Smart Stuff

Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire. To check the growth of […]

It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a firmer outline and then cease to change.
Collette
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
Thomas Fuller
Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.
Lamartine

Few men, I believe, are much worth loving, in whom there is not something well
worth laughing at.
Augustus William Hare
Life is full of infinite absurdities, which, strangely enough, do not even need
to appear plausible, since they are true.
Luigi Pirandello

Is Chapter Eleven the result of following the Ten Commandments?
Anon
A receiver is appointed by the court to take what’s left.
Robert Frost
Never ask of money spent
Where the spender thinks it went.
Nobody was ever meant
To remember or invent
What he did with every cent.
Robert Frost
Few have heard of Fra Luca Parioli, the inventor of double-entry bookkeeping;
but he has […]

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that three of his
fingers are pointing at himself.
Anon
Even doubtful accusations leave a stain behind them.
Thomas Fuller
It is honorable to be accused who deserve to be accused.
Latin Proverb

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are
impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Francis Bacon
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or, what’s a heaven for?
Robert Browning
If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common
denominator of human achievement.
Jimmy Carter
Very few […]

An actor’s success has the life expectancy of a small boy about to look into a
gas tank with a lighted match.
Fred Allen
An actor’s a guy who, if you ain’t talking about him, ain’t listening.
Marlon Brando
I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and
incompetent comes naturally to me.
John Cleese
[…]

A Thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action
which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.
Georges Bernanos
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Once turn to practice, error and truth will no longer consort together.
Thomas Carlyle
In action, be primitive; in […]

The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing
to a purposeful life.
Eric Hoffer
If you want work well done, select a busy man: the other kind has no time.
Elbert Hubbard
Travel, trouble, music, art,
A kiss, a frock, a rhyme, -
I never said they feed my heart,
But still, they pass […]

The first pair ate the first apple.
Anon
It is not fair to visit all
The blame on Eve, for Adam’s fall;
The most Eve did was to display
Contributory Neglige.
Oliver Herford
“Eve: Apropos de Rien”
Ever since Eve gave Adam the apple, there has been a misunderstanding between
the sexes about gifts.
Nan Robertson
on Christmas shopping
Adam and Eve had many […]