When you see a good move, look for a better one.
Emanuel Lasker
14 January 2012 |
23:37 |
1 Comment
Hilaire Belloc
The south-west wind roaring in from the Atlantic…. is, I think the presiding genius of England.
7 January 2012 |
16:05 |
No Comments
The south-west wind roaring in from the Atlantic…. is, I think the presiding genius of England.
Tigran Petrosian
on being asked which was his favorite chess piece
It does not really matter, as long as it is an extra one.
6 January 2012 |
23:04 |
No Comments
on being asked which was his favorite chess piece
It does not really matter, as long as it is an extra one.
Juvenal
No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.
2 January 2012 |
23:15 |
No Comments
No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.
Igor Stravinsky
Harpists spend 90% of their time tuning their harps and 10% playing out of tune.
This is a great metaphor – I just haven’t worked out what for!
2 January 2012 |
0:54 |
No Comments
Harpists spend 90% of their time tuning their harps and 10% playing out of tune.
This is a great metaphor – I just haven’t worked out what for!
Philip Larkin
New Year Poem
Tomorrow in the offices the year on the stamps will be altered;
Tomorrow new diaries consulted, new calendars stand;
With such small adjustments life will again move forward
Implicating us all; and the voice of the living be heard:
“It is to us that you should turn your straying attention;
Us who need you, and are affected by your fortune;
Us you should love and to whom you should give your word.”
31 December 1940
31 December 2011 |
23:59 |
No Comments
New Year Poem
Tomorrow in the offices the year on the stamps will be altered;
Tomorrow new diaries consulted, new calendars stand;
With such small adjustments life will again move forward
Implicating us all; and the voice of the living be heard:
“It is to us that you should turn your straying attention;
Us who need you, and are affected by your fortune;
Us you should love and to whom you should give your word.”
31 December 1940
C S Lewis
“Always winter and never Christmas; think of that.” said Tumnus. “How awful!” said Lucy.
25 December 2011 |
10:36 |
No Comments
“Always winter and never Christmas; think of that.” said Tumnus. “How awful!” said Lucy.
John Maynard Keynes
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
20 December 2011 |
13:17 |
No Comments
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
Christopher Hitchens
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realise that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.
19 December 2011 |
10:23 |
No Comments
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realise that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.
Vaclav Havel
As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.
18 December 2011 |
23:21 |
No Comments
As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.
Alexander Pope
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
17 December 2011 |
23:02 |
No Comments
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
T S Eliot
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
16 December 2011 |
23:34 |
No Comments
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
E E Cummings
A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
9 December 2011 |
10:07 |
1 Comment
A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
Michel de Montaigne
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.
5 December 2011 |
2:48 |
No Comments
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.
Leonard Bernstein
To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.
30 November 2011 |
23:55 |
No Comments
To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.
Ellen Sturgis Hooper
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.
26 November 2011 |
23:15 |
No Comments
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.
Archilochus
The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.
25 November 2011 |
7:02 |
No Comments
The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.
Alfred Adler
The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
24 November 2011 |
15:33 |
No Comments
The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
Oscar Wilde
“?”
Single letter telegram sent by Wilde from Paris to his publisher in Britain inquiring how his new book was doing.
The publisher cabled an equally brief reply:
“!”
18 November 2011 |
20:02 |
No Comments
“?”
Single letter telegram sent by Wilde from Paris to his publisher in Britain inquiring how his new book was doing.
The publisher cabled an equally brief reply:
“!”
Clement Freud
Clement Freud (grandson of Sigmund) was visiting China as part of a parliamentary delegation with Winston Churchill MP and he asked of the authorities…
“I am in your country with a colleague, than whom I am older, have been in parliament longer, have held higher positions in our respective political parties: we are both staying at the Peking Palace Hotel and his suite is bigger than mine. Why?”
The Minister, very embarrassed, finally said: “It is because Mr Churchill had a famous grandfather.”
Clement reflected that “It is the only time that I have been out-grandfathered.”
14 November 2011 |
22:09 |
No Comments
Clement Freud (grandson of Sigmund) was visiting China as part of a parliamentary delegation with Winston Churchill MP and he asked of the authorities…
“I am in your country with a colleague, than whom I am older, have been in parliament longer, have held higher positions in our respective political parties: we are both staying at the Peking Palace Hotel and his suite is bigger than mine. Why?”
The Minister, very embarrassed, finally said: “It is because Mr Churchill had a famous grandfather.”
Clement reflected that “It is the only time that I have been out-grandfathered.”
Thomas Treherne
Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.
10 November 2011 |
6:11 |
1 Comment
Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.
9 November 2011 |
7:20 |
No Comments
The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.
Jorge Luis Borges
Any time something is written against me, I not only share the sentiment but feel I could do the job far better myself. Perhaps I should advise would-be enemies to send me their grievances beforehand, with full assurance that they will receive my every aid and support. I have even secretly longed to write, under a pen name, a merciless tirade against myself.
8 November 2011 |
22:10 |
No Comments
Any time something is written against me, I not only share the sentiment but feel I could do the job far better myself. Perhaps I should advise would-be enemies to send me their grievances beforehand, with full assurance that they will receive my every aid and support. I have even secretly longed to write, under a pen name, a merciless tirade against myself.
G K Chesterton
Rossetti makes the remark somewhere, bitterly but with great truth, that the worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.
7 November 2011 |
13:48 |
No Comments
Rossetti makes the remark somewhere, bitterly but with great truth, that the worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.
Robert Anton Wilson
It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
6 November 2011 |
22:35 |
No Comments
It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
Walter Miller Jr
(in slightly different words previously incorrectly attributed to C S Lewis)
You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.
5 November 2011 |
21:11 |
2 Comments
(in slightly different words previously incorrectly attributed to C S Lewis)
You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.
Niels Bohr
There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature…
4 November 2011 |
22:46 |
No Comments
There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature…
P G Wodehouse
Travel is highly educational.
I can’t do with any more education. I was full up years ago.
3 November 2011 |
19:28 |
No Comments
Travel is highly educational.
I can’t do with any more education. I was full up years ago.
C S Lewis
Most political sermons teach the congregation nothing except what newspapers are taken at the Rectory
2 November 2011 |
22:11 |
No Comments
Most political sermons teach the congregation nothing except what newspapers are taken at the Rectory
John Steinbeck
Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
1 November 2011 |
23:55 |
No Comments
Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
John S Coleman
The point to remember is what the government gives it must first take away.
31 October 2011 |
20:19 |
No Comments
The point to remember is what the government gives it must first take away.