About the Almanack

Born in Brooklyn in 1932, Leonard Roy Frank graduated from of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and has lived in San Francisco since 1959. Frank is the editor of Random House Webster’s Quotationary (20,000 quotes arranged in 1,000 alphabetized categories; published hardcover in 1998 and paperback in 2000). His Random House Webster’s Wit & Humor Quotationary was published in 2000. In 2003, Random House published his Freedom: Quotes and Passages from the World’s Greatest Freethinkers and 5 gift books titled Inspiration, Love, Money, Wisdom, and Wit, each subtitled The Greatest Things Ever Said.

The Almanack is prepared chronologically by month, each accessible through the index or by scrolling.

The Almanack contains individual quotations and Mr. Frank's own original thoughts (aphorisms, witticisms, sayings, precepts, observations) which appear on alternating days.

December, 2011

December 1: There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.    NELSON MANDELLA, quoted in Joel Bakan, “The Kids Are Not All Right,” New York Times, 22 August 2011.

December 2: Religion leads either to virtue or hypocrisy.

December 3: There is meaning beyond the mystery.     ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL (Polish-American theologian), God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, ch. 6, 1955.

December 4: Give everyone the benefit of the doubt unless you have good reason not to.

December 5: For what avail the plough or sail, / Or land, or life, if freedom fail?
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (American philosopher), “Boston,” Selected Poems, 1876.

December 6: Once a critical mass is reached, the question changes from, “War or peace?” to “Sooner or later?”

December 7: A Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a strategic impossibility. GEORGE FIELDING ELIOT (American military writer and broadcaster), “The Impossible War with Japan,” American Mercury, September 1938. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on this day 70 years ago.

December 8: The more the experts agree among themselves, the less likely they are to be right.

December 9: In our political culture if you inherit a problem and don’t fix it, you own it.
BILL KELLER (former New York Times executive editor), referring to the problems President Obama inherited upon taking office, “Fill in the Blanks,” New York Times, 19 September 2011.

December 10: Beware of flatterers, fence sitters, and fools.

December 11: The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America.... This is our summons to greatness.
RICHARD M. NIXON, First Inaugural Address, 20 January 1969.

December 12: War is temporary hell: hell is permanent war.

December 13: The wise learn from the mistakes of others; fools, not even from their own.
ENGLISH SAYING.

December 14: Their faith is small who sacrifice reason to it.

December 15: Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
STEVE JOBS (co-founder of Apple, Inc.), Stanford University commencement address, 12 June 2005.

December 16: The best measure of success is what we do with what we have.

December 17: What do you suppose [they] are in Congress for, if it ain't to split up the swag?
WILL ROGERS (American humorist and actor, 1879-1935), 1 January 1928, The Autobiography of Will Rogers, edited by Donald Day, 1949.

December 18: There are two kinds of criminals: those who get caught and the rest of us.

December 19: None so Empty as those who are Full of themselves.      BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE (English theologian, 1609-1683), Moral and Religious Aphorisms, no. 987, 1753.

December 20: Never yawn in another’s face — especially when they’re talking.

December 21: The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
RITA MAE BROWN (American writer), Bingo, 1988.

December 22: A true friend is one who tells us the truth.

December 23: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
PAUL (Christian apostle, 1st century CE), Romans 12:21 (Revised Standard Version).

December 24: Better an ounce of generosity than a pound of compassion.

December 25: Forgive, and you will be forgiven. JESUS, Luke 6:37 (Revised Standard Version)

December 26: May your body leave your soul before your soul leaves your body.

December 27: The universe... is a machine for the making of gods.
HENRI BERGSON (French philosopher), closing words, “Final Remarks,” The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, 1932, translated by R. Ashley Audra and Cloudesley Brereton, 1935.

December 28: We are enfleshed love.

December 29: The final goal of human effort is man’s self-transformation.
LEWIS MUMFORD (American social philosopher), The Conduct of Life, ch. 9, sect. 1, 1951.

December 30: What we sow on earth we reap in heaven.

December 31: The strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung.
WALT WHITMAN (American poet), closing words, “A Backward Glance O’er Travel’d Roads,” preface to November Boughs, 1888

November, 2011

November 1: I am in the night. There is a being who has gone away and carried the heavens with her.

November 2: Speak softly and carry a big carrot.

November 3:  Man was made for action, and to promote by the exertion of his faculties such changes in the external circumstances both of himself and others, as may seem most favorable to the happiness of all.       ADAM SMITH (Scottish philosopher and economist), The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Liberty Classics edition, p. 196, 1759.

November 4: Let conscience, informed by experience and history, be your guide.

November 5: Integrity pays, but not in cash.
JENNIFER STONE (American writer), “Lesbian Liberation,” Mind Over Media, 1988.

November 6: Wall Street may be the canary in the mine.

November 7: Youth is when you blame your troubles on your parents; maturity is when you learn that everything is the fault of the younger generation.     BERTOLT BRECHT (German playwright, 1898-1956), quoted in Gill Jones, An Introduction to Youth Studies, ch. 2, 2003.

November 8: If you had no money, what would you be worth? If you had the answer, what would the question be?

November 9: May you grow up to be righteous, / May you grow up to be true, / May you always know the truth / And see the lights surrounding you. / May you always be courageous, / Stand upright and be strong, / May you stay forever young,    BOB DYLAN, “Forever Young” (song), 2000.

November 10: The more doctors, the more disease; the more lawyers, the more crime; the more philosophers, the more folly; the more priests, the more sin.

November 11: There is no remedy for love but to love more.    HENRY DAVID THOREAU (American philosopher), journal, 25 July 1839.

November 12: Charity is a poor substitute for justice.

November 13: True peace is not merely the absence of [war]; it is the presence of justice.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 2, 1958.

November 14: Individual transformation and social transformation must accompany each other for either to endure.

November 15: I asked Tom if countries always apologized when they had done wrong, and he says: “Yes; the little ones does.”    MARK TWAIN, Tom Sawyer Abroad, ch. 12, 1894.

November 16: The measure of love is kindness.

November 17: The Dodd-Frank financial overhaul last year barred lenders from making home loans before determining that people could probably repay them. (It’s depressing that we have to legislate common sense, but, hey, that’s the world we live in.)   GRETCHEN MORGENSON (American journalist), “Some Bankers Never Learn,” New York Times, 31 July 2011.

November 18: God must be suffering from delusions of grandeur: He thinks He’s created the universe.  

November 19: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.... “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”
ANONYMOUS (Hebrew writer, 7th century BCE), Job 38:1-4 (Revised Standard Version).

November 20: The miracle is not that the world was created in six days, but that it was created at all.

November 21: It’s never too late to become the person you might have been.
GEORGE ELIOT (English writer, 1819-1880), attributed.

November 22: Successful people keep their eye on the ball, their ear to the groundand their shoulder to the wheel.

November 23: This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.   GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (Irish playwright), epistle dedicatory to Man and Superman, 1903.

November 24: Fanaticism, n. Both the offspring and parent of persecution.

November 25: There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter,... will abandon war forever.
THOMAS ALVA EDISON (American inventor), 1922, The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison,  1948.

November 26: Individuals who don't accept their place in the social order anger those who do. 

November 27: I must save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed.    ABRAHAM LINCOLN, closing words, letter to Reverdy Johnson, 26 July 1862.

November 28: Nothing so hinders the advance toward freedom as the illusion of being free.

November 29: Make me worthy of your love; make my love worthy of you.
RALPH BRANCA (American baseball player), the prayer he’s recited regularly for 60 years, quoted in Joshua Prager, “For Branca, an Asterisk of a Different Kind,” New York Times, 15 August 2011.

November 30: The rich are satisfied with what they have, no matter how little; the poor are dissatisfied with what they have, no matter how much.

October, 2011

October 1: If love isn’t the answer, there is none.

October 2: Being a woman [in the media world] has been a great help. It’s like being a man, only better.     CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR (British broadcast journalist), Piers Morgan television interview, CNN, 22 June 2011.

October 3: To be well-taught become your own teacher.

October 4: For those who predict [gold] will be valuable if society completely collapses, guns and canned goods might come in handier.    DAVID M. DAVIDOFF (American law professor), “How to Deflate a Gold Bubble (That Might Not Even Exist),” New York Times, 31 August 2011.

October 5: If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

October 6: The danger of success is that it makes us forget the world's dreadful injustice.
JULES RENARD (French writer), journal, January 1908, translated by Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Roget, 1964.

October 7: Bores like to listen to themselves talk more than others do. 

October 8: The more deeply I search for the roots of our global environmental crisis, the more I am convinced that it is an outer manifestation of an inner crisis that is, for lack of a better word, spiritual.
AL GORE (American vice president), Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, p. 12, 1992.

October 9:  Become the lesson you would teach.

October 10: Woman to man at a cocktail party: One question: if this is the Information Age, how come nobody knows anything?    ROBERT MANKOFF (American cartoonist), cartoon caption, New Yorker, 20 April 1998.

October 11: We readily see in others the faults we dare not see in ourselves.

October 12: A nation becomes a great power only on one condition: that its military establishment and resources are such that it could really threaten decisive warfare.... Military power determines the political standing of nations.          C. WRIGHT MILLS (American sociologist), The Power Elite, ch. 4, sect. 3, 1956.

October 13: Most people are ready to sacrifice everything for peace except their prejudices and privileges.

October 14: The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. Both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.
   ERNEST HEMINGWAY (American writer), “Notes on the Next War,” Esquire, September 1935.

October 15: Speaking one’s mind is everyone’s right, but no one has the right to be taken seriously.

October 16: What does not kill me makes me stronger.
  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (German philosopher), “Maxims and Arrows,” Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize With a Hammer, 1889, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, 1968. 

October 17: Every moment of every day / We do our best in every way.

October 18: The nations are like a drop from a bucket.
  ISAIAH (Hebrew prophet, 8th century CBE), Isaiah 40:15 (Revised Standard Version).

October 19: In times of great crisis, everything is forgiven except failure.

October 20: Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.     HELEN KELLER (American writer and lecturer), 10 December 1936, Helen Keller's Journal, 1936-1937, 1938.

October 21: We’ll have a better world when we have better human beings.

October 22: Wars are occasioned by the love of money.
SOCRATES (Greek philosopher, 470?-399 BCE), quoted in Plato, Phaedo, para. 66, translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1894.

October 23: The brave may know defeat but never despair.

October 24: History is a chronicle of people clinging to erroneous ideas authenticated as religious or scientific truths.     THOMAS SZASZ (Hungarian-American philosopher and psychiatrist), “On Not Admitting Error,” The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, March 2007.

October 25: The most essential truths are not subject to proof or disproof.

October 26: Integrity has no need of rules.    ALBERT CAMUS (French writer), “The Absurd Man,” The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942, translated by Justin O’Brien, 1955.

October 27: Better works without faith than faith without works.

October 28: There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.       TOM PETERS (American writer and lecturer), Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution, 1987.

October 29: Not even a great library could contain the whole of human knowledge, but the wisdom of the ages could easily fit into a small pamphlet.

October 30: You make yourself what you are.
TERRENCE MALICK (American producer and scriptwriter), The Tree of Life (film), 2011.

October 31: No freedom without responsibility; no responsibility without freedom.

July, 2011

July 1: To be true to ourselves or not to be true to ourselves —  that is the question.

July 2: The first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.
ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE (English historian, 1889-1975), quoted in Martin Luther King Jr., “Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam,” sermon, Riverside Church, New York City, 4 April 1967

July 3: People who do little or nothing while awaiting events are usually engulfed by them.

July 4: The center and supreme object of liberty is the reign of conscience.... Liberty is the condition which makes it easy for conscience to govern.    LORD ACTON (English historian, 1834-1902), Essays in the Study and Writing of History, vol. 3, pgs. 490-491, edited by J. Rufus Fears, 1988.

July 5: Better freedom without equality than equality without freedom.

July 6: There is nothing else but God / Where e’er I look / All things hasten back to him / Light is but his shadow dim .       RALPH WALDO EMERSON (American philosopher), journal, 6 July 1831. Emerson was born on this day in 1803.

July 7: Anything can happen and probably will.

July 8: I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.      MAYA ANGELOU (American poet), quoted in Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week, www.drmardy.com, 3 April 2011.

July 9: To understand someone, know who they're named after, who their friends and heroes are, and the books they've read a second time.

July 10: Luck is the residue of design. 
BRANCH RICKEY (American baseball executive), quoted in “The Mahatma” (obituary), Time, 17 December 1965. As general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Rickey signed Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the major leagues.

July 11: Progress that doesn’t advance everyone is an illusion.

July 12: The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is — it’s to imagine what is possible.
 BELL HOOKS (American writer and social activist), Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representation, ch. 29, 1994.

July 13: Fortune favors those who make themselves worthy of her.

July 14: Fortune turns everything to the advantage of those she favors.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (French aphorist), Maxims, no. 60, 1665, translated by Leonard Tancock, 1959.

July 15: No happiness without freedom; no freedom without virtue.

July 16: The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our way of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.... The solution of this problem lies in the heart of humankind.      ALBERT EINSTEIN (German-American physicist), slightly modified, speech before the National Commission of Nuclear Scientists, 24 May 1946.

July 17: Civilization is either a catastrophe waiting to happen or a launching pad into a barely imaginable world of wonder and delight.

July 18: Here’s to life / And every joy it brings / Here’s to life / To dreamers and their dreams / May all your storms be weathered / And all that’s good get better / Here’s to life / Here’s to love /And here’s to you   PHYLLIS MOLINARY (American lyricist), closing lines, “Here’s to Life” (song), 1990.

July 19: Desperate situations call for desperate measures. In times of extreme crisis, everything is forgiven but failure.

July 20: The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a time of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
DANTE (Italian poet, 1265-1321), as paraphrased by John F. Kennedy in his remarks at the signing of the charter which established the German Peace Corps, Bonn (West Germany), 24 June 1963.

July 21: Were God not seeking us, we would not find God.

July 22: There are circumstances which have to do with simple human honor. No matter the risk, to resist and not surrender.      ANTONIN ARTAUD (French playwright), letter to André Breton, 28 February 1947, published in L’Ephémère (Paris), no. 8, 1969.

July 23: We are all part of that great rebel soul which in each of us is waiting for the tide to turn – or the opportunity to help turn it.

July 24: To the States, or any one of them, or any city of the States, / Resist much, obey little./ Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved.
WALT WHITMAN (American poet), “To the States,” 1860, Leaves of Grass, 1855-1892.

July 25: We find our purpose only after it has found us.

July 26: To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.      GEORGE ORWELL (English writer), “In Front of Your Nose” (essay), Tribune (England), 22 March 1946.

July 27: Conventional wisdom is to wisdom what junk food is to food.

July 28: The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
WILLIAM FAULKNER (American writer), Requiem for a Nun, act 1, sc. 3, 1951.

July 29: We are called upon to practice loving-kindness in everything we say and do with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our might.

July 30: To act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of.  That's a trick that never seems to fail.         JOSEPH HELLER (American writer), Catch-22, ch. 13, 1961.

July 31: Dogma is what many of us fall back on to avoid thinking.

May, 2011

May 1:  Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Col. Edward Carrington, 16 January 1787.

May 2: Without social justice, democracy is a sham.

May 3: There is no credit to being a comedian, when you have the whole Government working for you. All you have to do is report the facts. WILL ROGERS (American humorist and actor), quoted in P. J. O'Brien, Will Rogers, Ambassador of Good Will, Prince of Wit and Wisdom, ch. 9, 1935.

May 4: The twin engines that drive the financial machine are greed and ignorance.

May 5: Discontent is the first necessity of progress. THOMAS ALVA EDISON (American inventor, 1847-1931), The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison, edited by Dagobert D. Runes, 1948.

May 6: Being hungry and free is no more possible than being ignorant and free.

May 7: All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.
ADLAI E. STEVENSON (Illinois governor, Democratic presidential nominee and United Nations ambassador), campaign speech, Princeton University (New Jersey), 22 March 1954.

May 8: What each political party says about the other is true.

May 9: The real existence of an enemy upon whom one can foist off everything evil is an enormous relief to one’s conscience. You can then at least say, without hesitation, who the devil is; you are quite certain that the cause of your misfortune is outside, and not in your own attitude.
CARL G. JUNG (Swiss psychiatrist), “General Aspects of Dream Psychology,” 1916.

May 10: The twin pillars of religion are mysticism and morality: remove either and the entire structure eventually topples.

May 11: Empires have no interest in operating within an international system; they aspire to be the international system.   HENRY A. KISSINGER, Diplomacy, ch. 1, 1994.

May 12: Faith without works ain’t worth a bucket of warm spit.

May 13: Freedom of speech is of no use to a man who has nothing to say.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, campaign speech, Cleveland, 2 November 1940.

May 14: Ideologue, n. Someone with strongly held beliefs sharply different from one’s own.

May 15: Things ain’t what they used to be — in fact, they never was. ANONYMOUS, ascribed to “a rural philosopher” by Irving Babbitt, Democracy and Leadership, ch. 7 (footnote), 1924.

May 16: Lovingkindness is the coin of God’s realm.

May 17: The road to health is paved with vegetables, fruits, beans, rice and grains.
POLLY STRAND, letter to San Francisco Chronicle, 19 March 1993.

May 18: The world is not only God’s creation; it’s also God’s incarnation.

May 19: Freedom is not a gift received from a State or a leader but a possession to be won every day by the effort of each and the union of all.    ALBERT CAMUS (French philosopher), “Bread and Freedom” (1957), Resistance, Rebellion, and Death, translated by Justin O'Brien, 1961.

May 20: Truth, n. The last thing to be believed.

May 21: Western Civilization stands not for technology but the sacredness of the individual human personality.
ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE (English historian), “Man Owes His Freedom to God,” Collier's, 30 March 1956.

May 22: History may be seen as an all-encompassing, relentless movement toward unity.

May 23: One half the troubles of this life can be traced to saying “yes” too quick, and not saying “no” soon enough.     JOSH BILLINGS (American humorist, 1818-1885), quoted in Evan Esar, editor, The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations,  p. 37, 1949.

May 24: Absolute certainties are sometimes true.

May 25: Virtue and truth produced strength, strength dominion, dominion riches, riches luxury, and luxury weakness and collapse.     JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE (English historian, 1818-1894), quoted in David Brooks, “Why the U.S. Will Always Be Rich,” New York Times Magazine, 9 June 2002.

May 26: The surest way to have others care about us is to care about them.

May 27: The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think.    OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR. (American physician and writer), The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 5, 1860. 

May 28: The conservative keeps the liberal from moving too fast, while the liberal keeps the conservative from not moving at all.

May 29: What dictators call “internal unrest,” dissidents call “the spirit of human freedom.”
WILLIAM SAFIRE (American journalist), “Danger: Chinese Tinderbox,” New York Times, 22 February 1999.

May 30: Empires rule with small carrots and big sticks.

May 31: Nothing has more retarded the advancement of learning than the disposition of vulgar minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot comprehend.     SAMUEL JOHNSON (British writer, critic and lexicographer), published in The Rambler (English journal), no. 117, 30 April 1751.

April, 2011

April 1: There are two kinds of fools: one says, “This is old, therefore it is good”; the other says, “This is new, therefore it is better.” DEAN WILLIAM RALPH INGE (English writer and priest, 1860-1954), quoted in Rolf B. White, editor, The Great Business Quotations, p. 240, 1986.

April 2: To whom is given the burden is given the back.

April 3: Leadership is getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. CHRISTIE WHITMAN (former New Jersey governor), Fareed Zakaria television interview, How to Lead / GPS, CNN, 2 December 2010.

April 4: Dollar democracy, phr. One dollar, one vote.

April 5: Fools are more dangerous than rogues. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (Irish playwright), The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, ch. 84, 1928.

April 6: Unshared blessings are a curse.

April 7: To believe in God is to believe there is a force in the universe that makes possible the transformation from that which is to that which ought to be.
MICHAEL LERNER (American rabbi), quoted in Dan Pine, “The Progressive Prophet,” J. (Jewish News Weekly of Northern California), 4 March 2011

April 8: We don’t know all the rules, but one of them is — no quitting!.

April 9: Beautiful, tender flowers grow upon the lava lips of Mono craters, pines ascend their ashy slopes, and it is just where the glaciers have crushed heaviest that the greatest quantity of beautiful life appears. JOHN MUIR (American naturalist), journal, 1873?, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe, 1938

April 10: The good news is that we’re all on the path; the bad news is that we’re going in the wrong direction.

April 11: McDonald’s “breakfast for under a dollar” actually costs much more than that. You have to factor in the cost of coronary bypass surgery.
GEORGE CARLIN (American humorist), Brain Droppings, p. 201, 1997.

April 12: The most convinced are the most convincing.

April 13: Nature is reckless of the individual. When she has points to carry, she carries them.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (American philosopher), “Culture,” The Conduct of Life, 1860.

April 14: War is business by other means.

April 15: History of a record of exploded illusions.
GORDON WOOD (American historian), talk, National Book Festival, Washington, 25 September 2010

April 16: Peace, n. a condition unattainable without reconciliation and justice.

April 17: The great object of education is to render virtue habitual. MADAME BUREAUD-RIOFREY, “Continuation of Moral Principles,” Moral and Intellectual Education, 1843.

April 18: We do as we are; we become as we do.

April 19: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. SAYING (AMERICAN).

April 20: By joyfully serving others we awaken our souls.

April 21: Truth is always subversive. Anne Lamott (American writer), Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, ch. 5, 1995.

April 22: Do unto others as God would have you do unto them.

April 23: In the end, it’s not about what you believe. It’s about what you can achieve.
TIMOTHY F. GEITHNER (American secretary of the treasury), quoted in Rebecca Johnson, “On the Money,” Vogue, March 2011.

April 24: Wisdom is knowing right from wrong; virtue is doing right.

April 25: No matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion.
BARACK OBAMA, speech, Cairo, 4 June 2009.

April 26: Just as a watch presupposes a watchmaker, the creation presupposes a creative force of some kind, call it what you will.

April 27: People learn from the people they love.
DAVID BROOKS (American journalist), “Social Sciences,” New Yorker, 17 January 2011.

April 28: Societal transformation is impossible without a worldwide crisis affecting everyone.

April 29: If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful. MICHELANGELO (Italian artist, 1475-1564), quoted in Norman Lockridge, editor, World's Wit and Wisdom, p. 335, 1936.

April 30: Think about it: the universe is eight trillion light years across — multiplied by infinity'

March, 2011

March 1:  When you see a problem child, look for a problem parent.

March 2:  “I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.
JULIAN BARNES (English writer), opening sentence, Nothing to Be Frightened of, 2008, quoted in Garrison Keiller, “Dying of the Light,” New York Times Book Review, 5 October 2008.

March 3:  Politics without moral purpose is mere power-tripping.

March 4: If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good?
BOETHIUS (Roman philosopher, 5th century CE), The Consolation of Philosophy, translated by W. V. Cooper 1981.

March 5:  Be neither a master nor a slave, neither a hammer nor a nail. 

March 6: Wise late, old soon; wise soon, old late. SAYING (ENGLISH).

March 7:  The value of an idea often varies inversely with its popularity.

March 8:  It's not so much what folks don't know that causes problems, it's what they do know that ain't so.
ARTEMUS WARD (American humorist, 1834-1867), quoted in James F. Clarity and Warren Weaver Jr., “Briefings,” New York Times, 18 October 1984.

March 9:  Without a destination, no wind is favorable.

March 10: You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.
      HARPER LEE (American writer), To Kill a Mockingbird, ch. 3, 1960.

March 11: To suffer misfortune without losing heart is the hallmark of character. 

March 12:  Every observation of history inspires a confidence that we shall not go far wrong; that things will mend.     RALPH WALDO EMERSON (American philosopher), “The Young American,” lecture, Boston, 7 February 1844.

March 13: Honorable service in a bad cause is dishonorable.

March 14:  It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.           ERIC HOFFER (American longshoreman and philosopher), The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms, no. 100, 1954.

March 15:  It’s not the government, stupid. It’s the stupid government.

March 16: To transform the world and society, we must first and foremost transform ourselves.
          HO CHI MINH (Vietnamese revolutionary leader and president), speech, 7 September 1957, Ho Chi Minh on Revolution, ed. Bernard B. Fall, 1967.

March 17:  On the time-scale of eternity, a thousand years is briefer than a nanosecond.

March 18: Excuse me, sir; I cannot consent to receive pay for services I do not render.
ROBERT E. LEE (American general), explaining after the Civil War his rejection of an offer of $10,000 a year to act as titular head of an insurance company, quoted in Dixon Wecter, The Hero in America: A Chronicle of Hero-Worship, ch. 11, sect. 3, 1941.

March 19:  It's not possible to love ourselves without loving others, or to love others without loving ourselves.

March 20:  The most important lesson of American history is the promise of the unexpected. None of our ancestors would have imagined settling way over here on this unknown continent. So we must continue to have a society that is hospitable to the unexpected, which allows possibilities to develop beyond our own imaginings.     DANIEL J. BOORSTIN (American historian), quoted in Tad Szulc, “The Greatest Danger We Face,” Parade (magazine), 25 July 1993.

March 21:  Money is the opium of the people.

March 22:  Every era of renaissance has come out of new freedoms for peoples. The coming renaissance will be greater than any in human history, for this time all the peoples of the earth will share in it.   PEARL S. BUCK (American writer), introduction to What America Means to Me, 1943.

March 23: The most obvious truths are discovered last.

March 24: M. A. Rosanoff: Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.  Edison: Hell! there ain't no rules around here! We're trying to accomplish somep'n!
THOMAS ALVA EDISON (American inventor), quoted in Rosanoff, “Edison in His Laboratory,”  Harper's, September 1932.

March 25: A handout to the rich is called a bailout; a bailout for everyone else is called a handout.

March 26: Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.         DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (American general and president), First Inaugural Address, 20 January 1953.

March 27:  Like chess players, leaders are judged not by their words but by their moves.

March 28: Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.
JOAN DIDION (American writer), “On Self-Respect,” 1961, Slouching towards Bethlehem, 1969.

March 29: Exploitation is slavery without the chains.

March 30:  He not busy bein’ born / is busy dyin’.
     BOB DYLAN (American singer and songwriter), “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” (song), 1965.

March 31: One bound, all bound.

February, 2011

February 1:  Much knowledge, much pride; much wisdom, much humility.

February 2:  Some [day] they'll give a war and nobody will come.
CARL SANDBURG (American poet and writer), The People, Yes, no. 23, 1936.

February 3: The art of living is to let go without giving up.

February 4: Watch what we do, not what we say.     JOHN N. MITCHELL (American attorney general), quoted in Ralph Blumenfeld et al., Henry Kissinger: The Private and Public Story, ch. 19, 1974.

February 5: In terms of grandeur, God is to the universe as the universe is to a speck of dust.

February 6:  Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, United Nations, preamble, 10 December 1948.

February 7: Kindness is love in action.

February 8: Let thy aim be the good of all. THE BHAGAVAD-GITA (Hindu scriptures, 6th century BCE), ch. 3, v. 20, translated by Juan Mascaró, 1962.

February 9:  In times of crisis, knowing when to act is as important as knowing what to do: a moment too soon or too late can spell disaster.

February 10: Something Unknown Is Doing We Don’t Know What.
RENEE SCHELTEMA (Dutch filmmaker), documentary film title, 2009.

February 11: If any one is beyond redemption, we all are.

February 12: In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.     ABRAHAM LINCOLN (American president), Second Annual Message to Congress, 1 December 1862. Lincoln was born on this day in 1809.

February 13: Paths clear before those who know where they’re going and are determined to get there.

February 14: True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and fearlessly following it.
MOHANDAS K. GANDHI (Indian spiritual and political leader), Ethical Religion, ch.  2, 1930.

February 15: Moderation in all things — except virtue.

February 16: Those who rule us are like you and me. It is a frightening situation.
BROOKS ATKINSON (American drama critic), 27 January, Once Around the Sun, 1951.

February 17: Republicans and Democrats wear different uniforms but play on the same team.

February 18:  Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.
HENRY FORD (American automobile manufacturer, 1863-1947), quoted in Rolf B. White, editor, The Great Business Quotations, p. 194, 1986.

February 19: Success invites envy; failure, contempt.

February 20: It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. MARK TWAIN (American writer),  Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World, ch. 20 (epigraph), 1897.

February 21: The most effective propagandists believe their own lies.

February 22: Though I prize, as I ought, the good opinion of my fellow citizens; yet, if I know myself, I would not seek or retain popularity at the expense of one social duty or moral virtue.
GEORGE WASHINGTON (American general and president), letter to Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, 22 September 1788. Washington was born on this day in 1732.

February 23: Dr. Diet cures more people in a month than does Dr. Medicine in a lifetime.

February 24:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers —
That perches in the soul —
And sings the tune without the words —
And never stops — at all —
        EMILY DICKINSON (American poet), “'Hope' is the thing with feathers,” 1861?

February 25: Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Never put off till tomorrow what you can put off till the day after tomorrow; never put off till the day after tomorrow what you can avoid doing altogether.

February 26:
Love is the strangest bird
that ever winged about the world.
          LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI (American poet),  “Song of Love & Desire” (opening lines), Open Eye, Open Heart, 1973.

February 27:  Sow justice, reap peace; sow responsibility, reap freedom; sow kindness, reap love.

February 28:  Lipton: If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive?
De Niro: Well, if heaven exists, he’s got a lot of explaining to do.          ROBERT De NIRO (American actor), James Lipton television interview, Inside the Actors Studio, BVO, 7 May 2001.

January, 2011

January 1: In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
ALBERT CAMUS (French writer), “Return to Tipasa,” Summer, 1954.

January 2: Mistakes are for learning from.

January 3:  Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.
WINSTON CHURCHILL (British prime minister), “Alfonso XIII,” Great Contemporaries, 1937.

January 4: The State of Denial, phr. Where most of us live these days.

January 5: ‘Tis not in mortals to command success, / But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it. JOSEPH ADDISON (English playwright), Cato, act 1, sc. 2, 1713.

January 6: If at first you don’t succeed — try getting off your ass.

January 7: We are not only individuals but may well be a vital part of a larger phenomenon that searches for some finer vision of life that could conceivably emerge from our present human condition. NORMAN MAILER (American writer), “On Sartre’s God Problem,” Nation, 6 June 2005.

January 8: Children are entitled to honest answers to every question they old enough to ask.

January 9: The answer to our problems will ultimately be found in the character of the American people. BARACK OBAMA (American president), on the 100th day of his administration, town hall meeting, Arnold (Missouri), 29 April 2009. 

January 10: What counts in the crunch is character.

January 11: A fella ain't got a soul of his own, but on'y a piece of a big one.
JOHN STEINBECK (American writer), The Grapes of Wrath, ch. 28, 1939.

January 12: Perhaps the biggest illusion is to believe we have no illusions.

January 13: There is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON (American educator), Atlanta Exposition address, 18 September 1895, Up from Slavery: An Autobiography, ch. 14, 1901.

January 14: The conventional wisdom often turns out to be the prevailing lie. 

January 15: Our goal is to create a beloved community, and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (American minister and human rights leader), “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom,” Ebony, October 1966. King was born on this day in 1929.

January 16: Intelligence and learnedness do not guarantee wisdom and integrity.

January 17:
Mrs. Powel, outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, during the Constitutional Convention in 1787: Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?

Franklin: A republic, if you can keep it.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, format adapted, recorded in the diary of James McHenry, a Constitution signer, that was reproduced in the American Historical Review, 1906, in John F. McManus, “‘A Republic, If You Can Keep It,’” New American, 6 November 2000.

January 18: Fortune favors those who advance her purposes.

January 19: God’s absence is an illusion. ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL (Polish-American theologian), A Passion for Truth, ch. 1, 1973.

January 20: The heaviest chains are inside.

January 21: We’re closest to finding ourselves just when we feel most lost. MARDY GROTHE (American psychologist and quotation anthologist), Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week, 2007.

January 22: Custom is stronger than law; necessity is stronger than both.

January 23: Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.  
MARGARET MEAD (American anthropologist), “Meade's Maxim,” quoted in John Peers, editor, 1,001 Logical Laws, p. 155, 1979.

January 24: Truth-seekers hear out both believers and heretics.

January 25: A man differs from a microbe only in being further on the path. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (Irish playwright), Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, act 2, 1921.

January 26: Well understood is well said.

January 27: How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it. ADAM SMITH (Scottish philosopher and economist), opening words, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759.

January 28: We are responsible for our silences as well as for our words.

January 29: The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.
      WALT WHITMAN (American poet), preface (1855) to Leaves of Grass, 1855-1992. 

January  30: The politician asks: Are we better off today than we were yesterday? The statesman asks: Will our descendents be better off tomorrow than we are today?

January 31: Fame, wealth, and honor! what are you to Love?
ALEXANDER POPE (English poet), “Eloisa to Abelard,” l. 80, 1717.

December 2010

December 1: Tyrants confuse those they can't convince, corrupt those they can't confuse, and crush those they can't corrupt.

December 2: An Englishman who was wrecked on a strange shore and wandering along the coast... came to a gallows with a victim hanging on it, and fell down on his knees and thanked God that he at last beheld a sign of civilization.
JAMES A. GARFIELD (American president), House of Representatives speech, 15 June 1870.

December 3: God is one in all; all are one in God.

December 4:  The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, “Physics and Reality,” Journal of the Franklin Institute, March 1936.

December 5: Swords are beaten into plowshares after hearts of stone are changed into hearts of flesh.

December 6: A capacity to change is indispensable. Equally indispensable is the capacity to hold fast to that which is good.
JOHN FOSTER DULLES (American secretary of state, 1888-1959), quoted in Colin Bingham, editor, Men and Affairs, 1968.

December 7: Justice is the way to peace; responsibility is the way to freedom; virtue is the way to happiness; kindness is the way to love.

December 8: In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.
ANNE FRANK (Jewish holocaust victim), 15 July 1944, The Diary of a Young Girl, translated by B. M. Mooyart-Doubleday, 1952.

December 9: The less government, the more freedom.

December 10: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (American human-rights leader),Declaration of Sentiments, First Woman’s Rights Convention, Seneca Falls (New York), 19 July 1848.

December 11: The mainstays of self-respect are self-discipline, achievement and virtue.

December 12: Discipline yourself only to yield to love. 
HENRY DAVID THOREAU (American philosopher), journal, 30 January 1852.

December 13: The measure of understanding is compassion; the measure of love is forgiveness.

December 14: If wars are eliminated and production is organized scientifically, it is probable that four hours’ work a day will suffice to keep everybody in comfort.
Bertrand Russell (English mathematician and philosopher), Sceptical Essays, ch. 17, sect. 4, 1928.

December 15: We are strong only insofar as we are open to truth.

December 16: My motto is “Fairness to all.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “Instructions for John G. Nicolay,” 16? July 1860, quoted in Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, ch. 9, 2005. Nicolay was Lincoln’s secretary during the Civil War.

December 17: The path to enlightenment is strewn with deeds of lovingkindness.

December 18: I learned a long time ago that you can’t go around making judgments on the basis of people’s politics. The essential thing is: do they have integrity or not?
SEYMOUR M. HERSH (American journalist), quoted in David Remnick’s introduction to Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, 2004.

December 19: The pillars of friendship are mutual trust, mutual respect, and mutual affection.  

December 20:  Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.
NORMAN COUSINS (American editor and writer), 1975, “Editor's Odyssey: Gleanings from Articles and Editorials by N.C.,” edited by Susan Schiefelbein, Saturday Review, 15 April 1978.

December 21: The power we gain over others is the power we lose over ourselves.

December 22: We cannot embrace the New Mind by just sitting around and talking about it. It demands that we alter not just our thinking, but our way of living down to the smallest details.
JEAN HUSTON (American writer; written with MARGARET RUBIN), Manual for the Peacemaker: An Iroquois Legend to Heal Self & Society, ch. 2, 1995.

December 23: We will know we have arrived at our destination when those who have been our bitterest enemies enter the circle of our closest friends.

December 24:  Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
JESUS (Hebrew founder of Christianity, 1st century C.E.), Matthew 5:9.

December 25: Why not give love a chance? We've tried everything else.

December 26: Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.      THOMAS PAINE (American philosopher), introduction to The Rights of Man, 1792.

December 27: Political leaders win support less for the wisdom of what they say than for the success of what they do. 

December 28: Children have more need of models than of critics.
JOSEPH JOUBERT (French moralist, 1754-1824), Pensées, no. 261, 1838, translated by Henry Attwell, 1877.

December 29: Human nature is not a set condition but an evolving process.

December 30: In every age I come back / To deliver the holy, / To destroy the sin of the sinner, / To establish righteousness.  THE BHAGAVAD GITA (Hindu scriptures, 6th cent. BCE), ch. 4, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, 1954.

December 31: Without loving kindness, nothing else matters; with loving kindness, nothing else matters.

November 2010

November 1: Despair stems from forgetting our purpose.

November 2: There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite  direction.
FRANZ KAFKA (Czech writer, 1883-1924), quoted in Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka, p. 107, translated by Goronwy Rees, 1953.

November 3: Courage is the seed out of which all the other virtues grow.

November 4: When two paths open before you, take the harder one.
NEPALESE SAYING, quoted in the film Himalaya, 2001.

November 5: Most people are both liberal and conservative: liberal with other people’s money and conservative with their own.

November 6: The secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one’s infallibility with the power to learn from past mistakes.
GEORGE ORWELL (English writer), Nineteen Eighty-Four, pt. 2, ch. 9, 1949.

November 7: We are responsible for our silences as well as for our words.

November 8: Give as you would receive.
SAYING (ENGLISH)

November 9: Burdens well-born weigh no less: they just seem to

November 10: Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory. MOHANDAS K. GANDHI (Indian spiritual and political leader), article in Young India, 9 March 1922.

November 11:  What corrupts is not power but its abuse.

November 12:  The greatest need in the world at this moment is the transformation of human nature.
BILLY GRAHAM (American evangelist), “Focus on Hong Kong,” sermon, television broadcast, 16 August 1997.

November 13: Democracy + Private Ownership = Capitalism
Democracy + Public Ownership = Socialism
Dictatorship + Public Ownership = Communism
Dictatorship + Private Ownership = Fascism

November 14:  The brain and heart are like the oars of a rowboat. When you use one to the
exclusion of the other, you only end up going around in circles.
MARDY GROTHE (psychologist and quotation anthologist), “Dr. Mardy’s Thought of the Week,” Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week, 25 November 2007 (www.drmardy.com)

November 15: Caught in one lie, always suspect.

November 16: Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority, the cherishing of the keenest skepticism, the annihilation of the spirit of blind faith.
T. H. HUXLEY (English biologist), “On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge,” 1866, Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews, 1870.

November 17:  War is almost as stupid as it is evil.

November 18: My belief has always been... that wherever in this land any individual’s Constitutional rights are being unjustly denied, it is the obligation of the federal government — at point of  bayonet if necessary — to restore that individual’s Constitutional rights.
RONALD REAGAN, news conference, Washington, 17 May 1983.

November 19: Self-deception is the low road to peace of mind.

November 20:The moral sense is a natural faculty in us like the sense of smell or of touch.
PETER KROPOTKIN (Russian zoologist and writer),  Anarchist Morality (pamphlet), 1909, Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets, edited by Roger N. Baldwin, 1927.

November 21: Successful teachers are surpassed by their students.

November 22: The glory of human nature lies in our seeming capacity to exercise conscious control of our own destiny.
WINSTON CHURCHILL, quoted by C. E. M. Joad, “Churchill the Philosopher,” published in Charles Eade, editor, Churchill by His Contemporaries, 1953.

November 23: Much money, much worry; little money, much more worry.

November 24:  There is... only one categorical imperative. It is: Act only according to that
maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
IMMANUEL KANT (German philosopher), Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, ch. 2, 1797, translated by Lewis White Beck, 1969.

November 25: No peace without mutual forgiveness, reconciliation and justice.

November 26: Slowly in our European thought comes the notion that ethics has not only to do
with mankind but with the animal creation as well. This begins with St. Francis of Assisi.... Ethics is reverence for all life.
ALBERT SCHWEITZER (German physician and theologian), “Religion and Modern Civilization,” Christian Century, 28 November 1934.

November 27: There are two kinds of people: those for whom enough is plenty and those for whom plenty is never enough.

November 28: There is only one morality... just as there is only one geometry.
VOLTAIRE (French philosopher), “Morality,” Philosophical Dictionary, 1764, translated by Theodore Besterman, 1971.

November 29: There is a universal moral law obedience to which is freedom.

November 30: We are members one of another; so that you cannot injure or help your
neighbor without injuring or helping yourself.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (Irish playwright), preface to Androcles and the Lion, 1912.

October 2010

October 1: The human soul, the world, the universe are laboring on to their magnificent consummation. We are not fashioned... marvelously for nought.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (American philosopher), journal, December 1820 (when he was 17).

October 2: The highest form of love is joyful service.

October 3: Walk tall as the trees; live strong as the mountains; be gentle as the spring winds; keep the warmth of summer in your heart, and the Great Spirit will always be with you.
NATIVE AMERICAN CHANT, 19th century, quoted in Helen Nearing, “Twilight and Evening Star,” Loving and Leaving the Good Life, 1992.

October 4: Money isn't everything — as long as we have enough of it.  

October 5:  No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, 1936, The Wit and Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt, p. 92, edited by Alex Ayres, 1996.

October 6: With all the lobbyists in Washington, are there any who represent future generations?

October 7: It may be that the whole is simple, and that we are looking at it from the wrong point of view.
HENRI BERGSON (French philosopher, 1859-1941), “Dynamic Religion,” The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, 1932, translated by R. Ashley Audra and Cloudesley Brereton, 1935.

October 8: Ideology follows interests.

October 9: Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.
JOAN DIDION (American writer), “On Self-Respect” (1961), Slouching towards Bethlehem, 1969.

October 10: The direction of progress is inside out.

October 11: Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.
NELSON MANDELA (South African president), message written in prison and delivered by his daughter Zindzi Mandela, speech, Soweto, 10 February 1985.

October 12: We best advance our principles by living up to them.

October 13: Kindness is the mark of faith; and whoever hath not kindness hath not faith.
MUHAMMAD (Arab founder of Islam, 570?-632 C.E.), The Sayings of Muhammad, no. 254, translated by Abdullah Al-Suhrawardy, 1941.

October 14: The seed of deed is creed; the seed of creed is need.

October 15: No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.
JOHN STUART MILL (English philosopher), Autobiography, 1873.

October 16: There are masters, there are slaves — and then there are the free.

October 17: Whereas I formerly believed it to be my bounden duty to call other persons to order, I now admit that I need calling to order myself.
CARL G. JUNG (Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology), Modern Man in Search of a Soul, 10, translated by W. S. Dell and Cary F. Baynes, 1933.

October 18: Being the best is a goal only one can reach. Being the best one can be is a goal everyone can reach.

October 19: I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., Nobel Peace Prize acceptance address, Oslo, 11 December 1964.

October 20: Better an ounce of wisdom than a pound of knowledge; better an ounce of vision than a pound of wisdom.

October 21: Visitor (noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall of Niels Bohr's country cottage): "Can it be that you, of all people, believe it will bring you luck?"
Bohr: Of course not, but I understand it brings you luck whether you believe or not.
NIELS BOHR (Danish physicist, 1885-1962), format adapted, quoted in Clifton Fadiman, The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, 1985.

October 22: Better ten enemies outside your house than one enemy inside your house; better ten enemies inside your house than one enemy inside your head.

October 23:  Society can only be happy and free in proportion as it is virtuous.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (British writer), A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ch. 12, 1792.

October 24: There's nothing wrong with the private-enterprise system that can’t be righted through the principled action of its supporters.

October 25: The makers of our Constitution... conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.
LOUIS D. BRANDEIS (American Supreme Court associate justice), Olmstead v. United States, 1928.

October 26: Truths handed us on a platter are less valued than those we discover for ourselves.

October 27: What is a friend? For some, a sycophant; for others, an incorruptible but loving critic.
THOMAS S. SZASZ (Hungarian-American philosopher and psychiatrist), “Social Relations,” The Untamed Tongue: A Dissenting Dictionary, 1990.

October 28: An ego’s strength varies inversely with its size.

October 29: The great threat to freedom is the concentration of power.
MILTON FRIEDMAN (American economist), introduction to Capitalism and Freedom, 1962.  

October 30: Politics drives diplomacy, and economics drives politics.

October 31:  It is in crises that leaders are tested, that we get to see if they succumb to their worst instincts or summon their better angels.
MAUREEN DOWD (American journalist), “Devil of a Scandal” (op-ed column), New York Times, 4 April 2010.

Comments and criticisms are always welcome. And if, by chance, you run across a quote (or have an original thought or observation) which you think others would find interesting, amusing, instructive, or inspiring, please send it along and it will be considered for inclusion in a future posting. Send an e-mail to: lfrank@igc.org.

Books Available

Edited by Leonard Roy Frank

From Amazon:

Random House Webster's Quotationary
Random House Webster's Wit & Humor Quotationary
Freedom: Quotes and Passages from the World's Greatest Freethinkers
Influencing Minds: A Reader in Quotations
Inspiration: The Greatest Things Ever Said
Love: The Greatest Things Ever Said
Money: The Greatest Things Ever Said
Wisdom: The Greatest Things Ever Said
Wit: The Greatest Things Ever Sai