Due mainly to my love for those concise nuggets of human thought we call quotations, I am starting a site called quipsmart whose subject will be famous quotes and quotations. The challenge is to do something different than the fifteen or so main quotation compiling websites. Initially, I will focus on tracking down an exhaustive and comprehensive selection of quotations by a few select individuals and build out from there. I may need some volunteers if anyone is interested in helping. My other goal is to provide definitive sources for each quotations, which is something I have always appreciated when searching for a specific quotation. Other ideas include: the automatic linking of words to quotation authors and subjects, and hard to find quotations.
Quotations
Exorcising fortunes
Scraps of fortunes from fortune cookies have been accumulating in the various folds of my wallet. Today I decided to write them down and get rid of them.
They seem to fall into two categories, admonitions and predictions.
Admonitions:
“You’ll accomplish more if you start now.”
“Promise only what you can deliver.”
“Helping a friend is like helping yourself.”
“You stand in your own light. Make it shine.”
Predictions:
“You have an ambitious nature and may make a name for yourself.”
“You have executive ability.”
“You will make a name for yourself.”
Quotations
I’m feeling flummoxed today. That means it’s time for quotations.
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” – Seneca
Quotations
Andre Gide
Quotations from J.W. Goethe
Break it down
“Friend, do not concern yourself with who I am; you will never know. I do not want you to accept anything I say. I do not want anything from any of you; I do not desire popularity; I do not want your flattery, your following. Because I am in love with life, I do not want anything. These questions are not of very great importance. What is of importance is the fact that you obey and allow your judgement to be perverted by authority. Your judgement, your mind, your affection, your life are being perverted by things which have no value, and herein lies sorrow.”
J. Krishnamurti
Early Talks, 1930
Quotation of the Day
This not really a quotation per se. I was just recently reminded of the powerful and vital language of the Declaration of Independence. It almost makes it seem like 1776 was just yesterday.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.“
Quotation of the day
“I must be cruel only to be kind;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”
— William Shakespeare
Quotation of the day
“Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgement.”
— William Shakespeare
Quotation of the day
I’m going to try to do a quotation a day.
“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” – Voltaire