Thinking

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.” – Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

Words

Words are the small change of thought. -Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910)

Pretense

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

Medicine

Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents. -Peter Mere Latham, physician and educator (1789-1875)

Exercise

"There is no better exercise for your heart than reaching down and helping to lift someone up." -- Bernard Meltzer

Pragmatism

I react pragmatically. Where the market works, I'm for that. Where the government is necessary, I'm for that. I'm deeply suspicious of somebody who says, "I'm in favor of privatization," or, "I'm deeply in favor of public ownership." I'm in favor of whatever works in the particular case. -John Kenneth Galbraith, economist (1908-2006)

Indifference

The world looks with some awe upon a man who appears unconcernedly indifferent to home, money, comfort, rank, or even power and fame. The world feels not without a certain apprehension, that here is someone outside its jurisdiction; someone before whom its allurements may be spread in vain; someone strangely enfranchised, untamed, untrammelled by convention, moving independent of the ordinary currents of human action. -Winston Churchill, politician and statesman (1874-1965)

Knowledge

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. -Laurence Sterne, novelist and clergyman (1713-1768)

Conformity

How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only by answering such questions does the conscience truly define itself. -Kenneth Tynan, critic and writer (1927-1980)

Conscience

In matters of conscience the law of majority has no place. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

Money

There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.  - Adlai E. Stevenson

Salt Water

The cure for anything is salt water -- sweat, tears, or the sea. -Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (1885-1962)

Compromise

We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise - Larry Wall, Computer Programmer [Who said nerds don't have a sense of humor?]

Books

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. -Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator and author (1902-2001)

Education

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE) 

Time

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else -- we are the busiest people in the world. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983) 

Life

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think. -Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (1645-1696)

Enjoyment

For sleep, riches and health to be truly enjoyed, they must be interrupted. -Jean Paul Richter, writer (1763-1825) 

Work hard.. where?

If you work hard on your job, you make a living. If you work hard on yourself, you can make a fortune. ~ Jim Rohn

Pretense

We are what we pretend to be, so we should be careful about what we pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Illusion

The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. -Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, professor, attorney, and writer (1914-2004)

Discoveries

Who knows what Columbus would have discovered if America hadn't got in the way. -Stanislaw J. Lec, poet and aphorist (1909-1966)

Love & Marriage

Love: a temporary insanity, curable by marriage. -Ambrose Bierce, author and editor (1842-1914) 

Purpose

When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry, they call me a communist. -Helder Camara, archbishop (1909-1999) 

Endurance

What is to give light must endure burning. -Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997) 

Persistence

There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to -- if there are no doors or windows -- he walks through a wall. -Bernard Malamud, novelist and short-story writer (1914-1986)