Library Update: quotes archive
The Library Update is emailed each week to subscribers. Each issue contains an interesting or humourous quote. All the quotes used since 2000 are listed here. Subscribe to the Library Update.
- no.46
- Nagging is the repetition of unpalatable truths. - Baroness Edith Summerskill, British doctor and politician, (1901 - 1980).
- no.45
- The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated. Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet, author (1854 - 1900).
- no.44
- The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it. - George Bernard Shaw, author, (1856-1950).
- no.43
- Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - Bill Watterson, cartoonist, (1958 - ).
- no.42
- What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. -Salman Rushdie, writer (b. 1947)
- no.41
- Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill, politician (1874 - 1965).
- no.40
- Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. - Ovid, Roman poet (43 BC - 17 BC)
- no.39
- If you don't know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues' initials on 'em, and pass them along. When in doubt, route. - Malcolm Forbes, publisher, (1919 - 1990).
- no.38
- He who laughs last has not yet heard the bad news. - Bertolt Brecht, dramatist, (1898 - 1956).
- no.37
- Think twice before you speak, and then you may be able to say something more insulting than if you spoke right out at once. - Evan Esar, (1899 - 1995), Esar's Comic Dictionary.
- no.36
- I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time. - H. L. Mencken, editor (1880 - 1956).
- no.35
- Under every stone lurks a politician. - Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Thesmophoriazusae, 410 B.C.
- no.34
- It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. - Harry S. Truman, politician (1884 - 1972).
- no.33
- No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. - P.J. O'Rourke, political satirist, journalist, and writer (1947 - ).
- no.32
- Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance. - Wynton Marsalis, instrumentalist and composer, (1961 - ).
- no.31
- It is unfortunate we can't buy many business executives for what they are worth and sell them for what they think they are worth. - Malcolm Forbes, publisher (1919 - 1990).
- no.30
- I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me. - John Cleese (1939 - ).
- no.29
- Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet 'em on your way down. - Wilson Mizner, screenwriter, (1876 - 1933).
- no.28
- My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. - Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 - 1881).
- no.27
- The great leaders are like the best conductors - they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players. - Blaine Lee, teacher, instructional designer (1946 - 2009).
- no.26
- Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results. - Scott Adams, cartoonist, (1966 - ).
- no.25
- It's a disease, I tell you. The apparent inability to accept the fact that we're not all a uniform gray paste. - Linus Torvalds, software engineer, developer of the Linux kernel, (1969 - ).
- no.24
- If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion. - George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist and socialist, (1856 - 1950).
- no.23
- Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results. - Scott Adams, cartoonist, (1966 - ).
- no.22
- Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory. - John Kenneth Galbraith, US (Canadian-born) administrator and economist, (1908 - 2006).
- no.21
- Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. - Kurt Vonnegut, US novelist (1922 - 2007).
- no.20
- Strange game. The only winning move is not to play. - A computer, after simulating hundreds of war games in the movie WarGames (1983), written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes.
- no.19
- The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them. - Sir William Henry Bragg, British physicist (1862 - 1942).
- no.18
- The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now. - Chinese proverb.
- no.17
- When you battle with your conscience and lose, you win. - Henny Youngman, comedian and violinist (1906-1998).
- no.16
- There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity. - Tom Peters, writer on business management practices, (1942 - ).
- no.15
- What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork. - Pearl Bailey, singer, actor, (1918 - 1990).
- no.14
- Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. - Erica Jong, writer and teacher, (1942 - ).
- no.13
- Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime. - Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1915 - 1985).
- no.12
- Myth: we have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment - making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so. -Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author (b. 1953) and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author (b. 1945).
- no.11
- I have seen the future and it doesn't work. - Robert Fulford, journalist, magazine editor, and essayist (1932 - ).
- no.10
- Conscience is a man's compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities when directing one's course by it, one must still try to follow its direction. - Vincent van Gogh, painter (1853-1890)
- no.9
- I found in running businesses that the best results come from letting high-grade people work unencumbered. - Warren Buffett, investor, businessman, and philanthropist, (1930 - ).
- no.8
- Well, we can't stand around here doing nothing, people will think we're workmen. - Spike Milligan, comedian, writer, musician, poet and playwright (1918 - 2002).
- no.7
- Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. - Plato (c.427-347 BC)
- no.6
- Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882).
- no.5
- Listen. Do not have an opinion while you listen because frankly, your opinion doesn't hold much water outside of Your Universe. Just listen. Listen until their brain has been twisted like a dripping towel and what they have to say is all over the floor. - Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, 02-14-2003.
- no.4
- My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition. - Indira Gandhi, Indian politician, (1917 - 1984)
- no.3
- Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort. The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. - John Ruskin, English critic, essayist, and reformer, (1819 - 1900).
- no.2
- The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. - Sam Levenson, (1911 - 1980).
- no.1
- A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible. - Thomas Hardy, author, poet, (1840 – 1928).