Betrand Russell: Quote for November 30, 2009

Yet, by death, by illness, by poverty, or by the voice of duty, we must learn, each one of us, that the world was not made for us, and that, however beautiful may be the things we crave, Fate may nevertheless forbid them.

-- Betrand Russell

Click here to read Bertrand Russell's Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, from which this quote is taken.

Categories: Betrand Russell

Confucius: Quote for November 29, 2009

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.

-- Confucius

Categories: Confucius

Napoleon Bonaparte: Quote for November 28, 2009

The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Categories: Napoleon Bonaparte

Elise Boulding: Quote for November 27, 2009

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.

-- Elise Boulding

Categories: Elise Boulding

Henry Ward Beecher: Quote for November 26, 2009

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

-- Henry Ward Beecher

Categories: Henry Ward Beecher

O'Brien: Quote for November 25, 2009

In our world, there will be no love but the love of Big Brother. No laughter but the love of triumph over a defeated enemy. No art, no science, no literature, no enjoyment, but always and only, Wnston, there will be the thrill of power. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever!

-- O'Brien

from: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954)

Andre Morell acted as O'Brien

Categories: O'Brien, Andre Morell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Benjamin Franklin: Quote for November 24, 2009

Fraud and deceit are ever in a hurry. Take time for all things. Great haste makes great waste.

-- Benjamin Franklin

Categories: Benjamin Franklin

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Quote for November 23, 2009

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

-- Fyodor Dostoevsky

Categories: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Harold Diddlebock: Quote for November 22, 2009

Nothing is impossible if you use your head. You can go through granite walls with your head.

-- Harold Diddlebock

from: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)

Harold Lloyd acted as Harold Diddlebock

Jimmy Conlin appears in this clip acting as Wormy.

Categories: Harold Diddlebock, Harold Lloyd, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

Woodrow Wilson: Quote for November 21, 2009

Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.

-- Woodrow Wilson

Categories: Woodrow Wilson

Maya Angelou: Quote for November 20, 2009

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

-- Maya Angelou

Categories: Maya Angelou

Carl Sandburg: Quote for November 19, 2009

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

-- Carl Sandburg

Categories: Carl Sandburg

Emily Dickinson: Quote for November 18, 2009

My life closed twice before its close;
    It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
    A third event to me.

So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
    As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
    And all we need of hell.

-- Emily Dickinson

Categories: Emily Dickinson

Harrison Bergeron: Quote for November 17, 2009

Dr. Eisenstock: Harrison, what is the first article of the New American Constitution?

That all men are not created equal; it's the responsibility of the government to render them so.

-- Harrison Bergeron

from: Harrison Bergeron (1995)

Sean Astin acted as Harrison Bergeron

Nigel Bennett appears in this clip acting as Dr. Eisenstock.

.In today's America, it's the Media and the Social Networking Sites that are charged with this responsibility.

Categories: Harrison Bergeron, Sean Astin

Andy Warhol: Quote for November 16, 2009

People are always so boring when they band together. You have to be alone to develop all the idiosyncrasies that make a person interesting.

-- Andy Warhol

Categories: Andy Warhol

Jesse Ventura: Quote for November 15, 2009

But we have to become willing to admit as a nation that our war against drugs has failed. And we have to start looking for other solutions. I want the drug business stopped. But I know it never will stop as long as people want the drugs. It's supply and demand. You can even get drugs in prison.

-- Jesse Ventura

Categories: Jesse Ventura

Frederic Bastiat: Quote for November 14, 2009

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

-- Frederic Bastiat

Categories: Frederic Bastiat

Daniel Ellsberg: Quote for November 13, 2009

Truman ignored letter after letter from Ho Chi Minh asking for help. He then financed the French with arms and tactical support to fight the guerrillas. Congress knew nothing.

Eisenhower agreed to split Vietnam in two, helped to install a hopelessly corrupt regime in the South, rig elections, and then send the first U.S. advisers to support it. Congress was in the dark.

Kennedy made plans for our large scale involvement as early as 1961. He authorized the overthrow of President Diem's regime, and sat by while Diem was assassinated in the streets of Saigon.

And then came Johnson, who used the attack in the Gulf of Tonkin which, according to these documents never even took place, to get us into the war without a formal declaration from congress.

The experience of reading those pages altered my anatomy. With each word my faith, my trust, and my allegiance burned away.

-- Daniel Ellsberg

from: The Pentagon Papers (2003)

James Spader acted as Daniel Ellsberg

This quote is a voiceover from the 2003 film: "The Pentagon Papers." The Pentagon Papers were top-secret United States Department of Defense documents that described the United States involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The film portrays the events that led Daniel Ellsberg to leak these documents to the New York Times in 1971.

Categories: Daniel Ellsberg, James Spader, The Pentagon Papers

Mao Tse Tung: Quote for November 12, 2009

If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.

-- Mao Tse Tung

Categories: Mao Tse Tung

Jeannette Rankin: Quote for November 11, 2009

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.

-- Jeannette Rankin

Categories: Jeannette Rankin