The “Viking ideal; of a man who, in C.S. Lewis’s marvellous description, is ‘as stern to inflict as stubborn to endure.’”
Link Byfield in British Columbia Report December 20, 1993
“Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is.”
Pascal Pensées
“I could go on and on.” “We know.”
Me on March 14 2015 at an event where a speaker used the first phrase and it was only with great difficulty that I restrained myself from shouting out the second.
“And who can tell, perhaps the purpose of man’s life on earth consists precisely in this uninterrupted striving after a goal. That is to say, the purpose is life itself and not the goal…”
Fyodor Dostoevsky “Notes from Underground” in Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man and selections from The House of the Dead
“Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.”
Ovid (43 B.C. to 18 A.D.) in Robert Byrne, ed., 1,911 Best things anybody ever said
“Economists’ work is often criticized as being ‘useful as a chocolate teapot,’ The Economist magazine wrote.”
Ottawa Citizen October 25, 1997 (though it has occurred to me since that (a) you could eat a chocolate teapot and (b) what’s really wrong with economists’ work isn’t that it’s not useful, it’s that people don’t want to hear about it... but it’s still a lovely metaphor).
“He also acknowledged that his story had a movie-of-the-week quality to it. ‘The trouble is, I’m one of the actors,’ he said. ‘It’s my life.’”
Some guy who had suffered a most peculiar and devastating misfortune, in Maclean’s August 2, 1993
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing; that’s why it’s recommended daily.”
Zig Ziglar, emailed by a friend and confirmed online e.g. at https://due.com/blog/zig-ziglar-motivation-and-baths-recommended-daily/