Either/Or

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
-Kierkegaard

The Critick

Insects sting, not from malice, but because they want to live. It is the same with critics – they desire our blood, not our pain.
-Nietzsche

Playfulness

The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
-Jung

Hope v. Despair

Everything one records contains a grain of hope, no matter how deeply it may come from despair.
-Elias Canetti

Books

No furniture so charming as books.
-Sydney Smith

Time & Energy

One of the conditions for reading what is good is that we must not read what is bad; for life is short and time and energy are limited.
-Schopenhauer

Memoirs on the Skins of a Mole

The presence of an idea is like that of a loved one. We imagine that we shall never forget it, and that the beloved can never become indifferent to us; but out of sight, out of mind! The finest thought runs the risk of being irretrievably forgotten if it is not written down.
-Schopenhauer

Three Educations

We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our schoolmasters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.
-Montesquieu

The Unthirsty

Ye can lade a man up to th’university, but ye can’t make him think.
-Finley Peter Dunne

Half-Truths

A wise man’s question contains half the answer.
-Solomon Ibn Gabirol

'The Sound of Scorn'

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

Life & (Death)

Death is not a bad word, but a "parenthesis in eternity."
-Mike Ruppert/Joel Goldsmith

The War on Jealousy

Malicious men may die, but malice never.
-Molière


You cannot win a war on terrorism, it's like having a war on jealousy, it's an absurd notion.
-David Cross

The Endless Dichotomy

You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too.
-Bernard Shaw

There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them.
-Voltaire

Happiness & Sorrow

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.
-Montesquieu

Love

Perhaps a great love is never returned.
-Dag Hammarskjold

Windows of the Soul

Men of cold passions have quick eyes.
-Nathaniel Hawthorne

'Saving A Second Ear For Truth, Later'

A wise man will keep his suspicions muzzled, but he will keep them awake.
-Marquess of Halifax



Suspicion is rather a virtue than a fault, as long as it doth like a dog that watched, and doth not bite.
-Halifax

'Promises ... A Trap For Fools'

The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.
-Napoleon

Unquenchable Thirst

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.
-Schopenhauer

Courage in Creation

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of a little courage.
-Sydney Smith

Opinions

We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for.
-Maria von Ebner-Eschenbach

Failure

Let us act as if were impossible to fail.
-Dorothea Brande

Simply Complex

Simple pleasures ... are the last refuge of the complex.
-Oscar Wilde

The Wars of Old Men ... Fought by Young Men

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.
-George Santayana

The Depths ... Sounded

It is a luxury to be understood.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chewing Up the Furniture

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
-Jean de La Bruyere

The Great v. The Content

Nothing is enough for the man whom enough is too little.
-Epicurus

Cowardice v. Bravery

Many would be cowards if they had courage enough.
-Thomas Fuller

Cui Bono?

The cleverly expressed opposite of any generally accepted idea is worth a fortune to somebody.
-F. Scott Fitzerald