The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
-- Oscar Wilde I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
-- William Butler Yeats, from "He wishes for the cloths of heaven" And I shall love thee still my dear, Until my wife is wise. Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year.
-- P. J. O'Rourke "Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so." (Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 1872-1970) Society and Culture A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing
nothing.
-- George Benard Shaw Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-
proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe
is Women: If they're not turning down your proposals for marriage, they're accusing you of
suspicious behavior in the women's lingerie changing room.
-- Cliff Clavin, character on "Cheers", U.S. Televi Society and Culture
There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage. -- James Holt McGavran "The perception of beauty is a moral test." (Henry David Thoreau) People say "I want peace." If you remove I {ego}, and your want {desire}, you are left with peace.
-- Satya Sai Baba You can't buy love, but you can pay heavily for it.
-- Henny Youngman You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories.
-- Stanislaw J. Lem Society and Culture We see the brightness of a new page where everything yet can happen.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours "In literary criticism the critic has no choice but to make over the victim of his attention into something the size and shape of himself." (John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley) You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.
-- Beverly Sills Society and Culture
"When even one American--who has done nothing wrong--is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth--then all Americans are in peril." (Harry S. Truman) I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with
typewriters.
- Frank Lloyd Wright A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life to be thankful for a good one.
-- Mae West Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone.
-- Anthony Burgess I am about to--or I am going to--die; either expression is used.
-- Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian, dying words Society and Culture Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh Most turkeys taste better the day after; my mother's tasted better the day before.
-- Rita Rudner The philosophy exam was a piece of cake -- which was a bit of a surprise, actually, because I
was expecting some questions on a sheet of paper.
-- Smith & Jones Society and Culture
He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.
-- J. Heller "If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut." (Albert Einstein) Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
-- George Bernard Shaw "I always thought a dog-lover was a dog who loved another dog." (James Thurber) Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft...and the only one that can be mass
produced with unskilled labor.
-- Wernher von Braun Society and Culture Sure, it's going to kill a lot of people, but they may be dying of something else anyway.
-- Othal Brand, member of a Texas pesticide review board "A new baby is like the beginning of all things--wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities." (Eda J. Le Shan) My good intentions are completely lethal.
-- Margaret Atwood Society and Culture
Men have a much better time of it than women; for one thing, they marry later; for another thing, they die earlier. --H.L. Mencken "Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last-ditch stand of the artist." (Marshall McLuhan) Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.
-- Anon. A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. He sits on a hot stove for a
minute, it's longer than any hour. That is relativity.
-- Albert Einstein Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of
our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
-- John Adams Society and Culture Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in
opposite directions, yet always punishing any one who comes between them.
-- Sydney Smith Goodbye, Everybody!
-- Hart Crane, poet, who committed suicide by jumping overboard during a steamship voyage. "The overman ... Who has organized the chaos of his passions, given style to his character, and become creative. Aware of life's terrors, he affirms life without resentment." (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietz Society and Culture
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be
closed for any other business.
-- Abraham Lincoln Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
-- Aristotle Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.
-- François de La Rouchefoucauld, Maxims, 1665 The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One
cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the
marvelous str The Church is an organism that grows best in an alien society.
-- C. Stacey Woods Society and Culture A little girl at the wedding afterwards asked her mother why the bride changed her mind. "What
do you mean?" responded her mother. "Well, she went down the aisle with one man, and came
back with ano In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.
-- Charlie Brown, character in "Peanuts" comic strip, created by Charles Schultz "Death where is thy sting? Love, where is thy glory?" (William Shakespeare) Society and Culture
If a man is talking in the forest, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?
-- Jenny Weber The hard part about being a bartender is figuring out who is drunk and who is just stupid.
-- Richard Braunstein "Conforming is only acceptable when you conform with a nonconformist." (John A. Simone Jr.) Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting.
- Karl Wallenda "I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you and education." (Wilson Mizner) Society and Culture If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done.
-- Scott Adams "A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." (James Joyce) Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in
freedom.
-- Albert Einstein Society and Culture
"Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers." (Socrates) Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.
-- Roger Babson "I'll tell you something: Luxury disgusts me." (Giorgio Armani) May you live happily ever after with a poor, ugly, shrewish wife. "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." (Edger Allen Poe) Society and Culture "No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does." (François VI Duke (duc) de La Rochefoucauld, 1616-80) Govern a family as you would cook a small fish - very gently.
-- Chinese Proverb One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if
possible, speak a few reasonable words.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Society and Culture
Go away...I'm alright.
-- H. G. Wells, dying words Perfection is what American women expect to find in their husbands, but English women only hope to find in their butlers. -- W. Somerset Maugham Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
-- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. 1. The principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy - give one and take ten.
-- Mark Twain Children are a poor man's riches.
-- English proverb Society and Culture It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
-- Gore Vidal "Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world's ills, misery, ignorance, and violence. Few will have the greatness to bend history "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." (Herbert Spencer) Society and Culture
This isn't right, this isn't even wrong.
- Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958), upon reading a young physicist's paper I don't know exactly what democracy is. But we need more of it.
-- Anonymous Chinese Student, during protests in Tianamen Square, Beijing, 1989 I know nothing about sex, because I was always married.
-- Zsa Zsa Gabor Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton Society and Culture Cricket is best described as organised loafing.
-- Anonymous British Radio Broadcaster, 1996 I have a great diet. You're allowed to eat anything you want, but you must eat it with naked fat
people.
-- Ed Bluestone It was the greatest of the imperfect ventriloquist acts: when his lips moved, her body sang.
-- Tom Robbins Society and Culture
When Baby's cries grew hard to bear I popped him in the Frigidaire. I never would have done so if
I'd known that he'd be frozen stiff. My wife said, "George, I'm so unhappy! Our darling's now
comple Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.
-- Gandhi Do not let yourselves be discouraged or embittered by the smallness of the success you are likely
to achieve in trying to make life better. You certainly would not be able, in a single generation, to "Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships." (Sharon Stone) "I couldn't find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself." (Dr. Ferdinand Porsche) Society and Culture In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take.
-- Adlai Stevenson The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.
-- Mother Teresa "Friends are those people who know the words to the song in your heart and sing them back to you when you have forgotten the words." (Anonymous) Society and Culture
