Descartes
Cogito ergo sum. (I think; therefore I am.)
Rene Descartes
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

- Rene Descartes - Discourse on Method

A thousand cups of wine do not suffice when true friends meet, but half a sentence is too much when there is no meeting of minds.

Habits are cobwebs at first; cables at last.

A book tightly shut is but a block of paper.

Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind.

I dreamed a thousand new paths. . . I woke and walked my old one.

The palest ink is better than the best memory.

A bit of fragrance clings to the hand that gives flowers.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Do not fear going forward slowly; fear only to stand still.

He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain.

The man who comes with a tale about others has himself an ax to grind.

A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections.

Do good, reap good; do evil, reap evil.

Keep your broken arm inside your sleeve.

Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown.
Chinese Proverb - The Graduates Book of Wisdom
The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.

An inch of time cannot be bought with an inch of gold.

He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them.

If you bow at all, bow low.

Do not employ handsome servants.

With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.

When you drink the water, remember the spring.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, not a man perfected without trials.

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

Be the first to the field and the last to the couch.

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

A fool judges people by the presents they give him.

Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

Dig the well before you are thirsty.

A filthy mouth will not utter decent language.

A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom.

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

If heaven made him, earth can find some use for him.

Unles we change direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed.

A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.

A book holds a house of gold.

Be not afraid of going slowly; be only afraid of standing still.

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through.

- Chinese Proverb

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.

If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around you own.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Nature and Books belong to the eyes that see them.

- Emerson

Work is the curse of the drinking class.

It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give really unbiased opinions, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always valueless.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?

One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.

Missionaries are going to reform the world whether it wants to or not.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

What people call insincerity is simply a method by which we can multiply our personalities.

It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray
Being natural is simply a pose.

Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief.

Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.
Oscar Wilde - "De Profundis"
... Nature, whose sweet rains fall of just and unjust alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undetected. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

At twilight, nature is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets.

We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.
Oscar Wilde - Foreward, The Picture of Dorian gray
The only excuse for creating something useless is that one admires it intensely.
Oscar Wilde - , in a letter to his friend, Frances Forbes-Robertson, who had invited him to her wedding in London, but Wilde was
Like dear St. Francis of Assisi I am wedded to Poverty: but in my case the marriage is not a success.

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.
Oscar Wilde - The Model Millionaire, 1912
It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.

Life imitates art more than art imitates life.
Oscar Wilde - A Picture of Dorian Grey - Preface
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, the preface
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their own peril.

Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891, preface
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.

Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.

It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.

The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding.

The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.

Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Oscar Wilde - The Critic as Artist, 1891
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895, Act I
To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Ernest
The very essence of love is uncertainty.

Sometimes it takes courage to give into temptation.

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.

To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.
Oscar Wilde - The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Vile deeds like poison weeds bloom well in prison air, it is only what is good in man, that wastes and withers there.

Punctuality is the thief of time.

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

I love acting. It is so much more real than life.
Oscar Wilde - An Ideal Husband, 1893, Act I
Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.
Oscar Wilde - Letter from Paris, dated May 1900
People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.

A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life.
Oscar Wilde - An Ideal Husband
The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analyzed, women? merely adored.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices.

Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue cleverer than another.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Grey
There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.

Dreamers can find their way by moonlight and their only punishment is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world.

I sometimes think that God, in creating man, overestimated His ability.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Journalism justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarist.

Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

The basis for optimism is sheer terror.

I must decline your invitation owing to a subsequent engagement.

Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional.

Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

Beauty is a form of genius--is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.
Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray
Knowledge would be fatal, it is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things beautiful.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
Oscar Wilde - "An Ideal Husband"
To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.
Oscar Wilde - The Critic as Artist, part 2, 1891
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Oscar Wilde - The Ballad of Reading Gaol
And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,
None knew so well as I:
For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.
Oscar Wilde - The Canterville Ghost, 1882
We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.

I am not young enough to know everything.

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

As long as war is regarded as wicked it will always have its fascinations. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same

The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture, and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, the preface
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Action: the last resource of those who know not how to dream.
Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

I am not young enough to know everything.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Imagination is a quality given to man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humaor is provided to console him from what he is.

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only the shallow people who do not judge by appearances.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.

There is no sin except stupidity.
Oscar Wilde - Jack from The Importance of Being Earnest
When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895, Act I
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Grey
People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

Action is the last refuge of those who cannot dream.

America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
She is a peacock in everything but beauty.

There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing, as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.

Oscar Wilde: "I wish I had said that." Whistler: "You will, Oscar; you will.

Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Grey
All art is quite useless.

It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, the preface
All art is quite useless.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

Life is too important to be taken seriously.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live. It is asking other people to live as one wishes to live.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.

The only possible form of exercise is to talk, not to walk.
Oscar Wilde - as he sipped champagne on his deathbed
Alas, I am dying beyond my means.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.

While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy; the second is perfection, which all should aim at.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.

The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.
Oscar Wilde - "The Remarkable Rocket"
The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated.
Oscar Wilde - Quoted in Ellmann
It often happens that the real tragedies in life occur in such an inarticulate manner that they hurt one by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
...my dear boy, no woman is a genius. They are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.

I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.

The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects.

Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

My wallpaper and i are fighting a duel to death. One or the other has to go.

The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling I have always cultivated.

I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.

America has been discovered before, but it has always been hushed up.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Eduaction is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

The only charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Oscar Wilde - as he sipped champagne on his deathbed
Alas, I am dying beyond my means.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.
Oscar Wilde - A Woman of No Importance, Act 3
The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray
Sin is the only real colour element left in modern life.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
Oscar Wilde - The Critic as Artist, part 2, 1891
One is tempted to define man as a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Genius is born--not paid.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Oscar Wilde - A Picture of Dorian Grey
Live the wonderful life that is in you.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people we personally dislike.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Grey
Philanthropic people lose all sense of Humanity, it is their distinguishing characteristic.

Science is the record of dead religions.

Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapter 6
When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex.

Art is the most intense form of individualism that the world has known.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Philanthropy is the refuge of rich people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures.

One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.

The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.

Experience...is simply the name we give our mistakes.

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

Divorces are made in heaven.

Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
A grand passion is the privelege of people who have nothing to do.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
I love acting. It is so much more real than life.
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 3
Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.

The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.

The English country gentleman galloping after a fox -- the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.

Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.

I have the simplest of tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest
I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Oscar Wilde - The Critic as Artist, 1891
It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.
Oscar Wilde - Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young, 1882
Only the shallow know themselves.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

Democracy is the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Oscar Wilde - "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.

The problem with the common person is that he is so unbearably common!
Oscar Wilde - The Critic as Artist, 1891
But what is the difference between literature and journalism?
...Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all.
Oscar Wilde - upon being told the cost of an operation
I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.
Oscar Wilde - In Life of Oscar Wilde, H. Pearson
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
Oscar Wilde - An Ideal husband, 1893
When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well worth remembering from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others.

About foxhunting: The unspeakable chasing the uneatable.

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship; and it is by far the best ending for one.

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Bore: a man who is never unintentionally rude.

I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.

Chastity is the greatest form of perversion.
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest
He has never written a single book, so you can imagine how much he knows.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, Prologue
All art is quite useless.
Oscar Wilde - As he passed through customs
I have nothing to declare but my genius.

Conscience and cowardice are really the same thing. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm.
Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray
When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.

Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.

- Oscar Wilde

If one speaks or acts with a cruel mind, misery follows, as the cart follows the horse... If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows, as a shadow follows its source.

Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.

- The Dhammapada

Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.

- Cherie Carter-Scott - "If Love Is a Game, These Are the Rules"

Conservation is humanity caring for the future.

- Nancy Newhall

In the career of glory one gains many things; the gout and medals, a pension and rheumatism....And also frozen feet, an arm or leg the less, a bullet lodged between two bones which the surgeon cannot extract....all of these fatigues experienced in your youth, you pay for when you grow old. Because one has suffered in years gone by, it is necessary to suffer more, which does not seem exactly fair.

- Elzear Blaze - La Vie Militaire

Mathematics is the queen of the sciences.

- Carl Friedrich Gauss - from Sartorius von Waltershausen, "Gauss zum Gedachtniss" [1856]

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.

- James Bryce

We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities - not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.
Jimmy Carter
Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater than the bounty of our material blessings.
Jimmy Carter - Spech in March 1976
We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
Jimmy Carter
The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens. As Americans, we are blessed with circumstances that protect our human rights and our religious freedom, but for many people around the world, deprivation and persecution have become a way of life.
Jimmy Carter
One of the most basic principles for making and keeping peace within and between nations. . . is that in political, military, moral, and spiritual confrontations, there should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

- Jimmy Carter - in his farewell address

I think I may define taste to be that faculty of the soul which discerns the beauties of an author with pleasure, and the imperfections with dislike.

Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties, and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul.

From social intercourse are derived some of the highest enjoyments of life; where there is a free interchange of sentiments the mind acquires new ideas, and by frequent exercise of its powers, the understanding gains fresh vigor.

Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul; and thus it may be looked on as weakness in the composition of human nature. But if we consider the frequent reliefs we receive from it and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to depress the mind and damp our spirits, with transient, unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life.
Joseph Addison - Women and Liberty
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.

Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.

It is folly for an eminent person to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected by it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.
Joseph Addison - (1672-1719)
Friendship improves hapiness and reduces misery, by doubting our joys and dividing our grief.

Self discipline is that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

There are many shining qualities on the mind of man; but none so useful as discretion. It is this which gives a value to all the rest, and sets them at work in their proper places, and turns them to the advantage of their possessor. Without it, learning is pedantry; wit, impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; and the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice. Though a man has all other perfections and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.

Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.
Joseph Addison - The Spectator, July 12, 1711
Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without.

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.
Joseph Addison - Cato
Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.

The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.
Joseph Addison - The Spectator, September 26, 1712
Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

- Joseph Addison

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

If you want to bake an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe.
Carl Sagan - Contact
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
Carl Sagan - Cosmos
In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.

Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
Carl Sagan - "Contact"
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
Carl Sagan - "Contact"
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science?

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

- Carl Sagan

Genius is of no country.

The best things carried to excess are wrong.

- Charles Churchill

And now, like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career, and just fade away...an old soldier who tried to do his duty, as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye.

- Gen. Douglas MacArthur - Farewell address, quoted on "We Interrupt This Broadcast" CD-ROM

We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origins. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the footprint. And lo! It is our own.
Sir Arthur Eddington - The Nature of the Physical World
Proof is the idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.
Sir Arthur Eddington
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
Sir Arthur Eddington - Attributed in Robert L. Weber "More Random Walks in Science", 1982
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers.
Sir Arthur Eddington
We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.
Sir Arthur Eddington
It is a primitive form of thought that things exist or do not exist.
Sir Arthur Eddington - The Harvest of a Quiet Eye (A. L. Mackay), 1977
0
Sir Arthur Eddington - The Philosophy of Physical Science
For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal. It does not follow that every item which we confidently accept as physical knowledge has actually been certified by the Court; our confidence is that it would be certified by the Court if it were submitted. But it does follow that every item of physical knowledge is of a form which might be submitted to the Court. It must be such that we can specify (although it may be impracticable to carry out) an observational procedure which would decide whether it is true or not. Clearly a statement cannot be tested by observation unless it is an assertion about the results of observation. Every item of physical knowledge must therefore be an assertion of what has been or would be the result of carrying out a specified observational procedure.
Sir Arthur Eddington - Stars and Atoms (1928), Lecture 1
I ask you to look both ways. For the road to a knowledge of the stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars.
Sir Arthur Eddington - The Philosophy of Physical Science
The mathematics is not there till we put it there.
Sir Arthur Eddington - In J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956
It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.

- Sir Arthur Eddington - Space, Time, and Gravitation, 1920

Be careful that victories do not carry the seed of future defeats.

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

- Ralph W. Sockman

"Hello," he lied.

- Don Carpenter quoting a Hollywood agent

A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations ? Book Three
One whose chief regard is for his own mind, and for the divinity within him and the service of its goodness, will strike no poses, utter no complaints, and crave neither for solitude nor yet for a crowd. Best of all, his life will be free from continual pursuing and avoiding.
Marcus Aurelius
All is ephemeral--fame and the famous as well.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations ? Book Seven
All of us are working together for the same end; some of us knowingly and purposefully, others unconsciously.

It is a sin to persue pleasure as a good and to avoid pain as a evil.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations ? Book Six
Because a thing is difficult for you, do not therefore suppose it to be beyond mortal power. On the contrary, if anything is possible and proper for man to do, assume that it must fall within your own capacity.
Marcus Aurelius
Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
Marcus Aurelius
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations ? Book Ten
Waste no more time arguing what a god man should be. Be one.

The sinners sins against himself; the wrongdoer wrongs himself, becoming the worse by his own action.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations ? Book Twelve
All the blessings which you pray to obtain hereafter could be yours today, if you did not deny them to yourself.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations - Book Eleven
Virtue they will but abuse, and taunt her with bitter revilling.
Marcus Aurelius
Death smiles at us all, but all a man can do is smile back.
Marcus Aurelius
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Marcus Aurelius
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.

- Marcus Aurelius - Meditations, Book nine

You are free, and that is why you are lost.

There are two main human sins from which all the others derive: impatience and indolence. It was because of impatience that they were expelled from Paradise, it is because of indolence that they do not return. Yet perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return.

Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.

- Franz Kafka

Half the controversies in the world are verbal ones; and could they be brought to a plain issue they would be brought to a prompt termination. Parties engaged in them would then perceive either that in substance they agreed together, or that their difference was one of first principles. We need not dispute, we need not prove, we need but define. At all events, let us, if we can, do this first of all and then see who are left for us to dispute; what is left for us to prove.

- Cardinal John Newman

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free.

- Michaelangelo

In rivers and bad governments, the lightest things swim at the top.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

He is a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom.

Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Dost thou love life? Than do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.

Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy.

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.

He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

Critics are our friends, they tell us our faults.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Sell not liberty to purchase power.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
Benjamin Franklin - In response to the situation of the colonists
Passion governs, and she never governs wisely.

We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
Benjamin Franklin - Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy (1789)
But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

Lost time is never found again.

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.

I believe I shall,in some shape or other,always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected.

If you would be loved, love and be lovable.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are rotten,
either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.

To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Benjamin Franklin - Card
Tell me....And I Forget,
Teach me.....And I Learn,
Involve Me.....And I Remember.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.
Benjamin Franklin - ?
To be proud of virtue is to poison oneself with the antidote.

They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Well done is better than well said.

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.

We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

You may delay, but time will not.

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. He that rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.

An investment in knowledge still yields the best returns.

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.

Rules too soft are seldomly followed; rules too harsh are seldomly executed.

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

All cats are gray in the dark.

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."

He who multiplies riches multiplies cares.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.

Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life.

Glass, china and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.

Think what you do when you run into debt; you give another power over your liberty.

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level of themselves.

He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.

I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it.

Three people can keep a secret so long as two of them are dead.

Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.
Benjamin Franklin - 1759
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

I am in the prime of senility.

All would live long, but none would be old.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting,

Early morning hath gold in its mouth.

Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults.

Five thousand balloons, capable of raising two men each, could not cost more than five ships of the line; and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense as that 10,000 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?

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face
Benjamin Franklin - Poor Richard?s Almanac (1758)
Creditors have better memories than debtors.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy meals

Necessity never made a good bargain.

Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

Read much, but not many books.

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lose; for the want of a shoe the horse was lose; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.
Benjamin Franklin - letter to David Hartley, December 4, 1789
God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: "This is my country."
Benjamin Franklin - Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

You may delay, but time will not.

- Benjamin Franklin

There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you.

- Carol Matthau - O Magazine, October 2003

Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.
Immanuel Kant - FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE METAPHYSICS OF ETHICS
To be beneficent when we can is a duty; and besides this, there are many minds so sympathetically constituted that, without any other motive of vanity or self-interest, they find a pleasure in spreading joy around them, and can take delight in the satisfaction of others so far as it is their own work. But I maintain that in such a case an action of this kind, however proper, however amiable it may be, has nevertheless no true moral worth, but is on a level with other inclinations. ... For the maxim lacks the moral import, namely, that such actions be done from duty, not from inclination.

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

The history of the human race, viewed as a whole may be regarded as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to bring about a political constitution, internally, and for this purpose, also externally perfect, as the only state in which all the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully developed.

From timber so crooked as that from which man is carved, nothing entirely straight can be made.

That all our knowledge begins with experience, there is indeed no doubt....but although our knowledge originates WITH experience, it does not all arise OUT OF experience.
Immanuel Kant - CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer.
Immanuel Kant - FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE METAPHYSICS OF ETHICS
...as to moral feeling, this supposed special sense, the appeal to it is indeed superficial when those who cannot think believe that feeling will help them out, even in what concerns general laws: and besides, feelings which naturally differ infinitely in degree cannot furnish a uniform standard of good and evil, nor has any one a right to form judgments for others by his own feelings...

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
Immanuel Kant - CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally; as well as of idealism and skepticism, which are dangerous chiefly to the Schools, and hardly allow of being handed on to the public.
Immanuel Kant - CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
"Human reason is by nature architectonic."

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
Immanuel Kant - The Science of Right
The universal and lasting establishment of peace constitutes not merely a part, but the whole final purpose and end of the science of right as viewed within the limits of reason.

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.

Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds for exemption from the examination by this tribunal, But, if they are exempted, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination.
Immanuel Kant - FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE METAPHYSICS OF ETHICS
Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a general natural law
Immanuel Kant - Critique of Practical Reason
The inscrutable wisdom through which we exist is not less worthy of veneration in respect to what it denies us than in respect to what it has granted.

- Immanuel Kant

I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you and education.

Life is a tough proposition and the first hundred years are the hardest.

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.

The days just prior to marriage are like a snappy introduction to a tedious book.

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

Those who welcome death have only tried it from the ears up.

To my embarrassment I was born in bed with a lady.

Over in Hollywood they almost made a great picture, but they caught it in time.

Those who welcome death have only tried it from the ears up.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

I hate careless flattery, the kind that exhausts you in your effort to believe it.

God help those who do not help themselves.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

Hollywood is a sewer with service from the Ritz Carlton.

- Wilson Mizner

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

"Careful with fire" is good advice we know.
"Careful with words" is ten times doubly so.

- William Carleton

When President Bush invaded Iraq after 9
11 it was like Truman invading Mexico after Pearl Harbor.
John Kerry - speech in New York, August 24, 2004
I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president.
John Kerry - speech in New York, August 24, 2004
At every step of the way, George W. Bush has put the narrow interests of the few ahead of the interests of most Americans.
John Kerry - Speech at Democratic Convention, May 31, 2002
We must uphold the promise of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, and Clinton and never allow the President and his Republican friends to threaten Social Security by putting it on the Wall Street trading block.
John Kerry
I would rather be the candidate of the NAACP than the NRA.
John Kerry - speech in 2004
American can do better, and help is on the way.
John Kerry - Statement on Vietnam before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 22, 1971
How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?

- John Kerry - Debate

What importance can we attach to the things of this world? Friendship? It disappears when the one who is liked comes to grief, or the one who likes becomes powerful. Love? it is deceived, fleeting, or guilty. Fame? You share it with mediocrity or crime. Fortune? Could that frivolity be counted a blessing? All that remains are those so-called happy days that flow past unnoticed in the obscurity of domestic cares, leaving man with the desire neither to lose his life nor to begin it over.

One is not superior merely because one sees the world as odious.

- Chateaubriand

A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender.

True love is night jasmine, a diamond in darkenss, the heartbeat no cardiologist has ever heard. It is the most common of miracles, fashioned of fleecy clouds, a handful of stars tossed into the night sky.

It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.

Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.
Jim Bishop - New York Journal-American, March 14, 1959
The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face.

- Jim Bishop

There is no substitute for victory.

- Douglas McArthur - Farwell Speech to Joint Session of US Congress, 1952

No sword bites so fiercly as an evil tongue.

They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.

They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.

The ingredients of health and long life, are great temperance, open air, easy labor, and little care.

All is but lip-wisdom which wants experience.

Alexander received more bravery of mind by the pattern of Achilles, than by hearing the definition of fortitude.

In forming a judgment, lay your hearts void of foretaken opinions; else, whatsoever is done or said, will be measured by a wrong rule; like them who have jaundice, to whom everything appears yellow.

- Sir Philip Sidney

People with bad consciences always fear the judgement of children.

We are the hero of our own story.

We are the hero of our own story.

- Mary McCarthy

The wicked at heart probably know something.
Woody Allen
How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?
Woody Allen
The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more.
Woody Allen - Just Six Numbers, Martin Rees, page 71
Eternity is very long, especially towards the end.
Woody Allen
Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.
Woody Allen
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Whosoever shall not fall by the sword or by famine, shall fall by pestilence so why bother shaving?
Woody Allen
Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.
Woody Allen - Annie Hall
I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy next to me.
Woody Allen
There are three rings involved with marriage. The engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Thought: why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only for food: frequently there must be a beverage.
Woody Allen
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.
Woody Allen
On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done just as easily lying down.
Woody Allen
Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.

Whosover loveth wisdom is righteous, but he that keepeth company with fowl is weird.
Woody Allen
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
Woody Allen
I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead- not sick, not wounded - dead.
Woody Allen
I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.
Woody Allen
Is sex dirty? Only if you do it right.
Woody Allen
His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.
Woody Allen
I am at two with nature.
Woody Allen
Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.
Woody Allen
We were married by a reformed rabbi in Long Island. A very reformed rabbi. A Nazi.
Woody Allen
Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.
Woody Allen
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Woody Allen
I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DOE
Unbearably lovely music is heard as the curtain rises, and we see the woods on a summer afternoon. A fawn dances on and nibbles slowly at some leaves. He drifts lazily through the soft foliage. Soon he starts coughing and drops dead.
Woody Allen
Eighty percent of success is showing up.
Woody Allen
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen
For a while we pondered whether to take a vacation or get a divorce. We decided that a trip to Bermuda is over in two weeks, but a divorce is something you always have.
Woody Allen
When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.
Woody Allen
Sex alleviates tension. Love causes it.
Woody Allen
Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought---particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.
Woody Allen
Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.
Woody Allen
It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Is it better to be the lover or the loved one? Neither, if your cholesterol is over six hundred. By love, of course, I refer to romantic love -- the love between man and woman, rather than between mother and child, or a boy and his dog, or two headwaiters.
Woody Allen
How to make God laugh: Tell him your future plans.
Woody Allen
How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?
Woody Allen
Bisexuality automatically doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.
Woody Allen
Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought-- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.
Woody Allen
Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down.
Woody Allen
Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.
Woody Allen
For the first year of marriage I had basically a bad attitude. I tended to place my wife underneath a pedestal
Woody Allen
Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?
Woody Allen
Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very little on office supplies.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Doing abominations is against the law, particularly if the abominations are done while wearing a lobster bib.
Woody Allen
There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?
Woody Allen
My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.
Woody Allen
Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.

My Lord, my Lord! What hast Thou done, lately?
Woody Allen
More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Woody Allen
More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to utter hopelessness and despair, the other to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Woody Allen
I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
Woody Allen
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.

Whosoever shall not fall by the sword or by famine, shall fall by pestilence, so why bother shaving?
Woody Allen
I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick, not wounded: dead.
Woody Allen
Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end.
Woody Allen
You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.
Woody Allen
I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.

- Woody Allen - "Without Feathers"

Love the ones you can. Touch the ones you can reach. Let the others go.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 4, 2003
When someone allows you to bear his burdens, you have found deep friendship.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 05, 2004
I think people want their illusions and writers are mostly illusion. When you read their words, you read a flattened, incomplete version of the writer.
Real Live Preacher - reallivepreacher.com weblog, September 4, 2003
And so faith is closing your eyes and following the breath of your soul down to the bottom of life, where existence and nonexistence have merged into irrelevance. All that matters is the little part you play in the vast drama.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com weblog, 10-09-04
Good writing takes more than just time; it wants your best moments and the best of you.
Real Live Preacher - reallivepreacher.com weblog, September 4, 2003
The universe seems wondrous to me, with or without God. It has powerful lines and uncompromising ways. Patience and time sit like sages on the planets, strong and impersonal. There is a stark beauty to all of this.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, August 5, 2003
The only comfort comes in thinking about how nice it was to know them, and how nice it was to brush against goodness for a season.

You can forget a lot of things, but you cannot forget a woman?s name and claim to love her.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 16, 2002
I believe love is primarily a choice and only sometimes a feeling. If you want to feel love, choose to love and be patient.
Real Live Preacher - Real Live Preacher weblog, 05-01-05
Dignity comes not from control, but from understanding who you are and taking your rightful place in the world.
Real Live Preacher - Real Live Preacher weblog, 03-25-05
When someone is giving you their theology, their God words, you should listen hard and be very gentle. The time to deliver your God words is when you are asked.
Real Live Preacher - weblog, 04-29-04
Memory is a giggling sprite and will not be tamed. She takes flight the moment the present becomes the past.
Real Live Preacher - Real Live Preacher weblog, 10-06-05
Some things you do because you want to. Some things you do because of the needs of others in your family.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, July 7, 2003
Forgiveness does not always lead to a healed relationship. Some people are not capable of love, and it might be wise to let them go along with your anger. Wish them well, and let them go their way.
Real Live Preacher - Real Live Preacher weblog, 07-08-04
When you really trust someone, you have to be okay with not understanding some things.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, August 2, 2003
I?m telling you, things are getting out of hand. Or maybe I?m discovering that things were never in my hands.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 20, 2003
I don?t think anyone can DO anything that would make him worthy of love. Love is a gift and cannot be earned. It can only be given.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 04, 2004
I have been truthful all along the way. The truth is more interesting, and if you tell the truth you never have to cover your tracks.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 16, 2002
My life is the story of a man who always wants to carry too much. My spiritual quest is the painful process of learning to let go of things not essential.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 29, 2004
This is the challenge of writing. You have to be very emotionally engaged in what you?re doing, or it comes out flat. You can?t fake your way through this.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 26, 2002
We think having faith means being convinced God exists in the same way we are convinced a chair exists. People who cannot be completely convinced of God?s existence think faith is impossible for them. Not so. People who doubt can have great faith because faith is something you do, not something you think. In fact, the greater your doubt the more heroic your faith.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, February 13, 2003
EVERY path may lead you to God, even the weird ones. Most of us are on a journey. We?re looking for something, though we?re not always sure what that is. The way is foggy much of the time. I suggest you slow down and follow some of the side roads that appear suddenly in the mist.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 26, 2002
God, I don?t have great faith, but I can be faithful. My belief in you may be seasonal, but my faithfulness will not. I will follow in the way of Christ. I will act as though my life and the lives of others matter. I will love. I have no greater gift to offer than my life. Take it.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 16, 2002
Fidelity to commitment in the face of doubts and fears is a very spiritual thing.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, August 27, 2003
There isn?t much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren?t really living without it.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 27, 2003
Integrity combined with faithfulness is a powerful force and worthy of great respect.
Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, February 13, 2004
I?m searching through all that has ever been hoped, in praise of what can never be known.

- Real Live Preacher - RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, October 20, 2003

To worry is a sin. Only one sort of worry is permissible; to worry because one worries.

Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.

He who feels no compassion will become insane.

Lies are usually caused by undue fear of men.

The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.

- Hasidic Saying

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and bad.

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.

If men will not be governed by God, they will be ruled by tyrants.

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers.

Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it.

- William Penn

It is in learning music that many youthful hearts learn to love.

- Ricard

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.

Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.

The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.

A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.

A theory must be tempered with reality.

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.

Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.

- Jawaharlal Nehru

If it were natural for father to care for their sons, they would not need so many laws commanding them to do so.

- Phyllis Chesler

Familiarity breeds contempt, while rarity wins admiration.

He is the better equipped for life. As for swimming, who has the less to carry.

- Apuleius

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.

I envy people who drink. At least they have something to blame everything on.

I envy people who drink. At least they have something to blame everything on.

I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.

A dollar saved is a quarter earned.

Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath.

So little time and so little to do.

The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Marriage is a triumph of habit over hate.

I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on.

When you give up drinking, you have to deal with that wonderful personality that started you drinking in the first place.

Behind the phony tinsel of Hollywood lies the real tinsel.

I am no more humble than my talents require.

I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients.

I knew her before she was a virgin.

So little time, so little to do.

- Oscar Levant

And yesterday he would have killed me to get to his foe. But now we serve each other. Only a fool walks into the future backward.
Terry Goodkind
Only a fool walks backwards into the future.
Terry Goodkind - "Blood of the Fold"
But if used for retribution, magic is vengeance incarnate.

- Terry Goodkind - "Stone of Tears"

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around.

There are more of them than us.

Cockroaches and socialites are the only things that can stay up all night and eat anything.

I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.

All American cars are basically Chevrolets.

The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever.

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around.

- Herb Caen

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.

It had only one fault. It was kind of lousy.

I loathe the expression "What makes him tick." It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm.

You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.

Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
James Thurber - New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937
Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?

He who hesitates is sometimes saved.

Early to rise and early to bed Makes a male healthy, wealthy and dead
James Thurber - My Life and Hard Times (1933)
Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.

I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.

I hate women because they always know where things are.

The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
James Thurber - New Yorker, Apr. 29, 1939 "The Bear Who Let It Alone"
You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.

A husband should not insult his wife publicly, at parties. He should insult her in the privacy of the home.

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
James Thurber - in Edward R. Murrow television interview
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
James Thurber - New Yorker, Feb. 4, 1939, "The Fairly Intelligent Fly"
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.

Let us not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around us in awareness.

There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
James Thurber - New Yorker, Feb. 18, 1939 "The Shrike and the Chipmunks"
Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead.

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority.
James Thurber - New Yorker, Apr. 29, 1939 "The Owl who was God"
You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
James Thurber - "Carpe Noctem, If You Can", in "Credos and Curios" (1962)
I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.

Its better to know some of the questions, than all of the answers.

I hate women because they always know where things are.

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people--that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.

- James Thurber

No one can deny that much of our modern advertising is essentially dishonest; and it can be maintained that to lie freely and all the time for private profit is not to abuse the right of free speech, whether it is a violation of the law or not. But again the practical question is, how much lying for private profit is to be permitted by law?

- Carl L. Becker

The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.

If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling.
Joseph Addison - Women and Liberty
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.

A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.
Joseph Addison - The Spectator, July 12, 1711
Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.
Joseph Addison - The Spectator, September 26, 1712
Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.

What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

I think I may define taste to be that faculty of the soul which discerns the beauties of an author with pleasure, and the imperfections with dislike.

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.

There are many shining qualities on the mind of man; but none so useful as discretion. It is this which gives a value to all the rest, and sets them at work in their proper places, and turns them to the advantage of their possessor. Without it, learning is pedantry; wit, impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; and the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice. Though a man has all other perfections and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.
Joseph Addison - Cato
Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.

It is folly for an eminent person to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected by it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without.
Joseph Addison - (1672-1719)
Friendship improves hapiness and reduces misery, by doubting our joys and dividing our grief.

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.

From social intercourse are derived some of the highest enjoyments of life; where there is a free interchange of sentiments the mind acquires new ideas, and by frequent exercise of its powers, the understanding gains fresh vigor.

Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul; and thus it may be looked on as weakness in the composition of human nature. But if we consider the frequent reliefs we receive from it and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to depress the mind and damp our spirits, with transient, unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life.

Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties, and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul.

Self discipline is that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.

- Joseph Addison

Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners.

Middle age is when your broad mind and narrow waist begin to change places.

- E. Joseph Crossman

True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.

- John Hay - Distichs, latter 19th century

If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.
Maria Edgeworth
The human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return.

- Maria Edgeworth - O Magazine, April 2004

The best way to keep children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant --- and let the air out of their tires.

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant--and let the air out of the tires.
Dorothy Parker - speaking of Katharine Hepburn
She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.
Dorothy Parker - when told she was outspoken
By whom?

The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the prettiest love stories in all literature.
Dorothy Parker - Not So Deep as a Well (1937), "Comment"
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

His voice was a intimate as the rustle of sheets.
Dorothy Parker - (attributed)
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.

Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.
Dorothy Parker - Not So Deep as a Well (1937), "News Item"
Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.
Dorothy Parker - suggested for her tombstone
This is on me.

Trapped, like a trap in a trap.

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

The only "ism" hollywood believes in is plagiarism.

"Coolidge is dead"
"How could they tell?

Every year, back come Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants.

The only "ism" Hollywood believes in is plagiarism.

I might repeat to myself slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound - if I can remember any of the damn things.

The best way to keep children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant - and let the air out of the tires.

A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika.

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
Dorothy Parker - book review
This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

I require three things in a man. He must be handsome, ruthless and stupid.

The two most beautiful words in the English language are ``check enclosed.'

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

I went to a convent in New York and was fired finally for my insistence that the Immaculate Conception was spontaneous combustion.
Dorothy Parker - telegram to friend who had given birth
Dear Mary: We all knew you had it in you.

- Dorothy Parker

A compliment is a gift, not to be thrown away carelessly, unless you want to hurt the giver.

- Eleanor Hamilton

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.

- George Best

My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow.

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.

To attract men, I wear a perfume called ``New Car Interior.'

My mother buried three husbands, and two of them were just napping.

Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them. My mother cleans them.

My mother buried three husbands ... and two of them were only napping.

In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.

I was a vegetarian until I started leaning toward the sunlight.

- Rita Rudner

It is slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body.

The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Kahlil Gibran - Essay on Robert Frost, quoted in N. Y.. Times: Obit-Editorial, April 1982
Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief, But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily, when good is hungry is seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

Love is know the pain of too much tenderness.

Marriage is the golden ring in a chain, whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is eternity.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prohpet, 1923
You give but little when you give of your posessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.

They deem me mad for I will not sell my days for gold; I deem them mad for they think my days have a price.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolutions.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
Give your hearts, but not into each other?s keeping,
For only the hand of God can contain your hearts.

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

You give little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran - The Broken Wings
I am one of those who believe that spiritual progress is a rule of human life, but the approach to perfection is slow and painful. If a woman elevates herself in one respect and is retarded in another, it is because the rough trail that leads to the mountain peak is not free of ambushes of thieves and lairs of wolves.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

- Kahlil Gibran

Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man.

- Francis Cardinal Spellman

The sad news is, nobody owes you a career. Your career is literally your business. You own it as a sole proprietor. You have one employee: yourself. You need to accept ownership of your career, your skills and the timing of your moves.

- Andrew Grove - Co-founder and Chairman of Intel Corporation, Only the Paranoid Survive

To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice.

- Magna Carta

Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.

I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can?t see from the centre.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.

- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together....

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the universe together ...

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the universe together...

- Carl Zwanzig

In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.
Cornelius Tacitus - Histories
It is the rare fortuene of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.

There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive.

No hatred is so bitter as that of near relations.

Keen at the start, but careless at the end.

I am my nearest neighbour.

It is found by experience that admirable laws and right precedents among the good have their origin in the misdeeds of others.

That cannot be safe which is not honourable.

- Cornelius Tacitus

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.

Comedy is tragedy plus time.

- Carol Burnett

Sometimes when I look at my children I say to myself, "Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin."

- Lillian Carter - mother of Jimmy and Billy

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.
Og Mandino - The Greatest Miracle in the World
Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.

Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished.

- Og Mandino

The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.
Sigmund Freud
Religion is an illusion, and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses.
Sigmund Freud - Collected Writings, 1924
Anatomy is destiny.
Sigmund Freud
I have found little that is good about human beings. In my experience most of them, on the whole, are trash.
Sigmund Freud
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
Sigmund Freud
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Sigmund Freud
The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.
Sigmund Freud
Innately, children seem to have little true realistic anxiety. They will run along the brink of water, climb on the window sill, play with sharp objects and with fire, in short, do everything that is bound to damage them and to worry those in charge of them, that is wholly the result of education; for they cannot be allowed to make the instructive experiences themselves.
Sigmund Freud
The goal of all life is death.
Sigmund Freud - his essay on war & death
If you want to endure life, prepare yourself for death.
Sigmund Freud
Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.
Sigmund Freud
From error to error one discovers the entire truth.
Sigmund Freud
From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.
Sigmund Freud - The Future of an Illusion (1927)
The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.
Sigmund Freud
I have found little that is good about human beings. In my experience most of them are trash.
Sigmund Freud
America is a mistake, a giant mistake.
Sigmund Freud
Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.
Sigmund Freud - Letter to Carl Jung, January 17, 1909
We are certainly getting ahead; if I am Moses, then you are Joshua and will take possession of the promised land of psychiatry, which I shall only be able to glimpse from afar.
Sigmund Freud
Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.

- Sigmund Freud - (Attributed)

I have been like a child walking along the shore line. Quickly discarding one sea shell for another of more outward beauty-- never to know the pearl within!
Robert Anthony - Great American Poets 2004
In an information world where we all have someday to say it is important to remember that sometimes we need to listen.
Robert Anthony - Great American Poets 2002
If we could only share our hopes, our dreams, our disappointments, our fears, our achievements, and our discoveries.... the world would be a little kinder and a lot more forgiving.

- Robert Anthony - The Man Who Would Never Be King

A wizard cannot do everything; a fact most magicians are reticent to admit, let alone discuss with prospective clients. Still, the fact remains that there are certain objects, and people, that are, for one reason or another, completely immune to any direct magical spell. It is for this group of beings that the magician learns the subtleties of using indirect spells. It also does no harm, in dealing with these matters, to carry a large club near your person at all times.

- The Teachings of Ebenezum - Volume VIII

One of the most sublime experiences we can ever have is to wake up feeling healthy after we have been sick.

Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness.

I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending that haunts our sleep so much as the fear ... that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived.

Everything that God created is potentially holy, and our task as humans is to find that holiness in seemingly unholy situations. When we can do this, we will have learned to nurture our souls.

I would rather think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to come together and make sense.

We are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great breakthrough.

- Rabbi Harold Kushner

Report writing, like motor-car driving and love-making, is one of those activities which almost every Englishman thinks he can do well without instruction. The results are of course usually abominable.

- Tom Margerison - "A Random Walk in Science" compiled by R. L. Weber, edited by E. Mendoza

The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves.

- Oscar Arias Sanchez

Praise the bridge that carried you over.

- George Colman - The Younger

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

When I get smitten, I stay smut.

- Charlie McCarthy

Sticks and stones will break our bones, but words will break our hearts...

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned--the biggest word of all--look.
Robert Fulghum - It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It
The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.

- Robert Fulghum

Within every adversity is an equal or greater opportunity.

Any ideas, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.
Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich
No one is ready for a thing until he believes he can acquire it.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.

First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.

Success in highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which comes only to the man who has found the work he likes best.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

- Napoleon Hill

There is only one way in which a person acquires a new idea; by combination or association of two or more ideas he already has into a new juxtaposition in such a manner as to discover a relationship among them of which he was not previously aware.

- Francis A. Carter

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - "Meditations", book 9.
A candour affected is a dagger concealed.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - "Meditations", book 9.
A man does not sin by commission only, but often by ommission.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.

Remember this-that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - "Meditations", book 6.
To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - "Meditations", book 2.
A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all - that is myself.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
Nothing happens to any thing which that thing is not made by nature to bear.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself!

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard accordingly; and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue, and reasonable nature.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
Very little is needed to make a happy life.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - "Meditations", book 5.
Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible; life in a palace is possible; therefore even in a palace a right life is possible.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - "Meditations", book 6.
To stand up -- or be setup?

It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities.

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations, 200 A.D.
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Meditations
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future.

It takes a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the mathematical ideas of successive epochs is like omitting Hamlet from the play which is named after him. . . But it is certainly analogous to cutting out the part of Ophelia. This simile is singularly exact. For Ophelia is quite essential to the play, she is very charming-- and a little mad.

Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the nightingale for its song; and the sun for its radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves and should turn them into odes of self congratulation on the excellence of the human mind.

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike.

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.

Through and through the world is infested with quantity. To talk sense is to talk quantities, It is no use saying the nation is large- how large? It is no use s aying that radium is scarce- how scarce? You can not evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

A clash of doctrines is not a disaster--it is an opportunity.
Alfred North Whitehead - From the viewbook of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
The future belongs to those who can rise above the confines of the earth.

But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and that, I think, is where our personal destinies are largely decided.
Alfred North Whitehead - Dialogues (1954)
Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.

Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
Alfred North Whitehead - N. Rose Mathematical Maxims and Minims, Raleigh NC:Rome Press Inc., 1988.
Let us grant that the pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit, a refuge from the goading urgency of contingent happenings.

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

An enormous part of our mature experience cannot not be expressed in words.

I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning , or destroyed it altogether.

We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
Alfred North Whitehead - Introduction to Mathematics (1911)
Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

There are no whole truths; all truths are half- truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.

- Alfred North Whitehead

The cowards never start and the weak die along the way.

- Kit Carson

To know when to be generous and when to be firm -- this is wisdom.

A legal or religious ceremony by which two persons of the opposite sex solemnly agree to harass and spy on each other... until death do them join.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.

Gossip is only the lack of a worthy memory.

If you suffer, thank God! -- it is a sure sign that you are alive.

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

In these days, a man who says a thing cannot be done is quite apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it.

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

The secret of success is this: there is no secret of success.

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

The woman who cannot tell a lie in defense of her husband is unworthy of the name of wife.

The greatest mistake a man can make is to be afraid of making one.

Live truth instead of professing it.

Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.

Enthusiasm is the great hill-climber.

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.

A friend is someone who knows all about you and loves you just the same.

A pessimist is a man who has been compelled to live with an optimist.

The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. That is part of the penalty for greatness, and every great man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure continously without resentment.

Folks who never do any more than they are paid for, never get paid more than they do.

Death: To stop sinning suddenly.

A committee is a thing which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success?

Life in abundance comes only through great love.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private citizens will occasionally kill their.s

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

Men are punished by their sins, not for them.

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.

The love we give away is the only love we keep.

To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

Editor: a person employed on a newspaper whose business it is to seperate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

Men are rich only as they give. He who gives great service gets great rewards.

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.

Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

- Elbert Hubbard

Roots creep under the ground to make a firm foundation. Shoots seems new and small, but to reach the light they can break through brick walls.

Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.

- Jane Goodall

Geschichte ist [...] ein Dialog zwischen Gegenwart und Vergangenheit. [re-transl.:] History is [...] a dialogue between the present and the past.

- Edward Hallet Carr - Was ist Geschichte?, S. 54

If you have a fallback plan, you will fall back.

- Nedra Carroll

Orthodox medicine has not found an answer to your complaint. However, luckily for you, I happen to be a quack.

- Richter cartoon caption

The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that can never be rewoven.
Orson Scott Card - The Worthing Saga
To have a choice at all is to be free - even when the choice is between two terrible things.
Orson Scott Card - Treasure Box
Everybody dies. What matters is what you do between now and when it happens to you.

- Orson Scott Card - Xenocide

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.

What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living.

Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own.

Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three - and paradise is when you have none.

A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.

Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.

A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.

The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.

Accomplishing the impossible means only the boss will add it to your regular duties.

- Doug Larson

Oppression can only survive through silence.

Oppression can only survive through silence.

- Carmen de Monteflores

Washington DC is the only place in America where people put bumper stickers on their cars the day *after* the election.

- Cokie Roberts - TV interview in either 1992 or 1996

Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.

Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.

My heart is pure as the driven slush.
Tallulah Bankhead - on seeing a former lover for the first time in years
I thought I told you to wait in the car.

Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.

They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.

- Tallulah Bankhead

If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.

- D. L. Moody

I think, therefore Descartes exists.

- Saul Steinberg

Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself. If thou find anything questionable there, use the commentary of a severe friend rather than the gloss of a sweet lipped flatterer; there is more profit in a distasteful truth than in deceitful sweetness.

Rather do what is nothing in the purpose than to be idle, that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot when the fliers escape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and is the self-made sepulcher of a living man.

If thy words be too luxuriant, confine them, lest they confine thee. He that thinks he can never speak enough, may easily speak too much. A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted.

Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail.

Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny; Plato, a privilege of nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a delightful prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Aristotle, that it was better than all the letters of recommendation in the world; Homer, that it was a glorious gift of nature; and Ovid, that it was favor bestowed by the gods.

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse.

If thou desire to purchase honor with thy wealth, consider first how that wealth became thine; if thy labor got it, let thy wisdom keep it; if oppression found it, let repentance restore it; if thy parent left it, let thy virtues deserve it; so shall thy honor be safer, better and cheaper.

- Francis Quarles

I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.

A friend never defends a husband who gets his wife an electric skillet for her birthday.
Erma Bombeck - on her tombstone
I told you I was sick.

Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.

- Erma Bombeck

The only reward for love is the experience of loving.

- John LeCarre - The Secret Pilgrim

Everything in the world has a spirit which is released by its sound.

- Oscar Fischinger

Mothers, food, love, and career, the four major guilt groups.

- Cathy Guisewite

When one has nothing left to lose one becomes courageous. We are timid only when we have something left to cling to.

- Don Juan Matus - The Second Ring Of Power by Carlos Castaneda

The enemy is in front of us, the enemy is behind us, the enemy is to the right and to the left of us. They can?t get away this time!!!

- General Douglas McArthur

They always talk who never think.
Matthew Prior - "Hans Carvel" (1701)
The ends must justify the means.

Be to her virtues very kind. Be to her faults a little blind.

- Matthew Prior

The more you suffer , the more you show you really care.

- The Offspring - Smash

The first thing a girl hopes for from the garden of love is at least one carat.

- S. S. Biddle

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

- Cardinal Richelieu

He who is caught in a lie is not believed when he tells the truth.

Books are hindrances to persisting stupidity.

The lazy man always does twice the work.
(El bago siempre pasa double trabajo)

Take hold lightly; let go lightly. This is one of the great secrets of felicity in love.

If you want to be respected, you must respect yourself.

Never advise anyone to go to war or to marry.

Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.

Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without reading it.

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.

Discretion is knowing how to hide that which we cannot remedy.

Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without reading it.

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.

- Spanish Proverb

Actions lie louder than words.

Actions lie louder than words.

- Carolyn Wells

A great leader never sets himself above his followers except in carrying responsibilities.

- Jules Ormont

If our actions stem from honesty, kindness, caring, and vision, then no matter what the result of our efforts, we have added something of value to our souls and to the world.

- Joan Boysenko - Pocketful of Miracles

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.

Too bad the only people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair.

First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down.

Too bad the only people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair.

I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty.

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning anf a good ending; and have the two as close together as possible.

Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty.

- George Burns

One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

Concentration is my motto - first honesty, then industry, then concentration.

One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.

- Andrew Carnegie

The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and sudden acquisition of wealth.
Dorothy Sayers - Gaudy Night
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Dorothy Sayers - Gaudy Night
To be possessed is an admirable reason for possessing.

As I grow older and older,
And totter toward the tomb,
I find that I care less and less
Who goes to bed with whom.

- Dorothy Sayers

Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld - quoted in O Magazine, October 2002
When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

The defects of the understanding, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old.

To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends in insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.

Nothing is less sincere than our mode of asking and giving advice. He who asks seems to have a deference for the opinion of his friend, while he only aims to get approval of his own and make his friend responsible for his action. And he who gives advice repays the confidence supposed to be placed in him by a seemingly disinterested zeal, while he seldom means anything by his advice but his own interest or reputation.

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.

We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood our motives.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld - Reflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
The most dangerous folly of old people who were once attractive is to forget that they are not so any longer.

Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue.

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.

What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.

If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.

To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to appear established.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld - Reflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
There are very few women in society whose virtue outlasts their beauty.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld - Reflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
The sort of liveliness which increases with age is not far distant from madness.

We should manage our fortunes as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity.

Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.

We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.

Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.

It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

Jealousy feeds upon suspicion, and it turns into fury or it ends as soon as we pass from suspicion to certainty.

Small minds are much distressed by little things. Great minds see them all but are not upset by them.

In jealousy there is more of self-love, than of love to another.

The truest mark of being born with great qualities, is being born without envy.

He who lives without folly is not so wise as he imagines.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld - Maximes (1678)
We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.

The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.

Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld - Reflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.

Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everything which is beyond their range.

The pleasure of love is in loving.

Vanity makes us do more things against inclination than reason.

When we are unable to find tranquillity within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

Our repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us in consequence.

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.

The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.

The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

The mind cannot long act the role of the heart.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

...because it is the very nature of Imperialism to turn humans into beasts.

Silence is argument carried out by other means.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara - Shortly before being shot.
Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, a true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.

- Ernesto "Che" Guevara

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

We have long passed the Victorian era, when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully.

There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.

To write simply is as difficult as to be good.

Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers at their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever knows. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.

When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. He was a religious man and he read prayers to the assembled household every morning. But he had crossed out in pencil all the passages that praised God. He said that there was nothing so vulgar as to praise people to their faces and, himself a gentleman, he could not believe that God was so ungentlemanly as to like it.

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches them tolerance.

It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get it.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.
W. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage
There will always be one who loves, and one who lets himself be loved.

Love is a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species.
W. Somerset Maugham - "Our Betters", 1923
It was such a lovely day I thought it was a pity to get up.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
W. Somerset Maugham - The Moon and Sixpence
Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
W. Somerset Maugham - "Of Human Bondage", 1915
People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
W. Somerset Maugham - The Moon and Sixpence
Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
W. Somerset Maugham - The Moon and Sixpence
A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

- W. Somerset Maugham

The modern age has been characterized by a Promethean spirit, a restless energy that preys on speed records and shortcuts, unmindful of the past, uncaring of the future, existing only for the moment and the quick fix. The earthly rhythms that characterize a more pastoral way of life have been shunted aside to make room for the fast track of an urbanized existence. Lost in a sea of perpetual technological transition, modern man and woman find themselves increasingly alienated from the ecological choreography of the planet.

- Jeremy Rifkin

There is a measure in everything. There are fixed limits beyond which and short of which right cannot find a resting place.
Horace - Odes
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!
[Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.]
Horace - Epistles
The covetous man is ever in want.

Faults are soon copied.
Horace - Epistles
He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure.
Horace - Odes
In adversity remember to keep an even mind.
Horace - Epistles
The years as they pass plunder us of one thing after another.
Horace - Epistles
To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
Horace - Odes
Many brave men lived before Agamemnon; but all are overwhelmed in eternal night, unwept, unknown, because they lack a sacred poet.

Mediocrity is not allowed to poets, either by the gods or man.

With silence favor me.
(Favete Linguis)

The appearance of right oft leads us wrong.

Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking.

Whatever advice you give, be brief.
Horace - Epistles
Think to yourself that every day is your last; the hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.
Horace - Satires
We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.
Horace - Epistles
He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!
Horace - Odes
Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

I will not add another word.
Horace - Odes
It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.
Horace - Epistles
Make money, money by fair means if you can, if not, but any means money.
Horace - Epistles
It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.
Horace - Odes
Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth. And set down as gain each day that Fortune grants.

He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.
Horace - Epistles
Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.
Horace - Satires
There is measure in all things.

He who postpones the hour of living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

Life is largely a matter of expectation.
Horace - Odes
Whoever cultivates the golden mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.
Horace - Odes
With you I should love to live, with you be ready to die.

If you wish me to weep, you must mourn first yourself.
Horace - Satires
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.

- Horace

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on this earth to give us a breathing spell. As we exhaust them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms, which is God?s true storehouse and can never be exhausted. We can learn to synthesize material for every human need from things that grow.

I hold before you my hand with each finger standing erect and alone, and as long as they are held thus, not one of the tasks that the hand may preform can be accomplished. I cannot lift. I cannot grasp. I cannot hold. I cannot even make an intelligible sign until my fingers organize and work together. In this we should also learn a lesson.

Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong -- because someday you will have been all of these.

One of the things that has helped me as much as any other, is not how long I am going to live, but how much I can do while living.

When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.

- George Washington Carver

The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.

The two most abundant things in the universe are Hydrogren and stupidity.
Harlan Ellison - "Paladin of the Lost Hour"
Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.

- Harlan Ellison

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
Voltaire - on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan
Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Voltaire - Candide, 1759
Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Voltaire - Letter to Frederick, 1767
As long as there are fools and rascals, there will be religions.

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

A witty saying proves nothing.
Voltaire - when asked on his deathbed to forswear Satan.
This is no time to make new enemies.

Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.

Canada: A few acres of snow.

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

Regimen is superior to medicine.

Prejudice is opinion without judgement.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

The superfluous is very necessary.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

When its a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

God created sex. Priests created marriage.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of whom they know nothing.
Voltaire - Candide
All is for the best in the best of all possible ways.

A witty saying proves nothing.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

This poem will never reach its destination.

A witty saying proves nothing.
Voltaire - Essay on Tolerance
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid; you must also be well-mannered.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
Voltaire - (Attributed); originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one.

May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

"Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

I have lost the half of myself ? a soul for which mine was made.

When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Love truth, and pardon error.

There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
Voltaire - Candide
[Optimism is] the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.

The secret of being boring is to say everything.

Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

The public is a ferocious beast -- one must either chain it up or flee from it.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.

England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Voltaire - Letter (1769)
The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.

The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other.

The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

Common sense is not so common.

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

Once the people begin to reason, all is lost.

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge

Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.
Voltaire - The Portable Voltaire
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.

God is always on the side of the big battalions.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
Voltaire - Zadig
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

- Voltaire

Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.
Plutarch - Lives
Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.

The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.
Plutarch - Morals
When the candles are out all women are fair.

In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.

The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
Plutarch - Morals
For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Plutarch - Morals
An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.
Plutarch - Morals
The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

Learn to be pleased with everything; with wealth, so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.

- Plutarch

Nothing would disgust me more, morally, than receiving an Oscar.

- Luis Bunuel

By listening to his language of his locality the poet begins to learn his craft. It is his function to lift, by use of imagination and the language he hears, the material conditions and appearances of his environment to the sphere of the intelligence where they will have new currency.

The perfect man of action, is the suicide.

In summer, the song sings itself.

- William Carlos Williams

It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take diseases, one from another; therefore, let all take heed as to the society in which they mingle, for in a little while they will be like it.

- Rule of Life

I define comfort as self-acceptance. When we finally learn that self-care begins and ends with ourselves, we no longer demand sustenance and happiness from others.

- Jennifer Louden

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation, as allowed by Cicero himself, who says, "there is not only an art, but an eloquence in it." A well bred woman may easily and effectually promote the most useful and elegant conversation without speaking a word. The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.

- Tom Blair

The worst prison would be a closed heart.

We are drowning in information and starved for knowledge.

Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.

Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

Success always occurs in private and failure in full public view.

Life is like a piano... what you get out of it depends on how you play it.
Unknown - Polish Slogan
Never lose hope.

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

Women remember the first kiss, men remember the last.

Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.

The human brain is like a railroad freight car -- guaranteed to have a certain capacity but often running empty.

I always knew i would look back on my tears and laugh but i never tought i would look back on the laughter and cry

Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.

Words lead to deeds.... They prepare the soul, make it ready, and move it to tenderness.
Unknown - Latin Legal Phrase
He is not deemed to give consent who is under a mistake.

Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can do is take a complete rest.

May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows your dead

Never deprive someone of hope -- it may be all they have.

After all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
the rains fall soft upon your fields and,
until we meet again may god hold you in the palm of his hand

In a few minutes a computer can make a mistake so great that it would have taken many men many months to equal it.

Psychiatry is the care of the id by the odd.

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.

It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.
Unknown - Legal Maxim
An act against my will is not my act.

A lifetime is more than sufficiently long for people to get what there is of it wrong.

Dedication is not what others expect of you, it is what you can give to others.

He who ceases to learn cannot adequately teach.
Unknown - Buckaroo Banzai, from the film
And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

Life has no rehearsals, only performances.

Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves for we shall never cease to be amused.

Discretion is being able to raise your eyebrow instead of your voice.

The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television.

What I said never changed anyone. What they understood did.

What man does not understand, he fears; and what he fears, he tends to destroy.

If debugging is the art of removing bugs, then programming must be the art of inserting them.

A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

There are people who make things happen,
those who watch what happens,
and those who wonder what happened.

An Irishman is the only man in the world who will step over the bodies of a dozen naked women to get to a bottle of stout.

It is with a word as with an arrow - once let it loose and it does not return.

The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television.

Any new venture goes through the following stages: enthusiasm, complication, disillusionment, search for the guilty, punishment of the innocent, and decoration of those who did nothing.

Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.

Usability is like oxygen -- you never notice it until it is missing...

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

If you listened hard enough the first time, you might have heard what I meant to say.

Programming today is a race between software engineers stirring to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.

My Karma ran over your dogma.

Whoever does not love his work cannot hope that it will please others.

A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.

If you make the world a little better, then you have accomplished a great deal.

If it is to be, it is up to me.

Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who decided to stand their ground.

To err is human, to blame the next guy even more so.

Man is a gregarious creature, more so in mind than in body. He may like to go alone for a walk but he hates to stand alone in his opinion.
Unknown - Popular Mechanics, March 1949
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vaccuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons.

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best.

All power corrupts, but we need the electricity.

A healthy family is sacred territory.

Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.

In every fat book there is a thin book trying to get out.

If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will be empty, our loss greater.

The essence of intelligence is skill in extracting meaning from everyday experience.

Courage atrophies from lack of use.

In the sixties, the world was normal and people took acid to make it weird. Nowadays the world is weird and people take prozac to make it normal.
Unknown - US Navy Wisdom
Good seamanship is recovering from an incident at sea. Great seamanship is avoiding an incident at sea.

Never make anything simple and efficient when a way can be found to make it complex and wonderful.

What most people need to learn in life is how to love people and use things instead of using people and loving things.

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold -- but so does a hard-boiled egg.
Unknown - The Bhagavad Gita
For the uncontrolled there is no wisdom. For the uncontrolled there is no concentration, and for him without concentration, there is no peace. And for the unpeaceful how can there ever be happiness?

Love is not blind, it sees more not less; But because it sees more it chooses to see less.

He who hesitates is not only lost, but miles from the next exit.

Lie: A very poor substitute for the truth, but the only one discovered to date.

Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process.

Use the talents you possess -- for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.

Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell.

Teach children to be polite and courteous in the home, and, when he grows up, he will never be able to edge his car onto a freeway.
Unknown - Tuskegee Airman motto during World War II
We do not hate those we fight; we do not love those we defend.

"Reality" is the only word in the English language that should always be used in quotes.
Unknown - Suggested book title
J.F.K.--The Man and the Airport

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt.

Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty.

Immortality lies not in the things you leave behind, but in the people your life has touched.

Many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers.

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

A library is an arsenal of liberty.

Education is what you get from reading the fine print. Experience is what you get from not reading it.
Unknown - Army Magazine of Preventive Maintenance
A slipping gear in your M203 grenade launcher can cause it to fire when you least expect it. This could make you very unpopular with what is left of your unit.

Take only pictures, steal only time, leave only footprints.

If you begin the day with love in your heart, peace in your nerves, and truth in your mind, you not only benefit by their presence but also bring them to others, to your family and friends, and to all those whose destiny draws across your path that day.

On Thanksgiving Day all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment - halftime.

Most people rust out due to lack of challenge. Few people rust out due to overuse.

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

True friendship is seen through the heart not through the eyes.

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground....

DISCLAIMER: A society where such disclaimers are needed is saddening.

Every big problem was at one time a wee disturbance.

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.
Unknown - UNESCO Constitution
Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defence of peace must be constructed.
Unknown - The Ultimate Law
All general statements are false.

Between the wish and the thing life lies waiting.

He who thinks by the inch and talks by the yard deserves to be kicked by the foot.

If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will be empty, our loss greater.

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

After all is said and done, a lot more will have been said than done.

Fools rush in where fools have been before.

Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.

The more you run over a dead cat, the flatter it gets.

Those who stare at the past have their backs turned to the future.

Not all those who wonder are lost.
Unknown - Epitaph on headstone of actor John Wayne (author unknown)
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight, very clean. When it arrives it is perfect. It puts itself in our hands. It hopes we learned something from yesterday.

The one whose judgment counts most in your life is the one staring back in the glass.

Fashion is something that goes in one year and out the other.

Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.

The wages of sin are unreported.

It is difficult for sorrow to intrude on a busy life.

A chinese philosopher once had a dream that he was a butterfly. From that day on, he was never quite certain that he was not a butterfly, dreaming that he was a man.
Unknown - epitaph for a loved one
Love is my Sword,
Goodness my Armor,
And Humor my Shield.

If you laid all of the lawyers in the world, end to end, on the equator ---- It would be a good idea to just leave them there.

Everything you do or say is public relations.

Feelings are real and legitimate; children behave and misbehave for a reason, even if adults cannot figure it out.

Perhaps one day this too will be pleasant to remember.

Socrates seems to be the philosophical napkin with which the ensuing cultural thinkers of history wipe their mouths of pedantic ooze.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered -- either by themselves or by others.

The really happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery when on a detour.

Mahatma Gandi was what wives wish their husbands were: thin, tan and moral.

An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible.

The words you speak today should be soft and tender. . . for tomorrow you may have to eat them.

If you fear nothing, you love nothing. If you love nothing, what joy can there be in life?

Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.

That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.

Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half.

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of.

All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.

Fishing gives you a sense of where you fit in the sceme of things - Your place in the universe...I, mean, here I am, one small guy with a fishing pole on this vast beach and out there in the blue expanse of ocean are these hundreds of millions of fish...laughing at me.

This life is a test. It is only a test. Had this been an actual life, you would have received further instructions as to what to do and where to go.
Unknown - Often attributed to Abraham Lincoln
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going.

Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

A friend is someone who will help you move. A real friend is someone who will help you move a body.

A stitch in time would have confused Einstein.

The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius is limited.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging the future but by the past.

It is twice as hard to crush a half-truth as a whole lie.

The atom, being for all practical purposes the stable unit of the physical plane, is a constantly changing vortex of reactions.

How to win a case in court: If the law is on your side, pound on the law; if the facts are on your side, pound on the facts; if neither is on your side, pound on the table.
Unknown - Sign on a restaurant tip jar
If you fear change, leave it here.

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

A diplomat is a man who says you have an open mind, instead of telling you that you have a hole in the head.

A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top .

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.

The only real failure in life is the failure to try.

Accident, n.: A condition in which presence of mind is good, but absence of body is better.

A novel is a piece of prose of a certain length with something wrong with it.

Adolescence is the stage between infancy and adultery.

All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.

If a pessimist is always right, is he a realist?

Use soft words and hard arguments.

An Irishman is the only man in the world who will step over the bodies of a dozen naked women to get to a bottle of stout.

Ideals are like stars. You will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But, like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides and following them you will reach your destiny.

A life spent making mistakes is not only most honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses.

The wages of sin are unreported.

There is only one success- to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Unknown - quoted by Jim Horning
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

The heart is wiser than the intellect.

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

- Unknown

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?

- Edgar Bergen - (Charlie McCarthy)

Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant "idiot".
Terry Pratchett - Jingo
It could not be happening because this sort of thing did not happen. Any contradictory evidence could be safely ignored.
Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites
For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks.
Terry Pratchett - Hogfather
An education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.
Terry Pratchett - Feet of Clay
Stupid men are often capable of things the clever would not dare to contemplate...
Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!
A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.
Terry Pratchett - Small Gods
No. Men should die for lies. But the truth is too precious to die for.
Terry Pratchett - "Small Gods" (1992)
Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.
Terry Pratchett - Sourcery
"I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"
Death thought about it.
"Cats," he said eventually. "Cats are nice."
Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!
A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.
Terry Pratchett - The Fifth Elephant
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
Terry Pratchett - A Discworld Novel
The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.
Terry Pratchett - Small Gods
He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.
Terry Pratchett - Monstrous Regiment
[The pamphlet] was very patriotic. That is, it talked about killing foreigners.
Terry Pratchett
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
Terry Pratchett - Eric
The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.
Terry Pratchett - Hogfather
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
Terry Pratchett - Small Gods
When the least they could do to you was everything, then the most they could do to you suddenly held no terror.
Terry Pratchett - Jingo
One of the universal rules of happiness is: always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
Terry Pratchett - Pyramids
What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today, is: "Why is it so dark in here?"
Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites
For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks.
Terry Pratchett - Wyrd Sisters
The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.
Terry Pratchett - Men at Arms
Sham Harga had run a succesful eatery for many years by always smiling, never extending credit, and realizing that most of his customers wanted meals properly balanced between the four food groups: sugar, starch, grease and burnt crunchy bits.
Terry Pratchett - Moving Pictures (regarding popcorn)
If you put butter and salt on it, it tastes like salty butter.
Terry Pratchett - The Fifth Elephant
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
Terry Pratchett - Moving Pictures
Of course, it is very important to be sober when you take an exam. Many worthwhile careers in the street- cleansing, fruit-picking and subway-guitar-playing industries have been founded on a lack of understanding of this simple fact.
Terry Pratchett
Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.

- Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic

There is no substitute for hard work.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction--faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will educate his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.

- Thomas Edison

The key to your universe is that you can choose.

- Carl Frederick

We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a great distance, not by virtue of any sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.

- Bernard of Chartres - 12th Century

I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered, what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?

Weather forcast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning.

Life.....is a series of dogs.

Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster is a maniac?

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
George Carlin - George Carlin: You Are All Diseased
Hobbies cost money but interests are free.
George Carlin - From his book - Brain Droppings
Eventually, alas, I realized the main purpose of buying cocaine is to run out of it.

As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything.

Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?
George Carlin - Napalm and Silly Putty
The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American recently passed each other going in opposite directions.

Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.
George Carlin - You Are All Diseased
You have to be realistic about terrorism. Certain groups of people, certain groups, Muslim fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, Jewish fundamentalists, and just plain guys from Montanta, are going to continue to make life in this country very interesting for a long, long time.

The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I?m just not close enough to get the job done."

Keep thy religion to thyself.

"I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?

If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?

Why is the man (or woman) who invests all your money called a broker?

- George Carlin

Fix this sentence: He put the horse before the cart.

- Stephen Price

No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.

- Leo Buscaglia

Lactomangulation, n.:
Manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk carton so badly that one has to resort to using the "illegal" side.

- Rich Hall - "Sniglets"

Pablo Picasso resisted school stubbornly and seemed completely unable to learn to read or write. To other students grew used to seeing him come late with his pet pigeon -- and with the paintbrush he always carried as if it were an extension of his own body.

- Mildred & Victor Goertzel

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

- Roger Caras

For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.

A man who is careful with his palate is not likely to be careless with his paragraphs.

- Clifton Fadiman

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.

The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms, Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.

The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.

Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which Nature herself is animated.

- Auguste Rodin

Peace has never come from dropping bombs. Real peace comes from enlightenment and educating people to behave more in a divine manner.
Carlos Santana - Television program--aired on VH1, september 2000
There is nothing more contagious on this planet than enthusiasm.

- Carlos Santana - Associated Press interview, September 1, 2004

Analysis kills spontaneity.

Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.

An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains.

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.

Learn to limit yourself, to content yourself with some definite thing, and some definite work; dare to be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not and to believe in your own individuality.

All appears to change when we change.

Hope is only the love of life.

...happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.

Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary - they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.

Liberty, equality - bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.

Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and life.

The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms.

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

- Henri-Fr?d?ric Amiel

People want to know how much you care before they care how much you know.

- James F. Hind

I get plenty of exercise carrying the coffins of my friends who exercise.

Old age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

- Red Skelton

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.
Thomas Carlyle
A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.
Thomas Carlyle
Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.
Thomas Carlyle
It is not a lucky word, this name "impossible"; no good comes of those who have it so often in their mouths.
Thomas Carlyle - Heroes and Hero Worship, 1840
No sadder proof can be given by man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.
Thomas Carlyle
That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy.
Thomas Carlyle
The true university of these days is a collection of books.
Thomas Carlyle
True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt; its essence is love. It issues not in laugther, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper.
Thomas Carlyle
The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self-activity.
Thomas Carlyle
Happy are the people whose annals are blank in history books
Thomas Carlyle
Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.
Thomas Carlyle
To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes.
Thomas Carlyle
The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.
Thomas Carlyle
Music is well said to be the speech of angels.
Thomas Carlyle
Music is well said to be the speech of angels.
Thomas Carlyle
Enjoy things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
Thomas Carlyle
Do the duty which lieth nearest to thee! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.
Thomas Carlyle
Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.
Thomas Carlyle
If you are ever in doubt as to whether or not you should kiss a pretty girl, give her the benefit of the doubt.
Thomas Carlyle - Proflies in Courage by: John F. Kennedy
The Courage that we all prize and seek is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.
Thomas Carlyle
Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.
Thomas Carlyle
If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.
Thomas Carlyle
Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one rascal less in the world.
Thomas Carlyle
France was a long despotism tempered by epigrams.
Thomas Carlyle
Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world.
Thomas Carlyle
A person usually has two reasons for doing something: a good reason and the real reason.
Thomas Carlyle
What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.
Thomas Carlyle
Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.
Thomas Carlyle
The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
Thomas Carlyle
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Thomas Carlyle
When words leave off, music begins.
Thomas Carlyle
In idleness there is a perpetual despair.

- Thomas Carlyle - Past and Present, 1843

Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought---particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.

How to make God laugh: Tell him your future plans.

We were married by a reformed rabbi in Long Island. A very reformed rabbi. A Nazi.

Is sex dirty? Only if you do it right.

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.

Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end.

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.
Woody Allen - "Without Feathers"
My Lord, my Lord! What hast Thou done, lately?

Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.

Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Doing abominations is against the law, particularly if the abominations are done while wearing a lobster bib.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Whosoever shall not fall by the sword or by famine, shall fall by pestilence so why bother shaving?

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Thought: why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only for food: frequently there must be a beverage.

Bisexuality automatically doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.
Woody Allen - "Without Feathers"
Whosoever shall not fall by the sword or by famine, shall fall by pestilence, so why bother shaving?
Woody Allen - Just Six Numbers, Martin Rees, page 71
Eternity is very long, especially towards the end.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very little on office supplies.

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.

For the first year of marriage I had basically a bad attitude. I tended to place my wife underneath a pedestal

Sex alleviates tension. Love causes it.

I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.

Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?

More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.
Woody Allen - "Without Feathers"
The wicked at heart probably know something.

His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?

On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done just as easily lying down.
Woody Allen - "Without Feathers"
Whosover loveth wisdom is righteous, but he that keepeth company with fowl is weird.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Is it better to be the lover or the loved one? Neither, if your cholesterol is over six hundred. By love, of course, I refer to romantic love -- the love between man and woman, rather than between mother and child, or a boy and his dog, or two headwaiters.

Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DOE
Unbearably lovely music is heard as the curtain rises, and we see the woods on a summer afternoon. A fawn dances on and nibbles slowly at some leaves. He drifts lazily through the soft foliage. Soon he starts coughing and drops dead.

How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?

There are three rings involved with marriage. The engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering.

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.

I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.

My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.

Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.

More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to utter hopelessness and despair, the other to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought-- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.
Woody Allen - Annie Hall
I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy next to me.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.

I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick, not wounded: dead.
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down.

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.

You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.

There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?

I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead- not sick, not wounded - dead.

I am at two with nature.

For a while we pondered whether to take a vacation or get a divorce. We decided that a trip to Bermuda is over in two weeks, but a divorce is something you always have.

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.

- Woody Allen

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
Bertrand Russell
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
Bertrand Russell
There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
Bertrand Russell
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Bertrand Russell
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
Bertrand Russell
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Bertrand Russell - Sceptical Essays (1928), "Dreams and Facts"
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
Bertrand Russell
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
Bertrand Russell - Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 5
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
Bertrand Russell
Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.
Bertrand Russell
There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
Bertrand Russell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell - Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 1
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
Bertrand Russell
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
Bertrand Russell
Order, unity and continuity are human inventions just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.
Bertrand Russell
Whereas in art nothing worth doing can be done without genius, in science even a very moderate capacity can contribute to a supreme achievement.
Bertrand Russell
This is one of those views which are so absolutely absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them.
Bertrand Russell
The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about others things.
Bertrand Russell
Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
Bertrand Russell
The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists - that is why they invented hell.
Bertrand Russell
The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
Bertrand Russell
It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather that the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young.
Bertrand Russell
If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence.
Bertrand Russell
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
Bertrand Russell
What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.
Bertrand Russell
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Bertrand Russell
Obscenity is what happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
Bertrand Russell - The Philosophy of Logical Atomism
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
Bertrand Russell - "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.
Bertrand Russell
If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.
Bertrand Russell
Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
Bertrand Russell
All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.
Bertrand Russell
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
Bertrand Russell
This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
Bertrand Russell
All movements go too far.
Bertrand Russell
Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.
Bertrand Russell
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Bertrand Russell - The Philosophy of Logical Atomism
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
Bertrand Russell
We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.
Bertrand Russell
In all things it is a good idea to hang a question mark now and then on the things we have taken for granted.
Bertrand Russell
If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.
Bertrand Russell
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bertrand Russell - from the essay "The Science to Save Us From Science"
But all who are not lunitics are agreed about certain things: That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than to be a slave. Many people desire these things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can be refuted by science: Mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
Bertrand Russell
Even in civilized mankind faint traces of monogamous instincts can be perceived.
Bertrand Russell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
Bertrand Russell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bertrand Russell
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
Bertrand Russell
Too little liberty brings stagnation and too much brings chaos.
Bertrand Russell
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bertrand Russell
The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.
Bertrand Russell - Autobiography
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
Bertrand Russell - Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Bertrand Russell
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
Bertrand Russell
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
Bertrand Russell
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Bertrand Russell
The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.
Bertrand Russell - Sceptical Essays (1928), "On the Value of Scepticism"
It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
Bertrand Russell - Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 12
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Bertrand Russell - Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 9
One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.
Bertrand Russell - Mysticism and Logic (1917) ch. 4
Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
Bertrand Russell
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.
Bertrand Russell
Change is scientific, progress is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.
Bertrand Russell
Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.
Bertrand Russell - Sceptical Essays (1928), "Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness"
We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.
Bertrand Russell
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
Bertrand Russell
Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
Bertrand Russell - Playboy Interview - March 1963
The human race may well become extinct before the end of the century.
Bertrand Russell
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
Bertrand Russell
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Bertrand Russell
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
Bertrand Russell
Mathematics, rightly viewed, posses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.
Bertrand Russell
Most people would sooner die than think; in fact they do so.
Bertrand Russell - Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 19
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Bertrand Russell
The secret of happiness is this: Let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather that hostile.
Bertrand Russell
Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.
Bertrand Russell
We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.
Bertrand Russell
All movements go too far.
Bertrand Russell - "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
Bertrand Russell
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Bertrand Russell - "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
Bertrand Russell
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.
Bertrand Russell
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
Bertrand Russell - Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 10
A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation.
Bertrand Russell
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Bertrand Russell
There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
Bertrand Russell - "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism"
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
Bertrand Russell - The Conquest of Happiness
The man who suffers from a sense of sin is suffering from a particular kind of self-love. In all this vast universe the thing that appears to him of most importance is that he himself should be virtuous. It is a grave defect in certain forms of traditional religion that they have encouraged this particular kind of self-absorption.
Bertrand Russell
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
Bertrand Russell
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.
Bertrand Russell
Sin is geographical.
Bertrand Russell
Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself.
Bertrand Russell
In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.
Bertrand Russell - "Why I am Not a Christian"
I should wish to see a world in which education aimed at mental freedom rather than imprisoning the minds of the young in a rigid armor of dogma calculated to protect them though life against the shafts of impartial evidence.
Bertrand Russell - Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
Bertrand Russell
Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.
Bertrand Russell
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Bertrand Russell
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

- Bertrand Russell - Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 14

Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.
Lois McMaster Bujold - Mirror Dance, 1994, p. 287
Since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Memory", 1996
I am who I choose to be. I always have been what I chose?though not always what I pleased.
Lois McMaster Bujold - A Civil Campaign, 1999
A tactical retreat is not a bad response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Shards of Honor", 1986
Exile, for no other motive than ease, would be the last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Shards of Honor", 1986
An honor is not diminished for being shared.
Lois McMaster Bujold - A Civil Campaign, 1999
Adversity does teach who your real friends are.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Brothers in Arms"
The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "The Vor Game", 1990
A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.

Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Memory", 1996
You try to give away what you want yourself.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Barrayar", 1991
Our children change us?whether they live or not.
Lois McMaster Bujold - A Civil Campaign, 1999
You have to be careful who you let define your good.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Barrayar", 1991
But pain... seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain?
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Barrayar", 1991
My home is not a place, it is people.
Lois McMaster Bujold - Memory
All true wealth is biological.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Memory", 1996
How could you be a Great Man if history brought you no Great Events, or brought you to them at the wrong time, too young, too old?
Lois McMaster Bujold - Diplomatic Immunity, 2002
The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them.
Lois McMaster Bujold - Shards of Honor
...tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Barrayar", 1991
Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation.
Lois McMaster Bujold - Ethan of Athos, 1986
There are always survivors at a massacre. Among the victors, if nowhere else.
Lois McMaster Bujold - A Civil Campaign, 1999
When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.
Lois McMaster Bujold - "Memory", 1996
His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.

- Lois McMaster Bujold - "A Civil Campaign", 1999

As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.

- M. Cartmill

The most important thing in life is to see to it that you are never beaten.

The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.

A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, nothing else.

Between eigtheen and twenty, life is like an exchange where one buys stocks, not with money, but with actions. Most men buy nothing.

Be careful -- with quotations, you can damn anything.

The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.

- Andre Malraux

Think and feel yourself there! To achieve any aim in life, you need to project the end-result. Think of the elation, the satisfaction, the joy! Carrying the ecstatic feeling will bring the desired goal into view.

Welcome every problem as an opportunity. Each moment is the great challenge, the best thing that ever happened to you . The more difficult the problem, the greater the challenge in working it out.

- Grace Speare

A pleasure is not full grown until it is remembered.

The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.

I believe in God like I believe in the sun, not because I can see it, but because of it all things are seen.

No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear.

To love at all is to be vulnerable.

Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

No one ever told me grief felt so much like fear.

I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of "Admin." The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern.

Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than minority of them - never become conscious of them all. How much of total reality can such an apparatus let through?
C. S. Lewis - The Case for Christianity
Badness is only spoiled goodness.

I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
C. S. Lewis - The Abolition of Man
It still remains true that no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous.
C. S. Lewis - The Poison of Subjectivism (from Christian Reflections; p. 108)
The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike.
C. S. Lewis - A preface to "Paradise Lost"
Every poem can be considered in two ways--as what the poet has to say, and as a thing which he makes.
C. S. Lewis - The Four Loves
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.
C. S. Lewis - The Abolition of Man
Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey "people." People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war.... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest....

We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... it has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
C. S. Lewis - The Case for Christianity
This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people.

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.
C. S. Lewis - First things First
Pride is a spiritual Cancer: It eats up the very possibilty of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

- C. S. Lewis

Telling the future by looking at the past assumes that conditions remain constant. This is like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror.

- Herb Brody

The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command, shows that his reason is weak.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination. ..And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do no bring forth in the agitation.

Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.

A man of understanding has lost nothing, if he has himself.

Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it.

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

I believe it to be true that dreams are the true interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them.

We have more poets thatnjudges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem that to understand a good one.

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozens.

I quote others only in order the better to express myself.

He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.

In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection, otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.

Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.

To philosophize is to doubt.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.

When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.

He who has not a good memory should never take upon himself the trade of lying.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

Malice sucks up the greater part of her own venom, and poisons herself.

- Michel de Montaigne

The scars of others should teach us caution.

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.

The friendship that can cease has never been real.

A fat paunch never breeds fine thoughts.

No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow.
Saint Jerome
The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.

An unstable pilot steers a leaking ship, and the blind is leading the blind straight to the pit. The ruler is like the ruled.
Saint Jerome - Letter 48
The line, often adopted by strong men in controversy, of justifying the means by the end.

The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.
Saint Jerome - On the Epistle to the Ephesians
Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
Saint Jerome
It is worse still to be ignorant of your ignorance.

- Saint Jerome - Letter

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called "Facts". They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair.
Thomas Hobbes - "The Leviathan"
The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power.
Thomas Hobbes - quoted from "Oxygen3, Panda Software
Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues.

Leisure is the mother of philosophy.

- Thomas Hobbes

Once in a while you get shown the light in the stangest of places if you look at it right.
Jerry Garcia
Every silver lining has a touch of grey.
Jerry Garcia
You do not merely want to be considered the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones that do what you do.

- Jerry Garcia - Scarlet Bergonias

All the sounds of the earth are like music.

- Oscar Hammerstein II

This Rock has become an object of veneration in the United States. I have seen bits of it carefully preserved in several towns in the Union. Does this sufficiently show that all human power and greatness is in the soul of man? Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant; and the stone becomes famous; it is treasured by a great nation; its very dust is shared as a relic.

- Alexis DeTocqueville

What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little

- Stanislaus

Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperatelly? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down.

People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure.

Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.

New York is the only city in the world where you can get deliberately run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.

Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things.

The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.

- Russell Baker

The noblest of men deserves not the weakest of women.

- Carey Bowman

Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
Time cancels young pain.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
Never say that marriage has more of joy than pain.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
A second wife
is hateful to the children of the first;
a viper is not more hateful.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
A sweet thing, for whatever time,
to revisit in dreams the dear dad we have lost.

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Euripides - The Bacchae, circa 407 B.C.
Slow but sure moves the might of the gods.
Euripides - Orestes (408 BC)
Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

Short is the joy that guilty pleasure brings.
Euripides - Medea, 431 B.C.
There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
Light be the earth upon you, lightly rest.
Euripides - Hippolytus, 428 B.C.
There is one thing alone
that stands the brunt of life throughout its course:
a quiet conscience.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
You were a stranger to sorrow: therefore Fate has cursed you.
Euripides - Phoenix
Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
Euripides - Phrixus
Whoso neglects learning in his youth,
Loses the past and is dead for the future.
Euripides - 438 B.C.
I have found power in the mysteries of thought.
Euripides - Temenidae
When good men die their goodness does not perish,
But lives though they are gone. As for the bad,
All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.

Human excellence means nothing unless it works with the consent of God.
Euripides - Heraclidae, circa 428 B.C.
Leave no stone unturned.
Euripides - Aegeus
A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
Euripides - Electra, 413 B.C.
I care for riches, to make gifts
To friends, or lead a sick man back to health
With ease and plenty. Else small aid is wealth
For daily gladness; once a man be done
With hunger, rich and poor are all as one.
Euripides - Aegeus
The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.

Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.
Euripides - The Bacchae, circa 407 B.C.
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
Euripides - Aeolus
Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
Euripides - Hippolytus, 428 B.C.
In this world second thoughts, it seems, are best.
Euripides - Medea, 431 B.C.
I know indeed what evil I intend to do,
but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,
fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.

Your very silence shows you agree.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
Dishonor will not trouble me, once I am dead.

Courage may be taught as a child is taught to speak.
Euripides - Phrixus
The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
Euripides - Medea, 431 B.C.
When love is in excess it brings a man nor honor nor any worthiness.
Euripides - Alexander
Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.

Do not consider painful what is good for you.
Euripides - Hippolytus, 428 B.C.
My tongue swore, but my mind was still unpledged.
Euripides - Alcestis, 438 B.C.
I have found power in the mysteries of thought,
exaltation in the changing of the Muses;
I have been versed in the reasonings of men;
but Fate is stronger than anything I have known.

Circumstances rule men and not men rule circumstances.

The wisest men follow their own direction.
Euripides - Iphigenia in Tauris, circa 412 B.C.
The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.

- Euripides

Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.

The books we read should be chosen with great care, that they may be, as an Egyptian king wrote over his library, "The medicines of the soul."

- Paxton Hood

It is foolish to wish for beauty. Sensible people never either desire it for themselves or care about it in others. If the mind be but well cultivated, and the heart well disposed, no one ever cares for the exterior.

And then, the unspeakable purity and freshness of the air! There was just enough heat to enhance the value of the breeze, and just enough wind to keep the whole sea in motion, to make the waves come bounding to the shore, foaming and sparkling, as if wild with glee.

- Anne Bronte - Agnes Grey

Many years ago Rudyard Kipling gave an address at McGill University in Montreal. He said one striking thing which deserves to be remembered. Warning the students against an over-concern for money, or position, or glory, he said: "Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are."

- Halford E. Luccock

I dwell in possibility...

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching,
or cool one Pain,
Or help one fainting Robin
into his Nest again,
I shall not live in Vain.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the words without the tune, and never stops at all.

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.
Emily Dickinson - No. 1333
A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King.

Hope is a thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without words
And never stops at all.

My friends are my estate.

That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.

The mere sense of living is joy enough.

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.

Becuase I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those we have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things.

I dwell in possiblities.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all.

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.

- Emily Dickinson

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
Alexander Hamilton - The Farmer Refuted, February 23, 1775
The changes in the human condition are uncertain and frequent. Many, on whom fortune has bestowed her favours, may trace their family to a more unprosperous station; and many who are now in obscurity, may look back upon the affluence and exalted rank of their ancestors.
Alexander Hamilton - Speech on 21 June 1788 urging ratification of the Constitution in New York.
It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.
Alexander Hamilton - Loth, Dave, Alexander Hamilton, Portrait of a Prodigy, Rahway, Carrick & Evans, Inc., 1939
It is long since I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
Alexander Hamilton - Loth, Dave, Alexander Hamilton, Portrait of a Prodigy, Rahway, Carrick & Evans, Inc., 1939
The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression, very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard of all authority.
Alexander Hamilton - The Federalist 22
Laws are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation.

A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.
Alexander Hamilton - P. 217 - A History of the American People by P. Johnson
Every man ought to be supposed a knave, and to have no other end, in all his actions, but private interest. By this interest we must govern him, and by means of it, make him cooperate to public good, notwithstanding his unsatiable avarice and ambition.

When men exercise their reason coolly and freely on a variety of distinct questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions on some of them. When they are governed by a common passion, their opinions, if they are to be called, will be the same.

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful.

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

- Alexander Hamilton

Is it the Fourth?

If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people.

Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%.

Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.
Thomas Jefferson - to Archibald Stuart, 1791
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.
Thomas Jefferson - 1801
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

I cannot live without books.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Our friendships are precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life;and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part is sunshine.
Thomas Jefferson - Letter to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819
Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Thomas Jefferson - Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
Thomas Jefferson - First Inaugural Address
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the governing of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

I live for books.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

The happiest moments of my life have a been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.

I believe that justice is instinct and innate, the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as the threat of feeling, seeing and hearing.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

I cannot live without books.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Question with boldness even the existance of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
Thomas Jefferson - Writings
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

My views and feelings (are) in favor of the abolition of war--and I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair.
Thomas Jefferson - (Notes on Virginia, 1782)
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson - letter to Elbridge Gerry, 1799
I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.
Thomas Jefferson - Resolutions, 1803
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.
Thomas Jefferson - letter to George Washington, September 9, 1792
No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.

No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson - letter to John Melish, January 13, 1813
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

The Price Of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
Thomas Jefferson - Notes on the State of Virginia - denouncing the evils of slavery
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.
Thomas Jefferson - letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
Thomas Jefferson - letter to Count Diodati, 1807
I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson - letter to his cousin John Garland Jefferson, June 11, 1790
Health is worth more than learning.

When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Never spend your money before you have it.

We never regret having eaten too little.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson - Letter to James Madison, 1787
A little rebellion now and then...is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

I cannot live without books.

Delay is preferable to error.
Thomas Jefferson - Notes on Virginia
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded faith.
Thomas Jefferson - letter to James Lewis, Jr., May 9, 1798
If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
Thomas Jefferson - Notes on the State of Virginia
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

- Thomas Jefferson

Yer beautiful in yer wrath! I shall keep you, and in responding to my passions, yer hatred will kindle into love.
John Wayne - the book "My Life With the Duke"
A man has to have a code, a way of life to live by.
John Wayne
Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway.

- John Wayne - (as Genghis Kahn to Susan Hayward in the move The Conqueror) 1956

Today my spirit is going to school while my body stays in bed.
Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes
People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children.
Bill Watterson
I think of football as a sport the way ducks think of hunting as a sport.
Bill Watterson - Calvin in "Calvin and Hobbes"
Leave it to a girl to take the fun out of sex discrimination.
Bill Watterson - Calvin & Hobbes
Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.
Bill Watterson - cartoonist
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes
God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.
Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes
I have plentyof common sense! I just choose to ignore it.
Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes
Reality continues to ruin my life.
Bill Watterson - cartoonist, "Calvin and Hobbes"
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
Bill Watterson
I think most of us would be horrified to meet ourselves and discover what everyone else already knows about us.

- Bill Watterson - "Calvin", Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various facets of them.

Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so.

Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so.

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.

There is hardly anybody good for everything, and there is scarcely anybody who is absolutely good for nothing.

Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.
Lord Chesterfield - Letters to His Son, 1746, published 1774
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

I recommend that you take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.

I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.
Lord Chesterfield - letter to his godson, December 18, 1765
Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves.

[Common sense] is the best sense I know of.

Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Most people enjoy the inferiority of their friends.

- Lord Chesterfield

Dick, frankly you do not have the war plan... which makes me quite happy.
Donald Rumsfeld - http://www.dod.gov/transcripts/2004/tr20041208-secdef1761.html
You go to war with the Army you have. They?re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.
Donald Rumsfeld - Ronald Reagan Library and Museum, October 10, 2003
Like President Reagan, President Bush has not shied from calling evil by its name or declaring his intention to defeat its latest incarnation, terrorism, just as free men and women of all political persuasions, here and abroad, defeated fascism and communism before.

- Donald Rumsfeld - 1st briefing after "shock and awe" started

Our view. . . is that it is an essential characteristic of experimentation that it is carried out with limited resources, and an essential part of the subject of experimental design to ascertain how these should be best applied; or, in particular, to which causes of disturbance care should be given, and which ought to be deliberately ignored.

- Sir Ronald A. Fisher

Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.

We should have had socialism already, but for the socialists.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.
George Bernard Shaw - "Ceasar and Cleopatra"
Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

What is virtue but the trades unionism of the married.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience.

Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw - The Apple Cart (1930)
I never resist temptation because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

I make a fortune from criticizing the policy of the government, and then hand it over to the government in taxes to keep it going.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

It is most unwise for people in love to marry.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) act 1
There is no love sincerer than the love of food.

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.
George Bernard Shaw - Major Barbara (1907) act 3
He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.

Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.

An institution which is populare because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.

Do you know what a pessimist is? A person who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself and hates them for it.

All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist.
George Bernard Shaw - "Man and Superman" (1903), act I
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
George Bernard Shaw - Major Barbara (1907) act 2
Alcohol is a very necessary article... It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning.

Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) act 3
Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.

Fashions are the only induced epidemics, proving that epidemics can be induced by tradesmen.
George Bernard Shaw - when asked on his deathbed, ?What would you do if you could live your life over again?
I?d like to be the person I could have been but never was.

The 100% American is 99% an idiot.

I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.

Home life as we understand it is no more natural to us than a cage is natural to a cockatoo.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

A pessimist thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.
George Bernard Shaw - An Unsocial Socialist (1887) ch. 5
"Do you know what a pessimist is?" "A man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it."

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

What we call education and culture is for the most part nothing but the substitution of reading for experience, of literature for life, of the obsolete fictitious for the contemporary real.

It is most unwise for people in love to marry
George Bernard Shaw - Candida (1898) act 1
Do you think that the things people make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? They are more true: they are the only things that are true.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die; any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman, 1903
A learned man is an idler who kills time with study. Beware of his false knowledge: it is more dangerous than ignorance.

The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.

Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth.

We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.

Democracy: The substitution of election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

What God hath joined together no man shall put asunder: God will take care of that.
George Bernard Shaw - Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1911) "Limits to Toleration"
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than saying a drunken man is happier than a sober man.

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.

Take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then say it with the utmost levity.

Life is a disease; and the only diference between one another is the stage of the disease at which he lives.
George Bernard Shaw - Caesar and Cleopatra (1901) act 4
He who has never hoped can never despair.

He who can, does. He who cannot teaches.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
Beware of the man whose God is in the skies.

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.
George Bernard Shaw - Annajanska (1919)
All great truths begin as blasphemies.

It took me twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public.

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

Reviewing has one advantage over suicide: in suicide you take it out on yourself; in reviewing you take it out on other people.

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich--something for nothing.

Crude classifications and false generalizations are the curse of organized life.

Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903), Maxims for Revolutionists
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

The love of money is the root of all virtue.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

The fickleness of the women whom I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

All my life, affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
George Bernard Shaw - Pygmalion (1916) preface
The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.

Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage -- it can be delightful.

To be clever enough to get a great deal of money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
Every man over forty is a scoundrel.

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably.

We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence...on pain of liquidation.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It is the funniest joke in the world.
George Bernard Shaw - "St. Joan"
The Churches must learn humility as well as teach it.
George Bernard Shaw - Major Barbara (1907) act 2
I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

Beware of the man whose God is in the skies.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
George Bernard Shaw - Caesar and Cleopatra (1901)
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

Nothing ever is done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) act 3
An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman, Epistle Dedicatory
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
George Bernard Shaw - "Metamagical Themas" by Douglas Hofstadter
You see things, and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were, and say "Why not?

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman
Audacious ribald: your laughter will finish in hideous boredom before morning.

All professions are conspiracies against the laity.

Nobel prize money is a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.

Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.
George Bernard Shaw - "Man and Superman" (1903), act I
A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

He who has never hoped can never despair.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

In order to fully realize how bad a popular play can be, it is necessary to see it twice.

A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.

Success covers a multitude of blunders.
George Bernard Shaw - Back to Methuselah (1921) pt. 5
Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

Martyrdom is the only way a person can become famous without ability.
George Bernard Shaw - "Answers to Nine Questions"
My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.

The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.

Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

I am a gentleman: I live by robbing the poor.
George Bernard Shaw - Pygmalion (1916) preface
It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

The chief objection of playing wind instruments is that it prolongs the life of the player.

A dramatic critic is a man who leaves no turn unstoned.

Let a short Act of Parliament be passed, placing all street musicians outside the protection of the law, so that any citizen may assail them with stones, sticks, knives, pistols, or bombs without incurring any penalties.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness.
George Bernard Shaw - The Philanderer (1898) act 2
The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Make money and the whole nation will conspire to call you a gentleman.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
George Bernard Shaw - Candida (1898) act 1
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.

The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post.
George Bernard Shaw - Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898)
There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

If more than ten percent of the population likes a painting it should be burned, for it must be bad.

If the lesser mind could measure the greater as a footrule can measure a pyramid, there would be finality in universal suffrage. As it is, the political problem remains unsolved.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

England and America are two countries seperated by the same language.

A man ought to be able to be fond of his wife without making a fool of himself about her.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"
It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

This is the true joy in life -- being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one...

Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time.

- George Bernard Shaw

Gossip needs no carriage.

It is not the horse that draws the cart, but the oats.

To live is well, but to live well is better

A kind word is like a spring day.

There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.

Do not spit in the well - you may be thirsty by and by.

A man is judged by his deeds, not by his words.

- Russian proverb

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

Get up, stand up Stand up for your rights Get up, stand up Never give up the fight.

The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.
Bob Marley - "Three Little Birds" - song "Legend"- album
Don?t worry about a thing,
?cause every little thing gonna be all right.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.

- Bob Marley

THE DISAPPOINTED MAN SPEAKS.--I sought great human beings, I never found anything but the APES of their ideal.
Friedrich Nietzsche
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The AntiChrist
The "highest" states of mind held up before mankind by christianity as of supreme value, are actually forms of convulsive epilepsy.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Who is better, they who promote truth over happiness, or happiness over truth?
Friedrich Nietzsche - Human, All Too Human
People who comprehend a thing to its very depths rarely stay faithful to it forever. For they have brought its depths into the light of day: and in the depths there is always much that is unpleasant to see.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 108
God is dead.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge.
Friedrich Nietzsche
What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do??
Friedrich Nietzsche
Faith: not *wanting* to know what is true.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 41
A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
Friedrich Nietzsche
It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!
Friedrich Nietzsche
At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Friedrich Nietzsche - So spake Zarathoustra
It is time, it is high time... Yes, but to do what?
Friedrich Nietzsche
One should never know too precisely whom one has married.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 191
The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spake Zarathustra
That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only writing but thinking.
Friedrich Nietzsche
At the bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique human being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Dawn, Sec. 297
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
Friedrich Nietzsche
One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises one makes.
Friedrich Nietzsche
He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche - from the book Lies my Teacher Told Me. By James W. Loewen (1995)
Memory says, I did that. Pride replies, I could not have done that. Eventually memory yields.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Jesus died too soon. If he had lived to my age he would have repudiated his doctrine.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Der Fall Wagner, Section 5
Only sick music makes money today.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
Friedrich Nietzsche - "The Will to Power"
The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!
Friedrich Nietzsche
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Only sick music makes money today.
Friedrich Nietzsche
He who despises himself esteems himself as a self-despiser.
Friedrich Nietzsche
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Convictions are the more dangerous enemy of truth than lies.
Friedrich Nietzsche
How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us through life.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
In a friend one should have ones best enemy. You should be closest to him with your heart when you resist him.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Also Sprach Zarathustra, Chapter 29
But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Every man has his price." This is not true. But for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. To win over certain people to something, it is only necessary to give it a gloss of love of humanity, nobility, gentleness, self-sacrifice - and there is nothing you cannot get them to swallow. To their souls, these are the icing, the tidbit; other kinds of souls have others.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Faith: not *wanting* to know what is true.
Friedrich Nietzsche
One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 130
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Life without music would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Every extension of knowledge arises from making the conscious the unconscious.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Antichrist, section 2
What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Antichrist, section 16
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil aphorism 78
Whoever despises himself still respects himself as one who despises.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The higher a man gets, the smaller he seems to those who cannot fly.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Without music, life would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche
It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!
Friedrich Nietzsche
How good bad music and bad reasons sound when one marches against an enemy!
Friedrich Nietzsche
I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
Friedrich Nietzsche
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche - "On Reading and Writing"
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
Friedrich Nietzsche
How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we march against an enemy.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the best even of their blunders.
Friedrich Nietzsche
When one has much to put into them, a day has a hundred pockets.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Twilight of the Idols, What I owe to the Ancients
Plato is boring.
Friedrich Nietzsche
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Twilight of the Idols---"Maxims and Arrows"
I mistrust all systemizers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity.
Friedrich Nietzsche
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 381
I would not know what the spirit of a philosopher might wish more to be than a good dancer.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Morality is the greatest of all tools for leading mankind by the nose.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 283
For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is - to live dangerously.
Friedrich Nietzsche - "Human, All Too Human" page 87, #120.
If the belief [in Christianity] did not make us happy, it would not be believed: how little it must then be worth!
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Antichrist
Some men are born posthumously.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!
Friedrich Nietzsche
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Man is more ape than many of the apes.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The World to Power, section 1064
This world is the will to power - and nothing besides!
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man.
Friedrich Nietzsche
People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
Digressions, objections, delight in mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health; everything unconditional belongs in pathology.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of the truth than lies.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Ecce Homo, Foreword
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
What a time experiences as evil, is usually an untimely echo of what was formerly experienced as good--the atavism of a more ancient ideal.
Friedrich Nietzsche
There are no facts, only interpretations.
Friedrich Nietzsche
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows us that faith proves nothing.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Aphorisms in Beyond Good and Evil
Disgust with dirt can be so great that it prevents us from cleaning ourselves - from "justifying" ourselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 116
Morality is herd instinct in the individual.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
One must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
For a significant man
woman, the one thought he values greatly, to the laughter and scorn of insignificant men, is a key to hidden treasure chambers; for those others, it is nothing but a piece of old iron.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 153
What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science, section 166
We are always in our own company.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thinking evil is making evil.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Maturity consists in having rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play.
Friedrich Nietzsche
He who despises himself nevertheless esteems himself as a self-despiser.
Friedrich Nietzsche
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.

- Friedrich Nietzsche - Twilight of the Idols-- "Maxims and Arrows"

Television has brought murder back into the home-- where it belongs.

I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.

Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.
Alfred Hitchcock - In Simon Rose, Classic Film Guide (1995)
The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.

I never said actors were cattle. I said that actors should be treated like cattle.

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop.

These are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equaled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

- Alfred Hitchcock

Do not speak quickly; it is a sign of insanity.

Make wisdom your provision for the journey from youth to old age, for it is a more certain support than all other possessions.

The wise man carries his possessions within him.

- Bias

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it but as I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is.
Henry David Thoreau
I have lived some thirty years on this planet and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.
Henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobience
The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.
Henry David Thoreau - WALDEN: Or, Life in the Woods
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!
Henry David Thoreau
In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.
Henry David Thoreau
Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize the infinite extent of our relations.
Henry David Thoreau
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Henry David Thoreau
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are the richest.
Henry David Thoreau
A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.
Henry David Thoreau - Jan. 3, 1861
Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
Henry David Thoreau - "An Essay on Civil Disobedience," 1849.
Voting for the right is doing nothing for it.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Economy, 1854
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.
Henry David Thoreau
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he imaged, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Henry David Thoreau
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
Henry David Thoreau
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
Henry David Thoreau
Good poetry seems too simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.
Henry David Thoreau
As if there were safety in stupidity alone.
Henry David Thoreau
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, how ever measured or far away.

Petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality.
Henry David Thoreau
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden," the Conclusion
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.
Henry David Thoreau
[Water is] the only drink for a wise man.
Henry David Thoreau
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish fill the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.
Henry David Thoreau
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Henry David Thoreau
Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!
Henry David Thoreau
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau - Wednesday, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.
Henry David Thoreau - Journal, July 25, 1839
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau
Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden; Where I Lived, And What I Lived For
I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake his neighbours up.
Henry David Thoreau
However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.
Henry David Thoreau
I stand in awe of my body.
Henry David Thoreau
We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character.
Henry David Thoreau
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau
Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
Henry David Thoreau
Most people dread finding out when they come to die that they have never really lived.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, Conclusion, 1854
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Henry David Thoreau
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, 1854
I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Henry David Thoreau
Men have become the tools of their tools
Henry David Thoreau
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau
Any fool can make a rule,
and any fool will mind it.
Henry David Thoreau
All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy.
Henry David Thoreau
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau
I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
Henry David Thoreau
Heroes are often the most ordinary of men.

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, cattle, barns, and farming tools, for these are more easily acquired than gotten rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labour in.
Henry David Thoreau
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Henry David Thoreau
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau - ?
Many go fishing without knowing it is fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden (1970)
Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.
Henry David Thoreau - Vol. 2, p.318 Houghton Mifflin
Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, 1854
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
Henry David Thoreau
The way by which you may get money almost without exception leads downward.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden"
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau
To regret deeply is to live afresh.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Higher Laws, 1854
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
Henry David Thoreau - Simplify Simplify
Say what you have to say, not what you ought. any truth is better than make-Believe!
Henry David Thoreau - Walden (1854)
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.
Henry David Thoreau
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau
Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden", 1854
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Henry David Thoreau
One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then
Henry David Thoreau - "Where I Live"
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
Henry David Thoreau
My friend is one... who take me for what I am.
Henry David Thoreau
Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.
Henry David Thoreau - simplify Simplify
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Reading, 1854
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden", 1854
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Henry David Thoreau
In the long run you only hit what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.
Henry David Thoreau
Men are born to succeed, not fail.
Henry David Thoreau
It takes two to speak the truth--one to speak and the other to hear.
Henry David Thoreau
What men call good fellowship is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter which lie close together to keep each other warm.
Henry David Thoreau
Water is the only drink for a wise man.
Henry David Thoreau
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, Chapter 1: Economy
The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.
Henry David Thoreau
All good things are wild, and free.
Henry David Thoreau
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Henry David Thoreau
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau
If the day and the night are such that you greet them with with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, more elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success.
Henry David Thoreau - Journal, January 21, 1838
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
Henry David Thoreau
A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.
Henry David Thoreau
Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.
Henry David Thoreau
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
Henry David Thoreau
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Henry David Thoreau
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.
Henry David Thoreau - Simplify simplify
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
Henry David Thoreau
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau
We must have infinite faith in each other. If we have not, we must never let it leak out that we have not.
Henry David Thoreau
Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life
Henry David Thoreau
Be not simply good - be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau
It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden", pp. 323- 324
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau
Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau
In the long run, you hit only what you aim at: Therefore aim high.
Henry David Thoreau
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
Henry David Thoreau - Walking (1862)
In wildness is the preservation of the world.
Henry David Thoreau - Simplify Simplify
How sweet it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they are!
Henry David Thoreau - in Walden, "Economy"
What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
Henry David Thoreau
In dreams we see ourselves naked and acting our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
Henry David Thoreau
As for the pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.
Henry David Thoreau
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
Henry David Thoreau - "Resistance to Civil Government"
I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion.
Henry David Thoreau
What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can.
Henry David Thoreau
Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Henry David Thoreau
I have learned this at least by my experiment: if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau - "Resistance to Civil Government"
I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.
Henry David Thoreau
Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
Henry David Thoreau
In wilderness is the preservation of the world.
Henry David Thoreau - O Magazine, May 2004
Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.
Henry David Thoreau
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Henry David Thoreau
We falsely attribute to men a determined character - putting together all their yesterdays - and averaging them - we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support - it is worse than a large family - he is the silent poor indeed.
Henry David Thoreau
Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.
Henry David Thoreau
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.
Henry David Thoreau
It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden (1854)
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, Economy.
I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.
Henry David Thoreau
In solitude especialy do we begin to appreciate the advantage of living with someone who can think.
Henry David Thoreau - book
The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.
Henry David Thoreau
Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
Henry David Thoreau
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Henry David Thoreau
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau
We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.
Henry David Thoreau
It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went.
Henry David Thoreau
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or faraway.
Henry David Thoreau
I derive no pleasure from talking with a young woman simply because she has regular features.

- Henry David Thoreau - Walden

Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, leaves everything else in darkness and then is suddenly gone.

- Hodding Carter

Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan - a Mount Rushmore of incompetence.

- David Steinberg

Most cars on our roads have only one occupant, usually the driver.

- Carol Malia - BBC Anchorwoman

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests as the deed; The deed develops into habit; And habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care, And let it spring from love Born out of concern for all beings.

- The Buddha

Outer space is no place for a person of breeding.

Outer space is no place for a person of breeding.

- Lady Violet Bonham Carter

To secure peace is to prepare for war.
Carl Von Clausewitz - quoted by Gene Hackman in "Crimson Tide"
War is a continuation of politics by other means.

- Carl Von Clausewitz

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.

It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.
Eugene McCarthy - Time magazine, Feb. 12, 1979
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.

- Eugene McCarthy

Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.

Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.

Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are and doing things as they ought to be done.

No one can disgrace us but ourselves.

One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness.

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.

Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.

There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them.

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.

Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.

One of rarest things that a man ever does is to do the best he can.

The time to pray is not when we are in a tight spot but just as soon as we get out of it.

About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.

Every man has his follies -- and often they are the most interesting thing he had got.

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.

My son, observe the postage stamp! Its usefulness depends upon its ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.

Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.

- Josh Billings

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Peace and Violence, sct. 2, in Index, no. 4 (London, 1973.
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes. It may even lie on the surface; but we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions? especially selfish ones.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Speech to the graduating class at Harvard (1978)
We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago
Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig.

Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.

Our envy of others devours us most of all.

- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.

- Leszezynski Stanislaus

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.

People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.

The poor wish to be rich, the rich wish to be happy, the single wish to be married, and the married wish to be dead.

Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself, the most comforting words of all; this, too, shall pass.

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.

All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest - never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.

Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

- Ann Landers

The issues are the same. We wanted peace on earth, love, and understanding between everyone around the world. We have learned that change comes slowly.
Paul McCartney
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.
Paul McCartney
If slaughterhouses had glass walls everyone would be a vegetarian.
Paul McCartney
In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.

- Paul McCartney - The Observer (1987)

Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
Johnny Depp
The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants.

- Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean

The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.

If happiness truly consisted of physical ease and freedom from care, then the happiest individual would not be either a man or a woman; it would be, I think, an American cow.

Whenever it is in any way possible, every boy and girl should choose as his life work some occupation which he should like to do anyhow, even if he did not need the money.

- William Lyon Phelps

That ready wit, which you so partially allow me, ... may create many admirers; but, take my word for it, it makes few friends. It shines and dazzles like the noonday sun, but, like that, too, it is very apt to scorch, and therefore is always feared. The milder morning and evening light and heat of that planet soothe and calm our minds. Never seek for wit; if it present itself, well and good; but even then, let your judgement interpose, and take care that it be not at the expense of anybody.

- Philip Dormer Stanhope - 4th earl of Chesterfield, 1749

Our memories are card indexes consulted, and then put back in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.

Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.

As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with irrational fear of life become publishers.
Cyril Connolly - Enemies of Promise (1938)
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say.
Cyril Connolly - Enemies of Promise (1938)
All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

What grape to keep its place in the sun, taught our ancestors to make wine?

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
Cyril Connolly - "The Unquiet Grave", 1945
Everything is a dangerous drug except reality, which is unendurable.
Cyril Connolly - Enemies of Promise (1938)
Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first call promising.

- Cyril Connolly

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

Hollywood is a place where people from Iowa mistake each other for stars.

Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.

My hometown was so dull that one time the tide went out and never came back.

My father never raised his hand to any one of his children, except in self-defense.

[Television is] the triumph of machine over people.

Advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission.

California is a fine place to live--if you happen to be an orange.

During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoying big talk.

Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.

Committee--a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.

Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.

Imitation is the sincerest form of television.

Do we really deserve top billing?

Radio is a bag of mediocrity where little men with carbon minds wallow in sluice of their own making.

The vice-president of an advertising agency is a bit of executive fungus that forms on a desk that has been exposed to conference.

Imitation is the sincerest form of television.

Television is a medium because anything well done is rare.

An income tax form is like a laundry list -- either way you lose your shirt.

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.

Hollywood is a place where people from Iowa mistake each other for movie stars.
Fred Allen - in a letter to Groucho Marx, 1953
I have just returned from Boston. It is the only sane thing to do if you find yourself up there.

I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself up there.

- Fred Allen

The secret of all power is - save your force. If you want high pressure you must choke off waste.

If you go in for argument, take care of your temper. Your logic, if you have any, will take care of itself.

- Joseph Farrell

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

- Carl W. Buechner

In San Francisco, Haloween is redundant.

I hate the outdoors. To me the outdoors is where the car is.

- Will Durst

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.

- Hodding Carter Jr.

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who would profit by the old order, only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new.
Machiavelli - The Prince
Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived.

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.

- Machiavelli

Unlike those who pretend to be immaculate, fallen angels are usually more intriguing because their earthliness is heavenly.

- Carl Polloi

All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.

To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard prudently against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us.

Everyone makes a greater effort to hurt other people than to help himself.

Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.

- Alexis Carrel

You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.
Scott Adams - Dilbert
Technology: No Place for Wimps!
Scott Adams
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?

There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as "nutty methods." Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as "a complete waste of time."
Scott Adams
The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.
Scott Adams - The Dilbert Future
No matter how smart you are, you spend most of your day being an idiot.
Scott Adams
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.
Scott Adams - The Dilbert Future
Men want sex. If men ruled the world, they could get sex anywhere, anytime. Restaurants would give you sex instead of breath mints on the way out. Gas stations would give sex with every fill-up. Banks would give sex to anyone who opened a checking account.
Scott Adams
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.
Scott Adams
The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.
Scott Adams
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

- Scott Adams - The Dilbert Future

The law is not so much carved in stone as it is written in water, flowing in and out with the tide.
Jeff Melvoin - Northern Exposure, Dateline: Cicely, 1992
Rain usually makes me feel mellow. Curl up in the corner time, slow down, smell the furniture. Today it just makes me feel wet.
Jeff Melvoin - Northern Exposure, Bolt from the Blue, 1994
George Washington had a vision for this country. Was it three days of uninterrupted shopping?
Jeff Melvoin - Northern Exposure, Democracy in America, 1992
The idea of an election is much more interesting to me than the election itself...The act of voting is in itself the defining moment.

- Jeff Melvoin - Northern Exposure, Crime and Punishment, 1992

Go, and never darken my towels again.

Women should be obscene and not heard.

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

I like my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.
Groucho Marx - "Duck Soup" 1934
Love goes out the door when money comes innuendo.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.

I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.

In America you can go on the air and kid the politicians, and the politicians can go on the air and kid the people.
Groucho Marx - A Day at the Races - 1936
Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.

No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

You are only as old as the woman you feel.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

I have nothing but confidence in you. And very little of that.

My mother loved children -- she would have given anything if I had been one.

From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.

The husband who wants a happy marriage should learn to keep his mouth shut and his checkbook open.

Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?

Politics doesn?t make strange bedfellows--marriage does.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

Paying alimony is like feeding hay to a dead horse.

Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.

If i cannot smoke in heaven, then i shall not go.

My mother loved children - she would have given anything if I had been one.

I aughta join a club and beat you over the head with it.

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.

Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.

I do not care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

- Groucho Marx

Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every month, other just go over them.

- Sally Poplin

You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse
I made a Second Marriage in my house;
Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed,
And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.
For "Is" and "Is-not" though with Rule and Line
And "Up-and-down" by Logic I define,
Of all that one should care to fathom, I
Was never deep in anything but - Wine.

- from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Translation by Edward Fitzgerald)

There are no office hours for leaders.

- Cardinal James Gibbons

There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.

- Douglas MacArthur

In whatever one does, there must be a relationship between the eye and the heart. With the eye that is closed, one looks within, with the eye that is open, one looks without.

- Henri Cartier-Bresson

Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their heads, and their ability to work together.

A leader is someone who steps back from the entire system and tries to build a more collaborative, more innovative system that will work over the long term.

- Robert Reich

A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.

Danger and delight grow on one stalk.

Use soft words and hard arguments.

If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden;
if you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.

Give neither advice nor salt, until you are asked for it.

A man is as old as he feels himself to be.

A stumble may prevent a fall.

He that plants trees loves others besides himself.

Proportion your expenses to what you have, not what you expect.

A full cup must be carried steadily.

Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you like it not at present.

Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.

- English Proverb

Sometimes the only sense we can make out of life is a sense of humor.

- American Greetings Card

"Whoops" is a word that should never be said by some professions - Pilots, Racing car drivers, and hair colourists come immediately to mind but Dentists also have to be up in the top five.

- Richard Stubbs - Comedian, Book - " Still Life"

There is a time for departure even when there is no certain place to go.
Tennessee Williams - A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Success and failure are equally disastrous.

Luxury is the wolf at the door and its fangs are the vanities and conceits germinated by success. When an artist learns this, he knows where the danger is.

Security is a kind of death.
Tennessee Williams - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.

- Tennessee Williams

I have one of those real old American built cars. The kind that just PUNCHES through accidents.

- Kevin Rooney

Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time.

I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone.

Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Bad law is the worst sort of tyranny.

No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Edmund Burke - A Philosophical Inquiry Into The Origins Of The Sublime And Beatiful.
A man who works beyond the surface of things, though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises; it costs nothing.

Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

It is by imitation, far more than by precept, that we learn everything; and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more efficiently, but more pleasantly. This forms our manners, our opinions, our lives.
Edmund Burke - A Philosophical Enquiry Into The Sublime and Beautiful
A man who works beyond the surface of things,though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth.

Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.

Fraud is the ready minister of injustice.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

You can never plan the future by the past.
Edmund Burke - Speech on the Conciliation of America
All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act -- is founded on compromise and barter.
Edmund Burke - "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", 1756
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
Edmund Burke - Speech to the electors of Bristol. 3 Nov. 1774
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.

- Edmund Burke

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry S Truman - in Look, Apr. 3, 1956
I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.

If you cannot convince them, confuse them.

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
Harry S Truman - Lecture at Columbia University, 28 Apr. 1959
Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast.

We can never tell what is in store for us.

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.
Harry S Truman - August 8, 1950
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.
Harry S Truman - Letter to his sister, Nov. 14, 1947
All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
Harry S Truman - quoted by Time, June 9, 1975
I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.

- Harry S Truman

Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life.

- Adele Brookman

Einstein said that God does not play dice with the universe. He was right, but not in the way he meant. God doesn?t play dice with the universe because the universe doesn?t need him. The craps table is set up and running. Whether or not God put it there is besides the point.

Carbon atoms on a distant planet rearranged themselves into DNA, microorganisms formed, grew backbones, swam around the ocean, mutated into amphibians and crawled onto dry land?and finally a cab appeared at the mouth of the alley.

- Mark Coggins - "The Immortal Game" (novel)

A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.

Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.

All children are essentially criminal.

There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.

I can be expected to look for truth but not to find it.

Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge. . . observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.

- Denis Diderot

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The greater man the greater courtesy.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Cast all your cares on God; that anchor holds.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be happier.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
For I dipped into the future, as far as human eye could see, saw a vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
I am a part of all I have seen.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson - Ulysses (poem)

But psychoanalysis has taught that the dead?a dead parent, for example?can be more alive for us, more powerful, more scary, than the living. It is the question of ghosts.
Jacques Derrida
To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.

- Jacques Derrida - Quoted in New York Times, January 23, 1994

A little and a little, collected together, become a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop makes an inundation.
Saadi - On the Excellence of Contentment
Better hold the hand for coin, though small, Than lose, for one half a dang, it all.

Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant.

O wise man, wash your hands of that friend who associates with your enemies.

The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.

Whatever is produced in haste goes hastily to waste.
Saadi - On the Duties of Society
Tell no one the secret that you want to keep, although he may be worthy of confidence; for no one will be so careful of your secret as yourself.
Saadi - On the Duties of Society
He that has acquired learning and nor practised what he has learnt, is like a man who ploughs but sows no seed.

Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how can you tell but that friend may hereafter become an enemy. And bring not all mischief you are able to upon an enemy, for he may one day become your friend.

Roam abroad in the world, and take thy fill of its enjoyments before the day shall come when thou must quit it for good.

Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant.

- Saadi

Any necessary work that pays an honest wage carries its own honor and dignity.

- W. Kelly Griffith

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

- Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) - "Through the Looking Glass"

To a quick question, give a slow answer.

After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box.

By learning to obey, you will know how to command.

The best armor is to keep out of range.

By asking for the impossible we obtain the possible.

Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.

It is not enough to aim; you must hit.

Everyone loves justice in the affairs of another.

He who begins many things finishes but few.

Between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out.

Better no law than laws not enforced.

A wise man cares not for that which he cannot have.

He that jokes confesses.

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

- Italian Proverb

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on.

- Walter J. Lippmann

Be careful in revising those immigration laws of yours.
We got careless with ours.

- advice given to Herbert Humphrey by an American Indian from New Mexico

You will make all kinds of mistakes but as long as you are generous and true and fierce you cannot hurt the world, or even seriously distress her.

I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill - responding to a journalist
Are you insinuating that I am a purveyor of terminological inexactitudes?
Winston Churchill - Quoted in: Irving Klotz, Bending perception, a book review, Nature, 1996, Volume 379, p 412
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.

Immature love says, I love you because I need you, mature love says, I need you because I love you.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

When you get to the end of your rope tie a knot and hang on.

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
Winston Churchill - Speaking of the Japanese invasion of British colonies in SE Asia
What kind of people do they think we are, do they think we will be bowed by their tryanny?

Too often the strong silent man is silent because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

Why you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, and th most audacious soldier, put them at a table together-and what do you get? The sum of their fears.

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill- designed for the purpose.

We shape our buildings and they shape us.
Winston Churchill - The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy
Why, you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together- what do you get? The sum of all fears.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against being read.
Winston Churchill - Speech about World War II
Never in the course of history, have so many owed so much to so few.

- Winston Churchill

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.

Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured.

- Indian Proverb

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
Albert Einstein
The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
Albert Einstein - The World As I See It (autobio, 1934)
The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence - these are the features of Jewish tradition that make me thank my stars that I belong to it.
Albert Einstein
God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.
Albert Einstein
The tragedy of life is what dies in the hearts and souls of people while they live.
Albert Einstein
The individual must not merely wait and criticize, he must defend the cause the best he can. The fate of the world will be such as the world deserves.
Albert Einstein
Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this counrty is closely related with this.
Albert Einstein
Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.
Albert Einstein
The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.
Albert Einstein - Out of My Later Years
The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society. Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province.
Albert Einstein
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein - when asked to describe radio
You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
Albert Einstein
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.
Albert Einstein
Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.
Albert Einstein
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
Albert Einstein
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Albert Einstein
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein
The aim (of education) must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement.
Albert Einstein
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Albert Einstein - quoted in Scientific American, September 2004, page 69
No one but a theorist believes his theory; everyone puts faith in a laboratory result but the experimenter himself.
Albert Einstein
The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.
Albert Einstein
Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.
Albert Einstein
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most People are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
Albert Einstein
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein
The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.
Albert Einstein
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Albert Einstein
To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
Albert Einstein - Telegram, 24 May 1946
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
Albert Einstein
Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Albert Einstein
All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.
Albert Einstein - quoted in New York Times, March 13, 1940
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
Albert Einstein
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
Albert Einstein - on atomic energy, Jan. 22, 1947
We believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.
Albert Einstein
"My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born and that is all that is necessary.
Albert Einstein
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Albert Einstein
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
Albert Einstein - "Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium", 1941
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein - (attributed)
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Albert Einstein
To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
Albert Einstein
Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.
Albert Einstein
After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest sceintists are always artists as well.
Albert Einstein
Theories should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein
Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.
Albert Einstein
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein
"Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein
Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.
Albert Einstein
So long as there are men there will be wars.
Albert Einstein
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
Albert Einstein
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... it takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
Albert Einstein
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
Albert Einstein - (attributed)
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.
Albert Einstein
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all art and science.
Albert Einstein - 1929
Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.
Albert Einstein
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Albert Einstein
My sense of God is my sense of wonder about the Universe.
Albert Einstein
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.
Albert Einstein
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
Albert Einstein
To my mind to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
Albert Einstein
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Albert Einstein
Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.
Albert Einstein - (attributed)
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
Albert Einstein - (attributed)
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
Albert Einstein
Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein
To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
Albert Einstein
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
Albert Einstein
Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.
Albert Einstein
It is characteristic of the military mentality that nonhuman factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc) are held essential, while the human being, his desires, and thoughts - in short, the psychological factors - are considered as unimportant and secondary...The individual is degraded...to "human materiel".
Albert Einstein
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
Albert Einstein
I have deep faith that the principle of the universe will be beautiful and simple.
Albert Einstein
Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.
Albert Einstein
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Albert Einstein
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein
If my theory of relativity proves to be correct, Germany will claim me a German, and France will claim me a citizen of the world. However, if it proves wrong, France will say I?m a German, and Germany will say that I?m a jew.
Albert Einstein
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein - On Education
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.
Albert Einstein
It is the theory that decides what we can observe.
Albert Einstein
When all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Albert Einstein
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
Albert Einstein
It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curious of inquiry. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.
Albert Einstein - Observer, Jan. 15, 1950
If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
Albert Einstein
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
Albert Einstein
Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavor. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.
Albert Einstein
Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
Albert Einstein
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
Albert Einstein - "Autobiographical Notes"
It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
Albert Einstein
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
Albert Einstein
Each of us visits this Earth involuntarily, and without an invitation. For me, it is enough to wonder at the secrets.
Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein
We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
Albert Einstein
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the unlimitable superior who reveals Himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God
Albert Einstein
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge...
Albert Einstein
It is mathematics that offers the exact natural sciences a certain measure of security which, without mathematics, they could not attain.
Albert Einstein
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein
Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.
Albert Einstein
Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
Albert Einstein
So long as there are men there will be wars.
Albert Einstein
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.
Albert Einstein
He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
Albert Einstein
True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist
Albert Einstein - speech
Never underestimate your own ignorance.
Albert Einstein
I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.
Albert Einstein
There are two ways of resisting war: the legal way and the revolutionary way. The legal way involves the offer of alternatinve service not as a privilege for a few but as a right for all. The revolutionary view involves an uncompromising resistance, with a view to breaking the power of militarism in time of peace or the resources of the state in time of war.
Albert Einstein
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
Albert Einstein - (attributed)
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Albert Einstein
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.
Albert Einstein
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
It is only to the individual that a soul is given.
Albert Einstein
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein
I believe that whoever tries to think things through honestly will soon recognize how unworthy and even fatal is the traditional bias against Negroes. What can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by words and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by racial bias.
Albert Einstein
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
Albert Einstein
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
Albert Einstein
People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
Albert Einstein - In a letter to Max Born, 1926
At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.
Albert Einstein
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Albert Einstein
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
Albert Einstein - Letter, 24 March 1954. Quoted in "Albert Einstein: The Human Side," edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
Albert Einstein
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Albert Einstein - 1879-1955
Nothing in the world makes people so afraid as the influence of independent-minded people.
Albert Einstein
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert Einstein
Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.
Albert Einstein
"I want to know Gods thoughts.... all the rest are just details
Albert Einstein
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
Albert Einstein
God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.
Albert Einstein
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Albert Einstein
He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist.
Albert Einstein
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Albert Einstein
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Albert Einstein - when asked to describe radio
You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
Albert Einstein - The World as I See It.
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
Albert Einstein
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
Albert Einstein
If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge...
Albert Einstein
The conscientious objector is a revoultionary. On deciding to disobey the law he sacrifices his personal interests to the most important cause of working for the betterment of society.
Albert Einstein
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein - Dilip Kumar Roy, (famous Indian classical singer), had cited the above quotation of Einstein in one of his let
Let us not forget that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. ... I claim credit for nothing. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insects as well as for the stars, Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
Albert Einstein
Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the life- long attempt to acquire it.
Albert Einstein
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
Albert Einstein
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
Albert Einstein - Sc
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
Albert Einstein - (attributed)
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein - (attributed)
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

- Albert Einstein - Physics and Reality [1936]

What matters is this: you can look at a scar and see hurt, or you can look at a scar and see healing. Try to understand.

- Sherri Reynolds - A Gracious Plenty

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

- Henri Nouwen - Out of Solitude

I try and try to deny that I need you but still you remain on my mind.

- Mariah Carey

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
Rosalynn Carter - Wife of jimmy Carter, 39th president
You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.

- Rosalynn Carter

Living with a conscience is like driving a car with the brakes on.

- Budd Schulberg

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
Ernest Hemingway
Never confuse movement with action.
Ernest Hemingway
[What is the definition of guts?] Grace under pressure.
Ernest Hemingway - in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
Ernest Hemingway
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
Ernest Hemingway
Courage is grace under pressure.
Ernest Hemingway
But did thee feel the earth move?
Ernest Hemingway
America is the land of wide lawns and narrow minds.
Ernest Hemingway - "The Old Man and the Sea"
Humility is not disgraceful, and carries no loss of true pride.
Ernest Hemingway
When you have a child, the world has a hostage.
Ernest Hemingway
In order to write about life, first you must live it!
Ernest Hemingway
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
Let him think I am more man that I am and I will be so.
Ernest Hemingway
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.
Ernest Hemingway
Grace under Pressure.
Ernest Hemingway
Never mistake motion for action.
Ernest Hemingway
But in modern war you will die like a dog for no good reason.
Ernest Hemingway
Live life to the fullest.
Ernest Hemingway
When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

- Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms, 1929

The journey in between what you once were and who you are now beoming is where the dance of life really takes place.

The journey in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place.

The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are for loving in the present.

You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.

- Barbara De Angelis

...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - A Study in Scarlet
The chief proof of mans greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes in The Copper Beeches
It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Dr. John H. Watson, referring to Sherlock Holmes, in "A Scandal in Bohemia"
The stage lost a fine actor, just as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes) The Sign of Four, 1890
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes) A Scandal in Bohemia, 1892
You see, but you do not observe.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.

This is quite a three-pipe problem.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes) A Case of Identity, 1892
The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest.

The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes) A Case of Identity, 1892
It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes) Sign of Four
"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
When you have eliminated the impossible, that which remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Mediocrity does not see higher than itself. But talent instantly recognizes the genius.

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - (Sherlock Holmes)

The effect of one upright individual is incalculable.

- Oscar Arias

In all honesty, Johnny, we are often at the mercy of the White House for the news we report. Frequently, we simply repeat verbatim what the White House tells us.

- Connie Chung to Johnny Carson

One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this.

- Joe Darion - "The Impossible Dream"

In the long run you only hit what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.

If the day and the night are such that you greet them with with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, more elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, 1854
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character - putting together all their yesterdays - and averaging them - we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support - it is worse than a large family - he is the silent poor indeed.

All good things are wild, and free.

Men are born to succeed, not fail.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it but as I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden; Where I Lived, And What I Lived For
I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake his neighbours up.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Henry David Thoreau - Walking (1862)
In wildness is the preservation of the world.

We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden", 1854
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, how ever measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, Economy.
I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.
Henry David Thoreau - "Where I Live"
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden," the Conclusion
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Economy, 1854
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.

Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.
Henry David Thoreau - O Magazine, May 2004
Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden (1854)
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden (1970)
Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Higher Laws, 1854
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden"
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

As if there were safety in stupidity alone.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.
Henry David Thoreau - Simplify Simplify
Say what you have to say, not what you ought. any truth is better than make-Believe!

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.

Good poetry seems too simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.
Henry David Thoreau - Simplify simplify
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

In the long run, you hit only what you aim at: Therefore aim high.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, cattle, barns, and farming tools, for these are more easily acquired than gotten rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labour in.

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Henry David Thoreau - WALDEN: Or, Life in the Woods
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, Chapter 1: Economy
The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.

As for the pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.

I have lived some thirty years on this planet and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or faraway.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he imaged, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau - ?
Many go fishing without knowing it is fish they are after.

It takes two to speak the truth--one to speak and the other to hear.

Any fool can make a rule,
and any fool will mind it.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
Petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden", 1854
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

Heroes are often the most ordinary of men.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish fill the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

The way by which you may get money almost without exception leads downward.

I stand in awe of my body.

Men have become the tools of their tools

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Most people dread finding out when they come to die that they have never really lived.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Henry David Thoreau - in Walden, "Economy"
What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy.

Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize the infinite extent of our relations.
Henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobience
The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are the richest.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.

In solitude especialy do we begin to appreciate the advantage of living with someone who can think.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

My friend is one... who take me for what I am.

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
Henry David Thoreau - book
The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.

In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Water is the only drink for a wise man.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, 1854
I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden (1854)
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.
Henry David Thoreau - Vol. 2, p.318 Houghton Mifflin
Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

In wilderness is the preservation of the world.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, Conclusion, 1854
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau - "Walden", pp. 323- 324
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau - simplify Simplify
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

Be not simply good - be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau - Jan. 3, 1861
Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then
Henry David Thoreau - "An Essay on Civil Disobedience," 1849.
Voting for the right is doing nothing for it.

Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.

Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
Henry David Thoreau - Simplify Simplify
How sweet it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they are!

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

What men call good fellowship is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter which lie close together to keep each other warm.

[Water is] the only drink for a wise man.

We must have infinite faith in each other. If we have not, we must never let it leak out that we have not.

I have learned this at least by my experiment: if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

I derive no pleasure from talking with a young woman simply because she has regular features.
Henry David Thoreau - Wednesday, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.
Henry David Thoreau - "Resistance to Civil Government"
I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion.
Henry David Thoreau - Journal, January 21, 1838
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

To regret deeply is to live afresh.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Reading, 1854
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
Henry David Thoreau - Journal, July 25, 1839
There is no remedy for love but to love more.

In dreams we see ourselves naked and acting our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
Henry David Thoreau - "Resistance to Civil Government"
I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

- Henry David Thoreau

The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Carl Sandburg
There are dreams stronger than death. Men and women die holding these dreams.
Carl Sandburg
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
Carl Sandburg
Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by.
Carl Sandburg
I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.
Carl Sandburg
Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper until you get the right answer.
Carl Sandburg - New York Times Feb. 13, 1959
Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.
Carl Sandburg - Cornhuskers (1918) "Prairie"
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.
Carl Sandburg
When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along.
Carl Sandburg
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

- Carl Sandburg - Chicago Poems (1916) "Fog"

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words.

The true, prescriptive artist strives after artistic truth; the lawless artist, following blind instinct, after an appearance of naturalness. The one leads to the highest peaks of art, the other to its lowest depths.

What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.

Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation.

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.

When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

The society of women is the element of good manners.

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.

Oh God, how do the world and heavens confine themselves, when our hearts tremble in their own barriers!

Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases.

Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

I do not know everything; still many things I understand.

Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.

Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay.

Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

When you take a man as he is, you make him worse. When you take a man as he can be, you make him better.

More light! Give me more light!

You will always find [hatred] strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

Only learn to seize good fortune, for good fortune is always here.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - O Magazine, April 2003
So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else.

Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.

I love the deep quiet in which I live and grow against the world and harvest what they cannot take from me by fire or sword.

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Unknown
One ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

Everything in the world may be endured except continued prosperity.

Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be.

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.

Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought and could be.

A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust (1806)
Live dangerously and you live right.

Whenever I hear people talking about "liberal ideas," I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.

That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way after us.

He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.

What is not fully understood is not possessed.

There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

Everything in the world may be endured, except continual prosperity.

The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence.

Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.

The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.

Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

The amount of noise which anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

The memory should be specially taxed in youth, since it is then that it is strongest and most tenacious. But in choosing the things that should be committed to memory the utmost care and forethought must be exercised; as lessons well learnt in youth are never forgotten.

Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but is also a disruption of thought.

Every nation ridicules other nations -- and all are right.

The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party when the masks are dropped.

Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

Compassion is the basis of all morality.

Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

All truth passes through 3 stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Though a good motive cannot sanction a bad action, a bad motive will always vitiate a good action. In common and trivial matters we may act without motives, but in momentous ones the most careful deliberation is wisdom.

- W. M. L. Jay

Short sentences drawn from long experiences.
Cervantes - The Impossible Dream
One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this.

- Cervantes

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it, and that a very severe one.

- Hannah Moore

I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, "the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out," and then to worry when America wants to sort them out.
Tony Blair - Speech to the Labor Party Conference 3 October 1995
?instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory Right demand, let that money provide thousands of extra police officers on the beat in our local communities.
Tony Blair - BBC news website
Unless you are ambitious, you do not make progress.

- Tony Blair

Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world.
The Talmud
Until a child is one year old it is incapable of sin.
The Talmud
Customs are more powerful than laws.
The Talmud
God said: you must teach, as I taught, without a fee.
The Talmud
For the sake of peace one may lie, but peace itself should never be a lie.
The Talmud
He who carries out one good deed acquires one advocate in his own behalf, and he who commits one transgression acquires one accuser against himself. Repentance and good works are like a shield against calamity.
The Talmud
Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion.
The Talmud
Man has three friends on whose company he relies. First, wealth which goes with him only while good fortune lasts. Second, his relatives; they go only as far as the grave, leave him there. The third friend, his good deeds, go with him beyond the grave.
The Talmud
Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act.
The Talmud
Humor the sons of the poor, for they give science its splendor.
The Talmud
Never expose yourself unnecessarily to danger; a miracle may not save you...and if it does, it will be deducted from your share of luck or merit.
The Talmud
Hold no man responsible for what he says in his grief.
The Talmud
He that gives should never remember, he that receives should never forget.
The Talmud
Live well. It is the greatest revenge.

- The Talmud - Mishna. Sanhedrin

It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year.

I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!

The Army has carried the American ... ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on ability.

I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.

Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.

- Tom Lehrer

Everything has got a moral if you can only find it.

Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this - when lovelier sights will meet your eyes than any waving trees or rippling waters - when angel-hands shall undraw your curtains, and sweeter tones than ever loving Mother breathed shall wake you to a new and glorious day - and when all the sadness, and the sin, that darkened life on this little earth, shall be forgotten like the dreams of a night that is past!

For I do not believe God means us thus to divide life into two halves - to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out-of-place to even so much as mention Him on a week-day. Do you think He cares to see only kneeling figures and to hear only tones of prayer - and that He does not also love to see the lambs leaping in the sunlight, and to hear the merry voices of the children, as they roll amoung the hay? Surely their innocent laughter is as sweet in His ears as the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from the "dim religious light" of some solemn cathedral?

It is one of the great secrets of life that those things which are most worth doing, we do for others.

- Lewis Carroll

Why is my existence so perfect with dark places? And why do I no longer care?

- Lemuel W. H. Ranier

If we slide into one of those rare moments of military honesty, we realize that the technical demands of modern warfare are so complex a considerable percentage of our material is bound to malfunction even before it is deployed against a foe. We no longer waste manpower by carrying the flag into battle. Instead we need battalions of electronic engineers to keep the terrible machinery grinding.

- Ernest K. Gann - The Black Watch

I improve on misquotation.

Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.

I improve on misquotation.

- Cary Grant

Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it.

- Jesse Stuart

In a person who is open to experience each stimulus is freely relayed through the nervous system, without being distorted by any process of defensiveness.

- Carl Rogers

In love there are things --- bodies and words.

How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty?

- Joyce Carol Oates