We may be able to Dodge an Elephant, but we Can't Fly

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The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear. – Baron de Montesquieu



The engineering is secondary to the vision. – Cynthia Ozick


Where the iron goes, there goes the rust. – Portuguese proverb


It is the little bits of things that fret and worry us; we can dodge an elephant, but we can’t a fly. – Josh Billings


We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us. – Father John Culkin


Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools. – Henry Daved Thoreau


Science is always wrong; it never solves a problem without creating ten more. – George Bernhard Shaw

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Hatred: the First Reaction to Truth

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If anyone in a discussion with us is not concerned with adjusting himself to truth, if he has no wish to find the truth, he is intellectually a barbarian. – Jose Ortega y Gasset

The first reaction to truth is hatred. – Tertullian

Truth hath a quiet breast. – William Shakespeare

Speak boldly, and speak truly, shame the devil. – John Fletcher

It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak and another to hear. – Henry David Thoreau

No generalization is wholly true, not even this one. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

You cannot conceive the many without the one. – Plato

Becoming Extremely Wicked Doesn't Happen Suddenly

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Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power and is often, in point of fact, useless. – Henry A. Kissinger

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it makes it difficult to class them serparately. One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous, makes the sublime again. – Thomas Paine

No one becomes extremely wicked suddenly. – Juvenal

Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it. – Sophocles

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk. – Henry David Thoreau

Forgetting of a wrontg is a mild revenge. – Thomas Fuller

The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief. – William Shakespeare

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Unemployment Averages are Dependent on Your Perspective

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The average American thinks he isn’t. – anonymous

The rate of unemployment is 100 percent if it’s you who is unemployed. – David L. Kurtz

The following conversation took place between a Ford Motor Company official and the late United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther. The Ford official was escorting Reuther through an ultra modern auto plant. He stopped and pointed toward several robots, and said, “How are you union people going to collect union dues from these guys?” Reuther answered, “How are you going to get them to buy Fords?”

Men have become the tools of their tools. – Henry David Thoreau

A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. – Oscar Wilde

The meek shall inherit the earth – but the strong shall retain the mineral rights. – anonymous

Pick Battles Big Enough to Matter

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Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. – Jonathan Kozol

You shouldn’t take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up. – G.K. Chesterton

One should never wear one’s best trousers to go out and battle for freedom and truth. – Henrik Ibsen

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital. – Joe Paterno

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. – Henry David Thoreau

Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people who do the right thing. – Warren G. Bennis

Leadership, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it. – Henry Mintzberg

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Beware of Enterprises that Require Clothes

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Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. – Arthur Schopenhaurer

Institutions mistake good intentions for objectives. They say “health care;” that’s an intention, not an objective. – Peter Drucker

Any man who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved has already defined his own limitations. – Cavett Robert

Nothing is so commonplace as to wish to be remarkable. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. – Friedrich Nietzsche

To open a business is very easy; to keep it open is very difficult. – Chinese proverb

Beware of enterprises that require new clothes. – Henry David Thoreau

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I Was Alarmed at my Doctor’s Report

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand. – Confucius

An old poacher makes a good gamekeeper. – anonymous

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? – Abraham Lincoln

No rich man is ugly. – Zsa Zsa Gabor

I base my fashion taste on what doesn’t itch. – Gilda Radner

Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new. – Henry David Thoreau

Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m a schizophrenic, and so am I. – anonymous

I was alarmed at my doctor’s report: he said I was sound as a dollar. – William Proxmire

A Corporation Cannot Blush - But Some Should

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Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip. – Will Rogers

They (corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicated, for they have no souls. – Sir Edward Coke

Americans: people who laugh at African witch doctors and spend 100 million dollars on fake reducing systems. – Leonard Louis Levinson

A corporation cannot blush. – anonymous

It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience. But a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. – Henry David Thoreau

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. – Edmund Burke

I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself. – Ivan Boesky

Nothing is illegal if a hundred businessmen decide to do it. – Andrew Young

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted the spoons. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sobriety in Moderation

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I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education. – Wilson Mizner

It has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake. – Mark Twain

I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine. – H.L. Mencken

There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation. – John Ciardi

Society attacks early when the individual is helpless. – B.F. Skinner

Society is always diseased and the best is most so. – Henry David Thoreau

Solitude would be ideal if you could pick the people to avoid. – Karl Kraus

There’s nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn’t cure. – Ross MacDonald

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