“Did anyone ever have a boring dream?” — Ralph Hodgson
Quotations
Worldly Wise
Proverbs from around the world:
- See that you are wise, but also learn to appear ignorant. (Armenian)
- If men could foresee the future, they would still behave as they do now. (Russian)
- Many have suffered for talking; none ever suffered for keeping silent. (Italian)
- To listen to a lie is harder than to tell it. (Turkish)
- Not your friend but your enemy will tell you who you are. (Greek)
- It is not the fault of the post that a blind man cannot see it. (Sanskrit)
- A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. (Irish)
- Patience is the door of joy. (German)
- If you are standing upright, do not fear a crooked shadow. (Chinese)
- The thief is sorry that he is to be hanged, not that he is a thief. (English)
- It is the poor who gives alms to the poor. (Japanese)
- Before you marry, think what you are doing. (Spanish)
- Better wisdom than riches. (Swedish)
- Bairns are certain care but no sure joy. (Scottish)
- There are forty kinds of lunacy, but only one kind of common sense. (West African)
And “It is easy to throw a stone into the Danube, but rather difficult to get it out.” (Yugoslavia)
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“A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth.” — John Singer Sargent
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“When you praise someone you call yourself his equal.” — Goethe
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“I never know whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.” — Thackeray
Misc
- Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, married Jack Haley Jr., son of the Tin Man.
- The Netherlands still sends 20,000 tulip bulbs to Canada each year.
- Every positive integer is a sum of distinct terms in the Fibonacci sequence.
- HIDEOUS and HIDEOUT have no vowel sounds in common.
- “Death is only a larger kind of going abroad.” — Samuel Butler
(Thanks, Colin and Joseph.)
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“Should a garden look as if the gardener worked on his knees? I ask you.” — Lincoln Steffens
“Today’s Work, Today’s Finish”
Chinese proverbs:
- Enough feathers can sink a boat.
- Laziness in youth spells regret in old age.
- The dog that bites won’t bare his teeth.
- Full of courtesy, full of craft.
- Suspicions create imaginary fears.
- No clouds, no rain; no rules, no gain.
- One fight sullies two persons; one compromise benefits two persons.
- Walk a road and it becomes familiar; do a job and it becomes easy.
- Worry doesn’t seek out people — people find worry on their own.
- Three people of a common mind can conquer the world.
- The going is toughest toward the end of a journey.
- The guilty party is the first to sue.
- If you fall down by yourself, get up by yourself.
- Thieves in the dark hate the moonlight.
- Every drama requires a fool.
- Perseverance is worth more than a vast estate.
- Prolonged illness makes a doctor of a patient.
- Smart people also do stupid things.
- The masses decide what is right and wrong.
- Gossip won’t harm a good person as stirring won’t spoil good wine.
And “Learning is like paddling a canoe against the current — you will regress if you don’t advance.”
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“How happy many people would be if they cared about other people’s affairs as little as about their own.” — G.C. Lichtenberg
“Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.” — Lord Chesterfield
“We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.” — La Rochefoucauld
“I set it down as a fact that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.” — Pascal
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“A sleeping child gives me the impression of a traveller in a very far country.” — Emerson