Quotations

Collected by Donald Gudehus

A B | C D E | F G H | I J K | L M N | O P Q | R S T | U V W X Y Z

A

Hal Abelson, American Professor of Computer Science at MIT

If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.: Hal Abelson

Lord Acton (John Edward Emerich Dalberg Acton) (Jan. 10, 1834, Naples, Italy - June 19, 1902, Tegernsee, Bavaria), English historian

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.: Lord Acton
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.: Lord Acton
Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.: Lord Acton
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.: Lord Acton

Ansel Adams (Feb. 20, 1902, San Francisco, CA - April 22, 1984, Carmel, CA), American photographer

No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied - it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.: Ansel Adams

Douglas Noel Adams (DNA) (Mar. 11, 1952, Cambridge, England - May 11, 2001, Santa Barbara, CA), English author

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.: Douglas Adams, from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
The beak was a major piece of armoury. It was a beak that would frighten any animal on earth, even one that was already dead and in a tin.: Douglas Adams, in Life, The Universe and Everything
The Guide says that there is an art to flying,' said Ford, `or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.: Douglas Adams, in Life, The Universe and Everything
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.: Douglas Adams, in Mostly Harmless
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.: Douglas Adams, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

John Adams (October 30, 1735, Braintree (now Quincy), MA - July 4, 1826, Quincy, MA), Founding Father and Second President of the United States (1797 - 1801)

Be not intimidated, therefore, by any terrors, from publishing with the utmost freedom whatever can be warranted by the laws of your country, nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberty by any pretenses of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice.: John Adams
I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.: John Adams, in a letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814s
One useless man is called a disgrace. Two useless men are called a law firm. Three or more useless men are called a congress.: John Adams, circa 1776
The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.: John Adams
The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.: John Adams, Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11
The proposition that [the people] are the best keeper fo their liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all. They can neither act, judge, think, or will.: John Adams
Thomas Jefferson survives.: John Adams, his last words, not knowing that Jefferson had died a few hours earlier, July 4, 1826
Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?: John Adams

Samuel Adams (September 22, 1722, Quincy, MA - October 2, 1803, Boston, MA), American revolutionary and founding father

Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.

Samuel Adams

Scott Adams (June 8, 1957, Windham, NY - ), American cartoonist and creator of Dilbert

It's better to have the right person ask the wrong question than the wrong person ask the right question.: Scott Adams, spoken by Wally in the cartoon Dilbert, November 4, 2007
The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.: Scott Adams

Aeschylus (c. 525, Eleusis, Greece - 456 BC, Gela, Sicily), Greek playwright

Wrong must not win by technicalities.

Aeschylus

Howard Hathaway Aiken (Mar. 9, 1900, Hoboken, NJ - Mar. 14, 1973, St. Louis, MO), Physicist and computer pioneer

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

Howard Hathaway Aiken

Akhenaton (?, Thebes, Egypt - 1362? BC, Amarna, Egypt), Greek king of Egypt of the 18th dynasty

Akhenaton
True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.: Akhenaton

Tod Akin (July 5, 1947, New York City, NY - ), Missouri Republican US Representative

If it's legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.: Tod Akin, August 19, 2012, in an interview

Alcoholics Anonymous

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdon to know the difference.

The Serenity Prayer, Alcoholics Anonymous

Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay) (Jan. 17, 1942, Louisville, KY - ), American boxer and philanthropist

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.: Muhammed Ali
I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.: Muhammed Ali
It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.: Muhammed Ali

Fred Allen (John Florence Sullivan) (May 31, 1894, Cambridge, MA - Mar. 17, 1955, Manhattan, NY), American radio comedian

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.: Fred Allen
A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.: Fred Allen
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.: Fred Allen
Medicine men used to come to my town when I was a boy. They'd come rattling down the street in a wagon and pull up in front of the courthouse steps. Then they'd lower the tailboard and a funny fellow would step out and crack a few jokes. But as soon as the crowd of gaping yokels had gathered, the wit would launch into his sales pitch for Mother Bloater's elixir. Television is a tailboard lowered into the living room.: Fred Allen
Television is a triumph of equipment over people, and the minds that control it are so small that you could put them in a gnat's navel with room left over for two caraway seeds and an agent's heart.: Fred Allen
When a radio comedian's program is finally finished it slinks down Memory Lane into the limbo of yesteryear's happy hours. All that the comedian has to show for his years of work and aggravation is the echo of forgotten laughter.: Fred Allen

Woody Allen (Allan Stewart Konigsberg) (December 1, 1935, Brooklyn, NY - ), American author and filmmaker

Woody Allen
Eternity is very long, especially toward the end.: Woody Allen
His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.: Woody Allen
I believe there's something out there watching over us. Unfortunately, it's the government.: Woody Allen
I can't understand why more people aren't bisexual. It would double your chances for a date on Saturday night.: Woody Allen
I don't believe in the after life, although I am bringing a change of underwear.: Woody Allen
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying.: Woody Allen
I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl to sleep with me and she said "no.": Woody Allen
I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy next to me.: Woody Allen
I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead - not sick, not wounded - dead.: Woody Allen
If only God would give me a clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.: Woody Allen
Is knowledge knowable? If not, how do we know this?: Woody Allen
Is sex dirty? Only when it's being done right.: Woody Allen
Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions.: Woody Allen
Sex between a man and a woman can be wonderful, provided you can get between the right man and the right woman.: Woody Allen
The difference between sex and death is that with death you can do it alone and no one is going to make fun of you.: Woody Allen
To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition.: Woody Allen
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.: Woody Allen, in Without Feathers

Jeremy S. Anderson

There are two major products to come out of Berkeley, LSD and UNIX. We do not believe this to be a coincidence.
This quote is possibly apocryphal

Jeremy S. Anderson

Anonymous

A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.: Anonymous response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
A hospital for the mind.: Anonymous inscription on the library in Alexandria, Egypt
A lean horse runs a long race.: Anonymous
All generalizations are false.: Anonymous
Better to measure ten times and cut once instead of measuring once and cutting ten times.: Anonymous
Birds of a feather flock together.: Anonymous
But what ... is it good for?: Anonymous engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Ciò che più importa e che il pòpolo, gli uomini tutti, pèrdano gli istinti e le abitudini pecorili che la millenaria schiavitù ha loro ispirato ed apprendano a pensare ed agire liberamente. (What is most important is that the populace, all people, lose the instincts, and habits of the flock, which millennia of slavery have inculcated in them, and learn to think and act in freedom.): Anonymous inscription at Pozzuoli, Naples, Italy
Communications is the foundation of democracy.: Anonymous AT&T Motto
Danger lurks at every corner: Anonymous
Depression is anger without energy.: Anonymous
Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy.: Anonymous drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
Experience is the worst teacher. It always gives the test first and the instruction afterward.: Anonymous
Half a truth is like half a brick, you can throw it twice as far.: Anonymous
If a diplomat says, "yes," he means "Maybe". If a diplomat says, "Maybe," he means "No". If a diplomat says, "No," he's no diplomat. But on the other hand, If a lady says, "No," she means "Maybe". If a lady says, "Maybe," she means "Yes". If a lady says, "Yes," she's no lady.: Anonymous
Loose lips sink ships: Anonymous American security slogan from World War II
Manus manum lavat. (One hand washes another.): Anonymous
Measure twice, and cut once.: Anonymous
Medicine for the soul: Anonymous, inscription on the library at Thebes
Natura non facit saltum. (Nature does not make leaps.): Anonymous ancient motto frequently cited by Carolus Linnaeus
Never ask the barber if you need a haircut.: Anonymous
Nosce te ipsum. (Know thyself.): Anonymous motto used by Linnaeus as the description for Homo sapiens in his Systema Naturae.
On the side of the software box, in the 'System Requirements' section, it said 'Requires Windows 95 or better'. So I installed Linux: Anonymous; first seen in rec.humor.funny, Dec. 3, 1997
People are known by the company they keep.: Anonymous
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.: Anonymous
The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible.: Anonymous Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.) Federal Express Corp.)
The higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more his rear end is exposed.: Anonymous
The man is the head of the house, but the woman is the neck that turns the head.: Anonymous
The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?: Anonymous associates of David Sarnoff's in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.: Anonymous
You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.: Anonymous
You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training.: Anonymous response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

Anonymous - American

He was so broke he couldn't even pay attention.: Anonymous American saying
The squeaky wheel gets oiled.: Anonymous American proverb
You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.: Anonymous American proverb

Anonymous - African

It takes a villiage to raise a child.: Anonymous African proverb
When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.: Anonymous African proverb

Anonymous - Arabic

All sunshine makes the desert.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb
An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb
Ask the experienced rather than the learned.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb
Do not stand in a place of danger trusting in miracles.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb
Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool. Shun him. He who knows not and knows that he knows not is simple. Teach him. He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep. Wake him. He who knows and knows that he knows is wise. Follow him.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb
My enemy's enemy is my friend.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb
Never give advice in a crowd.: Anonymous Arabic Proverb

Anonymous - Chinese

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
A little pile stinks more.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
A single conversation with a wise person is worth a month's study of books.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
As a pig fears getting big, so a person fears getting famous.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be only afraid of stnading still.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
Better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
Don't build a new ship out of old wood.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
Great souls have wills, feeble souls only wishes.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
He who seeks revenge should remember to dig two graves.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
If a man hurts you once, blame him. If that man hurts you twice, blame yourself.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
If you are poor, though you dwell in the busy marketplace, no one will inquire about you; if you are rich, though you dwell in the heart of the mountains, you will have distant relatives.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
If you neglect your art for one day it will neglect you for two.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
If there is light in the soul, There will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, There will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, There will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, There will be peace in the world.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
Judge not the horse by his saddle.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
Make no promises when seized by joy; write no letters when seized by anger.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
May you live in Interesting Times.: Anonymous Chinese curse
Never play leapfrog with a unicorn: Anonymous Chinese proverb
The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
To guess is cheap. To guess wrong is expensive.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
Water and words, easy to pour, impossible to recover.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
When walking through a melon patch, don't adjust your sandals.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
With money one may command devils; without it one cannot even summon a man.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.: Anonymous Chinese proverb
You must have crossed the river before you may tell the crocodile he has bad breath.: Anonymous Chinese proverb

Anonymous - English

Attack is the best form of defence. In the United States this is stated as "The best defence is a good offence".: Anonymous English Proverb (17th century)
Let sleeping dogs lie.: Anonymous English Proverb
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.: Anonymous English Proverb

Anonymous - French

A man without money is like a wolf without teeth.: Anonymous French proverb
It is only at the tree loaded with fruit that the people throw stones.: Anonymous French proverb

Anonymous - Haitian

If you want your eggs hatched, sit on them yourself.: Anonymous Haitian proverb

Anonymous - Hebrew

Do not confine your children to your learning, for they were born in a different time.: Anonymous Hebrew proverb
Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest violence.: Anonymous Hebrew proverb

Anonymous - Humorous

I don't know and I don't care.: A student's answer to a university professor's examination question which asked what is the difference between ignorance and apathy, and for which the professor had to give an A+, as reported in Pacific Computer Weekly, 20 July 1990, now PC Week Australia

Anonymous - Hungarian

He who dares, wins.: Anonymous Hungarian Proverb

Anonymous - Italian

Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.: Anonymous Old Italian Proverb

Anonymous - Iranian

If you see a blind man, run up and kick him. Why should you be kinder than God?: Anonymous Old Iranian Proverb

Anonymous - Irish

Money swore an oath that nobody who did not love it should ever have it.: Anonymous Irish Proverb

Anonymous - Jamaican

Still water runs deep.: Anonymous Jamaican Proverb

Anonymous - Japanese

Fall seven times, stand up eight.: Anonymous Japanese proverb
Getting money is like digging with a needle. Spending it is like water soaking into sand.: Anonymous Japanese proverb
The nail that sticks up gets pounded down.: Anonymous Japanese proverb
To teach is to learn: Anonymous Japanese proverb

Anonymous - Jewish

Entrances are wide, exits narrow.: Anonymous Jewish proverb
If you protest long enough that you're right, you're wrong.: Anonymous Jewish proverb
Illusions are comforting; just don't act upon them.: Anonymous Jewish proverb
No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen.: Anonymous Jewish proverb
What is truer than truth? The story.: Anonymous Jewish proverb
With money in your pocket, you are wise, and you are handsome, and you sing well too.: Anonymous Jewish proverb

Anonymous - Malay

Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.: Anonymous Malay Proverb

Anonymous - Maori

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.: Anonymous Maori Proverb

Anonymous - Nigeran

To be ugly is to be unforgiven.: Anonymous Wodabe (tribe in Niger) Proverb

Anonymous - Nigerian

Hold a true friend with both your hands.: Anonymous Nigerian Proverb

Anonymous - Portuguese

Visits always give pleasure - if not the arrival, the departure.: Anonymous Portuguese Proverb

Anonymous - Roman

Morituri te salutamus. (We who are about to die salute you.): Anonymous Roman Proverb
Necessity is the mother of invention.: Anonymous Roman Proverb
Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent. (They who lie with dogs will rise with fleas.) or If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.

Anonymous - Russian

A fish rots from the head down.: Anonymous Russian Proverb, in An Account of the Voyage to New England, 1674

Anonymous - Rwandan

You can outdistance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you.: Anonymous Rwandan Proverb

Anonymous - Scottish

Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.: Anonymous Scottish Proverb
Money is flat and meant to be piled up.: Anonymous Scottish Proverb
Wine is strong, the King is stronger, Women are stronger still; But the truth conquers all.: Anonymous inscription on the wall of Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin Village, Scotland.

Anonymous - Spanish

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.: Anonymous Spanish Proverb
After all, to make a beautiful omelet, you have to break an egg.: Anonymous Spanish Proverb
If you want good service, then serve yourself.: Anonymous Spanish Proverb

Anonymous - Swedish

Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really need it.: Anonymous Swedish Proverb

Anonymous - Turkish

Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.: Anonymous Turkish Proverb
If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.: Anonymous Turkish Proverb
Measure a thousand times and cut once.: Anonymous Turkish Proverb
No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back.: Anonymous Turkish Proverb

Anonymous - Ukranian

The church is near, but the way is icy, The tavern is far, but I will walk carefully.: Anonymous Ukranian Proverb

Anonymous - Vietnamese

Ca cuong chet den dit con cay. (The ca cuong, dead, on reaching the anus remains intense.): Anonymous Vietnamese Proverb

Anonymous - West African

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.: Anonymous West African Proverb

Anonymous - Yiddish

If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living.: Anonymous Yiddish proverb

Anonymous - Zen

A falling leaf does not hate the wind.: Anonymous Zen proverb; also in the movie Zatoichi

Susan Brownell Anthony (Feb. 15, 1820, Adams, MA - Mar. 13, 1906, Rochester, NY), American leader for women's suffrage

Susan B. Anthony
I will never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty ... "resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.": Susan B. Anthony, said during her trial for the offense of "registering to vote", 1873

Apocryphal

Everything that can be invented has been invented.: Apocryphal: attributed to Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
If fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag, and carrying a cross.: Appocryphal: attributed to Sinclair Lewis in his It Can't Happedn Here
If the writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran they are superfluous and need not be preserved; if they disagree they are pernicious, and ought not to be preserved.: Apocryphal: attributed to the Caliph Omar of Damascus who ordered the burning of manuscripts in the library at Alexandria in 642
There's a sucker born every minute.: Apocryphal: attributed to P. T. Barnum

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 or 1227, Rocca Sicca, Lombardy, Italy - Mar. 7, 1274, Fossa Nuova, Italy), Roman Catholic philosopher

Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.: Saint Thomas Aquinas, in Summa Theologica
If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy.: Saint Thomas Aquinas, in Summa Theologica

John Arbuthnot (Apr. 29, 1667, Inverbervie, Kincardine, Scotland - Feb. 27, 1745, London, England), Scotch-English Mathematician

Law is a bottomless pit.: John Arbuthnot

Archimedes (287 BC, Syracuse, Sicily - 212 BC, Syracuse, Sicily), Greek mathematician

Give me whereon to stand and I will move the earth.

Archimedes

Aristotle (384 BCE, Stagirus, Greece - 322 BCE, Chalcis, Greece), Greek philosopher and teacher

Aristotle
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.: Aristotle
Nature abhors a vacuum.: Aristotle
Nature operates in the shortest way possible.: Aristotle
The ability to doubt is rare, emerging only among cultivated, educated persons.: Aristotle
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.: Aristotle
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.: Aristotle

Richard Willis Armour (July 15, 1906, CA - Feb. 28, 1989, Claremont, California), American humorist and poet

That money talks
I'll not deny,
I heard it once:
It said, "Goodbye."

Richard Armour

Louis Daniel Armstrong (Satchmo) (July 4 or Aug. 4, 1898, 1900, or 1901, New Orlean, LS - July 6, 1971, Queens, NY), American jazz musician and trumpet player

I don't let my mouth say nothin' my head can't stand

Louis Armstrong

Neil Armstrong (Aug, 5, 1930, Wapakoneta, OH -), American astronaut

That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.

Neil Armstrong, upon being the first human to step onto the surface of the moon, July 20, 1969

Isaac Asimov (Jan. 2, 1920, Petrovichi, Russia - Apr. 6, 1992, New York, NY), American science fiction, other fiction, and non-fiction author

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.: Isaac Asimov, a statement of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, Runaround, 1942
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.: Isaac Asimov
If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.: Isaac Asimov
John, when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.: Isaac Asimov, responding to an English Literature specialist who lectured him severly on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong, and that it follows that the one thing we can say about our modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong. The Relativity of Wrong in The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 14 No. 1, Fall 1989
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.: Isaac Asimov
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.: Isaac Asimov
No vision of God and heaven ever experienced by the most exalted prophet can, in my opinion, match the vision of the universe as seen by Newton or Einstein.: Isaac Asimov
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather, 'hmm.... that's funny...': Isaac Asimov
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.: Isaac Asimov, in Foundation

Wystan Hugh Auden (Feb., 21, 1907, York, England - Sept. 29, 1973, Vienna, Austria), English poet

Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.: W. H. Auden
Thousands hae lived without love, none without water.: W. H. Auden
We are here on Earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don't know.: W. H. Auden

Saint Augustine (354 AD, Tagaste (modern Souk Ahras), Algeria - 430 AD, Hippo Regius (modern Annaba), Algeria), Christian philosopher

Are you certain of that?: Saint Augustine, in response to followers of the Skeptics who held that man can know nothing with certainty.
The good Christian should beware the mathematican and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicans have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell.: Saint Augustine
What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know. Yet I say with confidence that I know that if nothing passed away, there would be no past time; and if nothing were still coming, there would be no future time; and if there were nothing at all, there would be no present time.: Saint Augustine, in Confessions, Book 11, Chapter XIV

Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (Marcus Annius Verus) (Apr. 26, 121 AD, Rome - Mar. 17, 180 AD, Vindobona=present-day Vienna or Sirmium, Pannonia), Roman emperor (161 AD - 180 AD)

Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.: Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.: Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.: Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

B

Top

Richard Bach (June 23, 1936, Oak Park, IL -), American author

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.: Richard Bach

Sir Francis Bacon (Jan, 22, 1561, London, England - Apr. 9, 1626, Highgate, England), English philosopher and Lord Chancellor

Antiquitas saeculi, juventus mundi (The old days were the world's youth)

Sir Francis Bacon

Knowledge is power.

Sir Francis Bacon

Libraries are the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed.

Sir Francis Bacon

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Sir Francis Bacon

Roger Bacon (1214, Ilchester, Somerset, England - 1294, Oxford, England), English cofounder of experimental science

There are two modes of acquiring knowledge, namely by reasoning and experience. Reasoning draws a conclusion and makes us grant the conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, nor does it remove doubt so that the mind may rest on the intuition of truth, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.

Roger Bacon

Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918, Newport News, VA - Aug. 17, 1990, Philadelphia, PA), American singer and actress

You'll never find yourself until you face the truth.

Pearl Bailey

Russell Baker (Aug. 14, 1925, Loudoun Co., VA - ), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and television host

Live by publicity, you'll probably die by publicity.

Russell Baker, in reference to Ronald Regan's image after the Iranian arms sales

Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.

Russell Baker

People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure.

Russell Baker

Situation comedy on television has thrived for years on "canned" laughter grafted by gaglines by technicians using records of guffawing audiences that have been dead for years.

Russell Baker

Some people like to eat octopus. Liberals, mostly.

Russell Baker

The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.

Russell Baker

Robert T. Bakker (1945, Ridgewood, NJ - ), American paleontologist

I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator and name it after the IRS.

Robert Bakker

James Baldwin (Aug. 2, 1924, Harlem, New York City, NY - Nov. 30, 1987, St. Paul de Vence, France), American author

Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex. You thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did.

James Baldwin

Frederick R. Barnard, American advertising executive

One picture is worth a thousand words.: Frederick R. Barnard, who in order to get more respect for his slogan, gave it an oriental origin. In his first version in a 1921 ad it was stated as "One look is worth a thousand words" and attributed to a Japanese philosopher. In his second version in a 1927 ad for Royal Baking Powder, it became "One picture is worth ten thousand words" and was attributed to a Chinese proverb.

Dave Barry (July 3, 1947, Armonk, NY - ), American Pulitzer prize winning humor columnist

After you've heard two eyewitness accounts of an accident, it makes you wonder about history.

Dave Barry

I hate rap music, which to me sounds like a bunch of angry men shouting, possibly because the person who was supposed to provide them with a melody never showed up.

Dave Barry

One swell thing about the United States is that newspapers can print whatever stories they want. Another one is that nobody has to read them.

Dave Barry

Whoops! Hold it! We have just been informed that a Florida court has reversed a ruling overturning an earlier court ruling that upheld a previous ruling that rejected an appeal of a ruling that overturned an earlier reversal of an upheld rejection of the decision to count ballots marked only by drool, which means that the year 2000 was ...

Dave Barry, in Dave Barry's Year in Review, Miami Herald, Dec. 31, 2000

Ethel Barrymore (Ethel Mae Blythe) (Aug. 15, 1879, Philadelphia, PA - June 18, 1959, Beverly Hills, CA), American actress

You grow up the day you have the first real laugh...at yourself.

Ethel Barrymore

John Sidney Barrymore (John Sidney Blyth) (Feb. 4, 1882, Philadelphia, PA - May 29, 1942, Hollywoord, CA), American actor

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

John Barrymore

Stephen Baskerville, American political science professor

Not since the overthrow of the Weimar Republic have the leaders of a major democracy used their offices and the mass media to disseminate invective against millions of their own citizens. In fact it was Adolf Hitler who urged that "the state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people" and who explained, in the words of Rabbi Daniel Lapin, that "as long as government is perceived as working for the benefit of children, the people happily will endure almost any curtailment of liberty." Using children to tug on our heartstrings may be not only a weakness of the sentimental. It also may be a ploy by those cynical and unscrupulous enough to exploit children for their own purposes. This is likely to be remembered as one of the most diabolical perversions of governmental power in our history, a time when we allowed children to be used and abused by fast-talking government officials and paid for it with our families, our social order and our constitutional rights.

Stephen Baskerville, writing on fathers' rights in Insight on the News, June 26, 2000

David A. Basskin, President, Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA, Ltd.)

The best way you can protect yourself against infringement is to become famous and successful. Because unless you're famous and successful, it's unlikely that anything you have will be submect to infringement, and you won't be able to afford to do anything about it.

David Basskin

Charles Austin Beard (Nov. 27, 1874, Knightstown, IN - Sept. 1, 1948, New Haven, CT), American historian and political scientist

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad with power; The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small; The bee fertilizes the flower it robs; When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.: Charles A. Beard, Upon being asked by George S. Counts how long it would take to sum up human history. After first replying that it would take a week, he summed it up in four great laws. These were described by Lawrence A. Cremin as "the Hellenic idea of Providence, the Greek concept of hubris, the Marxian principle of the dialectic, and the Enlightenment faith in progress."

James Andrew Beard (May 5, 1903, Portland, OR - Jan. 21, 1985), American chef and author

I believe that if ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around.

James Beard

Sir Thomas Beecham (April 29, 1879, St. Helens, Lancashire, England - Mar. 8, 1961, London, England), English composer and conductor

Like two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof

Sir Thomas Beecham, refering to the harpsichord

Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands - and all you can do is scratch it.

Sir Thomas Beecham, to a lady cellist

We cannot expect you to be with us all the time, but perhaps you could be good enough to keep in touch now and again.

Sir Thomas Beecham, to a musician during a rehersal

Brendan Behan (Feb. 9, 1923, Dublin, Ireland - Mar. 20, 1964, Dublin, Ireland), Irish writer

I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

Brendan Behan

Alexander Graham Bell (Mar. 3, 1847, Edinburgh, Scotland - Aug. 2, 1922, Baddek, Nova Scotia, Canada), Scottish-Canadian-American inventor and founder of the National Geographic Society

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.

Alexander Graham Bell

Cardinal Bellarmine (Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino) (1542, Montepulciano, Italy -1621), Italian theologian

First, . . . to want to affirm that in reality the sun is at the center of the world and only turns on itself without moving from east to west, and the earth . . . revolves with great speed around the sun . . .is a very dangerous thing, likely not only to irritate all scholastic philosophers and theologians, but also to harm the Holy Faith by rendering Holy Scripture false. Nor can one answer that this is not a matter of faith, since if it is not a matter of faith "as regards the topic," it is a matter of faith "as regards the speaker"; and so it would be heretical to say that Abraham did not have two children and Jacob twelve, as well as to say that Christ was not born of a virgin, because both are said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of the prophets and the apostles.

Cardinal Bellarmine, in a Letter to Foscarinin, April 12, 1615

Robert Benchley

Drawing on my fine command of language. I said nothing.: Robert Benchley

Nicolas Clerihew Bentley (June 14, 1907, Highgate, London, England - August 14, 1978, Somerset, England), English artist and writer

No news is good news. No journalists is even better.

Nicolas Bentley

Ingmar Bergman (1918, Uppsala, Sweden - ), Swedish movie and theater director, playwright, and screen writer

I hope I never get so old I get religious.

Ingmar Bergman

Ingrid Bergman (Aug. 29, 1915, Stockholm, Sweden - Aug. 29, 1982, London, England), Swedish-American actress

He's a gentleman farmer who raises gooseflesh.

Ingrid Bergman on Alfred Hitchcock

Milton Berle (Milton Berlinger) (July 12, 1908, Harlem, New York City, NY - Mar. 27, 2002, Los Angeles, CA), American actor, writer, director, and comedian

Committee - a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.

Milton Berle

My doctor told me that jogging could add years to myu life. I think he was right. I feel ten years older already.

Milton Berle

Hector Berlioz, French composer

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.

Hector Berlioz

Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (1925 - ), Professional baseball player

Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't go to yours.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
Four, I don't think I can eat eight.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra, responding to a waitress who asked if he wanted his pizza cut into four or eight slices
If the guy was poor, I would give it back.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berrar, responding to a reporter's question of what he would do if he found a million dollars
In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
It's deja vu all over again.: Falsely attributed to Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
It's OK, I had to get up to answer the phone anyway.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra, responding to someone who apologized for waking him with a late night call
Never answer an anonymous letter.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
No one goes there anymore - it's too crowded.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra, giving his reason why he wouldn't go to a certain restaurant
We're lost, but we're making good time.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
You can observe a lot just by watching.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.: Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra

Bible - New Testament

Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg?: Bible - New Testiment, Job 6:6
Four things on earth are small, yet they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people without strength, yet they provide their food in the summer; the badgers are a people without power, yet they make their homes in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard can be grasped in the hand, yet it is found in kings' palaces.: Bible - New Testament, Proverbs 30:24-28

Bible - Old Testament

When men fight together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the genitals; then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall have no pity.: Bible - Old Testament, Deuteronomy 25:11

Josh Billings, American humorist

The trouble with most people isn't their ignorance, it's knowing so many things that ain't so.: Josh Billings

Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabian terrorist

We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honor and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gamblings, and trading with interest.: Osama bin Laden, in his "Letter to the American People", Nov., 2002

Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany

The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night.

Otto von Bismarck

Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson (Dec. 8, 1832, Kvikne, Norway - Apr. 26, 1910, Paris, France), Norwegian writer, editor, and theater director and Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1903

Den som har droemt Udfaerd og Daad senker ej Sejl uden med Sorg. (He who has dreamed of travel and deeds, does not lower his sail without sorrow.)

Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson

Blackadder II

Never before have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the church?

Blackadder II

William Blake

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.: William Blake

Niels Bohr (Oct. 7, 1885, Copenhagen, Denmark - Nov. 18, 1962, Copenhagen, Denmark), Danish Nobel Laureate in Physics

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.

Niels Bohr

If anybody says he can think about quantum problems without getting giddy, that only show he has not understood the first thing about them.

Niels Bohr

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

Niels Bohr

No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical.

Niels Bohr

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

Niels Bohr

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

Niels Bohr

There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them.

Niels Bohr

Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.

Niels Bohr

Napoleon Bonaparte (Aug. 15, 1769, Ajaccio, Corsica - May 5, 1821, St. Helena Island), French emporer

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

Napoleon Bonaparte

An army marches on its stomach.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Napoleon Bonaparte

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

Napoleon Bonaparte

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

Napoleon Bonaparte

I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay hands on everything they can get.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The most dangerous moment comes with victory.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Daniel Boone (possibly Oct. 22, 1734, Exeter, PA - Sept. 26, 1820), American pioneer and explorer

No, I can't say as ever I was ever lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.: Daniel Boone, in response to a question from Chester Harding, an artist painting his portrait in 1820, if Boone had ever been lost during his travels

Daniel J. Boorstin (Oct. 1, 1914, Atlanta, GA - ), American historian and and Pulitzer-prize winning author

Barnum's great discovery was not how easy it was to deceive the public, but rather how much the public enjoyed being deceived.

Daniel J. Boorstin, in The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America

Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety.

Daniel J. Boorstin

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.

Daniel J. Boorstin

I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.

Daniel J. Boorstin, in Living Philosophies

Victor Borge (Borge Rosenbaum) (Jan. 3, 1909, Copenhagen, Denmark - Dec. 23, 2000, Greenwich, CT), Danish musical humorist

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

Victor Borge

Jorge Luis Borges (Aug. 24, 1899, Buenos Aires, Argentina - June 14, 1986, Geneva, Switzerland), Argentinian writer

Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.: Jorge Luis Borges, in Otras inquisiciones: Nueva refutación del tiempo (Other Inquisitions: New Refutation of Time), 1952
To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.: Jorge Luis Borges, in Otras inquisiciones: El encuentro en un sueño (Other Inquisitions: The Meeting in a Dream), 1952
Whosoever would undertake some atrocious enterprise should act as if it were already accomplished, should impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.: Jorge Luis Borges, in El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (The Garden of Forking Paths), 1941

Ray Bradbury (Aug. 22, 1920, Waukegan, IL - ), American author

The human race likes to give itself airs. One good volcano can produce more greenhouse gases in a year than the human race has in its entire history.

Ray Bradbury

Through lack of education, we're not teaching kids to read and write. So there is the danger that you raise up a generation of morons

Ray Bradbury, in an interview with Joshua Klein of The Onion, 1999

Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893, Clark, MO - April 8, 1981, New York City, NY), American Five Star General of the Army

The way to win an atomic war is to make sure it never starts.

Omar Bradley

Louis Dembitz Brandeis (Nov. 13, 1856, Louisville, KY - Oct. 5, 1941, Washington, DC), American Supreme Court Associate Justice, 1916 - 1939

We can have a democratic society or we can have great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both.

Louis Brandeis

Werner von Braun (Mar. 23, 1912, Wirsitz, Germany - June 16, 1977, Alexandria, VA), German-American physicist and rocket pioneer

Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.

Werner von Braun

I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with greatest caution.

Werner von Braun

The best computer is a man, and it's the only one that can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.

Werner von Braun

Bertolt Brecht (Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht) (Feb. 10, 1898, Augsburg, Germany - Aug. 14, 1956, East Berlin, Germany), German author and playwright

A new age does not begin all of a sudden.
My grandfather was already living in the new age
My grandson will probably still be living in the old one.

The new meat is eaten with the old forks.

It was not the first cars
Nor the tanks
It was not the airplanes over our roofs
Nor the bombers.

From new transmitters came the old stupidities.
Wisdom was passed on from mouth to mouth.

Bertolt Brecht, "New Age" in Poems: 1913 - 1956 (New York: Methuen, Inc. 1976)

Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life.

Bertolt Brecht

Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear -
And he shows them pearly white -
Just a jackknife has Macheath, dear -
And he keeps it out of sight.

Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera, 1928

Alan Brinkley (1949 - ), American historian and Provost of Columbia University

Would we agree to an organization on campus that allowed African Americans to join this organization only if they pass for white?: Alan Brinkley, May 6, 2005, Columbia University Senate, commenting on the US military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, in a debate on whether ROTC should be allowed on compus

David McClure Brinkley (July 10, 1920, Wilmington, NC - ), American broadcast journalist

The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news, we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.

David Brinkley

Roger Brinner

The plural of anecdote is not data.

Roger Brinner

Jacob Bronowski (Jan. 18, 1908, Poland - Aug. 22, 1974, East Hampton, NY), English mathematician and scientist

Every animal leaves traces of what it was; man alone leaves traces of what he created.

Jacob Bronowski

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it.

Jacob Bronowski

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature.

Jacob Bronowski

Stopford Augustus Brooke

If a thousand old beliefs were ruined in our march to truth, we must still march on.: Stopford Augustus Brooke

Mel Brooks (Melvyn Kaminsky) (June 28, 1926, Brooklyn, NY - ), American comedian and filmaker

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole and die.

Mel Brooks

Dr. Joyce Brothers (Joyce Diane Baue) (Sept. or Oct. 20, 1928, New York City, NY - ), American psychologist and author

If Shakespeare had had to go on an author tour to promote Romeo and Juliet, he never would have written Macbeth.

Dr. Joyce Brothers

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.

Dr. Joyce Brothers

Trust your hunches. . . . Hunches are usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level. Warning! Do not confuse your hunches with wishful thinking. This is the road to disaster.

Dr. Joyce Brothers

David Ross Brower (July 1, 1912, Berkeley, CA - Nov. 5, 2000, Berkeley, CA), American conservationist and environmentalist

There is but one ocean though its coves have many names; a single sea of atmosphere with no coves at all; the miracle of soil, alive and giving life, lying thin on the only earth, for which there is no spare.

David Brower

We do not inherit the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children.

David Brower, chisled in stone at the National Aquarium in Washington, DC. Later, he said:

I decided the words were too conservative for me. We're not borrowing from our children, we're stealing from them - and it's not even considered a crime. Let that be my epitaph, when I need it.

H. Jackson Brown Jr., American author

Happiness is not an absence of problems; but the ability to deal with them.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Hear both sides before judging.

H. Jackson Brown Jr., Life's Little Instruction Book

I've found that anger and pie crusts soften after two days.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Robert Browne, Anglican minister

We must all watch one another.

Robert Browne, in Guiding Principle, 1582

Robert Browning (May 7, 1812, Camberwell, England - December 12, 1889, Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, Italy), English poet and playwright

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

Robert Browning, in "Andrea del Sarto"

Well less is more Lucrezia; I am judged.

Robert Browning, in "Andrea del Sarto"

William Jennings Bryan (Mar. 19, 1860, Salem, IL - July 26, 1925, Dayton, TN), American political and religious leader

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

William Jennings Bryan

You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

William Jennings Bryan

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (Pearl Walsh) (June 26, 1892, Hillsboro, WV - Mar. 6, 1973, Danby, VT), American author and Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1938

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him, a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.

Pearl Buck

Timothy A. Budd, Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, Oregon State University

Whenever I teach a course there always comes a moment as I'm reading the textbook where I say ``you know, I think I could write a better textbook than this''. The unfortunate thing is that this is true even when I am using my own book!

Timothy A. Budd

Buddha (Awakened One) (Siddhartha (He who achieves his aim) Gotoma) (568 B.C., Northern India - 488 B.C., Kusinara, India), Indian philosopher and religous leader

Now I say to you: all conditioned things are impermanent, strive on with heedfulness.

Buddha (Siddhartha Gotoma), his last words

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: one, not going all the way; and two, not starting.

Buddha (Siddhartha Gotoma)

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

Buddha (Siddhartha Gotoma)

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (Edward Bulwer, 1st Baron Lytton, Lord Lytton) (May 25, 1803, London, England - January 18, 1873, Torquay, Devonshire, England), English author

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents - except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, opening line of Paul Clifford, 1830

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Mar. 6, 1475, Caprese, Italy - Feb. 18, 1564, Rome, Italy), Italian artist

If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Edmond Burke (Jan. 12, 1729, Dublin, Ireland - July 9, 1797), Irish statesman and orator

In order that evil should triumph it is sufficient that good men do nothing.

Edmond Burke

George Burns (Nathan Birnbaum) (Jan. 20, 1896, New York City, NY - Mar. 9, 1996, Beverly Hills, CA), American actor

I want nothing to do with natural foods. At my age I need all the preservatives I can get

George Burns

I was brought up to respect my elders and now I don't have to respect anybody.

George Burns

If you live to be one hundred you've got it made. Very few people die past that age.

George Burns

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.

George Burns

Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.

George Burns

You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoes and wonder what else you can do while you're down there.

George Burns

Aaron Burr (Feb. 6, 1756, Newark, NJ - Sept. 14, 1836, Staten Is., NY), Vice President of the United States, 1801 - 1805

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.

Aaron Burr

The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure, and pleasure my business.

Aaron Burr

Sir Richard Francis Burton (Mar. 19, 1812, Torquay, England - Oct. 19, 1890, Trieste, Italy), English explorer, linguist, and writer

I was never more flattered in my life than to think that it would take three hundred men to kill me.

Sir Richard F. Burton, upon escaping an ambush in the Syrian desert, 1870

The dearest ambition of a slave is not liberty, but to have a slave of his own.

Sir Richard F. Burton

The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.

Sir Richard F. Burton

Richard Burton (Richard Walter Jenkins, Jr.) (Nov. 10, 1925, Pontrhydfen, Wales - Aug. 5, 1984, Celigny, Switzerland ), Welsh actor

The more I read about man and his maniacal ruthlessness and his murderous envious scatological soul, the more I realize that he will never change. Our stupidity is immortal, nothing will change it. The same mistakes, the same prejudices, the same injustice, the same lusts wheel endlessly around the parade ground of the centuries. Immutable and ineluctable. I wish I could believe in a god of some kind but I simply cannot.

Richard Burton, diary entry, 1969

George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924, Milton, MA - ), Forty-first President of the United States

No, I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

George Herbert Walker Bush, in Free Inquiry magazine, Fall, 1988

George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946, New Haven, CT - ), Forty-third President of the United States

Anyway, after we go out and work our hearts out, after you go out and help us turn out the vote, after we've convinced the good Americans to vote, and while they're at it, pull that old George W. lever, if I'm the one, when I put my hand on the Bible, when I put my hand on the Bible, that day when they swear us in, when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not-to uphold the laws of the land.: George. W. Bush, Toledo, OH, Oct. 27, 2000
Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.: George. W. Bush, LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times.: George. W. Bush, Tokyo, Feb. 18, 2002
Had we to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success - being so successful, so fast, that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in, escaped and lived to fight another day.: George. W. Bush, in an interview with Time Magazine, August 29, 2004
He can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road.: George W. Bush, to reporters in Florence, SC, Feb. 17, 2000, in reference to John McCain
I don't want nations feeling like that they can bully ourselves and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense system so that we can make the world more peaceful, and at the same time I want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to the level commiserate with keeping the peace.: George. W. Bush, Des Moines, IA, Oct. 23, 2000
I know how hard it is to put food on your family.: George W. Bush, Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
I think that for example on the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the earth.: George W. Bush, in an interview with Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times, Jan. 23, 2000 (and Oct. 23, 2000)
I understand small business growth. I was one.: George W. Bush, New York Daily News, Feb. 19, 2000
If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.: George. W. Bush, Hilton Head, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000
It was just inebriating what Midland was all about then.: George W. Bush, From a 1994 interview, as quoted in First Son by Bill Minutaglio
It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.: George. W. Bush, Reuters, May 5, 2000
It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.: George. W. Bush, Arlington Heights, IL, Oct. 24, 2000
It's your money. You paid for it.: George. W. Bush, LaCrosse, WI., Oct. 18, 2000
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.: George W. Bush, Washington, DC, Aug. 5, 2004, at the signing ceremony for a $417 billion defence spending bill
Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?: George W. Bush, Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.: George W. Bush, Greece, NY, May 24, 2005, talking about his social security plans
That's a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century.: George. W. Bush, speaking in reference to Monica Lewinsky, Arlington Heights, IL, Oct. 24, 2000
The administration I'll bring is a group of men and women who are focused on what's best for America, honest men and women, decent men and women, women who will not stain the House.: George W. Bush, Des Moines Register debate, Iowa, Jan. 15, 2000
The important question is, How many hands have I shaked?: George W. Bush, Answering a question about why he hasn't spent more time in New Hampshire, in The New York Times, Oct. 23, 1999
The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case.: George W. Bush, in Pella, IA, as quoted by the San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 30, 2000
There needs to be debates, like we're going through. There needs to be town-hall meetings. There needs to be travel. This is a huge country.: George W. Bush, Larry King Live, Dec. 16, 1999
They misunderestimated me.: George. W. Bush, Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
They said, `You know, this issue doesn't seem to resignate with the people.' And I said, you know something? Whether it resignates or not doesn't matter to me, because I stand for doing what's the right thing, and what the right thing is hearing the voices of people who work.: George. W. Bush, Portland, OR, Oct. 31, 2000
They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program.: George. W. Bush, St. Charles, MO, Nov. 2, 2000
This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve.: George W. Bush, Speaking during "Perseverance Month" at Fairgrounds Elementary in Nashua, N.H. as quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 2000
This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses.: George W. Bush, At a South Carolina oyster roast, as quoted in the Financial Times, Jan. 14, 2000
What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate. Quotas, I think, vulcanize society. So, I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that's my position.: George W. Bush, Quoted by Molly Ivins, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 21, 2000
When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us vs. them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there.: George W. Bush, Iowa Western Community College, Jan. 21, 2000.
Will the highways on the Internet become more few?: George W. Bush, Concord, N.H., Jan. 29, 2000

Samuel Butler (Dec. 4, 1835, Langar Rectory, Nottinghamshire, England - June 18, 1902, Clifford's Inn, London, England), British novelist, essayist, painter and composer

A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.: Samuel Butler
An honest god's the noblest work of man.: Samuel Butler
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.: Samuel Butler
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.: Samuel Butler
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.: Samuel Butler
The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.: Samuel Butler

Lord Byron (George Gordon) (Jan. 22, 1788, London, England - April 19, 1824, Missolonghi, Greece), English poet

And when we think we lead, we are most led.: Lord Byron
But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think; 'Tis strange, the shortest letter which man uses Instead of speech, may form a lasting link Of ages; to what straits old Time reduces Frail man, when paper - even a rag like this - , Survives himself, his tomb, and all that's his.: Lord Byron, from Don Juan
I had no thought, no feeling - none - Among the stones I stood a stone, And was, scarce conscious what I wist, As shrubless crags within the mist;: Lord Byron, in The Prisoner of Chillon, lines 235 - 238
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which Heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!: Lord Byron, She walks in beauty, June 12, 1814

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