The best place to solve a problem is not necessarily where it appears.
—Russell L. Ackoff (American Management Consultant)
We have long forgotten the ritual by which the house of our life was erected. But when it is under assault and enemy bombs are already taking their toll, what enervated, perverse antiquities do they not lay bare in the foundations.
—Walter Benjamin (German Literary Critic)
Our deeds are seeds of fate, sown here on earth, but bringing forth their harvest in eternity.
—George Boardman the Younger (American Clergyman)
Some men relate what they think, as what they know; some men of confused memories, and habitual inaccuracy, ascribe to one man what belongs to another; and some talk on without thought or care. A few men are sufficient to broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffused by successive relaters.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)
Knowledge is not a series of self-consistent theories that converges toward an ideal view; it is rather an ever-increasing ocean of mutually incompatible (and perhaps even incommensurable) alternatives.
—Paul Feyerabend (Austrian Philosopher)
Life is like a sewer … what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
—Tom Lehrer (American Satirist)
Whoever loves above all the approach of love will never know the joy of attaining it.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French Novelist, Aviator)
Nobody is a villain in their own story. We’re all the heroes of our own stories.
—George R. R. Martin (American Writer)
The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence.
—Robert J. Shiller (American Economist)
Negativity is the enemy of creativity.
—David Lynch (American Filmmaker)
Everyday happiness means getting up in the morning, and you can’t wait to finish your breakfast. You can’t wait to do your exercises. You can’t wait to put on your clothes. You can’t wait to get out—and you can’t wait to come home, because the soup is hot.
—George Burns (American Comedian)