“It seems to be the great business of life to create wants as fast as they are satisfied."
Samuel Johnson Adventurer 119 quoted in a footnote to my edition of Samuel Johnson The History of Rasselas
“’This thank you note is gonna be a challenge’ ‘Words don’t do it justice’”
Jon and Garfield contemplating a gift of a hideous clock in "Garfield" in Ottawa Citizen December 27, 2008
"There’s no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there’s no excuse for boredom, ever."
"Viggo Mortensen (1958-), Danish-American actor" quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail September 14, 2011
“Men are the same in all ages and in all countries. A few prejudices and customs excepted, the same passions lurk in our hearts at all times.”
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
“More than a century ago, Sir Francis Galton, a pioneer of statistics, attended an English fair. More than 800 guessed the weight of a bull. The total sum, divided by the number of guessers gave the weight – to the pound. This phenomenon, which is also known as ‘the wisdom of many,’ explains why democratized stock markets, with more people drawing information from more independent sources, can better allocate capital than the isolated few.”
Reuven Brenner in National Post June 15, 2000
"Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is."
"German proverb" quoted on https://www.hound-dog-media.com
“Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.”
Philander Johnson, quoted by David Gratzer in National Post Oct. 28, 2002
“When I look back on my life nowadays, which I sometimes do, what strikes me most forcibly about it is that what seemed at the time most significant and seductive, seems now most futile and absurd. For instance, success in all its various guises; being known and being praised; ostensible pleasures, like acquiring money or seducing women, or traveling, going to and fro in the world and up and down in it like Satan, explaining and experiencing whatever Vanity Fair has to offer. In retrospect, all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called, 'licking the earth.’”
Malcolm Muggeridge in "A Twentieth-Century Testimony", quoted by Stephen R. Covey The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic