Previous QuotesA new quote is posted each Tuesday. Previous quotes are archived here.My Memes
If you have a favorite quote that you would like to see featured here ...in other words..., please send it to me. Thanks! |
...in other words...A journal writing prompt or "meme"...
Game guidelines can be found on the home page.
Players - Please leave a link or comment by email or at my Catchwords weblog.
Tuesday, January 6, 2004Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. Thursday, January 8, 2004He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.If you like, consider the ramifcations of the following, contrary, thought It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Saturday, January 10, 2004Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle. Tuesday, January 13, 2004It is hard to begin to move when you don't know where you are moving, how to move, or if you are going to get there. Thursday, January 15, 2004Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature. Saturday, January 17, 2004There are two types of people--those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.' Tuesday, January 20, 2004The real character of a man is found out by his amusements. Thursday, January 22, 2004Count Hermann Keyserling once said truly that the greatest American superstition was belief in facts. Saturday, January 24, 2004It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. Tuesday, January 27, 2004There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Thursday, January 29, 2004You don't stop laughing because you grow old. Saturday, January 31, 2004To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Tuesday, February 3, 2004Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself. Thursday, Feb 5, 2004It is always the best policy to speak the truth--unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar. Saturday, Feb 7, 2004Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. Tuesday, Feb 10, 2004Love thy neighbour as yourself, but choose your neighbourhood.
Thursday, Feb 12, 2004Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Saturday, Feb 14, 2004The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or perhaps, loved in spite of ourselves. Tuesday, Feb 17, 2004If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time. Thursday, Feb 19, 2004I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them. Saturday, Feb 21, 2004Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004I 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. Thursday, Feb 26, 2004It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Saturday, Feb 28, 2004The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. Tuesday, Mar 2, 2004Love is a blazing, crackling, green-wood flame, as much smoke as flame; friendship, married friendship particularly, is a steady, intense, comfortable fire. Love, in courtship, is friendship in hope; in matrimony, friendship upon proof. Saturday, Mar 6, 2004Love must be as much a light as a flame. Tuesday, Mar 9, 2004Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity. Saturday, Mar 13, 2004Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution. Saturday, Mar 20, 2004It is a curious truth that many cats enjoy warmer, more convivial, even affectionate relationships with humans than they could ever do with fellow felines. Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right. Saturday, Mar 27, 2004Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. Saturday, Apr 3, 2004Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them. Tuesday, Apr 6, 2004Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form. Saturday, Apr 10, 2004All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why. Tuesday, Apr 13, 2004I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect. Saturday, Apr 17, 2004Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be. Tuesday, Apr 20, 2004Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author? Saturday, Apr 24, 2004The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004We rarely quote nowadays to appeal to authority ... though we quote sometimes to display our sapience and erudition. Some authors we quote against. Some we quote not at all, offering them our scrupulous avoidance, and so make them part of our white mythology. Other authors we constantly invoke, chanting their names in cerebral rituals of propitiation or ancestor worship. Saturday, May 1, 2004The superfluous is very necessary. Tuesday, May 4, 2004I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light. Saturday, May 8, 2004The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next. Tuesday, May 11, 2004Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. Saturday, May 15, 2004I quote another mans saying; unluckily, that other withdraws himself in the same way, and quotes me. Tuesday, May 18, 2004When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly. Saturday, May 22, 2004Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting. Tuesday, May 25, 2004One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well. Saturday, May 29, 2004The physicist Leo Szilard once announced to his friend Hans Bethe that he was thinking of keeping a diary: "I don;t intend to publish. I am merely going to record the facts for the information of God." "Don't you think God knows the facts?" Bethe asked. "Yes," said Szilard. "He knows the facts, but He does not know _this version of the facts." Tuesday, Jun 1, 2004Ask how to live? Write, write, write, anything; the world's a fine believing world, write news. Saturday, Jun 5, 2004Great is journalism. Is not every able editor a ruler of the world, being the persuader of it? Tuesday, Jun 8, 2004"We see what we believe rather than believe what we see. Saturday, Jun 12, 2004Miscellanists are the most popular writers among every people; for it is they who form a communication between the learned and the unlearned, and, as it were, throw a bridge between those two great divisions of the public. Tuesday, Jun 15, 2004"I don't want to control everything, I just want people and events to mold to my desires!" Saturday, Jun 19, 2004True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes. Tuesday, Jun 22, 2004To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation. Saturday, Jun 26, 2004When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do. Tuesday, Jun 29, 2004My last page is always latent in my first; but the intervening windings of the way become clear only as I write. Saturday, Jul 3, 2004It is a great ability to be able to conceal one's ability. Tuesday, Jul 6, 2004They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Saturday, Jul 10, 2004That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. Tuesday, Jul 13, 2004First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe. Saturday, Jul 17, 2004What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens. Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Saturday, Jul 24, 2004Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. Tuesday, Jul 27, 2004What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public. Saturday, Jul 31, 2004Too 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. Tuesday, Aug 3, 2004First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe. Saturday, Aug 7, 2004An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004The cure for writer's cramp is writer's block. Saturday, Aug 14, 2004We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. Saturday, Aug 21, 2004The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...' Tuesday, Aug 24, 2004The multitude of books is making us ignorant. Saturday, Aug 28, 2004Education is what you get from reading the fine print. Experience is what you get from not reading it. Tuesday, Aug 31, 2004It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. Saturday, Sep 4, 2004We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. Tuesday, Sep 7, 2004It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea. Saturday, Sep 11, 2004You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty. Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Saturday, Sep 18, 2004In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these. Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists? Saturday, Sep 25, 2004The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. Tuesday, Sep 28, 2004Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. Saturday, Oct 2, 2004Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. Tuesday, Oct 5, 2004No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Saturday, Oct 9, 2004What on earth would a man do with himself if something did not stand in his way? Tuesday, Oct 12, 2004I 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. Saturday, Oct 16, 2004The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. Tuesday, Oct 19, 2004An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today. Saturday, Oct 23, 2004Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.--- Tuesday, Oct 26, 2004A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. Saturday, Oct 30, 2004The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past. Tuesday, Nov 2, 2004If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day. Saturday, Nov 6, 2004One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. Tuesday, Nov 9, 2004Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. Saturday, Nov 13, 2004All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others. Tuesday, Nov 16, 2004Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel. Saturday, Nov 20, 2004Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions. Saturday, Nov 27, 2004We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. Tuesday, Nov 30, 2004Happiness 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. Saturday, Dec 4, 2004An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. Tuesday, Dec 7, 2004Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control. Saturday, Dec 11, 2004It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. Tuesday, Dec 14, 2004Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from. Tuesday, Dec 21, 2004Seek simplicity, and distrust it. Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. Tuesday, Jan 4, 2005Few 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. Tuesday, Jan 11, 2005A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. Tuesday, Jan 18, 2005A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. Tuesday, Feb 1, 2005Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. Tuesday, Feb 8, 2005I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way. Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit. Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. Tuesday, Mar 1, 2005The educator must above all understand how to wait - to reckon the effects in the light of the future, not of the present. Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false. Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. Tuesday, Mar 29, 2005The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. Tuesday, Apr 5, 2005For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed. Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor. Tuesday, Apr 19, 2005A superstition is a premature explanation that overstays its time. Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race. Tuesday, May 3, 2005Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else. Tuesday, May 10, 2005God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. Tuesday, May 17, 2005It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. Tuesday, May 24, 2005The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say. Tuesday, May 31, 2005We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess. Tuesday, Jun 7, 2005Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality. Tuesday, Jun 14, 2005Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the fine line between sanity and madness gotten finer? Tuesday, Jun 21, 2005Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast. Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. Tuesday, Jul 5, 2005Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult. Tuesday, Jul 12, 2005Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves. Tuesday, Jul 19, 2005We all have at least two sides. The world we live in is a world of opposites. And the trick is to reconcile those opposing things. I've always liked both sides. In order to appreciate one you have to know the other. The more darkness you can gather up, the more light you can see too. Tuesday, Jul 26, 2005The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Tuesday, Aug 2, 2005In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are. Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential...these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. Tuesday, Aug 16, 2005First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe. Tuesday, Aug 23, 2005No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities - always see them, for they're always there. Tuesday, Aug 30, 2005There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so Tuesday, Sep 6, 2005We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys. Tuesday, Sep 13, 2005Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions. Tuesday, Sep 20, 2005All 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. Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing. Tuesday, Oct 4, 2005Sane 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. Tuesday, Oct 11, 2005Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. Tuesday, Oct 25, 2005Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world. Tuesday, Nov 1, 2005Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Tuesday, Nov 8, 2005No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. Tuesday, Nov 15, 2005By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece. Tuesday, Nov 22, 2005He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. Tuesday, Nov 29, 2005Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long. Tuesday, Dec 6, 2005Nothing is more common than unfulfilled potential. Tuesday, Dec 20, 2005I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent. Tuesday, Dec 27, 2005Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies. Tuesday, Jan 3, 2006The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals. Tuesday, Jan 10, 2006Success is living up to your potential. That's all. Wake up with a smile and go after life...Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it. Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. Tuesday, Jan 31, 2006You're never too old to become younger. Tuesday, Feb 7, 2006It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations. Tuesday, Feb 14, 2006A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them. Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. Tuesday, Feb 28, 2006Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy. Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006Life is a zoo in a jungle. Tuesday, Mar 14, 2006Nobody believes the official spokesman... but everybody trusts an unidentified source. Tuesday, Mar 21, 2006Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open. Tuesday, Mar 28, 2006Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. Tuesday, Apr 4, 2006Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. Tuesday, Apr 11, 2006It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge. Tuesday, Apr 18, 2006Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality. Tuesday, Apr 25, 2006When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest. Tuesday, May 2, 2006Only by opening the door of possibility can a vision be given enough room to grow into a reality. Tuesday, May 9, 2006So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. Tuesday, May 16, 2006It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. Quote for May 23, 2006The 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. Quote for , May 30When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision. Quote for , Jun 6Why do writers write? Because it isn't there. Quote for , Jun 13A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents. Quote for , Jun 20It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it. Quote for , Jun 27Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. Quote for , Jul 4Wisdom is what's left after we've run out of personal opinions. Quote for , Jul 11The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. Quote for , Jul 18When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest. Quote for , Jul 25Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh. Quote for , Aug 1Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right. Quote for , Aug 8The intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many accomplishments, and is yet willing to learn more. Quote for , Aug 15The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore. Quote for , Aug 22A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Quote for , Aug 29The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. Quote for , Sep 5A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong. Quote for , Sep 12The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. Quote for , Sep 19Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves. Quote for , Sep 26The abyss is nothing more than a blank screen, an opportunity on which to paint the future. Quote for , Oct 3They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea. Quote for , Oct 10A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. Quote for , Oct 17The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. Quote for , Oct 24People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. Quote for , Oct 31What is a diary as a rule? A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it. Quote for , Nov 7The only sure thing about luck is that it will change. Quote for , Nov 14Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it. -- Bret Harte -- Michel de Montaigne Quote for , Nov 21In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from. Quote for , Nov 28Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. Quote for , Dec 5College isn't the place to go for ideas. Quote for , Jan 2The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. Quote for , Jan 9Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem. Quote for , Jan 16You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Quote for Jan 23Impatience is your mind’s resistance to the process of your soul. Quote for Jan 30What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? Quote for Saturday Feb 6Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. Quote for Feb 13Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. Quote for Feb 20Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen? Quote for Feb 27Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there. Quote for Saturday Mar 6Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. Quote for Mar 13Sanity is a madness put to good use. Quote for Mar 20Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake. Quote for Mar 27Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain. Quote for Wednesday Apr 3Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. Quote for Apr 10The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught. Quote for Apr 17You cannot change anything but yourself, but in changing yourself, you change your reality. Quote for Apr 24All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why. Quote for Monday May 1We do what we must, and call it by the best names. Quote for May 8The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. Quote for May 15Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. Quote for May 22One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. Quote for May 29An executive is a person who always decides; sometimes he decides correctly, but he always decides. Quote for Friday Jun 5Any 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. Quote for Jun 12We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real? Quote for Jun 19I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light. Quote for Jun 26In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be. Quote for Wednesday Jul 3Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. Quote for Jul 10He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder. Quote for Jul 17The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it. Quote for Jul 24The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past. Quote for Jul 31The 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. Quote for Aug 7The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool. Quote for Aug 14People make choices based upon how much they believe in themselves. Quote for Aug 21Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Quote for Aug 28An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly. Quote for Thursday Sep 4The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos. Quote for Sep 11The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. Quote for Sep 18It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. Quote for Sep 25A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire. Quote for Tuesday Oct 2Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. Quote for Oct 9The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Quote for Oct 16A fellow who is always declaring he's no fool usually has his suspicions. Quote for Oct 23No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar. Quote for Oct 30An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. Quote for Saturday Nov 6A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything. Quote for Nov 13Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. Quote for Nov 20It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. Quote for Nov 27Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people. Quote for Thursday Dec 4You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" Quote for Dec 11Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors. Quote for Dec 18There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it. Quote for Dec 25To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter. Quote for Monday Jan 1Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. Quote for Jan 8An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered. Quote for Jan 15The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. Quote for Jan 22The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium. Quote for Feb 12Criticism is prejudice made plausible. Quote for Feb 19The conception of two people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep. Quote for Feb 26It's all right letting yourself go as long as you can let yourself back. Quote for Thursday Mar 4If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? Quote for Mar 11Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination. Quote for Mar 25Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. Quote for Monday Apr 1The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action. Quote for Apr 8Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person. Quote for Apr 15Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be. Quote for Apr 22It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. Quote for Apr 29The world only goes round by misunderstanding. Quote for Saturday May 6The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty. Quote for May 13I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light. Quote for May 20Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control. -- Don Marquis Quote for May 27Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. Quote for Wednesday Jun 3My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. Quote for Jun 10If a man will begin in certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties. Quote for Jun 17The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. Quote for Jun 24We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine. Quote for Monday Jul 1I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it. Quote for Jul 8Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space. Quote for Jul 15A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation. Quote for Jul 22We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. Quote for Jul 29An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. Quote for Friday Aug 5All television is children's television. Quote for Aug 12I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. Quote for Aug 19O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet. Quote for Aug 26The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Quote for Tuesday Sep 2Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows. Quote for Sep 9At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas. Quote for Sep 16It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. Quote for Sep 23The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Quote for Sep 30Part of being sane, is being a little bit crazy. Quote for Oct 7There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. Quote for Oct 14Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle. Quote for Oct 21The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. Quote for Oct 28Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway. Quote for Thursday Nov 4Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Quote for Nov 11When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken. Quote for Nov 18Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely- read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely. Quote for Nov 25If little else, the brain is an educational toy. Quote for Tuesday Dec 2Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. Quote for Dec 9A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. Quote for Dec 16We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else. Quote for Dec 23The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side. Quote for Dec 30You know youíve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. |
|||