quotes
“Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”
“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.”
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
“Some things have to be believed to be seen.”
“The 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.”
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
“Money can't buy happiness, but neither can poverty.”
“If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind.”
“A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.”
“If the human mind was simple enough to understand, we'd be too simple to understand it.”
“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”
“I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2000 of something.”
“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.”
“A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.”
“When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.”
“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
“The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it.”
“Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.”
“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
“I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.”
“There 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".”
“A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.”
“We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.”
“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.”
“To be willing to die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.”
“Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.”
“Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.”
“Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.”
“Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.”
“A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise.”
“Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.”
“Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.”
“Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.”
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
“Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.”
“In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.”
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
“None of it means a damn thing.”
“Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.”
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
“You're only imprisoned if you don't feel free.”
“Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.”
“We should do everything within our means to only live within our means.”
“No human thing is of serious importance.”
“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.”
“He who does not desire power is fit to hold it.”
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything.”
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
“Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there.”
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.”
“Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.”
“Read, 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.”
“The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.”
“Never give a party if you will be the most interesting person there.”
“Only the mediocre are always at their best.”
“I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution.”
“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”
“Nobody can change the whole world, but everybody can change their own.”
“In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.”
“The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly I discover that there is no reason.”
“It is not how old you are, but how you are old.”
“You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.”
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.”
“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?”
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
“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.”
“We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.”
“Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.”
“The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.”
“The reason there is so little crime in Germany is that it's against the law.”
“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.”
“What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.”
“A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.”
“In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”
“We like someone because; we love someone although.”
“No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.”
“Now is the time for all good men to come to.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
“Be like a postage stamp: stick to one thing until you get there.”
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
“The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.”
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
“Any excuse will serve the tyrant.”
“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.”
“When Solomon said there was a time and a place for everything he had not encountered the problem of parking his car.”
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”
“One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven't and don't.”
“Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it.”
“To be or not to be. That's not really a question.”
“Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.”
“America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.”
“Who could ever know the mind of a chook?”
“Dirt is dirt, wherever you are; it has the same properties.”
“Stuff will always come up.”
“It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”
“A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.”
“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”
“Virtue is its own punishment.”
“What people want isn't always what they really want.”
“What you tolerate, you teach.”
“We are but a heartbeat away from eternity.”
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less travelled by / And that has made all the difference.”
“Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, some do so.”
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
“Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.”
“For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.”
“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.”
“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”
“I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.”
“Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.”
“You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.”
“The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.”
“The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.”
“The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.”
“World class is a phrase used by provincial cities and second-rate entertainment events, as well as a wide variety of insecure individuals, to assert that they are not provincial or second-rate, thereby confirming that they are.”
“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.”
“I like escalators because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an "escalator temporarily out of order" sign, only an "escalator temporarily stairs; sorry for the convenience".”
“I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
“Sometimes people are layered like that. There's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface. But sometimes, there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie.”
“Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.”
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”
“It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.”
“The reverse side also has a reverse side.”
“We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.”
“A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.”
“It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.”
“Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both.”
“No friendship is so cordial or delicious as that of girl for girl; no hatred so intense and immovable as that of woman for woman.”
“Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.”
“Falling in love is a lot like dying. You never get to do it enough to become good at it.”
“Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God's final word on where your lips end.”
“Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that's how dogs spend their lives.”
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on February 8th, 2007 at 9:41am
“Some things have to be believed to be seen.”
- Ralph Hodgson
Although meant to be a parody on the classic saying to do with extraordinary happenings, there is a great truth in this in relation to one of the biggest lies ever believed en masse. When Mr. Charles Darwin first believed in the idea of naturalistic causes for human existence he then saw it. Such has been the pattern with many generations since the death of the idea of spontaneous generations.
I wonder if Ralph Hodgson realised the most fundamental issue he was talking about when designing in his mind such a quotable phrase.
on February 12th, 2007 at 8:12pm
You know Friedrich Nietzsche has some rather interesting quotes – even negative – surrounding God and Christianity in general. Upon further research into this man, I’m not sure how I feel about him…
Having said that, I wholeheartedly agree with Seneca: “I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good”!
on February 28th, 2007 at 11:01pm
During my studies I was required to purchase a very expensive text book on polymer science. What had the potential to be very boring subject was redeemed by the conversational and humorous style the authors used. The prefaces for the first and second editions featured in this book and these alone almost justified the hefty price tag. They contain many quotable gems, several of which I want to share with you.
“All morning I worked on the proof of one of my poems, and I took out a comma; in the afternoon I put it back.”
- Oscar Wilde
“Don’t quote Latin; say what you have to say, and then sit down.”
- Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
“This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.”
- Winston Churchill
…and my personal favourite…
“Organic chemistry is the study of organs; inorganic chemistry is the study of the insides of organs.”
- Max Shulman
on July 16th, 2007 at 5:43am
I like this one from Henry D. Thoreau:
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. “
on March 19th, 2008 at 9:38am
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