CosmoBC.com Quotes

Steven Wright Cynical Quote

Paul — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:58:04 +0000

“What’s another word for Thesaurus?”

Steven Wright
US comedian and actor (1955 – )

Groucho Marx on TV and Books

Paul — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:43:29 +0000

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

Groucho Marx
US comedian with Marx Brothers (1890 – 1977)

Miguel de Cervantes on Truth

Paul — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:46:16 +0000

“Facts are the enemy of truth.”

Miguel de Cervantes, Man of La Mancha
Spanish adventurer, author, & poet (1547 – 1616)

G. K. Chesterton on Imagination

Paul — Sat, 12 May 2012 02:43:22 +0000

“It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.”

G. K. Chesterton
English author & mystery novelist (1874 – 1936)

Sir Barnett Cocks on Politics

Paul — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:10:16 +0000

“A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.”

Sir Barnett Cocks
(1907 – 1989)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Talent

Paul — Thu, 10 May 2012 02:08:16 +0000

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

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915
British mystery author & physician (1859 – 1930)

Arthur C. Clarke on Technology

Paul — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:06:13 +0000

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”

Arthur C. Clarke, “Technology and the Future” (Clarke’s second law)
English physicist & science fiction author (1917 – )

Euripides Cynical Quote

Paul — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:26:14 +0000

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”

Euripides
Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC – 406 BC)

Tom Stoppard on Age

Paul — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:24:56 +0000

“I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.”

Tom Stoppard
British dramatist & screenwriter (1937 – )

Doug Larson on Language

Paul — Sat, 05 May 2012 22:22:47 +0000

“If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.”

Doug Larson

Daniel J. Boorstin on Greatness

Paul — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:18:35 +0000

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.”

Daniel J. Boorstin
US historian (1914 – )

Nancy Astor on Change

Paul — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:16:38 +0000

“The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything – or nothing.”

Nancy Astor
British politician (1879 – 1964)

Carl Becker on Humanity

Paul — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:15:24 +0000

“The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it.”

Carl Becker

Plato on Humanity

Paul — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:13:57 +0000

“No human thing is of serious importance.”

Plato
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC – 347 BC)

Dwight D. Eisenhower on Television

Paul — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:04:36 +0000

“I can think of nothing more boring for the American people than to have to sit in their living rooms for a whole half hour looking at my face on their television screens.”

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

Robert Benchley on Humor

Paul — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:00:58 +0000

“Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.”

Robert Benchley
US actor, author, & humorist (1889 – 1945)

Al McGuire on Politics

Paul — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:57:58 +0000

“I think the world is run by ‘C’ students.”

Al McGuire

Christopher Morley on Imagination

Paul — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:17:22 +0000

“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.”

Christopher Morley
US author & journalist (1890 – 1957)

Robertson Davies on Books

Paul — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:15:59 +0000

“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”

Robertson Davies

William Shakespeare on Honesty

Paul — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:12:51 +0000

“Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.”

William Shakespeare
Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 – 1616)

Benjamin Franklin on Government

Paul — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:09:33 +0000

“There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.”

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

Samuel Johnson on Work

Paul — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:08:01 +0000

“Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.”

Samuel Johnson, Life of Boerhaave
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 – 1784)

Benjamin Disraeli on Expectations

Paul — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:06:05 +0000

“What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.”

Benjamin Disraeli
British politician (1804 – 1881)

Peter Drucker on Work

Paul — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:04:55 +0000

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Peter Drucker
American (Austrian-born) management writer (1909 – 2005)

Woody Allen Cynical Quote

Paul — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:27:30 +0000

“The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won’t get much sleep.”

Woody Allen, Without Feathers (1976)
US movie actor, comedian, & director (1935 – )

Marlon Brando on Television

Paul — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:26:44 +0000

“If there’s anything unsettling to the stomach, it’s watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.”

Marlon Brando
US movie actor (1924 – 2004)

Voltaire on Freedom

Paul — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:22:37 +0000

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire, (Attributed); originated in “The Friends of Voltaire”, 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 – 1778)

Ogden Nash on Dogs

Paul — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:58:16 +0000

“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.”

Ogden Nash
US humorist & poet (1902 – 1971)

Friedrich Nietzsche on Memory

Paul — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:56:34 +0000

“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.”

Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher (1844 – 1900)

Anonymous on Politics

Paul — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:54:28 +0000

“Liberals are very broadminded: they are always willing to give careful consideration to both sides of the same side.”

Anonymous

Mark Twain on Procrastination

Paul — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:54:12 +0000

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”

Mark Twain
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 – 1910)

Charles M. Crowe on Easter

Paul — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 23:11:18 +0000

“Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted not simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals.”

Charles M. Crowe

Danny Kaye on Life

Paul — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:04:06 +0000

“Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.”

Danny Kaye

Will Rogers on Direction

Paul — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:01:56 +0000

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Will Rogers
US humorist & showman (1879 – 1935)

Edward R. Murrow on TV

Paul — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:16:31 +0000

“When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.”

Edward R. Murrow
US broadcast journalist & newscaster (1908 – 1965)

Isaac Asimov on Computers

Paul — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:14:31 +0000

“Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.”

Isaac Asimov
US science fiction novelist & scholar (1920 – 1992)

Amanda Cross on Quotations

Paul — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:11:28 +0000

“The point of quotations is that one can use another’s words to be insulting.”

Amanda Cross
US mystery novelist (1926 – )

Paul Valery on Politics

Paul — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:09:32 +0000

“Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.”

Paul Valery, Tel Quel 2 (1943)
French critic & poet (1871 – 1945)

Marquis de la Grange on Advice

Paul — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:06:46 +0000

“When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.”

Marquis de la Grange
(1639 – 1692)

Christopher Lasch on Success

Paul — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:04:39 +0000

“Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.”

Christopher Lasch

Don Marquis on Progress

Paul — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:04:14 +0000

“The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.”

Don Marquis
US humorist (1878 – 1937)

Andrew W. Mathis on Luck

Paul — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:57:20 +0000

“It is bad luck to be superstitious.”

Andrew W. Mathis

Oscar Wilde on Business

Paul — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:55:20 +0000

“My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.”

Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 – 1900)

Lewis Thomas on Language

Paul — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:54:58 +0000

“The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand.”

Lewis Thomas
US author, biologist, physician (1913 – 1993)

Marquis de Flers Robert and Arman de Caillavet on Democracy

Paul — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:54:46 +0000

“Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them.”

Marquis de Flers Robert and Arman de Caillavet

Randall Jarrell on Children

Paul — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:51:21 +0000

“One of the most obvious facts about grownups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child.”

Randall Jarrell
US author & poet (1914 – 1965)

Albert Einstein on Art and Science

Paul — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:49:54 +0000

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”

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

Robert Bakker on Taxes

Paul — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:49:34 +0000

“I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator and name it after the IRS.”

Robert Bakker, paleontologist

Daniel Webster

Paul — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:34:08 +0000

“A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.”

Daniel Webster
US diplomat, lawyer, orator, & politician (1782 – 1852)

Benjamin Franklin on Secrets

Paul — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:32:29 +0000

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”

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

Charles Caleb Colton on Hate

Paul — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:29:47 +0000

“We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.”

Charles Caleb Colton
(1780 – 1832)

Bob Hope on Sports

Paul — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:27:47 +0000

“If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play at it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf.”

Bob Hope
US (English-born) actor & comedian (1903 – 2003)

Jerome K. Jerome on Work

Paul — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:23:08 +0000

“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”

Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men in a Boat”, 1889
British humor writer (1859 – 1927)

Fred Hoyle Cynical Quote

Paul — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:26:28 +0000

“There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don’t know what it’s a plan for.”

Fred Hoyle
English astronomer, mathematician, & popularizer of science (1915 – 2001)

W. C. Fields on Gambling

Paul — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:58:52 +0000

“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”

W. C. Fields
US actor (1880 – 1946)

Robertson Davies on Society

Paul — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:17:14 +0000

“There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.”

Robertson Davies

George Orwell on Language

Paul — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:15:46 +0000

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”, 1946
English essayist, novelist, & satirist (1903 – 1950)

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Cynical Quote

Paul — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:13:29 +0000

“What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes!”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
(1742 – 1799)

Doug Larson on Age

Paul — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 02:26:00 +0000

“The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.”

Doug Larson

Thomas Jefferson on Luck

Paul — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:07:59 +0000

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

Thomas Jefferson, (attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 – 1826)

M. C. Escher on Work

Paul — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:05:59 +0000

“My work is a game, a very serious game.”

M. C. Escher
Dutch artist (1898 – 1972)

Olin Miller Cynical Quote

Paul — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:03:22 +0000

“You probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.”

Olin Miller

Sir Francis Bacon on Beauty

Paul — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:00:02 +0000

“There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”

Sir Francis Bacon, “Of Beauty”
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 – 1626)

Henry Kissinger on Politics

Paul — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:59:52 +0000

“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.”

Henry Kissinger
US (German-born) diplomat & scholar (1923 – )

Gian Vincenzo Gravina Cynical Quote

Paul — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:40:13 +0000

“A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.”

Gian Vincenzo Gravina
(1664 – 1718)

Ronald Reagan Cynical Quote

Paul — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 03:34:52 +0000

“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”

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

Peter Ustinov on Science

Paul — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:29:38 +0000

“If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.”

Peter Ustinov
English actor & author (1921 – 2004)

Nikola Tesla on Science

Paul — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:51:15 +0000

“Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.”

Nikola Tesla, Modern Mechanics and Inventions, July, 1934
US (Serbian-born) electrical inventor (1857 – 1943)

Henry Fielding on Criticism

Paul — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:49:19 +0000

“Now, in reality, the world have paid too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are.”

Henry Fielding
English dramatist & novelist (1707 – 1754)

Helen Rowland on Marriage

Paul — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:47:16 +0000

“One man’s folly is another man’s wife.”

Helen Rowland
(1876 – 1950)

Galileo Galilei on Ignorance

Paul — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:44:07 +0000

“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.”

Galileo Galilei
Italian astronomer & physicist (1564 – 1642)

Ralph Waldo Emerson on Thoughts

Paul — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:37:31 +0000

“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance”
US essayist & poet (1803 – 1882)

Samuel Johnson on Writing

Paul — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:34:37 +0000

“Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.”

Samuel Johnson, (attributed)
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 – 1784)

Wilson Mizner on Help

Paul — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:33:27 +0000

“God help those who do not help themselves.”

Wilson Mizner
US screenwriter (1876 – 1933)

Henry Adams Cynical Quote

Paul — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:54:02 +0000

“No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.”

Henry Adams
US author, autobiographer, & historian (1838 – 1918)

Eugene McCarthy on Bureaucracy

Paul — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:28:25 +0000

“The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.”

Eugene McCarthy, Time magazine, Feb. 12, 1979
US politician (1916 – 2005)

Anonymous Quote

Paul — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:24:56 +0000

“Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.”

Anonymous

Bill Cosby on Advertising

Paul — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:22:07 +0000

“The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.”

Bill Cosby
US comedian & television actor (1937 – )

Philip G. Hamerton on Quotations

Paul — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:18:39 +0000

“Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?”

Philip G. Hamerton, “The Intellectual Life”

Albert Einstein on Problems

Paul — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:16:52 +0000

“The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

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

Thomas Neill Cynical Quote

Paul — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:16:27 +0000

“Of those who say nothing, few are silent.”

Thomas Neill

Peter McArthur on Satirists

Paul — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:16:36 +0000

“A satirist is a man who discovers unpleasant things about himself and then says them about other people.”

Peter McArthur

A. A. Milne on Disorder

Paul — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:14:50 +0000

“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”

A. A. Milne
English juvenile author (1882 – 1956)

Richard Feynman on Science

Paul — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:11:25 +0000

“I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.”

Richard Feynman
US educator & physicist (1918 – 1988)

Bertrand Russell on Controversies

Paul — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:08:54 +0000

“The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.”

Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 – 1970)

Aeschylus on Wisdom

Paul — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:05:47 +0000

“It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.”

Aeschylus
Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC – 456 BC)

Cullen Hightower on Mistakes

Paul — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:03:08 +0000

“Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.”

Cullen Hightower

James Thurber on Questions

Paul — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:59:02 +0000

“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”

James Thurber
US author, cartoonist, humorist, & satirist (1894 – 1961)

Thomas A. Edison on Thinking

Paul — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:34:39 +0000

“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”

Thomas A. Edison
US inventor (1847 – 1931)

Harry S Truman Cynical Quote

Paul — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:21:13 +0000

“If you cannot convince them, confuse them.”

Harry S Truman
33rd president of US (1884 – 1972)

Edith Wharton on Happiness

Paul — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:18:33 +0000

“If only we’d stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.”

Edith Wharton
US novelist (1862 – 1937)

George Bernard Shaw on Education

Paul — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:16:57 +0000

“A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.”

George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 – 1950)

John Wanamaker on Advertising

Paul — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:29:54 +0000

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

John Wanamaker
US department store merchant (1838 – 1922)

Frank Herbert on Knowledge

Paul — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:27:47 +0000

“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.”

Frank Herbert
US science fiction novelist (1920 – 1986)

R. Buckminster Fuller on Science

Paul — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:26:02 +0000

“Everything you’ve learned in school as ‘obvious’ becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There’s not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.”

R. Buckminster Fuller
US architect & engineer (1895 – 1983)

Franklin P. Adams Cynical Quote

Paul — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:19:40 +0000

“Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.”

Franklin P. Adams
US journalist (1881 – 1960)

Poul Anderson on Problems

Paul — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:14:02 +0000

“I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.”

Poul Anderson
US science fiction author (1926 – 2001)

Albert Einstein on Future

Paul — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:09:21 +0000

“I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”

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

Louis Pasteur on Education

Paul — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:52:24 +0000

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.”

Louis Pasteur

Peter Drucker on Management

Paul — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:51:23 +0000

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.”

Peter Drucker
American (Austrian-born) management writer (1909 – 2005)