“Though he might be more humble, there’s no p’lice like Holmes.” — E.W. Hornung
Quotations
Unquote
In order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it, at any rate, should be settled for us without our permission. … A man has control over many things in his life; he has control over enough things to be the hero of a novel. But if he had control over everything, there would be so much hero that there would be no novel.
— G.K. Chesterton, Heretics, 1906
Unquote
“Superstition would seem to be simply cowardice in regard to the supernatural.” — Theophrastus
Misc
- Conceptual artist Joseph Beuys accepted responsibility for any snow that fell in Düsseldorf February 15-20, 1969.
- Any three of the numbers {1, 22, 41, 58} add up to a perfect square.
- Nebraska is triply landlocked — a resident must cross three states to reach an ocean, gulf, or bay.
- The only temperature represented as a prime number in both Celsius and Fahrenheit is 5°C (41°F).
- “A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.” — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
“I was tossing around the names of various wars in which both the opponents appear: Spanish-American, Franco-Prussian, Sino-English, Russo-Japanese, Arab-Israeli, Judeo-Roman, Anglo-Norman, and Greco-Roman. Is it a quirk of historians or merely a coincidence that the opponent named first was always the loser? It would appear that a country about to embark on war would do well to see that the war is named before the fighting starts, with the enemy named first!” — David L. Silverman
Unquote
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” — Mark Twain
Unquote
There is one very valid test by which we may separate genuine, if perverse and unbalanced, originality and revolt from mere impudent innovation and bluff. The man who really thinks he has an idea will always try to explain that idea. The charlatan who has no idea will always confine himself to explaining that it is much too subtle to be explained.
— G.K. Chesterton, Daily News, December 9, 1911
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More maxims of François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680):
- “Fortune shews our Virtues and Vices, as Light does Objects.”
- “‘Tis never more difficult to speak well than when we are ashamed of our Silence.”
- “Since great Men can neither bestow Health of Body, nor Peace of Mind, we certainly pay too dear for all else they can.”
- “Our Wisdom is no less at Fortune’s Mercy than our Wealth.”
- “The Desire of appearing Persons of Ability often prevents our being so.”
- “There are some Faults, which when well-managed make a greater Figure than Virtue itself.”
- “We like better to see those on whom we confer Benefits, than those from whom we receive them.”
- “We should not be much concerned about Faults we have the Courage to own.”
- “In the Adversity of our Friends, we always find something that don’t displease us.”
- “Misers mistake Gold for their Good; whereas ’tis only a Means for attaining it.”
- “When our Merit declines our Taste declines.”
- “There is near as much Ability requisite to know how to make use of good Advice, as to know how to act for one’s self.”
- “We had rather speak ill of ourselves than not speak at all.”
- “We give up our Interest sooner than our Taste.”
- “We forgive as long as we love.”
And “We sometimes lose People whom we regret more than we sorrow for; and others whom we are sorry for, yet don’t regret.”
Misc
- The Hawaiian name of the reef triggerfish is Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.
- NINETEEN AND TWO HALVES has 20 letters.
- 123456789 = ((86 + 2 × 7)5 – 91) / 34
- It rained golf balls in Florida in 1969.
- “God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.” — J.M. Barrie
Unquote
“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go. The difference is that you can compel your car to go to a garage, but you cannot compel Hitler to go to a psychiatrist.” — Bertrand Russell
No More Pencils
School’s out for summer, Belleville, Illinois, 1974.
“There is, on the whole, nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a school.” — George Bernard Shaw
“It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.” — Albert Einstein
“I have not the least doubt that school developed in me nothing but what was evil and left the good untouched.” — Edvard Grieg
“I hope we still have some bright twelve-year-olds who are interested in science. We must be careful not to discourage our twelve-year-olds by making them waste the best years of their lives on preparing for examinations.” — Freeman Dyson
“Education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.” — Bertrand Russell
“Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.” — E.M. Forster