1901
Brutes leave ingratitude to man. — Colton.
The root of all discontent is self love. — J. F. Clarke
Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. — Bacon.
They that know no evil will suspect none. — Ben Jonson.
No man is happy who does not think himself so. — Marcus Antonnius.
Delicacy is to the affections what grace is to beauty. — Degerando.
He that takes time to resolve gives leisure to deny and warning to prepare. — Quarles.
When desperate ills demand a speedy cure, distress is cowardice and prudence folly. — Samuel Johnson.
A word of kindness is seldom spoken in vain, while witty sayings are as easily lost as the pearls slipping from a broken string. — Prentice.
There is a department which sums the figure and talents of each person; it is always lost when we quit it to assume that of another. — Rousseau.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Aphorisms
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wise Words — "Whatever Love Undertakes"
1896
Whatever love undertakes to do, it does well.
A sunbeam in the heart is bound to light the face.
Some people might as well be crazy; they have no sense.
Labor is drudgery only when we do not put heart in our work.
A pessimist is not blind, yet he can not see even a bright prospect.
It is to live twice when we enjoy the recollections of our former life.
Some people prepare their excuses before they make their failures.
Everyone believes in friends until he has had occasions to try them.
Nothing succeeds like success. It can convert a traitor into a patriot in five seconds.
When we come close to a giant, he often turns out to be only a common man on stilts.
A little lovers' quarrel or two is a good thing by which to take each other's measure.
It is a question with many bright young men whether they will practice law, medicine or deception.
Never lie in bed thinking that the cat that is howling in the back yard will grow weary and go away.
A single man has nobody but himself to blame if things go wrong. A married man can blame it all to his wife.
It is not in the power of a good man to refuse making another happy, where he has both ability and opportunity. — The South-West.
Wise Words — "Get Experience Firsthand"
1896
Get your experience firsthand.
A burnt child dreads a whipping.
It is easy to make a failure of success.
Women make friends; men keep them.
Every man has enemies of whom he is justly proud.
If there were no wise men there would be no fools.
There is an old saw to cover every species of deviltry.
There are many days when the road seems to be all uphill.
Believe only half that you hear, and tell only half that you believe.
With a good many women interest is only another name for curiosity.
Some men reach a turning point in life every time a pretty woman passes.
Economy follows the acquisition of wealth about as often as it precedes it.
The average popular song attains its greatest popularity when it is forgotten.
Don't try to do right. The right is done without trying. — New York Press.
About every third woman is convinced that she is some kind of a martyr.
The man who marries only to "get a home" shouldn't kick if he doesn't get one.
Women will do much to please the men but more from fear of what other women will say about them.
Whenever a man does anything especially mean he is prone to lay the blame on poor, weak human nature.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wise Words — "Frenzy and Folly"
1896
Frenzy is the safety-valve of folly.
How fast we learn in a day of sorrow.
If thou desire rest unto thy soul; be just.
Nothing multiplies so much as kindness.
The fire of hate usually flashes in the pan.
Humility is the truest abstinence in the world.
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence.
A sunbeam in the heart is bound to light the face.
Sometimes a man doesn't like justice when he gets it.
A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs.
It never does any good to talk religion with a snap like that of a steel trap.
It is easy to discharge a man who realizes that he is not entitled to anything.
The woman who marries a man to reform him is a noble example of wasted effort.
When you call a fellow a gentleman and he gets his back up it's a sign that you are lying.
The dignity of the law is interesting to contemplate. The men made the laws and then they represented justice by a woman with a bandage around her eyes. They have hoisted this travesty around on monuments and court-houses too much. Justice has been "going it blind" long enough.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Wise Words — No Man Wants To Be A Saint
1896
No man wants to be a saint unless he knows what it means to be a sinner.
It is just as easy to predict a severe winter as any other kind.
People never mean it when they say they don't care how they look.
Widowers do not have half so much fun as they are supposed to have.
It is to live twice when you can enjoy the recollection of our former life.
There are several things worse than disappointment in love. Rheumatism is one.
Unfriended indeed is he who has no friend bold enough to point out his faults.
The only way some people ever prepare for a rainy day is by stealing an umbrella.
A man's conduct is only a picture-book of his creed. He acts after what he believes.
Waste of wealth is sometimes retrieved; waste of health seldom; waste of time never.
The man who sells ice in the summer and coal in the winter is about the only fellow who can safely defy the elements.
Scandal is described as something which one-half the world takes pleasure in inventing and the other half in believing. — The South-West.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Little Classics — Literary Quotations
1900
To the pure all things are pure. — Shelley.
Self-trust is the essence of heroism. — Emerson.
A good laugh is sunshine in a house. — Thackeray.
Christianity is a battle, not a dream. — Wendell Phillips.
Children have more need of models than of critics. — Joubert.
The mind will quote whether the tongue does or not. — Emerson.
He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted. — Auberbach.
Nature has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of man's own making. — Addison.
Show me a thoroughly contented person and I will show you a useless one. — H. W. Shaw.
Drive prejudices out by the door, they will re-enter by the window. — Frederick the Great.
Minorities lead and save the world, and the world knows them not till long afterwards. — John Burroughs.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus: There is no virtue like necessity. — Richard II.
But faithfulness can feed on suffering, and knows no disappointment. — George Eliot.
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen. — Lowell.
But, in spite of all the criticizing elves, those who would make us feel, must feel themselves. — Churchill.
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one and forget and pass over the other. — Bacon.
Women have a smile for every joy, a tear for every sorrow, a consolation for every grief, an excuse for every fault, a prayer for every misfortune, and encouragement for every hope. — Saint-Foix.
Of Interest To Drunkards
1900
Vaccination May Enable Us to Drink Rum
It seems that the advance of medical science may yet allow a man to be vaccinated for the "rum habit" so that he will be immune. Not immune in the way that a "Keeley graduate" is — with a lost desire for drink — but in such a manner that he will be able to drink enough to kill an ordinary man and not suffer any ill effects.
Dr. Reynold Webb Wilcox, in writing of "Recent Advances in Medical Science" in the International Monthly, says: "The work of Ehrlich showed that the antitoxins may be produced in the blood by successively increased doses of ricin and abrin. Maramaldi applied the same line of reasoning to alcohol. Increasing doses of ordinary alcohol, well diluted, were administered to dogs through an oesophageal tube until tolerance was established for a larger than an ordinary lethal dose. The blood serum of these animals was employed in the experimentation.
"His conclusions were: (1) It is possible to confer a real immunity on dogs by administering progressively increasing doses of this poison, ultimately reaching very large doses without producing functional disturbances or organic degenerations. (2) The serum of such a dog rendered immune to alcohol, contains a special antitoxin, capable of neutralizing the toxic action of a dose of alcohol one-fourth larger than the minimum fatal dose. (3) Normal blood serum does not possess the power of augmenting the organic resistance to alcohol, much less does it explain the curative action in acute poisoning." — New York Press.
Aphorisms
Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man. — Hume.
There is no friendship, no love, like that of parent for child. — H. W. Beecher.
To persevere in one's duty and be silent is the best answer to calumny. — George Washington.
Good humor and generosity carry the day with the popular heart all the world over. — Alexander Smith.
To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life. — Johnson.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Origin of Some of World's Most Popular Quotations
1914
Famous Words That Will Endure
Cynical Old Diogenes Told the World "Habit Is Second Nature"
It is recorded that an ignorant person, explaining her distaste for Shakespearean performances, said that his plays were too full of quotations. Yet we, too, though we may pride ourselves upon our learning, probably do not know the origin of half the common phrases we use as carelessly as verbs in our daily conversation.
No less a person than Cicero first made use of the expression, "While there's life there's hope," in a letter he wrote to Atticus. "We are in the same boat" is not modern slang, but occurs in a letter written by Clement I., bishop of Rome, to the Church of Corinth in the first century. This letter is extant and is one of the prized documents of the early church.
"I never put off till tomorrow what I can do today," was Lord Chesterfield's explanation of how he managed to do so much work. "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well" he wrote later in the famous letters to his son.
In some of the expressions we use habitually may be crystallized an epoch of history. Such is the motto of the Order of the Garter, "Honi soit qui mai y pense" ("Shamed be he who thinks evil of it"), which was given by Edward III. of England. Wishing to draw the best soldiers in the world to him, he proposed a revival of the round table of King Arthur, holding a tournament at Windsor castle on New Year's day, 1344. After the contest of arms the guests were entertained at his expense at a round table. Philip, king of France, was jealous over the interest this aroused and forbade his subjects to attend, at the same time misrepresenting Edward's motives. Several years later, when Edward founded the Order of the Garter, he chose a motto that seemed to challenge his rival monarch to think wrong of it if he dared.
Later English history has not been laggard in increasing the supply of apt remarks that have grown into everyday sayings. Lord Eldon, lord chancellor of England during the first twenty-six years of the nineteenth century, continually mispronounced the name of Henry Brougham, afterward to be a successor in the chancellor's office. Brougham objected to be called Broffam, and in this regard Eldon was the chief offender. Once, after Brougham had made an excellent speech, Eldon by way of apology pronounced his name correctly and made a proverb, "New brooms sweep clean."
The same expression occurs frequently to different people who could have no knowledge that their thought had been given utterance before. "No man is a hero to his valet" has been paraphrased by scores, from Mme. du Cornuel, a witty Frenchwoman of the seventeenth century, to Dr. Johnson and Napoleon. The first record of it, however, is found in Plutarch, who states that when Hermodotus addressed a poem to Antigonous I., king of Sparta, hailing him as son of the sun and a god, the monarch replied, "My body servant sings me no such song."
It was Diogenes, the cynic, who declared that "habit is second nature." The phrase "circumstances over which he has no control" was used by the Duke of Wellington in a letter concerning some affairs in which his son was mixed up and with which be declined to interfere. Dickens also used the expression a few years later when he had Micawber write to David Copperfield. "Circumstances beyond my individual control," etc.
"Conspicuous by their absence" has been used on many occasions in modern oratory. It was first used by Tacitus in relating that in the funeral procession of Julia, niece of Cato, sister of Brutus, wife of Cassius, many of the images of the most famous families in Rome were seen, but "Cassius and Brutus shone pre-eminent because their images were not displayed."
"Nothing is certain but death and taxes," wrote Benjamin Franklin, stating that the constitution of the United States was in operation and to all appearances would last.
"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones" was said by James I. of England when his favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, complained that a mob had broken his glass windows, which were at that time a luxury.
"Mind your p's and q's" is said to have been taken from an old French phrase at the time of Louis XIV. A very low bow was in fashion, and the dancing master in instructing his pupils would warn them to look out for the position of the feet and the movement of the head lest their cue wigs be disarranged. The French word for foot is pied. "Mind your pieds and queues" soon came to be transplanted into English and abbreviated.
Wallace Irwin once complained that when he had been invited to be funny at a banquet his real gems of wit were addressed to the back of his chauffeur on the way home. But what's the difference? According to the Latin poet, upheld by modern investigation, everything you could possibly say has been said before. — Anna Bird Stewart in Minneapolis Journal.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Asleep on Card Table, Man Has Coughing Fit, Dies
Iowa, 1901
DIES ON A CARD TABLE
WILLIAM HANNAH'S DEMISE IN DELMONICO CLUB ROOMS
So Sudden Was His Passing That Those In the Room With Him Knew Nothing of It Until the Man Was In His Death Struggles — Leaves the Text of a Sermon Written In His Note Book
Several men were gathered in the club room over the Delmonico early yesterday morning. One was lying asleep on the table. Several others had just been out for a lunch, and on returning to the room one of them had brought in with him a very large Newfoundland dog, the big shaggy animal making himself at home near the stove. Suddenly a loud coughing or choking was heard, and Osborn Reynolds cried "Put that dog out. This room is too warm for him."
"It's not the dog; it's 'Ditch,' answered one of the men.
"Wake him up, boys," and two or three of them hurried over to the table to do so.
"My God! He's dead," they cried and the limp form was allowed to fall back. The face was of chalky whiteness, and it was not necessary to call a physician to learn that life had fled, though, of course, a physician was speedily, but uselessly called.
Thus, lying on a card table in a saloon club room, William Hannah died. Not the slightest warning had he; probably not a moment of conscious suffering. His heart had filled up with blood and then refused to work. It was all so sudden that the men about the corpse could hardly realize what had happened.
There was considerable difficulty yesterday in identifying the dead man. He was known to several people but only as "Ditch," this peculiar nickname coming from the fact that he worked at laying tile when he worked at all. The remains were taken to the Boies' undertaking parlors and during the forenoon Coroner Fred Lambach conducted an autopsy. In the afternoon the coroner's inquest was held and a verdict was rendered that William Hannah came to his death by cardiac paralysis. The coroner's jury consisted of M. J. Scandrett, William Schwarnweber, and O. K. Wilson.
A Dead Man's Sermon
"There's no fool like an old fool," wrote Hannah in his note book not long ago, and the quotation is the text of a sermon that the dead man is preaching to his fellow creatures. The rest of his sermon is found in the story of his life. It developed at the inquest that not many months ago William Hannah had come into the possession of some money, inherited from an eastern relative. He came to Davenport and spent most of his time about a card table. At first he was successful. He did not play heavily, but he won, and he grew to love the game. Men who knew him say it was a study to watch the face of "Ditch" when he was handling the pasteboards. It often made them forget their own game. But there came a time when "Ditch" didn't win. Every bit of his money was gone. He had been known to the police for the past two weeks as "broke," and when Dr. Lambach examined his stomach at the autopsy yesterday morning it was learned that no food had been eaten in the last 24 hours. It was probably during this period that the text was written in the note book.
System Much Deranged
Though to outward appearance Hannah was a healthy man, the autopsy showed that his system was very much disordered. His stomach was what is known as a "whisky stomach," though there was no testimony to show that he was a hard drinker. His kidneys were in bad shape. His right lung had grown to his side as the result of an attack of pluerisy. His liver gave evidence of a disease from which few men recover, and all tended to weaken his heart.
At the inquest testimony was taken from Captain Fred Hitchcock, Michael Rourke, P. Phelan. Ed Neils, W. H. Costello, John Cahil, Dr. Porter, who was called at the time of Hannah's death, and Os Reynolds, the proprietor of the place where the man died. From the testimony it was learned that Hannah had been in Gallagher's place in the early evening, that he had gone to the Delmonico about 12 o'clock, and had fallen asleep upon the card table, a habit that he had been more or less regular in of late. No one took any particular notice of him until the fatal coughing fit attracted them.
Hannah had previously lived at Williamsburg, Ia., where it is understood he has a sister. He carried photographs of two men, one young and the other old. He had told some of his acquaintances that they were his brother and father, and lived in California. The dead man was about 35 years of age.
—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, Feb. 17, 1901, p. 7.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Words of Wise Men
1921
Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.
A little commendation goes a long way.
Ambition to merit praise fortifies our virtue.
He who does what he can has done what he ought.
The strength of will is the test of a young man's possibilities.
Truth is a mighty instrument, whatsoever hand may wield it.
All the best men have been best because they possessed "ideals."
The thought that conquers the world not contemplative but active.
Some doubts are as generous and passionate as the very noblest conditions.
Every noble life leaves the fiber of it interwoven with the work of the world.
To strive with difficulties and to conquer them is the highest human triumph.
Friday, May 4, 2007
What the Microscope Reveals
1878
Mold is a forest of beautiful trees, with the branches, leaves and fruit.
Butterflies are fully feathered.
Hairs are hollow tubes.
The surface of our bodies is covered with scales like a fish; a single grain of sand would cover one hundred and fifty of these scales, and yet a scale covers five hundred pores. Through these narrow openings the perspiration forces itself like water through a sieve.
Each drop of stagnant water contains a world of living creatures, swimming with as much liberty as whales in the sea.
Each leaf has a colony of insects grazing it, like a cow in a meadow. — Exchange.
Words of Wisdom
It is easier to blame than to do better.
If you wish to succeed in life, govern your temper.
We love much more warmly by cherishing the intention of giving pleasure than an hour afterwards when we have given it.
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other hearts, but a continent that joins them.
The last, best fruit which comes to late perfection, even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness toward the hard, forbearance toward the unforbearing, warmth of heart toward the cold, and philanthropy toward the misanthropic.
Words of Wisdom — The Shortest Answer is Doing
1878
Words of Wisdom
Little wealth little care.
The offender never pardons.
The shortest answer is doing.
He is rich that wants nothing.
Praise the sea but keep on land.
Bear with all evil and expect good.
Sometimes the best gain is to lose.
Mental gifts often hide bodily defects.
A gift much expected, is paid not given.
One bad example soils many good precepts.
A wise man makes more opportunities than he finds.
He that hath love in his heart hath spurs in his sides.
Send a wise man on an errand and say nothing unto him.
Pardon and pleasantness are great revengers of slander.
Indolence is the rust of the mind and the inlet of every vice.
Life becomes useless and insipid when we have no longer friends or enemies.
It is always safe to learn even of our enemies — seldom safe to venture to instruct even our friends.
Make no more vows to perform this or that; it shows no great strength, and makes thee ride behind thyself.
Man wastes his mornings in anticipating his afternoons, and wastes his afternoons in regretting his mornings,
When the heart is pure, there is hardly anything which can mislead the understanding in matters of immediate personal concernment.
Try to combine beauty and utility. A flower is none the less sweet because it has a germ in its heart that will fructify after the fall of its petals.
Is it just to forget all the kindness done us by those with whom we live for little pain, which, after all, may have been given unintentionally?
Life is itself neither good nor evil. It the scene of good or evil, as you make it; and if you have lived a day, you have seen all. One day is equal to and like all other days; there is no other light, no other shade; this very sun, this moon, these very stars, this very order and revolution of things, are the same your ancestors enjoyed, and that shall also entertain your posterity.
Leisure, the highest happiness on earth, is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction except in solitude. Indolence and indifference do not always afford leisure, for true leisure is frequently found in that interval of relaxation which divides a painful duty from an agreeable relax — recreation; a toilsome business from the more agreeable occupations of literature and philosophy.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Words of Wisdom – Look For Happiness in Useful Work
1878
It is but poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.
If what is said be not to the purpose a single word is already too much.
As nothing truly valuable can be obtained without industry, so there can be no persevering industry without a deep sense of the value of time.
The most common error of men and women is that of looking for happiness somewhere outside of useful work. It has never yet been found when thus sought, and never will be while the world stands; and the sooner the truth is learned, the better for everyone. If you doubt the proposition, go around among your friends and acquaintances and select those who have the most enjoyment through life. Are they idlers and pleasure-seekers, or are the earnest workers? We know what your answer will be. Of the miserable human beings it has been our fortune or misfortune to know, those were the most wretched who had retired from useful employment in order to enjoy themselves.
Truth will never die; the stars will grow dim, the sun will pale his glory, but truth will be ever young. Integrity, uprightness, honesty, love, goodness, these are all imperishable. No grave can ever entomb these immortal principles. They have been in prison, but they have been freer than before; those who enshrined them in their hearts have been burned at the stake, but out of their ashes other witnesses have arisen. No sea can drown, no storm can wreck, no abyss can swallow up the everlasting truth. You cannot kill goodness and integrity and righteousness; the way that is consistent with these must be a way everlasting.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Russian Proverbs
1878
When life is not bright, death does not fright.
A tongue that is pert is its own sure hurt.
Speak out with might when your cause is right.
If Heaven don't forsake us the pigs will not take us.
Truth is severe, but to God 'tis dear.
Don't plunge in the brook for a ford till you look.
If simply you live to five score, you'll survive.
Every fox praises his own tail.
Stretch your feet according to the length of your coat.
Chase two wolves and you will not catch one.
Pledge not thy word rashly but hold to it when pledged.
Dig not a pit for others lest thou fall into it thyself.
Through heedless words the head falls off.
Fear not the threats of the great but rather the tears of the poor.
A word is not a sparrow, for, once flown, you can never catch it again.
Every little frog is great in his own bog.
Disease comes in by hundred weights and goes out by ounces.
An old friend is worth two new ones.
Water runs not beneath a resting stone.
Be praised not for your ancestors but for your virtues.
To the sky 'tis high, to the czar 'tis far.
Words of Wisdom
1878
Go among great folks for great sinners.
Love drifts into hate more easily than indifference into animosity.
He is no true friend who has nothing, but compliments and praise for you.
Sharp and intelligent rascals are more respected by the world than virtuous fools.
Many people find their only happiness in forcing themselves to be unhappy.
Ennui is a malady for which the only remedy is work; pleasure is only a palliative.
He who has no desire to improve upon his present condition, is usually one who most needs improvement.
Adverse criticism is cheaper than noble attempts to improve upon existing models.
We could not endure solitude were it not for the powerful companionship of hope or of some unseen one.
It is not difficult to do good for the means are constantly clustering about every man's lips and hands.
Pride is like the beautiful acacia, that lifts its head proudly above its neighbor plants, forgetting that it too, like them, has its root in the dirt.
We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny unless we have taught ourselves to consider everything as moonshine compared with the education of the heart.
The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach, but we shut our eyes and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for without finding it.
Evils in the journey of life are like the hills which alarm travelers upon their road; they both appear great at a distance, but when we approach them we find that they are far less insurmountable than when we had conceived them.
Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect. If we strive to become, then, what we strive to appear, manners may often be rendered useful guides to the performance of our duties.
Among the many arguments, while others have been refuted, this alone remains unshaken, that we ought to beware of committing injustice rather than of being injured, and that, above all, a man ought to study not to appear good, but to be so, both privately and publicly.
It is resignation and contentment that are best calculated to lead us safely through life. Whoever has not sufficient power to endure privations and even suffering can never feel that he is armor proof against painful emotion — nay, he must attribute to himself, or at least to the morbid sensitiveness of his nature, every disagreeable feeling he may suffer.
Monday, April 30, 2007
The World Owes You a Living; Hustle and Collect It
1917
Flashlights
About all that jealousy asks to make trouble is a chance.
Fair as women are, even they are no excuse for the so-called ladies' man.
No matter how much a man may neglect his wife it always makes him mad to discover that some other man is slightly interested in her.
This world may owe you a living, but if you don't care-enough for it to hustle round and collect it, the world isn't going to do any worrying.
Luck doesn't play nearly so big a part in the other fellow's success as you imagine.
Little Things Worth Knowing
The best marksmen are generally those with blue or gray eyes.
German silver is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. There is no silver in it.
There are fifteen technical colleges in Queensland, with 8,000 students in attendance.
Under perfect conditions watercress may be made to flower and seed within eight days of planting.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Sages' Words on War
Let war be so carried on that no other object may seem to be sought but the acquisition of peace. — Cicero.
In war the olive branch of peace is of use. — Ovid.
There can be no tranquility of nations without troops, no troops without pay, no pay without taxes. — Tacitus.
Who asks whether the enemy were defeated by strategy or valor? — Virgil.
The conqueror is not so much pleased by entering into open gates, as by forcing his way. He desires not the fields to be cultivated by the patient husbandman. He would have them laid waste by fire and sword. It would be his shame to go by a way already opened. — Lucan.
And I know we're at war, see — I knew it then, and the enemy has, unfortunately, proved me right because they continue to attack. — George W. Bush.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Size Matters - The Size of a Man's Hat
1907
WHAT MADE HIM DOUBTFUL
Size of Commuter's Hat Caused Acquaintance to Worry.
A commuter on the D., L. & W. remarked to a friend the other morning, as they came into the city:
"Hawkins, of Stamford, is going to move into that new house next door to me. I know him very slightly, and I understand that you know him pretty well."
"Yes, I have known him for upward of 20 years."
"Well, what kind of a fellow is he, anyhow?" asked the commuter.
"A first-rate fellow, and in every way desirable. Why?"
"I just wanted to know, because I could never quite make up my mind about him, he wears such a small hat." — Philadelphia Ledger.
A quiet wedding is but a curtain raiser for a strenuous afterpart.
Speaking of shade trees — most family trees are more or less shady.
Labor rids us of three great evils — tediousness, vice and poverty.— French.
Matador's Foolhardy Deed.
One historic deed of daring in the Spanish bull ring is that of the famous matador, Gorrito, who on stilts faced the maddened animal.
Then She Takes the Lines.
The young girl's air was pensive. "To-morrow," she said, "Reginald will conduct me to the altar. There—" Smiling, she lighted another cigarette, "—his leadership will end."
Friday, April 20, 2007
Some Shots at "Haste"; It Maketh Waste, You Know
1916
Hurry usually leads to error.
The motto of Baron Plunket was "Hasten slowly." Churchill said, "The more haste ever the worst speed;" Boileau, "Hasten slowly and without losing heart put your work twenty times upon the anvil." "Haste maketh waste," said Heywood. "I'm always in haste, but never in a hurry," is from John Wesley. Richard III mumbled, "Sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste." He would have made a successful farmer. This is Seneca: "Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself;" Tennyson, "Raw haste, half sister to delay."
Life for delays and doubts no time does give.
None ever yet made haste enough to live.
That bright couplet was written by Cowley. Listen to Bulwer-Lytton:
Business dispatched is business well done,
But business hurried is business ill done.
Comment: I wonder who said, "The faster I go the behinder I get."
Sunday, April 15, 2007
First Experiment in Long Distance Radio Telephoning
1920
Radio Telephoning
The first experiment in long distance radio telephoning was made in 1914, the attempt resulting after many efforts in successful transmission of speech from Washington to Paris and San Francisco.
Lines to Be Remembered
No man ever stated his griefs as lightly as he might. For it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered the infinite lies stretched in smiling repose. — Emerson.
Sincerity and Intelligence
Where there is sincerity, there must be intelligence; where intelligence is, it must lead to sincerity. — Chinese Classics, translated by Rev. David Collie.
Let's Do It Here
In Finland, lawyers, before they can secure government employment, must serve as policemen for the purpose of gaining practical experience.
—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 4.