Archives - December 2004

There is nothing that strengthens a nation like reading of a nation's own history, whether that history is recorded in books or embodied in customs, institutions and monuments.

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

Small crimes always precede great ones. Never have we seen timid innocence pass suddenly to extreme licentiousness.

One of the most difficult things to contend with in a hospital is the assumption on the part of the staff that because you have lost your gall bladder you have also lost your mind.

Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.

One-third of the people in the United States promote, while the other two-thirds provide.

One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.

Some persons do first, think afterward, and then repent forever.

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.

The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.

The merit of originality is not novelty, it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man; he believes for himself, not for another.

Heredity is an omnibus in which all our ancestors ride, and every now and then one of them puts his head out and embarrasses us.

The liberty of the press is a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find ourselves overborne by the multitude of our assailants.

The worst feature of a new baby is its mother's singing.

No nation, no matter how enlightened, can endure criminal violence. If we cannot control it, we are admitting to the world and to ourselves that our laws are no more than a facade that crumbles when the winds of crisis rise.

Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of taste.

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.

If one advances confidently in the directions of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.

Chain letters are the postal equivalent of intestinal flu: you get it and pass it along to your friends.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Universities are full of knowledge; the freshmen bring a little in and the seniors take none away, and knowledge accumulates.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.

In America there are two classes of travel --- first class, and with children.

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.