Quotations Set 14

1. If we like a man's dream, we call him a reformer; if we don't like his dream, we call him a crank. - William Dean Howells, American author (1837-1920).

2. Psychology, which explains everything,
   Explains nothing,
   And we are still in doubt."
   - Marianne Moore, American poet (1887-1972).

3. Beware the fury of the patient man. - John Dryden, poet and dramatist (1631-1700).

4. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. - Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862).

5. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water. - John W. Gardner, American government official.

6. The man who does not learn is dark, like one walking in the night. - Chinese proverb.

7. Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament. - George Santayana, Spanish-born philosopher (1863-1952)

8. You can fool too many of the people too much of the time. - James Thurber, American humorist (1894-1961).

9. Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience? - Thomas J. Watson, industrialist (1874-1956)

10. Everyone's quick to blame the alien. - Aeschylus, Greek poet and dramatist (524 B.C.?-456 B.C.?)

11. You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose. - Mario M Cuomo, 52nd Governor of New York (1932- )

12. Although you're never quite sure when this boy from Lismore (Bob Ellis) is being serious, he says his next book will be called On Interruption. To quote him: "It's about how in the modern world we get to the TV commercial and reality stops, and you're in the middle of Antarctica and you're having a f--k and your husband rings on the mobile phone, and we're so governed by interruption now that we're all going mad and those societies that are relatively uninterrupted, like the west coast of Ireland, are the happiest." - Lyndall Crisp, Financial Review, Oct 5, 2002

13. The human mind is like an umbrella - it functions best when open." - Walter Gropius, German-American architect (1883-1969).

14. The great rulers - the people do not notice their existence. The lesser ones they attach to and praise them. The still lesser ones - they fear them. The still lesser ones - they despise them. For where faith is lacking it cannot be met by faith. - Tao Te Ching

15. A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. - Barnett Cocks

16. The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries. - Rene Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650)

17. Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do? - Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)

18. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

19. Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both. - John Andrew Holmes

20. To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style. - Aldous Huxley, writer (1894-1963)

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