There is no greater importance in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.
~ Norman Mailer, Armies Of The Night

***
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~ Will Rogers

Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.~William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

The less grace there is in the soul, the more ornament must be on the body.~Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979), Peace of Soul [1954]

* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

Do it the hard way! Think ahead of your job. Then nothing in the world can keep the job ahead from reaching out for you. Do it better than it need be done. Next time doing it will be child's play. Let no one or anything stand between you and the difficult task, let nothing deny you this rich chance to gain strength by adversity, confidence by mastery, success by deserving it. Do it better each time. Do it better than anyone else can do it. I know this sounds old-fashioned. It is, but it has built the world.
~ Harlow H. Curtice

***
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~ Will Rogers

Fortuitous circumstances constitute the moulds that shape the majority of human lives, and the hasty impress of an accident is too often regarded as the relentless decree of all ordaining fate.
~Augusta Evans, Unto Death Us Do Part

***
He wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
—Rudyard Kipling

Most men experience getting older with regret, apprehension. But most women experience it even more painfully: with shame. Aging is a man's destiny, something that must happen because he is a human being.

For a woman, aging is not only her destiny . . .it is also her vulnerability.
~Susan Sontag (1933-2004), Saturday Review [October 1972], "The Double Standard of Aging"

* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if Rome doesn't want to become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
~ Cicero

***
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~ Will Rogers

Civilization rests on a set of promises; if the promises are broken too often, the civilization dies, no matter how rich it may be, or how mechanically clever. Hope and faith depend on the promises; if hope and faith go, everything goes.
~Herbert Agar

***
He wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
—Rudyard Kipling

I think it is the responsibility of a citizen of any country to say what he thinks.~Harold Pinter (1930-2008)

There`s a tradition in British intellectual life of mocking any non-political force that gets involved in politics, especially within the sphere of the arts and the theatre.~Ibid.

I am both deeply engaged in art and deeply engaged in politics, and sometimes those two meet and sometimes they don’t.~Harold Pinter, upon being awarded the Nobel Prize

* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received.
~Albert Einstein,Living Philosophies, The World As I See It, 1931

***
He wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
—Rudyard Kipling

Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
~ Benjamin Franklin

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
~ Bill Vaughan

New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.
~ James Agate

***
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~ Will Rogers

My pipe is out, my glass is dry;
My fire is almost ashes too;
But once again, before you go,
And I prepare to meet the New;
Old Year! a parting word that's true,
For we've been comrades, you and I--
I thank God for each day of you;
There! bless you now! Old Year, good-bye!
~Robert W. Service, The Passing of the Year

* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns.
~ George Santayana

***
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~ Will Rogers

Holidays should always be like this,
Free from over-emphasis,
Time for soul to stretch and spit
Before the world comes back on it.
~Louis MacNeice, Epilogue for W.H. Auden

***
He wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
—Rudyard Kipling

A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.~Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) (In James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson [1791], "July 20, 1763")

Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets.~Anthony Burgess 1917-93, You've Had Your Time (1990)

* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.
~ Sir Arthur Eddington

***
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~ Will Rogers

A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.
~W.H.AUDEN

***
He wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
—Rudyard Kipling

If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.~Woody Allen

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.~Woody Allen

No matter how I probe and prod
I cannot quite believe in God.
But oh! I hope to God that he
Unswervingly believes in me.
~E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (1896-1981. American songwriter. "The Agnostic" [1965]


* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.
~ Ansel Adams

***
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was. ~ Will Rogers

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.~Carl Sagan

[A toast for the inauguration?] To a new world of gods and monsters.~Dr. Septimius Pretorius in 'Bride of Frankenstein' (James Whale, 1935)

* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

I believe in liberty. In any dispute between a citizen and the government, it is my instinct to side with the citizen. . . . I am against all efforts to make men virtuous by law. I believe that the government, practically considered, is simply a camorra of incompetent and mainly dishonest men, transiently licensed to live by the labor of the rest of us. I am thus in favor of limiting its powers as much as possible, even at the cost of inconsiderable inconvenience, and of giving every citizen, wise or foolish, right or wrong, the right to criticize it freely, and to advocate changes in its constitution and personnel.
~Henry Louis Mencken

***
He wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
—Rudyard Kipling