Education

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde

Education

Giving good example is the only way of educating. Albert Einstein

Education

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards. Mark Twain

Education

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

Bertrand Russell

Education

Education is the best provision for old age. Aristotle

Education

People more often need to be reminded than informed. Samuel Johnson

Education

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells

Education

There exists within each of us a compelling urge to unfold, to develop, to become more than we are now. This urge¾this need for self-actualization¾lies within us all, and it remains with us throughout our lives. Education can serve no higher purpose than to facilitate this process of unfolding. Abraham Maslow

Economics

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. John Kenneth Galbraith

Economics

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know. John Kenneth Galbraith

Eccentrics

An eccentric is one who refuses to relinquish sovereignty over himself and live for other people.
William B. Irvine

Dreams  

You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw

Doubt

Doubt is the beacon of the wise.

William Shakespeare

Doubt

Doubt is not a pleasant state of mind, but certainty is absurd. Voltaire

Dogs   

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. Mark Twain

Discretion

It doesn't pay to wrestle in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty but he'll enjoy it.

Diplomacy

A diplomat is someone who never forgets a woman's birthday and never remembers her age.

Dilemmas   

When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I've never tried before. Mae West

Determination

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Despair

It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness. Confucius

Desire

Nothing satisfies the man who is not satisfied with a little. Epicurus

Desire

Limitation always makes for happiness. Arthur Schopenhauer

Desire

It is far easier to stifle a first desire than to satisfy all the ensuing ones. La Rochefoucauld

Democrats

The Democratic Party symbol should be the rabbit. It moves with great speed in uncertain directions and multiplies rapidly. Herbert Hoover

Democracy

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Benjamin Franklin

Democracy

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

Democracy

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. Oscar Wilde

Democracy

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
John Adams

Decision-making

When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. Sigmund Freud

Death

Peace, peace, he is not dead, he doth sleep¾He hath awakened from life's dream. Shelley

Cynicism

No matter how cynical I get, I can't seem to keep up. Nora Ephron

Cynicism

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde

Curiosity

It's a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Albert Einstein

Curiosity

There is nothing so interesting as a wall on the other side of which something is taking place. Victor Hugo

Curiosity

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

T. S. Eliot

Curiosity

Be relentless in your quest for knowledge. As you grow older, remain curious. It will be your greatest gift and most profound source of joy.
Andrea Mitchell

Creation

I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can. Charles Darwin

Courage

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. Mark Twain

Courage

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. Raymond Lindquist

Courage

Courage is the footstool of the virtues, upon which they stand.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Courage

Be like a bird who Halting in his flight On limb too slight Feels it give way beneath him, Yet sings Knowing he hath wings. Victor Hugo

Costs

When we buy things we should think not of the dollar cost but their labor cost, that is, the amount of life we have to give up to obtain the money to buy the things in question.
Henry David Thoreau

Corruption

Describing someone who is brilliant but corrupt: “Like rotten mackerel by moonlight, he shines and stinks.”

John Randolf

Conviction

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which least is known.
Michel de Montaigne

Conviction

In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. Mark Twain

Contentment

There is no disaster greater than not being content. Lao Tzu

Constitution

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams

Congressmen

Speaking to Congressmen at the U.S. Capitol’s St. Patrick’s Day lunch, President Reagan said, “On St. Patrick’s Day, you should spend time with saints and scholars. So I have two more stops to make.” Ronald Reagan

Congressmen

I want you to visualize yourself as an idiot. Now I want you to visualize yourself as a Congressman. I'm sorry, I'm repeating myself. Mark Twain

Conformity

Praising those who conform to your lifestyle is a socially acceptable way of praising yourself.

William B. Irvine

Conformity

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.

Rita Mae Brown

Conformity

Don't dare to be different, dare to be yourself. Laura Baker

Confidence

Confidence is the slowest wound to heal.

Confidence

Whether you think you can or think you can't you're probably right.
Henry Ford

Commitment

It is nobler to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses. Dag Hammarskjold

Commitment

There is a difference between commitment and involvement. The chicken was involved in breakfast, the pig was committed.

Civil War

The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of the ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it.
Robert E. Lee

Civil War

The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states. Charles Dickens

Civil War

It was the Union soldiers in the battle, who actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.

H.L. Mencken

Choices

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. J. K. Rowling

Choices

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I─I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

Character

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it's made in the small ones. Phillip Brooks

Change

To change your life don't move away from something, move toward something.
Dr. Phil McGraw

Challenges

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. Seneca

Challenges

Everyone has his own Atlantics to fly. Whatever you want very much to do, against the opposition of tradition, neighborhood opinion, and so-called ‘common sense'¾that is an Atlantic. I flew the Atlantic because I wanted to. To want in one's heart to do a thing, for its own sake; to enjoy doing it; to concentrate all one's energies upon it¾that is not only the surest guarantee of success. It is also being true to oneself. Amelia Earhart

Cats

If a man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat. Mark Twain

Career

Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Capitalism

Making capitalism out of socialism is like making eggs out of an omelet.

Vadim Bakatin

Bureaucracy

How many people work at the Vatican? About half. Pope John Paul II

Bureaucracy

Being President is a lot like running a cemetery. There are a lot of people under you but no one's listening.

Bill Clinton

Boredom

Boredom is the shriek of unused capacities. Saul Bellow

Bigotry

Mark Twain, who called the Jews "mankind's intellectual aristocracy," was once complemented by a Jewish lawyer who asked why Twain departed from the norm of his era and did not disparage the Jews in any of his books. Twain accepted the complement with wry humor replying, "All that I care to know is that a man is a human being¾that is enough for me; he can't be any worse."

Betrayal  

If you betray me once, shame on you. If you betray me twice, shame on me.

Beauty

Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder. Aldous Huxley

Beauty

Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.

David Hume

Beauty

Exuberance is beauty. William Blake