Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Events - SAYING

A strong imagination creates the event.

SAYING. In Montaigne, "Of the Power of the Imagination", Essays, 1588, tr. Donald M. Frame, 1958.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Egotism - FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867 - 1959), Recalled on his death, 9 April 1959.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Education - ROBERT FROST

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

ROBERT FROST (1874 - 1963), In "Quotable Quotes", Reader's Digest, April 1960.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Discontent - NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS

Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS (1885 - 1957), "The March: First Step" (17), The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises, 1927, tr. Kimon Friar, 1960.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Discontent - THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

THOMAS ALVA EDISON (1847 - 1931), The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison, 2.4.16, ed, Dagobert D. Runes, 1948.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Despair - JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

Human life begins on the other side of despair.

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905 - 1980), The Flies, 3.3, 1943.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Daring - MAO TSE TUNG

Dare to think and dare to do.

MAO TSE-TUNG
(1893 - 1976), Slogan, In Edgar Snow, Red China Today, 20, 1970.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Creativity - ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Often an idea would occur to me which seemed to have force .... I have never let one of those ideas escape me, but wrote it on a scrap of paper and put it in that drawer. In that way I saved my best thoughts on the subject, and, you know, such things often come in a kind of intuitive way more clearly than if one were to sit down and deliberately reason them out. To save the results of such mental action is true intellectual economy .... Of course, in this instance, I had to arrange the material at hand and adapt it to the particular case presented.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809 - 1865), Remarks to James F. Wilson, June 1862, In George Iles, ed., Autobiography, Greatest Americans, 1924.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Creativity - CHARLES DARWIN

I keep from thirty to forty large portfolios, in cabinets with labeled shelves, into which I can at once put a detached reference or memorandum. I have bought many books, and at their ends, I make an index of all the facts that concern my work; or, if the book is not my own, write out a separate abstract, and of such abstracts I have a large drawer full. Before beginning on any subject, I look to all the short indexes and make a general and classified index, and by taking the one or more proper portfolios I have all the information collected during my life ready to use.

CHARLES DARWIN (1809 - 1882), 1 Mat 1881, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin and Selected Letters, 2, ed. Francis Darwin, 1892.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Creativity - ERIC HOFFER

In animals, action follows on perception mechanically with almost chemical swiftness and certainty, but in man there is an interval of faltering and groping; and this interval is the seedbed of the images, ideas, dreams, aspirations, irritations, longings, and fore-bodings which are the warp and woof of the creative process.

ERIC HOFFER (1902 - 1983), The Ordeal of Change, 15.6, 1964.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Courage - MARK TWAIN

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

MARK TWAIN (1835 - 1910), The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, 12 (epigraph), 1894.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Courage - SENECA THE YOUNGER

No courage is so bold as that forced by utter desperation.

SENECA THE YOUNGER (5? B.C. - A.D. 65), "On Mercy" (1.12.5), Moral Essays, tr. John W. Basore, 1928.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Contemplation - ARISTOTLE

Contemplation is the highest form of activity.

ARISTOTLE (384 - 322 B.C), Nicomachean Ethics, 10.7, tr. J. A. K. Thomson, 1953.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Confidence - HENRY FORD

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

HENRY FORD (1863 - 1947).

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Civilization - SIGMUND FREUD

Civilization is the fruit of renunciation of instinctual satisfaction.

SIGMUND FREUD (1856 - 1939). "Reflections upon War and Death" (1), 1915, tr. E. Colburn Mayne, Character and Culture, 1963.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Character - MIGNON McLAUGHLIN

Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.

MIGNON McLAUGHLIN (1913 - 1983), The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 4, 1966.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Books - FRANZ KAFKA

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

FRANZ KAFKA (1883 - 1924), Letter to Oskar Pollak, 27 January 1904.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Books - THOMAS FULLER

Out of the Books thou readest, extract what thou likest; and then single out some Particular from the rest for that Day's Meditation.

THOMAS FULLER (1654 - 1734). Comp., Introductio ad Prudentiam, 1640, 1731.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Argument - BERTRAND RUSSELL

You mustn't exaggerate, young man. That's always a sign that your argument is weak.

BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872 - 1970), Tommy Robbins interview, Redbook, September 1964.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Ambition - SAYING

If you would be Pope, you must think of nothing else.

SAYING (SPANISH)

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Ambition - MALCOLM S. FORBES

Ambition is best not naked.

MALCOLM S. FORBES (1919 - 1990), "Fact and Comment", Forbes, 3 October 1988.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Ambition - ROBERT BROWNING

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a Heaven for?

ROBERT BROWNING (1812 - 1889), "Andrea del Sarto", 1. 97, Men and Women, 1855.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Alienation - KARL MARX

The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your externalized life - the greater is your alienation.

KARL MARX (1818 - 1883), Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, 1844.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Adversity - NAPOLEON

Adversity is the midwife of genius.

NAPOLEON (1769 - 1821), Napoleon in His Own Words, 2, comp. Jules Bertaut, 1916.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Activity - NAPOLEON

I multiplied myself by my activity.

NAPOLEON
(1769 - 1821), Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena (with Gen. Gaspard Gourgaud), 8, tr. Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer, 1904.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Action - PLUTARCH

[Caesar] slept generally in his chariot or litters, employing even his rest in pursuit of action.

PLUTARCH (A.D 46? - 119?), "Caesar", Parallel Lives, Dryden edition, 1693.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Action - THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Get action, do things; be sane; don't fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody: get action.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858 - 1919). In Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It, 9.1, 1948.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Action - PIERRE LECOMTE du NOUY

Action follows conviction, not knowledge.
PIERRE LECOMTE du NOUY (1883 - 1947), Human Destiny, 11, 1947.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Action - JOSH BILLINGS

"Be sure yu are rite then go ahed;" but in kase ov doubt go ahed enny wa.
JOSH BILLINGS (1818 - 1885), His Sayings, 39, 1867.