Showing posts with label Mark Twain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Twain. Show all posts

Monday, September 20, 2010

Technology or Perish?

PLANETART @ Kunstvlaai 2010Image by PLANETART via FlickrThe strength of a man’s virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts. – Blaise Pascal




Be good and you will be lonesome. – Mark Twain



Technology or perish. – John R Pierce



There are three ways of courting ruin – women, gambling and calling in technicians.



The genius of modern technology lies in making things to last fifty years and making them obsolete in three. – anonymous



Technology – the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it. – Max Frisch



Technology made large populations possible; large populations now make technology indispensable. – Joseph Wood Krutch




Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Evolution of Ethics

The Last Temptation of HomerImage via WikipediaThe quality of moral behavior varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved. – Aldous Leonard Huxley




Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. – Oscar Wilde



Always do right. This will surprise some people and astonish the rest. – Mark Twain



The best way to keep your word is not to give it. – Napolean Bonaparte



Most people are good only so long as they believe others to be so. – Friedrich Hebbel



The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. – Albert Schweitzer



The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. – Oscar Wilde




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Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Only Certainty - Oblivion

Cover Art for The Oblivion SocietyImage via WikipediaTo be somebody you must last. – Ruth Gordon




Some men’s reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance. – Archbishop Richard Whateley



The most serviceable of all assets is reputation – it works for you automatically – 24 hours a day. Unlike money, reputation cannot be bequeathed. It is always personal. It must be acquired. Brains alone, however brilliant, cannot win it. – Otto Kahn



These are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible. – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg



One may be better than his reputation, but never better than his principles. – Nicholas Valentin de Latena



A reputation for good judgment, for fair dealing, for truth, and for rectitude, is itself a fortune. – Henry Ward Beecher



Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion. – Mark Twain


Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Profanity of Uncompleted Tasks

No-profanityImage via WikipediaNothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. – William James




As a rule what is out of sight disturbs men’s minds more seriously than what they see. – Julius Caesar



Work and love – there are the basics. Without them, there is neurosis. – Theodor Reik



To carry care to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back. – Thomas C. Haliburton



In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer. – Mark Twain



Anxiety grows in solitude. Aloneness is the greatest breeding ground for the diffuse, unfocused, pervading uneasiness that makes us vulnerable to chronic worry. Almost anything can become a cause for concern to the solitary person; almost anything can make him fearful. – Allan Fromme



Anxiety in human life is what squeaking and grinding are in machinery that is not oiled. In life, trust is the oil. – Henry Ward Beecher






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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The No Man's Land Between Two Stools

1919 advertisement for Jubol (laxative)Image via WikipediaDo you have trouble making up your mind? Well – yes and no. – Herbert V. Prochnow




I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes, to make it up. – Mark Twain



Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind. – William Somerset Maugham



There are men who would even be afraid to commit themselves on the doctrine that castor oil is a laxative.



It’s no good saying, “Hold it” to a moment of real life. – Lord Snowdon



When we are not sure we are alive. – Graham Greene



Between two stools one falls to the ground. – proverb




Saturday, August 28, 2010

Never Insult an Alligator

Mercy shows Big Balls how to catch a snakeImage by Chickenboots via FlickrTell not all you know, believe not all you hear, do not all you are able. – Italian Proverb




There is no way to catch a snake that is as safte as not catching him. -–Jacob M Braude



Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river. – Cordell Hull



I had rather ride on an ass that carries me than a horse that throws me. – George Herbert



It is best to read the weather forecasts before we pray for rain. – Mark Twain



When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run. – Abraham Lincoln



Dig a well before you are thirsty. – Chinese Proverb
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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Ideas Contradict Ideas

7th may 2005 in Nürnberg - tabasco blue lighteningImage via Wikipedia
Above all do not talk yourself out of good ideas by trying to expound them at haphazard gatherings. – Jacques Barzun



Very simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds. – Remy de Gourmont



One thing that ideas do is to contradict other ideas and keep us from believing them. – William James.



Funny how people generally can do more than they think they can, and almost always do less than they think they do. – anonymous



Has God forgotten everything I’ve done for him? – King Louis XIV



Thunder is good, thunder is impressive, but it is the lightning that does the work. – Mark Twain



Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. – Thomas A. Edison
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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Like an Ox-Cart Driver in Monsoon Season

Kerala Monsoon Holidays - Photo of a newspaper adImage by /.\ via Flickr

Getting money is like digging with a needle. Spending it is like water soaking into sand. – Japanese proverb

The best plan is to profit by the folly of others. – Pliny the Elder

The happiest time in any man’s life is when he is in red-hot pursuit of a dollar with a reasonable prospect of overtaking it. – Henry Wheeler Shaw

The proper man understands equity, the small man profits. – Confucius

Where profit is, loss hides nearby. – Japanese proverb

Like a ox-cart driver in monsoon season or the skipper of a grounded ship, one must sometimes go forward by going back. – John Barth

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. – Mark Twain

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Saturday, May 8, 2010

To be Taken in by Hope

Eye Swear, hope to die .......Image by ViaMoi via Flickr

Nothing is good or bad but by comparison. – Thomas Fuller

If there’s an opinion, facts will be found to support it. – July Sproles

When people are least sure they are often most dogmatic. – John Kenneth Galbraith

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did, I said I didn’t know. – Mark Twain

Future, Noun – that period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. – Ambrose Bierce – The Devil’s Dictionary

During the last recession, many companies faced the future with “cautious optimism.” Hardly any chose to face it with “reckless pessimism.”

More are taken in by hope than by cunning. – Luc de Clapiers


Friday, May 7, 2010

It's Hard to put up with the Annoyance of a Good Example

IT IS IN YOUR SELF-INTEREST TO FIND A WAY TO B...Image by fish2000 via Flickr

Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind. – Louis Pasteur

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. – Andrew Carnegie

If self-interest is your goal, you don’t understand the problem. You also don’t know the law: Give to get. – Jeffrey G. Allen

The president of our company says he’s surrounded by yes men. He told me so himself, and I agreed with him. – Anonymous

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. – Mark Twain

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. – Albert Einstein

All empty souls tend to extreme opinion. – William Butler Yeats


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Sunday, April 25, 2010

No Good in Bed but Fine up Against a Wall

Golden Great WallImage by rich115 via Flickr

Today's quotes are from a friend - Durry Garbutt

Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you
should have remained a virgin.'
- Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)

I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not
pleased to read the description in the catalogue: - 'No good in a bed,
but fine against a wall.'
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I
have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that
statement..
- Mark Twain

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good
ending; and to have the two as close together as possible
- George Burns

Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.
- Victor Borge

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
- Mark Twain

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you
get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
- Socrates

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
- Groucho Marx

My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she
stops to breathe.
- Jimmy Durante

I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.
- Zsa Zsa Gabor

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food
groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
- Alex Levine

My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.
- Rodney Dangerfield

Money can't buy you happiness ... But it does bring you a more pleasant
form of misery.
- Spike Milligan

Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP .
- Joe Namath

I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for
my nap.
- Bob Hope

I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it..
- W. C. Fields

We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way
through Congress.
- Will Rogers

Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will
avoid you.
- Winston Churchill

Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty ... But everything else starts
to wear out, fall out, or spread out..
- Phyllis Diller

By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go
anywhere.
- Billy Crystal

Durry Garbutt REALTOR
Lighthouse Realty Associates, Inc.
5401 A1A South
St Augustine, FL 32080
904.471.3400 Free:800.471.3401
CELL:904.687.7865
durry@youcanliveinflorida.com
www.youcanliveinflorida.com


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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Hain't We Got all the Fools on our Side?

NGC 6543: The Cat's Eye Nebula ReduxImage by NASA Remix Man via Flickr

Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat’s ear. But only the wisest of cats would think to look there. – Andrew Mercer

Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town? – Mark Twain

I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad. – William Shakespeare

A wise man may look ridiculous in the company of fools. – Thomas Fuller

No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions. - Charles P. Steinmetz

No man is useless while he has a friend. – Robert Louis Stevenson

Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. – William Shakespeare


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Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Best Parachute Folders Jump Themselves

Aphrodisiac TelephoneImage by JoetheLion via Flickr

It has been well said that a hungry man is more interested in four sandwiches than four freedoms. – Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.Mark Twain

Every scarecrow has a secret ambition to terrorize. – Stanislaus J. Lec

The best parachute folders are those who jump themselves. – anonymous

To a man with an empty stomach, food is God. – Mohandas K. Gandhi

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. – Henry A. Kissinger

What people say behind your back is your standing in the community. – Ed Howe


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Monday, January 25, 2010

Pablo Picasso and an Act of Destruction

picasso 2.0 - the dreamImage by Zadi Diaz via Flickr

Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident. – Mark Twain

Imagination is more important than knowledge. – Albert Einstein

We must either find a way or make one. – attributed to Hannibal

Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction. – Pablo Picasso

To think is to act. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Few people do business well who do nothing else. – Philip Dormer Stanhope

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. – Pablo Picasso



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Friday, January 22, 2010

Men are like Nails

NailsImage via Wikipedia

Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings. – C.D. Jackson

Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will see farther. – anonymous

Businesses planned for service are apt to succeed; businesses planned for profit are apt to fail. – Nicholas M. Butler

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose direction and begin to bend. – Walter Savage Landor

We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to obtain excellence. – Eric Hoffer

Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all. – Mark Twain



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Monday, January 11, 2010

Be Good and You will become Lonesome

Mark Twain (penname of Samuel Langhorne Clemen...Image via Wikipedia

God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things. – Pablo Picasso

A man becomes like those whose society he loves. – Hindu proverb

The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. – Walter Bagehot

Be good and you will become lonesome. – Mark Twain

Remember: one lie does not cost you one truth, but the truth. – Friedrich Hebbel

Trust everybody but cut the cards. – Finley Peter Dunne

Never trust a man who speaks well of everybody. – John Churton Collins


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Thursday, January 7, 2010

The Principle Difference Between a Dog and a Man

"Oliver Wendell Holmes in the study of hi...Image via Wikipedia

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. – Alfred Adler

You can fool al of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, and that’s good enough. – Laurence J. Peter

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man. – Mark Twain

In certain trying instances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer. – Mark Twain

Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. – Hyman G. Rickover

If man is a minority of one, we lock him up. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

He who fears something gives it power over him. – Moorish proverb



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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Judge a Man by What He Laughs At

PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND - APRIL 06:  Sailing boats...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat in a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman who troubles are worse than your own. – Nelson Algren

I shut my eyes in order to see. – Paul Gauguin

I can usually judge a fellow by what he laughs at. – Wilson Mizner

In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard. – Theodore Roosevelt

Eat with the rich, but go to the play with the poor, who are capable of joy. – Logan Pearsall Smilt

A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world. – John Le Carre

Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody. – Mark Twain


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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Dog’s Ideal of What God Should Be

Oliver Goldsmith, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (died...Image via Wikipedia

If God lived on earth, people would break His windows. – Yiddish proverb

A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die. – Philip Roth

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. – Oliver Goldsmith

Look at those cows and remember the greatest scientist in the world have never discovered how to make grass into milk. – Michael Pupin

God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December. – James Matthew Barrie

God will not look you over for medical degrees, or diplomas, but for scars. – Elbert Hubbard

I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey. – Mark Twain

God is always on the side of the big battalions. – Henri de La Tour

Man is a dog’s ideal of what God should be. – Holbrook Jackson


Monday, December 28, 2009

She Can’t Wait to Disprove It

Screenshot from Charade showing Cary Grant and...Image via Wikipedia

To succeed with the opposite sex tell her you’re impotent. She can’t wait to disprove it. – Cary Grant

What ought to be done to the man who invented the celebrating of anniversaries? Mere killing would be too light. – Mark Twain

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he’s married. – H.L. Mencken

Husbands think we should know where everything is: like the uterus is a tracking device. He asks me, “Roseanne, do we have any Cheetos left?” Like he can’t go over to that sofa cushion and lift it himself. - Roseanne Barr

Women seem to be all right on bargains till it comes to picking out a husband. – Frank McKinney Hubbard

A husband is one who stands by you in troubles you wouldn’t have had if you hadn’t married him. – anonymous

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – and Jill a rich widow. – Evan Esar



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