Archives - July 2005

When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.

America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact --- the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.

I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

No laborer in the world is expected to work for room, board, and love --- except the housewife.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

My darkness has been filled with the light of intelligence, and behold, the outer day-lit world was stumbling and groping in social blindness.

Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure.

Children aren't happy without something to ignore, and that's what parents were created for.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

A court is a place where what was confused before becomes more unsettled than ever.

We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Don't let yourself indulge in vain wishes.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

Bridge is a social but not a very sociable game --- that is, if you take it seriously, as most bridge players do.

Sleeplessness is a desert without vegetation or inhabitants.

The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can't fool around. If you write about someone else, you can stretch the truth from here to Finland. If you write about yourself the slightest deviation makes you realize instantly that there may be honor among thieves, but you are just a dirty liar.

All decent people live beyond their incomes; those who aren't respectable live beyond other people's; a few gifted individuals manage to do both.

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

The cheerful live longest in years, and afterwards in our regards. Cheerfulness is the off-shoot of goodness.

The only way to amuse some people is to slip and fall on an icy pavement.

He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.

There is danger when a man throws his tongue into high gear before he gets his brain a-going.

Keeping your clothes well pressed will keep you from looking hard pressed.

We don't make mistakes here, we just have happy accidents.

The discipline of the writer is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to tell him.

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.