Archives - July 2004

Jobs are physically easier, but the worker now takes home worries instead of an aching back.

How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.

If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.

A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors.

The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.

Every man has three characters -- that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.

Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

Rapidity does not always mean progress, and hurry is akin to waste. The old fable of the hare and the tortoise is just as good now, and just as true, as when it was first written.

The worst thing about work in the house or home is that whatever you do it is destroyed, laid waste or eaten within twenty-four hours.

Music must rank as the highest of the arts -- more than any other, it ministers to human welfare.

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature ... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.

If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play at it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf.

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.

Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself; but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you.

Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do the work.

The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.

Talk of joy: there may be things better than beef stew and baked potatoes and home-made bread -- there may be.

A market is the combined behavior of thousands of people responding to information, misinformation and whim.

An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war.... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest....

Humor has a way of bringing people together. It unites people. In fact, I'm rather serious when I suggest that someone should plant a few whoopee cushions in the United Nations.

What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.

What we remember from childhood we remember forever --- permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

The best security against revolution is in constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements. It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.

Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest.

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.