We have a problem. “Congratulations.” But it’s a tough problem. “Then double congratulations.”
—W. Clement Stone (American Self-help Guru)
Why are we born? We’re born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we’re born and we die? We’re born to live. One is a realist if one hopes.
—Studs Terkel (American Oral Historian)
Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce? No, that’s too grand, too considered a process. History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.
—Julian Barnes (British Novelist, Critic)
Make good use of bad rubbish.
—Elisabeth Beresford (British Children’s Writer)
What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.
—Mario Puzo (American Novelist)
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher, Writer)
Men freely believe that which they desire.
—Julius Caesar (Roman Ruler)
We’ve made great medical progress in the last generation. What used to be merely an itch is now an allergy.
—Modern Proverb
Weary the path that does not challenge. Doubt is an incentive to truth and patient inquiry leadeth the way.
—Hosea Ballou (American Theologian)
He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.
—Harold Wilson (British Political Leader)
Until the rise of American advertising, it never occurred to anyone anywhere in the world that the teenager was a captive in a hostile world of adults.
—Gore Vidal (American Novelist)
Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.
—Ben Okri (Nigerian Novelist, Poet)
Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine actions than in the non-performance of base ones.
—Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)
Turning away from the world and toward your own happiness is the path of authenticity.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (American Self-help Author)
The individual activity of one man with backbone will do more than a thousand men with a mere wishbone.
—William J. H. Boetcker (American Presbyterian Minister)
You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.
—Marvin Minsky (American Computer Scientist)
The horse does abominate the camel; the mighty elephant is afraid of a mouse; and they say that the lion, which scorneth to turn his back upon the stoutest animal, will tremble at the crowing of a cock.
—Increase Mather (American Theologian)