Growing wiser on the wisdom (or stupidity) of others
Released under a Creative Commons license Daniel Johnson, Jr.. Some Rights Reserved.
Everything written here is my personal opinion and not that of any employer or client, past or present.

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

"Politics is more difficult than physics." -- Albert Einstein

"The Democrats would prefer the economy continue to stagnate from now all the way through next summer so as to be able to use it as an election issue." -- Rush Limbaugh

"Have you ever noticed that despite all of these wonderful things we do for the children and all these massive programs for education, somehow the kids are always being short-changed?" -- Rush Limbaugh

"I'd be surprised if Senator Kennedy could prove to me that there are serious numbers of senior citizens deciding between food and drugs. If that were the case, we'd have people dying of starvation. It just isn't the case." -- Rush Limbaugh

"Man is a rope, tied between beast and Superman--a rope over an abyss." -- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

"A Realist is an Idealist who knows nothing of himself." -- Novalis

Monday, April 28, 2003

"People are looking to other lives for answers to questions of their own." -- Leo Beal Braudy

Progress | "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." -- George Bernard Shaw

Change | "Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene." -- Arthur Christopher Benson

"Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true serenity to be found." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"To remain young one must change." -- Alexander Chase

Change | "Change does not change tradition. It strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity, not a threat." -- Prince Phillip of England

"One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past or in complaining against the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the essence of life." -- Anatole France

"The great man is he who does not lose his childlike heart." -- Mencius

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions." -- Pablo Picasso

"Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scar you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity." -- R. I. Fitzhenry

"A bird does not sign because he has an answer. He sings because he has a song." -- Joan Walsh Anglund

"It is always difficult to pose as something that one is not." -- Arnold Lobel

Happiness | "Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values." -- Ayn Rand

Character | "It is in trifles, and when he is off his guard, that a man best shows his character." -- Arthur Schopenhauer

Culture | "Culture is both an intellectual phenomenon and a moral one." -- Raisa Gorbachev

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I guess when all is said and done you are who you believe you are... and that should be good enough for everybody else." -- Susan Tamol

"Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense." -- Henry St. John Bolingbroke

"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word -- excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." -- Pearl S. Buck

"For great is truth, and shall prevail." -- Thomas Brooks

"I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashion." -- Lillian Hellman

"True greatness consists in being great in little things." -- Charles Simmons

"The worth of every conviction consists precisely in the steadfastness with which it is held." -- Jane Addams

Einstein on being a man of value

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value." -- Albert Einstein

"Some things are very important ans some are very unimportant. To know the difference is what we are give life to find out." -- Anna F. Trevisan

Education | "Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten." -- B. F. Skinner

"When someone says 'It's good business,' you may be sure it is bad morality." -- Robin Skelton

"Truth exists; only lies are invented." -- Georges Braque

Fear | "No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear." -- Edmund Burke

"To find in ourselves what makes life worth living is risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it. It also means that without it life will be valueless." -- Marsha Sinetar

"Peace means loyalty to self... And loyalty to one's self means never a gap between thought, speech, act." -- Ruth Beebe Hill

Courage | "Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of very virtue at the testing point." -- C. S. Lewis

Freedom | "None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free." -- Pearl S. Buck

"The greatest cost, namely time." -- Antiphon

"There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that second best is anything but second best." -- Doris Lessing

Reading | "The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books."

-- Henry W. Longfellow

"Each human spirit is immortal -- for time cannot destroy whatever element within us reverences the glory of a dawn in the mountains." -- Dervla Murphy

"One of the goals is to try and be in touch with one's most personal themes -- the values, ideas, styles, colors that are the touchstones of one's own individual life, its real texture and substance." -- Gloria Vanderbilt

"In plucking the fruit of memory one runs the risk of spoiling its bloom." -- Joseph Conrad

"Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed...Let us then strive to think well; that is the basic principle of morality." -- Blaise Pascal

"The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things." -- Plato

Saturday, April 26, 2003

"The question of the ultimate meaning of life cannot be silenced as long as men are men." -- Paul Tillich

Friday, April 25, 2003

"He who is eternally without desire Perceives the spiritual side of it; He who is permanently with desire Perceives the limit of it." -- Laozi

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

"Australia has become the aggressor, and we are not an aggressive country...This war's not for human rights -- it's for the price of bloody oil ... They [the pro-war leaders] should be locked up -- what they are doing is a crime." -- Heath Ledger, via http://news.heathbaby.com/index.php?x=articles_war.php

"I'm here because they are dropping 3000 bombs on Baghdad, on women and children. It's wrong for humanity, it's not in the name of peace, it's in the name of oil." -- Heath Ledger, via http://news.heathbaby.com/index.php?x=articles_war.php

"You know it's ironic that we're fighting for democracy in Iraq because we ultimately aren't celebrating democracy here. Because anybody who has anything to say against the war or against the president or whatever -- is punished, and that's not democracy -- it's people being intolerant. And you know, everyone's entitled to their opinion, for or against, and that's what our constitutional rights are supposed to be, that we all have the freedom to express ourselves and voice our dissent if we have that." -- Madonna, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"And the idea is--in that comparison--is that the United States is like the good guys in our movie against the bad guys in our movie and I think the opposite is true unfortunately." -- Viggo Mortensen, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Going to war is a convenient way to cover up the Enron scandal, the president's horrible vocabulary, the fact that 40 million Americans are living below the poverty line and 50 million don't have any sort of health care." -- Tom Morello, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." -- Jesus Christ

April | "April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." -- William Shakespeare

Tithing | "Now, let us return to the Lord the portion due unto Him according to that which we reported on Form 1040, line 23." -- from a 1991 cartoon entitled "Brother Blooper" by Dennis Daniel

"I read statistics every once in awhile, and it shows how church attendance is sorta falling off on Sunday mornings. I believe I discovered a way to aid preachers in getting people to church. Publish their pictures in the paper every Monday, instead of just the day after Easter. There is no reason why people should have to wait from one Easter to another." -- Will Rogers

Death | "Our theology should enable us to see God as one in whom we can trust, even in the middle of the ultimate fear which is death. If we can laugh in the crisis of death, that's one way of saying that God is in charge." -- Quaker humorist Tom Mullen

Christianity | "Christianity has died many times and risen again, for it has a God who knows the way out of the grave." -- G.K. Chesterton

"Communion is strength; solitude is weakness. Alone, the fine old beech yields to the blast and lies prone on the meadow. In the forest, supporting each other, the trees laugh at the hurricane." -- Charles Spurgeon

"God laughs because He knows more than we do. God has sharper vision." -- Miriam Pollard

"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. Never forget that Satan fell by force of gravity." -- G.K. Chesterton

Freedom | "Freedom is always and exclusively the freedom for the one who thinks differently." -- Rosa Luxemburg

"Faith is a charisma not granted to all; instead man has the gift of thought, which can strive after the highest things." -- Carl Gustav Jung

Monday, April 21, 2003

Daily Right Quotes

Courtesy of Eric Jay Addington, aka the Neophyte Pundit.

Economy | "So often we rob tomorrow's memories by today's economies." -- John Mason Brown

Earnestness | "Earnest people are often people who habitually look on the serious side of things that have no serious side." -- Van Wyck Brooks

Duty | "He who eats the fruit should at least plant the seed." -- Henry David Thoreau

Duty | "A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations." -- Bertrand Russell

Duty | "One trouble with the world is that so many people who stand up vigorously for their rights fall down miserably on their duties." -- Grit

Driving | "Drive carefully! Remember: it's not only a car that can be recalled by its maker." -- Consumer Digest

Drinking | "I must get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini." -- Alexander Woollcott

Drinking | "I'm not willing to sacrifice the control of physical and mental ability that drinking and smoking take away for what they give in return." -- Pierre Trudeau

Drinking | "I drink to make other people interesting." -- George Jean Nathan

Drinking | "Liquor talks mighty loud when it gets loose from the jug." -- Joel Chandler Harris

Drinking | "There is a devil in every berry of the grape." -- The Koran

Drinking | "Wine makes a man better pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others." -- Samuel Johnson

Drinking | "Bacchus has drowned more men than Neptune." -- Garibaldi

Drinking | "Some men are like musical glasses; to produce their finest tones you must keep them wet." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Doubt | "I respect faith, but doubting is what gets you an education." -- William Mizner

Doubt | "To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting." -- Stanislaus Lescynski

Dogs | "If dogs could talk, perhaps we'd find it just as hard to get along with them as we do with people." -- Karel Capek

Doctor | "A man who tells you if you don't cut something out, he will." -- Frank Rossiter

Divorce | "People wouldn't get divorced for such trivial reasons if they didn't get married for such trivial reasons." -- Bridgeport Star

Divorce | "Divorce is what happens when the marriage you thought was a merger turns out to be a conglomerate." -- "Hot Line"

Dissatisfaction | "It's when you're safe at home that you wish you were having an adventure. When you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home." -- Thorton Wilder

Discussion | "I'll discuss anything. I like to go perhaps-ing around on all subjects." -- Robert Frost

Discretion | "There's a time to wink as well as to see." -- Benjamin Franklin

Discipline | "Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them." -- H. L. Mencken

Diplomacy | "A diplomat is a man who remembers a lady's birthday but forgets her age." -- Author Unknown

Diplomacy | "Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest thing in the nicest way." -- Isaac Goldberg

Diplomacy | "Diplomacy: lying in state." -- Oliver Herford

Diligence | "Everything yields to diligence." -- Antiphanes

Differences | "People differ. Some object to the fan dancer, and others to the fan." -- Elizabeth W. Spalding

Diet | "Another good reducing exercise consists in placing both hands against the table edge and pushing back." -- Robert Quillen

Diet | "The sad thing about most diets is they do so much for the will power and so little for the waistline." -- "Grand Ole Opry"

Diet | "Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a prince, but eat dinner like a pauper." -- Adelle Davis

Diet | "She used to diet on any kind of food she could lay her hands on." -- Arthur (Bugs) Baer

Description | "When something defies description, let it." -- Arnold H. Glasow

Principles - Emotional Bank Account | "A relationship is a living thing. It needs and benefits from the same attention to detail that an artist lavishes on his art." -- David Viscott, 1938- , American writer and psychiatrist.

Sunday, April 20, 2003

"'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?'" -- Jesus Christ

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I'm a schizo,
And so am I."

-- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Boldly going nowhere." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Just about the time you make ends meet, someone moves the ends." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Ugly strikes 1 out of 4. You must be number 4." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Never invest in anything that eats, sleeps, or needs repairing." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Everybody needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"The best vitamin for making friends is B1." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"If we all invested in taxes 20 years ago, we'd be rich now." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"You're just jealous because the voices are talking to me." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"If it's in stock, then we've got it!" -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Never play leap frog with a unicorn." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Chicken is chicken but the leg and the wing is the thing." -- seen outside Chicken Louie's restaurant

"Caution: Our beer contains Vitamin P." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Wanted: Meaningful overnight relationship." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead." -- Louisa May Alcott

Miscommunication | "I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." -- Joe's Crab shack

"If you're not the lead sled dog, the view is always the same." -- seen at Joe's Crab shack

"New employee incentive plan: Work or get fired." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"I got sick once, but I still eat here." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"A husband is living proof that a wife can take a joke." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before your boss does." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

"The worst thing in the whole world is a drinking buddy with a good memory." -- seen at Rooster's restaurant

Monday, April 14, 2003

"Have we gone to war yet? We [expletive] deserve to get bombed. Bring it on... Let's get rid of all the economic [expletive] this country represents! Bring it on, I hope the Muslims win!" -- Chrissie Hynde, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

She is also the Jack of Hearts in NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels

"America has never paid any attention to other people." -- Richard Gere, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"I don't really view communism as a bad thing." -- Whoopi Goldberg, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"'We're here, we're queer!' -- that's what makes my heart swell. Not the flag, but a gay naked man or woman burning the flag. I get choked up with pride." -- Janeanne Garofalo, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"So when I see the American flag, I go, 'Oh my God, you're insulting me.'" -- Janeanne Garofalo, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Bush is a racist." -- Danny Glover, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture." -- Harry Belafonte, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

He is also the 2 of Clubs in NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels

"I believe he thinks this [war against Iraq] is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore...We can't beat anyone anymore." -- George Clooney, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

He is also the 4 of Hearts in NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels

"I'm saying that the moral climate within the ruling class in this country is not that different from the moral climate within the ruling class of Hitler's Germany." -- David Clennon, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies." -- Sheryl Crow, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Bin Laden was completely protected by the oil companies in this country who told [President] Bush not to go after him because it would piss off the Saudis." -- Oliver Stone, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Now we're standing on the brink of war - brought here by the posturing of a marginally intelligent president and a group of power crazed manipulators with God knows what agenda." -- Marcia Ball, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"He's [Bush] a f*cking idiot!" -- Jennifer Aniston, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Just so you know, we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas." -- Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

She is also the 6 of Hearts in NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels.

"I think America has no experience with terrorism or even with war. In Europe, we know a little bit more about these things." -- Bono, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"I'm frightened by the mood sweeping the United States." -- Rosario Dawson, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"If everybody that had two cars had a Prius instead of an SUV, we wouldn't be in the Middle East right now." -- Meryl Streep, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"What's happening in reality is far more scary than any Hitchcock film..." -- Gabriel Bryne, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"Shoot him [Charlton Heston] --with a .44-caliber Bulldog." -- Spike Lee, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

"I'm against this whole, 'Let's bomb a new country because things aren't going our way'. It's the cost of human lives I resent. To put American soldiers in harm's way and to do everything to change the subject so that Republicans can keep control of the House." -- Tim Robbins, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

He is also the 9 of Hearts in NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels

"We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it is the fictition [sic] of duct tape or the fictition [sic] of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush!” -- Michael Moore, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

He is also the King of Hearts in NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels

"By some demented form of logic, the men, women and children of Iraq are relegated to 'collateral damage' as the dogs of war slouch toward Baghdad." -- Martin Sheen, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

He is also the Ace of Hearts on NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels

“You know what is good about these Dixie Chicks burnings or bashings? It's a wonderful, wonderful way for really stupid people to hook up. They meet, they throw some things on the fire, they talk about Vin Diesel, they tell stories about who their favorite Fox anchor is, they exchange phone numbers and in some cases has led to marriages.” -- Janeane Garofalo, via Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

She is also the 7 of Hearts in NewsMax.com's Deck of Weasels

Sunday, April 13, 2003

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." -- Helen Keller

"The life which is unexamined is not worth living." -- Plato

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." -- Carl Jung

"It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean." -- Karl Kraus

Saturday, April 12, 2003

"What use is it that knowledge mounts? It's knowing something good that counts." -- Friedrich von Logau

Friday, April 11, 2003

"The intellect is part of life--not its counterpart." -- Kurt Tucholsky

Thursday, April 10, 2003

"The cruelty of most people is lack of imagination, their brutality is ignorance." -- Kurt Tucholsky

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

"Every revolutionary movement also liberates language." -- Christa Wolf

Encarta.com | 15 Famous Quotes about War

"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you." - Isaiah 54:10 (NIV), given to me this morning by Irene Q

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

"He who never ventures beyond actuality will never win the prize of truth." -- Friedrich von Schiller

Monday, April 07, 2003

"I've had it with you and your emotional constipation!" -- Tantor, from Tarzan (1999)

"Pleasure is a knowledge or feeling of perfection, not only in ourselves, but also in others, for in this way some further perfection is aroused in us." -- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Sunday, April 06, 2003

"I have learned that every man lives not through care of himself, but by love." -- Leo Tolstoy

Saturday, April 05, 2003

"Where there is dynamism there is interpenetration; where there is interpenetration there is universal love, so all mutually sympathetic things cannot remain apart." -- Liang Qichao

Friday, April 04, 2003

"True thoughts are those alone which do not understand themselves." -- Theodor Adorno

Thursday, April 03, 2003

"It is infinitely easier to suffer in obedience to a human command than to accept suffering as free, responsible men." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

"Language is the autobiography of the human mind." -- Max Müller

"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return." -- US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a response to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

"That alone is significant and fruitful which gives free play to the imagination." -- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Important Note from Dan Johnson crossposted to all my blogs

Hello, readers of this QuotesBlog! For the past year, this blog has grown in enormous popularity on the Internet, as illustrated by the number of hits. I am proud to inform you that this blog, along with the others that I maintain, have been trademarked! So, look forward to seeing the ™ symbol behind the blog title!

It's great when you can become so well known that something like this is possible.

It's all thanks to you guys, the readers and visitors to this blog.

Dan Johnson