“Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.” — John Cleese

Dr. Cotton Mather, who was a man of uncommon dispatch and activity in the management of his numerous affairs, and improved every minute of his time, that he might not suffer by silly, impertinent, and tedious visiters, wrote over his study-door, in large letters, “Be short.”

Ursinus, a professor in the University of Heidelburgh, and a diligent scholar, to prevent gossips and idlers from interrupting him in his hours of study, wrote over the door of his library the following lines–“Friend, whoever thou art that comest hither, dispatch thy business or begone.”

The learned Scaliger placed the following sentence over the doors of his study–“Tempus meum est ager meus,” “My time is my field or estate.” And it is frequently the only valuable field which the labourer, in body or mind, possesses.

Ever hold time too precious to be spent
With babblers.–_Shakspeare._

“Friends,” says Lord Bacon, “are robbers of our time.”

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Jan. 15, 1831

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” — Popular Mechanics, 1949

“We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.” — Thomas Edison

“The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability, and something is bound to come of it.” — Engineer Vannevar Bush, 1945

“Genius is eternal patience.” — Michelangelo Buonarroti

“No human thing is of serious importance.” — Plato

“Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.” — Raymond Chandler