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Library Update: quotes archive
The Library Update is emailed each month to subscribers. Each issue contains an interesting or humourous quote. Subscribe to the Library Update.
- no.25
- The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad. -Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989)
- no.24
- Books are the training weights of the mind. -Seneca (4 BC - AD 65)
- no.23
- It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. -William Kingdon Clifford, mathematician and philosopher (1845-1879)
- no.22
- The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly. -Charles Reznikoff, poet (1894-1976)
- no.21
- A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion. -Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher (1889-1951)
- no.20
- Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them. -T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)
- no.19
- Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking. -Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)
- no.18
- History is a vast early warning system. -Norman Cousins, editor and author (1915-1990)
- no.17
- Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no dissenters, we should still be living in caves. -A.J.P. Taylor, historian (1906-1990)
- no.16
- Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars. -Gwendolyn Brooks, poet (1917-2000)
- no.15
- I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -John Cage, composer (1912-1992)
- no.14
- The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style. -Fred Astaire, dancer, actor, singer, musician, and choreographer (1899-1987)
- no.13
- One does not advance the swimming abilities of ducks by throwing the eggs in the water. -Multatuli (pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), novelist (1820-1887)
- no.12
- Music was invented to deceive and delude mankind. -Ephorus, ancient Greek historian (c. 400 - 330 BC)
- no.11
- Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. -Dr. Seuss, author, cartoonist (1904-1991)
- no.10
- Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)
- no.9
- Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. -Edgar Allan Poe, poet and short-story writer (1809-1849)
- no.8
- When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. -Abraham Joshua Heschel, rabbi and professor (1907-1972)
- no.7
- Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat. -Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)
- no.6
- I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. -Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
- no.5
- The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all. -Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (1876-1973)
- no.4
- It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor. -Max Eastman, journalist and poet (1883-1969)
- no.3
- If you be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams -- the more they are condensed the deeper they burn. -John Dryden, poet and dramatist (1631-1700)
- no.2
- From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. -Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
- no.1
- Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love. -Claude Monet, painter (1840-1926).