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Another entry to World Mysteries
A BOOK OF WISDOM...
WELCOME, to this misbehaving, wandering book of wandering WISDOM.
Why consider WISDOM? Unfortunately, wisdom is in very short supply as we approach the Year 2000 and beyond. It is difficult to say why this is.
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The Problem is: The considered wisdom of the past 4000 years or so presently seems to be unable to assist us in guiding people's lives as population expands.
This may have something to do with the fact that wisdom cannot be taught, it can only be learned. The more rapidly population grows, the more rapid is the reduction in the proportion of wisdom available (?). This book contains only a little, of what has been learned. From here you are on your own ...
For other good quotes, go to: www.wow4u.com/
Please consider...
The Meaning of Life is the sense of happiness you take in
being of usefulness to the people around you.
This definition comes from the Dalai Lama.
"We know no absolute truth in this world, only varying
degrees of ambiguity".
Attributed to: Tao Deng Ming Dao
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"Only the madman is absolutely sure." - Robert Anton Wilson, novelist (1932-2007) (From Wordsmith)
"It seems like the less a statesman amounts to the more he adores the flag." - Kin Hubbard, humorist (1868-1930) (From Wordsmith)
"The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else." - John Updike, writer (1932-2009) (From Wordsmith)
"No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom." - Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) (From Wordsmith)
"It is not how old you are, but how you are old." - Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) (From Wordsmith)
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King, Jr., US civil-rights leader (1929-1968) (From Wordsmith)
"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind." - Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (1809-1882) (From Wordsmith)
"As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity that questions has little healing in its touch." -Edith Wharton, novelist (1862-1937) (From Wordsmith)
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. - Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983) (From Wordsmith)
Wisdom of Will Rogers (US many decades ago now):
Don't squat with your spurs on.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot that comes from bad
judgment.
Lettin' the cat outta' the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it
back in.
If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and
then to make sure it's still there.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he
started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot
him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut!
There's two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither one
works.
When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't
be surprised if they learn their lesson.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.
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"Happiness is absorption." |
"Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it's grief that
develops the powers of the mind." |
God grant me the serenity, to remember who I am. |
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"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." |
When you enter your room, you enter your heart. Happy those who
delight to enter their hearts and find no evil there. |
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the
life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness is never
decreased by being shared. |
"The great end of life is not knowledge but action".
Henry David Thoreau.
"If you suffer and forgive those who made you suffer, you are
the stronger of the two."
Derek Ivany
Interesting question for feminists: Why don't feminists
who claim God is a woman also claim Satan as a woman? (Or decry him
as male?)
From Spectrum, literary pages of Sydney Morning
Herald, 25 August 2001
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there
is in London all that life can afford."
Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1777.
"Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change
without notice."
Will Durant
"Men begin as men, in distinction to other animals, precisely
when they experience the world as a concept."
Marshall Sahlins (But see Woody Allen's joke about philosophy,
"Reality! What a concept!")
"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." - Philosopher, Henri Bergson
"All I know of love is that is all there is." - Emily Dickinson, US poet.
The Seven Deadly Sins listed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,
(1869-1948):
(1) Wealth without work
(2) Pleasure without conscience
(3) Science without humanity
(4) Knowledge without character
(5) Politics without principle
(6) Commerce without morality
(7) Worship without sacrifice.
"Sir," I said to the universe, I exist".
"However," replied the universe, "that fact has not created in me a
sense of obligation."
Anon
"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise
his clients to plant vines."
- American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)
"The average person thinks he isn't."
- Father Larry Lorenzoni
THIS CHRISTMAS - Mend a quarrel - Seek out a forgotten
friend
Write a love letter - Share some treasure
Give a soft answer - Encourage youth
Keep a promise - Find the time
Forgive an enemy - Listen
Apologize if you were wrong
Think first of someone else - Be kind and gentle
Laugh a little - Laugh a little more
Express your gratitude - Gladden the heart of a child
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth
Speak your love - Speak it again - Speak it still once again
Anonymous.
"To be nobody but myself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." -E.E. Cummings, poet (1894-1962) - (From Wordsmith)
"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood." - Helen Keller
In the film The Scoundrel Beaumarchais, on the birth pangs of the French Revolution, are three good lines which might apply to Australia's "sedition laws" appearing before 24 October 2005: "printed matter only matters if it is censored", "only little men fear the scratch of little pens", and "when criticism is forbidden, true praise cannot exist".
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"Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one." - Salman Rushdie. A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. "The literary world is a dangerous place to inhabit too
frequently if you want to get serious work done." "Those who do not read are no better off than those who can
not." |
Art occurs at the point where a form is sincerely honoured by an awakened spirit. Lawrence Durrell, Clea "The tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep
harmony." "Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "All man's troubles stem from a single cause: his inability to
sit quietly in a room." "Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember
what you said." |
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Anton Chekhov, playwright, once wrote in his notebook, wondering whether "the universe is not suspended on the tooth of some monster". On Politics: When times political are bad, when the centre will not hold ... "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity" - Irish poet William Butler Yeats |
"The excellent tribe of grammarians, the precisians and all
others who strive to be correct and correctors, have as much power
to prohibit a single word or phrase as a gray squirrel has to put
out Orion with a flicker of its tail." War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands. - H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) - (From Wordsmith) |
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"Things are always different from what they might be." "It is not down in any map; true places never are." "We read novels because they give us a sense of what the
consciousness of other people is like." Jerome (who translated the Bible into Latin) "Jerome even describes the feelings of guilt and laziness that commonly afflict writers when they are not at their work, the little mechanisms of self-delusion, too, that often serve to put off the moment when pen touches paper. `If we spend more than an hour in reading, you will find us yawning and trying to restrain our boredom by rubbing our eyes; then, as though we had been hard at work, we plunge once more into worldly affairs. I say nothing of the heavy meals which crush such mental faculties as we possess. I am ashamed to speak of our numerous calls, going ourselves every day to other people's houses, or waiting for others to come to us.'" |
"Writing is not a profession, but a vocation of
unhappiness." "So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with," wrote philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). (From Wordsmith) Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination. -Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher (1889-1951) (From Wordsmith) |
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"Books are the channels through which the influence flows that
makes the difference between the wise, and well - the otherwise
... "Novels are stories about people who are emotionally
connected." "Just as a tree without roots is dead, a people without a
history or culture also becomes a dead people." "The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation." - Ezra Pound, poet (1885-1972) (From Wordsmith) On writing: The speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love. - Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626) (From Wordsmith) |
"I swear that too great a lucidity is a disease, a true,
full-fledged disease." It was George Bernard Shaw, who used to write 10 letters per
day, who after writing a 50-page letter to someone, added, "Please
forgive this long letter, I didn't have time to write a short
one." "Once a writer is born into a family, that family is doomed." - Czeslaw Milosz "If you are capable of living without writing, do not write."- German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. "All the colleges in the world cannot turn a bad writer into a good one. But good teaching can teach you how not to write." - Alistair Cooke. It's never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise. |
"Mistakes of commission plague the fools, and of omission the wise." - Anon
"Faith which does not doubt is dead faith." - Miguel de Unamuno, philosopher and writer (1864-1936) (From Wordsmith)
"I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?" - Jalaluddin Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273) (From Wordsmith)
"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product." - Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and author (1884-1962) (From Wordsmith)
"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice." - Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865) (From Wordsmith)
"Each morning puts a man on trial and each evening passes judgment." - Roy L. Smith (From Wordsmith)
"And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything." - William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616) (From Wordsmith)
"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." - George Orwell, writer (1903-1950) (From Wordsmith)
"Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that." - Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, preacher, journalist and activist (1802-1861) (From Wordsmith)
"Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone." - Czeslaw Milosz, poet and novelist (1911-2004)(From Wordsmith)
"Right and wrong are not always a matter of choice." - Igor D. Radovic)
"People often coexist because there is no other option. And so do right and wrong." - Igor D. Radovic
God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through. -Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945) (From Wordsmith)
Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations. -Faith Baldwin, novelist (1893-1978) (From Wordsmith)
For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) - (From Wordsmith)
The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos. -Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002) (From Wordsmith)
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace. - Andre Gide, author, Nobel laureate (1869-1951) (From Wordsmith)
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"We know no absolute truth in this world, only varying
degrees of ambiguity".
Attributed to: Tao Deng Ming Dao
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain. - Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) (From Wordsmith)
A language is never in a state of fixation, but is always changing; we are not looking at a lantern-slide but at a moving picture. - Andrew Lloyd James, linguist (From Wordsmith)
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect. - Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860) (From Wordsmith)
"Truth never hurts the teller." - English poet, Robert Browning
Poetry: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" - English poet Robert Browning
"Destiny: a tyrant's authority for crime, and a fool's excuse for failure." - American author, Ambrose Bierce.
"There are no hopeless situations. There are only men who have grown helpless about them." - Clare Booth Luce.
"The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a wilderness." - Havelock Ellis
There are three great secrets in life - love, art and suicide. (Citation source mislaid).
Looking after the children
If a child lives with criticism, It learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, It learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, It learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
It learns to be guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance,
It learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
It learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
It learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
It learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
It learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
It learns to like itself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
It learns to find love in the world.
"The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes." - Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) (From Wordsmith)
"Thank everyone who calls out your faults, your anger, your impatience, your egotism; do this consciously, voluntarily." - Jean Toomer, poet and novelist (1894-1967) (From Wordsmith)
"Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another." - John Muir, Naturalist and explorer (1838-1914) (From Wordsmith)
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty." - Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) (From Wordsmith)
"For money you can have everything it is said. No, that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money." - Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924)(From Wordsmith)
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"We know no absolute truth in this world, only varying
degrees of ambiguity".
Attributed to: Tao Deng Ming Dao
"If you aim at nothing you will invariably hit it every
time!"
Anon
"The man of probity acts acts decently because of education,
habit, vested interest or fear. But the honourable man feels and
thinks and acts nobly; it is not laws which he obeys, it is not
some kind of teacher whose rulings he must follow; for his soul
seems to be his own legislator. Honour is the instinct of virtue
and its courage, as in the time of the knights."
Charles Pinot-Duclos, eighteenth century French writer.
"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 ... and that is a
good thing for any man."
Socrates
"If you understand, things are as they are. If you do not
understand, things are as they are."
Gensha, Zen Master
"So, little by little, time brings out each several thing into view, and reason raises it up into the shores of light."
Lucretius
Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together. - -Vincent Van Gogh
Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. - Norman Cousins.
"Words which come forth from the heart enter into the heart." - Jewish saying
Maturity is the ability to live in peace with that which we can not change. - Ann Landers.
"Keep me from the wisdom that does not weep And the philosophy
that does not laugh And the pride that does not bow its head before
a child."
Unknown, lost attribution.
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"We know no absolute truth in this world, only varying
degrees of ambiguity".
Attributed to: Tao Deng Ming Dao
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"Computers are useless. They can only give answers." - Pablo Picasso " ... when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any
part of it you do understand, then look at it again." "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - Poet, T. S. Eliot. |
"The more you reason, the less you create." - Raymond Chandler. "Man has three ways of living wisely: Firstly on meditation,
this is the noblest. Secondly on imitation, this is the easiest.
And thirdly on experience: this is the bitterest." |
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"The future arrives of its own accord; progress does not". "Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young". - W. Somerset Maugham. |
"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others
transform a yellow spot into the sun." |
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"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the
world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan
the day." H. L. Mencken, "For every complex problem there is a solution, neat, simple and wrong..." "People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the
most insignificant success is achieved." |
"The real voyage of discovery is not in discovering new lands
but in seeing with new eyes." "What lies beyond us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson "A problem well defined is a problem half solved." - Ralph Waldo Emerson It's not the genius who is 100 years ahead of his time but average man who is 100 years behind it. - Robert Musil, novelist (1880-1942) (From Wordsmith) Invention requires an excited mind; execution, a calm one. -Johann Peter Eckermann, poet (1792-1854) (From Wordsmith) |
"Most people get life wrong out of muddle, not out of
malevolence."
Novelist Joanna Trollope
"The sound of laughter is the most civilized music in the
universe."
Peter Ustinov
"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too
strong to be broken."
Samuel Johnson
"Self-conquest is the greatest of all victories."
Plato
"Humour 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."
Mark Twain
"Man is the only organism in nature fated to puzzle over what it
actually means to feel 'right'."
Ernest Becker
"Be the change that you want to see in the world."
M. K. Gandhi
"It is quite certain that there is no good without the knowledge
of God; that the closer one comes, the happier one is, and the
further away one goes, the more unhappy one is."
Blaise Pascal
"One has two duties - to be worried and not to be worried."
British author, E. M. Forster, died 1970.
"Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it
shall never have a beginning."
John Henry Cardinal Newman
"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a
living; the other helps you make a life."
Sandra Carey
"Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never
do any harm to the world."
Voltaire
"Love which is greater than oneself is like the glow-worm. A thing which is impossible to hide even though you wrap it up. " - Akahito (Japan)
On Divine Love: "To love is to believe, to know; 'Tis an essay, a taste of Heaven below." - Edmund Waller (1606-1687)
"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."
Socrates
"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the
ideal life. (The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier
is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich
are.)"
Mark Twain
"Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of
me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
Albert Camus
"There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are
different from the things we do."
- Albert Camus
"Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem
strange if old friends lacked certain quirks."
Goethe
"Little is the number that think with their own mind and feel
with their own heart."
Einstein
"There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a
trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not
live by secrecy. Get these things out in the open, describe them,
attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public
opinion will sweep them away."
-Joseph Pulitzer (USA)
The sage accepts the ebb and flow of things,
Nurtures them, but does not own them
Tao Te Ching
"Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st
century."
- Perelman
"The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with
another must wait till that other is ready."
- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
"Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud."
A bad workman blames his tools.
Every Ass loves to hear himself bray.
One father is worth more than a hundred schoolmasters.
THE VALUE OF TIME
To realize the value of one year - ask a student who has failed
a final exam
To realize the value of one month, ask a mother who has given birth
to a premature baby
To realize the value of one week - ask the editor of a weekly
newspaper
To realize the value of one hour - ask lovers who are waiting to
meet
To realize the value of one minute - ask the person who missed his
train/plane/bus
To realize the value of one second - ask the person who survived an
accident
To realize the value of one millisecond - ask the Silver medal
winner in the Olympics
Time waits for no one. Treasure each moment you have. Then, when
you can share it with someone special, you will treasure it even
more.
Author unknown/ placed on the Net in October 1998
Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it
shall never have a beginning.
John Henry Cardinal Newman.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever
has.
Margaret Mead
Napoleon once said, "A leader is a dealer in hope".
From Lewis Wolpert, Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression. Faber, 2000-2001. ("The primary aim of human judgement is not accuracy but the avoidance of paralysing uncertainty ... ")
"Integrity needs no rules".
Albert Camus (See also Bob Dylan: "To live outside the law, you
must be honest".)
"We know no absolute truth in this world, only varying
degrees of ambiguity".
Attributed to: Tao Deng Ming Dao
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"Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you get a lot of scum on the top." - Edward Abbey, Naturalist and author (1927-1989) (From Wordsmith) |
Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand. |
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"A husband is what is left of the lover after the nerve has been
extracted." |
Life is what happens to you while you're planning other
things. |
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"Wisdom is what - if you need to know the definition of - you
ain't got." |
"I don't care what is written about me as long as it isn't true." New York writer, wit and important drinker, Dorothy Parker. |
Wit - "Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly." - Life's Little Instruction Book
"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions." - Alexander Pope
Computers ... The problem is that many people are going to
mistake information for knowledge.
Dan Byrnes
"Everybody has a sense of right and wrong, but it being subjective rather than objective is most of us is what makes it a problem." - Igor d. Radovic
Those who keep making the same mistake generally find room to make new mistakes as well." - Igor d. Radovic
Mistakes due to stupidity are unavoidable; those owed to weakness are inexcusable." - Igor d. Radovic
There are few absolutes in matters of right and wrong, and as many conflicts between right and right as between right and wrong." - Igor d. Radovic
The best is to do what is right; second best, not to do what is wrong." - Igor d. Radovic
Right and wrong are as often pretexts and excuses for conflict as they are the causes of it. - Igor D. Radovic
Mistakes of ignorance are easier to correct than those of judgement - Igor D. Radovic
We judge justice, but we feel injustice. - Igor D. Radovic
Wit - Perspective is in the eye of the beholder - Anon - (from a website)
Nothing is right or wrong all the time and everywhere - Igor D. Radovic
| Ronald Conway (a psychologist) said it with a single book title - "Land of the Long Weekend" | More to come |
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"Poor Fellow, my country." |
"Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed it is
so curious and strange that it is itself the chiefest novelty the
country has to offer, and so it pushes the other novelties into
second and third place. It does not read like a history, but like
the most beautiful lies, and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old
stale ones. It is full of surprises and adventures, and
incongruities, and contradictions and incredibilities; but they are
all true, they all happened." |
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"Australians ... seem to be able to combine exquisite
hospitality and urbane and enlightened discourse with fantastic
parochialism and uncultured roughness ..." |
"Part of being an Australian is feeling part of somewhere else." - artist Imants Tillers |
"Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time." - Stephen Swid, executive (b. 1941)(From Wordsmith)
"For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions." - Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)(From Wordsmith)
"The race of men, while sheep in credulity, are wolves for conformity." - Carl Van Doren, professor, writer, and critic (1885-1950) (From Wordsmith)
On patriotism: "Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right." - Carl Schurz, revolutionary, statesman and reformer (1829-1906) (From Wordsmith)
On art: "God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through." - Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945)(From Wordsmith)
"(From Wordsmith)
Wit: "Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations." - Faith Baldwin, novelist (1893-1978) (From Wordsmith)
On cooking: "Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good." - Alice May Brock, author (b. 1941)(From Wordsmith)
On money: "A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business." - Henry Ford, industrialist (1863-1947) (From Wordsmith) And, "Profits, like sausages ... are esteemed most by those who know least about what goes into them." - Alvin Toffler, futurist and author (b. 1928) (From Wordsmith)
On problem solving: "It's not the genius who is 100 years ahead of his time, but average man who is 100 years behind it." - Robert Musil, novelist (1880-1942) (From Wordsmith) And, "Invention requires an excited mind; execution, a calm one." - Johann Peter Eckermann, poet (1792-1854) (From Wordsmith)
On war: "To profess to be doing God's will is a form of megalomania." - Joseph Prescott, aphorist (1913-2001) (From Wordsmith)
"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there -- lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more." - Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) (From Wordsmith)
"It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do." - Jerome K. Jerome, humorist and playwright (1859-1927) (From Wordsmith)
"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place." As William Strunk and E.B. White wrote in their venerated Elements of Style.
"Treat the earth well; it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." - Old American Indian saying
"Humankind has not woven the web of Life. We are but one thread in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." - Chief Seattle (famed American Indian chief)
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"If the gods want to drive you mad, first they tell you your future." Judge not that you not be judged. |
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly,
while bad people will find a way around the laws." |
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"Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until
all factors are favourable do nothing." |
The best throw of the dice is to throw them away. |
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Tear man out of his outward circumstances; and what he then is; that only is he. -Johann Gottfried Seume, author (1763-1810) (From Wordsmith) Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago. - Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859) (From Wordsmith) |
If you lie down with dogs, you'll stink in the morning. |
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"If you push passion to the extremes you are bound to tumble into mere mysticism." Lawrence Durrell, Tunc. |
"Evil from time immemorial has often worn a mask of innocence.
One of evil's principal modes of being is looking beyond
(with indifference), that which is before the eyes." |
On war: "Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals revolt that they may be superior." - Aristotle (who once taught Alexander the Great)
"For man, when perfected, is the best of all animals, but when separated from law and justice,he is the worst of all, since armed injustice is the more dangerous, meant to be used by intelligence and virtue, he is the most unholy and savage of all animals, and the worst of, full of lust and gluttony. Aristotle
"That judges of important offices should hold office for life is not a good thing, for the mind grows old as well as the body." - Aristotle
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" - Aristotle
"It is also a victory to know when to retreat." - Erno Paasilinna, essayist and journalist (1935-2000)
"Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size." — Albert Einstein
"Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it." — Albert Einstein
"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self." — Aristotle
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." — Aristotle
"Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends" — Aristotle
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle
"An egoist can be won over by being respected, a crazy person can be won over by allowing him to behave in an insane manner and a wise person can be won over by truth." — Chanakya
"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions — Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead." — Chanakya
"One who is in search of knowledge should give up the search of pleasure and the one who is in search of pleasure should give up the search of knowledge." — Chanakya
"Simple living helps in high thinking and getting mastery over mind and body." — Swami Sivananda
"It takes a wise man to learn from his mistakes, but an even wiser man to learn from others."
"You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”" — George Bernard Shaw
" Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear." — Mark Twain
"Whether you think you can or think you can’t — you are right." — Henry Ford
"If you want peace, my child, do not look into anyone’s faults. Look into your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger. The whole world is your own." — Sarada Devi
"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."
"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." — Elbert Hubbard
"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."
"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit." — Khalil Gibran
"Change before you have to." — Jack Welch
"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure." — George Edward Woodberry
"Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." — Abraham Lincoln
"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you’ll be a success." — Albert Schweitzer
"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions." — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
"You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims." — Harriet Woods
"All things are possible until they are proved impossible — and even the impossible may only be so, as of now." — Pearl S. Buck
An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream: "Old Woman, I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."
The woman smiled and replied, "Cracked Pot, did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on Perfect Pot's side? I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."
Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You just have to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.
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15 January 15, 1929 is birth date of Martin Luther King,
Jr. Follows some of his words: of wisdom: |
"We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr. |
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"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." |
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor: it must be
demanded by the oppressed." |
On art: "There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad." - Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989)(From Wordsmith)
"All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals." - Peter Singer, philosopher, professor of bioethics (b. 1946) (From Wordsmith)
"(From Wordsmith)
On art: "The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922) (From Wordsmith)
On politics: "Democracy, to me, is liberty plus economic security." - Maury Maverick, attorney and congressman (1895-1954) (From Wordsmith)
On writing: "A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom." - Robert Frost, poet USA (1874-1963) (From Wordsmith)
"(From Wordsmith)
"(From Wordsmith)
"Civilization is the encouragement of differences." - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) (From Wordsmith) And, "Truth never damages a cause that is just." - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) (From Wordsmith)
"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting." - George Orwell, writer (1903-1950) (From Wordsmith)
"The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos." - Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002) (From Wordsmith)
On religion: "There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to other animals as well as humans, it is all a sham." - Anna Sewell, writer (1820-1878)(From Wordsmith)
"We know no absolute truth in this world, only varying
degrees of ambiguity".
Attributed to: Tao Deng Ming Dao
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