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. . . ALIBI see "FAILURE" for related links Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men. --Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881) British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880]. Poor men's reasons are not heard. --German proverb There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement. --Eric Hoffer (1902—1983) American longshoreman, philosopher, and author who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982.  . . see: "ALONE" (below) see "UNHAPPINESS" for related links The distance to my fellow man is for me a very long one. --Franz Kafka (1883—1924) Czech novelist. Alienation is a form of living death. It is the acid of despair that dissolves society. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968) American civil rights leader. _The Trumper of Conscience_ [1967] ;void(0)) ALLIANCES . . Photograph: President Truman signing agreement to form NATO in 1949. see "WAR & PEACE" for related links When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. --Edmund Burke (1729—1797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. _Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents_ [23 April 1770] [C]lose and intimate alliances with despots are never safe to free states. --Demosthenes (c.364—c.322 B.C.) Athenian orator and statesman. In _The Greatest Works of the Greatest Authors, Ancient and Modern_ [H.W. Hagemann Pub. Co., 1894], p. 340. Our greatest advantage in coping with tribes so powerful is that they do not act in concert. Seldom is it that two or three states meet together to ward off a common danger. Thus, while they fight singly, all are conquered. --Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus] (c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian. _The Life of Cneaus Julius Agricola_ It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. --George Washington (1732—1799) American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783] and first president of the United States [1789—1797]. . . see "LANGUAGE" for related links Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism, are all very good words for the lips: especially prunes and prism. --Charles Dickens (1812—1870) English novelist. _Little Dorrit_ [1857—1858], Book II, Chapter 5 - Whether you ascribe importance to euphony . . . must depend on the sensitiveness of your ear. A great many readers, and many admirable writers, are devoid of this quality. Poets as we know have always made a great use of alliteration. They are persuaded that the repetition of a sound gives an effect of beauty. I do not think it does in prose. It seems to me that in prose alliteration should be used only for a special reason; when used by accident it falls on the ear very disagreeably. --W. Somerset Maugham (1874—1965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. _The Summing Up_ [1938], Chapter XIII -  ALONE . . see: "SOLITUDE" see "INDIVIDUALITY" for other related links see "UNHAPPINESS" for other related links The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration. --Pearl S. Buck (1892—1973) American author noted for her novels of life in China; winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature. I alone am left on earth! To whom nor relative nor blood remains, No! not a kindred drop that runs in human veins. --Thomas Campbell (1777—1844) Scottish poet. In _Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor_ compiled by Adam Wooléver, p. 106 [1891]. Ech man for hymself. --Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343—1400) English poet. _The Canterbury Tales_ [c. 1387] Better be alone than in bad company. --John Clarke (1596—1658) Comp. _Proverbs: English and Latine_ [1639] Let sleeping dogs lie—who wants to rouse 'em? --Charles Dickens (1812—1870) English novelist. _David Copperfield_, Ch. 39 [1850] He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. The fountain of my heart dried up within me,— With nought that loved me, and with nought to love, I stood upon the desert earth alone. And in that deep and utter agony, Though then, then even most unfit to die I fell upon my knees and prayed for death. --Charles Robert Maturin (1782—1824) Irish novelist and dramatist. The old—like children—talk to themselves, for they have reached that hopeless wisdom of experience which knows that though one were to cry it in the streets to multitudes, or whisper it in the kiss to one's beloved, the only ears that can ever hear one's secret are one's own. --Eugene O'Neill (1888—1953) American and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. _Lazarus Laughed_ [1927] The bonds that unite another person to ourself exist only in our mind. Memory as it grows fainter relaxes them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we would fain be cheated and with which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we cheat other people and we exist alone. Man is the only creature that cannot emerge from himself, that knows his fellows only in himself; when he aserts the contrary he is lying. --Marcel Proust (1871—1922) French novelist. _Remembrance of Things Past_ [1913-1927] "The Sweet Cheat Gone" Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat . . . . We must find each other. --Mother Teresa (1910—1997) Roman Catholic nun and missionary. Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company. --George Washington (1732—1799) American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783] and first president of the United States [1789—1797]. "Rules of Civility" [1747], collected in Charles Moore _George Washington's Rules of Civilty and Decent Behavior in Comapany and Conversation_ [1926]. . . see "HEALTH" for related links I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. --Ronald Reagan (1911—2004) American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor. (Statement to the American people revealing he had Alzheimer's.) TOPICAL ...According to the New York Post’s Liz Smith, while accepting an award from the National Board of Review, [George] Clooney wisecracked, “Charlton Heston announced again today that he is suffering from Alzheimer's.” When asked about the statement, Clooney told Smith, “I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle Association. He deserves whatever anyone says about him.” --James Hirsen _The Left Coast Report_ "A Political Look at Hollywood" [28 January 2003] . . see "SUCCESS" for related links Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite. --Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885) American humorist. Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for? --Robert Browning (1812—1889) English poet. _Andrea del Sarto_ [1855] You have greatly ventured, but all must do so who would greatly win. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824) English Romantic poet and satirist. Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a mean to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end. --C.C. Colton (1780—1832) English clergyman and writer. Ambition is the mind's immodesty. --Sir William Davenant [also spelled D'Avenant] (1606—1668) English poet, playwright, and theater manager. Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet 'em on your way down. --Jimmy Durante [James Francis Durante] (1893—1980) American comedian. First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. --Epictetus (55—135) Greek philosopher. _The Moral Discourses of Epictetus_, ch. xxiii "Concerning such as read and dispute ostentatiously" Slight not what's near through aiming at what's far. --Euripides (485?—406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. The tragedy is that so many have ambition and so few have ability. --William Feather (1889—1981) American author and publisher. The path of glory leads but to the grave. --Thomas Gray (1716—1771) English poet. One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. --Helen Keller (1880—1968) American author and educator who was blind and deaf. The trouble with being number one in the world — at anything — is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that position in the first place, and that is something of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so that once you do achieve number one, you don't relax and enjoy it. --Billie Jean King (1943— ) American professional tennis player. _Billie Jean_ [1982] The ambitious deceive themselves when they propose an end to their ambition; for that end, when attained, becomes a means. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882) American poet. "Table Talk," collected in _Prose Works_ [1857] Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied. --Niccolò Machiavelli (1469—1527) Florentine statesman and political philosopher. If love and ambition should be in equal balance, and come to jostle with equal force, I make no doubt but that the last would win the prize. --Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592) French moralist and essayist. It is better to be a has-been than a never-was. --Cecil Parkinson (1931— ) British Conservative politician. Go for the moon. If you don't get it, you will still be heading for a star. --Willis Reed (1942— ) American professional basketball player. Quoting one of his high school coaches; in Bill Bradley _Life on the Run_ [1976]. Who soars too near the sun, with golden wings, melts them. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. --Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946) American-born man of letters. _Afterthoughts_ [1931] Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. We cross the prairie as of old The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free! --John Greenleaf Whittier (1807—1892) American poet. 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