" How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares if there seemed any danger of their coming true! "
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts (1931) “Life and Human Nature” (1865 – 1946)
" Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself. "
H. L. Mencken US editor (1880 – 1956)
" The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch somebody else do it wrong without comment. "
T. H. White
" Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience. "
George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905 US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 – 1952)
" When you are at Rome live in the Roman style; when you are elsewhere live as they live elsewhere. "
Saint Ambrose, Taylor Italian saint & church father (339 AD – 397 AD)
" In a mad world, only the mad are sane. "
Akiro Kurosawa
" I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. "
Socrates, In “Apology,” sct. 21, by Plato. Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC – 399 BC)
" That which is won ill, will never wear well, for there is a curse attends it which will waste it. The same corrupt dispositions which incline men to sinful ways of getting, will incline them to the like sinful ways of spending. "
M. Henry
" While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die. "
Leoardo da Vinci
" Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. "
George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905) vol. 1, Introduction US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 – 1952)
" More appealing than knowledge itself is the feeling of knowledge. "
Daniel J. Boorstin US historian (1914 – )
" To live with fear and not be afraid is the final test of maturity. "
Edward Weeks
" The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire. "
Voltaire French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 – 1778)
" Speak of things public to the public, but of things lofty and secret only to the loftiest and most private of your friends. Hay to the ox and sugar to the parrot. "
Johannes Trithemius, 1488
" True strength lies in gentleness. "
Irish Proverb
" She had learned the self-deprecating ways of the woman who does not want to be thought hard and grasping, but her artifices could not always cover the nakedness of her need to excel. "
Faith Sullivan, The Cape Ann, 1988
" In order to be a realist you must believe in miracles. "
Henry Christopher Bailey
" People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get. "
Frederick Douglass US abolitionist (1817 – 1895)
" First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. "
Epictetus Roman (Greek-born) slave & Stoic philosopher (55 AD – 135 AD)
" By the time the child can draw more that scribble, by the age of four or five years, an already well-formed body of conceptual knowledge formulated in language dominates his memory and controls his graphic work. Drawings are graphic accounts of essentially verbal processes. As an essentially verbal education gains control, the child abandons his graphic efforts and relies almost entirely on words. Language has first spoilt drawing and then swallowed it up completely. "
Karl Buhler, 1930
" Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them. "
Joseph Heller US novelist (1923 – )
" The right things to do are those that keep our violence in abeyance; the wrong things are those that bring it to the fore. "
Robert J. Sawyer, “Calculating God”, 2000 Canadian science fiction writer (1960 – )
" The healthy, the strong individual, is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he has an abscess on his knee or in his soul. "
Rona Barrett
" Few ever live to old age, and fewer still ever became distinguished, who were not in the habit of early rising. "
J. Todd
" Beware of the man whose God is in the skies. "
George Bernard Shaw Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 – 1950)
" Never lend books – nobody ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me. "
Anatole France French novelist (1844 – 1924)
" Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties. "
Doug Larson
" The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract. "
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. US jurist (1841 – 1935)
" 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. "
Homer, The Odyssey Greek epic poet (800 BC – 700 BC)
" 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. "
the Dhammapada
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS.
