VIII

To see the world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
- William Blake


The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries.
-Rene Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650)

“His life was gentle; and the elements/
So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world ‘This was a man!’”


I leave to others the importance of what I have or have not done; but let me say that all I have done is to have stood on the shoulders of others so that I can see a little further.
- Issac Newton


If you would not be forgotten,As soon as you were dead and rotten,either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.
- Benjamin Franklin


When money speaks, the truth keeps silent.
-Russian proverb


One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
-Bertrand Russell, philosopher,mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)


Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
-Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)


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


He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
-Victor Hugo, poet, novelist,and dramatist (1802-1885)


In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)


To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.
-Yiddish proverb


No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
-Zen saying

The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to begoverned by men worse than themselves.
-Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)


If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for 20years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men.
-Chinese proverb


No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
-Heraclitus, philosopher (c. 540-470 BCE)


Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice(1841-1935)


What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.
- Jewish proverb


Those who wish to sing always find a song.
-Swedish proverb


To a person instructed in natural history, his country– or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenth of which havetheir faces turned to the wall.
- Thomas Huxley


To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.
-Hippocrates, physician(460-c.377 BCE)


Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. Thats relativity.
- Albert Einstein


To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutesperfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul,sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
-Confucius, philosopher and teacher(c. 551-478 BCE)


Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.
-Charles Schulz, cartoonist (1922-2000)


A bit beyond perception's reach /
I sometimes believe I see /
that life is two locked boxes /
each containing the other's key.
-Piet Hein, poet andscientist (1905-1996)


Never spend your money before you have it.
-Thomas Jefferson, third USpresident, architect and author (1743-1826)


There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
-Dalai Lama


If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds,they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.
-Emile Herzog, writer (1885-1967)


Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
-Eric Hoffer,philosopher and author (1902-1983)


An old miser kept a tame jackdaw, that used to steal pieces of money, and hide them in a hole, which a cat observing, asked, "Why he would hoard upthose round shining things that he could make no use of?" "Why," said thejackdaw, "my master has a whole chestfull, and makes no more use of them that I do."
-Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)


'He who fears losing face has no face to lose'
- Confucius


'If you can't convince them, confuse them.'
- The dictum of Hamish McLintock


What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
-P.D. James, writer(1920- )


Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.


You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
-John Morley,statesman and writer (1838-1923)


"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
- Charles Schultz


In matter of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- Thomas Jefferson


No man is an Island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
-John Donne, poet (1573-1631)


A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
- Charles Evans Hughes, jurist (1862-1948)


Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing; /
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; /
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, /
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)


Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
-Socrates, philosopher (469?-399 BCE)


The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.
-W. Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)