While trying to make some room on my bookshelves recently for some old bound editions of the “Resorter”, I came across a copy of “The Harper Book of Quotations” and became infatuated with some of the passages. Here’s a look at some of the quotes I may or may not be thinking about while I am on vacation this week:
On drink, drinking and drinkers:
“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then drink takes you.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald
“I like liquor – its taste and its effects – and that is just the reason why I never drink it.”
— Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson
“He is … like many other geniuses, a greater friend to the bottle, than the bottle is to him.”
— William Lyon Mackenzie
On education:
“I forget what I taught. I only remember what I have learnt.”
— Patrick White
“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.”
— Native American saying
“A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.”
— George Santayana
On cynicism:
“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.”
— Sidney J. Harris
“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
— Oscar Wilde
“Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.”
— Lillian Hellman
On defeat:
“Do not be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.”
— Henry Ward Beecher
To lose is to learn.”
— Anon.
On experience:
“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experience.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.”
— Oscar Wilde
“Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”
— Samuel Butler
“Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
— Minna Antrim
On family:
“As a general thing, when a woman wears the pants in a family, she has a good right to them.”
— Josh Billings
“I am he/As you are me/And we are all together.”
— John Lennon and Paul McCartney
“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
— Theodore Hesburgh
On fate and destiny:
“How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?”
— Bob Dylan
“Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.”
— Henry Miller
On fear:
“Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.”
— Albert Camus
“The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.”
— Mark Twain
“Once men are caught up in an event they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men.”
— Antoine de St. Exupery
