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.50
- The question is not can they reason? Nor can they talk? But can they suffer? - Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (1748-1832)
- no.49
- We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? - Jean Cocteau, author and painter (1889-1963)
- no.48
- Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts - Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)
- no.47
- There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even totrees and plants. - Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)
- no.46
- Language is not neutral. It is not merely a vehicle which carries ideas. It is itself a shaper of ideas. - Dale Spender, writer (1943- )
- no.45
- He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, and philosopher (1772-1834)
- no.44
- Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe. - Robert Service, writer (1874-1958)
- no.43
- Even for our enemies in misery, there should be tears in our eyes. - Charan Singh, mystic (1916-1990)
- no.42
- By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest. - Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c.551-479 BC)
- no.41
- The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
- no.40
- It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships that they give credibility to the opinions they attack. - Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)
- no.39
- Never lend books - nobody ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me. - Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)
- no.38
- Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. - Booker T. Washington, reformer, educator, and author (1856-1915)
- no.37
- Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion. - Mark Twain, (1835-1910)
- no.36
- In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it. - John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)
- no.35
- The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. - Bertrand Russell, logician, writer (1872-1970)
- no.34
- None. Quiz week.
- no.33
- To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
- no.32
- From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, The place is dignified by the doer's deed. - All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 3. William Shakespeare. (1564-1616)
- no.31
- In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth - teaching others. - Ibn Gabirol, poet and philosopher (c. 1022-1058)
- no.30
- When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always. - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)
- no.29
- There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed. - Buddha
- no.28
- The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. - John Vance Cheney, poet (1848-1922)
- no.27
- In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth - teaching others. - Ibn Gabirol, poet and philosopher (c. 1022-1058)
- no.26
- Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao Tzu, philosopher (6th century B.C.)
- no.25
- You can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sails. - Proverb
- no.24
- Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. - Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
- no.23
- To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
- no.22
- Write kindness in marble and write injuries in dust. - Persian Proverb
- no.21
- A book is a garden carried in the pocket. - Chinese proverb
- no.20
- The best cure for worry, depression, melancholy, brooding, is to go deliberately forth and try to lift with one's sympathy the gloom of somebody else. - Arnold Bennett, novelist (1867-1931)
- no.19
- Libraries are some of my favorite places. They are not only full of books and papers of all kinds, but they are managed by people who both know what they're doing and actually want to be of assistance to their customers, a rare social phenomenon these days. - Philip R. Craig, author, "Vineyard Blues", c2000, p.101.
- no.18
- When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it. - Clarence Darrow, lawyer and author (1857-1938)
- no.17
- Perhaps the two most valuable and satisfactory products of civilization are the librarian on the one hand and the cocktail in the other. - Louis Stanley Jast
- no.16
- He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, and philosopher (1772-1834)
- no.15
- The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. - Bertrand Russell
- no.14
- One's age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful. - Thomas Arnold, educator (1795-1842)
- no.13
- Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind. - Seneca, Roman philosopher, statesman, orater, and tragedian (4 BC - 65 AD)
- no.12
- We should measure affection, not like youngsters by the ardour of its passion, but by its strength and constancy. - Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer, (106-43 BCE)
- no.11
- I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world. - Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
- no.10
- Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. - George Bernard Shaw, dramatist, critic, novelist, and Nobel laureate (1856-1950)
- no.9
- Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents. - Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)
- no.8
- Winners of Wordsmith.org's "E-mail Address of the Month" award: (yes, these are REAL addresses) - mylettersareonfire@hotmail.com - a-a-a-choo@allergist.com - I'mworking@homehonest.freeserve.co.uk - dot@dotat.at - size-13@bigfoot.com - Goofing.off@home.com - james@bond.007.org - dreamer@escape.com
- no7.
- Walking is man's best medicine. - Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine (460-377 BC)
- no.6
- The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. - Groucho Marx
- no.5
- It is a shameful thing to insult a little child. It has its feelings, it has its small dignity; and since it cannot defend them, it is surely an ignoble act to injure them. - Mark Twain
- no.4
- It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. - Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
- no.3
- If you have an apple and I have an apple and if we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw
- no.2
- How to be stressed: You should have two mobile phones, a home phone and fax, a work phone and fax and a minimum of one paging service, a communications satellite and two cans joined by a piece of string. Make sure everybody has all of your numbers. - Kaz Cooke
- no.1
- The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. - James Branch Cabell, novelist, essayist, critic (1879-1958)