Archives - January 2006

No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam.

Life is either always a tight-rope or a featherbed. Give me a tight-rope.

I exist as I am, that is enough.

It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius.

The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

It always amazes me to think that every house on every street is full of so many stories; so many triumphs and tragedies, and all we see are yards and driveways.

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.

Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

We live in a world where lemonade is made from artificial flavoring and furniture polish is made from real lemons.

If I'm anything by a clinical name, I'm kind of a paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.

A man's mind, stretched by new ideas, may never return to its original dimensions.

Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.

Never cut what you can untie.

The will to believe is perhaps the most powerful, but certainly the most dangerous human attribute.

You see how circumstances are to blame. I am not really an odd person if I put more and more small pieces of shredded kleenex in my ears and tie a scarf around my head: when I lived alone I had all the silence I needed.

Everyone alters and is altered by everyone else. We are all the time taking in portions of one another or else reacting against them, and by these involuntary acquisitions and repulsions modifying our natures.

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.

There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.

Do you know what a pessimist is? A man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.

Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and then morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves.

Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience.

It's hard to detect good luck --- it looks so much like something you've earned.

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience --- well, that comes from poor judgment.