«Dionysius of Halicarnassus»

     The greatest events come to pass without any design; chance makes blunders good... The important events of the world are not deliberately brought about; they occur.

«George C. Lichtenberg»

     Let the past serve the present.

«Mao Tse-tung»

     In Peru the first "states" grew out of a maritime economy not susceptible to control by corporate authority. Like civilization in general, continued development of corporate authority rested on the furthering of institutions which allowed a few to organize and many to labor. Fishing was a dead-end for the emerging state, but farming and irrigation agriculture were the avenues to totalitarian control.

«M. Moseley»

«1975»

     What's past is prologue.

«Shakespeare»

___________________________

     Everything is upon a great scale upon this continent. The rivers are immense, the climate violent in heat and cold, the prospects magnificent, the thunder and lightning tremendous. The disorders incident to the country make every constitution tremble. Our own blunders here, our misconduct, our losses, our disgraces, our ruin, are on a great scale.

«Lord Carlisle, to George Selwyn»

«1778»

___________________________

     One describes a tale best by telling the tale. You see? The way one describes a story, to oneself or to the world, is by telling the story. It is a balancing act and it is a dream. The more accurate the map, the more it resembles the territory. The most accurate map possible would be the territory, and thus would be perfectly accurate and perfectly useless.

     The tale is the map that is the territory.

     You must remember this.

«from the Notebooks of Mr. Ibis»

___________________________

"Indeed, I think that people want peace

     so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it"

«Dwight D. Eisenhower»

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     "The story upon which I embark is one full of incident, marked by bitter fighting, rent by treason, and even in peace sinister..."

«Tacitus»

«The Histories»

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     Look, I'm smiling at you, I'm smiling in you, I'm smiling through you. How can I be dead if I breath in every quiver of your hand?

«Abram Tertz»

«(Andrei Sinyavsky)»

«The Icicle»

___________________________

     It behooves us all to be interested in the future, because that's where we're going to spend the rest of our lives.

«Unknown»

___________________________

     "We are all victims, Anselmo. Our destinies are decided by a cosmic roll of the dice, the winds of the stars, the vagrant breezes of fortune that blow from the windmills of the gods."

«H. L. Dietrich»

«A Final Destiny»

___________________________

     What's DONE, is what remains! Ah, blessed they

Who leave completed tasks of love to stay

And answer mutely for them, being dead,

Life was not purposeless, though Life be fled.

«Mrs. Norton»

«The Lady of La Garaye»

«1863»

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     And once, but once, she lifted her eyes,

     And suddenly, sweetly, strangely blush'd

     To find they were met by my own...

«Tennyson»

«Maud»

«1855»

_______________________________

     It is a part of special prudence never to do anything because one has an inclination to do it; but because it is one's duty, or is reasonable.

«Matthew Arnold»

«Notebooks»

«1868»

_______________________________

     True piety is acting what one knows.

«Matthew Arnold»

«Notebooks»

«1868»

_______________________________

     I'm not interested in the future. I'm interested in the future of the future.

«Robert Doniger»

«1996»

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     Risk everything, or gain nothing.

«Geoffrey De Charny»

«1358»

_______________________________

     If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.

«Pearl Buck»

___________________________

     History never looks like history when you are living through it.

«John W. Gardner»

_______________________________

     History maketh a young man to be old, without either wrinkles or grey hairs; priviledging him with the experience of age, without either the infirmities or inconveniences thereof.

«Thomas Fuller»

_______________________________

     Take from the altars of the past the fire - not the ashes.

«Jean Jaures»

_______________________________

     It was that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.

«John Toland»

_______________________________

     Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.

«Will Durant»

_______________________________

     Every true history must force us to remember that the past was once as real as the present and as uncertain as the future.

«George Macaulay Trevelyan»

«Clio, A Muse»

_______________________________

     I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

«Alexander Woollcott»

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     People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing.

«Walter H. Judd»

_______________________________

     The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

«Robert M. Hutchins»

«Great books, 1954»

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     For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

«Jonathan Swift»

«The Drapier's Letter»

_______________________________

     Somebody recently figured out that we have 35 million laws to enforce the ten commandments.

«Bert Masterson/Earl Wilson»

_______________________________

     Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny.

«Edmund Burke»

_______________________________

     As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.

«Clarence Darrow»

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     If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

«Bishop Desmond Tutu»

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     A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn.

«Unknown»

_______________________________

     Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

«Garrison Keillor»

_______________________________

     If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think of it.

«Mary Engelbreit»

_______________________________

     When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

«John F. Kennedy»

«Address, April 12th 1959»

_______________________________

     The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter.

«Unknown»

_______________________________

     A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

«Duke Ellington»

_______________________________

     Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.

«Francis Bacon»

_______________________________

     It is better to drink of deep griefs than to taste shallow pleasures.

«William Hazlitt»

«Characteristics»

_______________________________

     There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.

«Harry Crews»

_______________________________

     We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

«Winston Churchill»

_______________________________

     Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

«Bill Gates»

_______________________________

     Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

«Unknown»

_______________________________

     Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.

«Josh Billings»

_______________________________

     There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream.

«Unknown»

_______________________________

     If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.

«Buddhist Saying»

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     Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.

«Samuel Johnson»

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     Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

«Ambrose Redmoon»

_______________________________

     Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.

«Mary Anne Radmacher»

_______________________________

     Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave.

«Mark Twain»

«Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calender»

«1894»

_______________________________

     Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.

«Dan Rather»

_______________________________

     Courage can't see around corners, but goes around them anyway.

«Mignon McLaughlin»

«The Neurotic's Notebook»

«1960»

_______________________________

     Sometimes the biggest act of courage is a small one.

«Lauren Raffo»

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     Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

«C.S. Lewis»

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     The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.

«John F. Kennedy»

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     For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.

«John F. Kennedy»

_______________________________

     Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

«George Smith Patton»

_______________________________

     Perfect courage means doing unwitnessed what we would be capable of with the world looking on.

«François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld»

«Maxims»

«1678»

_______________________________

     Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.

«Arthur Koestler»

_______________________________

     Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need.

«Margaret Mead»

_______________________________

     Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.

«Emily Kimbrough»

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     Oh the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor to measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

«Dinah Craik»

«A Life for a Life»

«1859»

_______________________________

     I like her because she smiles at me and means it.

«Tas Soft Wind»

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     Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."

«A. A. Milne»

_______________________________

     Some people come into our lives

and leave footprints on our hearts

and we are never ever the same

«Flavia Weedn»

«Forever»

_______________________________

     No road is long with good company.

«Turkish Proverb»

_______________________________

     Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

«Oprah Winfrey»

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     You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.

«Wayne W. Dyer»

_______________________________

     How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

«From the movie Annie»

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     I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

«John Locke»

_______________________________

     Well done is better than well said.

«Benjamin Franklin»

_______________________________

     Talk doesn't cook rice.

«Chinese Proverb»

_______________________________

     All know the way; few actually walk it.

«Bodhidharma»

_______________________________

     If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.

«Henry J. Kaiser»

_______________________________

     The first step binds one to the second.

«French Proverb»

_______________________________

     Despair is anger with no place to go.

«Mignon McLaughlin»

«The Neurotic's Notebook»

«1960»

_______________________________

     Action is the antidote to despair.

«Joan Baez»

_______________________________

     The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs.

«Vance Havner»

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     He who has made a thousand things and he who has made none, both feel the same desire: to make something.

«Antonio Porchia»

«Voces»

«1943»

«Translated from Spanish by W. S. Merwin»

_______________________________

     He that waits upon fortune is never sure of a dinner.

«Benjamin Franklin»

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     Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

«James Baldwin»

_______________________________

     When deeds speak, words are nothing.

«African Proverb»

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     The best way out of a problem is through it.

«Unknown»

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     The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

«Robert Byrne»

_______________________________

     I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

«Elwyn Brooks White»

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     Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for awhile.

«Unknown»

_______________________________

     Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.

«Erich Fromm»

_______________________________

     My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.

«Cary Grant»

_______________________________

     Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I am with you kid. Let's go."

«Maya Angelou»

_______________________________

     Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

«George Bernard Shaw»

«The Doctor's Dilemma»

«1906»

_______________________________

     All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.

«Havelock Ellis»

_______________________________

     Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children; life is the other way around.

«David Lodge»

«The British Museum is falling down»

«1965»

_______________________________

     We should give meaning to life, not wait for life to give us meaning.

«Stacy»

_______________________________

     I do like a little bit of butter to my bread.

«A. A. Milne»

«When we were very young»

_______________________________

     Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.

«Henry Van Dyke»

_______________________________

     What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

«Crowfoot»

«Catch the Whisper of the Wind»

«1890»

_______________________________

     It is not too much to dream of the day when it will be possible to broadcast not only the words of the singer or speaker. The time may come, and it may not be so very far distant, when listeners-in will not only hear, but see--when sitting by their own firesides.

     And akin to this development, the time may come when the listener-in will be able to transmit as well as to receive--to listen and to reply.

«Rex F. Palmer»

«Broadcasting is a Social Force»

«1923»

_______________________________

     A human being: an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing.

«Christopher Morley»

«Human Being»

_______________________________

     The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.

«Bertrand Russel»

_______________________________

     The future is always beginning now.

«Mark Strand»

«Reasons for Moving»

_______________________________

     The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

«Benjamin Franklin»

_______________________________

     Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.

«Margaret Young»

_______________________________

     Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own.

«Johann Pestalozzi»

_______________________________

     Happiness is the natural flower of duty.

«Phillips Brooks»

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     Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.

«William Faulkner»    

_______________________________

     Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.

«John Archibald Wheeler»

_______________________________

     The inertia hardest to overcome is that of perfectly good seconds.

«Martin H. Fischer»

_______________________________

     Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires.

«Charles Caleb Colton»

_______________________________

     Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

«Henry David Thoreau»

_______________________________

     Methinks I see the wanton hours flee, And as they pass, turn back and laugh at me.

«George Villiers»

_______________________________

     Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.

«Charles Caleb Colton»

_______________________________

     Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.

«Denis Waitely»

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     The present is a point just passed.

«David Russell»

     And in today already walks tomorrow.

«Samuel Taylor Coleridge»