My favorite quotes

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Assorted Quotes

These are just a few of my favorite quotes, assembled over the years. There's no particular order, though I tend to add things to the bottom of the table chronologically. Questioning person that I sometimes am, I hesitate to call them words to live by, though the quote from the Gates of Heaven comes quite close in one sense as does Cromwell's admonition in a quite different sense.

Quote
Who said it

"In every childhood, a door opens and the future comes in."

Graham Greene

"Art is what you find when the ruins are cleared away"

Karen Porter

"Running with dogs is like dancing with winter"

Gary Paulsen

"The music is digitally sampled; by that we mean it was hand picked."

Fiona Ritchie on NPR

"Some men see what is, and ask 'Why?'

I see what might be, and ask 'Why Not?'"

Sen. Robert Kennedy

"Been there. Seen that. Done that. Twice."

From a business card of a travelling musician.

"You say your mother loves you? Better check it out."

From the desk of Tony Leys

"There is no idea so stupid that you can't find a professor who will believe it."

H.L. Mencken

"Both the doctor and the angel of death kill, but only the doctor charges for it."

Jewish Aphorism

"Truth emerges more from error than from confusion."

Sir Francis Bacon

"Some people's minds are so open their brains have fallen out."

Richard Riorty (?)

"It was not necessarily the best of times in America when Catholics and Protestants were suspicious of and hated one another; but at least they were taking their beliefs seriously, and the more or less satisfactory accommodataions they worked out were not simply the result of apathy about the state of their souls." (p. 35)

Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind.

"The sirens sing sotto voce these days, and the young already have enough wax in their ears to pass them by without danger." (p. 338)

Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind.

"Hands that can grasp, eyes

that can dilate, hair that can rise

if it must, these things are important

not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put

upon them but

because they are

useful."

Marianne Moor, Poetry

"Šthe narrowest hinge in my hand puts to

scorn all machinery,

And the cow crunching with depress'd head

surpasses any statue,

And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels."

Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

"Education is not the filling of a bucket but the starting of a fire."

W.B. Yeats

"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."

Rebecca West, 1913

"In the long run, we're all dead." Caution on relying on long term trends.

John Maynard Keynes

"If any one of us has had an ambition higher than that of making money; a motive better than that of expediency; a faith warmer than that of reasoning; a love purer than that of the self; he has been slow to express it; still slower to urge it."

Henry Adams, reflecting on his college commencement.

"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."

Cromwell

"The Jews are a frightened people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have broken down their nerves."

Israel Zangwill, quoted in The Portable Curmudgeon

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of power. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

Daniel Webster, quoted in Hearings on the confirmation of Abe Fortas to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, p. 108

"Throughout adulthood, all of us on occasions fail to assess, or misassess, the knowledge states of others, most often assuming that they match our own" (p. 9-10).

Deanna Kuhn, Columbia University

"The G-ds we worship write their names on our faces, be sure of that. And a person will worship something, have no doubt of that either. One may think that tribute is paid in secret, in the dark recesses of his or her heart, but it is not. That which dominates imagination and thoughts will determine life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we are worshiping, for what we are worshiping we are becoming."

From the Gates of Heaven alternative services.

"The daisies I wanted
to offer you
have all their
petals gone.

Perhaps you'll think me
foolish, but I picked
the bare stems
anyway."

S. Horton, Quoted in the Yale Manual of Style

"The man in the tall hat picked up the shell. There was no pea under it. The next instant the five-dollar bill was in his tail-coat pocket and he was showing the pea again and putting it under another shell.

Almonzo couldn't understand it. He had seen the pea under that shell, and it wasn't there. He asked Father how the man had done it.

'I don't know, Almonzo,' Father said. 'But he knows. It's his game. Never bet your money on another man's game.'"

Laura Ingalls Wilder, _Farmer Boy_ (p. 256, paperback version)

Quote	Who said it
"In every childhood, a door opens and the future comes in."	Graham Greene
"Art is what you find when the ruins are cleared away"	Karen Porter
"Running with dogs is like dancing with winter"	Gary Paulsen
"The music is digitally sampled; by that we mean it was hand picked."	Fiona Ritchie on NPR
"Some men see what is, and ask 'Why?' I see what might be, and ask 'Why Not?'"	Sen. Robert Kennedy
"Been there. Seen that. Done that. Twice."	From a business card of a travelling musician.
"You say your mother loves you? Better check it out."	From the desk of Tony Leys
"There is no idea so stupid that you can't find a professor who will believe it."	H.L. Mencken
"Both the doctor and the angel of death kill, but only the doctor charges for it."	Jewish Aphorism
"Truth emerges more from error than from confusion."	Sir Francis Bacon
"Some people's minds are so open their brains have fallen out."	Richard Riorty (?)
"It was not necessarily the best of times in America when Catholics and Protestants were suspicious of and hated one another; but at least they were taking their beliefs seriously, and the more or less satisfactory accommodataions they worked out were not simply the result of apathy about the state of their souls." (p. 35)	Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind.
"The sirens sing sotto voce these days, and the young already have enough wax in their ears to pass them by without danger." (p. 338)	Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind.
"Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can rise if it must, these things are important not because a high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are useful."	Marianne Moor, Poetry
"Šthe narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery, And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue, And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels."	Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
"Education is not the filling of a bucket but the starting of a fire."	W.B. Yeats
"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."	Rebecca West, 1913
"In the long run, we're all dead." Caution on relying on long term trends.	John Maynard Keynes
"If any one of us has had an ambition higher than that of making money; a motive better than that of expediency; a faith warmer than that of reasoning; a love purer than that of the self; he has been slow to express it; still slower to urge it."	Henry Adams, reflecting on his college commencement.
"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."	Cromwell
"The Jews are a frightened people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have broken down their nerves."	Israel Zangwill, quoted in The Portable Curmudgeon
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of power. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."	Daniel Webster, quoted in Hearings on the confirmation of Abe Fortas to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, p. 108
"Throughout adulthood, all of us on occasions fail to assess, or misassess, the knowledge states of others, most often assuming that they match our own" (p. 9-10).	Deanna Kuhn, Columbia University
"The G-ds we worship write their names on our faces, be sure of that. And a person will worship something, have no doubt of that either. One may think that tribute is paid in secret, in the dark recesses of his or her heart, but it is not. That which dominates imagination and thoughts will determine life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we are worshiping, for what we are worshiping we are becoming."	From the Gates of Heaven alternative services.
"The daisies I wanted to offer you have all their petals gone. Perhaps you'll think me foolish, but I picked the bare stems anyway."	S. Horton, Quoted in the Yale Manual of Style
"The man in the tall hat picked up the shell. There was no pea under it. The next instant the five-dollar bill was in his tail-coat pocket and he was showing the pea again and putting it under another shell. Almonzo couldn't understand it. He had seen the pea under that shell, and it wasn't there. He asked Father how the man had done it. 'I don't know, Almonzo,' Father said. 'But he knows. It's his game. Never bet your money on another man's game.'"	Laura Ingalls Wilder, _Farmer Boy_ (p. 256, paperback version)