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LAZINESS
LEADERS / LEADERSHIP
LEADING BY EXAMPLE --- LEAGUE OF NATIONS
LEARNING --- LEAVING
LEGACIES

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LAZINESS

see: "IDLENESS"
see: "INACTIVITY"
see: "REST"
see "FAILURE" for other related links


I hate to see a thing done by halves; if it be right,
do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone.
--Bernard Gilpin (1517—1583)
English theologian.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be
doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary
than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human
frame.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Table Talk_ [1821—1822] "On the Pleasure of Painting"

Anonymous diplomat: How many persons work at the Vatican?
Pope John (with a wink): Oh, no more than half of them!
--Pope John XXIII (1881—1963)
261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

The biggest sin is sitting on your ass.
--Florynce R. Kennedy (1916—2001)
American lawyer, feminist, and author.

I'm never going to be famous . . . I don't do anything.
Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I
don't even do that any more.
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.

Everyone knows the story of the traveller in Naples who saw twelve
beggars lying in the sun..., and offered a lira to the laziest of
them. Eleven of them jumped up to claim it, so he gave it to
the twelfth.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
"The Virtue of Idleness" [1932]

Sloth views the towers of fame with envious eyes,
Desirous still, still impotent to rise.
--William Shenstone (1714—1763)
English poet.
_The Judgement of Hercules_ l. 436

How beautiful it is to do nothing,
and then rest afterward.
--Spanish Proverb

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at
the end. It is not a day when you lounge around
doing nothing: it's when you've had everything to
do, and you've done it.
--Margaret Thatcher (1925— )
British conservative stateswoman and Prime Minister [1979—1990].

Madame would make her toilette at dawn, seated
in her bedroom. Her hundred serfs, young and old,
male and female, would all come to report on what
they had been doing. Madame would pick out the
laziest and have them given a flogging. For those
who had toiled diligently she would prepare a goblet
of wine with her own hand and mix in marrow to
make it ready for drinking. Those who tasted this
wine would leave flushed with happiness, and compete
with each other to work hard, unmindful of
their burdens. Those who had been beaten would
blame themselves and say, 'What point is there in
not making every effort for her ladyship, and being
rewarded with a beaker of wine?' In this way everyone
whom Madame employed proved himself
capable; her lands supported cattle by the hundred,
her streams bred fish and turtles by the picul, and
her gardeners tended fruit, melon, mustard, and
vegetables by the tens of acres.
--Wang Shizhen (16th century);
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {ed.} _History in Quotations_ [2004].
Cohan and Major note:
A not untypical estate owned by a family of the official class
in mid-Ming times (1450-1600). 'Madame' was the aunt of
Wang Shizhen, a well-known bureaucrat and the author of
these lines. He gained the highest degree in the official
examinations between 1522 and 1566. According to
the law, only official families were allowed to own serfs, but
various subterfuges (such as fictive 'adoption') were used to
get round this, and it is hard to know how widespread the
practice was. A picul was a traditional measure of capacity,
about a tenth of a cubic yard.

We hear of a silent generation, more concerned
with security than integrity, with conforming
than performing, with imitating than creating.
--Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874—1956)
American industrialist and founder of IBM.

^

Daniel Webster (1782—1852)
American lawyer and statesman.

Temporarily absent from home, Captain Webster
left Daniel and his brother Ezekiel with specific
instructions as to the work they were to do that
day. On his return he found the task still
unperformed, and questioned his sons severly
about their idleness. 'What have you been
doing, Ezekiel?' he asked.

'Nothing, sir.'

'Well Daniel, what have you been doing?'

'Helping Zeke, sir.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

Hard work pays off in the future.
Laziness pays off now.
--Steven Wright (1955— )
American writer and actor.

-----

faineant [fay-nay-AWN], adj.:
Doing nothing or given to doing nothing;
idle; lazy.
noun: A do-nothing; an idle fellow; a sluggard.

flaneur [flah-NUR], noun:
One who strolls about aimlessly; a lounger; a loafer.

indolent [IN-duh-luhnt], adjective:
1. Avoiding labor and exertion; habitually idle; lazy;
inactive.
2. Conducive to or encouraging laziness or inactivity.

lollygag (verb) ['lah-li-gζg]
(American slang) To dawdle, usually holding someone up
or delaying some other action; to neck or pet deceptively.
Someone who dawdles is a "lollygagger."

supine [soo-PYN; SOO-pyn], adjective:
1. Lying on the back, or with the face upward.
2. Indolent; listless; inactive; mentally or morally
lethargic.

wastrel [WAY-struhl], noun:
1. A person who wastes, especially one who
squanders money; a spendthrift.
2. An idler; a loafer; a good-for-nothing.
Ex.: Was her father ... the brilliant, glamorous figure
she remembered, or the alcoholic wastrel his own
brother described?
--Jean Strouse, "Making the Facts Obey,"
_New York Times_, [24 May 1992]



LEADERS / LEADERSHIP

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see "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links
see "PEOPLE" for related links


They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind
lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
--Bible
"St. Matthew"

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.
--Jacob Burnap (1748—1821)
American clergyman.

There is no evidence that generals as a class make
wiser national security policymakers than civilians.
George C. Marshall, our greatest soldier statesman
after George Washington, opposed shipping arms to
Britain in 1940. His boss, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
with nary a day in uniform, thought otherwise. Whose
judgment looks better? A few soldiers become great
diplomats or great politicians; others are abject
failures. Most avoid the field altogether. Military
careers spent in hierarchical, rule-bound, tightly
controlled organizations are not necessarily the
best preparation for accurately judging the fluid
world of politics at home and abroad.
--Eliot A. Cohen,
"Hunting 'Chicken Hawks'"

It was observed of Elizabeth that she was weak herself,
but chose wise counsellors; to which it was replied, that
to choose wise counsellors was, in a prince, the highest
wisdom.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.

Dictators are very popular these days and we
might want one in England before long.
--Edward VIII (1894—1972)
King [1936], afterwards, the Duke of Windsor.
(Late 1930s)

-

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably
integrity. Without it, no real success is possible,
no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football
field, in an army, or in an office.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].


Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do
something you want done because he wants to do
it.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].

-

All the great leaders have had one characteristic in common:
it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major
anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much
else, is the essence of leadership.
--John Kenneth Galbraith (1908—2006)
American economist.
_The Age of Uncertainty_, 12 [1977]

...a born leader ...I wish we had a man of his
supreme quality at the head of affairs in our
country today.
--David Lloyd George (1863—1945)
Welsh-born British Prime Minister [1916—1922].
On Hitler, quoted in Lynne Olsen,
_Troublesome Young Men_ [2007].

A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot
govern a city; he cannot govern a city if
he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern
a family unless he can govern himself; and
he cannot govern himself unless his passions
are subject to reason.
--Hugo Grotius (1583—1645)
Dutch philosopher. playwright, and poet.

It is possible to lead astray an entire generation,
to strike it blind, to drive it insane, to direct it
towards a fake goal. Napolean proves this.
--Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen [or Hertzen] (1812—1870)
Russian political thinker, activist, and writer. [c. 1855]

The art of leadership. . . consists in consolidating the
attention of the people against a single adversary and
taking care that nothing will split up that attention.
--Adolf Hitler (1889—1945)
German dictator.
_Mein Kampf_ (My Battle) [1925]

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to
discover ability in others is the true test.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."

Leadership is not about being nice. It's about
being right and being strong.
--Paul Keating (1944— )
24th Prime Minister of Australia [1993—1996].
In "Time" {9 January 1995].

A leader does not deserve the name unless he is
willing occasionally to stand alone.
--Henry Alfred Kissinger (1923— )
German-born American diplomat.
_The Necessity for Choice: Prospects of American Foreign Policy_, 7.4 [1961]

-

To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority,
dominion or empire above any realm, nation or city
is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing
most contrarious to His revealed will and approved
ordinance. And finally it is the subversion of good
order, of all equity and justice ... For who can deny
but it ... repugneth to nature that the blind shall be
appointed to lead and conduct such as shall see?
That the weak, the sick and impotent persons shall
nourish and keep the whole and strong? And finally
that the foolish, mad and frenetic shall govern the
discreet and give counsel to such as be sober of
mind? And such be all women compared unto man
in bearing of authority. For their sight in civil
regiment [rule] is but blindness, their strength
weakness, their counsel foolishness, and
judgement frenzy, if it be rightly considered.

--John Knox (1514?–1572)
Scottish religious reformer,
_A First Blast of the Trumpet against the
Monstrous Regiment of Women [1558],
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 351.
Cohan & Major note:
John Knox, one of the most outspoken of the Scottish
Presbyterians, wrote this tract while he was in exile
in Geneva. He had in mind a number of female rulers
who had displayed their 'unfitness' for government by
opposing the Protestant Reformation, particularly Mary
I, who died in the year of publication and was succeeded
by the Protestant Elizabeth. It is hardly surprising that
the new queen developed a strong aversion to
Presbyterianism.

-

They taught me that no man could be their leader except he
who ate the ranks' food, wore their clothes, lived level
with them, and yet appeared better in himself.
--T. E. Lawrence (1888—1935)
English soldier and writer.
_The Seven Pillars of Wisdom_ [1935]

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind
him in other men the conviction and the will to
carry on.
--Walter Lippmann (1889—1974)
American journalist.
In New York _Herald Tribune_
"Roosevelt is Gone" [14 April 1945].


Bad rulers . . . are in constant fear less others are
conspiring to inflict upon them the punishment
which they are conscious of deserving.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
_The Discourses_ [1517]

Once a ruler becomes religious, it [becomes] impossible
for you to debate with him. Once someone rules in the
name of religion, your lives become hell.
--Muammar Qaddafi (1942— )
Libyan leader [1970— ].
October 1989 remark to the General People's Congress [Tripoli].

If you are a man who leads, a man who controls the
affairs of many, then seek the most perfect way of
performing your responsibility so that your conduct
will be blameless.
--Ptahhotpe
24th century B.C. philosopher.
In _The Teachings of Ptahhotep: The Oldest Book in the World_
Asa G. Hilliard III, Larry Williams & Nia Damali, eds. [1987].

To grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence
of successful leadership--not only on the movie set
where I learned it, but everywhere.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.
In "Wilson Quarterly" [Winter 1994]; attributed.

Rhapsodized Hearstian British Press Tycoon Viscount Rothermere: "The
most prominent figure in the world today is Adolf Hitler. His mastermind
magnetizes the whole field of foreign politics. ... He eats no meat, and
has followed Mussolini in giving up both alcohol and tobacco—a practice
to whose benefits I myself can testify. Hitler takes practically no exercise
. . . . Music is, indeed, the only influence which can relax the Chancellor's
stern self-control. . . . His love for children and for dogs. . . .Hitler is in
the direct tradition of the great leaders of mankind who appear rarely
more often than once in two or three centuries. He is the incarnation
of the spirit of the German race. ... I am profoundly convinced that the
better he is known to the mass of the British nation the higher its
appreciation of him will be. . . . The future of this country, as the
greatest world Power, is bound up with the actions of this man
who is the uncontested ruler of the strongest Continental nation."
--'North Sea Nexus', _Time_ (magazine) [24 June 1935]

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy
and character. But if you must be without one,
be without the strategy.
--H. Norman Schwarzkopf, III (1934— )
American general who commanded the U.S. forces in the Gulf War of 1991.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Henry IV_, pt. 2 [1597], act 3, sc. 1, l. 31

-

A warrior must master three roads, four obligations,
five skills, and ten keys to security.

The three roads are knowledge of the world;
understanding of things as they are; and
wisdom toward humanity.

The four obligations are to provide national security
with minimal cost; to lead others unselfishly; to
suffer adversity without fear; to offer solutions
without laying blame.

The five skills are to be flexible without weakness;
to be strong without arrogance; to be kind without
vulnerability; to be trusting without naivete; and
to have invincible courage.

The ten keys to security are purity of purpose, sound
strategy, integrity, clarity, lack of covetousness,
lack of addiction, a reserved tongue, assertiveness
without aggression, being firm and fair, and patience.

--Yi Sun-shin (1545—1598)
Korean admiral and national hero whose
naval victories were instrumental in
repelling Japanese invasions of Korea
in the 1590s.

-

Famous American Businessmen

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bellwether (noun) ['bel-we-dhκr]
Lead sheep; leader whom others follow like sheep (contemptuous).
More recently, the term has been used positively referring to
a trend-setter or leading indicator followed by others.

demagogue [DEM-uh-gog], noun:
1. A leader who obtains power by means
of impassioned appeals to the emotions
and prejudices of the populace.
2. A leader of the common people in ancient
times.

doyen (noun) [doy-'yen]
The dominant senior member of a profession,
activity, or social arena.



LEADING BY EXAMPLE

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see "LEADERS" (above)

He preaches well that lives well, quoth Sancho;
that's all the divinity I understand.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]

The best way to show that a stick is crooked is
not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing
it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.
--Dwight Lyman Moody (1837—1899)
American evangelist and publisher.



Click picture to ZOOM
LEAGUE OF NATIONS

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see "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links


The draft of the constitution of a European family
within the orbit of the League of Nations ... the
beginning of a magnificent work, the renewal of
Europe.
--Aristide Briand (1862—1932)
French statesman and winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1926.
In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 811
Cohan & Major explain:
The [Locarno] treaties [October 1925], signed by Britain,
France, Belgium, Italy and Germany, guaranteed Germany's
frontiers with France, Belgium and Holland and were intended
to remove the potential causes of a Franco-German war. They
were followed by Germany's admittance to the League in
1926. Locarno did not address the question of Germany's
other borders, with Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

I like the League, but I do not believe in it.
--Georges Clemenceau (1841—1929)
French statesman.
On the League of Nations [c.1919],
in Lord Robert Cecil _A Great Experiment_ [1941] p.59.

The League [of Nations] exists as a foreign agency.
We hope it will be helpful. But the United States
sees no reason to limit its own freedom and
independence of action by joining it.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929].
In a message to Congress [6 December 1923].

-

It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.
--Haile Selassie I [Tafari Makonnen] (1892—1975)
Emperor of Ethiopia [1930—1974].
Address to the League of Nations, Geneva, June 1936,
in L. Mosley _Haile Selassie: The Conquering Lion_ [1964] p. 241.

& see

The League of Nations no longer condemns the
fascist acts of aggression; the League 'notes', the
League 'does this and this', the League 'deplores'
the League makes a hypocritical show of balancing
between the criminal and his victim ... Even more
intolerable are the lies concealed in these formula,
and what can be read between the lines: the League's
confession of impotence, its abject surrender, its
acceptance of the fait accompli.
--Lιon Blum (1872—1950)
The first Socialist premier of France.
_New York Times_ [2 July 1936].
In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 818;
Cohan & Major point out:
Mussolini agreed, saying 'the League is a farce' Blum
is transferring the guilt: the League was effectively its
two most powerful Western members, Britain and
France, and it was they who bore the responsibility
for failing to stand up to Italy.

-

Generally it appears to me that any such scheme is
dangerous to us, because it will create a sense of
security which is wholly fictitious ... It [a league of
nations] will only result in failure and the longer that
failure is postponed the more certain it is that this
country will have been lulled to sleep ... in the course
of time it will almost certainly result in this country
being caught at a disadvantage.
--Sir Maurice Hankey (1877—1963)
British civil servant.
Memorandum to Balfour, the foreign secretary,
On the idea of a League of Nations [1 May 1916].

-

I will go as far as anyone in world service, but the first step to
world service is the maintenance of the United States. You may
call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any
other harsh adjective you see fit to apply, but an American I was
born, an American I have remained all my life.

I can never be anything else but an American, and I must think of
the United States first, and when I think of the United States first
in an arrangement like this I am thinking of what is best for the
world, for if the United States fails the best hopes of mankind fail
with it.

I have never had but one allegiance — I cannot divide it now. I
have loved but one flag and I cannot share that devotion and give
affection to the mongrel banner invented for a league.....National I
must remain, and in that way I, like all other Americans can render the
amplest service to the world. The United States is the world's best
hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and intrigues of Europe,
you will destroy her power for good and endanger her very
existence.....Strong, generous and confident, she has nobly served
mankind.

--Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. (1850—1924)
Republican U.S. senator [1893—1924].
Speech before the Senate on the League of Nations [12 August 1919].



LEARNING

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see "KNOWLEDGE" for related links
see "SUCCESS" for related links


Learning is not attained by chance. It must
be sought for with ardor and attended to
with diligence.
--Abigail Adams (1744—1818)
American first lady [1797—1801], the wife of
John Adams, second president of the United
States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams,
the sixth president of the United States.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.
--Douglas Adams (1952—2001)
British comic radio dramatist and author.

Men of sense often learn from their enemies. Prudence is
the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learned from
a friend, but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their
foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building
high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their
children, their homes, and their properties.
--Aristophanes (c. 450—c. 388 BC)
Greek comic dramatist.

It is costly wisdom that is bought by experience.
--Roger Ascham (1515—1568)
English scholar, writer, and courtier.
_The Schoolmaster_ [1570]

-

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and
take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but
to weigh and consider.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
"Of Studies"


If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in
doubts; but if he will content to begin with doubts,
he shall end in certainties.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_The Advancement of Learning_ [1605]


The pleasure and delight of knowledge and
learning, it far surpasseth all other in nature.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_The Advancement of Learning_ [1605]

-

Paul, thou art beside thyself; much
learning doth make thee mad.
--Bible
"Acts" 26:24

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
--William Blake (1757—1827)
English poet.
"The Marriage of Heaven and Earth" [1790-1793?]

Try to know everything of something
and something of everything.
--attributed to Lord [Henry Peter] Brougham (1778—1868)
Scottish lawyer and politician.

If you would not have affliction visit you twice,
listen at once to what it teaches.
--James Burgh (1714—1775)
Scottish author.

The elevation of the mind ought to be
the principal end of all our studies.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.
_A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of
Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful_ [1756]

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people
you are with. Wear your learning like your watch, in a
private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it merely
to show that you have one. If you are asked what o'clock
it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like
the watchman.
--Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (1694—1773)
British writer and politician.

If men could learn from history, what lessons it
might teach us! But passion and party blind our
eyes, and the light which experience gives is a
lantern on the stern, which shines only on the
waves behind us.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
English poet, critic, and philosopher.
_Table Talk_ [1835] (18 December 1831)

-

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought
without learning is perilous.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.
_The Confucian Analects_, bk. 2:15


If I am walking with two other men, each of them
will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good
points of the one and imitate them, and the bad
points of the other and correct them in myself.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.

-

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying
much, are the three pillars of learning.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and
Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880].

The specialist learns more and more about less and less
until, finally, he knows everything about nothing; whereas
the generalist learns less and less about more and more
until, finally, he knows nothing about everything.
--Donsen's Law,
in Paul Dickson, comp., _The Official Rules_, p. 65.

What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes? Take fifty of our
current proverbial sayings - they are so trite, so threadbare, that we
can hardly bring our lips to utter them. None the less they embody
the concentrated experience of the race, and the man who orders
his life according to their teaching cannot go far wrong. How easy
that seems! Has any one ever done so? Never. Has any man ever
attained to inner harmony by pondering the experiences of others?
Not since the world began! He must pass through the fire.
--Norman Douglas (1868—1952)
Austrian-born British novelist and essayist.
_South Wind_ [1917], ch.13

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.
--Will Durant (1885—1981)
American philosopher and writer.

^

Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-born physicist who won the
Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

In the course of conversation at an American
dinner party Einstein's neighbor, a young girl,
asked the white-haired professor: 'What are
you actually by profession?' Einstein replied:
I devote myself to the study of physics.' The
girl looked at him in astonishment. 'You mean
to say you study physics at your age?' she
exclaimed. 'I finished mine a year ago.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

Whoso neglects learning in his youth,
Loses the past and is dead to the future.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.

Don't keep jingling in the course of your
conversation any intellectual money you
may have.
--Joseph Farrell

A closed mind is a dying mind.
--Edna Ferber (1887—1968)
American novelist and short-story writer.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at
twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning
stays young. The greatest thing in life is to
keep your mind young.
--Henry Ford (1863—1947)
American car manufacturer.

A learned blockhead is a greater
blockhead than an ignorant one.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [November 1734]

-

"All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten"
by Robert Fulghum (1937— )
American author and essayist.

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do,
and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top
of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox. These are
the things I learned:

Share everything;
Play fair;
Don't hit people;
Put things back where you found them;
Clean up your own mess;
Don't take things that aren't yours;
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody;
Wash your hands before you eat;
Flush;
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you;
Live a balanced life- learn some, and think some,
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play,
and work every day some;
Take a nap every afternoon;
When you go out into the world, watch out for
traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

-

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't
learn something from him.
--Galileo Galilei (1564—1642)
Tuscan astronomer and physicist.

It is the vice of scholars to suppose that there
is no knowledge in the world but that of books.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
"On the Conduct of Life" in
_Literary Remains_ [1836]

What experience and history teach us is this — that peoples
and governments have never learned anything from history,
or acted on principles deduced from it.
--Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770—1831)
German philosopher.
_Philosophy of History_ [1832], v. 10 Introduction

A failure is a man who has blundered, but
is not able to cash in on the experience.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."
_The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams_ [1923]

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man
who has so much as to be out of danger?
--T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (1825—1895)
English biologist {grandfather of Aldous Huxley}.
_On Elemental Instruction in Physiology_ [1877]

No man is ever old enough to know better.
--Holbrook Jackson (1874—1948)
British journalist, writer, and publisher.

Nothing has more retarded the advancement
of learning than the disposition of vulgar
minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot
comprehend.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In "The Rambler" (English jouranal), 117 [30 April 1751].

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another
good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily
err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that
is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
--Ben Jonson (c.1573—1637)
English dramatist and poet.

I keep six honest serving men,
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When,
And How and Where and Who.
--Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936)
English writer and poet.
_The Just-So Stories_ [1902], "The Elephant's Child"

There are no circumstances, however unfortunate,
that clever people don't extract some advantage
from.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.

Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world historic
facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He
forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second
time as farce.
--Karl Marx (1818—1883)
German political philosopher.
_The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon_ [1852], pt. 1

When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's
statement that the elder Cato began at the age
of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer.
Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth
shirked because they would take too long.
--W. Somerset Maugham (1874—1965)
English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer.

Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity
will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for
opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
--John Milton (1608—1674)
English poet.
_Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing_ [1644]

There are three ingredients in the good life:
learning, earning and yearning.
--Christopher Morley (1890—1957)
American journalist, novelist, and poet.

To have a thing is nothing,
If you've not the chance to show it,
And to know a thing is nothing,
Unless others know you know it.
--Lord Nancy

The joy of the pedant who has
found out some useless fact.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_ [1949]

Books have led some to learning and others to madness.
--Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304—1374)
Italian scholar, poet, and Humanist.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
"An Essay on Criticism" [1711]. Part ii. Line 15

"The road," wrote Cervantes, "is always better than
the inn." Those who settle on fame or fortune as the
inn, and having arrived, call it quits, miss the whole
point of life. Realistically, there is no inn, no ultimate
point of arrival. It is the road now and forever—finite
man probing infinity, finding his way, endlessly. All
that matters are the lessons learned along the way.
--Leonard E. Read,
_Meditations on Freedom_

A Wise Old Owl lived in an oak;
The more he saw the less he spoke;
The less he spoke the more he heard:
Why can't we all be like that bird?
--Edward Hersey Richards (1874—1957)
Amercan poet

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on
retentiveness; when experience is not retained, as
among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it....This is the condition of children and barbarians,
in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
_The Life of Reason_ [1905]_, vol. 1

You must not quote to me what I
once said. I am wiser now.
--Romy Schneider (1938—1982)
Austrian actress.

The scholars learn, not for the sake of knowledge
and insight, but to be able to chatter and give
themselves airs.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
"The Art of Literature: On Men of Learning" in
_Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer_, tr. T. Bailey Saunders

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be
productive without culture, so the mind,
without cultivation, can never produce
good fruit.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other
men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what
others have labored hard for.
--Socrates (470?—399 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

There is a principle which is a bar against all information,
which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail
to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is
contempt prior to investigation.
--Herbert Spencer (1820—1903)
English philosopher.

What a man knows at 50
which he didn't know at 20 is,
for the most part, incommunicable.
--Adlai E. Stevenson (1900—1965)
American Democratic politician.

I long to put the experience of fifty years at once into your young lives,
to give you at once the key to that treasure chamber every gem of which
has cost me tears and struggles and prayers, but you must work for these
inward treasures yourselves.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811—1896)
American writer and philanthropist.
[sister of Henry Ward Beecher, daughter of Lyman Beecher].
Letter to her twin daughters.

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness
to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why
young children, before they are aware of their own
self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons,
especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
--Thomas Szasz (1920— )
American psychiatrist.
_The Second Sin_ [1973]

-

He who adds not to his learning diminishes it.
--Talmud (A.D.1st—6th cent.)
Rabbinical writings.


Don't limit a child to your own learning,
for he was born in another time.
--Talmud (A.D.1st—6th cent.)
Rabbinical writings.

-

We should be careful to get out of an experience only
the wisdom that is in it — and stop there; lest we be
like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will
never sit down on a hot stove-lid again — and that is
well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one
any more.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897] Ch. 11

When people will not weed their own minds,
they are apt to be overrune with nettles.
--Horace Walpole (1717—1797)
English writer and connoisseur.

Examine all you have been told.
Dismiss what insults your soul.
--Walt Whitman (1819—1892)
American poet.

We should not only use the brains we
have, but all that we can borrow.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].

-

GOVERNMENT WEBSITES FOR KIDS
http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/index.html
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/
EDUCATIONAL GAMES FOR KIDS
http://www.funbrain.com/spellroo/
NASA WEBSITE FOR KIDS
http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/
ASTRONOMY FOR KIDS
http://www.kidscom.com/adventure/iplanet/iplanetarium.html
CAREERS FOR KIDS
http://www.bls.gov/k12/reading05.htm
BEDTIME STORIES FOR KIDS
http://the-office.com/bedtime-story/indexmain.htm
NURSERY RHYMES
http://trmg.designwest.com/TRMG1.html

-

The hypothalamus is one of the most important parts of the brain,
involved in many kinds of motivation, among other functions. The
hypothalamus controls the "Four F's":

1. fighting;
2. fleeing;
3. feeding;
4. mating.
--anonymous Psychology professor

-----

autodidact [aw-toh-DY-dakt], noun:
One who is self-taught.

catechumen (noun)
One who is being instructed in a subject at an elementary level.
Synonym: neophyte

fecund [FEE-kuhnd; FEK-uhnd], adjective:
1. Capable of producing offspring or vegetation;
fruitful; prolific.
2. Intellectually productive or inventive.
Ex.: For 21 years after the birth of the Prince of Wales, the
fecund royal couple produced children at the rate of two
every three years -- eight boys and six girls in all.
--Saul David,
_Prince of Pleasure_

imbue [im-BYOO], transitive verb:
1. To tinge or dye deeply; to cause to
absorb thoroughly;
2. To instill profoundly; to cause to become
impressed or penetrated.
Ex.: Along with the rest of us he would certainly applaud
attempts to imbue the young with the spirit of fair play.
--John Bryant,
"Football should heed the Corinthian spirit,"
_Times_ (London), [17 February 2000]

opsimathy (noun) [ahp-'si-mκ-thi]
(Literary) Late learning, learning late in life.
A person who takes on learning late in life is
an "opsimath" ['ahp-si-mζth].

philomath [FIL-uh-math], noun:
A lover of learning; a scholar.
Ex.: "It is precisely for the philomaths that
universities ought to cater."
--Aldous Huxley, _Proper Studies_

polymath [PAH-lee-math], noun:
A person of great or varied learning; one acquainted with
various subjects of study.
Ex.: Alan Kay, for instance, one of the wizards of PARC
and now an Apple fellow, is a polymath accomplished in
math, biology, music, developmental psychology, philosophy,
and several other disciplines.
--Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman,
"Organizing Genius"

tyro [TY-roh], noun:
A beginner in learning; a novice.



Click picture to ZOOM
LEAVING

.
.

see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)" for related links


I'm not going to play any longer.
Not with you.
--William Golding (1911—1993)
English novelist and winner of the
1983 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_Lord of the Flies_ [1954]

There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with
the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a
relationship is over — and to let go. It means leaving
what's over without denying its validity or its past
importance in our lives. It involves a sense of future,
a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are
moving on, rather than out. The trick of retiring well
may be the trick of living well. It's hard to recognize
that life isn't a holding action, but a process. It's
hard to learn that we don't leave the best parts of
ourselves behind, back in the dugout or the office.
We own what we learned back there. The experiences
and the growth are grafted onto our lives. And when
we exit, we can take ourselves along — quite
gracefully.
--Ellen Goodman (1941— )
American journalist.
In _Boston Globe_.

To leave is to die a little;
To die to what we love.
We leave behind a bit of ourselves
Wherever we have been.
--Edmond Haraucourt (1857—1941)
French poet,
_Choix de Poιsies _ [1891 ]"Rondel de l'Adieu"

I wish I could care what you do or where you go
but I can't . . . My dear, I don't give a damn.
--Margaret Mitchell (1900—1949)
American novelist,
_Gone with the Wind_ [1936] {Spoken by Rhett Butler in ch. 57.}

Excuse me, I must go now: a moonbeam has come
to take me away, and I can't keep it waiting!
--Edmond Rostand (1868—1918)
French dramatist.
_Cyrano de Bergerac_ [1897], Act V

^

George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and poet.

When Santayana came into a sizable legacy,
he was able to relinquish his post on the
Harvard faculty. The classroom was packed
for his final appearance, and Santayana did
himself proud. He was about to conclude his
remarks when he caught sight of a forythia
beginning to blossom in a patch of muddy
snow outside the window. He stopped abruptly,
picked up his hat, gloves, and walking stick,
and made for the door. "Gentlemen,' he said
softly, 'I shall not be able to finish that sentence.
I have just discoved I have an appointment with
Spring.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard

^

Out, damned spot! out, I say!
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Macbeth_ [1606]

-----

absquatulate [ahb-'sqwah-chu-leyt] or absquattle (verbs)
(Humorous slang)
(1) To depart, abscond, take off; to die.
(2) To argue.

ostracize [OS-truh-syz], transitive verb:
1. To banish or expel from a community or group;
to cast out from social, political, or private favor.
2. [Greek Antiquity] To exile by ostracism; to banish
by a popular vote, as at Athens.



LEGACIES

.
.

see: "ACCOMPLISHMENT"
see "LIFE" for related links


Everyone must leave something behind when he dies,
my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or
a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a
garden planted. Something your hand touched some
way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die,
and when people look at that tree or that flower you
planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do,
he said, so long as you change something from the
way it was before you touched it into something that's
like you after you take your hand away. The difference
between the man who just cuts lawns and a real
gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn cutter
might just as well not have been there at all; the
gardner will be there for a lifetime.
--Ray Bradbury (1920— )
American science fiction author.
_Fahrenheit 451_ [1953]

This world is but the vestibule of an immortal life.
Every action of our lives touches on some chord
that wild vibrate in eternity.
--Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814—1880)
American clergyman and author.

The only things in which we can be said to have any property
are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no
poison; they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches
may be taken away by misfortune, our reputation by malice,
our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by
death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with
respect to them alone, we cannot say that we shall carry
nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked
out of the world.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what
he has done, compared to what he might have done.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791].

-

Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime.
And, departing, leave behind us,
Footprints on the sands of time.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_A Psalm of Life_ [1839], Stanza 7


No action, whether foul or fair,
Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere
A record, written by fingers ghostly,
As a blessing or a curse, and mostly
In the greater weakness or greater strength
Of the acts which follow it.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_Christus--The Golden Legend_, pt. II, "A Village Church"

-

The fortunate man, in my opinion, is he to whom the gods
have granted the power either to do something which is
worth recording or to write what is worth reading; and most
fortunate of all is the man who can do both.
-- letter from Pliny the Younger to Tacitus
{Pliny the Younger or Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (62—c.115)
Roman senator and author of a famous collection of letters.
Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55-c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian}

My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.
--Francis Quarles (1592—1644)
English poet.
_Epigram_, "Respice Finem"

When the one Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks — not that you won or lost —
But how you played the game.
--Grantland Rice (1880—1954)
American sports writer.
"Alumnus Football," [1925]


end page



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