Quotes – Page 2 – A Pondering Mind

John Burroughs, Essayist, 1837-1921

Fiction gives us the second chances that life denies us. ~Paul Theroux

Night Time

Night time is really the best time to work. All there to be yours because everyone else is asleep. ~Catherine Ohara

“The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.” ~Martin Heidegger

“Nothing is everything that doesn’t happen at this very moment.” ~Martin Heidegger

Story Writers

A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it. Edgar Allan Poe

The Wise Man

“The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.” ~ Claude Levi-Strauss

“If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you.” ~ William E. Gladstone, Former Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom

Self-Expression

“To me, clothing is a form of self-expression – there are hints about who you are in what you wear.” ~ Marc Jacobs, Fashion designer

The Most Beautiful Things

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance. ~John Steinbeck

Pursuit Of Money

“In constant pursuit of money to finance campaigns, the political system is simply unable to function. Its deliberative powers are paralyzed.” ~ John Rawls, Philosopher, 1921 – 2002

Beautiful insane in the rain. ~Jack Kerouac

Some walks you have to take alone. ~Suzanne Collins

“Lawyers sometimes tell the truth. They’ll do anything to win a case.” ~Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham, Philosopher, 1748 – 1832

Writing Is …

Reading List

“There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.” ~David Hume

Bricks

“A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window.” ~ Gilles Deleuze, Philosopher, 1925 – 1995

“No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.” ~Baruch Spinoza

Two Ways To Be Fooled

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Words

Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects. ~ Blaise Pascal

The Poor

The poor don’t know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

The secret of theory is that truth does not exist. ~Jean Baudrillard

More And More Information

We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning. ~ Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher, Born: June 27, 1929 – Died: March 6, 2007

Dream Beings

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together. ~Jack Kerouac

“If you can’t do anything about it, laugh like hell.” ~David Cook

David Cook, Singer-songwriter

“It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.” ~ Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome K. Jerome, Writer, Born: May 2, 1859 – Died: June 14, 1927

Essentials To Happiness

Joseph Addison, Essayist, Born: May 1, 1672 – Died: June 17, 1719

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think. ~Margaret Mead

I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do. ~Haruki Murakami

Falling In Love

“Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call ‘society’. Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six andContinue reading “Falling In Love”

I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place. ~Anne Tyler

The future is uncertain but the end is always near. ~Jim Morrison

Freedom Of Choice

“When we can’t think for ourselves, we can always quote” ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

“You can’t stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh.” ~ Jay Leno

Dogs Are Leaders

Dogs are leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them is making poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge. ~Jerry Seinfeld

Writing Is A Solitary Business

Writing is a solitary business. It takes over your life. In some sense, a writer has no life of his own. Even when he’s there, he’s not really there. ~Paul Auster

Pain is life – the sharper, the more evidence of life. ~Charles Lamb

I am a cage, in search of a bird. ~Franz Kafka

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. ~Oscar Wilde

Art Quote

One eye sees, the other feels. ~Paul Klee

Happiness consists in realizing it is all a great strange dream. ~Jack Kerouac

Do not fear mistakes. There are none. ~Miles Davis

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. ~Jack Kerouac

Books are a narcotic. ~Franz Kafka

We live for books. ~Umberto Eco

Change

Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it. ~Audrey Hepburn

Living

What is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying. ~Albert Camus

Climbing Out Of Bed

Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside – remembering all the times you’ve felt that way. ~Charles Bukowski

Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself. ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

Treasured Wealth

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. ~Henry David Thoreau

Books. Cats. Life is good. ~Edward Gorey

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. ~Oscar Wilde

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” ~ Helen Keller

“The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective.” ~ Al Neuharth

Al Neuharth, Author, Born: March 22, 1924 – Died: April 19, 2013

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth. ~Albert Camus

“Modern man drives a mortgaged car over a bond-financed highway on credit-card gas.” ~ Earl Wilson

Earl Wilson, MLB pitcher, Born: October 2, 1934 – Died: April 23, 2005

Mostly it is loss which teaches us the worth things. ~Arthur Schopenauer

Senseless To Think Of Complaining

It is therefore senseless to think of complaining since nothing foreign has decided what we feel, what we live, or what we are. `~Jean-Paul Sartre

A Common Question

“The common question that gets asked in business is, why? That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, why not?” ~ Jeff Bezos

Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea. ~Iris Murdoch

“Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.” ~Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher, Born: April 22, 1724 – Died: February 12, 1804

Three Great Things

The three great things of life are: good health; work, and a philosophy of life. ~Jack London

Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don’t know. ~Bertrand Russell

People

To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do rather than what they say. ~Rene Descartes

Rest and be kind, you don’t have to prove anything. ~Jack Kerouac

Wherever you are, it’s the place you need to be. ~Maxime Lagace

Shoes

“Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.” ~ John Locke

Truth exists; only lies are invented. ~Georges Braque

Georges Braque, Painter, Born: May 13, 1882 – Died: August 31, 1963

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.” ~Ellen Glasgow

Ellen Glasgow, Novelist ~ Born: April 22, 1873 – Died: November 21, 1945

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

All The Books We Own

“It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.” ~ Alexis de Tocqueville

“Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” ~ Ralph Ellison

Life After Death

“The real question of life after death isn’t whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher ~ 1889 – 1951

“Nothing is everything that doesn’t happen at this very moment.” ~ Martin Heidegger

Boundaries

“A boundary is not that at which something stops, but that from which something begins.” ~ Martin Heidegger, Philosopher ~ 1889 – 1976

Change Your Life

“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir

Beat Generation

“The so-called Beat Generation was a whole bunch of people, of all different nationalities, who came to the conclusion that society sucked.” ~ John Clellon Holmes, Author ~ 1926 – 1988

“And so love goes. And so life goes. And so I go.” ~ Neal Cassady

People who try hard to do the right thing always seems mad. ~Stephen King

Redistribution Of Wealth

“You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. thatContinue reading “Redistribution Of Wealth”

“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” ~ Andy Rooney

Simplify Your Life

“Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!” ~ Henry David Thoreau