And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. — Anais Nin
EppsNet Archive: Quotations
Listen to me for a day . . . an hour! . . . a moment! lest I expire in my terrible wilderness, my lonely silence! O God, is there no one to listen? — Seneca, 4 BC
Dare to Be Wise
Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding. — Immanuel Kant Read more →
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence. — David Hume
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” — Mary Anne Radmacher
Facing it — always facing it — that’s the way to get through. — Joseph Conrad, Typhoon
Confidence
‘Confidence’ I now regard as a psychopathic state. Confidence, it’s a cry for help. I mean, you look at all that out there, and what you feel is confidence? — Martin Amis, Money Read more →
Money
Without money, you’re one day old and one inch tall. And you’re nude, too. But the beauty of it is, there’s no point in doing anything to you if you haven’t got any money. They could do things to you. But if you haven’t got the money, they can’t be fucked. — Martin Amis, Money Read more →
Let Me Tell You What Really Happened
Let me tell you what really happened, the voice said. All those years you waited torpidly, like a sleepwalker, pulled and pushed about by others’ opinions, by external pressure, by your illusions, by the official rules you internalized. You were misled by your own frustration and passivity, believing that what you were not allowed to have was what your heart was destined to embrace. — Ha Jin, Waiting Read more →
Man has no alternative, except between being influenced by thought that has been thought out and being influenced by thought that has not been thought out. — G.K. Chesterton
When everyone dislikes a man, enquiry is necessary; when everyone likes a man, enquiry is necessary. — Confucius
In old days men studied for the sake of self-improvement; nowadays men study in order to impress other people. — Confucius
A gentleman does not grieve that people do not recognize his merits; he grieves at his own incapacities — Confucius
We are all here on earth to help others; what the others are here for, I don’t know. — W.H. Auden
If God Exists
f God exists, then no doubt I’ve sinned and I’ll answer for it; but if there is no God, then I didn’t offend them nearly enough, those holy fathers of yours. — Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Read more →
I Twisted Things a Little
ctually, I believe that, in telling you all about the struggle that took place in me, I twisted things a little, to make myself look a little better. But I don’t care if I did. The hell with all this spying on the human heart! — Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Read more →
Mencken on Politicians
The one aim of all such persons is to butter their own parsnips. They have no concept of the public good that can be differentiated from their concept of their own good. They get into office by making all sorts of fantastic promises, few of which they ever try to keep, and they maintain themselves there by fooling the people further. They are supported in their business by the factitious importance which goes with high public position. The great majority of folk are far too stupid to see through a politician’s tinsel. Because he is talked of in the newspapers all the time, and applauded when he appears in public, they mistake him for a really eminent man. But he is seldom anything of the sort. — H.L. Mencken Read more →
Have a Nice Day
. . . and the dance ends, the joke is forgotten; and strength vanishes, and youth is past. — Kierkegaard Read more →
Never be afraid to tell the world who you are. — Anonymous
The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. — Theodore Rubin