Time

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

--William Shakespeare (Richard II)

Purely

All persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.

--Kurt Vonnegut

Nothing Intelligent

If no one ever did anything silly, nothing intelligent would ever be done.

--Ludwig Wittgenstein

Other People

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

--Oscar Wilde

Ground the Hostility

"If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." This doesn't mean, however, that we're supposed to be doormats for others to walk on with hobnailed boots. It's my experience that people seldom want to walk over you until you lie down, so it's better to stay standing. Turning the other cheek means, "Be a lightning rod; ground the hostility." When you are insulted, call the other's attention to the hurt but do not retaliate in kind. Try--and believe me it is hard--try not even to resent it, for our job is to get to each other, not at each other. You know as well as I do that when enmities dim, lives glow all the stronger.

--William Sloane Coffin

Grace and Magic

Marriage is accomplished not only by human design and will, but also by grace and magic.

--Thomas Moore

Possess

Possessions possess.

--Paul Eldridge

Dominant Theme

The hostility of those who have power toward those who can be called inferior because they are different--because they are others, the strangers--has been a historical constant. Indeed, at times it seems to be the dominant theme in human history.

--Lewis Hanke

Going On

Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

--James Harvey Robinson

Truth

What is truth? I don't know and I'm sorry I brought it up.

--Edward Abbey

When It Deserves

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

--Mark Twain

Truly Great

Never lose sight of this important truth, that no one can be truly great until he has gained a knowledge of himself, a knowledge which can only be acquired by occasional retirement.

--Johann Georg von Zimmermann

Get A New One

The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.

--Ann Strong (1895, Minneapolis Tribune)

Prove Enduring

Works of art that prove enduring are intensely humanistic.

--Edward O. Wilson

For Her Beauty

Marrying a woman for her beauty makes no more sense than eating a bird for its singing. But it's a common mistake, nevertheless.

--Charles Frazier

Is Enough

To be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough...
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in the sea...
All things please the soul, but these things please the soul well.

--Walt Whitman (I Sing the Body Electric)

Satisfy

A man should go on living, if only to satisfy his curiosity.

--Yiddish proverb

Imperfect Mechanism

The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.

--Raymond Chandler

Each Age

Each age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth.

--Arthur O'Shaughnessy

The Cure

Solitude is the cure for loneliness.

--Caroline W. Casey

Dare Not

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

--Thomas Paine