“There are two levers for moving men; interest and fear."
Widely attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte online but I have not found a specific attribution (mind you, I once worked for someone who said “There are two ways of motivating people – one is fear and I’ve forgotten the other” and the funny thing is, he was a great boss. But I was afraid of incurring his justified displeasure.)
“I indulged in what the Germans call Grübeleien, a word difficult to translate, connoting aimless broodings focused on oneself, with the outside world serving only as a resonance box for unbridled egoism.”
Nicolas Slonimsky Perfect Pitch (about time he spent in a sanatorium as a teen).
“To do nothing is in everyone’s power.”
Samuel Johnson widely quoted online (for instance at https://www.azquotes.com/quote/828498)
“Only the concept of eternity could explain the ambiguity between a loving God and the Holocaust. For if life does not end with the grave, we should pity the prison guard, not his victim.”
Edward F. Halpin who “was at Buchenwald with Patton’s Third Army”, quoted by Richard John Neuhaus in First Things March 2001
My final appearance on the show so thanks to all who listened, to Anthony for being a great host, and to all those behind the scenes who made it happen.
“leisure: a word that means three totally different things: 1. being allowed to do something, 2. being allowed to do anything, 3. being allowed to do nothing.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News July 23, 1927, quoted in “Chesternitions” in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 7 #2 (10-11/03)
“It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the Earth.”
John Steinbeck, quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail December 8 2004
In the National Post I remember as always those who gave all their tomorrows for my today, and try to treat it as the precious gift that it is.