"I’m creative, but somehow I lack the talent to go with it."
Lily Tomlin, Search for Signs of Intelligent Life, quoted in The New Republic Oct. 7, 1991
"The sorcerer’s apprentice gets into trouble because he knows a little magic. If he knew none, he’d have no problem; nor would he have a problem if he knew enough."
George Jonas in Ottawa Citizen Jan. 3, 2005
"When you sweep the floor, just sweep; when you eat, just eat; when you walk, just walk."
"the pilgrim-poet Basho" quoted by Robert Sibley in Ottawa Citizen Nov. 19, 2000
"All the will-worshippers, from Nietzsche to Mr. Davidson, are really quite empty of volition. They cannot will, they can hardly wish.... they always talk of will as something that expands and breaks out. But it is quite the opposite. Every act of will is an act of self-limitation.... In that sense every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else. That objection, which men of this school used to make to the act of marriage, is really an objection to every act.... Just as when you marry one woman you give up all the others, so when you take one course of action you give up all the other courses. If you become King of England, you give up the post of Beadle in Brompton. If you go to Rome, you sacrifice a rich suggestive life in Wimbledon. It is the existence of this negative or limiting side of will that makes most of the talk of the anarchic will-worshippers little better than nonsense. For instance, Mr. John Davidson tells us to have nothing to do with 'Thou shalt not'; but it is surely obvious that 'Thou shalt not' is only one of the necessary corollaries of 'I will.'"
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
"This contract is so one-sided that I was surprised to see it written on both sides of the paper.”
"An infamous 19th-century comment attributed to Lord Patrick Evershed" quoted in National Post November 13, 1998 p. A9.
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."
Nelson Henderson, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe and Mail March 29, 2001
"What beats me is how any body of men can delude themselves into thinking that they can abolish war as an instrument for settling international disputes. No sane person wants wars; that is a recognized fact, but we have them just the same. No one wants jails, hospitals, insane asylums, murders, robberies, etc.; but we have them just the same. Why? Well, in my opinion it can be given in just two words – human nature, a condition which is the same today as it was when Noah built the Ark, as it was when Julius Caesar enlarged the Roman Empire, and as it was when the Princess Pats marched down Bank street, many years ago, on their way overseas."
Letter from a G.H. Giles of Ottawa in Ottawa Citizen Sept. 4, 1931, reprinted in Ottawa Citizen Oct. 19, 1999
"Greed is usually just the other guy’s self-interest. Or else it is the desire to keep more of your own money instead of turning it over to liberal politicians."
Charles C. Heath, The Blessings of Liberty