Archives - October 2003

When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.

A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.

Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or the last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.

When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

There is no one so bound to his own face that he does not cherish the hope of presenting another to the world.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

Love is like pi --- natural, irrational, and very important.

Columbus had all the spirit of a crusader and, at the same time, the investigating nature of a modern man of science.

The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.

We can say 'Peace on Earth,' we can sing about it, preach about it or pray about it, but if we have not internalized the mythology to make it happen inside us, then it will not be.

There is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever comes to sit by it. Passersby see only a wisp of smoke rising from the chimney and continue on their way.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have; the older she gets the more interested he is in her.

Animals are such agreeable friends --- they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity.

The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.

I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities --- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

GHOST, n. The outward and visible sign of an inward fear.