Quotations Set 22

1. The human mind is like an umbrella - it functions best when open." - Walter Gropius, German-American architect (1883-1969).

2. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water. - John W. Gardner, American government official.

3. The man who does not learn is dark, like one walking in the night. - Chinese proverb.

4. Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament. - George Santayana, Spanish-born philosopher (1863-1952)

5. You can fool too many of the people too much of the time. - James Thurber, American humorist (1894-1961).

6. Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience? - Thomas J. Watson, industrialist (1874-1956)

7. Everyone's quick to blame the alien. - Aeschylus, Greek poet and dramatist (524 B.C.?-456 B.C.?)

8. Although you're never quite sure when this boy from Lismore (Bob Ellis) is being serious, he says his next book will be called On Interruption. To quote him: "It's about how in the modern world we get to the TV commercial and reality stops, and you're in the middle of Antarctica and you're having a f--k and your husband rings on the mobile phone, and we're so governed by interruption now that we're all going mad and those societies that are relatively uninterrupted, like the west coast of Ireland, are the happiest." - Lyndall Crisp, Financial Review, Oct 5, 2002

9. The great rulers - the people do not notice their existence. The lesser ones they attach to and praise them. The still lesser ones - they fear them. The still lesser ones - they despise them. For where faith is lacking it cannot be met by faith. - Tao Te Ching

10. A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. - Barnett Cocks

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

12. Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do? - Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)

13. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

14. Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both. - John Andrew Holmes

15. To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style. - Aldous Huxley, writer (1894-1963)

16. Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

17. When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: 'Only stand out of my light.' Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light. - John W. Gardner, author and educator (1912-2002)

18. All great truths begin as blasphemies. - George Bernard Shaw, writer, (1856-1950)

19. Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. - William Congreve, dramatist (1670-1729)

20. I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. - Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

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