“Variety is the spice of life – but monotony buys the groceries.”
D.P. Diffiné, “The 1993 American Incentive System Almanac”
“In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”
Thomas Jefferson, in a 1787 letter to his orphan nephew Peter Carr, quoted in William Bennett The Book of Virtues
“He never told the truth when a lie would serve”.
Douglas MacArthur on FDR, quoted in Chronicles magazine September 1993
“Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it; in other words, we would never travel by sea if it meant never talking about it, and for the sheer pleasure of seeing things we could never hope to describe to others.”
Blaise Pascal Pensées
“one of the wisest lessons you learn after you’ve spent enough time in the present to have a past is that the future never works out the way all the seers and the romantics were so sure it would.”
While I try to provide detailed (and reliable) sources for these quotations, I’m embarrassed to say that my notes for this one just say “National Post March 18, 2000 p. A8” and not the author. If you wrote it, or know who did, please let me know.
“Time is money? Got it ‘A U.S. inventor has created an alarm clock that shreds your money if you fail to get up to turn it off,’ says Orange Co. U.K. ‘Rich Olson combined a Sparkfun Clockit and a USB paper shredder to create the bizarre machine. He programmed the device to tear up a $1 bill if the user doesn’t turn it off within a few seconds.’”
“Social Studies” in Globe & Mail June 19, 2013
“For to feel oneself a martyr, as everybody knows, is a pleasurable thing, and the true tragedy of my position was that I had passed that stage. I had enjoyed what sweets it had to offer in ever dwindling degree since the middle of August…”
Erskine Childers The Riddle of the Sands
“Boys will quarrel, and when they quarrel will sometimes fight. Fighting with fists is the natural and English way for English boys to settle their quarrels. What substitute for it is there, or ever was there, amongst any nation under the sun? What would you like to see take its place?”
Thomas Hughes Tom Brown’s Schooldays