Quotes

There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. Harlan Ellison (1934 - )

Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down. Russell Baker (1925 - )

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. Gustave Flaubert (1821 - 1880)

After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood. Fred Thompson, Speech before the Commonwealth Club of California

Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent. Frantz Fanon

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. Saki (1870 - 1916), "The Square Egg", 1924

Never eat more than you can lift. Miss Piggy

Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most. Joseph Wood Krutch (1893 - 1970)

Never fight an inanimate object. P. J. O'Rourke (1947 - )

Actions lie louder than words. Carolyn Wells

Instant gratification takes too long. Carrie Fisher (1956 - )

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. -- Cicero, 'Pro Plancio,' 54 B.C.

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it. -- Theodore Roosevelt

Trouble is part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough. -- Dinah Shore

In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath. -- Kahlil Gibran, 'Narcotics and Dissecting Knives,' Thoughts and Meditations, 1960

You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients. -- Julia Child

Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with it apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence. -- Norman Podhoretz

Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die. -- Amelia Burr

In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind. -- Louis Pasteur, lecture 1854

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. -- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 1711

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words. -- Aprocrypha

Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich. -- Sarah Bernhardt

The family is changing not disappearing. We have to broaden our understanding of it, look for the new metaphors. -- Mary Catherine Bateson

While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits [of the dead]?...While you do not know life, how can you know about death? -- Confucius, The Confucian Analects, bk. 11:11

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. -- Sir Francis Bacon

The best way to keep one's word is not to give it. -- Napoleon Bonaparte

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. -- Eleanor Roosevelt, 'This Is My Story,' 1937

He had occasional flashes of silence, that made his conversation perfectly delightful. -- Sydney Smith, referring to Macaulay

Her grandmother, as she gets older, is not fading but rather becoming more concentrated. -- Paulette Bates Alden, 'Legacies,' Feeding the Eagles, 1988

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. -- William Saroyan

Trust thyself only, and another shall not betray thee. -- Thomas Fuller

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins. -- American Indian Proverb

Use soft words and hard arguments. -- English Proverb

Toughness doesn't have to come in a pinstriped suit. -- Senator Dianne Feinstein

My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I will not resign myself... -- Trieu Thi Trinh

When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others. -- Anais Nin

Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret. -- Diane Ackerman