"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

"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

"If you make an ass out of yourself, there’ll always be someone ready to ride you. Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory."

Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts

"There’s no such thing as a bad day when there’s a doorknob on the inside of the door".

Paul Galanti, former Navy Commander and Vietnam War POW, quoted in National Post March 24, 2003

"To suppose that this universe came into existence, with you and me in it, in order that we might, in Shakespeare’s felicitous phrase, 'grind out our appetites', is not only to demean life, but to make it farcical as well."

Malcolm Muggeridge, "Address, 1970" in Ian Hunter, ed., The Very Best of Malcolm Muggeridge

"The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want."

Ben Stein, quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe and Mail May 8, 2007