The world is round… Ivy Baker Priest

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.

Ivy Baker Priest, in Parade, 1958

January 31st, 2007 - Posted in Ivy Baker Priest | | 0 Comments

A smiling face is… Latvian Proverb

A smiling face is half the meal.

Latvian Proverb

January 31st, 2007 - Posted in Latvian Proverb | | 0 Comments

No degree of… Harold Rosenberg

No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating.

Harold Rosenberg

January 31st, 2007 - Posted in Harold Rosenberg | | 0 Comments

Humor is the first… Virginia Woolf

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

Virginia Woolf

English novelist (1882 - 1941)

January 31st, 2007 - Posted in Virginia Woolf | | 0 Comments

It is folly for an… Joseph Addison

It is folly for an eminent person to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected by it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

Joseph Addison

English essayist, poet, & politician (1672 - 1719)

January 31st, 2007 - Posted in Joseph Addison | | 0 Comments

Facts do not cease… Aldous Huxley

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored

Aldous Huxley

English critic & novelist (1894 - 1963)

January 31st, 2007 - Posted in Aldous Huxley | | 0 Comments

Nothing, of course,… Lillian Hellman

Nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did.

Lillian Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, 1969

US dramatist (1905 - 1984)

January 30th, 2007 - Posted in Lillian Hellman | | 0 Comments

We are indeed much… Adelle Davis

We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.

Adelle Davis

January 30th, 2007 - Posted in Adelle Davis | | 0 Comments

It is not necessary… Pierre Beaumarchais

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.

Pierre Beaumarchais

French businessman & comic dramatist (1732 - 1799)

January 30th, 2007 - Posted in Pierre Beaumarchais | | 0 Comments

Different taste in… George Eliot

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

George Eliot

English novelist (1819 - 1880)

January 30th, 2007 - Posted in George Eliot | | 0 Comments

Creative power, is… Thomas Troward

Creative power, is that receptive attitude of expectancy which makes a mold into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated substance can flow and take the desired form.

Thomas Troward

January 30th, 2007 - Posted in Thomas Troward | | 0 Comments

We seem to have a… Alfred Hitchcock

We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.

Alfred Hitchcock

British movie director (1899 - 1980)

January 30th, 2007 - Posted in Alfred Hitchcock | | 0 Comments

A little inaccuracy… Saki

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.

Saki, “The Square Egg”, 1924

British (Burman-born) short story author (1870 - 1916)

January 29th, 2007 - Posted in Saki | | 0 Comments

Promises that you… Francis Marion

Promises that you make to yourself are often like the Japanese plum tree - they bear no fruit.

Francis Marion

US army officer in American Revolution (1732 - 1795)

January 29th, 2007 - Posted in Francis Marion | | 0 Comments

Appreciation is a… Voltaire

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Voltaire

French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

January 29th, 2007 - Posted in Voltaire | | 0 Comments

One of the most… Jean Kerr

One of the most difficult things to contend with in a hospital is that assumption on the part of the staff that because you have lost your gall bladder you have also lost your mind.

Jean Kerr

January 29th, 2007 - Posted in Jean Kerr | | 0 Comments

Thoughts give birth… Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus

Thoughts give birth to a creative force that is neither elemental nor sidereal. Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow. When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven, as it were and from it the work that he desires to create flows into him. For such is the immensity of man that he is greater than heaven and earth.

Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus

German (Swiss-born) alchemist & physician (1493 - 1541)

January 29th, 2007 - Posted in Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus | | 0 Comments

It is not the… Sir Edmund Hillary

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

Sir Edmund Hillary

January 29th, 2007 - Posted in Sir Edmund Hillary | | 0 Comments

It is only the… Marie De Vichy-Chaconne

It is only the first step that is difficult.

Marie De Vichy-Chaconne, Marquise Du Defend, letter to Defend, 1763

January 28th, 2007 - Posted in Marie De Vichy-Chaconne | | 0 Comments

I consider being… Samuel Butler

I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill.

Samuel Butler

English composer, novelist, & satiric author (1835 - 1902)

January 28th, 2007 - Posted in Samuel Butler | | 0 Comments

Americans adore me… George Bernard Shaw

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

George Bernard Shaw

Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)

January 28th, 2007 - Posted in George Bernard Shaw | | 0 Comments

I thought I told… Tallulah Bankhead

I thought I told you to wait in the car.

Tallulah Bankhead, on seeing a former lover for the first time in years

US movie actress (1903 - 1968)

January 28th, 2007 - Posted in Tallulah Bankhead | | 0 Comments

Because women live… Ashley Montagu

Because women live creatively, they rarely experience the need to depict or write about that which to them is a primary experience and which men know only at a second remove. Women create naturally, men create artificially.

Ashley Montagu

January 28th, 2007 - Posted in Ashley Montagu | | 0 Comments

The beginning of… Frank Herbert

The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.

Frank Herbert

US science fiction novelist (1920 - 1986)

January 28th, 2007 - Posted in Frank Herbert | | 0 Comments

Think of all the… Anne Frank

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952

German Jewish diarist (1929 - 1945)

January 27th, 2007 - Posted in Anne Frank | | 0 Comments

A handful of… Dutch Proverb

A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

Dutch Proverb

January 27th, 2007 - Posted in Dutch Proverb | | 0 Comments

The eleventh… Berta Buxton

The eleventh commandment — Thou shalt not be found out — is the only one that is virtually impossible to keep these days.

Berta Buxton

January 27th, 2007 - Posted in Berta Buxton | | 0 Comments

Once a woman has… Marlene Dietrich

Once a woman has forgiven a man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.

Marlene Dietrich

German movie actress (1901 - 1992)

January 27th, 2007 - Posted in Marlene Dietrich | | 0 Comments

First, I do not sit… Robert Cecil Day Lewis

First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.

Robert Cecil Day Lewis

January 27th, 2007 - Posted in Robert Cecil Day Lewis | | 0 Comments

Happiness in… Ernest Hemingway

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

Ernest Hemingway

US author & journalist (1899 - 1961)

January 27th, 2007 - Posted in Ernest Hemingway | | 0 Comments

Thus, in a real… Katherine Paterson

Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.

Katherine Paterson, The Spying Heart, 1989

January 26th, 2007 - Posted in Katherine Paterson | | 0 Comments

Anything you fully… Natalie Goldberg

Anything you fully do is an alone journey.

Natalie Goldberg

January 26th, 2007 - Posted in Natalie Goldberg | | 0 Comments

I stopped believing… Shirley Temple Black

I stopped believing in Santa Claus at age six when my mother took me to see him in a store and he asked for my autograph.

Shirley Temple Black

January 26th, 2007 - Posted in Shirley Temple Black | | 0 Comments

Two paradoxes are… Edward Teller

Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution.

Edward Teller

US (Hungarian-born) physicist (1908 - 2003)

January 26th, 2007 - Posted in Edward Teller | | 0 Comments

Never explain–your… Elbert Hubbard

Never explain–your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

Elbert Hubbard

US author (1856 - 1915)

January 26th, 2007 - Posted in Elbert Hubbard | | 0 Comments

But did thee feel… Ernest Hemingway

But did thee feel the earth move?

Ernest Hemingway

US author & journalist (1899 - 1961)

January 26th, 2007 - Posted in Ernest Hemingway | | 0 Comments

The scornful… George Eliot

The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth.

George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical, 1866

English novelist (1819 - 1880)

January 25th, 2007 - Posted in George Eliot | | 0 Comments

Formerly, when… Thomas Szasz

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin (1973) “Science and Scientism”

January 25th, 2007 - Posted in Thomas Szasz | | 0 Comments

I refuse to believe… Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tunafish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

January 25th, 2007 - Posted in Barbara Grizzuti Harrison | | 0 Comments

People call me a… Rebecca West

People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

Rebecca West

Irish critic, journalist, & novelist (1892 - 1983)

January 25th, 2007 - Posted in Rebecca West | | 0 Comments

What can you say… Irv Kupcinet

What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?

Irv Kupcinet

January 25th, 2007 - Posted in Irv Kupcinet | | 0 Comments

Courage is grace… Ernest Hemingway

Courage is grace under pressure.

Ernest Hemingway

US author & journalist (1899 - 1961)

January 25th, 2007 - Posted in Ernest Hemingway | | 0 Comments

I need no warrant… Ayn Rand

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.

Ayn Rand, Anthem, 1946

US (Russian-born) novelist (1905 - 1982)

January 24th, 2007 - Posted in Ayn Rand | | 0 Comments

I am at two with… Woody Allen

I am at two with nature.

Woody Allen

US movie actor, comedian, & director (1935 - )

January 24th, 2007 - Posted in Woody Allen | | 0 Comments

I have too many… Marilyn Monroe

I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.

Marilyn Monroe

US actress (1926 - 1962)

January 24th, 2007 - Posted in Marilyn Monroe | | 0 Comments

It is better to be… Brigitte Bardot

It is better to be unfaithful than to be faithful without wanting to be.

Brigitte Bardot

January 24th, 2007 - Posted in Brigitte Bardot | | 0 Comments

Ambition is a poor… Edgar Bergen

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

Edgar Bergen, (Charlie McCarthy)

US comedian & ventriloquist (1903 - 1978)

January 24th, 2007 - Posted in Edgar Bergen | | 0 Comments

Some people are… Joseph Heller

Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them.

Joseph Heller

US novelist (1923 - )

January 24th, 2007 - Posted in Joseph Heller | | 0 Comments

The sweat of hard… Maxine Hong Kingston

The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods.

Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior, 1976

January 23rd, 2007 - Posted in Maxine Hong Kingston | | 0 Comments

Thanksgiving is a… Ayn Rand

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday…The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.

Ayn Rand

US (Russian-born) novelist (1905 - 1982)

January 23rd, 2007 - Posted in Ayn Rand | | 0 Comments

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