“Men have never been good, they are not good and they never will be good.”
Karl Barth, Christliche Gemeinde quoted in Mackenzie Institute Newsletter July 2002
“The alternative to perfection of self is perfection of others: Either I will concentrate on me and my welfare or on others and their welfare; in other words, mind my own business or mind other people’s business.”
Leonard Read Let Freedom Reign
“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
“generally it is good, to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus, with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus, with his hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed.”
Francis Bacon, Bacon’s Essays (edited with Introduction and Notes by F.G. Selby).
“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)
“there is still more in us of the chimp than the baboon.”
Elaine Morgan The Descent of Woman