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Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)


 "I would let the winds of the world blow through the doors and windows of my house but I will not be blown away."  - Rabindranath Tagore


Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. -William Arthur Ward, college administrator, writer (1921-1994)

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best -- and therefore never scrutinize or question. -Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002)

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)


If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language. -Andrew Cohen, professor of linguistics (b. 1944)

There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)

I'm not at all contemptuous of comforts, but they have their place and it is not first. -E.F. Schumacher, economist and author (1911-1977)

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) 

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My pain may be the reason for somebody's laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody's pain.
- Charlie Chaplin


"The skillful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man. For the wise man delights in establishing his merit, the brave man likes to show his courage in action, the covetous man is quick at seizing advantages, and the stupid man has no fear of death."
- Sun Tzu - The Art of War

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.
-Oprah Winfrey


Tell the truth, and you don't have to remember anything
-Mark Twain


What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. 
-Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890)

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I will meet you there.
- Rumi


It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, honorably, and justly; or to live prudently, honorably, and justly, without living pleasurably.
-Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)


We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.
-Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), Rhetorician (c. 35-100)



"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"
- apocryphally attributed to Edmund Burke


Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground 
- Rumi


Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. ~John Quinton


We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop


“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” 
- Theodore Roosevelt

"There is no fineness of accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing, you hold down the adjoining."
- Saul Bellow


Some drink deeply from the river of wisdom. Others only gargle
- Woody Allen :D

Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love - Turkish Proverb

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"There are lots of things in life you can't afford, and you don't have to have them"
- Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone while flatly rejecting South Korea's request for a cheaper contract

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“Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.” 
- Quote quoted by  Mona Simpson in a "Sister's Eulogy for Steve Jobs" (NYT, 30 Oct 2011)

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"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." – Carlos Castaneda


If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.
-Mark Twain

Government

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress...but then I repeat myself.
-Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-Douglas Casey, classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
-P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
-Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
-Mark Twain (1866 )

Talk is cheap. . .except when Congress does it.
-Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
-Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken
 - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.