When we compare the present life of men on earth with that
time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the
swift flight of a single sparrow through a banqueting hall
on a winters day. After a few moments of comfort, he
vanishes from site into the wintery world from which he
came. Even so, man appears on earth for a little while, but
of what went before this life and what will follow we know
nothing.
"Talis...mihi
uidetur, rex, vita hominum praesens in terris, ad
conparationem eius, quod nobis incertum est, temporis,
quale cum te residente ad caenam cum ducibus ac ministris
tuis tempore brumali, accenso quidem foco in medio, et
calido effecto caenaculo, furentibus autem foris per omnia
turbinibus hiemalium pluviarum vel nivium, adveniens unus
passeium domum citissime pervolaverit; qui cum per unum
ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem
tempore, quo intus est, hiemis tempestate non tangitur, sed
tamen parvissimo spatio serenitatis ad momentum excurso,
mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis oculis elabitur.
Ita haec vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem
sequatur, quidue praecesserit, prorsus
ignoramus."
-Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum -
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book II,
Chapter 13
Whatever
you are, be a good one.
- Abraham Lincoln
Twenty
years from now you will be more disappointed by the things
that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw
off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the
trade winds in your sails. Explore.
-
Mark Twain
Reality
is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
-
Albert Einstein
On
reflection on his first trip to America: "that such
benefits have been secured to people not by confiscation of
property of the rich or by arbitrary taxation but simply by
business enterprise - out of which the promoters themselves
have made colossal fortunes, one can not fail to be
impressed with the excellence of the active system."
Further, "The communication of New York is due to private
enterprise while the state is responsible for the currency:
and hence I come to the conclusion that the first class men
of America are in the counting houses and the less
brilliant ones in government."
- Winston Churchill, 1895
If
you establish a democracy, you must in due time reap the
fruits of a democracy. You will in due season have great
impatience of public burdens, combined in due season with
great increase of public expenditure. You will in due
season have wars entered into from passion and not
from reason; and you will in due season submit
to peace ignominiously sought and ignominiously
obtained, which will diminish your authority and perhaps
endanger your independence. You will in due season find
your property is less valuable, and your freedom less
complete.
-
Benjamin Disraeli, 1850
If
you can't destroy the truth, destroy the truth
teller...
-
Unknown
Every
person should have the right to fail...
-
Benjamin Franklin
I
scrounged around for the next couple of years, trying to
get some scam on the human race and just where the hell I
fitted in. I discovered there were no
openings.
-
Steve McQueen
I
don't want to sell anything, buy anything or process
anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought
or processed, or buy anything sold or
processed, or... process anything sold, bought or
processed, or repair anything sold, bought or processed,
you know, as a career I don't want to do
that.
-
Lloyd Dobler,
Say Anything
1989