If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.
~ Lyall Watson

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.
~ Robert Frost

Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.
~ Will Cuppy

Bull**** baffles brains. ~ saying

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The fame of great men ought to be judged always by the means they used to acquire it.~François de La Rochefoucauld

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
~ Edward R. Murrow

A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket.
~ John Dennis   1657-1734

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People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars and they pass by themselves without wondering at all.~St. Augustine

Men are not so weak as you think. They can always leave anybody or any place without a pang - if they find another person or another place they like better. If they feel pricks and scruples it is merely because they cannot make up their mind that the change will be absolutely to their advantage.
~ John Oliver Hobbes

But in vayne shee did conjure him
To depart her presence soe;
Having a thousand tongues to allure him,
And but one to bid him goe.
~ Thomas Percy  1728-1811

Men, some to business, some to pleasure take;
But every woman is at heart a rake.
~ Alexander Pope 1688-1744.

To understand is to perceive patterns.
~ Isaiah Berlin

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However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.~Douglas MacArthur

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
~Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen (1914).

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
~ Arthur Ashe

A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole, It does not look likely to stir a man's soul. 'Tis the deeds that were done 'neath the moth-eaten rag, When the pole was a staff, and the rag was a flag.
~ Sir Edward Bruce Hamley

In marriage, as in war, it is permitted to take every advantage of the enemy.
~ Anon

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
~ Sun Tzu

It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used.
~ Sun Tzu

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Women want to be a lot of things traditionally considered masculine: Doctors, rock stars, body builders, presidents of the U.S. But there are plenty of masculine things women have, so far, shown no desire to be: Pipe smokers, wise old drunks, quiet.~P.J. O'Rourke (1947- ), Modern Manners [1983]

Men have broad and large chests, and small narrow hips, and more understanding than women, who have but small and narrow breasts, and broad hips, to the end they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children.~Martin Luther (1483-1546), Table Talk #725 [1566], tr. William Hazlitt

Men are nicotine-soaked, beer-besmirched, whisky-greased, red-eyed devils.~Carry Nation [1846-1911]

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
~ Bertrand Russell

For over two thousand years it has been the custom among earnest moralists to decry happiness as something degraded and unworthy.
~ Bertrand Russell

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Most people tire of a lecture in ten minutes; clever people do it in five. Sensible people never go to lectures at all.~Stephen Leacock

Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.
~ Albert Camus

Philosophers write for professors; thinkers for writers.
~ Emile M. Cioran

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Civilization is the ateriosclerosis of culture.~Henry Miller

The meek shall inherit the earth? Well... I don't think so. If by meek you mean friendly and introverted, okay maybe, but if by meek you mean unwilling to take a chance, then never. If I was a betting man and I had to wager on who I thought would inherit the earth, my money would be on the curious.
~ Jim Coudal

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!" "Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
~ Zen Koan

What is the first business of one who practices philosophy To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.
~ Epictetus

Non-ambiguity is the shaping force of reality.
~ Joseph Pierce

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