Quotations

Collected by Donald Gudehus

A B | C D E | F G H | I J K | L M N | O P Q | R S T | U V W X Y Z

C

John Cage (Sept. 5, 1912, Los Angeles, CA - Aug. 12, 1992, New York City, NY), American composer

As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.: John Cage
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones.: John Cage
I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I needed it: John Cage
If someone says can't, that shows you what to do.: John Cage
The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.: John Cage

Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898, Lawnton, Pennsylvania - November 11, 1976, New York, NY) American Painter and Sculptor

The underlying sense of form in my work has been the system of the Universe, or part thereof. For that is a rather large model to work from.: Alexander Calder
To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there's no such thing as perfect.: Alexander Calder

Albert Camus (Nov. 7, 1913, Mondovi, Algeria - Jan. 4, 1960, Sens, France) French novelist, essayist, playwright, philosopher, and Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1957

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; don't walk behind me, I may not lead; walk beside me, and just be my friend.: Albert Camus
Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.: Albert Camus
Real generosity towards the future consists of giving all to what is present.: Albert Camus
You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.: Albert Camus
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.: Albert Camus

Eddie Cantor (Edward Israel Isskowitz) (Jan. 31?, 1892, New York City, NY - Oct. 10, 1964, Beverly Hills, CA), American comedian and entertainer

He hasn't an enemy in the world - but all his friends hate him.: Eddie Cantor

Al Capone (January 17, 1899 - January 25, 1947), American gangster

Don't you get the idea I'm one of these goddamn radicals. Don't get the idea I'm knocking the American system.: Al Capone
You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.: Al Capone

Thomas A. Cargill, American computer scientist

The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.: Thomas Cargill, This is sometimes known as the "ninety-ninety rule".

George Carlin (May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008, Santa Monica, CA), American comedian and author

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.: George Carlin
Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. Then they say as for the poor, they'rve lost all incentive because we've given them too much money.: George Carlin
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.: George Carlin
There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have.: George Carlin

William Hodding Carter, II (February 3, 1907, Hammond, LA - April 4, 1972, Greenville, MS), American Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and novelist

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other wings.: Hodding Carter

Lucius Cary (Viscount Falkland, Lord Falkland) (Burford, Oxfordshire, England, 1610 - September 20, 1643, First Battle of Newbury, Berkshire, England), English statesman

When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.: Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland

Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish poet and playright

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.: Miguel de Cervantes

Thomas Chamberlain, American geologist

There is perhaps no beguilement more insidious and dangerous than an elaborate and elegant mathematical process built upon unfortified premises.: Thomas Chamberlain, responding to the claim of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) that the sun was not older than ten million years.

Angela Chase

This life has been a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received actual instructions on where to go and what to do.: Angela Chase, in My so-called life

Anton Chekhov

There is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.: Anton Chekhov

Allan K. Chalmers

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Allan K. Chalmers

Richard Bruce Cheney (January 30, 1941, Lincoln, NE - ), American businessman and politician

And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.: Richard Cheney on NBC's "Meet the Press", March 16, 2003
I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11.: Richard Cheney, in the 2nd Presidential Debate, October 5, 2004
I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government.: Richard Cheney on National Public Radio's, "Morning Edition," January 22, 2004
I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.: Richard Cheney, in the 2nd Presidential Debate, October 5, 2004
According to Senate records, Cheney has only presided over the Senate twice in four years as Vice President
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.: Richard Cheney, August 26, 2002

Lord Chesterfield

Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so.

Lord Chesterfield

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1974, London, England - June 14, 1936, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England), English journalist and author

Atheism is too theological.

G. K. Chesterton

I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.

G. K. Chesterton, from Ballad of the White Horse, 1911

"My country right or wrong" is like saying, "My mother drunk or sober."

G. K. Chesterton

Maurice Chevalier

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

Maurice Chevalier

Julia Child

It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it.

Julia Child

Noam Chomsky

The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history.

Noam Chomsky

Francis P. Church

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Francis P. Church, in reply to Virginia O'Hanlon, New York Sun, 1897

Sir Winston Churchill (Nov. 30, 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England - Jan. 24, 1965, Hyde Park Gate, London, England), British statesman and Prime Minister of Great Britain (1940 - 1945, 1951 - 1955)

A cat looks down upon a man, and a dog looks up to a man. But a pig will look a man in the eye and see his equal.: Sir Winston Churchill, to his grandson
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.: Sir Winston Churchill
An aphorism is not an aphorism unless you know what it means.: Sir Winston Churchill
Democracy is the worst system of government ever devised by mankind, except for all the others.: Sir Winston Churchill
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.: Sir Winston Churchill, in his address to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940, following the evacuation of over 338,000 British, French, and Belgian troops at Dunkirk
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.: Sir Winston Churchill
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.: Sir Winston Churchill, in a radio broadcast on October 3, 1939
I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me.: Sir Winston Churchill
If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.: Sir Winston Churchill, in a speech after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, June, 1941
Kites rise highest against the wind...not with it.: Sir Winston Churchill
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.: Sir Winston Churchill
Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it.: Sir Winston Churchill, in response to Lady Astor's statement "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee", Blenheim Palace
Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.: Sir Winston Churchill, in a commencement address speech at Harrow School, October 29, 1941
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few: Sir Winston Churchill, in reference to the RAF during the early years of WWII.
Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.: Sir Winston Churchill, The Malakand Field Force, 1898
Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.: Sir Winston Churchill
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.: Sir Winston Churchill
The first casualty of war is always the truth.: Sir Winston Churchill
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.: Sir Winston Churchill
The other day President Roosevelt gave his opponent in the late Presidential election a letter of introduction to me, and in it he wrote out a verse in his own handwriting from Longfellow, which, he said, "applies to you people as it does to us." Here is the verse: . . . Sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears With all the hopes of future years Is hanging breathless on thy fate! What is the answer that I shall give in your name to this great man, the thrice-chosen head of a nation of 130,000,000? Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt. Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and under Providence all will be well. We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.: Sir Winston Churchill, BBC radio broadcast, Feb 9, 1941
Their insatiable lust for power is only equaled by their incurable impotence in exercising it.: Sir Winston Churchill, speaking of the opposition party after WWII
This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.: Sir Winston Churchill (attributed), written after an editor attempted to rearrange one of Churchill's sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition.
1. To climb a high wall which is leaning toward you. 2. To kiss a girl who is leaning away from you. 3. To speak before a group on a subject which they know more about than I.: Sir Winston Churchill, in response to being asked what the three most difficult tasks in life to perform are
We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.: Sir Winston Churchill

Arthur C. Clarke (December 16, 1917, Minehead, Somerset, England - March 19, 2008, Columbo, Sri Lanka), British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist

Clarke's First Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.: Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future (1962; rev. 1973) "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination"
Clarke's Second Law: But the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.: Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future (1962; rev. 1973) "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination"
Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.: Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future (1962; rev. 1973) "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination". He added:
As three laws were good enough for Newton, I have modestly decided to stop there.
I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.: Arthur C. Clarke, in his introduction to the penultimate episode of Mysterious World entitled "Strange Skies"
Most malevolent and persistent of all mind viruses. We should get rid of it as quick as we can.: Arthur C. Clarke, as saying of religion; in Popular Science, 2004
The earth is simply too small and fragile a basket for for the human race to keep all its eggs in.: Arthur C. Clarke
The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we can imagine.: Arthur C. Clarke, paraphrasing J. B. S. Haldane
There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.: Arthur C. Clarke

Edward Hammond Clarke (Feb., 2, 1820, Norton, MA - Nov. 30, 1877, Boston, MA), American physician,

A girl cannot spend more than four, or, in occasional instances, five hours of force daily upon her studies, and leave sufficient margin for the general physical growth that she must make.... If she puts as much force into her brain education as a boy, the brain or the special apparatus [i.e., the reproductive system] will suffer.: Edward H. Clarke, arguing for strict separation of the sexes during education, particularly after elementary school, and for preventing their admission to the Harvard Medical School or any intellectual competition with males not only for their own protection but for the preservation of the human race, Sex in Education; or a Fair Chance for Girls (Boston: Osgood, 1873), 37-38.

William Jefferson Clinton (William Jefferson Blythe IV) (Aug. 19, 1946, Hope, AR - ), Forty-second President of the United States of America

Sometimes, progress comes by expanding frontiers. But sometimes, it's measured by preserving frontiers for our children. Today, we preserve the final frontiers of America's national forests for our children.: Bill Clinton, Washington, DC, Jan. 5, 2001, in announcing the Roadless Area Conservation Rule
There is nothing wrong with America that what's right with America can't fix.: Bill Clinton
We [Democrats] have got to be strong. When we look weak in a time where people feel insecure, we lose. when people feel uncertain, they'd rather have somebody who's strong and wrong than somebody who's weak and right.: Bill Clinton, in a speech in New York City, NY, Dec., 2002

William Sloane Coffin

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.: William Sloane Coffin

Ornette Coleman

It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

Ornette Coleman

R. R. Coleman, American physician

Women beware. You are on the brink of destruction: You have hitherto been engaged in crushing your waists; now you are attempting to cultivate your mind: You have been merely dancing all night in the foul air of the ball-room; now you are beginning to spend your mornings in study. You have been incessantly stimulating your emotions with concerts and operas, with French plays, and French novels; now you are exerting your understanding to learn Greek, and solve propositions in Euclid. Beware!! Science pronounces that the woman who studies is lost.: R. R. Coleman

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Oct. 21, 1772, Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, Englad - July 25, 1834, Highgate, London, England), English lyrical poet, critic, and philosopher

In Köln, a town of monks and bones, and pavements fanged with murderous stones And rags, and hags, and hideous wreches; I counted two and seventy stenches, All well defined, and several stinks! Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks, The river Rhine, it is well known, Doth wash your city of Cologne; But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine, Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, after a visit to the Rhine with William Wordsworth, 1828
Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in Rime of the Ancient Mairner, Stanza 29

Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (Jan. 19, 1798, Montpellier, France - Sept. 5, 1857, Paris, France), French philosopher and founder of positivism

On the subject of stars, all investigations which are not ultimately reducible to simple visual observations are ... necessarily denied to us ... We shall never be able by any means to study their chemical composition. ... I regard any notion concerrning the true mean temperature of the various stars as fovever denied to us.: Auguste Comte, 1835

Julius H. Comroe (Mar. 13, 1911, York, PA - July 31, 1984, San Francisco, CA), biomedical researcher

Serendipity is looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the Farmer's Daughter.: Julius H. Comroe

Gary Cooper, actor

I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.: Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

Confucius (551 BC, Zou, Lu, China - 479 BC, Lu, China), Chinese philosopher

A man should practice what he preaches, but a man should also preach what he practices.: Confuciuus
He who merely knows right principles is not equal to him who loves them.: Confuciuus
If you enjoy what you do, you'll never work another day in your life.: Confuciuus
It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.: Confucius
It is difficult to catch a black cat in a dark room. Especially if there is no cat there.: Confucius
It is not possible for one to teach others who cannot teach his own family.: Confucius
Mankind differs from the animals only by a little, and most people throw that away.: Confucius
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.: Confucius
The great mountain must collapse, the mighty beam must break and the wise man wither like a plant.: Confucius, eight days before his death in 479 BC
The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.: Confucius
The Master said, (the good man) does not grieve that other people do not recognize his merits. His only anxiety is lest he should fail to recognize theirs.: Confucius
The superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions.: Confucius
They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.: Confucius
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.: Confucius
We don't know yet about life, how can we know about death?: Confucius
What you dislike in your superiors, avoid doing to your inferiors. What you dislike in your inferiors, avoid doing when working for your superiors. What you hate in those who are in front of you, do not do to those behind you.: Confucius

Joseph Conrad (Jósef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (December 3, 1857, Berdyczów (now Berdychiv, Ukraine) - August 3, 1924, Oswalds in Bishopbourne, near Canterbury, England), Polish-born English novelist

He who wants to persuade should put his trust, not in the right argument, but in the right word. Give me the right word, and I will move the world.

Joseph Conrad

Bill Cosby (William Henry Cosby, Jr.) (July 12, 1937, Philadelphia, PA - ), American actor and comedian

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.

Bill Cosby

Nicolaus Copernicus

If there should chance to be any mathematicians who, ignorant in mathematics yet pretending to skill in that science, should dare, upon the authority of some passage of Scripture wrested to their purpose, to condemn and censure my hypothesis, I value them not, and scorn their inconsiderate judgement.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Emile Coué (1857-1926)

Tous les jours, à tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux.
(Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.)

Emile Coué, in 1920

Quentin Crisp (Dennis Pratt) (December 25, 1908, Sutton, England - November 21, 1999, Manchester, England), British author and performer

If you describe things as better than they are, you are considered to be a romantic;
if you describe things as worse than they are, you will be called a realist; and
if you describe things exactly as they are, you will be thought of as a satirist.

Quentin Crisp

In an expanding universe, time is on the side of the outcast. Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that, without changing their address, they eventually live in the metroplis.

Quentin Crisp

Nothing more rapidly inclines a person to go into a monastery than reading a book on etiquette. There are so many trivial ways in which it is possible to commit some social sin.

Quentin Crisp

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically - for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist - but then what isn't?

Quentin Crisp

The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.

Quentin Crisp

A. J. Cronin

Worry never robs tomorrow of it's sorrow; it only saps today of its strength

A. J. Cronin

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (Nov. 4, 1916, St. Joseph, MO - ), American broadcast journalist

And that's the way it is.

Walter Cronkite

Mario Cuomo (June 15, 1932, Jamaica, NY - ), American politician and Governor of New York, 1982 - 1994

We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need.

Mario Cuomo

John Philport Curran (July 24, 1750, Newmarket, Co. Cork, Ireland - Oct. 14, 1817, Brompton, England), Irish lawyer and orator

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.: John Curran, in a speech before the Privy Council for the election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, July 10, 1790. This is sometimes quoted as "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance", a statement similar to one made by Wendell Phillips in 1852.

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14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (Lhamo Dhondrub) (July 6, 1935, Taktser, Tibet - ), Tibetan religious and political leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, 1989

I am just a simple Buddhist monk - no more no less.

The Dalai Lama

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

The Dalai Lama

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.

The Dalai Lama

Rodney Dangerfield (Jacob Cohen) (Nov. 22, 1921, Babylon, NY - ), American actor, writer, comedian, producer

I'm a bad drinker. I got loaded one night the next day they picked me up. I was in front of a judge. He said, "You're here for drinking." I said, "O.K., Your Honor, let's get started."

Rodney Dangerfield

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.

Rodney Dangerfield

The troulble with jogging is that by the time you realize you're in shape for it, it's too far to walk back.

Rodney Dangerfield

When I was a kid I got no respect. I asked my old man if I could go ice skating on the lake. He told me to wait till it gets warmer.

Rodney Dangerfield

When I was a kid my parents moved a lot- but I always found them.

Rodney Dangerfield

Charles Darwin, English naturalist

I cannot see ... evidence of design and beneficence ... There seems to me too much misery in the world.

Charles Darwin

I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can.

Charles Darwin, on religion

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Charles Darwin, in The Origin of Species

John Dulany deButts (1915, Greensboro, NC - 1986, Winchester, VA), former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T

We have proved to the world and to ourselves that it is not the size of an organization but the will that animates it, that determines its responsiveness to the times.

John D. deButts

Decca Recording Co.

We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.

Decca Recording Co., rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

Tom DeLay (April 8, 1947, Laredo, TX - ), Insect exterminator and United States conservative Congressman from Texas

Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. (The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills.) ... We have sterilized and contracepted our families down to sizes so small that the children we do have are so spoiled with material things that they have come to equate the receiving of the material with love. ... We place our children in day-care centers where they learn their socialization skills among their peers under the law of the jungle. ... Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized out of some primordial soup of mud. ... The focus must be returned to God. ... Our nation will only be healed through a rebirth of religious conviction and moral certitude.

Tom DeLay, explaining on the floor of the House of Representatives, that the teaching of evolution, birth control, small family size, day care, abortion and moral relativism is to be blamed for the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO and proposing as solution, the placing of the ten commandments in all classrooms in America, June, 1999

Democritus (490 or 460, Abdera, Thrace, Greece - c. 370 BC), Greek philosopher

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

Democritus

Demosthenes (c. 384 BC, Athens, Greece - October 12, 322 BC, Calauria, Argolis, Greece), Greek orator, statesman, and writer

A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

Demosthenes

René Descartes

Archimedes, that he might transport the entire globe ... demanded only a point that was firm and immovable; so also, I shall be entitled to entertain the highest expectations, if I am fortunate enough to discover only one thing that is certain and indubitable.

René Descartes, in Meditation II

The mind effortlessly and automatically takes in new ideas, which remain in limbo until verified or rejected by conscious, rational analysis.

René Descartes

Emily Dickinson (Dec. 10, 1830, Amherst, MA - May 15, 1886), American poet

Wonder is not precisely knowing.

Emily Dickinson

Marlene Dietrich

What a man notices first about a woman is whether she notices him.

Marlene Dietrich

Phyllis Diller (Phyllis Driver) (July 17, 1917, Lima, Ohio - ), American comedian and pianist

Burt Reynolds once asked me out. I was in his room.

Phyllis Diller

Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance.

Phyllis Diller

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

History is philosophy learned from examples.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Paul Dirac, American Nobel Laureate in physics

No. I had successfully solved the difficulty of finding a description of the electron which was consistent with both relativity and quantum mechanics. Of course, when you solve one difficulty, other new difficulties arise. You then try to sove them. You can never solve all difficulties at once.: Paul Dirac, upon being asked whether he was bothered by the appearance of unphysical negative energy states in his famous equation.

Everett Dirksen (Jan. 4, 1896, Pekin, IL - Sept. 7, 1969, Washington, DC), US Senator from Illinois

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon, your're talking about real money.

Everett Dirksen

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Beware the man of one book.

Benjamin Disraeli

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

Benjamin Disraeli

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics!

Benjamin Disraeli

Christian Doppler (Nov. 29, 1803, Salzburg, Austria - March 17, 1853, Venice, Italy), Austiran physicist

It is almost to be accepted with certainty that this [effect] will in the not too distant future offer astronomers a welcome means to determine the movements ... of such stars which ... until this moment hardly presented the hope of such measurments and determinations.

Christian Doppler, 1842

John Roderigo Dos Passos (January 14, 1896, Chicago, IL - September 28, 1970, Baltimore, MD), American novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, artist, and translator

People do not choose a career; the career envelopes them.

John Dos Passos

William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898, Maine, MN - January 19, 1980, Bethesda, MD), Supreme Court Justice

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas, in a letter to young lawyers during the Watergate inquiry

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), author of mysteries

Detection is, or ought to be, an exact sciences and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from The Sign of Four

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from Scandal in Bohemia

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

Sir Authur Conan Doyle

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from The Sign of Four

Wayne W. Dyer (Mar. 10, 1940, Detroit, MI - ), American psychotherapist

A real friend never gets in your way - unless you happen to be on the way down.

Wayne W. Dyer

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.

Wayne W. Dyer

Freeman Dyson (Dec. 15, 1934, Crowthorne, England - ), English-American physicist

For a physicist mathematics is not just a tool by means of which phenomena can be calculated, it is the main source of concepts and principles by means of which new theories can be created

Freeman Dyson, in Mathematics in the Physical Sciences

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Clinton Eastwood, Jr. (May 31, 1930, San Francisco, CA - ), American actor, director, and producer

Go ahead, make my day.

Clint Eastwood, 1983 as Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry) in Sudden Impact

Thomas Alva Edison (Feb., 11, 1847, Milan, Ohio - Oct. 18, 1931, Glenmont, Llewellyn Park, NJ), American inventor

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Thomas Alva Edison

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Thomas Alva Edison

I haven't failed. I've found 10,000 ways that don't work.

Thomas Alva Edison, in reference to his storage battery experiments

It is very beautiful over there.

Thomas Alva Edison - his last words

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Alva Edison

Religion is all bunk.

Thomas Alva Edison

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

Thomas Alva Edison

Albert Einstein (Mar. 14, 1879, Ulm, Germany - April 18, 1955, Princeton, NJ), Nobel Laureate in physics

Albert Einstein, quoted in New York Post, Nov. 28, 1972
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex.... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction: Albert Einstein
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.: Albert Einstein
Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.: Albert Einstein
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.: Albert Einstein
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.: Albert Einstein
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.: Albert Einstein
Generations to come will find it difficult to believe that a man such as Gandhi ever walked the face of this earth.: Albert Einstein
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.: Albert Einstein
I believe in standardizing automobiles, not human beings.: Albert Einstein
I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status... and to secure their influence in the political field.: Albert Einstein For An Organization of Intellectual workers
I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.: Albert Einstein, to his biographer Carl Seelig, 1952
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.: Albert Einstein
I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.: Albert Einstein
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.: Albert Einstein
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.: Albert Einstein
I want to know the thoughts of God. Everything else is just details.: Albert Einstein
If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?.: Albert Einstein
If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.: Albert Einstein
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?: Albert Einstein
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.: Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge. When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.: Albert Einstein
In the present circumstances, the only profession I would choose would be one where earning a living has nothing to do with the search for knowledge: Albert Einstein
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.: Albert Einstein
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.: Albert Einstein
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.: Albert Einstein
It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.: Albert Einstein
Most mistakes in philosophy and logic occur because the human mind is apt to take the symbol for the reality.: Albert Einstein, in Cosmic Religion, 1931
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.: Albert Einstein
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.: Albert Einstein, sign in his office at Princeton
Not until we dare to regard ourselves as a nation, not until we respect ourselves, can we gain the esteem of others, or rather only then will it come of its own accord.: Albert Einstein
Once you accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.: Albert Einstein
One cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.: Albert Einstein
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.: Albert Einstein
Peace comes through understanding: Albert Einstein
Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.: Albert Einstein
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.: Albert Einstein
Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber Boshaft ist er nicht. (God is clever, but he's not malicious.): Albert Einstein
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.: Albert Einstein
The Bible [is] a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.: Albert Einstein, in a letter to Eric Gutkind in 1954
The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.: Albert Einstein
The environment is everything that isn't me.: Albert Einstein
The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.: Albert Einstein
The important thing is not to stop questioning.: Albert Einstein
The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.: Albert Einstein
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious; it is the source of all true art and science.: Albert Einstein
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.: Albert Einstein
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.: Albert Einstein
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.: Albert Einstein
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.: Albert Einstein
The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.: Albert Einstein
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses.: Albert Einstein, in a letter to Eric Gutkind in 1954
The words of language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The physical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images.: Albert Einstein
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing in life is a miracle. The other is as though everything in life is a miracle.: Albert Einstein
To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.: Albert Einstein, Sept. 18, 1930
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.: Albert Einstein
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.: Albert Einstein
When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of the globe, he doesn't notice that the track he has covered is curved. I was lucky enough to have spotted it.: Albert Einstein, in response to his son's question as to why he was so famous (Einstein Archives).
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.: Albert Einstein
When the solution is simple, God is answering.: Albert Einstein
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.: Albert Einstein

Dwight David Eisenhower (Oct. 14, 1890, Denison, Texas - Mar. 28, 1969, Washington, DC ), American Five-star General and 34th President of the United States (1953 -1961)

Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, from a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell radio and television address to the American People, January 17, 1961

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (Nov. 22, 1819, Arbury Hall Farm, Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, England - Dec. 22, 1880, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, England), English novelist

... and the finest language, I believe, is chiefly made up of unimposing words, such as "light," "sound,", "stars," "music" - words really not worth looking at, or hearing, in themselves, any more than "chips" or "sawdust."

George Eliot, in Adam Bede

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to stay, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact.

George Eliot

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

George Eliot

The idea of God, so far as it has been a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of a goodness entirely human.

George Eliot, in a letter to Hon. Mrs H. F. Ponsonby, Dec. 10, 1874

Thomas Stearns Eliot (Sept. 26, 1888, St. Louis, MO - Jan. 4, 1965, London, England), American-British poet and critic, and Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1948

And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions, and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.: T. S. Eliot, in The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock
April is the cruelist month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain ...: T. S. Eliot
The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.: T. S. Eliot
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.: T. S. Eliot, in Little Gidding, Movement V, 1942. Little Gidding is No. 4 of Four Quartets, 1943

Duke Ellington (Apr. 29, 1899, Washington, DC - May 24, 1974, Newy York, NY), American jazz composer and musician

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

Duke Ellington

Never let other people's bad stuff get in your blood.

Duke Ellington

Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934, Cleveland, OH - ), American short story writer

My philosophy of life is that the meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration and ignoble deaths; that there is security in personal strength; that you can fight city hall and win; that any action is better than no action, even if it's the wrong action; that you never reach glory or self-fulfillment unless you're willing to risk anything, dare anything, put yourself dead on the line every time; and that once one becomes strong or rich or potent or powerful it is the responsibility of the strong to help the weak become strong.

Harlan Ellison, in The Harlan Ellison Hornbook

The two most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

Harlan Ellison

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803, Boston, MA - Apr. 27, 1882, Concord, MA), American poet and author and a founder of the transcendental movement

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every one has the might of all, for the secret of the world is that its energies are solidaires; that they work together on a system of mutual aid, all for each and each for all; that the strain made on one point bears on every arch and foundation of the structure.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
The only way to have a friend is to be one.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.: Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Chapter I of Nature, 1836, published as part of Nature; Addresses and Lectures, 1849
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nora Ephron

Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.

Nora Ephron

Desiderius Erasmus (Gerrit Gerritszoon) (Oct. 28, 1466?, Rotterdam, Holland - July 12, 1536, Basel, Switzerland), Theologian and humanist

In regione caecorum rex est luscus. (In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king.)

Desiderius Erasmus (Gerrit Gerritszoon), from his Adagia

War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.

Desiderius Erasmus (Gerrit Gerritszoon)

When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food.

Desiderius Erasmus (Gerrit Gerritszoon)

Paul Erdös (Mar. 26, 1913, Budapest, Hungary - Sept. 23, 1996, Warsaw, Poland), mathematian

The first sign of senility, is when a man forgets his theorems. The second sign is when he forgets to zip up. The third sign is when he forgets to zip down.

Paul Erdös

There'll be plenty of time to rest in the grave.

Paul Erdös, response to his friends urging him to slow down

You know, all of these rules that may be completely correct for normal people make no sense for prodigies. To say that Bach should pay any attention to how he was socially adjusted is just a bad joke.

Paul Erdös

Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon- Extraordinary to Queen Victoria

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.

Sir John Eric Ericksen, 1873

Maurits Cornelius Escher (June 17, 1898, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands - Mar. 27, 1972, Laren, The Netherlands), Dutch Graphic Artist

By keenly confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and analysing the observations that I have made, I ended up in the domain of mathematics. Although I am absolutely without training in the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with mathematicians than with my fellow artists.

M. C. Escher

I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.

M. C. Escher

Only those who attempt the absurd ... will achieve the impossible. I think ... I think it's in my basement ... let me go upstairs and check.

M. C. Escher

What I give form to in daylight is only one per cent of what I have seen in darkness.

M. C. Escher

Euclid (ca 325 BC, Greece - ca 265 BC, Alexandria, Egypt), Greek mathematician

There is no royal road to learning.

Euclid

Euripides (485 or 480 BCE - 406 BCE), Greek playright

Silence is true wisdom's best reply.

Euripides

Bergen Evans, American writer

There is no necessary connection between the desire to lead and the ability to lead, and even less to the ability to lead somewhere that will be to the advantage of the led. Leadership is more likely to be assumed by the aggressive than by the able, and those who scramble to the top are more often motivated by their own inner torments than by any demand for their guidance.

Bergen Evans

Senator J. James Exon

The information superhighway is a revolution that in years to come will transcend newspapers, radio, and television as an information source. Therefore, I think this is the time to put some restrictions on it.: Senator J. James Exon, in reference to his co-sponsorship of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. On June 26,1997 the Supreme Court held that the act violates the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech.

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