It
is human nature to hate the man whom you have to hurt.
Tacitus (c.56-c.120) Roman historian, orator, politician [Cornelius
Tacitus]
To
show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.
Tacitus (c.56-c.120) Roman historian, orator, politician [Cornelius
Tacitus] Annals (early 2nd Century AD)
Death
is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has
come.
Sir
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Indian Bengali poet, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel
laureate
A mind all logic is like a
knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
Sir
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Indian Bengali poet, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel
laureate
You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why
a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around -- and
why his parents will always wave back.
William D. Tammeus (b. 1945)
Perhaps our eyes
need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a
clearer view again.
Alex Tan
The
nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Victory
goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.
Dr. Savielly
Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)
Ukrainian chess grandmaster
Staying angry
with you is how I protect myself from you. Refusing to forgive you is not only
how I punish you: it is also how I keep you from getting close enough to hurt
me again, and nine times out of ten it works - only there is a serious side
effect. It is called bitterness, and it can do terrible things to the human
body and soul.
Barbara Brown
The
problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure
they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
Elizabeth
Taylor (b. 1932) American actress
When
a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket
and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.
Corrie Ten
Boom (1892-1983) Dutch evangelist,
concentration camp survivor
Any
concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a
burden.
Corrie Ten
Boom (1892-1983) Dutch evangelist,
concentration camp survivor Clippings From My Notebook (1982)
From
silly devotions and sad-faced saints, O Lord, deliver me.
St. Teresa of
Loneliness
is the most terrible poverty.
Mother Teresa
of
I know God will
not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.
Mother Teresa
of
We can do no
great things - only small things with great love.
Mother Teresa
of
Smile
at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your
children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will
help you to grow up in greater love for each other.
Mother Teresa
of
Mother is the name for God in
the lips and hearts of little children.
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847-8). Vol. I, Chapter 37
Being
powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
Margaret
Thatcher (b. 1925) British Prime Minister
(1979-90), chemist
I
am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
Margaret
Thatcher (b. 1925) British Prime Minister
(1979-90), chemist
No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had
good intentions. He had money as well.
Margaret
Thatcher (b. 1925) British Prime Minister
(1979-90), chemist
Look
at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you
lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve
done it.
Margaret
Thatcher (b. 1925) British Prime Minister
(1979-90), chemist
You
may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
Margaret
Thatcher (b. 1925) British Prime Minister
(1979-90), chemist
It's
not that Good doesn't triumph over Evil, it's that the point spread is too
small.
Bob Thaves (b. 1924) American cartoonist Frank
& Ernest (1993)
It
is better to die excommunicated than to live and violate the conscience.
St. Thomas
Aquinas (1225-1274) Italian religious and
philosopher Disputed Questions on Truth
In the beginning,
there was nothing. Then God said ‘Let there be light,’ and there was still
nothing, but you could see it.
Dave Thomas
If I
was told that I had two minutes left to live, I'd find a golfer to talk to
because it would seem like forever.
Jeremy Thomas
Mistakes are at the very base
of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules. If
we were not provided with the knack for being wrong, we could never get
anything useful done. We think our way along by choosing between right and
wrong alternatives, and the wrong choices have to be made as often as the right
ones. We get along in life this way.
Lewis Thomas The Medusa and the Snail
One is never sure, watching two cats washing
each other, whether it's affection, the taste, or a trial run for the jugular.
Helen Thomson
A cat does not
want all the world to love her -- only those she has chosen to love.
Helen Thomson
A cap of good acid costs five
dollars and for that you can hear the Universal Symphony with God singing solo
and the Holy Ghost on drums.
Hunter S. Thompson
Who is the happier man, he
who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed on the shore
and merely existed?
Hunter S. Thompson
In a nation ruled
by swine, all pigs are upward mobile-and the rest of us are fucked until we can
put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing
Completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something
better than a nation of panicked sheep…but we owe it especially to our
children, who will have to live with our loss and all its long-term
consequences.
Hunter S. Thompson
…and I have
learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and
happiness, either. But as long as I know there’s a pretty good chance I can get
my hands on either one of them every
once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots.
Hunter S. Thompson
Every now and then when
your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is
to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S.
Thompson
I hate to advocate
insanity, violence, alcohol, or weird chemicals to anyone, but they’ve always
worked for me.
Hunter S. Thompson
For
every ten people who are clipping at the branches of evil, you're lucky to find
one who's hacking at the roots.
Henry David
Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and
writer
If
you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where
they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David
Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and
writer
The
squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.
Henry David
Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and
writer
I have learned
this at least by my experiment: if one advances confidently in the direction of
his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a
success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David
Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and
writer
The
cost of a thing … is the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it,
immediately or in the long run.
Henry David
Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and
writer Journal (1845, undated)
What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of
chaos.
Kerry Thornley
"I don't understand," said the scientist, "why you lemmings all
rush down to the sea and drown yourselves."
"How curious," said the lemming. "The one
thing I don't understand is why you human beings don't."
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
If
I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will
go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
He who flies far from our sphere of sorrow, is here today,
and here tomorrow.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
Doubt
is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.
Paul Johannes
Tillich (1886-1965) American theologian and
philosopher
If
I were asked ... to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of ...
[the Americans] ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the
superiority of their women.
Alexis de
Tocqueville (1805-1859) French writer and
politician Democracy in America (1840)
"I
wish it need not have happened in my lifetime," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who
live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to
decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
J.R.R.
Tolkien (1892-1973) British writer The
Fellowship of the Ring
Deserves
it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve
life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in
judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
J.R.R.
Tolkien (1892-1973) British writer The
Fellowship of the Ring (Gandalf)
Do not meddle in
the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) British
writer The Fellowship of the Ring
(Gildor Inglorian)
Other
evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary.
Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is
in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in
the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to
till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
J.R.R.
Tolkien (1892-1973) British writer The
Return of the King
"It
needs but one foe to breed a war, not two, Master Warden," answered Éowyn.
"And those who have not swords can still die upon them."
J.R.R.
Tolkien (1892-1973) British writer The
Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 5
One ring to rule
them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all, and in the
darkness bind them.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) British
writer
Frodo was now
safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had
long ago reported, “a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep, or
story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant
mixture of them all.” Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and
sadness.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) British
writer
All that is gold
does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong
does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) British
writer
"The Road goes ever on
and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road had gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say."
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) British
writer
The world is
indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is
much that is fair, and though in all lands love is mingled with grief, love
grows perhaps the greater.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) British
writer The Fellowship of the Ring
Man
invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
Lily Tomlin (b. 1939) American comedian and actress
“Assassins!”
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) to his orchestra
Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.
Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901)
Of the twenty-two
civilisations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when
they reached the moral state the
The
glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between
the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.
Brian Tracy (contemp.) American motivational speaker, writer
A
man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he
plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
Dr. D. Elton
Trueblood (1900-1994) American author,
educator, philosopher
It
is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry S
Truman (1884-1972)
Maturity
is knowing that just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean he's a
horse's ass.
Harry S
Truman (1884-1972)
I
have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are
probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but
I had the job and I had to do it, and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone
in
Harry S
Truman (1884-1972)
That’s a good
question. Let me try to evade you.
Senator Paul Tsongas
I can
take my coffee with or without sugar. I'm ambidextrose.
Gary Turner
Poverty
is not a disgrace; disgrace lies in poverty without ambition. A mean position
is not a cause for contempt; contempt belongs to one in a mean position without
ability. Old age is no cause for regret; regret that one is old, having lived
in vain. Death is no cause for sorrow; sorrow that one dies without benefit to
the world.
Mr. Tut-tut (fl. 17th C.) Chinese collector of proverbs (pseud.) One
Hundred Proverbs
Always
acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and
give you an opportunity to commit more.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Of all God’s
creatures, there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one
is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it
would deteriorate the cat.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Don’t go around
saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here
first.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Keep away from
people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people can always do that, but
the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
We have a
criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency
is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know
anything and can’t read.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Clothes
make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Don't
part with your illusions; when they are gone, you may still exist, but you have
ceased to live.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Each
race determines for itself what indecencies are. Nature knows no indecencies;
Man invents them.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Get
the facts first. You can distort them later.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
If I
were going to construct a God I would furnish him with some ways and qualities
and characteristics which the Present One lacks... He would spend some of His
eternities in trying to forgive Himself for making man unhappy when He could
have made him happy with the same effort and He would spend the rest of them in
studying astronomy.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
I
could never learn to like her, except on a raft at sea with no other provisions
in sight.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
I
thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him
kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
I
was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
It
is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral
courage so rare.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
The difference
between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between
lightning and a lightning bug.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American
writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
It
is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of
us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the
loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage, may eventually be gathered
together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except the
inventor of the telephone.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Sometimes
I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on
or by imbeciles who really mean it.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
The
man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something that will always
be useful and which never will grow dim or doubtful.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
The
radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the
views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
The
right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly
timed pause.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Twenty
years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do
than by the ones you did do.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
When
one remembers that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands
explained.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
After all these
years I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to
live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Why
shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make
sense.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
Laws
are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an
openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens] "The Gorky Incident"
There
is more real pleasure to be gotten out of a malicious act, when your heart is
in it, than out of thirty acts of a nobler sort.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens]
There
are many humorous things in the world, among them the white man's notion that
he is less savage than the other savages.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens] Following
the Equator (1897)
There
are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. for Samuel Clemens] Following the Equator (1897)
I
don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating.
"Boss"
William Marcy Tweed (1823-1878)
American politician
The riddle of God is this.
God is what you believe It is. No man is wrong about the existence of God, and
yet no man is right about his knowledge of God. There is no mystery in God
except that It is what each Soul believes that It is.
Paul
Twitchell, Stranger by the River
Magic
is seldom spectacular because it seldom needs to be.
Donald Tyson (b. 1954) Canadian writer and mystic
Everybody's
got a plan -- until he gets hit.
Mike Tyson (b. 1966) American boxer
Once Chuang Chou dreamt he
was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself
and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up
and there he was, solid and unmistakeable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he
was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he
was Chuang Chou.
Chaung Tzu