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Archives - January 2004

January 1, 2004

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.

– Henry Ward Beecher

January 2, 2004

Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does --- except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.

– Abigail Van Buren, "Dear Abby"

January 3, 2004

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

– George Bernard Shaw

January 4, 2004

Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.

– John Witherspoon

January 5, 2004

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.

– Gertrude Stein

January 6, 2004

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

– Edmund Burke, A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL, 1756

January 7, 2004

Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.

– Lois McMaster Bujold, A CIVIL CAMPAIGN, 1999

January 8, 2004

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

– Voltaire

January 9, 2004

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.

– Francois de La Rochefoucauld

January 10, 2004

Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.

– Edward De Bono

January 11, 2004

Please write again soon. Though my own life is filled with activity, letters encourage momentary escape into others lives and I come back to my own with greater contentment.

– Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, A WOMAN OF INDEPENDENT MEANS

January 12, 2004

You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.

– Woody Allen

January 13, 2004

It is knowledge that influences and equalizes the social condition of man; that gives to all, however different their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal.

– Benjamin Disraeli

January 14, 2004

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.

– James Thurber, in an Edward R. Murrow television interview

January 15, 2004

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

January 16, 2004

I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody's else advice.

– W. Somerset Maugham, OF HUMAN BONDAGE, 1915

January 17, 2004

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.

– Michel de Montaigne

January 18, 2004

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

– Edgard Varese

January 19, 2004

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 20, 2004

Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

– John Updike

January 21, 2004

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

– Nelson Mandela, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

January 22, 2004

True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.

– John Hay, "Distichs," latter 19th century

January 23, 2004

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

– Cicero, PRO PLANCIO, 54 B.C.

January 24, 2004

The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.

– Hazrat Inayat Khan

January 25, 2004

The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.

– Alfred North Whitehead

January 26, 2004

For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change.

– Ingrid Bengis

January 27, 2004

Age is no guarantee of maturity.

– Lawana Blackwell, THE COURTSHIP OF THE VICAR'S DAUGHTER, 1998

January 28, 2004

The more severe the pain or illness, the more severe will be the necessary changes. These may involve breaking bad habits, or acquiring some new and better ones.

– Peter McWilliams, LIFE 101

January 29, 2004

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

– Carl Jung

January 30, 2004

Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.

– Ramsay Clark

January 31, 2004

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

– Jane Howard, FAMILIES