Quotes

Bunches more to restore here. As you can see I have been really enjoying A Word A Day and the quotes below are currently almost exclusively sourced from them. -JMS

People

Carl Sagan

Life

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t. -Richard Bach, writer (b. 1936) via A Word A Day

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else. -Charles Dickens, novelist (1812-1870) via A Word A Day

You will find relief from vain fancies if you do every act in life as though it were your last. -Marcus Aurelius, philosopher, writer, Roman emperor via A Word A Day

Losing one glove / is certainly painful, / but nothing / compared to the pain, / of losing one, / throwing away the other, / and finding / the first one again. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996) via A Word A Day

Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind. -Giacomo Leopardi, poet, essayist, and philosopher (1798-1837) via A Word A Day

A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, his next to escape the censures of the world. -Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719) via A Word A Day

We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin. -Andre Berthiaume, novelist (b. 1938) via A Word A Day

For money you can have everything it is said. No, that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money. -Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924) via A Word A Day

Learning

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it — and stop there — lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) via A Word A Day

“Much of what we know is little more than a goulash of disparate and contradictory ideas, rather than accessible clarity.” -Ian Mann; Secrets to Being the Cat’s Whiskers; The Times (Johannesburg, South Africa); Jan 31, 2010 via A Word A Day

The highest result of education is tolerance. -Helen Keller, author and lecturer (1880-1968) via A Word A Day

Memories are interpreted like dreams. -Leo Longanesi, journalist and editor (1905-1957) via A Word A Day

Reason

Error is architecture. -Unknown

Reserve the right to be wrong. -Jason Michael Smithson

Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. -Dandamis, sage (4c BCE) via A Word A Day

Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy. -Nora Ephron, novelist (b. 1941) via A Word A Day

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642) via A Word A Day

Religion

Men rarely (if ever) managed to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988) via A Word A Day

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) via A Word A Day

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) via A Word A Day

The death of dogma is the birth of morality. -Immanuel Kant, philosopher (1724-1804) via A Word A Day

To profess to be doing God’s will is a form of megalomania. -Joseph Prescott, aphorist (1913-2001) via A Word A Day

Language

Words, like eyeglasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. -Joseph Joubert, moralist and essayist (1754-1824) via A Word A Day

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions. -Joyce Carol Oates, writer (b. 1938) via A Word A Day

Literature is the language of society, as speech is the language of man. -Louis de Bonald, philosopher and politician (1754-1840) via AWAD

Change

Time changes all things: there is no reason why language should escape this universal law. -Ferdinand de Saussure, linguist (1857-1913) via A Word A Day

I have lived in this world just long enough to look carefully the second time into things that I am most certain of the first time. -Josh Billings, columnist and humorist (1818-1885) via A Word A Day

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. -Alexander Graham Bell, inventor (1847-1922) via A Word A Day

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist (1825-1895) via A Word A Day

Science

Of the six people who participated in the experiment, three spelled (spelt) everything the British way. The other three had one or more words spelled in American English What does this experiment prove? Not much, according to my 12-year-old daughter, “Your sample size is too small.” -Anu Garg via A Word A Day

The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. -Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (1809-1882) via A Word A Day

Society

Poverty is the worst form of violence. -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) via A Word A Day

The ultimate sense of security will be when we come to recognize that we are all part of one human race. Our primary allegiance is to the human race and not to one particular color or border. -Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (b. 1942) via A Word A Day

War

There’s never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous. -Neil Gaiman, novelist and short story writer (b. 1960) via A Word A Day

Though I have been trained as a soldier, and participated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will settle international differences. -Ulysses S. Grant, military commander, 18th US President (1822-1885) via A Word A Day

Respectfully Disagree

We don’t need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could. -James Cromwell, actor (b. 1940) via A Word A Day

A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule. -Michael Pollan, author, journalism professor (b. 1955) via A Word A Day