Look for "Truer Words" each week in the Press .... sometimes relevant to what's going on in Harvard or in the country, sometimes humorous, sometimes inspirational.
January 12, 2024
"A new year is a clean slate, a chance to suck in your breath, decide all is not lost, and give yourself another chance."
Sarah Overstreet (American columnist)
January 19, 2024
"A normal adolescent isn’t a normal adolescent if he acts normal."
Judith Viorst (b. 1931, American writer and journalist)
January 26, 2024
"A big blizzard proves there’s no global warming in the same way being out of milk proves there’s no such thing as cows."
Dana Gould (b.1964; American stand-up comic, actor, writer)
February 2, 2024
"The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears."
Bill Vaughn (1915–1977, American columnist and author)
February 9, 2024
"Love doesn’t make the world go round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
Franklin P. Jones (1908–1980, American writer and humorist)
February 16, 2024
"I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‘race’ ... the human race ... and that we are all members of it."
Margaret Atwood (b. 1939; Canadian poet, novelist, and activist)
February 23, 2024
"Children seldom misquote you. They more often repeat word for word what you shouldn’t have said."
Mae Maloo
March 1, 2024
"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: When it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."
Charles Dickens (1812–1870, English novelist and social critic)
March 8, 2024
"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said."
Peter Drucker (1909–2025, Austrian American educator and author)
March 15, 2024
"May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live."
Irish blessing
March 22, 2024
"A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it."
William Feather (1889–1981, American publisher and writer)
March 29, 2024
"Mix a little foolishness with your prudence. It’s good to be silly at the right moment."
Horace (65–8 BC, Roman poet and satirist)
April 5, 2024
"Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it."
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906, American social reformer and activist)
April 12, 2024
"People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them."
Dave Barry (b. 1947, American author and humorist)
April 19, 2024
"Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost."
Martina Navratilova (b. 1956, Czechoslovakian-born American tennis star)
April 26, 2024
"To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash."
Bill Nye (b. 1955, American scientist, educator, and television host)
May 3, 2024
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month."
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919, 26th U.S. president)
May 10, 2024
"When your mother asks, 'Do you want a piece of advice?' it’s a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway."
Erma Bombeck (1927–1995, American humorist)
May 17, 2024
"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened."
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015, British satirist and author)
May 24, 2024
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."
Mark Twain (1835–1910, American writer and humorist)
May 31, 2024
"It isn’t so much what’s on the table that matters, as what’s on the chairs."
W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911, English dramatist and poet)
June 7, 2024
"There is a good reason they call these ceremonies 'commencement exercises.' Graduation is not the end, it’s the beginning.
Orrin Hatch (1934–2022, American attorney and politician)
June 14, 2024
"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was high school."
Anonymous
June 21, 2024
"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon ... the two most beautiful words in the English language."
Henry James (1843–1916, American-British author)
June 28, 2024
"Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets."
Yogi Berra (1925–2015, American baseball star)
July 5, 2024
"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness."
July 12, 2024
"Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something."
Regina Brett (b. 1956, American writer and inspirational speaker)
January 13, 2023
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
―Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968, American minister and activist)
January 20, 2023
"A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation."
―James Freeman Clarke (1810–1888, American theologian and author)
January 27, 2023
"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water."
―Carl Reiner (1922–2020, American author, comedian, and screenwriter)
February 3, 2023
"Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason."
―Jerry Seinfeld (b. 1954, American comedian, actor, and writer)
February 10, 2023
"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt."
―Lucy van Pelt, created by Charles Schulz (1922–2000, American cartoonist)
February 17, 2023
"Often wrong; never in doubt."
―Theodore Sorensen (1928-2010, American lawyer and presidential advisor)
February 24, 2023
"You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever."
―Dave Barry (b. 1947, American author and humorist)
March 3, 2023
"One of the best things about reading is that you’ll always have something to think about when you’re not reading."
―James Patterson (b. 1947, American author)
March 10, 2023
"The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, brain surgery."
―Robert Cormier (1925–2000, American author and journalist)
March 17, 2023
"I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it."
―Mae West (1893–1980, American actress)
March 24, 2023
"What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do."
― John Ruskin (1819–1900, English writer, philosopher, and critic )
March 31, 2023
"A day without laughter is a day wasted."
― Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977, English comic actor and filmmaker )
April 7, 2023
"Easter is the only time of the year when it’s perfectly safe to put all your eggs in one basket."
― Anonymous
April 14, 2023
"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."
―Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882, American essayist, philosopher, and poet)
April 21, 2023
"You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again."
―Bonnie Prudden (1914–2011, American physical fitness pioneer)
April 28, 2023
"To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain."
―Louis L’Amour (1908–1988, American novelist)
May 5, 2023
"Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe."
―Albert Einstein (1879–1955, German-born theoretical physicist)
May 12, 2023
"An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy."
―Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936, English poet and novelist)
May 19, 2023
"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark."
―Michelangelo (1475–1564, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet)
May 26, 2023
"Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona."
―George Will (b. 1941, American political commentator)
June 2, 2023
"All those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? It turns out they don’t have all the answers. A lot of them aren’t even asking the right questions. So, if the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you."
―Barack Obama (b. 1961, American politican and 44th president)
June 9, 2023
"A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken."
―James Dent (b. 1953, American author and sportswriter)
June 16, 2023
"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters."
―George Herbert (1593–1633, British poet, orator, and Anglican priest)
June 23, 2023
"The two most joyous times of the year are Christmas morning and the end of school."
―Alice Cooper (b. 1948, American rock singer)
June 30, 2023
"No drug ... causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power."
―P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022, American political satirist and journalist)
July 7, 2023
"A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking."
―Earl Wilson (1907–1987, American journalist and author)
August 11, 2023
"Having one child makes you a parent; having two, you are a referee."
―David Frost (1939–2013, English journalist)
August 18, 2023
"The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser ... in case you thought optimism was dead."
―Robert Brault (b. 1938, American writer)
August 25, 2023
"Be like a duck. Calm on the surface but always paddling like the dickens underneath."
―Michael Caine (b. 1933, British actor)
September 1, 2023
"If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes."
―Guy Kawasaki (b. 1954; American author, speaker, entrepreneur)
September 8, 2023
"School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside."
―Lon Watters
September 15, 2023
"Sometimes I wish that I was the weather. You’d bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I’d be the talk of the day."
―John Mayer (b. 1977, American musician)
September 22, 2023
"The same boys who got detention in elementary school for beating the crap out of people are now rewarded for it. They call it football."
―Laurie Halse Anderson (b. 1961, American author)
September 29, 2023
"In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem."
―George Carlin (1937–2008, American comedian)
October 6, 2023
"The unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective."
―Jonn Stewart (b. 1962, American comedian and writer)
October 13, 2023
"I just went to a seance where everyone sat around resurrecting ghosts from the past. Wait, that was my class reunion!"
―Robert Brault (b. 1938, American freelance writer)
October 20, 2023
"Ambition and stupidity are a dangerous combination."
―Dean Koontz (b. 1945, American author)
October 27, 2023
"Nothing on earth is so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night."
―Steve Almond (b. 1966, American short-story writer and essayist)
November 3, 2023
"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children."
―Jimmy Carter (b. 1924; Politician and humanitarian, 39th American president)
November 10, 2023
"[November] looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon."
―Sarah Addison Allen , (b. 1971, American author)
November 17, 2023
"Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year."
―Chad Sugg (b. 1986, American singer-songwriter)
November 24, 2023
"I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it."
December 1, 2023
"A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad enough to do something about it."
―Mark Twain (1835–1910, American writer and humorist)
December 8, 2023
"The proper response, as Hanukkah teaches, is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle."
―Irving Greenberg (b. 1933, American clergyman)
December 15, 2023
"Gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect."
―Oren Arnold (1900–1980, American journalist and novelist)
December 22, 2023
"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?"
―John Steinbeck (1902–1968, American writer)
January 7, 2022
The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.
―Michael Altshuler (b. 1978, American entrepreneur and speaker)
January 14, 2022
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”
―Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968, American minister and activist)
January 21, 2022
Optimist: Someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s a cha-cha.
— Robert Brault (b. 1938, American writer)
January 28, 2022
One of the very best reasons for having children is to be reminded of the incomparable joys of a snow day.
— Susan Orlean (b. 1955, American journalist and author)
February 4, 2022
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
— Voltaire (1694–1778, French writer and philosopher)
February 11, 2022
Piglet: “How do you spell ‘love’?” Pooh: “You don’t spell it ... you feel it.”
― A. A. Milne (1882–1956, English author)
February 18, 2022
George Washington is the only president who didn’t blame the previous administration for his troubles.
― Author unknown
February 25, 2022
It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.
— Molière (1622–1673, French playwright, actor, and poet)
March 4, 2022
Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do “practice”?
— George Carlin (1937–2008, American comedian and author)
March 11, 2022
The average teacher explains complexity; the gifted teacher reveals simplicity.
March 18, 2022
The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.
— Wilson Mizner (1876–1933, American playwright and entrepreneur)
March 25, 2022
The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.
— Paul Farmer (1959–2022, American physician and anthropologist)
April 1, 2022
From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.
— Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (1904–1991, American author and illustrator)
April 8, 2022
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
— Margaret Atwood (b. 1939, Canadian novelist and critic)
April 15, 2022
It's income tax time again, Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta.
— Dave Barry (b. 1947, American author and humorist)
April 22, 2022
Being a parent is wanting to hug and strangle your kid at the same time.
— Bill Watterson (b. 1958, American cartoonist)
April 29, 2022
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
— Epictetus (c.55 - c.135, Greek philosopher)
May 6, 2022
Having kids—the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings—is the biggest job anyone can embark on .
— Maria Shriver (b.1955, American journalist and author)
May 13, 2022
We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. .
— Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826, third American president)
May 20, 2022
Baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical.
— Yogi Berra (1925–2015, American baseball star)
May 27, 2022
“Courage” is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.
— G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936, British writer and philosopher)
June 3, 2022
Advice to graduates: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
— Milton Berle (1908–2002, American actor and comedian)
June 10, 2022
Gross ignorance is 144 times worse than ordinary ignorance.
— Bennett Cerf (1898–1971, American writer and publisher)
June 17, 2022
The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.
— Tim Russert (1950–2008, American television journalist)
June 24, 2022
Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery.
— Erma Bombeck (1927-1996, American humorist)
July 1, 2022
Now is the time … for those who truly value all the principles of democracy, especially including dissent, to be the most forceful in speaking up, standing up, and speaking out.
— Jim Hightower (b. 1943, American columnist, political activist, and author)
July 8, 2022
I want to vacation so long, I forget all my passwords.
— Author unknown
August 12, 2022
There’s no such thing as good weather or bad weather. There’s just weather and your attitude towards it.
— Louise Hay (1926–2017, American motivational author)
August 19, 2022
If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to sleep with a mosquito.
— Anita Roddick (b.1942, British businesswoman)
August 26, 2022
Life is like a play: It’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
— Seneca the Younger (4 B.C.–A.D. 65, Roman philosopher, statesman, and dramatist)
September 2, 2022
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
— Malcolm Forbes (1919–1990, American entrepreneur)
September 9, 2022
It is better to aim at perfection and miss, than to aim at imperfection and hit it.
— Thomas J. Watson (1874–1956, American businessman)
September 16, 2022
When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.
— Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022, British monarch)
September 23, 2022
The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you're learning, you’re not old.
— Dr. Rosalyn Yalow (1921–2011, American medical physicist and Nobel Prize winner)
September 30, 2022
Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.
— Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965, American politician, twice nominee for U.S. president)
October 7, 2022
Decisions are made by those who show up.
— President Josiah Bartlet in “The West Wing” by Aaron Sorkin (b. 1961, American playwright)
October 14, 2022
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.
— “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940, American novelist)
October 21, 2022
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.
— Frank A. Clark (1860–1936, American lawyer and politician)
October 28, 2022
Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen. Voices whisper in the trees, “Tonight is Halloween!”
— Dexter Kozen (b. 1951, American computer scientist)
November 4, 2022
Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, “Never take candy from strangers.” And then they dressed me up and said, “Go beg for it.”
— Rita Rudner (b. 1953, American comedian)
November 11, 2022
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
— Maya Angelou (1928–2014, American poet)
November 18, 2022
Worrying is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
— from “Van Wilder” by Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner
November 25, 2022
An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving day.
— Irv Kupcinet (1912–2003, American newspaper columnist)
December 2, 2022
There are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.
— Indira Gandhi (1917–1984, politician and prime minister of India)
December 9, 2022
You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014, American poet)
December 16, 2022
The spirit of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is shared by all people who love freedom.
—Norma Simon (b. 1927, American author)
December 23, 2022
Santa Claus! Thank God, he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
—Francis P. Church (1839–1906, American publisher and editor)
January 8, 2021
Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘it will be happier.’
―Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892, British poet)
January 15, 2021
It is the proof of a bad cause when it is applauded by the mob.
—Seneca (4 BC-63, Roman philosopher and statesman)
January 22, 2021
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936, English writer and philosopher)
January 29, 2021
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.
―Jean Kerr (1922–2003, Irish-American author)
February 5, 2021
If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.
―Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005, American politician and activist)
February 12, 2021
There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved.
―George Sand (1804–1876, French novelist)
February 19, 2021
What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.
―Helen Keller (1880-1968, American author, educator, and activist)
February 26, 2021
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
―Winnie the Pooh, as created by A.A. Milne (1882–1956, English author)
March 5, 2021
March is the month God created to show people who don't drink what a hangover is like.
―Garrison Keillor (b. 1942, American author and humorist)
March 12, 2021
It is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom.
March 19, 2021
On daylight savings time: Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.
―Author unknown
March 26, 2021
Passover and Easter … Jewish and Christian holidays that move in sync, like the ice skating pairs in the winter Olympics.
―Marvin Olasky (b. 1950, American journalist and educator)
April 2, 2021
If you could choose one characteristic that would get you through life, choose a sense of humor.
―Jennifer Jones (1919-2009, American actress and mental health advocate)
April 9, 2021
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
―Michael Jordan (b. 1963, professional basketball player)
April 16, 2021
I am thankful that in a troubled world no calamity can prevent the return of spring.
—Helen Keller (1880-1968, American author, educator, and activist)
April 23, 2021
Be decisive. Right or wrong, make a decision. The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.
April 30, 2021
People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.
―Simon Sinek (b. 1973, British-American author and inspirational speaker)
May 7, 2021
A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
―Tenneva Jordan
May 14, 2021
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
―Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826, third American president)
May 21, 2021
Insane people are always sure they’re just fine. It’s only the sane people who are willing to admit they’re crazy.
―Nora Ephron (1941–2012, American journalist and filmmaker)
May 28, 2021
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
June 4, 2021
The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse.
―Edward Koch (1924–2013, American politician)
June 11, 2021
Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?
―Frank Scully (1892-1964, American journalist and humorist)
June 18, 2021
By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.
―Charles Wadsworth (1814-1882, American clergyman)
June 25, 2021
Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
―Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007, American writer)
July 2, 2021
One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one Nation evermore.
―Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935, American jurist)
July 9, 2021
A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.
―Robert Orben (b. 1927, American comedy writer)
August 20, 2021
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
―Bertrand Russell (1872-1970, British academic and logician)
August 27, 2021
I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study … would be about the same as getting into paradise.
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915, American educator, author, and orator)
September 3, 2021
The most important day of a person’s education is the first day of school, not graduation day.
—Harry Wong (b. 1932, American educator)
September 10, 2021
Absolute truth belongs only to one class of humans … the class of absolute fools.
—Ashley Montagu (1905-1999, British-American anthropologist)
September 17, 2021
You can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count.
—Winnie the Pooh, as created by A.A. Milne (1882–1956, English author)
September 24, 2021
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864, American author)
October 1, 2021
Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.
—Erma Bombeck (1927-1996, American humorist)
October 8, 2021
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said. .
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005, Austrian-American educator and author)
October 15, 2021
Democracy is not a spectator sport; it’s a participatory event. If we don’t participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy.
—Michael Moore (b.1954, American filmmaker and activist)
October 22, 2021
When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.
—Max Lerner (1902–1992, American journalist and educator)
October 29, 2021
There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly lit front porch.
—Robert Brault (b. 1938, American writer)
November 5, 2021
A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.
—Bob Hope (1903-2003, British-American comedian and actor)
November 12, 2021
The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.
—George Washington (1732–1799, American soldier and first president)
November 19, 2021
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the eons, it’s that you can’t give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.
—Rick Riordan (b. 1964, American author)
December 3, 2021
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December: ‘We are nearer to Spring than we were in September.’
—Oliver Herford (1863–1935, English writer and artist)
December 10, 2021
Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
—Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954, American television personality)
December 17, 2021
As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.
—Donald Westlake (1933–2008, American writer)
January 10, 2020
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
―Bill Vaughan (1915-1977, American journalist and author)
January 17, 2020
If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper in life, sweep streets like Raphael painted pictures. Sweep streets like Michelangelo carved marble. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry.
January 24, 2020
If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.
―Albert Einstein (1879-1955, German-born theoretical physicist)
January 31, 2020
We all lose when bullying and personal attacks become a substitute for genuine conversation and principled disagreement.
―Alicia Garza (b. 1981, American activist)
February 7, 2020
Highly educated bores are by far the worst; they know so much, in such fiendish detail, to be boring about.
―Louis Kronenberger (1904-1980, American literary critic)
February 14, 2020
Without Valentine’s Day, February would be…well, January.
―Jim Gaffigan (b. 1966, American comedian)
February 21, 2020
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.
—George Washington (1732-1799, first U.S. president)
February 28, 2020
To find leap year you have this rule: Divide by iv, what’s left shall be, For leap year 0, for past i, ii, and iii.
―Michael Aislabie Denham (1801-1859, British collector of folklore)
March 6, 2020
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
―Galileo Galilei (1564-1642, Italian astronomer and physicist)
March 13, 2020
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
―Richard Armour (1906-1989, American poet and author)
March 20, 2020
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
―Marie Curie (1867-1934, French-Polish physicist)
March 27, 2020
Levity is the lubricant of a crisis. We resort to jokes, pranks and good-natured kidding to relieve tension, stress and boredom.
―Wally Schirra (1923-2007, American naval aviator and astronaut)
April 3, 2020
Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.
―Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850, French novelist and playwright)
April 10, 2020
Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.
―Wendell Berry (1934- , American writer and environmental activist)
April 17, 2020
In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.
―Mister (Fred) Rogers (1928-2003, American television personality)
April 24, 2020
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
—Chinese Proverb
May 1, 2020
I'm only wishing to go a-fishing; for this the month of May was made.
—Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933, American author, educator, and diplomat)
May 8, 2020
An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
―Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936, English poet and novelist)
May 15, 2020
There is still no cure for the common birthday.
―John Glenn (1921-2016, U.S. senator and astronaut)
May 22, 2020
Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay.
―Barack Obama (44th U.S. president)
May 29, 2020
It seems that in the advanced stages of stupidity, a lack of ideas is compensated for by an excess of ideologies.
―Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1964-2020, Spanish novelist)
June 5, 2020
At the core, none of us were meant to be common. We were born to be comets, darting across space and time, leaving our mark as we crash into everything.
―Donovan Livingston (American educator and public speaker)
June 12, 2020
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
―Elie Wiesel (1928-2016, Romanian-born American writer, activist, and Holocaust survivor)
June 19, 2020
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
―Harry S. Truman (1884-1972, 33rd American president)
June 26, 2020
In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.
―André Maurois (1885-1967, French author)
August 7, 2020
We must use our time and our space on this little planet that we call Earth to make a lasting contribution, to leave it a little better than we found it, and now that need is greater than ever before.
―John Lewis (1940-2020, American politician and civil rights leader)
August 28, 2020
You ought to be thankful a whole heaping lot, for the places and people you’re lucky you’re not!
―Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (1904-1991, American children's author and illustrator)
September 4, 2020
Talk less. Smile more.
―Aaron Burr in “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda (b. 1980-, American actor, composer, and playwright)
September 11, 2020
I don’t know which is worse: People who lie, or people who think I am stupid enough to believe their lies.
September 18, 2020
“My country, right or wrong” is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.”
―G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936, British writer and philosopher)
September 25, 2020
When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.
―Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020, American jurist)
October 2, 2020
Don't raise your voice, improve your argument.
―Desmond Tutu (b. 1931, South African cleric and activist)
October 9, 2020
A lie is an abomination unto the Lord, and an ever-present help in times of trouble.
―Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965, American politican and diplomat)
October 16, 2020
It may be true, as Lincoln supposed, that ‘You can’t fool all the people all the time,’ but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.
―Will and Ariel Durant (1885-1981, 1898-1981, American writers and historians)
October 23, 2020
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.
―Carl Sagan (1934-1996, American astronomer)
October 30, 2020
Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
―Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, 16th American president)
November 6, 2020
It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.
―Tom Stoppard (b. 1937, Czech-born British playwight and screenwriter)
November 13, 2020
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
―G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936, British writer and philosopher)
November 20, 2020
Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.
―Erma Bombeck (1927-1996, American humorist)
December 4, 2020
In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it. ― Thucydides (c. 460–400 BC, Athenian historian)
December 11, 2020
It’s December, and nobody asked if I was ready. ― Sarah Kay (b. 1988, American poet)
December 18, 2020
This is the season when people of all faiths and cultures are pushing back against the planetary darkness. We string bulbs, ignite bonfires, and light candles. And we sing. ― Anita Diamant (b. 1951, American author)
January 11, 2019
A new year is a gift, a small piece of infinity, to do with as we will.
—Jean Hersey (1902-1997, American writer)
January 18, 2019
One of the chief features of incompetence … an inability to see it in oneself.
—Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952, American author)
January 25, 2019
Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.
―Bill Shankly (1913-1981, Scottish football player and manager)
February 1, 2019
It's ridiculous for a country to get all worked up about a game—except the Super Bowl, of course. Now that's important.
―Andy Rooney (1919-2011, American television writer)
February 8, 2019
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
February 15, 2019
Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home.
―David Frost (1939-2013, British media personality and journalist)
February 22, 2019
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
―Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990, American entrepreneur)
March 1, 2019
The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.
—Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931, American inventor)
March 8, 2019
Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
―Richard Cushing (1895-1970, Archbishop of Boston)
March 15, 2019
You've got to think lucky. If you fall into a puddle, check your back pocket … you might have caught a fish.
— Darrell Royal (1924-2012, American athlete and coach)
March 22, 2019
Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.
March 29, 2019
Humor is a rubber sword … it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.
—Mary Hirsch (1955-2020, American writer)
April 5, 2019
You can't fix things with a hug, but you can't make them any worse either.
—Dean Koontz (b. 1945, American author)
April 12, 2019
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945, 32nd American president)
April 19, 2019
April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.
—T.S. Eliot (1888-1965, American-born British poet, literary critic, and playwright)
April 26, 2019
To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.
— A. Bronson Alcott (1799-1888, American teacher, writer, and philosopher)
May 3, 2019
—Helen Keller (1880-1968, American educator and activist)
May 10, 2019
Silence is golden … unless you have kids. Then silence is just suspicious.
—Author unknown
May 17, 2019
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
―Robert Copeland (b. 1981, Australian athlete)
May 24, 2019
Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory there would be no civilization, no future.
—Elie Wiesel (1928-2016, Romanian-born American writer, activist, and Holocaust survivor)
May 31, 2019
Never allow the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.
—Babe Ruth (1895-1948, American baseball player)
June 7, 2019
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was high school.
June 14, 2019
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.
—Alexander Pope (1688-1744, English poet)
June 21, 2019
Life is like an ice cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.
—Charles Schulz (1922-2000, American cartoonist)
June 28, 2019
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
—Steven Wright (b. 1955, American comedian and actor)
July 5, 2019
Isn't it amazing how much stuff we get done the day before vacation?
—Zig Ziglar (1926-2012, American motivational speaker)
August 9, 2019
If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
—Sirius Black in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by J.K. Rowling (b. 1965, British writer)
August 16, 2019
The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.
—Pablo Picasso (1881-1973, Spanish painter and sculptor)
August 23, 2019
I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
—Lily Tomlin (1939- , American actress and comedian)
August 30, 2019
Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.
—Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997, activist and Nobel Prize laureate)
September 6, 2019
That old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books, and football in the air.
—Wallace Stegner (1909-1993, American writer and environmentalist)
September 13, 2019
Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.
—Wendell Berry (b. 1934, American author and cultural critic)
September 20, 2019
Some people think they are worth a lot of money just because they have it.
—Fannie Hurst (1885-1968, American writer)
September 27, 2019
In life, as in football, you won't go far unless you know where the goalposts are.
—Arnold H. Glasow (1905-1998, American businessman)
October 4, 2019
There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864, American navelist)
October 11, 2019
Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits.
―Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist and philosopher)
October 18, 2019
A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.
―Arnold H. Glasow (1905-1998, American businessman)
October 25, 2019
Do unto your children as you wish your parents had done unto you.
— Louise Hart (American author and psychologist)
November 1, 2019
Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.
—Shana Alexander (1925-2005, American journalist)
November 8, 2019
On this Veterans Day … let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free.
―Dan Lipinski (b. 1966, American politician)
November 15, 2019
Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.
―Joseph Campbell (1904-1987, American educator and writer)
November 22, 2019
Life is so very simple when you have no facts to confuse you.
―Peg Bracken (1918-2007, American author)
November 29, 2019
An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.
― Irv Kupcinet (1912-2003, American journalist)
December 6, 2019
Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.
―Vesta M. Kelly
December 13, 2019
The holiday season is a time for storytelling, and whether you are hearing the story of a candelabra staying lit for more than a week, or a baby born in a barn without proper medical supervision, these stories often feature miracles.
—Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket (b. 1970, American author)
December 20, 2019
Gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
—Oren Arnold (1900-1980, American writer and humorist)
January 12, 2018
We must learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools.
— Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968, American minister and activist)
January 19, 2018
It’s called ‘reading.’ It’s how people install new software into their brains.
—Randy Glasbergen (1957-2015, American cartoonist)
January 26, 2018
A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.
―G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936, British critic and author)
February 2, 2018
The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.
―Joseph Wood Krutch, (1893-1970, American writer and critic)
February 9, 2018
“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
—Albert Einstein (1879-1955, German-born theoretical physicist)
February 16, 2018
As one goes through life one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003, American actress)
February 23, 2018
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. —Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, 16th American president)
March 2, 2018
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
—John Ruskin (1819-1900, English art critic)
March 9, 2018
“If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it. Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882, American poet and educator)
March 16, 2018
“There must be security for all, or no one is secure.”
—Klaatu in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" by Harry Bates (1900-1981, American writer)
March 23, 2018
“Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right. As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established.”
—George Carlin (1937-2008, American comedian)
March 30, 2018
“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”
—e. e. cummings (1894-1962, American poet and essayist)
April 6, 202018
Snow in April is abominable … Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.
—L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942, Canadian author)
April 13, 2018
Unsolicited advice is the junk mail of life.
—Bernard Williams (1929–2003, British moral philosopher)
April 20, 2018
What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist and philosopher)
April 27, 2018
There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919, 26th U.S. president)
May 4, 2018
“Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.”
—Rumi (13th century poet and philosopher)
May 11, 2018
The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.
—Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980, American naturalist)
May 18, 2018
Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.
May 25, 2018
—Mark Twain (1835-1910, American writer and humorist)
June 1, 2018
If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.
—Winnie the Pooh as created by A.A. Milne (1882-1956, English author)
June 8, 2018
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
June 15, 2018
“A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.”
—Frank A. Clark (1911–1991, American writer and cartoonist)
June 22, 2018
“Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, ‘Is life a multiple choice test or is it a true or false test?’ Then a voice comes to me out of the dark and says, ‘We hate to tell you this, but life is a thousand word essay.’”
June 29, 2018
When you live with another person for fifty years ... you almost never say, ‘Do you remember that night we ...’ But you don’t have to. You know that the other person does remember. Thus, the past is part of the present as long as the other person lives. It is better than any scrapbook, because you are both living scrapbooks.
—Federico Fellini (1920-1993, Italian film director)
July 6, 2018
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.
―John Lubbock (1834-1913, British statesman)
August 10, 2018
No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.
―Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915, American writer)
August 17, 2018
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975, American playwright and novelist)
August 24, 2018
If there's a single message passed down from each generation of American parents to their children, it is a two-word line: Better Yourself. And if there's a temple of self-betterment in each town, it is the local school.
—Ellen Goodman (b. 1941, American journalist)
August 31, 2018
“It is your character, and your character alone, that will make your life happy or unhappy.”
—John McCain (1936–2018, United States senator)
September 7, 2018
Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.
—Dorothy Parker (1893-1967, American writer, critic, and satirist)
September 14, 2018
We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, American poet, essayist, and philosopher)
September 21, 2018
“The reason there's so much ignorance is that those who have it are so eager to share it.”
September 28, 2018
There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.
—P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947, American satirist and journalist)
October 5, 2018
October is not only a beautiful month but marks the precious yet fleeting overlap of hockey, baseball, basketball, and football.
—Jason Love (American humorist)
October 12, 2018
When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure. When you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.
—Thornton Wilder (1897-1975, American playwright and novelist)
October 19, 2018
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the Earth seeking the successive autumns.
—George Eliot (1819-1880, English novelist and poet)
October 26, 2018
Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.
—Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888, American writer)
November 2, 2018
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, 16th American president)
November 9, 2018
Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
—Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973, World War I fighter pilot)
November 16, 2018
“Never underestimate your power to change yourself; never overestimate your power to change others.”
—Wayne W. Dyer (1940-2015, American author and motivational speaker)
November 23, 2018
“After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854-1900, Irish poet and playwright)
November 30, 2018
There is all the difference in the world between having something to say and having to say something.
—John Dewey (1859-1952, American philosopher and educator)
December 7, 2018
The darkness of the whole world cannot swallow the glowing of a candle.
—Robert Altinger
December 14, 2018
Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.
—Richard Lamm (b. 1935, American politician and writer)
January 13, 2017
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968, American minister and activist)
January 20, 2017
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
― The Lorax, created by Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (1904-1991, American author and illustrator)
January 27, 2017
You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.
―Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948, Indian lawyer and ethicist)
February 3, 2017
The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
—Lucille Ball (1911-1989, American actress and comedian)
February 10, 2017
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.
— Lucy van Pelt, created by Charles Schulz (1922-2000, American cartoonist)
February 17, 2017
Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it.
—Haim Ginott (1922-1973, American educator and psychologist)
February 24, 2017
Trickle-down theory—the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006, Canadian-American economist and diplomat)
March 3, 2017
Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658, Spanish Jesuit and philosopher)
March 10, 2017
We cannot get grace from gadgets. The dishes of the future may not break, but the heart can. A man may be as unhappy in the spun glass trousers of tomorrow as he is today in worsted ones.
—J. B. Priestley (1894-1984, English novelist and playwright)
March 17, 2017
Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway.
―Maya Angelou (1928-2014, American poet)
March 24, 2017
A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.
—Jack London (1876-1916, American novelist and journalist)
March 31, 2017
You can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up.
—George L. Bell (1927-2007, American businessman and Mormon bishop)
April 7, 2017
An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, third American president)
April 14, 2017
I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894, American physician and poet)
April 21, 2017
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.
—Cree Indian Proverb
April 28, 2017
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything's different.
— Calvin and Hobbs, created by Bill Watterson (b. 1958, American cartoonist)
May 5, 2017
You know you're getting old when you stoop down to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there.
—George Burns (1896-1996, American comedian and actor)
May 12, 2017
A mother understands what a child does not say.
—Jewish proverb
May 19, 2017
People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe.
—Andy Rooney (1919-2011, American television writer)
May 26, 2017
And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier’s tomb, and beauty weeps the brave.
—Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820, American poet)
June 2, 2017
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
—Margaret Mead (1901-1978, American anthropologist)
June 9, 2017
The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about.
June 16, 2017
—Winnie the Pooh, created by A.A. Milne (1882-1956, English author)
June 23, 2017
Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January. —Hal Borland (1900-1978, American author, journalist, and naturalist)
June 30, 2017
It will be celebrated … with pomp and parade … bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.
—John Adams (1735-1826, second American president)
July 7, 2017
Isn't it interesting that people feel best about themselves right before they go on vacation? They've cleared up all of their to-do piles, closed up transactions, renewed old promises with themselves. My most basic suggestion is that people should do that more than just once a year.
—David Allen (b. 1945, American productivity consultant)
August 11, 2017
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, til at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him.”
August 18, 2017
Do unto others twenty percent better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error.
—Linus Pauling (1901-1994, American chemist, author, and activist)
August 25, 2017
America believes in education: The average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
—Evan Esar (1899-1995, American humorist)
September 8, 2017
An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.
—Will Rogers (1879-1935, American actor and humorist)
September 15, 2017
I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.
—The wizard Gandalf, created by J. R. R. Tolkein (1892-1973, English writer and poet)
September 22, 2017
If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834, English poet and philosopher)
September 29, 2017
The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears,
and score your points when you get the opportunities.
—Lewis Grizzard (1946-1994, American writer and humorist)
October 6, 2017
A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.
October 13, 2017
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
—Alvin Toffler (1928-2016, American writer, futurist, and businessman)
October 20, 2017
If the track is tough and the hill is rough, THINKING you can just ain't enough!
— Where the Sidewalk Ends, created by Shel Silverstein (1930-1999, American writer)
October 27, 2017
It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
—William Inge (1913-1973, American playwright)
November 3, 2017
The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.
—Lily Tomlin (b. 1939, American actress and comedian)
November 10, 2017
—Maya Angelou (1928-2014, American poet)
November 17, 2017
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds. November!
—Thomas Hood (1799-1845, English poet and humorist)
November 24, 2017
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
—John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963, 35th American president)
December 1, 2017
It is December, and nobody asked if I was ready.
―Sarah Kay (b. 1988, American poet)
December 8, 2017
Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby.
―Ruth E. Renkel (German writer)
December 15, 2017
The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?
December 22, 2017
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September.
―Oliver Herford (1863-1935, English writer and artist)
January 8, 2016
Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.
January 15, 2016
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
January 22, 2016
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
—John Steinbeck (1902-1968, American author and Nobel Prize winner)
January 29, 2016
Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this. No dog exchanges bones with another.
—Adam Smith (1723-1790, Scottish economist and philosopher)
February 5, 2016
“Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you've met your New Year's resolution.
—Jay Leno (b. 1950, American comedian)
February 12, 2016
True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.
—Erich Segal (1937-2010, American author and screenwriter)
February 19, 2016
It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company.
February 26, 2016
The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.
—Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960, American journalist)
March 4, 2016
If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.
—J. Paul Getty (1892-1976, American industrialist)
March 11, 2016
One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imaginations.
—Steve Allen (1921-2000, American television and radio personality)
March 18, 2016
“Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.”
March 25, 2016
“Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
April 1, 2016
Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.
—Sid Caesar (1922-2014, American comic actor and television personality)
April 8, 2016
A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, 26th American president)
April 15, 2016
The only thing that hurts more than paying an income tax is not having to pay an income tax.
—Thomas Dewar (1864-1930, Scottish whiskey distiller)
April 22, 2016
Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.
—Napoleon Hill (1883-1970, American self-help author)
April 29, 2016
Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
May 6, 2016
Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914, American journalist and short story writer)
May 13, 2016
True, a little learning is a dangerous thing, but it still beats total ignorance.
—Abigail Van Buren (1918-2013, American journalist and radio show host)
May 20, 2016
Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
May 27, 2016
They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast, And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.
June 3, 2016
If something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway.
June 10, 2016
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
June 17, 2016
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.
June 24, 2016
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, American poet, essayist, and philosopher)
July 1, 2016
One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation evermore!
July 8, 2016
There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
—Calvin and Hobbs, created by Bill Watterson (1958- , American cartoonist)
August 12, 2016
Have no fear of perfection; you’ll never reach it.
—Salvador Dali (1904-1989, Spanish surrealist artist)
August 19, 2016
Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.
—Jane Yolen (b. 1939, American author)
August 26, 2016
Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.
September 2, 2016
You send your child to the schoolmaster, but ’tis the schoolboys who educate him.
September 9, 2016
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
September 16, 2016
It isn’t fair: the caterpillar does all the work, and the butterfly gets all the glory.
September 23, 2016
Any party which takes credit for the rain must not be surprised if its opponents blame it for the drought.
—Dwight Morrow (1873-1931, American businessman and diplomat)
September 30, 2016
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993, American clergyman and author)
October 7, 2016
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a president and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1883-1945, 32nd American president)
October 14, 2016
Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for president. One hopes it is the same half.
—Gore Vidal (1925-2012, American author and intellectual)
October 21, 2016
Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.
—Robert Byrne (1930-2016, American author)
November 4, 2016
Every election is determined by the people who show up.
―Larry Sabato (b. 1952, American political scientist)
November 11, 2016
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. —Epictetus (50-135 AD, Greek philosopher)
November 18, 2016
November 25, 2016
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
—William Arthur Ward (1921-1994, American writer)
December 2, 2016
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
—John F. Kennedy (1917-1963, 35th American president)
December 9, 2016
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008, English science fiction writer)
December 16, 2016
—Donald Westlake (1933-2008, American author)
December 23, 2016
Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
January 9, 2015
Whether we want them or not, the New Year will bring new challenges; whether we seize them or not, the New Year will bring new opportunities.
—Michael Josephson (b. 1942, American ethicist)
January 16, 2015
Life's most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”
January 23, 2015
I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
—Stephen Hawking (1942-2018, British physicist and author)
January 30, 2015
—Susan Orlean (b. 1955, American author and journalist)
February 6, 2015
Who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand. —Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927, English writer and humorist)
February 13, 2015
Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice.
—Tom Robbins (b. 1932, American novelist)
February 20, 2015
It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company. —George Washington (1732-1799, first U.S. president)
February 27, 2015
A peacock that rests on his feathers is just another turkey.
—Dolly Parton (b. 1946, American vocalist and actress)
March 6, 2015
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
—Herm Albright (1865-1940, American World War I army officer)
March 13, 2015
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.
—Dale Carnegie (1888-1955, American writer and lecturer)
March 20, 2015
Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.
—John Gardner (1933-1982, American novelist)
March 27, 2015
The government is us; we are the government, you and I.
April 3, 2015
Easter is the only time of the year when it’s perfectly safe to put all your eggs in one basket.
April 10, 2015
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.
—George Will (b. 1941, American political commentator)
April 17, 2015
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
—Native American proverb
April 24, 2015
The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956, Czechslovakian-born American tennis star)
May 1, 2015
The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May. —Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980, American naturalist and writer)
May 8, 2015
—Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936, English poet and novelist)
May 15, 2015
You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around—and why his parents will always wave back.
—William D. Tammeus (b. 1945, American journalist)
May 22, 2015
Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o’re, Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, Dream of battled fields no more. Days of danger, nights of waking.
—Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832, Scottish novelist, poet, and historian)
May 29, 2015
A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.”
—Douglas Adams (1952-2001, British author, dramatist, and humorist)
June 5, 2015
—Edward Koch (1924-2013, American politician)
June 12, 2015
It is our choices … that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
—Albus Dumbledore, created by by J.K. Rowling (1965- , British writer)
June 19, 2015
Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds.
—Regina Brett (b. 1956, American writer and inspirational speaker)
June 26, 2015
You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there.
—Yogi Berra (1925, 2015, American baseball star)
July 3, 2015
You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.
—Erma Bombeck (1927-1995, American humorist)
July 10, 2015
—Robert Orben (b. 1927, American comedy writer)
August 14, 2015
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
—Henry Ford (1863-1947, American industrialist)
August 21, 2015
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
—Charles Darwin (1809-1882, English biologist)
August 28, 2015
Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression."
September 4, 2015
The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.
―Robert Frost (1874-1963, American poet)
September 11, 2015
Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief.
—George W. Bush (b. 1946, 43rd American president)
September 18, 2015
There is a superhero inside all of us. We just need the courage to put on the cape.
September 25, 2015
Football combines the two worst things about America. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.
October 2, 2015
Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.
—T. S. Eliot (1888-1965, British poet, essayist, and critic)
October 9, 2015
‘Be yourself’ is about the worst advice you can give to some people.
October 16, 2015
The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.
―Knute Rockne (1888-1931, Norwegian-American football player and coach)
October 23, 2015
I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.
October 30, 2015
Life is like topography. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure.
November 6, 2015
Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.
—Harry S. Truman (1884-1972, 33rd American president)
November 13, 2015
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work makes him something worse.
—Samuel Smiles (1812-1904, Scottish author and government reformer)
November 20, 2015
The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.
—Henry Beston (1888-1968, American writer and naturalist)
November 27, 2015
December 4, 2015
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950, Irish playwright and critic)
December 11, 2015
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.
December 18, 2015
—Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket (1970- , American author)