#397 Bon Mots - 3 of 5

More bits that I saved because they tickled my mind or my funny bone.  If I didn't agree with the sentiment expressed, I at least admired the way it was expressed, and the way it made me mull the topic.  (I am amused that some of the very old political comments still apply.)

Note - all titles are in italics, regardless of whether it is for a book, story, magazine, TV show, whatever.  I don't discriminate.  If something is unattributed, either it is a common saying, or I don't remember where I found it and I apologize to the author.  If it is attributed, it is a direct quote, warts and all.

For Bon Mots 1 of 5 - click here.
For 2 of 5, click here.

                    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jane Smiley, Moo:  The essence of charity ... [is] not deciding what others needed and giving it to them, but giving them what they wanted.

Jane Smiley, Moo:  Most men ... were competent in groups that mimicked the playground, incompetent in groups that mimicked the family; that was why all-male committees ran the most smoothly.

The Executive Speechwriter Newsletter :  If e-mail had been around before the telephone was invented, people would have said, "Hey, forget e-mail!  With this new telephone invention, I can actually talk to people!"

Rhett Butler:  I apologize for all my shortcomings.

Garrison Keillor says he speaks Danish well enough to get into trouble, but not well enough to get out of it.

Archilochus:  The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

Salada Tea tag line:  Alimony: Bounty on the mutiny.

Salada Tea tag line:  A man who goes to the bottom of things usually winds up on top.

Julia Child:  Anything that says "healthy" I stay away from.  Giving up butter, for instance, means that in about two years you will be covered in dandruff.

A totalitarian government tolerates free speech only as long as it does not offend those in power.  A free society tolerates speech even when it offends.

Interviewee I-missed-the-name, Kingston Freeman:  If prayer is out of the public schools, it is simply because those in attendance have chosen not to pray.  Individual freedom to pray is still intact.  What is rightfully missing is the authority to force prayer on those who do not wish to participate.

The trouble with political jokes is that they get elected.

Alas poor Kiroy, I knew him backwards.

Preserve wildlife - pickle a squirrel.

George Santayana:  Science is neither a method nor a body of knowledge.  It is a body of changing, learned opinion, aspiring to be true.  There are certain facts about nature and history; our grasp of those facts is constantly changing.

A lot of people you hire with good paper education can't actually do the work you hire them for.  They learn while doing the job or they don't learn at all.

Education does not produce intelligence; knowledge does not convey the means to use it intelligently.

Me:  To define a career goal is to define your limits.

Mario Cuomo's mother:  The two rules for success:  1) Figure out exactly what you want to do.  2) Do it.

Gaston Bachelard, scientist and philosopher:  Even a minor event in the life of a child is an event of that child's world and thus a world event.

Ad for Norwegian Cruise Line:  Most of the Earth is covered by water.  And most of the water is covered by Norwegians.

Clarence Thomas:  Kneeling is not a position of strength, and begging is not an effective tactic.

Don Bender, letter in Mensa Bulletin:  It is not statistically (or logically!) valid to examine facts, create a hypothesis that fits those facts, and then cite those same facts as proof that the hypothesis must be true.

Intelligence does not automatically convey knowledge.

Albert Einstein:  A problem cannot be solved at the same level at which it was created.

Men must be careful to never mistake human justice for divine justice.

Fundamentalists, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jew, hate to love and love to hate.

An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Ignorance is not knowing something you should.  Nescience [ne-she-ence] is not knowing something you should not be expected to know.  [Adjective - nescient]  If someone calls you ignorant, correct them.  You are nescient.  Now who's ignorant?

Definition:  Apophasis - mentioning something you won't mention, such as "I won't even mention his arrogance!"

A good thought provoking question:  What painting would you like to step into for a visit?

The author of The Starr Evidence, a compilation of Clinton/Lewensky(?) testimony, is Wall Street Journal reporter Phil Kuntz.  I can't believe that name is real!  Especially in this context.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:  There is nothing wrong with having nothing to say --- unless you insist on saying it.

Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.

Bumper sticker:  I love my country, but I fear my government.

Paraphrased from Elaine May and Mike Nichols (actress and director):  What bothers me about God is that he hates arrogance so much, but doesn't seem to mind cruelty.

Henry James, A Most Extraordinary Case:  Next to great joy, no state of mind is so frolicsome as great distress.

Albert Speer, Spandau Diaries:  The deepest despair is full of secret satisfactions.

Death is an alternate existence.

He who controls the agenda controls the outcome.

However you choose to keep score in the game of life (possessions, sexual conquests, etc.) it will impress only others who keep score the same way.

Cathy Guisewite, Cathy, mother to daughter:  Of course I know how to push your buttons.  After all, I sewed them on!

Me:  The greatest ideas always sound trivial, even obvious, once expounded.  A week later, no one will remember who said it.  Two weeks later, everyone will claim they had always known it.

Jeff MacNelly, Shoe:  You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can even fool all of the people some of the time, but you can always fool all of the fools all of the time.

A family is only as sick as its secrets.

Amos B. Alcott:  To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.

Howard Streicher:  To know what you don't know is the legacy of progress.

Old French Proverb:  Perfect is the enemy of good.

Glenn Close:  It always amazes me to think that every house on every street is full of so many stories, so many triumphs and tragedies, and all we see are yards and driveways.

Howard Aiken:  Don't worry about people stealing your idea.  If it's original, you'll have to ram it down their throats.


~~Silk
Links in this entry:
http://journals.aol.com/jaykolb/Moraine/entries/1711
http://journals.aol.com/jaykolb/Moraine/entries/1712