Gems of Wisdom
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Gems of Wisdom Abraham Lincoln Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.... The prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully. Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough. Don't pray that God's on our side, pray that we're on his side. Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met. I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts. I don't know who my grandfather was; I'm much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. I will prepare and some day my chance will come. If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe. It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar. No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. The ballot is stronger than the bullet. The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do themselves. Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Those who would deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. Truth is generally the best vindication against slander. When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time. Aesop Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. In critical moments even the very powerful have need of the weakest. It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. Albert Camus Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads. Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend. I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions. If, after all, men cannot always make history have meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one. If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. What is a rebel? A man who says no. 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. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. 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. Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater. 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. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler. Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists. 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. He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist. I have deep faith that the principle of the universe will be beautiful and simple. I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. 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. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism. If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. My sense of God is my sense of wonder about the Universe. Never underestimate your own ignorance. Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought. 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. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. 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. 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. 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. The important thing is not to stop questioning. 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. The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them. The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is. True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. When all think alike, no one thinks very much. 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 Schweitzer A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up. A man does not have to be an angel in order to be a saint. An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight. . . The truly wise person is colorblind. Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate. Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. Grow into your ideals so that life cannot rob you of them. Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It then bursts into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile. The spirit of the age is filled with the disdain for thinking. The tragedy of life is not that we die, but is rather, what dies inside a man while he lives. There are (to me) two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity. Truth has not special time of its own. Its hour is now -- always. Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. Alexander Humboldt I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves. Alexandre Dumas If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself. Jealousy is the art of injuring ourselves more than others. There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good life is to live. Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--'Wait and hope'. Anaxagoras The descent to Hades is the same from every place. Anne Frank How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. Aristotle A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility. Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it. I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies. It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way. Nature does nothing uselessly. Arthur Conan Doyle ...chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness. I never guess. 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. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. Arthur Shopenhauer All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Compassion is the basis of all morality. Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right. Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world. Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost. 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. Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party when the masks are dropped. We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people. Aung San Suu Kyi The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear. Ayn Rand A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization. A private individual may do anything except that which is legally forbidden; A government individual may do nothing except that which is legally permitted. A viler evil than to murder a man, is to sell him suicide as an act of virtue. A viler evil than to throw a man into a sacrificial furnace, is to demand that he leap in, of his own will, and that he build the furnace, besides. Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. Guilt is a rope that wears thin. Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values. I can accept anthing, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between. I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it. It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.  (Atlas Shrugged) Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another�s values. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone. My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. The alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind. The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence. The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them. The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles. Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential Bertrand Russell A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. All movements go too far. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine. I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. 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. It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go. Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim. 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. Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man. Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position. Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position. Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country. Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination. So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. 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. 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. Bill Gates Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning. Bob Hope A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it. No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that's why we have two parties. People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy. Boris Pasternak Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether they swear by Soloviev or Kant or Marx. Only individuals seek the truth, and they shun those whose sole concern is not the truth. Brian Adams Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.   Buddha A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker. All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea. Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. 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. Ennui has made more gamblers than avarice, more drunkards than thirst, and perhaps as many suicides as despair. Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. He is able who thinks he is able. He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye. Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you, if you do not act upon them? I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done. It is better to travel well than to arrive. Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height. 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. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance. To understand everything is to forgive everything. What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What's the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood? What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What's the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood? Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill. Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others. What we think, we become. You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself. You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger. Your work is to discover your work and your world, and then with all your heart to give yourself to them.   Carl Jung As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being. Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better 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. If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool. It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how they are themselves. Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also. Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble. Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble. Religion is a defense against the experience of God. 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. The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it. The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.   Carl Sagan A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 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. Anyone who's ever significantly changed the course of humanity has either been a Crackpot, a Heretic, or a Dissident. In the case of Albert Einstein, he was all three! 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. 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? If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. 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. 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. 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. Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense. The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. 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. 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? When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it. Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves. 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.   Charles Darwin A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth. A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others. An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men. Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal. As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities." At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly� replace the savage races throughout the world. Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress� But when on shore, & wandering in the sublime forests, surrounded by views more gorgeous than even Claude ever imagined, I enjoy a delight which none but those who have experienced it can understand. Doing what little one can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue. False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness. I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity & theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds, which follows from the advance of science. It has, therefore, been always my object to avoid writing on religion, and I have confined myself to science. I may, however, have been unduly biased by the pain which it would give some members of my family, if I aided in any way direct attacks on religion. During these two years (March 1837 - January 1839) I was led to think much about religion. Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and I remember being heartily laughed at by several officers (though themselves orthodox) for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality. I suppose it was the novelty of the argument that amused them. But I had gradually come by this time (i.e. 1836 to 1839) to see the Old Testament, from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rain-bow as a sign, &c., &c., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindus, or the beliefs of any barbarian.... Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished.  And this is a damnable doctrine. Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views pretty fully, and I began at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as that which was afterwards followed by my Origin of Species; yet it was only an abstract of the materials which I had collected, and I had got through about half the work on this scale. But my plans were overthrown, for early in the summer of 1858 Mr. Wallace, who was then in the Malay Archipelago, sent me an essay "On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type"; and this essay (arrived June 18th) contained exactly the same theory as mine. Mr. Wallace expressed the wish that if I thought well of his essay, I should send it to Lyell for perusal. The circumstances under which I consented at the request of Lyell and Hooker to allow an extract from my own M.S., together with a letter to Asa Grey dated September 5 1857, to be published at the same time with Wallace's essay, are given in the Journal of the Linnean Society 1858 p.45. I was at first very unwilling to consent, as I thought that Mr. Wallace might consider my doing so unjustifiable, for I did not then know how generous and noble was his disposition... Nevertheless our joint productions excited very little attention. I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions. / My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars. I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection. I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance Huxley. I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I love fools' experiments. I am always making them. I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.� I asked for some time to consider (becoming a parson), as from what little I had heard and thought on the subject I had scruples about declaring my belief in all the dogmas of the Church of England; though otherwise I liked the thought of becoming a country clergyman. Accordingly I read with great care Pearson on the Creeds and a few other books on divinity; and as I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our Creed must be fully accepted. If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits. Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits. Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence. On seeing the marsupials in Australia for the first time and comparing them to placental mammals: "An unbeliever . . . might exclaim 'Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work.'" On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act. We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.   Charles Dickens Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort. Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise. Tell Wind and Fire where to stop but don't tell me. We need never be ashamed of our tears.   Chief Seattle The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth.   Christopher Reeve I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. What I do is based on powers we all have inside us; the ability to endure; the ability to love, to carry on, to make the best of what we have � and you don�t have to be a �Superman� to do it.   Clarence Darrow Chase after truth like hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never catch up with it. History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history. I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of. Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt. Physical deformity calls forth our charity. But the infinite misfortune of moral deformity calls forth nothing but hatred and vengeance. I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure. You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free.   Che Guevara I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man. We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.   Cleveland Amory I can't take a well-tanned person seriously. There are three terrible ages of childhood - 1 to 10, 10 to 20, and 20 to 30.   Confucius Be more modest in speech than in action. Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Do not to others what you don�t want done to you. Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it. Forget injuries, remember kindnesses. 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. He who will not economize will have to agonize. Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand. Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand. It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. To learn without thinking is labor lost; to think without learning is perilous. Too much could be worse than not enough. Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do. Respect yourself and others will respect you. Study the past to know the future. 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. The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar. 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. To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle. What the great man seeks is in himself; what the little man seeks is in others. Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.   Dag Hammarskjold Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for. The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.   Dalai Lama If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.   David Brinkley The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.   Doris Day The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you'll grow out of it.   Dwight Eisenhower Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book... 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 never saw a pessimistic general win a battle. In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg. 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. When you appeal to force, there's one thing you must never do - lose. When you are in any contest you should work as if there were - to the very last minute - a chance to lose it.   Eleanor Roosevelt A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art. Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on. I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. If someone betrays you once, it�s their fault; if they betray you twice, it�s your fault. It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can�t live long enough to make them all yourself. No man is defeated without until he is defeated within. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. 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.�   Emily Dickinson 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. My friends are my estate. One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place. Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed. We turn not older with years, but newer every day. ... the fog is rising. - Last words of Emily Dickinson   Enrico Fermi Emilio, I am getting rusty and old, I cannot follow the highbrow theory developed by Oppenheimer's pupils any more. I went to their seminar and was depressed by my inability to understand them. Only the last sentence cheered me up. It was: "And this is Fermi's theory of beta decay. It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge. There are two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.   Erica Jong Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything its cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it...it really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everthing for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. If you don't risk anything you risk even more. Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.    Fitzgerald Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy. Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure. The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. To write it, it took three months; to conceive it � three minutes; to collect the data in it � all my life. Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over. What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story.   Florence Nightingale You ask me why I do not write something....I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.   Franklin D. Roosevelt Be sincere; be brief; be seated. First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird, and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. If you treat people right they will treat you right - ninety percent of the time. In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. 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. It is fun to be in the same decade with you.  (To Winston  Churchill) Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith. We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.   Fred Hoyle Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards. There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for.   Friedrich Engel An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. The state is nothing but an instrument of oppression of one class by another--no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy.   Friedrich Nietzsche A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one. Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful! God is dead. I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time. In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point. In heaven all the interesting people are missing. In truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross. Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man's? Man is the cruelest animal. No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad. 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. The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments. The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is - to live dangerously. 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. To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity. What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.   Galileo Galilei All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgement upon anything new. Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe. You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.   George Bernard Shaw �        A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. �        A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. �        A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. �        A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth. �        A man ought to be able to be fond of his wife without making a fool of himself about her. �        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. �        All great truths begin as blasphemies. �        Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them. �        An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable. �        Animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends. �        Assassination is the extreme form of censorship. �        Beware of the man whose God is in the skies. �        Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it. �        Churches must learn humility as well as teach it. �        Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius. �        Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. �        Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. �        Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same. �        "Do you know what a pessimist is?" "A man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it." �        Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough. �        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. �        He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. �        He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches. �        Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history. �        Home life as we understand it is no more natural to us than a cage is natural to a cockatoo. �        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. �        I never resist temptation because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me. �        I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation. �        I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could. �        If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. �        If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience. �        If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. �        If you can't appreciate what you've got, then you had better get what you can appreciate. �        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. �        Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. �        In order to fully realize how bad a popular play can be, it is necessary to see it twice. �        It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid. �        It is most unwise for people in love to marry . �        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. �        I�d like to be the person I could have been but never was. �        Lack of money is the root of all evil. �        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 does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. �        Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. �        Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage - it can be delightful. �        Life would be tolerable but for its amusements. �        Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity. �        Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability. �        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. �        My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity. �        No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. �        Nothing ever is done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done. �        Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious. �        One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven't and don't. �        Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children. �        Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. �        People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them. �        Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing. �        Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn. �        Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. �        The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. �        The golden rule is that there are no golden rules. �        The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed but that he cannot believe anyone else. �        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 man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time. �        The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it. �        The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. �        The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. �        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. �        The trouble with him/her is that he/she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech. �        The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist. �        The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity. �        There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses. �        There are scores of thousands of human insects who are ready at a moment's notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject. �        There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it. �        There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it. �        There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it. �        This is the true joy in life -- being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one... �        To be clever enough to get a great deal of money, one must be stupid enough to want it. �        Virtue is insufficient temptation. �        We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy. �        What God hath joined together no man shall put asunder: God will take care of that. �        When a man wants to murder a tiger, it's called sport; when the tiger wants to murder him it's called ferocity. �        When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. �        When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. �        While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth? �        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. �        You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" �        Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children. �        Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing. �        You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.   George Eliot Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. Every man who is not a monster, mathematician or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other. It's never too late to be who you might have been. One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men. The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us.   George Orwell All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.   George S. Patton Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent.   George Santayana A man is morally free when, in full possession of his living humanity, he judges the world, and judges other men, with uncompromising sincerity. Before he sets out, the traveler must possess fixed interests and facilities to be served by travel. Each religion, by the help of more or less myth which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabline it to make its peace with its destiny. Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. For an idea ever to be fashionable is ominous, since it must afterwards be always old-fashioned. Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment. It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas. Nothing is really so poor and melancholy as art that is interested in itself and not in its subject. Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be. Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily. The need of exercise is a modern superstition, invented by people who ate too much and had nothing to think about. The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it. The wisest mind has something yet to learn. There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. Whoever it was who searched the heavens with a telescope and found no God would not have found the human mind if he had searched the brain with a microscope.   Helen Keller Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therein to be content I am only one, still I am one. I can not do everything, still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace. I look upon the whole world as my fatherland, and every war has to me the horror of a family feud. Is there anything worse than being blind? Yes, a man with sight and no vision. Knowledge is love and light and vision. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure. Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye. No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant. Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings. Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world. There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas. We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.   Henry Ford An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous. History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we made today. I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done. I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done. If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible. You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.   Ian Fleming The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.   Isaac Asimov I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them. It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety. Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome. Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. . .. Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest. The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...' Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.   Jay Leno Here's something to think about: How come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'? How would it be if we discovered that aliens only stopped by earth to let their kids take a leak? Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you've met your New Year's resolution. You cannot be mad at somebody who makes you laugh - it's as simple as that.   Jerry Seinfeld A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. I had a dream last night that a hamburger was eating ME! It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper. There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family." There's very little advice in men's magazines, because men think, I know what I'm doing. Just show me somebody naked. Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God's final word on where your lips end.   Joan of Arc I am not afraid... I was born to do this.   Jodi Foster Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.   John Adams Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide. I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.� Our Constitution was made only for a moral and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.   John D. Rockefeller Good leadership consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people. I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity. I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession a duty. If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.   John F. Kennedy All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea -- whether it is to sail or to watch it -- we are going back from whence we came. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. In the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal. Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain. Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence. The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity. The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!' The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all. The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. We need men who can dream of things that never were. We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others. When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we'd been saying they were.   John le Carre A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world. Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen. Sometimes we do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions not answers. The only reward for love is the experience of loving.   Kahlil Gibran Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. 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. 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. 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. You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. 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.   Lao Tzu 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. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. 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. He who knows others is wise; he who know himself is enlightened. He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. To be worn out is to be renewed.   Lee Iacocca If I had to sum up in one word what makes a good manager, I'd say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act. Management is nothing more than motivating other people. People want economy and they will pay any price to get it. The speed of the boss is the speed of the team. The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come. There ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got raw deals. You've got to say, 'I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it.'   Linus Pauling The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.   Louis Pasteur In the field of observation, 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.   Ludwig von Beethoven I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.   Mahatma Gandhi A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Hate the sin, love the sinner. Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress. I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life. I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further. In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place. Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty, it is it's own reward. Everything else is in God's hands. It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. No cost is too heavy for the preservation of one's honor. One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.  The only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought. There is more to life than increasing its speed. There is no path to peace. Peace is the path. Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always. You must be the change you want to see in the world. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.   Margaret Mead Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre as possible.   Margot Fonteyn If I have learnt anything, it is that life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?   Mark Twain A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be led by the nose. A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be led by the nose. A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be led by the nose. Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more. An enemy can partly ruin a man, but it takes a good-natured injudicious friend to complete the thing and make it perfect. Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person. 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. How come we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved. 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 admire the serene assurance of those who have religious faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces. I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people. I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't. If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be - a Christian. I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time. I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time. 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 tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. In this world one must be like everybody else if he doesn't want to provoke scorn or envy or jealousy. It's a good idea to obey all the rules when you're young just so you'll have the strength to break them when you're old. It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them. It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. 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. Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment. Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to. Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising. Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. 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. Never tell the truth to those unworthy of it. Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. Of all the creatures that were made, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one--the solitary one--that possesses malice. That is the basest of all instincts, passions, vices--the most hateful. He is the only creature that has pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. Also--in all the list he is the only creature that has a nasty mind. One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that the cat has only nine lives. Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we have expressed them to someone else. Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of. The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible. The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up. 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. The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal. 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. The report of my death was an exaggeration. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane. The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself. There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice. There are times when one would like to end the whole human race, and finish the farce. 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. We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles. What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before. When a disciple from the wildcat religious asylum comes marching forth, get under the bed. It doesn't matter whether he's a Christian, Hindu, Jew or Muslim. When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people. 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. When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. You can't pray a lie.   Marlene Dietrich Without tenderness, a man is uninteresting.   Martin Luther King A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan. Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. But I know somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. Let no man pull you low enough to hate him. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. The time is always right to do what is right. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. We have flown the air like birds and swum the seas like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers. We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. We must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.   Michael J. Fox One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.   Miguel de Cervante A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. Among the attributes of God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy than justice. Be brief, for no discourse can please when too long. Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it. Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn. The most difficult character in comedy is that of a fool, and he must be no simpleton who plays the part. Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.   Oscar Wilde A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success. Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same. Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them. Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made. Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing. Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is fatal. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution. Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable. 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. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.     Paul Gauguin Art is either plagiarism or revolution. I shut my eyes in order to see.   Plato Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil. Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. Only the dead have seen the end of war. Only the dead have seen the end of war. The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.   Poul Anderson I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.   Ralph Waldo Emerson Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Children are all foreigners. Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints. Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm. He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Insist on yourself; never imitate... Every great man is unique. Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him. Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner. No great man ever complains of want of opportunity. Non-violence does not signify that man must not fight against the enemy, and by enemy is meant the evil which men do, not the human beings themselves. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character. Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. The ancestor of every action is a thought. The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence. The future depends on what we do in the present. The good man is the friend of all living things. The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later. The only gift is a portion of thyself. The only way to have a friend is to be one. The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it. The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. There are seven sins in the world: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice and politics without principle. There are seven sins in the world: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice and politics without principle. This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. To be great is to be misunderstood. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. 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. When you strike at a king, you must kill him.   Ray Bradbury You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.   Richard Dawkins The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity. Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakeable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time. We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.   Richard Feynman For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there. Nature has a great simplicity and therefore a great beauty. No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it. Philosophers say a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science, and it is always, so far as one can see, rather naive, and probably wrong. Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it. Physics is to math what sex is to masturbation. The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity and until they do (and find the cure) all ideal plans will fall into quicksand. The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on. You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.   Robert Redford If you stay in Beverly Hills too long you become a Mercedes.   Rosa Parks Each person must live their life as a model for others. I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move. I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.   Sigmund Freud From error to error, one discovers the entire truth. Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine. If you want to endure life, prepare yourself for death. In the depths of my heart I can't help being convniced that my dear fellow men, with few exceptions, are worthless. Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity. Religion is an illusion, and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses. The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization. The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.   Simone de Beauvoir I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for the truth; and truth rewarded me. It is not in giving life but in risking life that man is raised above the animal; that is why superiority has been accorded in humanity not to the sex that brings forth but to that which kills. That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.   Socrates All human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them. By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others. Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods. He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it. The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows. There is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity. What is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.   Stephen Hawking Equations are just the boring part of mathematics. I attempt to see things in terms of geometry. I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image. We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special. I have to remind myself that some birds weren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knew it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But your world is just that much colder and emptier when they're gone. I don't know... maybe I just miss my friend. I think that it's important for scientists to explain their work, particularly in cosmology. This now answers many questions once asked of religion. It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining. My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all. The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. We could call order by the name of God, but it would be an impersonal God. There's not much personal about the laws of physics.   Stephen King Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule. I have to remind myself that some birds weren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knew it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But your world is just that much colder and emptier when they're gone. I don't know... maybe I just miss my friend.   (Shawshank Redemption.) Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window. The road to hell is paved with adverbs.   T.S. Eliot Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers. We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.   Thomas Edison A genius is just a talented person who does his homework. All Bibles are man-made. Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration. I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work. The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease. We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.   Thomas Jefferson Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it. Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day. Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom. I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it. In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness. Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment. Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself. Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it. We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.   Victor Hugo A man is not idle just because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labour and there is invisible labour. An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job. I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses. If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away. If suffer we must, let's suffer on the heights. Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. Popularity? It is glory's small change. The quantity of civilization is measured by the quality of imagination. There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher. To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live. To love another person is to see the face of God. What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love! Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.   Voltaire All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God. 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. As long as there are fools and rascals, there will be religions. Common sense is not so common. Do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear. Do well and you will have no need for ancestors. Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. God created sex. Priests created marriage. God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. History is a pack of lies we play on the dead. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it. If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue. Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers. Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers. Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other. The secret of being boring is to say everything. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.   Wayne Gretzky A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.   Will Durant Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. Happiness is something that you are and it comes from the way you think. The more I give myself permission to live in the moment and enjoy it without feeling guilty or judgmental about any other time, the better I feel about the quality of my work.   Will Rogers An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out. Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does. Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators. The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them. There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.   William Faulkner The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews. The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past.   William Shakespeare Action is eloquence. Be great in act, as you have been in thought. I am not bound to please thee with my answers. I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience. Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none. Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. The trust I have is in mine innocence, and therefore am I bold and resolute. Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause. We do not keep the outward form of order, where there is deep disorder in the mind.   Winston Churchill A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward. A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed. An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash. For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else. From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.' I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents. I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. If heaven is going to be full of people like Hardie, well, the Almighty can have them to himself. It might be said that Lord Rosebery outlived his future by ten years and his past by more than twenty. It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. MacDonald has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thoughts. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Success is never final. The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter. The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes. The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself. The price of greatness is responsibility. The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true. There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result. We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it. When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

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