In my latest Nstional Post column I say the meaning of life is not to be found in the latest gadget even if it is a watch that can tell you your blood oxygen level every three seconds.
“The amusements of mankind, at least of the English part of mankind, teach the same lesson. Our shooting, our hunting, our traveling, our climbing have become laborious pursuits. It is a common saying abroad that ‘an Englishman’s notion of a holiday is a fatiguing journey’…”
Walter Bagehot Physics and Politics [the “lesson” being about our inherited, possibly excessive predisposition to action]
“If a man thinks about his physical or moral state, he usually discovers that he is ill.”
Goethe, quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail July 10, 2000
“Remembrance is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven away. Pleasure is the flower that fades, remembrance is the lasting perfume. Remembrances last longer than present realities; I have preserved blossoms for many years, but never fruits.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts
“The headwaiter of an elegant restaurant recoiled in disgust as a man in boots, torn jeans and a leather jacket approached him. ‘Hey, man,’ he said, ‘where’s the bathroom?’ ‘Go down the hall and turn left,’ replied the headwaiter. ‘When you see the sign marked “Gentlemen,” pay no attention to it and go right on in.’”
From the Jokesmith, cited in Reader’s Digest, April 1997, quoted in “Quotes, Notes and Anecdotes (The Write File Quarterly)” Spring 1997
“My weakness as a traveler is that the world seems to me so amusing everywhere that it is hardly worthwhile to travel.”
G.K. Chesterton in “The Outline of a City” in The Resurrection of Rome, quoted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 12 #5 (March 2009)