CosmoBC.com Quotes

Reading

Paul — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:22:13 +0000

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

Sir Richard Steele

Computers

Paul — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:19:33 +0000

“Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don’t need to be done.”

Andy Rooney
US news commentator (1919 – )

Democracy

Paul — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:18:45 +0000

“Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) “Maxims for Revolutionists”
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 – 1950)

Opportunity

Paul — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:14:19 +0000

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

Thomas A. Edison
US inventor (1847 – 1931)

Politics Humor

Paul — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:48:22 +0000

“I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.”

Ronald Reagan
40th president of US (1911 – 2004)

Politics

Paul — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:19:28 +0000

“Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.”

Frank Dane

Cynical

Paul — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:17:50 +0000

“Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.”

Russell Baker
US columnist & journalist (1925 – )

Life

Paul — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:16:26 +0000

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

Soren Kierkegaard
Danish philosopher (1813 – 1855)

Cynical

Paul — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:13:15 +0000

“Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.”

Alfred North Whitehead
English mathematician & philosopher (1861 – 1947)

Freedom

Paul — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:12:16 +0000

“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.”

Eric Hoffer
(1902 – 1983)

Wisdom

Paul — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:12:41 +0000

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.”

Sir Francis Bacon
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 – 1626)

Cynical

Paul — Tue, 25 May 2010 01:46:15 +0000

“The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left–the King of England, the King of Spades, The King of Clubs, the King of Hearts, and the King of Diamonds.”

King Farouk of Egypt, 1948
king of Egypt 1936-1952 (1920 – 1965)

Love

Paul — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:35:27 +0000

“The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.”

Somerset Maugham

Insanity & Science

Paul — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:29:45 +0000

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Albert Einstein, (attributed)
US (German-born) physicist (1879 – 1955)

Cynical

Paul — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:09:06 +0000

“All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.”

Benjamin Franklin
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 – 1790)

Forgiveness

Paul — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:45:55 +0000

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”

William Blake
English engraver, illustrator, & poet (1757 – 1827)

Cynical

Paul — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:37:15 +0000

“It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.”

William G. McAdoo
US industrialist, lawyer, & politician (1863 – 1941)

Funny

Paul — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:23:56 +0000

“The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.”

John Ciardi
US poet (1916 – 1986)

Funny

Paul — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:08:40 +0000

“If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?”

Laurence J. Peter
US educator & writer (1919 – 1988)

Intellectual

Paul — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:05:13 +0000

“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th president of US 1953-1961 (1890 – 1969)

Travel

Paul — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:02:57 +0000

“Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.”

Charles Kuralt

Love & Happiness

Paul — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:58:46 +0000

“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”

Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 12
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 – 1970)

Humor

Paul — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:56:26 +0000

“Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.”

Aristotle
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC – 322 BC)

Peace

Paul — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:53:26 +0000

“If man does find the solution for world peace it will be the most revolutionary reversal of his record we have ever known.”

George C. Marshall
US general (1880 – 1959)

Imagination

Paul — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:31:51 +0000

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

Pablo Picasso
Spanish Cubist painter (1881 – 1973)

Technology

Paul — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:31:08 +0000

“Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.”

Putt’s Law

Committees

Paul — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:33:18 +0000

“To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.”

Robert Copeland

Life

Paul — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:11:24 +0000

“The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.”

David Russell

Life

Paul — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:30:23 +0000

“The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing.”

Michael E. Gerber

Fear

Paul — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:27:55 +0000

“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.”

Eric Hoffer
(1902 – 1983)

Education

Paul — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:05:38 +0000

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

Will Durant
US historian (1885 – 1981)

Science

Paul — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:01:03 +0000

“I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.”

Carl Sagan
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 – 1996)

Mind

Paul — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:40:44 +0000

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it not open.”

Frank Zappa

Science

Paul — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:40:23 +0000

“If human life were long enough to find the ultimate theory, everything would have been solved by previous generations. Nothing would be left to be discovered.”

Stephen Hawking, Interview with The Guardian (UK) September 27, 2005
English cosmologist and physicist (1942 – )

Cynical

Paul — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:28:50 +0000

“Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one’s own opinion.”

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
US author & satirist (1842 – 1914)

Cynical Wisdom

Paul — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:34:39 +0000

“Only the shallow know themselves.”

Oscar Wilde, “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”, 1882
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 – 1900)

Cynical

Paul — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:32:57 +0000

“Architecture is the art of how to waste space.”

Philip Johnson
US architect (1906 – 2005)

Language

Paul — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:54:04 +0000

“Language is the source of misunderstandings.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
French writer (1900 – 1944)

Lightning

Paul — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:36:47 +0000

“The reason lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn’t there the second time.”

Willie Tyler

Progress

Paul — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:35:53 +0000

“Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality.”

George Santayana
US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 – 1952)

Happiness

Paul — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:32:57 +0000

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.”

C. P. Snow
English novelist & scientist (1905 – 1980)

Truth

Paul — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:32:52 +0000

“The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.”

Edith Sitwell
English biographer, critic, novelist, & poet (1887 – 1964)

Equality

Paul — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 17:57:57 +0000

“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

George Orwell, Animal Farm
English essayist, novelist, & satirist (1903 – 1950)

Truth

Paul — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 19:47:08 +0000

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

Flannery O’Connor
US author (1925 – 1964)

Truth

Paul — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:45:18 +0000

“When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong– or absolutely right.”

Albert Guinon
(1863 – 1923)

Silly

Paul — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:42:21 +0000

“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”

Michel de Montaigne
French essayist (1533 – 1592)

Knowledge

Paul — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:40:14 +0000

“Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.”

Samuel Johnson, quoted in Boswell’s Life of Johnson
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 – 1784)

Vacation

Paul — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:44:54 +0000

“No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.”

Elbert Hubbard
US author (1856 – 1915)

Literature

Paul — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:14:17 +0000

“Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.”

Jules Renard
(1864 – 1910)

Ideas

Paul — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:11:35 +0000

“There are only two kinds of scholars; those who love ideas and those who hate them.”

Emile Chartier