American Reflections from Moscow - Essays by American author living in Moscow since 1994 on history, culture, comparative national character, society, philosophy, America, Russia, American Dream, Russian Idea, communism, consumerism.
If all these sweet young things were laid end to end, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised.
-- Dorothy Parker You've no idea of what a poor opinion I have of myself, and how little I deserve it.
-- W.S. Gilbert There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house
as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.
-- Homer, Odyssey, ninth century I have lost friends, some by death, others through sheer inability to cross the street.
-- Virginia Woolf "The concerned investment banker is the one who blows the horn on his Mercedes as he drives through a red light." (Anonymous) Notes from Russia People, like nails, lose their effectiveness when they lose direction and begin to bend.
-- Walter Savage Landor I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-- Anonymous I date this girl for two years--and then the nagging starts: "I wanna know your name."
-- Mike Binder Notes from Russia
"... adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them." (Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, 1904-1991, quoted in his obituary, Time) If the government wants people to respect the law, it should set a better example.
-- Anon. "A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy." (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche) Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
-- Mark Twain "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." (Roald Dahl) Notes from Russia NEIGHBOR, n. One whom we are commanded to love as ourselves, and who does all he knows
how to make us disobedient.
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911 "Experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes." (Oscar Wilde) We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood. We need the positive virtues of resolution,
of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always
be Notes from Russia
Marital Freedom: The liberty that allows a husband to do exactly that which his wife pleases.
-- Anonymous The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and
remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't
work and the "Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same." (George Bernard Shaw) "One can do without people but one has need of a friend." (Chinese Proverb) Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. Notes from Russia "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd." (Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 1872-1970) Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
-- Seen on a bumper sticker "Talent does what it can; genius does what it must." (Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton) Notes from Russia
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
-- Albert Einstein "Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all your details." (Andy Warhol, America, 1985) Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
-- Grace Hansen "Conform and be dull." (J. Frank Doble) "Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent." (Napoleon Bonaparte) Notes from Russia Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. Biochemistry is the study of carbon
compounds that crawl.
-- Mike Adams Why do grandparents and grandchildren get along so well? They have the same enemy-- the
mother.
-- Claudette Colbert Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I
love you."
-- Erich Fromm Notes from Russia
An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for
love is measured by fullness, not by reception.
-- Harold Loukes Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You're able to
benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment.
-- Ralph Mars "These are days you'll remember." If you recall nothing else from your graduation ceremony,
remember you heard the New Jersey Governor quote from 10,000 Maniacs.
-- Christine Todd, NJ Governor, Whea Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
-- George Jean Nathan I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject,
when it seemed to me to be nothing but a monotonous and sordid succession of robber baron
scumbags dev Notes from Russia "People demand freedom only when they have no power." (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche) "People demand freedom only when they have no power." (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche) And now, in keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest in blood and guts,
in living color, you're about to see another first -- an attempted suicide.
-- Chris Hubbock, who sh Notes from Russia
There are trivial truths, and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false.
The opposite of a great truth is also true.
-- Neils Bohr "A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to take it off of you." (Francois Sagan) Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
-- Aldous Huxley blah "Each friend represents a world in us; a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only in meeting them that a new world is born." (Anais Nin) "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Notes from Russia Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.
-- Typewriting exercise Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you
underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.
-- Matt Groening, Love is Hell Thank God - every morning when you get up - that you have something to do which must be
done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you
a hundre Notes from Russia
"Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet." (Mae West) I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different.
-- Tony Bennett, 1995 Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?
- H. M. Warner, founder of Warner Brothers, in 1927 I am not young enough to know everything.
-- Oscar Wilde "What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage." Notes from Russia The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.
-- Robert Benchley We in the industry know that behind every successful screenwriter stands a woman. And behind
her stands his wife.
-- Groucho Marx Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love,
but no friendship.
-- Oscar Wilde Notes from Russia
When marriage is outlawed, only outlaws will have inlaws. A girl must marry for love and keep on marrying until she finds it.
-- Zsa Zsa Gabor Imagine if birds were tickled by feathers. You'd see a flock of birds come by, laughing hysterically!
-- Steven Wright Love thy neighbor, but make sure her husband is away first. "The dancer's body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul." (Isadora Duncan) Notes from Russia "Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death." (General Michel Aoun) What's new? Most of my wife. Basic research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.
-- Wernher Von Braun Notes from Russia
"If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world." (Blaise Pascal) If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
- Mario Andretti Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it,
Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me
de Don't look back -- something might be gaining on you.
-- Satchel Paige I still live.
-- Daniel Webster, dying words Notes from Russia The average person thinks he isn't.
- Father Larry Lorenzoni "... What good are dreams if they come true?" (Frederick Exley, A Fan's Notes) The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the
bad ones.
-- W. Somerset Maugham Notes from Russia
I'm not dumb, I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.
-- Calvin Women's liberationists spread the word that...the only peaceful family is one in which either the
wife is enslaved or the husband is androgynous.
-- R. Emmett Tyell, The Liberal Crack-Up, 1984 "A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." (James Joyce) Ninety percent of everything is crap.
-- Theodore Sturgeon blah "You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs." (Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321) Notes from Russia A good marriage is like a casserole, only those responsible for it really know what goes in it.
-- Anonymous "Wise men learn more from fools, than fools from the wise." (Anonymous) Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.
-- Thornton Wilder Notes from Russia
You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
-- Indira Gandhi Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
-- Buddha Sex is like bridge: If you don't have a good partner, you better have a good hand.
-- Charles Pierce Per cubic inch, your current TV set is perhaps the dumbest appliance in your home (and I'm not
even talking about the programs).
-- Nicholas Negroponte Everything in the world may be endured except continued prosperity.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Notes from Russia Cute little babies that fall out of swings - These are a few of my favourite things.
-- Oscar Hammerstein, working lyric for a piece from "The Sound of Music" "One pretty good definition of college is that it's a place where people are made to read difficult books." (Jonathan Franzen) Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not
there, I go to work.
-- Robert Orben Notes from Russia
