War settles nothing...to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one!
Dame Agatha Christie 1890 - 1976
1890 - 1976
Entire Collection
It was just like some ancient electricity-powered computer; it didn't matter how fast, error-free, and tireless it was, it didn't matter how great a labour-saving boon it was, it didn't matter what it could do or how many different ways it could amaze; if you pulled its plug out, or just hit the off button, all it became was a lump of matter; all its programs became just settings, dead instructions, and all its computations vanished as quickly as they'd moved. It was, also, like the dependency of the human-basic brain on the human-basic body; no matter how intelligent, perceptive and gifted you were, no matter how entirely you lived for the ascetic rewards of the intellect and eschewed the material world and the ignobility of the flesh, if your heart just gave out... That was the Dependency Principle; that you could never forget where your off switches were located, even if it was somewhere tiresome.
1954 - 2013
Excession
Half the time you think you're thinking, you’re actually listening.
Terence Mckenna 1946 - 2000
1946 - 2000
Surely all art is the result of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further.
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 - 1926
1875 - 1926
Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.
H. L. Mencken 1880 - 1956
1880 - 1956
True eloquence consists in saying all that need be said and no more.
François de La Rochefoucauld 1613 - 1680
1613 - 1680
Truth, when witty, is the wittiest of all things.
Julius Hare 1795 - 1855
1795 - 1855
Inability to accept the mystic experience is more than an intellectual handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination. For in a civilisation equipped with immense technological power, the sense of alienation between man and nature leads to the use of technology in a hostile spirit - to the 'conquest' of nature instead of intelligent co-operation with nature.
Alan W. Watts 1915 - 1973
1915 - 1973
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Voltaire 1694 - 1778
1694 - 1778
Philosophy is a necessary activity because we, all of us, take a great number of things for granted, and many of these assumptions are of a philosophical character; we act on them in private life, in politics, in our work, and in every other sphere of our lives -- but while some of these assumptions are no doubt true, it is likely, that more are false and some are harmful. So the critical examination of our presuppositions -- which is a philosophical activity -- is morally as well as intellectually important.
Karl Popper 1902 - 1994
1902 - 1994
Winston Smith: Does Big Brother exist? O'Brien: Of course he exists. Winston Smith: Does he exist like you or me? O'Brien: You do not exist.
1903 - 1950
Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen eighty-four. London: Secker & Warburg.
Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realise above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can't explain them. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.
Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973
1881 - 1973
Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?
1911 - 1995
Tears and Saints (1937)
What do I advise? Forget it all. Don't be afraid. Do what you get the most pleasure from. Is it to build a cloud chamber? Then go on doing things like that. Develop your talents wherever they may lead. Damn the torpedoes - full speed ahead! If you have any talent,or any occupation that delights you, do it, and do it to the hilt.
Richard P. Feynman 1918 - 1988
1918 - 1988
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797
1729 - 1797
Jury: A group of 12 people, who, having lied to the judge about their health, hearing, and business engagements, have failed to fool him.
H. L. Mencken 1880 - 1956
1880 - 1956
Beauty is the lover’s gift.
William Congreve 1670 - 1729
1670 - 1729
Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
born 1970
Horseradish
You weren't born to just pay bills and die. You must suffer. A lot.
A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
Steve Martin born 1945
born 1945
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
Native American
Native American
The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
Attributed to Joseph Stalin
Attributed to Joseph Stalin
An economist is a man who, when he finds something works in practice, wonders if it works in theory.
Often attributed to Walter W. Heller
Often attributed to Walter W. Heller
Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed
Mao Tse Tung 1893 - 1976
1893 - 1976
Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.
Shel Silverstein 1930 - 1999
1930 - 1999