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.
Quotes 2007
- no.51
- A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of. - Burt Bacharach, US songwriter (1928 - ).
- no.50
- I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end. - Margaret Thatcher, in Observer April 4, 1989, British politician (1925 - ).
- no.49
- Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. - Laurens van der Post, explorer and writer (1906-1996)
- no.48
- I think it's very important to be idle. People who keep themselves busy all the time are generally not creative. So I am not ashamed of being idle. - Freeman Dyson, English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, (1923 - ).
- no.47
- It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong. - Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988)
- no.46
- So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. - Peter Drucker, American (Austrian-born) management writer (1909 - 2005)
- no.45
- Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there. - Clare Booth Luce, US diplomat, dramatist, journalist, and politician (1903 - 1987).
- no.44
- The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic - in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea - known to medical science is work. -Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (b. 1920)
- no.43
- Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box. - Italian Proverb
- no.42
- All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income. - Samuel Butler, English composer, novelist, & satiric author (1835 - 1902)
- no.41
- How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese? - Charles De Gaulle, in "Les Mots du General", 1962 French general and politician (1890 - 1970)
- no.40
- Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties. - Doug Larson
- no.39
- I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. - Anna Quindlen, (1953 - )
- no.38
- Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Isaac Asimov, US science fiction novelist & scholar (1920 - 1992).
- no.37
- How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read. - Karl Kraus, Austrian author and journalist, (1874 - 1936).
- no.36
- I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up. - Tom Lehrer, US humorist, singer, & songwriter (1928 - )
- no.35
- Encourage your people to be committed to a project rather than just involved in it. You know the difference between involvement and commitment don't you? In a meal of bacon and eggs, the chicken is involved, the pig is committed - Richard Pratt, businessman (1934 - )
- no.34
- Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read. - Frank Zappa, musician, singer, & songwriter (1940 - 1993)
- no.33
- If one synchronised swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too? - Steven Wright, US comedian and actor, (1955 - )
- no.32
- A child, like your stomach, doesn't need all you can afford to give it. - Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )
- no.31
- Good prose is like a windowpane. - George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)
- no.30
- Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffiene, sugar and fat. - Alex Levine, Irish actor, author and musician.
- no.29
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. - William Arthur Ward, college administrator, writer (1921-1994)
- no.28
- Millions and millions of exuberant monkeys ... are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity. - Andrew Keen, in "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture", (1961 - )
- no.27
- The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe. - Peter De Vries, editor, novelist (1910-1993)
- no.26
- Underground nuclear testing, defoliation of the rain forests, toxic waste... Let's put it this way: if the world were a big apartment, we wouldn't get our deposit back. - John Ross
- no.25
- Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. - Groucho Marx, US comedian with Marx Brothers (1890 - 1977).
- no.24
- My mother used to say that there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet. She's now in a maximum security twilight home in Australia. - Dame Edna Everage, housewife, superstar (1934 - ).
- no.23
- I've always found paranoia to be a perfectly defensible position. - Pat Conroy, US novelist (1945 - )
- no.22
- Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on earth, with a top speed of 120 ft/sec, is a cow that has been dropped out of a helicopter. - Dave Barry, US columnist, humorist and Pulitzer Prize Laureate.
- no.21
- There is no pleasure in having nothing to do. The fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. - Mary Wilson Little
- no.20
- We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered. - Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, British dramatist & screenwriter (1937 - )
- no.19
- You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. - Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (Physics), (1879 - 1955)
- no.18
- Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge. - Scott Adams, US cartoonist (1957 - )
- no.17
- Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster. - Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist, (1934 - ).
- no.16
- One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne, English author (1882 - 1956)
- no.15
- A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. - Sir Barnett Cocks, (1907 - 1989)
- no.14
- What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. - Thomas Carlyle, Scottish author, essayist, & historian (1795 - 1881)
- no.13
- How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young? - Paul Sweeney
- no.12
- No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. - Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)
- no.11
- For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work. -Doug Larson, Olympic Gold Medalist (1902-1981)
- no.10
- People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it. - Ogden Nash, US humorist & poet (1902 - 1971)
- no.9
- ...the user, or, in other words, the master, of the house will be even a better judge than the builder, just as the pilot will judge better of a rudder than the carpenter, and the guest will judge better of a feast than the cook. - Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)
- no.8
- We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like. - Jean Cocteau, French poet, director and painter (1889 - 1963).
- no.7
- Two years from now, spam will be solved. - Bill Gates, at the World Economic Forum, January 2004.
- 92.6% of all e-mail messages are spam. That's the highest it's ever been. - Dan Druker, spokesman for Postini, email filtering company, as spam volumes increased by 73% in the three months to December, 2006.
- no.6
- One of the things I've learned on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see - I've forgotten the name of the program - but you get the satellite, and you can - like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It reminds me of where I wanna be sometimes. - George W. Bush, asked during an interview with CNBC if he ever googled anybody, 2006.
- no.5
- No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why. - Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author, (1913 - 1983)
- no.4
- When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole one and asked for forgiveness. - Emo Philips, comedian (1956- )
- no.3
- What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad. - Dave Barry, US columnist, humorist and Pulitzer Prize Laureate.
- no.2
- Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. - Albert Einstein, US (German-born) physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (Physics)(1879 - 1955)
- no.1
- Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. - Theodore Rubin, psychiatrist and writer (1923- )