Douglas MacArthur

There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Expect only five percent of an intelligence report to be accurate. The trick of a good commander is to isolate the five percent.

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency... Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.

In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is an eyelash.
- All from Douglas MacArthur, 1880 - 1964

About: Douglas MacArthur was born at Little Rock, Arkansas on 26 Jan in 1880. Not only was he the son of a highly-decorated general, he was actually born in a building that had been an arsenal. He moved with his family from one assignment to the next until he entered West Point in 1898 where he not only graduated first in his class, but third in all-time achievement. He was a brilliant strategist in the Pacific Theater during World War II, with a few significant blunders, then was in charge of Japan and is responsible for rebuilding the economy and government. Back in the Army in time for Korea, his boldness ended up in rank insubordination, resulting in his being removed from his command by Harry S Truman in 1951. The public still loved him, he was allowed a farewell address to Congress and his ticker-tape parade involved 3,249 tons of paper dumped on Manhattan's Broadway.

Cleanliness

Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.
- Franklin P. Jones

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 - 1832

Lord Byron

But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

Ready money is Aladdin's lamp.

Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.

Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.

There is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?
- All from George Gordon Noel Byron, 1788 - 1824

About: George Gordon Noel Byron was born at London, England on 22 Jan in 1788. Young Lord Byron hurried through life, inheriting a peerage at age 10, writing poetry to pay the bills from his sexual ambitions and constant drinking. The flashiest of the Romantic poets, those in charge of Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey only posted his plaque a century and a half after his death.

Teeth

Flattery is from the teeth out. Sincere appreciation is from the heart out.
- Dale Carnegie, 1888 - 1955

A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.
- Herb Caen

When life is kicking others in the teeth, become a dentist.
- Kevin Meyers

All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me.... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
- Walter Elias Disney, 1901 - 1966

Steam and Steel

Yet after brick and steel and stone are gone, and flesh and blood are dust, the dream lives on.
- Anderson H. Scruggs

The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car ... a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little.
- Ben Sweetland

Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine, and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities.
- L. Frank Baum

Temper is a quality that at a critical moment brings out the best in steel and the worst in people.
- William P. Grohse

Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 - 1882

Once a new technology rolls over you, if your're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.
- Stewart Brand

Words

It is not so much consequence what you say, as how you say it. Memorable sentences are memorable, on account of some single irradiating word.
- Alexander Smith, 1830 - 1867

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words.
- Ecclesiasticus

All our words from loose using have lost their edge.
- Ernest Hemingway, 1899 - 1961

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?
- Marcel Marceau

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
- Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910

The word 'good' has many meanings. For instance, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of 500 yards, I would call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 1874 - 1936

Benjamin Franklin

Doing an Injury puts you below your Enemy; Revenging one makes you but even with him; Forgiving it sets you above him.

God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country.

He that blows the coals in quarrels he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.

Tart words make no friends; a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means - either may do - the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

It isn't what you know that counts, it's what you think of in time.
- All from Benjamin Franklin, 1706 - 1790

About: Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston on 17 Jan in 1709. At various times he was a scientist, an inventor, a statesman, a printer, a philosopher, a musician, an economist, and a flyer of kites.

Nothing

Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.
- Adolph Monod, 1802 - 1856

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.
- Alice Walker

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
- Frank Zappa, 1940 - 1993

Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing.... Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.
- Lao Tze

There is one advantage to having nothing, it never needs repair.
- Frank A. Clark

Martin Luther King, Jr

Everybody can be great ... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

We shall have to repent in this generation , not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
- All from Martin Luther King, Jr, 1929 - 1968

About: Martin Luther King, Jr was born at Atlanta, Georgia on 15 Jan in 1929. He was taught to read at home before going to school and advanced rapidly, skipping two grades and entering Morehouse College at age 15. The son of a Baptist minister, he was ordained in 1947. Inspired by a parishioner named Rosa Park, he organized the boycott of Montgomery's bus service. Then he had a dream, following it made him one of the few who have visibly changed the world. The world resists change and Dr King was murdered, but the dream continued and his words live on.

Health

So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health.
- A.J. Reb Materi

Medicine is the one place where all the show is stripped off the human drama. You, as doctors, will be in a position to see the human race stark naked - not only physically, but mentally and morally as well.
- Martin H. Fischer, M.D., 1879 - 1962

When it comes to your health, I recommend frequent doses of that rare commodity among Americans - common sense.
- Vincent Askey

God bless the physician who warms the speculum or holds your hand and looks into your eyes. Perhaps one subtext of the health care debate is a yen to be treated like a whole person, not just an eye, an ear, a nose or a throat. A yen to be human again, on the part of patient and doctor alike.
- Anna Quindlen

No families take so little medicine as those of doctors, except those of apothecaries.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, 1809 - 1894

Richard Nixon

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

I wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning political debates. But I don't have that experience. My only experience is at losing them.

If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

So you are lean and mean and resourceful and you continue to walk on the edge of the precipice because over the years you have become fascinated by how close you can walk without losing your balance.

The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up.
- All from Richard M. Nixon, 1913 - 1994

About: Richard Milhous Nixon was born at Yorba Linda, California on 9 Jan in 1913. His political career, too well known to benefit from one of my brief recaps here, careened up and down like few other politicians.

Irving Layton

Idealist: a cynic in the making.

Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon.

When you argue with your inferiors, you convince them of only one thing: they are as clever as you.

The Holocaust is my symbol. If you read today's poets, you'd never know the kind of barbarous world we live in. Man forgets what a terrifying monster he can be. I want to keep reminding people how close they are to disaster.

[As a schoolboy] I naturally thought that in order to be a poet one had to be either English or dead, preferably both.
- All from Irving Layton, 1912 - 2006

About: Israel Pincu Lazarovitch was born at Targu Neamt, Romania on 12 March 1912. His family moved to Montreal in 1913 and adopted the name Layton. His outspoken iconoclasm started early, he was asked to leave high school. His first degree was in agriculture, but he taught English to immigrants until WW II when he enlisted but never was sent to Europe. As a socialist he was barred from the US, but opposed communism and supported the war in Vietnam. He achieved fame as Canada's best-known poet in the fifties, and gained an international following. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1995 and died at Montreal, Canada on Wednesday of this week (4 January 2006).

Wages

If you do your fair day's work, you are certain to get your fair day's wage - in praise or pudding, whichever happens to suit your taste.
- Alexander Smith, 1830 - 1867

Give the laborer his wages before his perspiration be dry.
- Mohammed, 570 - 632

I don't pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.
- Robert Bosch

Any necessary work that pays an honest wage carries its own honor and dignity.
- W. Kelly Griffith

Everett Dirksen

I must use beautiful words, I never know when I might have to eat them.

Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incomptetents in asylums, who can't are those in cemeteries.

When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there.

When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies.
- All from Everett McKinley Dirksen, 1896 - 1969

About: Everett McKinley Dirksen was born at Pekin, Illinois on 4 Jan in 1896. A college dropout (University of Minnesota) and a successful businessman, he served in Congress from 1932 to 1946 and in the Senate from 1950 until his death in 1969. The "Wizard of Ooze" probably had the most powerful voice in the US Senate in the 20th century, in both senses of the word. As a leader of the Republican party he went from being a major critic of Truman to a great supporter of LBJ, particularly on civil rights. The 1967 novelty recording of "Wild Thing" by "Senator Dirksen" was not actually sung by him, although he actually had a Top 40 hit with "Gallant Men" at the same time.

Cicero

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.

I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.

No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the hightest good.

We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired by glory.

The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.
- All from Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 - 43 BC

About: Marcus Tullius Cicero was born at Arpinum in what is now Italy, on 3 Jan in 104 BC. His was not a powerful family but he had political ambition and went into law as a path to power. He was elected to every major Roman office (quaestor, aedile, praetor, and consul in turn), each on his first run, and each at the youngest eligible age for the office. He overreached and was banished in 58 BC, barred from political office on his return, but briefly returned to a position of influence after Julius Caesar's murder in 44 BC. Alas, he was himself murdered on Mark Antony's orders in 43 BC. His first love was politics, but he wrote philosophy when he couldn't participate in the political arena. Cicero's commentary fits well the politics of our era.

Isaac Asimov

A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

Science is a mechanism, a way of trying to improve your knowledge of nature. It's a system for testing your thoughts against the universe, and seeing whether they match.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know - and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' ('I found it!') but rather 'hmm, that's funny...'
- All from Isaac Asimov, 1920 - 1992

About: Isaac Asimov was born at Petrovichi, Russia on 2 Jan in 1920. His family emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, and Asimov went on to Columbia University (BS, MA, and PhD), then taught biochemistry at Boston University until 1958 when he left the classroom to write full time. He wrote a torrent, over 477 titles before his death. One source claims he is the only author to publish at least one book in every major classification of the Dewey decimal system, his works included books on Shakespeare and Biblical studies, science, and, of course, science fiction. His "Foundation Trilogy" totals five volumes.

Beginning

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door.
- Albert Camus, 1913 - 1960

It is no disgrace to start all over. It is usually an opportunity.
- George Matthew Adams

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.
- John Henry Newman, 1801 - 1890

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
- Richard Feynman, 1918 - 1988

So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.
- Lido Anthony Iacocca

Ending

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.
- Siddhartha Gautama, 563 - 483 BC

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
- Carl Bard

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.
- Gilda Radner

The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.
- John Galsworthy, 1867 - 1933

It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice - there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.
- Frank Zappa, 1940 - 1993

Kipling

Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, .... The world will be yours and everything in it, what's more, you'll be a man, my son.

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
- All from Joseph Rudyard Kipling, 1865 - 1936

About: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born at Bombay, India on 30 Dec in 1865, son of the headmaster of a school there. At five the boy was sent to school in England, although poor health prevented his attending for several years, and he returned to India at seventeen. He worked as a newspaper writer and editor, turning out short stories and poems on the side. By the time he returned to England in 1889 he was famous for both poetry and satire, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

More from Kipling: http://www.qotd.org/specials/saxon.shtml

Hearing

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
- Angela Monèt

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
- Dr Samuel Johnson, 1709 - 1784

The world is dying for want, not of good preaching, but of good hearing.
- George Dana Boardman, 1801 - 1831

Innocence

Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy.
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 1874 - 1936

Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.
- François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld, 1613 - 1680

To vice, innocence must always seem only a superior kind of chicanery.
- Ouida (Marie Louise De La Ramée), 1839 - 1908

The graceful flowers of innocence are more valuable than the laurel crown of fame.
- Franz Grillparzer, 1791 - 1872

Christmas

Many merry Christmases, friendships, great accumulation of cheerful recollections, affection on earth, and Heaven at last for all of us.
- Charles Dickens, 1812 - 1870

Somehow not only for Christmas
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
- Elwyn Brooks White, 1899 - 1985

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
- John Calvin Coolidge, 1872 - 1933

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
- Norman Vincent Peale, 1898 - 1993

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.
- Washington Irving, 1783 - 1859

Christmas Eve

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.
- Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, 1860 - 1904

Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart ... filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.
- Bess Streeter Aldrich, 1881 - 1954

Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today's Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday.
- Gladys Taber, 1899 - 1980

Think, In mounting higher,
The angels would press on us, and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 - 1861

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
- W. T. Ellis

The earth has grown old with its burden of care
But at Christmas it always is young,
The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair
And its soul full of music breaks the air,
When the song of angels is sung.
- Phillips Brooks