Pragmatism is the art of walking across the quicksand of ideologies.~Earon Davis

Next word: pragmatism

I think the main culprit is modernity itself. Modernity and beauty simply don't mix. Pragmatism and an industrial-sized busyness denigrate everything that can't squeeze out of a calculator. And the first thing to die under such circumstances is a passion for beauty. For those trying desperately to jump over moving hurdles, pursuing beauty is just foolishness. . . . We just don't have the time for poetry; beauty isn't useful, we say, until we're in our eighties, when many finally reflect and realize that beauty was truly essential to a good life that has now slipped by.
~ Douglas Jones, Men Hate Poetry



Next word: denigrate

I don't know why it is that we need to denigrate , to knock down. It's so unhealthy for the culture. It's so sick . ~ Barbra Streisand


Next word; sick

***

Is Brutus sick, and is it physical
To walk unbraced and suck up the humors
Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick,
And will he steal out of his wholesome bed
To dare the vile contagion of the night,
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air,
To add unto his sickness?
- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
(Portia at II, i)

next word: contagion

He has out-soared the shadow of our night;
Envy and calumny, and hate and pain,
And that unrest which men miscall delight,
Can touch him not, and torture not again;
From the contagion of the world's slow stain,
He is secure.~Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Adonais, written to mourn the death of his friend and fellow poet, John Keats.

Next word: calumny

People flatter me so long as I don’t get in their way. [Otherwise] they immediately turn to abuse and calumny in defense of their interests . ~ Einstein


Next word; interests

***

The young man who would succeed must identify his interests with those of his employer and exercise the same diligence in matters entrusted to him as he would in his own affairs. Back of all the gifts the candidate for success may possess must be a willing capacity for hard work. . . . Youth today is not considered a handicap in selecting men for responsible jobs, as it was twenty years ago. . . . In almost any field today in which a youngster has an intelligent interest, the road to the top is open as it never was before. But the one way to the top is by persistent, intelligent, hard work.
~ A. T. Mercier



Next word: diligence

Diligence which, as it avails in all things, is also of the utmost moment in pleading causes. Diligence is to be particularly cultivated by us; it is to be constantly exerted; it is capable of effecting almost everything.
- Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short)

next word: pleading

Pleading not guilty is saying you will provide your version of what took place by not giving up the right to trial and have an attorney represent you.~Dan Davis

Next word: version

The most familiar quotations are the most likely to be misquoted . . . . Some have settled down to false versions that have obscured the true ones. They have passed over from literature into speech . ~ Carl Van Doren


Next word; speech

***

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
~ Mark Twain



Next word: impromptu

And, finally, Lincoln was not a good impromptu speaker; he was at his best when he could read from a carefully prepared manuscript. Though maybe a teleprompter could have helped that!


American Historian David Herbert Donald

next word: teleprompter


Note from Mrs. M. - ooooh! that was a hard one! August you are a devil

Couldn't resist coming here for this one. It always makes me laugh.

"When you're reading from a TelePrompTer, you're not quite making eye contact with the viewers, and your pupils are moving back and forth, plus you're squinting. The result is a shifty, unblinking thousand-yard stare usually seen in the segregation units of maximum-security federal prisons."
-- P. J. O'Rourke, from The CEO of the Sofa, 2001

-

much love, light and laughter,
ananya.

My opportunities were still there, nay, they multiplied tenfold; but the strength and youth to cope with them began to fail, and to need eking out with the shifty cunning of experience.
~ George Bernard Shaw

Note to Mrs M. Sorry!


Next word: cunning

Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

Next word: treachery

Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery , or simple bad luck . ~ Joseph Heller


Next word; luck

***

Luck is ever waiting for something to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and strong will, will turn up something. Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him the news of a legacy.. Labor turns out at six o'clock, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines. Labor whistles. Luck relies on change. Labor on character.
- Richard Cobden

next word: legacy

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.
~ Martin Luther King Jr, Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama



Next word: succumb

Vulgarity begins when imagination succumbs to the explicit . ~ Doris Day


Next word; explicit

***

We have made a thing, a most terrible weapon, that has altered abruptly and profoundly the nature of the world. We have made a thing that, by all standards of the world we grew up in, is an evil thing. And by doing so, by our participation in making it possible to make these things, we have raised again the question of whether science is good for man, of whether it is good to learn about the world, to try to understand it, to try to control it, to help give to the world of men increased insight, increased power. Because we are scientists, we must say an unalterable yes to these questions; it is our faith and our commitment, seldom made explicit, even more seldom challenged, that knowledge is a good in itself, knowledge and such power as must come with it.~J. Robert Oppenheimer

Next word: unalterable