“Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.” — Bertrand Russell

“Motion pictures need dialogue as much as Beethoven symphonies need lyrics.” — Charlie Chaplin

From A.J. Ayer to Xenophanes, TPM Online’s online quotation database serves up shining pearls from philosophers new and old:

• Seneca: “There is no great genius without some touch of madness.”
• John Dewey: “Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.”
• Miss Alabama 1994: “I would not live forever because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever.”

Wait, how’d that last one get in there?

“Seek simplicity, but distrust it.” — Alfred North Whitehead