Quotes
Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.
-Mark Twain
Mark Twain (1835-1910) is famous for his paired books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Spent much of his later years trying to get out of financial difficulties.
Right up there with Abraham Lincoln and Yogi Berra for misattributed quotes, but this one is accurate – it’s from his book Following the Equator.
You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
-David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) was an American novelist and college professor. This quote is from his most famous novel, Infinite Jest.
I shall either find a way or make one.
-Hannibal
This quote is attributed to Hannibal 247-181 BCE, probably because it fits his life story so well.
Most Americans know Hannibal crossed the Alps with elephants and that’s about it.
He was a Carthage (modern day North Africa) general who attacked the Roman Republic in the Second Punic War in 218 BCE. He was fighting in Spain and set his sites on Rome and decided to cross the mountains rather than the Mediterannean Sea. This was a bold move but, alas, he was beaten back anyway.
Sorrow eats time. Be patient. Time eats sorrow.
-Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich (1954) is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. She writes both fiction and non-fiction and much of her work involves Native Americans. Louise Erdrich is Chippewa. This quote is from her book LaRose.
Louise Erdrich has won pretty much every award a novelist can winm including the Pulitzer Prize for The Night Watchman, the National Book award for The Round House, and the Library of Congress award for American Fiction.
Good and evil both increase at compound interest..
-C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a British author and literary scholar.
Probably most famous for the Chronicles of Narnia series, many of his works had strong Christian themes. He was good friends with, and a work companion of, J.R.R.. Tolkien of The Lord of the Rings fame.
During WW II he gave radio broadcasts on Christianity.
You keep on learning and learning and pretty soon you learn something no one had learned before.
-Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was a bongo playing theoretical physicist at California Tech via New York City. He occupied the resident physics’ genius slot between Einstein and Hawking. Probably best known for The Feynman Lectures on Physics, where he covered physic fundamentals for lay people, and the leading role he played on the commission that studied the Challenger disaster.
Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
-Oscar Wilde
This is taken from the Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) play A Woman of No Importance.
Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright that gained notoriety, and served two years in prison, for homosexual acts. After serving two years he left the UK, never to return.
Adage and Anecdotes
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman (1960) is a British author who works across many genres: short fiction; novels; comic books; graphical novels, and screenplays. Probably best known for The Sandman and American Gods.
Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things” And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.” And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did.
Mr. Rogers
Fred Rogers (1928-2003) was an American television host and Presbyterian minister, best known for the long running PBS show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. The show ran for 33 years.
Mr. Rogers was famous for being kind hearted, as shown in this Emmy Lifetime Achievement acceptance speech.
I hope you’re proud of yourself for the times you’ve said “yes,” when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else.
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk, religious scholar and mystic.
Largely forgotten today, this quote is from Merton’s The Power and Meaning of Love but his most famous work is his memoir, The Seven Story Mountain,which describes his spiritual journey.
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.
