www: Words of Wit and Wisdom


Speed is fine, but accuracy is final.       Wyatt Earp, 1888

A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself...John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), British philosopher, economist

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield... Alfred Lord Tennyson

Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody. . .Calvin Coolidge

One man with courage makes a majority. . . Andrew Jackson

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes. . . Bertolt Brecht

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work...Thomas Edison

Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything...Josef Stalin

A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for ten or fifteen years...Harry S. Truman

No easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has already solved them...Dwight D. Eisenhower

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first...Ronald Reagan

Never raise your hands to your kids, it leaves your groin unprotected...Anonymous

I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific...Anonymous

Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place...Anonymous

After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager'...William S. Burroughs

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few...Shunryu Suzuki, Buddhist scholar

Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life... Anonymous

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there...Will Rogers

The Government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul...George Bernard Shaw

There is no art which one government sooner learns from another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people...Adam Smith

A taxpayer is someone who works for the federal government but who doesn't have to take a civil service examination...Ronald Reagan

The trick is to stop thinking of it as 'your' money...Tax Auditor

The good sense of the people is the strongest army our government can ever have. It will not fail them...Thomas Jefferson (but is it still true?...)

I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific...Lily Tomlin
Let's go fly!

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible...A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp)

If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this...Spencer Silver on work that led to 3-M 'Post-It' Notepads

Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often. Samuel Butler (1612-1680)

If you want to make God smile, tell him your plans... Anonymous

One man with courage makes a majority... Andrew Jackson

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln

To save your world, you asked this man to die. Would this man, could he see you now, ask why? W.H. Auden

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them. Malcolm Forbes

We live as we dream: alone... Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character. James Q.Wilson

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything. Anonymous

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. Napoleon Bonaparte

You can count how many seeds are in a apple, but you can not count home many apples are in a seed. Anonymous

Character is much easier kept than recovered. Thomas Paine

The person who knows "how" will always have a job. The person who knows "why" will always be his boss. Diane Ravitch

Money can't buy friends, but you get a better class of enemy. Spike Milligan

When you retire, you go from Who's Who to Who's That? Walter Wriston

Three groups of people spend other people's money: children, thieves and politicians. All three need parental supervision. Representative Dick Armey

Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. Allan Meltzer

We are in great haste to construct a telegraph from Maine to Texas but Maine and Texas may have nothing to say to each other. Henry David Thoreau, 150 years ago

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Dolly Parton

Things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out. Anonymous

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies... Dr. John Arbuthnot (1667-1735)

Two women in one kitchen is one woman too many or one kitchen too few. James Thorpe

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a car. Lawrence J Peter

We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are... Anais Nin

The road to success is always 'under construction... Anonymous

Experience is not just what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you... Aldous Huxley

The plural of anecdote is--data... Ben Wattenberg

A cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing... Oscar Wilde

The sea hates a coward... Eugene O'Neill

Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer. Oscar Wilde

In the dark night of the soul, it is always three O'clock in the morning... F. Scott Fitzgerald

Knowledge is power (Scientia potestas est) Sir Francis Bacon

Your marriage is in trouble if your wife says, "You're only interested in one thing," and you can't remember what it is. Milton Berle

"Football is not a contact sport, it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport." Vince Lombardi

"Life is tough. Three out of three people die, so shut up and deal." Ring Lardner

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."William Jame

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves." Eleanor Chaffee

"The Eiffel Tower is the Empire State Building after taxes." Anonymous

"The invention of divorce is probably of nearly the same date as that of marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks more ancient." Voltaire

"One death is a tragedy; a million deaths are a statistic." Josef Stalin

"Never wrestle a pig; you both get dirty and the pig likes it... from "Everything I know I learned in corporate America"

"No matter how cynical you get, you can never keep up!... Lily Tomlin

"A rising tide covers a lot of shipwrecks... a Venture capitalist on the fact that only a few start-ups make it big--covering the cost of the losers

"The pessimist complains about the direction of the wind; the optimist expects it to change. The leader simply adjusts the sails." Anonymous

"A fanatic is one who redoubles his efforts as he loses sight of his goal." Ambrose Bierce

"There is a time for departure even when there is no certain place to go."Tennessee Williams

"The seasoned investor buys stocks when they are priced low, holds them for the long pull rise and takes in-between dips and slumps in his stride." J. Paul Getty

"They call you stubborn when you fail, but persistent when you succeed..." Aristotle

"We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential; hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys..." Eric Hoffer

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten all one learned at school." Albert Einstein

"Opinions are like bellybuttons; everybody has one..." Congressman J.C. Watts, Jr.

"Some people are more turned on by money than love. In one respect they're alike: they're both wonderful as long as they last..." Abigail Van Buren

"Whom the gods would destroy they first call 'promising'." Cyril Connolly

"What really matters is what you do with what you have..." Shirley Lord

"Public-opinion polls are like perfume; policy-makers should smell them, but not drink them..." Shimon Peres

"The heart has its reasons that reason does not comprehend." Blaise Pascal

"First we shape our tools. Then our tools shape us." Henry David Thoreau

"The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning-bug..." Mark Twain

"When everyone is thinking the same thing, nobody is thinking..." Walter Lippman

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits..." Anonymous

perl"There is nothing so wasteful as doing with great efficiency that which doesn't have to be done at all..." Anonymous

"When anyone gets something for nothing, someone else gets nothing for something..." Anonymous

"You can't shake hands with a clenched fist." Indira Ghandi

"Don't marry for money. Go where the money is, then marry for love..." F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Pain is inevitable in life, but suffering is optional..." Sylvia Boorstein

"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people..." Orson Welles

"There is nothing worse than outliving your money..." Anonymous

"Nobody notices when things go right..." Zimmerman's Law

"One man with courage is a majority." Stonewall Jackson

"Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks Italian, the mechanics German, the lovers French, and it is all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians." Anonymous

"The tragedy is not what men suffer, but what they miss..." Thomas Carlyle

"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." Anonymous

"The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it." Franklin P. Jones

"I don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day." Linda Evangelista, model

"The best place to spend your vacation is somewhere near your budget." Anonymous

"Patience is something you admire greatly in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead of you." Anonymous

"The late J.P. Morgan was asked what he considered to be the best bank collateral. Without hesitation he replied, "Character"." Zig Ziglar

"I can get up at nine and be rested, or I can get up at six and be President." Jimmy Carter

"If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all." John Adams

"The beginning is the most important part of the work." Plato

"The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see." Winston Churchill

"If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments." Earl Wilson

"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have." Émile Chartier

"Be careful of the words you speak. Make them soft and sweet. You never know from day to day which ones you'll have to eat." Anonymous

"The one thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second is disastrous." Mary Wilson Little

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill

"In life as in the dance grace glides on blistered feet." Alice Abrams

"The average woman would rather have beauty than brains because the average man can see better than he can think." Anonymous

"Patience, and the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown." Chinese proverb

"Against stupidity the very gods contend in vain." Friedrick von Schiller

"The best description of "utter waste" would be a bus load of lawyers going over a cliff with three empty seats." Lamar Hunt

"When a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, the reputation of the business remains intact." Warren Buffett

"Outside of a dog a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it is too dark to read." Groucho Marx

"What we do to our children, they will do to our society." Pliny the elder

"I've never learned anything when I was talking." Larry King

"My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there." Charles F. Kettering

"In Washington, the way you recognize a friend is that he's the one who stabs you in the chest." Arnaud de Borchgrave

"In the book of life's questions, the answers are not in the back." Charles Schultz ("Peanuts")

"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell if a man is wise by his questions." Ngauib Mahfouz

"Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off." Winston ChurchillThe beautiful Gramma!

"Success is when you get what you want; happiness is when you want what you get." Anonymous

"If you look like your passport photo you're too ill to travel..." Anonymous

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit." Aristotle

"Great moments in science: Einstein discovers that time is actually money." Gary Larson (cartoonist)

"Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever." Anonymous

"Human desires grow with the means of their gratification." William Bennet

"Never consent to creep when you feel an impulse to soar." Helen Keller

"The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is that I no longer belong to it." Albert Einstein

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." Oprah Winfrey

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Even if you are on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers

"When you are right no one remembers; when you are wrong no one forgets." Irish proverbA Red Star Fish hiding away!

"Do not lead by hitting people over the head -- thatâs assault, not leadership." Dwight Eisenhower

"Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." Susan Ertz

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind, and won't change the subject." Winston Churchill

"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking." H. L. Mencken

"You can judge a civilization by its capacity for maintenance." Eric Hoffer

"Three things never return: the past, the neglected opportunity, and the spoken word." Anonymous

"Those who lose riches lose much, but those who lose courage lose all." Anonymous

"Most of the business of the world each day is carried on by people who aren't feeling very well." Anonymous

"God was able to create the world in six days because he didn't have to worry about the installed base." Bill Gates, Microsoft

"The door of opportunity swings both ways." Charlie Chan

"Even paranoids have real enemies." Henry Kissinger

"Only the paranoid survive." Andrew Grove

"The beginning of wisdom lies in knowing what one does not know." Anonymous

"We are ready to accept almost any explanation of the present crisis. . . except one: that the present state of the world may be the result of genuine error on our part." Friedrick Van Hayek

"Fairness does not require the redistribution of wealth; it requires the creation of wealth." Felix Rohayton

"If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere else." Yogi Berra

"Just because the river is quiet does not mean the crocodiles have left." Malay Proverb

"A man's worth is what he is divided by what he thinks he is." Eric Hoffer

"Mind is like parachute; only works when open." Charlie Chan

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time." Abraham Lincoln

"The nation should have a tax system which looks as if someone designed it on purpose." William E. Simon

"Those who cannot remember their own history are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

"Before a standing army may rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by force because the whole body of the people are armed..." Noah Webster - 1787

"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." Richard Henry Lee - 1787

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command." Nicolo Machiavelli - 1521

"An army of deer led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a deer." Chabrias & Philip II of Macedon

"A women has many faults, a man has but two: everything he say and everything he do." Anonymous

"A man's face, as a rule, says more and more interesting things than his mouth." Arthur Schopenhauer

"The afternoon knows what the morning only suspects." Swedish Proverb

"You can't fail to get along with a computer: it will never turn on you, it will never insist on talking about or doing what it wants to do. It will never find you boring, never forget to call, never ask a favor." Greg Easterbrook

"Zeal without knowledge is fire without light." Thomas Fuller

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." Oscar Wilde

"Sight is a faculty; seeing is an art." Anonymous

"Life is made up of two phases. In the first you try to make a name for yourself; in the second you try to keep it." Anonymous

"After the ship has sunk everyone knows how she might have been saved." Anonymous

"Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass." Confucius

"A false friend and a shadow attend only when the sun shines." Ben FranklinThe Iguana!

"Professionals are people who can do their job when they don't feel like it. Amateurs are people who can't do their job when they do feel like it." Anonymous

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Chinese proverb

"Friendship is like money, easier made than kept." Samuel Butler

"It's odd to think we might have been sun, moon and stars to each other, only I turned up one little street and you went down another." Fanny Heaslip Lea

"Destiny: a tyrant's authority for crime, and a fool's excuse for failure." Ambrose Bierce

"It is the fate of the coconut husk to float, of the stone to sink." Malay proverb

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead; only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time." Winston Churchill

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he misbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." Thomas Jefferson

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes

"Genius has limits, stupidity does not." Anonymous

"If you want long friendships, develop a short memory." Anonymous

"Sometimes you are the pigeon, sometimes you are the statue." Anonymous

"Definition of Academia: Where the rubber meets the sky." Anonymous

"No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money, too..." Margaret Thatcher

"If Fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyway..." William McFee

"You always have a choice: you can climb up and drive the steamroller - or become part of the road..." Anonymous

"There is no product that some man can not make a little worse and sell a little cheaper; those who buy on price alone are this man's lawful prey." John Ruskin

"Courage is the price life exacts for granting peace." Amelia Earhart

"You want to know how to make a million dollars in the diving business? Start with two..." reported by Paul Tzimoulis

"This life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel." Horace Walpole

"History teaches us that men and nations behave well when they have exhausted all other possibilities." Abba Eban

"What's the difference between six divers in the water and twenty people in the water? You may not notice, but the fish do..." Carl Roessler

"Time is a great teacher; unfortunately, it kills all its pupils." Hector Berlioz

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." Hyman Rickover

"You pay the same airfare whether you get two dives each day or five; most people don't realize that half the cost of every tropical dive can be driven by your airfare. That's why we invented live-aboard diving." Carl Roessler

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once." Ashley Brilliant

"Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments." Frederick the Great

"You can't do much about the length of your life, but you can do a lot about its width and its depth." Anonymous

"I am a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work the more I have of it." Stephen Leacock

"Doing the right thing is easy; knowing what the right thing to do is, is hard." Harry S. Truman

"Love is what goes on between a man and a .45 that doesn't jam." Alan Ladd

"Many a man has fallen in love with a girl in light so dim he would not have chosen a suit by it." Maurice Chevalier

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never can be." Thomas Jefferson

"We do not take gratuitous slaps at destinations or operators whose standards are lower than ours. However, we do know a LOT about this industry, and that makes our opinions vital for divers planning vacations." Carl Roessler

"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." Alice Roosevelt Longworth

And more to be added later...


Return to home page divxprt@cox.net Photos

Modified 09.26.23