“To question a wise man is the beginning of wisdom.”

“German proverb” e-mailed to me without attribution

“Winston had 10 ideas every day, only one of which was good, and he did not know which it was."

General Sir Alan Brooke, Winston Churchill’s chief of staff, quoted by John Keegan in National Post August 29, 2002

 “She stopped. It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.”

The internal monologue of the heroine, Mma Precious Ramotswe, in Alexander McCall Smith The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

"The smarter you are, the smaller your strike zone."

"Anonymous" quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail November 4, 2010

"always brilliant, sometimes intelligent"

Robert Bourassa's frequently stated verdict on Bernard Landry, quoted by Paul Wells in National Post November 29, 2000

"Knowledge leads either to reverence or arrogance."

"Anonymous”, quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail December 6, 2006

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see."

Arthur Schopenhauer, quoted in ”Social Studies" in Globe & Mail October 4, 2006

“That’s true enough, but we must go and work in the garden.”

Candide (when reminded by Pangloss that all is for the best) in Voltaire Candide