The perils of ambulatory reading. If you have never said "Excuse
me" to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are
probably wasting too much valuable reading time.
Sherri Chasin Calvo (contemp.) American
science and medical writer
Does it really matter what these affectionate people do—so long as they
don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses!
Beatrice Campbell (1865-1940) English
actress quoted in Dent, _Mrs.
Patrick Campbell_ (1961)
History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just
yells "Can't you remember anything I told you?" and lets fly with a
club.
John W. Campbell (1910-1971) American
writer and editor
The myth is the public domain and the dream is the private myth. If your
private myth, your dream, happens to coincide with that of the society, you are
in good accord with your group. If it isn't, you've got a long adventure in the
dark forest ahead of you.
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) American
mythological scholar
In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an
invincible summer.
Albert Camus
(1913-1960) French existentialist,
playwright/novelist
If
there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of
life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the
implacable
grandeur of this life.
Albert Camus
(1913-1960) French existentialist,
playwright/novelist
Most cats, when they are
Out want to be In, and vice versa, and often simultaneously.
Dr Louis J. Camuti
You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word
alone.
Alphonse Capone (1899-1957) American
gangster
The nice thing
about masturbation is that you don’t have to dress up for it.
Truman Capote
There are only
three sins - causing pain, causing fear, and causing anguish. The rest is
window dressing.
A
writer must simultaneously believe the following two things:
1.
The story I am now working on is the greatest work of genius ever written in
English.
2.
The story I am now working on is worthless drivel
...Of
course, believing two contradictory facts at the same time is sometimes
referred to as madness, but that, too, can be an
asset
to a writer.
Orson Scott
Card
The event that caused the
most suffering, the most loss of life, the most loss of culture, was
Orson Scott
Card
Anyone who goes faster than me is an idiot. Anyone who goes slower than
me is a moron. "Look at that idiot! Get outta my way, you moron! Look at
that idiot!"
George Carlin (b. 1937) American
comedian
The very
existence of flame throwers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to
themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m
just not close enough to get the job done.’
George Carlin (b. 1937) American
comedian
Headline:
Police fire over rioters,
kill dozens on second floor.
George Carlin (b. 1937) American
comedian
Every day I beat
my own previous record for the number of consecutive days I’ve stayed alive.
George Carlin (b. 1937) American
comedian
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.
George Carlin (b. 1937) American
comedian
In ancient times
there was a country whose harvest came in and it was poisonous. Those who ate
of it became insane. “There is but one thing to do,” said the King. “We must
eat the grain to survive, but there must be those among us who will remember
that we are insane.”
Anon., from a George Carlin album cover
I’m not concerned
about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose...
it’ll be much harder to detect.
George Carlin (b. 1937) American
comedian
If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
George Carlin (b. 1937) American
comedian Brain Droppings (1998)
[T]here seems to be with some people a feeling that you can tell a deeper
truth by way of myths. I disagree with it in principle; I can not always
disagree with it in practice.
I. Marc Carlson (contemp.) Belief-L
(
How about "just be yourself, and the people who like you will like
you for who you really are, and not who you are pretending to be"? You
should be polite to the others because we need more politeness, but otherwise
they can just go screw themselves with a shattered-glass-encrusted baseball
bat.
I. Marc Carlson (contemp.) Belief-L
In some cases, all it requires is that you rationally point out that
there is a problem. In others, all you can do is turn the other cheek. At the
far end of the spectrum are those for whom the only appropriate response is to
carve out their still-beating heart and force them to eat it.
I. Marc Carlson (contemp.) Belief-L
Remember, earthquakes are God's gentle little reminders that "Excuse
me, I'm putting a mountain right where you are standing."
I. Marc Carlson (contemp.) Belief-L
(
To put it bluntly, if we lived in a universe where all things were
decided by God, and "free will" were nothing but a polite lie, then
the universe would be nothing but masturbatory exercises of the Almighty,
pre-scripted and acted out by the well-trained monkey people led about by
"God's Will". I choose to not accept this possibility, since the
universe would then have no purpose that could possibly interest me.
I. Marc Carlson (contemp.) Belief-L
(
I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish
essayist and historian The Age of Reason, "The Author's
Profession of Faith"
No man who has
once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish
essayist and historian
Note
to self: pasty-skinned programmers ought not stand out in the
John Carmack
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what
they do.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) American
industrialist and philanthropist
The most important thing in life is not simply to capitalize on your
gains. Any fool can do that. The important thing is to profit from your losses.
That requires intelligence, and makes the difference between a man of sense and
a fool.
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American
writer, lecturer
The ideas I stand
for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American
writer, lecturer
I got what I have now through knowing the right time to tell terrible
people to go to hell.
Leslie Caron (b. 1931) French
dancer and actress
You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across
fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't
laugh if you trip.
Jonathan Carroll (b. 1949) American
writer Outside the Dog Museum (1991)
One day
"Where do you want to go?" was his response.
"I don't know,"
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't
matter."
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English
writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
“When I use a
word,” Humpty replied in a scornful tone,” it means just what I choose it to
mean--nothing more nor less.”
“The question
is,” said
“The question is,”
replied Humpty,” which is to be the master, that’s all.”
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English
writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
"But I don't want to go among mad people,"
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat.
"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't
have come here."
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English
writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Happiness is your dentist
telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand on the drill.
"Johnny" William Carson
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty,
and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life -- so I became a
scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
Matt Cartmill (b. 1943) American
biological anthropologist
If biologists don't want to see the theory of evolution evicted from the
public schools because of its religious content, they need to accept the
limitations of science and stop trying to draw vast, cosmic conclusions from
the plain facts of evolution. Humility isn't just a cardinal virtue in
Christian doctrine; it's also a virtue in the practice of science.
Matt Cartmill (b. 1943) American
biological anthropologist
Duke Magazine, "Contemplating
a Cosmic Convergence" (Jul. 2000)
Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible
for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what
matters.
Pablo Casals (1876-1973) Spanish
cellist, conductor, composer
"Salute to Life" (1969)
Each second we live in a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment
that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our
children in school? We teach them that two and two make four, and that
Pablo Casals (1876-1973) Spanish
cellist, conductor, composer "You
are a Marvel"
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
M. Kathleen Casey (contemp.) American
sociologist [Kathleen Casey Theisen]
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.
Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563) Savoyard
teacher, translator [Sebastien Chatêillon]
Contra Libellum Calvini, on John
Calvin's role in execution of Servetus (1554)
Modern man has left the realm of the unknown and the mysterious, and has
settled down in the realm of the functional. He has turned his back to the
world of the foreboding and the exulting and has welcomed the world of boredom.
Carlos Casteneda (b. 1931) American
writer, mystic, anthropologist
The Fire from Within (1984)
I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am
obliged to will terribly what I will at all.
Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian
empress [Catherine the Great]
Letter to Baron F. M. Grimm (1878)
Alas
and alack, for the progress and pride of modern technology has turned the
infinite majesty and mystery of the starry void to a cup of purplish grey, reflecting our own
dingy, dusty glow back upon ourselves. In fact - and how had I not noticed
before? - the yard itself was given such an un-Christmaslike “lustre of
Katy Catlin (contemp) American photographer?
Of
course Humanity will survive to find what’s waiting out there. If we have to
crawl out of the muck a second time to do it, we will. We’ll do it together as
one people. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there. Time, after
all, is as much of human origin as boundary lines . . .
Katy Catlin (contemp) American photographer?
Cato the Elder, at the end of every speech
I have lived
nearly fifty years, and I have seen life as it is. Pain, misery, hunger...
cruelty beyond belief. I have heard the singing from taverns and the moans from
bundles of filth on the streets. I have been a soldier and seen my comrades
fall in battle... or die more slowly under the lash in
Miguel de Cervantes The Man of La Mancha (Don Quioxite)
We live in a rainbow of
chaos.
Paul Cezanne
A market is the combined behavior of thousands of people responding to
information, misinformation and whim.
Tribulation will not hurt
you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and
skeptical.
Edwin Hubbel
Chapin
Someday after we
have mastered the air, the winds, the tides and gravity, we will harness for
God the energies of love. And then for the second time in the history of the
world man will have discovered fire.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
They can't censor the gleam in my eye.
Laughton Charles (1899-1962) British
actor
When he said we were trying to make a fool of him, I could only murmur
that the Creator had beat us to it.
Ilka Chase (1905-1978) American
actress, writer quoted in
Cooper & Hartman, "Mrs. Crankhurst" (1980)
The theater is a baffling business, and a shockingly wasteful one when
you consider that people who have proven their worth, who have appeared in or
been responsible for successful plays, who have given outstanding performances,
can still, in the full tide of their energy, be forced, through lack of
opportunity, to sit idle season after season, their enthusiasm, their morale,
their very talent dwindling to slow gray death. Of finances we will not even
speak; it is too sad a tale.
Ilka Chase (1905-1978) American
actress, writer Past Imperfect (1942)
Any idiot can face a crisis, it is the day-to-day living that wears you
out.
Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer
Nothing better forges a bond of love, friendship or respect than common
hatred toward something.
Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian playwright and writer Notebooks,
Notebook I, vol. 17, p. 52, “Nauka” (1921)
The soul would
have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.
John Vance Cheney
Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English
statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope] Letter to his son (
Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull
it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one. If you are asked what
o'clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the
watchman.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English
statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope] Letter to his son (
It's not the world that's gotten so much worse, but the news coverage
that's gotten so much better.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys
them very much.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
I
believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong;
and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical
form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom,
the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally
stupid.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Fairy tales do not
tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist.
Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in
doing it.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer A Short History of
Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to
discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to
mention it.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer Autobiography
(1936)
Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They
never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer Charles
Dickens, Ch. 11 (1906)
The wise old fairy tales never were so silly as to say that the prince
and the princess lived peacefully ever afterwards. The fairy tales said that
the prince and the princess lived happily, and so they did. They lived happily,
although it is very likely that from time to time they threw the furniture at
each other. Most marriages, I think, are happy marriages; but there is no such
thing as a contented marriage. The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a
perpetual crisis.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer Chesterton on Dickens (1911)
The dispute that goes on between Macbeth and his wife about the murder of
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer Chesterton
on Shakespeare, ed. Dorothy Collins (1972)
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our
ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the
small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
"My Country, right or wrong" is a thing no patriot would think
of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk
or sober."
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer The
Defendant, “Defence of Patriotism” (1901)
The one really rousing thing about human history is that, whether or no
the proceedings go right, at any rate, the prophecies always go wrong. The
promises are never fulfilled and the threats are never fulfilled. Even when
good things do happen, they are never the good things that were guaranteed. And
even when bad things happen, they are never the bad things that were
inevitable. You may be quite certain that, if an old pessimist says the country
is going to the dogs, it will go to any other animals except the dogs; if it be
to the dromedaries or even the dragons. ... It was as if one weather prophet
confidently predicted blazing sunshine and the other was equally certain of
blinding fog; and they were both buried in a beautiful snow-storm and lay,
fortunately dead, under a clear and starry sky.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer The
Illustrated London News, column (
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found
difficult and left untried.
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer What's
Wrong with the World (1910)
The day we lose
our need for dreams is the day the human race forfeits its soul.
John Chiam
Anger is a very appropriate
and necessary response to an injustice.
Bill Chickering
If a general is ignorant of
the principles of adaptabiliy, he must not be entrusted with a position of
authority. The skilful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man,
the covetous man and the stupid man. For the wise man delights in establishing
his merit, the brave man likes to show his courage in action, the covetous man
is quick at seizing advantages, and the stupid man has no fear of death.
So Mo Ch’ien, The Art of War
I … go to MacDonald's and Burger King on occasion. What else are you
going to do when you're on the road and you have to dash in for some food? They
are pretty good; they're clean, and you know what you're getting. I don't know
why anyone would think I always dine on hummingbird tongues or something.
Julia Child (b. 1912) American
chef and writer
Terrorism is not the weapon of the weak. It is the
weapon of those who are against “us” whoever “us” happens to be.
Noam Chomsky
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely
miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly
that just to be alive is a grand thing.
Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English
writer
I don't think necessity is
the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from
idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English writer
It is a curious
thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize
just how much you love them.
Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English
writer
Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend.
Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English
writer The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Ch. 11 (Poirot) (1911)
Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up
and hurry off as if nothing happened.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
Remember the
story of the Spanish prisoner. For many years he was confined in a dungeon...
One day it occurred to him to push the door of his cell. It was open; and it
had never been locked.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
If you will not fight when
your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when
you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious
chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when
there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as
slaves.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
You
ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air,
with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war
against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue
of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer
with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror,
victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no
survival.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
If you’re going
through hell, keep going.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
From
now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall
not put.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
Even
though large tracts of
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author Hansard,
What General Weygand
called the “Battle of France” is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is
about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian
civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of
our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must
very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this
island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free and
the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we
fail then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have
known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more
sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. Let
us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author Hansard 18 June 1940, col. 60
You can always trust the Americans. in the end they will do the right
thing, after they have eliminated all the other possibilities.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
WOMAN: There are two things I don't like about you, Mr.
Churchill -- your politics and your mustache.
CHURCHILL: My dear madam, pray do not disturb yourself. You
are not likely to come into contact with either.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British
statesman and author
Exchange with anonymous woman
Never injure a friend, even
in jest.
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 the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt.
People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman
orator, statesman, philosopher (63
BC or 55 BC?)
The most important
thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.
You’ve got to
sing like you don’t need the money, love like you’ll never get hurt. You’ve got
to dance like no one is watching. It’s gotta come from the heart, if you want
it to work.
Susannah Clark
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax
return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Arthur C. Clarke (b. 1917) British
writer
CNN is one of the participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted
Turner is elected president but refuses because he doesn’t want to give up
power.
Arthur C. Clarke (b. 1917) British
writer
The future isn’t
what it used to be.
Arthur C. Clarke (b. 1917) British
writer
But the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture
a little way past them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke (b. 1917) British
writer
Profiles of the Future, "Hazards
of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" (Clarke's Second Law) (1962; rev.
1973)
In the early days
all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there’s no
real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities.
Les Claypool, Primus
The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be
when you kill them.
The great mistake most people make is the assumption that most people are
sane. I know very few people who are sane -- and only one man in my life who
was really grown up. All the other people are terribly recognizable as kids who
have learned grown-up ways of behaving.
John Cleese (b. 1939) British
comedian
Georges Clemenceau
If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded
of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in
his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that
call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which
cannot easily be asked without disturbing it — the life of that man is one long
sin against mankind.
The last time I checked, the Constitution said, "of the people, by
the people and for the people." That's what the Declaration of
Independence says.
William Jefferson
Clinton (b. 1946)
Speech, inadvertently quoting the Gettysburg Address (
If you can’t beat them,
arrange to have them beaten.
George Clooney
A huge part of
real love is constant forgiveness.
If
the former
CNET Gamecenter, "The Top 40 Games of the Millennium"
We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those
we don’t like?
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French
writer, filmmaker, artist On his
election to the Académie Française (1955)
I love cats because I love my home and after a while they become its
visible soul.
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French
writer, filmmaker, artist
It is not Scripture that creates hostility to homosexuality, but rather
hostility to homosexuality that prompts certain Christians to retain a few
passages from an otherwise discarded law code. The problem is not how to
reconcile homosexuality with scriptural passages, but rather how to reconcile
the rejection and punishment of homosexuals with the love of Christ.
Rev. William Sloane
Coffin, Jr. (b. 1924) American Protestant social activist The
Courage to Love (1982)
Why
isn’t my hair combed? Because combing my hair would contribute to the entropy
death of the universe. Won’t not combing my hair contributeto the entropy death
of the universe? Yes, but not combing my hair I’ll have more time for other
things.
Evan Cohen
The word apocalyptic has
interesting origins. It comes from the Greek apokalupsis, which mean revelation. This derives from the Greek apokaluptein, meaning uncover or
disclose.
Leonard Cohen, “Beautiful Losers”
The ark was built
by amateurs, and the Titanic by the experts. Don’t wait for the experts.
The two most
evangelical groups in the world are atheists and vegetarians, especially the
least knowledgeable and least intelligent individuals within those groups.
If a country is
worth living in, it is worth fighting for.
Manning Coles
As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist,
one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in
part a decent fellow.
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) French
writer Break of Day (1961)
You tell me it is too early
to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
Billy Collins, The Art of Drowning (1995). On Turning Ten
To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses
it; for when we fail, our pride supports us; when we succeed, it betrays us.
Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) English
clergyman, writer
Times of great calamity and
confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is
produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited
from the darkest storm.
Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) English clergyman, writer
It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of
wealth.
Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) English
clergyman, writer Lacon (1820)
Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it;
anything but live for it.
Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) English
clergyman, writer Lacon, vol. 1, #25 (1820)
Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest
fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) English
clergyman, writer Lacon, vol. 1, #322 (1820)
Censorship always
defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is
incapable of exercising real discretion.
Henry Steele Commager
Despite some of the
horrors and barbarisms of modern life which appall and grieve us, life has - or
has the potential of - such richness, joy and adventure as were unknown to our
ancestors except in their dreams.
Arthur H. Compton
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is
noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which
is the bitterest.
Confucius (551-479 BC) Chinese
philosopher [Ku'ng Ch'in, Ku'ng Fu-tzu]
What is called a great minister is one who serves his prince according to
what is right; and when he finds he cannot do so, retires.
Confucius (551-479 BC) Chinese
philosopher [Ku'ng Ch'in, Ku'ng Fu-tzu] Lun
Yu, 11.23
To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
Confucius (551-479 BC) Chinese
philosopher [Ku'ng Ch'in, Ku'ng Fu-tzu] Lun Yu, II, xxv
Heav’n hath no
rage like love to hatred turn’d, Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.
William Congreve
(1670-1729) English playwright and poet
There's
no need to be.
James S. Conner (1918 -1988) Last words. He was dying, and his wife had
just said that she was afraid of what was about to happen.
Every age is fed
on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an
end.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Polish-English novelist [b. Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski]
Victory: An
The appearance of sincerity
counts for more than actual truthfulness.
Glen Cook, The Garrett Files
The male is a
domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to
do most things.
Jilly Cooper
You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough,
you fight one more round.
James Corbett (1866-1933)
Irish-American boxer [a.k.a. Gentleman Jim]
The childless experts on child raising also bring tears of laughter to my
eyes when they say, “I love children because they’re so honest.” There is not
an agent in the CIA or the KGB who knows how to conceal the theft of food, how
to fake being asleep, or how to forge a parent’s signature like a child.
Bill Cosby (b. 1937) American
comedian Fatherhood, ch. 5 (1986)
Immortality is a long shot, I
admit. But somebody has to be first.
Bill Cosby (b.
1937) American comedian
In dealing with kids, no
matter how little we understand their explanations, we must always remember
that we're the adults. What this means I have no idea. It certainly means
nothing to the kids, who instinctively seem to know that adults are merely
strange people who have dopey ideas like "Stop throwing peas at your
sister."
Bill Cosby (b.
1937) American comedian Fatherhood (1986)
Men will wrangle
for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it.
Charles Cotton
There is a tendency to mistake data for wisdom, just as there has always
been a tendency to confuse logic with values, intelligence with insight.
Unobstructed access to facts can produce unlimited good only if it is matched
by the desire and ability to find out what they mean and where they lead. Facts
are terrible things if left sprawling and unattended. They are too easily
regarded as evaluated certainties rather than as the rawest of raw materials
crying to be processed into the texture of logic. It requires a very unusual
mind, Whitehead said, to undertake the analysis of a fact. The computer can
provide a correct number, but it may be an irrelevant number until judgment is
pronounced.
Norman Cousins (1915-1990) American
editor Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook, "Freedom as
Teacher" (1981)
History is a vast early
warning system.
Norman Cousins
(1915-1990) American editor
You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment
if you don't trust enough.
Frank Crane (1861-1929) American
clergyman, journalist [(or F. H. Crane, b.1912, or F. Crane 1873-1948)]
There was pride in his eyes
without arrogance. Behind the pride was a sadness so deep it seemed to stretch
back to ancient mysteries Mark could not even imagine, and he felt a small
thrill of fear, or anticipation, which a man knows if he’s lucky enough to meet
and recognise his challenge.
Margaret Craven I Heard an Owl Call my Name
He did not know that when he
turned back in his own eyes was the depth of sadness which he had begun to
understand.
Margaret Craven I Heard an Owl Call my Name
MALCOLM: Yeah, but, John, if the 'Pirates of the
Michael Crichton (b. 1942) American
writer
If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the
computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon,
and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
Robert X. Cringely (contemp.) American
computer columnist [pseudonym]
InfoWorld
A gentleman doesn't pounce ... he glides.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English
writer and gay activist Manners from Heaven, ch. 6 (1984)
The young always
have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have
now solved this by defying their parents and copying each other.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English
writer and gay activist
Put any ten
people in a room, they may not elect a leader, but I guarantee they’ll pick
someone to hate.
No one would be
foolish enough to choose war over peace - in peace sons bury their fathers, but
in war fathers bury their sons.
Croesus of
I love you, not
for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
Roy Croft
I'd move to
Russell Crowe
Australian actor
Continuously, unnoticeably,
at the rate of one second per second, the world turned from what it had been
and into what it was to be.
John Crowley Aegypt
to be
nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can
fight, and never stop fighting.
e.e. cummings
it takes courage to grow up
and turn out to be who you really are.
e.e. cummings
maggie and millie and molly
and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discoverd a shell that sang so sweetly
she couldn't remember her troubles
millie befriended a stranded star whose rays five languid fingers were
and molly was chased by a horrible thing which raced sideways while blowing
bubbles;
and
may came home with a smooth round stone as small as a world and as large as
alone.
for whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea.
e.e.cummings
BLACKADDER: I, on the other hand, have a degree from
the
Richard Curtis (b. 1956) English
screenwriter Blackadder Goes
He accidentally,
very brutally, sadly, cut his head off while combing his hair.
Richard Curtis (b. 1956) English
screenwriter One of the Blackadder shows
EBENEZER BLACKADDER: HA! Got him with my subtle plan!
BALDRICK: I can't see any subtle plan!
EBENEZER BLACKADDER: Baldrick, you wouldn't see a subtle plan
if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord, singing
"Subtle plans are here again!"
Richard Curtis (b. 1956) English
screenwriter Blackadder's Christmas Carol (with Ben
Elton) (1988)