Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try.
- H. Mumford Jones

The object of the education of children lies not in communicating the values of the past, but in creating new values of the future. - John Dewey

The human body consists of the brainium, the borax, and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain. The borax contains the liver and other living things. The abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five: a, e, i, o, and u.
- Fifth grader's essay on the human body

We're in science fiction now. Whoever controls the media - the images - controls the culture. - Allen Ginsberg

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
- H.L. Mencken

We used to have actresses trying to become stars. Now we have stars trying to become actresses. - Sir Laurence Olivier

America is the only nation in history that has gone directly from barbarism to decadence without the usual interval of civilization. - Georges Clemenceau

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think.
- Shakespeare

Mind, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. - Ambrose Bierce

The brain: an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one.
- Sir Charles Sherrington

Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. - Ambrose Bierce

I think I am, therefore I am. I think. - George Carlin, comedian

Our normal waking consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness. - William James

Don't forget that everybody, including yourself, has only his own experience to think with. - Rudolf Flesch

Old age puts more wrinkles in the mind than in the face. - Montaigne

When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow

He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; he who dares not is a slave. - William Drummond

What passes for common sense is often stupidity hardened into habit.
- Herman Wouk

Human beings are so constituted as to see what is wrong with a new thing, not what is right. To verify this you only have to submit a new idea to a committee. They will obliterate ninety percent of rightness for the sake of ten percent of wrongness. The possibilities a new idea opens up are not appreciated, because not one person in a thousand has imagination. - Charles Kettering

When I works, I works hard; When I sits, I sits loose; When I thinks, I falls asleep. - Anonymous

The only motive that guided me was my ardent love of my people. - Hermann Goering

Many of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
- Henry David Thoreau

The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small lie. - Adolph Hitler

In modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog and for no good reason. - Ernest Hemingway

Some men are discovered; others are found out. - Anonymous

Wisdom is instant Foresight with built in Hindsight. - Gerardus

There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything and to doubt everything. Both ways save thinking. - Alfred Korzybski

Every crowd has a silver lining. - Phineas T. Barnum

You can fool some of the people all the time, and that's enough to make a profit.
- Anonymous

Honesty is the best policy in the long run, but for the short distance humbug has made pretty good time. - Josh Billings

Advertising may be defined as the art of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it. - Stephen Leacock

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then we go with the drove. We have two opinions: one private, which we are afraid to express; and another one — the one we use — which we force ourselves to wear to please Mrs. Grundy, until habit makes us comfortable in it, and the custom of defending it presently makes us love it, adore it, and forget how pitifully we come by it.
- Mark Twain

The obscure we see eventually. The completely apparent takes longer. - E.R. Murrow

Wisdom is merely knowing what to do next. - Anonymous

The best captain does not plunge headlong
Nor is the best soldier a fellow hot to fight.
The greatest victor wins without a battle . . .
- Lao Tzu

Anger is a wind that blows out the lamp of the mind. - Arab Proverb

When in doubt, I tell the truth. - Mark Twain

Anger gets us into trouble. Pride keeps us there. - Anonymous

When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.
- Calvin Coolidge

The proper office of a friend is to stick by you when you're in the wrong. Nearly anybody will stick by you when you're in the right. - Mark Twain

Men imagine that their minds have the command of language, but it often happens that language bears rule over their minds. - Francis Bacon

Language, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure. - Ambrose Bierce

The individual's whole experience is built upon the plan of his language.
- Henri Delacrois

If dogs could talk, we'd probably have as much trouble getting along with them as we do with people. - Karel Capek

When a thinker states that any thing is "only" some other thing, he is usually on the brink of a blunder. - Mary Everest Boole

One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it is possible, speak a few reasonable words. - Goethe

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives . . . It is too bad that more people will not accept this tremendous discovery and begin living it.
- William James

Change your thoughts and you change your world. - Norman Vincent Peale

Change your language and you change your thoughts. - Karl Albrecht

I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally. - W.C. Fields

God is Spirit and what we make of this Spirit becomes our Soul - Gerardus

To a mouse, cheese is cheese. That's why mousetraps are effective.
- Wendell Johnson

Love is an ideal thing; marriage is real.
Confusing the real with the ideal never goes unpunished. - Goethe

If you're going to panic, at least panic intelligently. - Anonymous

Absurdity, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
- Ambrose Bierce

Most of our so-called reason consists of finding reasons to go on believing as we already do. - J.H. Robinson

Bigot n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain. - Ambrose Bierce

Bore, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen. - Ambrose Bierce

Conversation, n. A fair for the display of minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor. - Ambrose Bierce

Positive, adj. Mistaken at the top of one's voice. - Ambrose Bierce

Denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood. - Logan P. Smith

A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. - Alexander Pope

I am not ashamed to confess I am ignorant of what I do not know. - Cicero

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. - John Kenneth Galbraith

It ain't what a man don't know that makes him a fool, but what he knows that ain't so. - Josh Billings

The only man who can change his mind is the man who's got one.
- Edward Noyes Westcott

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. - Henry David Thoreau

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
- Abraham Lincoln

I had no shoes and I complained, until I met a man who had no feet. - Anonymous

The three great requirements for a happy life are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. - Joseph Addison

Responsibility, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. - Ambrose Bierce

In every human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale. Diversity of character is due to their unequal activity. - Ambrose Bierce

Not to have edges that catch,
But to remain untangled,
Unblinded,
unconfused,
Is to find balance.
And he who holds balance,
Beyond sway of love or hate,
Beyond reach of profit or loss,
Beyond care of praise or blame,
Has attained the highest post in the world.
- Lao Tzu

Get your facts first, and them you can distort them as much as you please.
- Mark Twain

We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything. - Thomas Edison

The purpose of your body is to carry your brain around. - Thomas Edison

History records the names of royal bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat.
- Jean Henri Fabre

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.
- Samuel Butler

One look is worth a hundred reports. - Japanese Proverb

I who am blind can give one hint to those who see — one admonition to those who would make full use of the gift of sight: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of on orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. - Helen Keller

The difference between science and magic rests with the beholder, and his knowledge. - St. Augustine

Miracle, n. An act or event out of the order of nature and unaccountable, as beating a normal hand of four kings and an ace with four aces and a king. - Ambrose Bierce

For what a man had rather were true, he more readily believes. - Francis Bacon

Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradiction to that which is known about nature. - St. Augustine

Others will tell you to try to prove you are right. I tell you to try to prove you are wrong. - Louis Pasteur

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
- Voltaire

Man is the only animal that blushes — or needs to. - Mark Twain

O wad some power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us: It would fra monie a blunder free us, and foolish notion. - Robert Burns

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened. - Winston Churchill

I kept six honest serving men, they taught me all I knew; their names were What and Why and When and How and Where and Who. - Rudyard Kipling

Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to open her mouth.
- Bertrand Russell

Man is not rational — merely capable of it. - Johathan Swift

Logic, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of human misunderstanding. - Ambrose Bierce

Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular, but reason remains ever the property of the few. - Geothe

A beautiful theory, murdered by a gang of brutal facts. - Thomas Huxley

I realized that, regardless of persons or topics of discussion, the same tricks and dodges recurred again and again and could easily be recognized. - Schopenhauer

Faith, n. Belief, without evidence, in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel. - Ambrose Bierce

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
- H.L. Mencken

A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
- William Blake

A good catchword can obscure analysis for fifty years. - Wendell L. Willkie

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one. - Alexander Dumas

General propositions do not decide concrete cases. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. - Benjamin Disraeli

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains — however improbable — must be the truth. - Sherlock Holmes

The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small . . .
- Lao Tzu

Success comes to those who realize it isn't coming to them, and who go out to get it.
- Anonymous

In the country of the blind, the one-eyed king can still goof up. - Laurence J. Peter

There are only three important events in a man's life: birth, life, and death. He is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live. - Jean De La Bruyere

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. - Antony Jay

Don't refuse to go on occasional wild goose chase. That's what wild geese are for.
- Anonymous

Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it. - Cardinal Newman

Between two evils, I always choose the one I never tried before. - Mae West

Nothing comes from doing nothing. - Shakespeare

All life is an experiment. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

The great end of life is not knowledge but action. - Thomas Huxley

Those who will not learn from history are obliged to repeat it. - Anonymous

Today is the tomorrow you didn't plan for yesterday. - Anonymous

Change is not always improvement, as the pigeon said when it got out of the net and into the pie. - C.H. Spurdgeon

There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world: and that is an idea whose time has come. - Victor Hugo

There is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action. - Goethe

Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences in belief. - James Russell Lowell

Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Albert Einstein

A crank is a man with a new idea — until it catches on. - Mark Twain

Chance favors the prepared mind. - Louis Pasteur

Man's mind, stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

The true test of any concept is its ability to gain acceptance in the marketplace of ideas. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

No one with a weak stomach should watch sausage or the law being made.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Life is a Celebration of the Creator living as the Created. - Gerardus

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real. - Jules Verne

Stupid men, knowing the way of life
And having once laughed at it, laugh again the louder.
If you need to be sure which way is right, you can tell by their laughing at it.
- Lao Tzu

Every great oak was once a nut that stood its ground. - Anonymous

You must adjust . . . This is the legend imprinted in every schoolbook, the invisible message on every blackboard. Our schools have become vast factories for the manufacture of robots. - Robert M. Lindner

Albrecht's Law: Intelligent people, when assembled into an organization, will tend toward collective stupidity. - Karl Albrecht

We trained hard — but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganization, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
- Petronius Arbiter

The first efficiency expert was Simon Legree. - H.L. Mencken

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. - Walter Lippman

It takes a very unusual mind to make an analysis of the obvious.
- Alfred North Whitehead

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
- Elbert Hubbard

A camel is a horse designed by a committee. - Anonymous

Start out with an ideal and end up with a deal. - Karl Albrecht

To the bureaucrat:
when in charge, ponder;
when in trouble, delegate;
when in doubt, mumble.
- James H. Boren

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day. - Robert Frost

Don't put off until tomorrow what you can get someone else to do today.
- Anonymous

There is no right way to do the wrong thing. - Thomas Huxley

Business is what, if you don't have, you go out of. - Anonymous

It is not who is right, but what is right that is important. - Thomas Huxley

Take care of the means, and the end will take care of itself. - Gandhi

To make headway, improve your head. - B.C. Forbes

Habit is habit, and not to be thrown out the window by any man; but rather, coaxed down the stairs one step at a time. - Mark Twain

Sometimes within the brain's old ghostly house, I hear, far off, of some forgotten door, A music and an eerie faint carouse, And stir of echoes down the creaking floor. - Archibald Macleish

Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot! - Sherlock Holmes

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
- H.G. Wells