February 2007

Ezra Pound Quotations

Literature is news that stays news. Ezra Pound

Simon Cohen Quotations

The probation service have found out that there are two types of person appearing before the courts — those who have problems and those who are problems. Simon Cohen (in Magistrate, June 1983)

E. M. Forster

One has two duties — to be worried and not to be worried. E. M. Forster

Napoleon Bonaporte Quotations

-Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. -History is a fable often told. -If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god. -In politics, absurdity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaporte

Siegfried Sassoon

-In me the tiger sniffs the rose. -Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin they think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives. -You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go. *Suicide in the Trenches -”Good [...]

Jane Goodall Quotations

-It can seem as you look out that it’s just chaos and that we behave in terrible ways and we never really seem to get better. But we have to remember that compassion and love and altruism is equally deeply rooted in our primate heritage. They are just as evident in chimpanzees as the brutal, [...]

John Berryman Quotations

We must travel in the direction of our fear. John Berryman

Harold Bloom Quotations

-I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike , and I don’t think there really is a distinction between the two , are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats. And that being the case, any human being, male or female, of whatever status, who has a voice of her [...]

Elizabeth Kolbert Quotations

-It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing. -The figures did not take into account the expected increase in the number and wealth of people living in storm-prone areas; correcting for such increases, [...]

Edward de Bono

It is historical continuity that keeps our assumptions in place, not a repeated assessment of their value. Edward de Bono

Joseph Persico

Never have so many experienced such intensity of emotions; never had comradeship–a sense of needing and being needed–struck so deeply and bound prior strangers so strongly in a blood brotherhood. Joseph Persico

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin Quotations

-Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed. -He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed. -In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no [...]

Karl A. Menninger Quotations

-Fears are educated into us and can, if we wish, be educated out. -Love is a medicine for the sickness of the world; a prescription often given, too rarely taken. Karl A. Menninger

Fuchan Yuan

There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity, and courage. Fuchan Yuan

Paul Anka

And now, the end is near; And so I face the final curtain. My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain. I’ve lived a life that’s full. I’ve traveled each and ev’ry highway; And more, much more than this, I did it my way. Regrets, I’ve had a few; [...]

Dean Koontz Quotations

-A politician’s goal is always to manipulate public debate. I think there are some politicians with higher goals. But all of them get corrupted by power. -All dogs are hugely smarter than they want us to know. They are the ruling species on the planet… or could be if they cared to take charge. Like [...]

Daniel Boorstin Quotations

-Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands. -The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge. -Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers. Daniel Boorstin

Stephen Leacock Quotations

-I detest life-insurance agents; they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so. -Newspapermen learn to call a murderer ‘an alleged murderer’ and the King of England ‘the alleged King of England’ to avoid libel suits. -Lord Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse [...]

Dale Carnegie Quotations

-Fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment. We rarely get tired when we are doing something interesting and exciting. -You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. -All [...]

Hafiz

There are so many gifts Still unopened from your birthday, There are so many hand-crafted presents That have been sent to you by God. The Beloved does not mind repeating, “Everything I have is also yours.” There are so many gifts, my dear, Still unopened from your birthday. Hafiz

Gillespie Magee Quotations

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there I’ve chased the shouting [...]

George Sand Quotations

-One is happy as a result of one’s own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness — simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain. -Guard well within yourself that [...]

James Baldwin Quotations

-Beyond talent lies all the usual words: discipline, love, luck – but, most of all, endurance. -The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others. -The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers. [...]

James Howard Kunstler

-Anybody who thinks we’re going to be using cars twenty-five years from now the way we’ve been accustomed to using them in the recent past ought to have his head examined. That phase of our national history is over…. -The regime of mass car use is an offshoot of our historical aversion to civility itself. [...]

Talmud

The highest wisdom is loving kindness. Talmud

Publilius Syrus Quotations

As men, we are all equal in the presence of death. To do two things at once is to do neither. We are interested in others when they are interested in us. Every one excels in something in which another fails. The anger of lovers renews the strength of love. A god could hardly love [...]

Ikkyu

I’d like to offer something to help you but in the zen school we don’t have a single thing! Ikkyu

Maezumi Roshi Quotations

Have good trust in yourself — not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are. Maezumi Roshi

Heart Sutra

Beyond, beyond, totally beyond, perfectly beyond: Awakening ..Yes! Heart Sutra

Yasutani Roshi Quotations

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. Yasutani Roshi

Lao Tzu Quotations

-The world is ruled by letting things take their course. -Long ago the land was ruled with a wisdom Too fine, too deep, to be fully understood And, since it was beyond man’s full understanding, Only some of it has come down to us, as in these sayings: “Alert as a winter-traveler on an icy [...]

Juan Ramon Jimenez Quotations

-I do not cut my life up into days but my days into lives, each day, each hour, an entire life. -If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. Juan Ramon Jimenez

Hui-Neng

As one lamp serves to dispel a thousand years of darkness, so one flash of wisdom destroys ten thousand years of ignorance. Hui-Neng

Blue Cliff Record

-Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging it in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment. -Give up remembrance–What end is there to pure wind circling the earth? -The universe contracts, the sun, moon, and stars go black; even if blows of the cane shower like rain, [...]

Robert Orben

Quit worrying about your health. It’ll go away. Robert Orben

Michael Pritchard

-No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather. -You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. Michael Pritchard

Wilson Mizner Quotations

-A fellow who is always declaring he’s no fool usually has his suspicions. -A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something. -I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education. Wilson Mizner

H. G. Wells Quotations

-New and stirring ideas are belittled, because if they are not belittled, the humiliating question arises: ‘Why then are you not taking part in them?’ -The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it. -Human history becomes more and more a race between education and [...]

Mary Quant

Having money is rather like being a blond. It is more fun, but not vital. Mary Quant

Tommy Hitchcock

Lose as if you like it; win as if you were used to it. Polo player Tommy Hitchcock (1900-44), cited in The New International Dictionary of Quotations.

Calvin Trillin Quotations

-Anybody caught selling macrame in public should be dyed a natural color and hung out to dry. -The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -In modern America, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events [...]

Lucille Ball Quotations

-The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. -Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world. Lucille Ball

Tom Wolfe Quotations

-A cult is a religion with no political power. -The question that intrigues me: After you’ve met all the great threats and found that the great catastrophes of world history are not bearing down on you, what do you do with your life? I don’t think politicians are ready for this question, I don’t think [...]

Dogen Zenji

Not to study the Buddha way is to fall into the realm of shameless and erroneous ways. All preceding and succeeding Buddhas always practice the Buddha way. -A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it. -Carrying the self forward to confirm the myriad dharmas [...]

Osho

-If you are in the future, then ego seems to be very substantial. If you are in the present the ego is a mirage, it starts disappearing. -In your hopelessness is the only hope, and in your desirelessness is your only fulfillment, and in your tremendous helplessness suddenly the whole existence starts helping you. Osho

Brian Perkins

This sounds an extraordinary statement to make, but in fact all truth is very ordinary. It is peoples’ fantasies of what is true that is so extraordinary. That that we were born and that we face eternal extinction after death is an extraordinary fantasy. Brian Perkins

Taizan Maezumi Quotations

When you expect something, when you aim at something, right there you dilute your energy; you split your energy, you split your attention and it becomes more than the place of yin and yang. You do not only divide, but you create the problem. Taizan Maezumi

Lennon & McCartney

He’s a real nowhere man, Sitting in his nowhere land, Making all his nowhere plans For nobody. Doesn’t have a point of view, Knows not where he’s going to, Isn’t he a bit like you and me? Nowhere man, please listen, You don’t know what you’re missing, Nowhere man, the world is at your command. [...]

Gordon Jenkins Quotations

As I approach the prime of my life I find I have the time of my life Learning to enjoy at my leisure All the simple pleasures And so I happily concede That this is all I ask This is all I need Beautiful girls, walk a little slower when you walk by me Lingering [...]

Rodgers and Hammerstein Quotations

Climb every mountain, search high and low Follow every byway, every path you know. Climb every mountain, ford every stream, Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream! A dream that will need all the love you can give, Every day of your life for as long as you live. Climb every mountain, ford every [...]

Jay Livingston & Ray Evans Quotations

When I was just a little girl/boy, I asked my mother, “What will I be ? Will I be pretty/handsome ? Will I be rich ?” Here’s what she said to me : “Que Sera, Sera Whatever will be, will be, The future’s not ours to see, What will be, will be.” Then I grew [...]

Jim Croce

If I could save time in a bottle The first thing that I’d like to do Is to save every day Til’ eternity passes away Just to spend them with you If I could make days last forever If words could make wishes come true I’d save every day like a treasure and then Again, [...]

Joni Mitchell Quotations

Rows and floes of angel hair And ice cream castles in the air And feather canyons ev’rywhere I’ve looked at clouds that way But now they only block the sun They rain and snow on ev’ryone So many things I would have done But clouds got in my way I’ve looked at clouds from both [...]

Randy Goodrum Quotations

i cried a tear you wiped it dry i was confused you cleared my mind i sold my soul you bought it back for me and held the earth you gave me dignity somehow you needed me you gave me strength to stand alone again to face the world out on my own again you [...]

Shania Twain Quotations

Let’s go. Mmm. Don’t want you for the weekend. Don’t want you for a night. I’m only interested if I can have you for life. Yeah. I know I sound serious. Baby, I am. You’re a fine piece of real estate and I’m gonna get me some land. Oh, yeah. So don’t try to run, [...]

Clare Booth Luce Quotations

-No good deed goes unpunished. -Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount. -The oppressed never free themselves – they do not have the necessary strengths. Clare Booth Luce

Penn Jillette

Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is [...]

Joe Darion

To dream … the impossible dream … To fight … the unbeatable foe … To bear … with unbearable sorrow … To run … where the brave dare not go … To right … the unrightable wrong … To love … pure and chaste from afar … To try … when your arms are too [...]

Roberto Assagioli

Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. Roberto Assagioli

James F. Byrnes Quotations

-Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death. James F. Byrnes

John Wayne

Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway. John Wayne

O. A. Battista (Dr.)

You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity. Dr. O. A. Battista

Dante Alighieri

-Who paints a figure, if he cannot be it, cannot draw it. -In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. -If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought. Dante Alighieri

Seng-T’san

Truly, because of our accepting and rejecting, we have not the suchness of things. Seng-T’san

Piet Mondrian Quotations

-Universal consciousness, intuition, that is, is the origin of all art. -The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel. Piet Mondrian

James G. Watt Quotations

They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers. James G. Watt

Horizon, Electronic Frontier

Newspapers: dead trees with information smeared on them. Horizon, “Electronic Frontier”

Native American Proverbs

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Native American Proverbs

Paul MacCready, Jr. (Dr.)

Your grandchildren will likely find it incredible – or even sinful – that you burned up a gallon of gasoline to fetch a pack of cigarettes! Dr. Paul MacCready, Jr.

Thomas Fuller Quotations

-We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. -Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away. -Many would be cowards if they had courage enough. -Enquire not what boils in another’s pot. -Better one’s house be too little one day than too big all the year after. [...]

Robert Redford

I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend? Robert Redford

Darryl Cherney

I’m not an environmentalist. I’m an Earth warrior. Darryl Cherney

Henrik Tikkanen

Because we don’t think about future generations, they will never forget us. Henrik Tikkanen

Pat Brown

When a man throws an empty cigarette package from an automobile, he is liable to a fine of $50. When a man throws a billboard across a view, he is richly rewarded. Pat Brown

William Ruckelshaus Quotations

Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites. William Ruckelshaus

Time Magazine

Don’t blow it – good planets are hard to find. Quoted in Time

Paul Brooks Quotations

In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops. Paul Brooks

Alan M. Eddison

Modern technology Owes ecology An apology. Alan M. Eddison

Greenpeace advertisement

It wasn’t the Exxon Valdez captain’s driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours. Greenpeace advertisement

Havelock Ellis Quotations

-The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago… had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands. -It is only the great men who are truly obscene. If they had not dared to be obscene, they could never have dared to be great. Havelock Ellis

Robert Fritz

-At first, I am giving energy to the creation, but later the creation seems to be giving energy to me. -The way to activate the seeds of your creation is by making choices about the results you want to create. When you make a choice, you activate vast human energies and resources, which otherwise go [...]

George Mallory Quotations

Because it’s there. George Mallory

Robert McKee

-For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of (the writer) is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. -A fine work of art – music, dance, painting, story – has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place. Robert McKee

Jean Baker Miller Quotations

The characteristics most highly developed in women and perhaps most essential to human beings are just those characteristics that are specifically dysfunctional for success in the world as it is. They may however be the important characteristics for making the world a better place. Jean Baker Miller

Nellie McClung

Never retreat, never complain, explain or apologize. Get the thing done and let them howl. Nellie McClung

Florence Nightingale

I never lose an opportunity to make a practical beginning. It’s amazing how often the mustard seed germinates itself. Florence Nightingale

Heywood Brown

Just as every conviction begins as a whim so does every emancipator serve his apprenticeship as a crank. A fanatic is a great leader who is just entering the room. Heywood Brown

Groucho Marx Quotations

-I have principles and if you don’t like them I have others. -She got her looks from her father. He’s a plastic surgeon. -I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it. Groucho Marx

James Keller Quotations

A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another. James Keller

Margaret Sanger Quotations

In order to truly live one must put one’s convictions into action. Margaret Sanger

Eglantyne Jebb

It is the children who pay the highest price for our short sighted economic policy, our political blunders, our wars. Eglantyne Jebb

Graham Greene Quotations

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in. Graham Greene

Larsen & George Quotations

-Nursing Education is still too often characterized by demands for “good girl” behaviour which rewards passivity and is intolerant of assertiveness; the consequences are students who are “less trouble” and who have a high survival rate in bureaucracies. Larsen & George

Gary Hamel

Whatever I can imagine, I can accomplish. I am no longer a vassal in a faceless bureaucracy. I am an activist, not a drone … I am a revolutionary. Gary Hamel

Erica Jong Quotations

-And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. Erica Jong

Guillaume Apollinaire Quotations

-Come to the edge, he said. They said we are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came and he gently pushed them off, and they flew. -Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. Guillaume Apollinaire

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

The years ahead should be a good time for visionaries and dreamers. For the barriers to innovation, the road blocks to inspiration and imagination are being knocked down one by one. Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Gloria Steinem Quotations

-Hierarchies ration self-esteem and create obedience to external authority by weakening belief in our own natural and internal wisdom. -The status quo protects itself by punishing all challengers. -Perhaps the worst thing about suffering is that it finally hardens the hearts of those around it. -Evil is obvious only in retrospect. Gloria Steinem

Nelson Mandela Quotations

-The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now. -Playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. -Education is the most powerful [...]

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

-Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. -The more things change, the more they stay the same. Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Rita Mae Brown Quotations

-People are like tea bags you don’t know how strong they are till you put them in hot water. -Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. -For you to be successful, sacrifices must be made. It’s better that they are made by others but failing that, you’ll have to make them yourself. -I finally figured [...]