“When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.”
Confucius (I first encountered a version of this quotation from Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon
“The avoidance of idiocy should be the primary and constant concern of every intelligent person. It is mine. I am sometimes successful.”
Nero Wolfe in Rex Stout The Rubber Band
“The man without purpose is like a ship without a rudder – a waif, a nothing, a no man.”
Thomas Carlyle
“Without a theory the facts are silent.’
F.A. Hayek
“We may gather out of history a policy no less wise than eternal: by comparison and application of other mens forepassed miseries with our own like errors…”
Sir Walter Raleigh
“Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” Will Rogers
“I always wanted to be somebody. I realize now that I should have been more specific.” Lily Tomlin (also attributed to her partner and writer Jane Wagner)
“These [nursery] tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.”
G.K. Chesterton Orthodoxy
