“O foolish creatures that destroy/ Themselves for transitory joy.”
The moral in Aesop’s tale of the flies who get stuck in the spilled honey, quoted in William Bennett The Book of Virtues
“It’s hard to argue with that kind of reasoning.”
John Robson (me) confronted with a ridiculous and belligerent argument, January 27, 2001
“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.”
Doug Larson, quoted on https://www.hound-dog-media.com
“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again - and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.”
Mark Twain, quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail July 24, 2008
“It is better to play for nothing than to work for nothing.”
Adam Smith, quoted in Jan de Vries The Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis, 1600-1750