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;void(0)) . . . DEBATE see: "COMMUNICATION" for related links Debate is masculine; conversation feminine. --attributed to [Amos] Bronson Alcott (17991888) American philosopher, teacher, and reformer; father of Louisa May Alcott. The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. --Robert Benchley (18891945) American humorist and newspaper columnist. _My Ten Years in a Quandary_ "Quick Quotations" [1936] Emotion, whether of ridicule, anger, or sorrow, whether raised at a puppet show, a funeral, or a battle,is your grandest of levellers. The man who would be always superior should be always apathetic. --Edward Bulwer-Lytton (18031873) British novelist and politician. _Devereux_, bk. II, ch. I [1829] He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. --Edmund Burke (17291797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. _Reflections on the Revolution in France_ [1790] - The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an *empty* head than the most superficial declamation, as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a *vacuum*. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, "Preface" [1821 ed.] When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CLXXXIII [1821 ed.] - In a debate, rather pull to pieces the argument of thy antagonists than offer him any of thy own; for thus thou wilt fight him in his own country. --Henry Fielding (17071754) English novelist and dramatist. Attributed in Charles Noel Douglas _Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical_, p. 103 [1917]. There is no way of proving your point to someone whose income or position depends on believing the contrary. --Sydney J. Harris (19171986) American journalist. _Pieces of Eight_ [1982] No matter what side of the argument you are on,you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other. --attributed to Jascha Heifetz (19011987) Russian-born American violinist. If you can't answer a man's argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names. --attributed to Elbert Hubbard (18591915) American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania." The ... propagandist must ... be consistently dogmatic. All his statements are made without qualification, everything is either diabolically black or celestially white ... He must never admit that he might be wrong or that people with a different point of view might be even partially right. Opponents should not be argued with; they should be attacked, shouted down, or ... liquidated. --Aldous Huxley (18941963) English novelist {grandson of T.H. Huxley}. _Brave New World Revisited_ [1958] You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth. --Henrik Ibsen (18281906) Norwegian playwright. _An Enemy of the People_, act V [1882] - A man heated in talk, and eager of victory, takes advantage of the mistakes or ignorance of his adversary, lays hold of concessions to which he has no right, and urges proofs likely to prevail on his opponent, though he knows himself that they have no force. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. "The Adventurer" #85 (pub. 1752-1759) To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. _A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_ [1775] - Lower your voice and strengthen your argument. --Lebanese proverb We do not talk we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests. --Henry Miller (18911980) American novelist and essayist. _The Air-Conditioned Nightmare_ [1945] The fair way of conducting a dispute is to exhibit, one by one, the arguments of your opponent, and, with each argument, the precise and specific answer you are able to give it. --William Paley (17431805) English theologian and philosopher. Quoted in G.W. Meadley _Memoirs of William Paley_ [1809]. 142. Nothing does Reason more Right, than the _Coolness_ of those that offer it: For Truth often suffers more by the _Heat_ of its Defenders, than from the Arguments of its Opposers. --William Penn (16441718) Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom who oversaw the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and other religious minorities of Europe. _Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims_ [1682] [_italics_ by Penn] Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _King Henry VIII_, I, i [1613] An idle reason lessens the weight of the good ones you gave before. --Jonathan Swift (16671745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. _Thoughts on Various Subjects_ [1706] A dogmatical spirit inclines a man to be censorious of his neighbors. Every one of his opinions appears to him written, as it were, with sunbeams, and he grows angry that his neighbors do not see it in the same light. He is tempted to disdain his correspondents as men of low and dark understandings because they do not believe what he does. --Isaac Watts (16741748) English hymn writer. _The Improvement of the Mind_, ch. 1 [1741] ----- cogent [KOH-juhnt], adjective: Having the power to compel conviction; appealing to the mind or to reason; convincing. debunk (verb) To expose or ridicule the falseness, sham, or exaggerated claims of. Synonyms: expose descant [DES-kant], (noun) To comment freely; to discourse at length. Ex.: When they start on one of their polarised descants, whether on state education, water rates, crime, the BBC or whatever, they sound like a bumble bee and a wasp fighting in a jam jar. --Gillian Reynolds, "The biggest things to hit radio," "Daily Telegraph" [14 May 1999] diaphanous [adj. dy-AF-uh-nus] So delicate as to be transparent or translucent, or it is airy, insubstantial, vague, or ethereal. equivocate (verb) To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information. Synonyms: prevaricate, beat around the bush, palter, tergiversate incongruous [in-KONG-groo-us], adjective: 1. Lacking in harmony, compatibility, or appropriateness. 2. Inconsistent with reason, logic, or common sense. non sequitur (adjective) [nahn 'se-kwi-tκr] Literally, not following (logically), illogical, not connected to anything previously said or (as a noun) a statement not following logically from what was previously said. It originates in logic, where it refers to an inference not following from the premise. perorate [PUR-uh-rayt], intransitive verb: 1. To conclude or sum up a long discourse. 2. To speak or expound at length; to declaim. Ex.: Our mother favored a staccato, stand-up style; if our father could perorate, she could condense. --Annie Dillard, "The Leg In The Christmas Stocking: What We Learned From Jokes", "New York Times", December 7, 1986 polemic (noun) [pκ-'lem-ik] 1. The art of debate and argumentation. 2. A passionate defense or refutation of an argument. prolepsis, n. A preface to an argument intended to anticipate and preclude objection. refute (verb) [rκ-'fyut] 1/ To disprove. 2/ To deny the accuracy or truth of. sophistry (noun) A subtle, deceptive method of reasoning or arguing, involving statements that sound plausible but are actually false or fallacious. Similar: untruth, deception, fallacy, subterfuge, speciousness tendentious (adjective) [ten-'den-chκs] Exhibiting a strong tendency or point of view, overbearingly didactic or partisan. Note: Not to be confused with "tendential" which means simply "relating to a tendency." "Tendential ideas" are those with a decided point of view but not an overbearing one. "Tendentious ideas" so strongly support a tendency as to become repulsive. trenchant [TREN-chunt], adjective: 1. Characterized by or full of force and vigor; 2. Caustic; biting; severe; 3. Distinct; clear-cut; clearly or sharply defined.  . . see: "MONEY" for related links Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus. --Aneurin Bevan (18971960) British Labour politician. Quoted in In Michael Foot _Aneurin Bevan_, vol. I, ch. 3 [1962]. The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. --Bible "Proverbs" 22:7 Don't believe the world owes you a living; it owes you nothing it was here first. --Robert Jones Burdette (18441914) American humorist and lecturer. Quoted in Evan Esar _The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations_ [1949]. Dreading that climax of all human ills, The inflammation of his weekly bills. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (17881824) English Romantic poet and satirist. _Don Juan_ [18191824] Three things too much, and three too little are pernicious to man: to speak much and know little; to spend much and have little; to presume much and be worth little. --Miguel de Cervantes (15471616) Spanish novelist. Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p. 258 [15th ed. 1894]. A man who owes a little can clear it off in a very little time, and, if he is a prudent man, will; whereas a man, who by long negligence, owes a great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay, and therefore never looks into his accounts at all. --Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (16941773) British writer and politician. Attributed in John Timbs _Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors_, p. 93 [1829]. Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt. --William Cobbett (17631835) English politician, agriculturist, and journalist. Letter [10 February 1804]. A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which was intended for her preservation. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, footnote to CLXVII [1820] - As a 16th-century English judge declared, "If a debtor can't feed and clothe himself, let him die, in the name of God, if he will and impute the cause of it to his own fault, for his presumption and ill behavior brought him to that imprisonment." [. . . ] Indeed, when some large speculative financial schemes collapsed after the Revolutionary War, many wealthy men were suddenly bankrupt. One of them, Robert Morris, who had signed the Declaration of Independence and provided critical financing for the war, lost his fortune speculating on land. Sentenced to debtors' prison in Philadelphia in 1798, Morris rented the best room in the jail and outfitted it with a settee, writing desks, a bed, a trunk of clothes and other comforts of home. However lavishly they could outfit their prison cells, though, rich and poor faced the same dim future. There was no way an insolvent could get a fresh start -- the "holy grail of debt relief," as Mr. Mann put it. In prison or out, debtors were expected to repay every penny they owed their creditors, even if it took them the rest of their lives. --Cynthia Crossen "Early Debtors Faced Jail at Own Expense Until All Was Repaid" _Wall Street Journal_ [30 January 2006] - 'My other piece of advice, Copperfield,' said Mr. Micawber, 'you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery. --Charles Dickens (18121870) English novelist. _David Copperfield_, ch. 12 [1850] Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill? Pay every debt, as if God wrote the bill. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "Suum Cuique" in _May-Day and Other Pieces_ [1867]. If there is anyone listening to whom I owe money, I'm prepared to forget if you are. --Errol Flynn (19091959) Tasmanian-born motion-picture actor. (Spoken jovially in a radio broadcast to Australia where he had accumulated a number of debts before leaving for Hollywood in the 1930s.) - Creditors have better memories than debtors. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1736] Think what you do when you run in Debt; You give to another Power over your Liberty. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _The Way To Wealth_ [7 July 1757] Rather go to Bed supperless than rise in Debt. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1758] Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy. When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece; but it is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. Quoted in _The Works of Benjamin Franklin_ [1836], edited by Jared Sparks. - The heaviest debt is that of gratitude When it is not in our power to repay it. --Dr. Thomas Franklin _Matilda_ [1775 play] A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. --Alexander Hamilton (1755or571804) New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention, major author of the _Federalist Papers_, and first secretary of the Treasury of the United States [1789-1795]. Letter to Robert Morris [30 April 1781]. To rob Peter and pay Paul. --John Heywood (14971580) English playwright. _Proverbs_ [1546] Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt. --Henrik Ibsen (18281906) Norwegian playwright. _A Doll's House_, act I [1879] - What is to hinder them [government officials] from creating a perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I answer. The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and power of man expire with his life, by nature's law. . . .We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. Letter to John W. Eppes [24 June 1813]. I sincerely believe . . . that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. Letter to John Taylor [28 May 1816]. - It must be eight years since I last saw Joseph Taboys. How pleasant it would be to meet his jovial face again, to clasp his strong hand, and to hear his cheery laugh once more! He owes me fourteen shillings, too. --Jerome K Jerome (18591927) English novelist and playwright. _The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow_ [1892] "On Eating and Drinking" Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Letter to James Boswell [3 June 1782]. [Paraphrasing "Luke" 12:48:] For of those to whom much is given, much is required. --John Fitzgerald Kennedy (19171963) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [19611963]. Inauguration address [20 January 1961]. Everybody takes pleasure in returning small obligations; many go so far as to acknowledge moderate ones; but there is hardly any one who does not repay great obligations with ingratitude. --Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (16131680) French classical author. _Maxims_, # XLVII [1665] ^ Detlev von Liliencron (18441909) German lyric poet and novelist. Liliencron was often in dire financial straits. One of his creditors stopped him in the street and demanded payment. 'Sorry, but I have no money,' said Liliencron. 'Please be patient.' 'But that's what you said four weeks ago.' 'Well,' said Liliencron triumphantly, haven't I kept my word?' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a Republican Government a greater curse than in any other. --James Madison (17511836) Fourth president of the United States [18091817]. Letter to Henry Lee [13 April 1790]. Debts are like children, begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain. --attributed to Jean Moliθre [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (16221673) French comic dramatist. Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine government and corrupt the people. --Wendell Phillips (18111884) American abolitionist and reformer. "The War for the Union", a lecture delivered in Boston & New York [December 1861]. A small loan makes a debtor, a great one, an enemy. --Publilius Syrus (8543 B.C.) Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave. _Moral Sayings_, 12 Debts and lies are generally mixed together. --Franηois Rabelais (c. 1494c. 1553] French humanist, satirist, and physician. _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ bk. III, ch. V [1548] I have discovered the philosopher's stone, that turns everything into gold: it is, 'Pay as you go.' --John Randolph (17731833) American political leader. Attributed in Tryon Edwards (using pseud. Everard Berkeley) _The World's Laconics..._, p. 63 [1853]. - Any government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuance of that habit means the poorhouse. --Franklin D. Roosevelt (18821945) American Democratic statesman and President [19331945]. In a radio speech [30 July 1932]. If a nation is living within its income, its credit is good. If in some crisis it lives beyond its income for a year or two it can usually borrow temporarily on reasonable terms. But if, like the spendthrift, it throws discretion to the winds, is willing to make no sacrifice at all in spending, extends its taxing to the limit of the people's power to pay, and continues to pile up deficits, it is on the road to bankruptcy. --Franklin D. Roosevelt (18821945) American Democratic statesman and President [19331945]. In a speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [19 October 1932]. - - All decent people live beyond their incomes nowadays, and those who aren't respectable live beyond other peoples'. --Saki [Hector Hugh Munro] (18701916) Scottish writer. _Chronicles of Clover_ [1911] I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart. --Saki [Hector Hugh Munro] (18701916) Scottish writer. _The Unbearable Bassington_, ch. 5 [1912] - - He will give the devil his due. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Henry IV_, pt. 1, I, ii [1597] Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan both loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Hamlet_, I, iii, 75 [1601] - What can be added to the happiness of the man who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience? --Adam Smith (17231790) Scottish economist. _The Theory of Moral Sentiments_ [1759] Solvency is entirely a matter of temperment and not of income. --Logan Pearsall Smith (18651946) American-born man of letters. _Afterthoughts_ [1931] You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company sto'. --Merle Travis (19171983) American country singer and songwriter. "Sixteen Tons" [1947 song] The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" _Pudd'nhead Wilson_ [1894] Let us all be happy and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with. --Artemus Ward [Charles Farrar Browne] (18341867) American humorist and writer. _Artemus Ward in London_ [1867] One must have some sort of occupation nowadays. If I hadn't my debts I should have nothing to think about. --Oscar Wilde (18541900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _A Woman of No Importance_ [1893] - We oppose cancellation of the debts owing to the United States by foreign nations. --Plank in the Democratic Party national platform [1932] ----- amortize (verb) ['ζ-mor-tIz] (1) To pay off a debt such as a mortgage by installment payments; (2) to deduct the cost of business equipment or other permanent investment from company taxes over a series of taxable periods. vigorish (noun) [ 'vi-gκ-rish] Listen Usurious interest paid to a money-lender or a book- maker's usual commission on an illegal bet. ;void(0)) DECISIONS . . see: "CHOICES" see: "INDECISION" see: "INDIFFERENCE" see: "JUDGEMENT" see: "WILL" see: "ACTIONS" for other related links Make haste slowly. --Augustus [Gaius Octavius] (63 B.C.14 A.D.) The first Roman emperor. In _Lives of the Caesars_ [c.121] by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. [When asked for driving directions:] If you come to a fork in the road, take it. --Yogi Berra (b. 1925) American baseball player and manager; elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972. _Yogi: It Ain't Over_ [1989] Be slow in considering, but resolute in action. --Bias (c. 6th cent. B.C.) Greek politician of Priene; considered one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Quoted in Diogenes Laλrtius _Lives of the Eminent Philosophers_ "Bias". Once the what has been decided, the how always follows. We must not make the how an excuse for not facing and accepting the what. --Pearl S. Buck (18921973) American author noted for her novels of life in China; winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature. _To My Daughters, With Love_ [1967] Decision of character is one of the most important of human qualities, philosophically considered. Speculation, knowledge, is not the chief end of man; it is action. ...'Give us the man,' shout the multitude, 'who will step forward and take the responsibility.' He is instantly the idol, the lord and the king among men. He then, who would command among his fellows, must excel them more in energy of will, than in power of intellect. --George W, Burnap (18021859) American pastor and author. "Lectures to Young Men" , Lecture III "On the Formation of Character" [1840] When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision. --Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount of Falkland (16101643) English politician, soldier and author. Attributed in Laurence J. Peter _Peter's People_ [1979]. Look before you leap. --John Clarke (15961658) Comp. _Proverbs: English and Latine_, p. 266 [1639] Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words ..._, # CCLXXXIV [1821] I leave this rule for others when I'm dead, Be always sure you're rightthen go ahead. --David Crockett (17861836) American folk hero who died at the Alamo. _Autobiography_ [1834] For a few brief days the orchards are white with blossoms. They soon turn to fruit, or float away, useless and wasted, upon the idle breeze. So will it be with present feelings. They must be deepened into decision, or be entirely dissipated by delay. --Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, D.D. (18221909) American clergyman. In _Pennsylvania School Journal_ [Published in 1889 by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.] I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. --Robert Frost (18741963) American poet. "The Road Not Taken" [1916] You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go. --Theodor Seuss Geisel [Dr. Seuss] (19041991) American writer and illustrator of children's books. "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" I hate to see things done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone. --Bernard Gilpin (15171583) English theologian. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p. 120 [1872]. As a young boy, when you get splashed by a mud puddle on the way to school, you wonder if you should go home and change, but be late for school, or go to school the way you are; dirty and soaking wet. Well, while he tried to decide, I drove by and splashed him again. --attributed to Jack Handey (b. 1949) American comedian and comedy writer. There is nothing more to be esteemed than a manly firmness and decision of character. I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what is to be done in given circumstances and does it. --William Hazlitt (17781830) English essayist. _Table Talk_ [18211822] "On Effeminacy of Character" Two heads are better than one. --John Heywood (14971580) English playwright. _Proverbs_ [1546] Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation. --T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (18251895) English biologist {grandfather of Aldous Huxley}. _Aphorisms and Reflections_ Selected by Henrietta A. Huxley [1907]. - When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all your responsibility and care about the outcome. --William James (18421910) American philosopher. "Psychology and Relaxation" Lecture [24 July 1896]. When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice. --William James (18421910) American philosopher. Attributed in "Today's Education" (pub. by National Education Association) [1956]. - Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side. --James Russell Lowell (18191891) American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat. "The Present Crisis" [1844] Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well-informed just to be undecided about them. --Laurence J. Peter (19191990) Canadian teacher and author. Entry for September 24 in _Peter's Almanac_ [1982], as quoted in Suzy Platt _Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations_ [1989]. Das Alter wδgt, die Jugend wagt (Age considers, youth ventures.) --Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach (17841852) German dramatist. Quoted in James Wood _Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern_, p. 53 [1893]. In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. --attributed to Theodore Roosevelt (18581919) American Republican statesman and President [19011909]. Prius quam incipias consulto, et ubi consulueris mature facto opus est. (Get good counsel before you begin; and when you have decided, act promptly.) --Sallust [Gaius Sallustius Crispus] (c. 86 BC35/34 BC) Roman historian. _Bellum Catilinae_ (Catiline's War) [43-42 BC] [Quoting his father's advice:] Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst mood. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come. --Robert H. Schuller (b. 1926) American televangelist. _The Inspirational Writings of Robert H. Schuller_ [1986] - Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Romeo and Juliet_, II, iii [1595-1596] To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Hamlet_, III, i [1601] I am a feather for each wind that blows. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _The Winter's Tale_, II, iii [First pub. 1623] - Quick decisions are unsafe decisions. --Sophocles (496?406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. Attributed in Christian Frederick Kleinknecht _The Kleinknecht Gems of Thought Encyclopedia_ [1952]. ----- abulia, also aboulia [uh-BOO-lee-uh; uh-BYOO-], noun: Loss or impairment of the ability to act or to make decisions. Ex.: I was suffering from an aboulia, you know. I couldn't seem to make decisions. --Anatole Broyard, "Reading and Writing; (Enter Pound and Eliot)," _New York Times_, [30 May 1982] equivocate [ih-KWIV-uh-kayt], intransitive verb: To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or to avoid committing oneself to anything definite. . . see: "FREEDOM" for related links We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. Attributed remark at signing of the Declaration of Independence [4 July 1776]. - When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. "Declaration of Independence" [4 July 1776] And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. "Declaration of Independence" [4 July 1776] - If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worth while. ... The beauty and cogency of the preamble, reaching back to remotest antiquity and forward so an indefinite future, have lifted the hearts of millions of men and will continue to do so ... These words are more revolutionary than anything written by Robespierre, Marx, or Lenin, more explosive than the atom, a continual challenge to ourselves as well as an inspiration to the oppressed of all the world. --Samuel Eliot Morison (18871976) American historian, author and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. _The Oxford History of the American People_, ch. 14 [1965] . . see: "FRIENDS / FRIENDSHIP" for related links see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)" for related links see: "SUCCESS" for related links I admire my colleagues who show courage in the face of personal tragedy instead of crawling away in self-pity. I applaud loudly Christopher Reeve, Michael J. Fox, Dudley Moore, and so many others who use their celebrity to bring light to the darkness. To help others is the will of God. To them I dedicate this book. --Kirk Douglas [Issur Danielovitch] (b. 1916) American film actor and producer. _My Stroke of Luck_ [2002], "Acknowledgments" [Working, and informed that his wife was dying:] Ask her to wait a moment - I am almost done. --Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (17771855) German mathematician and scientist. Come and tell me who and what are you. Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in a desert. --Kahlil Gibran (18831931) Lebanese poet. _The New Frontier_ [1925 article] - Not snow, no, nor rain, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed. --Herodotus (484c.425 BC) Greek author of the first great narrative history produced in the ancient world. _The Histories of Herodotus_ bk. VIII, ch. 98 & note: Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. --Inscription on New York City Post Office. - You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They *know* it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically devoted to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, its always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt. --Robert M. Persig (b. 1928) American writer and philosopher. _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_, pt. 2, ch. 13 [1974] Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of their way, but must accept their lot calmly, even if people roll a few stones upon it. --Albert Schweitzer (18751965) Franco-German theologian, philosopher, and mission doctor. _Out of My Life and Thought_ [1949] This book is dedicated to all those men who betrayed me at one time or another, in hopes they will fall off their motorcycles and break their necks. --Diane Wakoski (b. 1937) American poet. "The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems" [1971] ----- votary [VOH-tuh-ree], noun: 1. One who is devoted, given, or addicted to some particular pursuit, subject, study, or way of life. 2. A devoted admirer. 3. A devout adherent of a religion or cult. 4. A dedicated believer or advocate. . . see: "ACCOMPLISHMENT" see: "ACHIEVEMENT" see: "ACTIONS" for other related links The religious man fears, the man of honor scorns, to do an ill action. --Joseph Addison (16721719) English essayist, poet, and dramatist. In "The Guardian" [14 September 1713]. One improper word or act will neutralize the effect of many good ones; and one base deed, after years of noble service, will cover them all with shame. --James H. Aughey (18281911) American clergyman. _Spiritual Gems of The Ages_, p. 68 [1886] Deeds, not words. --Francis Beaumont & Philip Massinger _Lover's Progress_, III, vi Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can. --Thomas Carlyle (17951881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. Quoted in Horace Smith _The Tin Trumpet_ [1836]. Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. --Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (16941773) British writer and politician. Letter to His Son [10 March 1746]. His deeds do not agree with his words. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (10643 BC) Roman orator and statesman. Quoted in Craufurd Tait Ramage _Great Thoughts from Latin Authors_, p. 107 [3rd ed. 1884]. Our deeds still travel with us from afar. And what we have been makes us what we are. --George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (18191880) English novelist. _Middlemarch_ [18711872] Let us resolve to do the best we can with what we've got. --William Feather (18891981) American author and publisher. Attributed in "Forbes" [1984]. Well done is better than well said. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1737] Our acts make or mar us, we are the children of our own deeds. --Victor Hugo (18021885) French poet, dramatist, and novelist. Attributed in Henry Southgate _Things A Lady Would Like To Know_ [1875, 2nd ed.]. But this we know: good deeds are never childless. A noble life is never lost. --Robert Green Ingersoll (18331899) American politician and orator know as "the great agnostic." "A Tribute to Elizur Wright" [19 December 1885] Do not let your deeds belie your words; lest when you speak in church someone may mentally reply, 'Why do you not practice what you profess?' --Saint Jerome (c. 340c. 420) Translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. Letter LII to Nepotian [394], as quoted in Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (eds.) _A Select Library of Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church_, vol. VI [1893]. It is a mortifying reflection for any man to consider what he has done compared with what he might have done. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Quoted by Rev. Dr. Maxwell [1770], in James Boswell _Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]. The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident. --Charles Lamb (17751834) English essayist. Quoted in "The Athenaeum" (London) [4 January 1834]. Deeds are better things than words are, Actions mightier than boastings. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882) American poet. _The Song of Hiawatha_ [1855] No good deed goes unpunished. --attributed to Clare Boothe Luce (19031987) American playwright and politician. Judge not of actions by their mere effect; Dive to the centre, and the cause detect; Great deeds from meanest springs may take their course, And smallest virtues from a mighty source. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. Quoted in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, vol. 28 [August 1830]. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. --Charles Reade (18141884) English novelist and playwright. Attributed in _Notes and Queries_, 9th series, vol. 12 [JulyDecember 1903]. - Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds To their deaf pillow will discharge their secrets. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Macbeth_, V, i [1606] Look what is done cannot be now amended: Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, Which after-hours gives leisure to repent. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _King Richard III_, IV, iv [c. 15921593] - Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. Note to the Young People's Society, Greenpoint Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N.Y. [16 February 1901]. But with every deed you are sowing a seed, Though the harvest you may never see. --Ella Wheeler Wilcox (18501919) American author and poet. "You Never Can Tell" In _Custer And Other Poems_ [1896] end page | DANCING - DAY | DEATH - PAGE 1 (A-G) | DEATH - PAGE 2 (H-Z) | DEBATE - DEEDS | DECEPTION | DEFEAT - DELAY | DEMOCRACY | DENIAL - DESIRE | DESPAIR - DICKENS (CHARLES) | DICTIONARY - DILIGENCE | DINNER - DISABILITY | DISAGREEMENT - DISGUISE | DISHONESTY - DOCTORS | DOGS | (ON) DOING GOOD - DREAMS | DRESS - DRUNKENNESS | DUELS - DUTY | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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