thestephb’s most recent Quotables

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

Suppose God came back from wherever it is he’s been and asked us smilingly if we’d figure it out yet. Suppose he wanted to know if it had finally occurred to us to ask the whale. And then he sort of looked around and he said, “By the way, where are the whales?"

What if the catalyst or the key to understanding creation lay somewhere in the immense mind of the whale?…Some species go for months without eating anything. Just completely idle.. So they have this incredible mental apparatus and no one has the least notion what they do with it. Lilly says that the most logical supposition, based on physiological and ecological evidence, is that they contemplate the universe…

You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

I didn’t want to kiss you goodbye — that was the trouble — I wanted to kiss you goodnight. And there’s a lot of difference.

Never mistake motion for action.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit, while genius hits a target that no one else can see.

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men—the other 999 follow women.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Wear the old coat and buy the new book.

Hardness shatters; strength endures.

There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.

Women should look like women. A piece of cardboard has no sexuality.

"When I despair, I remember that all through history, the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a long time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I've ever known.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.