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 . . . LAZINESS see: "(ON) DOING NOTHING" see: "IDLENESS" see: "INACTIVITY" see: "REST" see: "FAILURE" for other related links Diligence overcomes Difficulties; Sloth makes them. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [November 1755] 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 (15171583) English theologian. Attributed in _The Saturday Magazine_ [15 September 1832]. 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 (17781830) English essayist. _Table Talk_ [18211822] "On the Pleasure of Painting" Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ [1973] Anonymous diplomat: How many persons work at the Vatican? Pope John (with a wink): Oh, no more than half of them! --Pope John XXIII (18811963) 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Quoted in Henri Fesquet _Wit and Wisdom of Good Pope John_ [1964]. - I don't opine on matters beyond my personal experience because when I do I am wrong approximately two-thirds of the time, a poor average, worse than the President's, but now, after five weeks of doing nothing, I am an authority on the subject of indolence and glad to share my views with you. First of all, the way to get five weeks of vacation is to have open-heart surgery. It is the perfect cover. Bipolar depression is a downer and TB makes your friends nervous and a hip replacement is terribly inconvenient, but cardiac surgery poses few risks, is mostly painless, and has a grandeur about it that erases all obligations, social and professional. It is the Get Out Of Work card. All you do is put a hand to your chest and people hold the door open for you and help you into a rocker. So here I sit on my sunny terrace. There's a soda water fountain and the buzzing of the bees in the cigarette trees, just like in the song. I sit in my pajamas and work the Times crossword and sip peppermint tea and, it being Labor Day, I sit and think about work. And then I write a limerick. Of all the useless things a person can do, limerick writing is right up there with golf and fishing. There was a young lady of D.C ./ Who was liberal and tasteful and p.c. / Except now and then / She enjoyed redneck men / Who didn't know A.D. from B.C. / "When it comes to the masculine specie,"/ She said, "I like vulgar and greasy. / Sensitive guys / Tend to theologize / And I am not St. Clare of Assisi." It takes half an hour to write this. It is useless work. But I'm quite happy, about rhyming greasy with Assisi. Happiness is in the details. [...] Back when I was a kid, I spent a summer picking potatoes at a neighbor's farm. Slouched up and down the rows, stooped over, dragging a burlap bag full of spuds, dust in my nostrils, body all achin an' racked wid pain, and it seems to me that I have been picking potatoes in one form or another ever since. The boss man, Mister Marse, kept telling me that potato picking is a great challenge and a boon to civilization and the manly thing to do and that if I quit working, my life would lose purpose and meaning and I would be unable to bear the shame. You be wrong about that, Mr. Marse. It is a lovely life, doing nothing. God never intended for me to work hard. I can see that now. My true calling is to live unencumbered and follow the fleeting impulses of my heart and take a nap around 2 p.m. whether I want to or not. I worked hard for years out of plain fear and ignorance and also to impress women and have the funds to take them to restaurants that serve poached salmon with a light saffron sauce on a bed of roses and then bring them home to Tara and when they say, "Wow! What a big house you have!" to say, "Come in and let me show you my art." Work is what sets us apart. You are what you do. People ask, "What line of work did you say you're in?" and if you say, "I am a brain surgeon" to someone who washes dishes professionally, he backs up, bowing. But a man who spends five weeks lounging in his pajamas is a plain old bum like the ones at the bus depot. There are not varieties of bumhood, some more creative or distinguished than others. Indolence is, like all religious experiences, totally self-effacing. You efface the self you've worked hard to assemble over the years and you feel a new you emerge, a nicer you, calmer, cooler, easier- going. The you you really are and not the guy you constructed at the U and from Gary Cooper movies and tailored to the needs of Hubbard, Buttrick, Bickford & Barnes and re-tuned in therapy with Dr. Koren. Now you become the you you were afraid the world would find out about. Goombah, homeboy, cowpoke, or hobo, or, in my case, a limericist, but the sun shines on me still and like any other poet I am gathering rosebuds while I may for the glory of flowers too soon is past and summer hath too short a lease and here it is, already gone, alas, alas. --Garrison Keillor (b. 1942) American writer and radio host. "In Praise of Laziness" in _Time_ [10 September 2001] - The biggest sin is sitting on your ass. --Florynce R. Kennedy (19162001) American lawyer, feminist, and author Quoted in "Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq." by Gloria Steinem in _Ms._ _March 1973]. Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. --attributed to Jules Renard (18641910) French novelist and dramatist. 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 (18721970) 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 (17141763) 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. --attributed to Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) British conservative stateswoman and Prime Minister [19791990]. 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 (eds.) _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. (18741956) American industrialist and founder of IBM. Quoted in Alfred Armand Montapert _Distilled Wisdom: An Encyclopedia of Wisdom_ [1964]. ^ Daniel Webster (17821852) 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. --attributed to Steven Wright (b. 1955) American writer and actor. ----- acedia [uh-SEE-dee-uh], noun: 1. Sloth. 2. Laziness or indifference in religious matters. 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. lackadaisical [lack-uh-DAY-zih-kuhl, adjective: Lacking spirit or liveliness; showing lack of interest; languid; listless. 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." slugabed [SLUHG-uh-bed], noun: One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard. 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.  . . 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 "Matthew" 15:14 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] He preaches well that lives well, quoth Sancho; that's all the divinity I understand. --Miguel de Cervantes (15471616) Spanish novelist. _Don Quixote_, Part II [1615], Book III, Chapter 20 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'" [5 September 2002] 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 (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, LVII [1821 ed.] How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? --Charles de Gaulle (18901970) French soldier and statesman, President [19591969]. Quoted in Ernest Mignon _Les Mots du Gιnιral_ [1962]. Dictators are very popular these days and we might want one in England before long. --Edward VIII (18941972) King [1936], afterwards, the Duke of Windsor. [Remark to a German prince, 1933.] - Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. --Dwight D. Eisenhower (18901969), American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII, NATO commander, American President [19531961]. Quoted in "The Catholic Library World" [1956]. The supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is a section gang, on a football field, in an army, or in an office. --Dwight D. Eisenhower (18901969), American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII, NATO commander, American President [19531961]. Quoted in Clarence Hamilton Poe _My First 80 Years_ [1963]. - He who undertakes to guide men must never lose sight of the fact that they are malicious monkeys ... The folly of the revolution was in aiming to establish virtue on the earth. When you want to make men good and wise, free, moderate, generous, you are led inevitably to the desire of killing them all. --Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (18441924) French novelist, man of letters, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. Quoted in Barry Cerf _Anatole France, the Degeneration of a Great Artist_ [1926]. 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 (19082006) American economist. _The Age of Uncertainty_, ch. 12 [1977] - [On Hitler:] I have never met a happier people than the Germans and Hitler is one of the greatest men. The old trust him; the young idolise him. It is the worship of a national hero who has saved his country. --David Lloyd George (18631945) Welsh-born British Prime Minister [19161922]. "Daily Express" [16 September 1936]. [On Hitler:] ... a born leader ... I wish we had a man of his supreme quality at the head of affairs in our country. --David Lloyd George (18631945) Welsh-born British Prime Minister [19161922]. [1937] - 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. --attributed to Hugo Grotius (15831645) 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 false goal. Napolean proved this. --Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen [or Hertzen] (18121870) Russian political thinker, activist, and writer. _From the Other Shore_ [1848-50] 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 (18891945) 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 (18591915) American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania". _Little Journeys: To the Homes of Eminent Orators_ [1916] "Pericles" Leadership is not about being nice. It's about being right and being strong. --Paul Keating (b. 1944) 24th Prime Minister of Australia [19931996]. In "Time" [9 January 1995]. A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone. --Henry Alfred Kissinger (b. 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 (1505 to 15151572) Scottish religious leader. _A First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women_ [1558], in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 351 [2004]. 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. I bend but do not break. --Jean de La Fontaine (16211695) French poet. _Fables_, bk. I, Fable 22 [1668] 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 (18881935) English soldier and writer. _The Seven Pillars of Wisdom_ [1935] In Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada has at last produced a political leader worthy of assassination. --Irving Layton (19122006) Romanian-born Canadian poet. _The Whole Bloody Bird_ [1969] "Obs II" 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 (18891974) American journalist. "Roosevelt is Gone" in _Herald Tribune_ (N.Y.) [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 (14691527) 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 (19422011) Libyan leader (1970-2011). 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 (19112004) American President [19811989] 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 tobaccoa 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] - I admire men of character and I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me, is where you find out what the character of a man is. --H. Norman Schwarzkopf, III (b. 1934) American general who commanded the U.S. forces in the Gulf War of 1991. _Journal-World_ [27 March 1991] Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. --H. Norman Schwarzkopf, III (b. 1934) American general who commanded the U.S. forces in the Gulf War of 1991. Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [1995]. - Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Henry IV_, pt. 2, III, i [1597] - 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 (15451598) Korean admiral and national hero whose naval victories were instrumental in repelling Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s. Quoted in "Education about Asia" [2007]. - Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. --Sloan Wilson (19202003) American author. _What Shall We Wear to This Party?_, p. 441 [1976] ----- 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. doyenne [doi-EN], noun: A woman who is the senior member of a group, class, or profession. ;void(0)) LEAGUE OF NATIONS . . see: "UNITED NATIONS" see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for other 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 (18621932) French statesman and winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.), _History in Quotations_, p. 811 [2004]. 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 (18411929) French statesman. On the League of Nations [c.1919], in Lord Robert Cecil _A Great Experiment_, p. 59 [1941]. 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 (18721933) American Republican statesman and President [1923-29]. In a message to Congress [6 December 1923]. - It is us today. It will be you tomorrow. --Haile Selassie I [Tafari Makonnen] (18921975) Emperor of Ethiopia [1930-74]. Address to the League of Nations, Geneva, June 1936, in L. Mosley _Haile Selassie: The Conquering Lion_, p. 241 [1964]. & 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 (18721950) The first Socialist premier of France. _New York Times_ [2 July 1936]. In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 818 [2004]. 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 (18771963) 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. (18501924) Republican U.S. senator [1893-1924]. Speech before the Senate on the League of Nations [12 August 1919]. - ;void(0)) LEAVING . . see: "BREAKING UP" see: "DIVORCE" see: "GOODBYE" see: "PARTING" see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)" for other related links [Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx):] If you can't get a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. --"Duck Soup" [1933 film] Screenplay by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. All right. I may have lied to you and about you, and made a few pronouncements a bit too sweeping, perhaps, and possibly forgotten to tag the bases here or there, And damned your extravagance, and maligned your tastes, and libeled your relatives, and slandered a few of your friends, O.K., Nevertheless, come back. --Kenneth Fearing (19021961) American poet. "Love 20’ the First Quarter Mile" I'm not going to play any longer. Not with you. --William Golding (19111993) 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 (b. 1941) American journalist. In "Boston Globe" [c. 1991] - 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 (18571941) French poet, _Choix de Poιsies_ [1891] "Rondel de l'Adieu" [Of Mrs. Boswell:] She was so glad to see me go, that I have almost a mind to come again, that she may again have the same pleasure. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Letter to Boswell [5 March 1774]. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch. --Garrison Keillor (b. 1942) American writer and radio host. Sign-off on his radio shows. 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 (19001949) American novelist, _Gone with the Wind_ [1936] (Spoken by Rhett Butler in ch. 57.) Take me or leave me; or, as in the usual order of things, both. --Dorothy Parker (18931967) American critic and humorist. "New Yorker" [4 February 1928] The bitter word which closed all, earthly friendships, and finished every feast of love Farewell. --Robert Pollok (17991827) Scottish poet. "The Course of Time" [1827] Excuse me, I must go now: a moonbeam has come to take me away, and I can't keep it waiting! --Edmond Rostand (18681918) French dramatist. _Cyrano de Bergerac_, act V [1897] A man never knows how to say goodbye; a woman never knows when to say it. --Helen Rowland (18751950) American writer. _Reflections of a Bachelor Girl_ [1909] ^ George Santayana (18631952) 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 ^ - Sweets to the sweet! Farewell. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Hamlet_, V, i [1601] Out, damned spot! out, I say! --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Macbeth_, V, i [1606] Fare thee well. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Antony and Cleopatra_, IV, iv [16061607] - Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go. --anon., in "The Santa Fe Magazine" [1935] ----- absquatulate [ahb-'sqwah-chu-leyt] or absquattle (verbs) (Humorous slang) 1. To depart, abscond, take off; to die. 2. To argue. egress [EE-gress], noun: 1. The act of going out or leaving, or the right or freedom to leave; departure. 2. A means of going out or leaving; an exit; an outlet. 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. valediction [val-uh-DIK-shuhn], noun: The action of bidding farewell; a farewell. vamoose [va-MOOS], verb: To leave hurriedly or quickly; decamp. . . see: "ACCOMPLISHMENT" see: "WILLS" see: "LIFE" for other related links 'We are always doing,' says he, 'something for Posterity, but I would fain see Posterity do something for us.' --Joseph Addison (16721719) English essayist, poet, and dramatist. "The Spectator", no. 583 [20 August 1714]. 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 gardener will be there a lifetime. --Ray Bradbury (b. 1920) American science fiction author. _Fahrenheit 451_ [1953] When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing to do is die at once. --Samuel Butler (18351902) English novelist, essayist, and critic. Quoted in Henry Festing Jones _Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835-1902). A Memoir_ [2 vol., 1919]. This world is but the vestibule of an immortal life. Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. --Edwin Hubbel Chapin (18141880) American clergyman and author. Attributed in Charles Northend _Memory Gems_, p. 6 [1890]. 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 from us 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 can not say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words ..._, # LII [1821 ed.] Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you. --attributed to Cyril Connolly (19031974) English writer. Really the writer doesn't want success. ... He knows he has a short span of life, that the day will come when he must pass through the wall of oblivion, and he wants to leave a scratch on that wall Kilroy was here that somebody a hundred, or a thousand years later will see. --William Faulkner (18971962) American novelist. [From "Faulkner in the University", 1959, Session 8, quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition, John Bartlett, with Justin Kaplan, general editor. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1992.] Not to be deficient in this particular, the author has provided himself with a moral; the truth, namely, that the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones. --Nathaniel Hawthorne (18041864) American novelist and short-story writer. _The House of the Seven Gables_, preface [1851] [Referring to his contributions of poetry:] I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze And taller than the regal peak of the pyramids. [...] I shall never completely die. --Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (658 BC) Roman poet. _Odes_, bk. III But this we know: good deeds are never childless. A noble life is never lost. --Robert Green Ingersoll (18331899) American politician and orator known as "The Great Agnostic." "A Tribute to Elizur Wright" [19 December 1885] The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. --attributed to William James (18421910) American philosopher. It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]. [Reg, played by John Cleese, speaking:] All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? --"Life of Brian" [1979 movie] - 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 (18071882) American poet. _A Psalm of Life_, st. 7 [1839] [T]he bards sublime, Whose distant footsteps echo Through the corridors of Time. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882) American poet. "The Day is Done" st. 5 [1844] 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 (18071882) American poet. _Christus--The Golden Legend_, [1851], pt. II, "A Village Church" - What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. --Albert Pike (18091891) American attorney, journalist, and soldier. "In Lodge of Sorrow at Washington" [30 March 1860] - 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 (62c.115) Roman senator and author of a famous collection of letters. Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus] (c.55c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.) Quoted in _Letters, and Panegyricus_, Books I-VII [Harvard University Press, 1969]. & note: If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [May 1738] - 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 (15921644) English poet. _Epigram_, "Respice Finem" I give myself four thousand years. --Cecil Rhodes (18531902) South African statesman. When asked by Dr Leander Starr Jameson how long he expected to be remembered. Quoted by Matthew Sweet in "The Independent" [16 March 2002]. 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 (18801954) American sports writer. "Alumnus Football" [1925] If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself. --Charles Schulz (19222000) American cartoonist. Attributed in Anonymous, _Easy Does It_ [Hazelden Meditations, 1990]. - Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Julius Caesar_, III, ii, 75 [1599] No legacy is so rich as honesty. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _All's Well That Ends Well_, III, v [1602-04] - No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life, which gives up one form only to resume another. No good action, no good example dies. It lives forever in our race. While the frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible stamp, and moulds the very thought and will of future generations. --Samuel Smiles (18121904) Scottish author. _Duty_ [1880] - In the dark immensity of night I stood upon a hill and watched the light Of a star, Soundless and beautiful and far. A scientist standing there with me Said, 'It is not the star you see, But a glow That left the star light years ago.' Men are like stars in a timeless sky: The light of a good man's life shines high, Golden and splendid Long after his brief earth years are ended. --Grace V. Watkins (19051993) American poet and essayist. - 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 | KARMA - KENTUCKY | KINDNESS | KILL - KU KLUX KLAN | KNOWLEDGE | LABELS - LAS VEGAS | LANGUAGE | LATIN - LAUGHTER | LAW (THE) - LAWYERS | LAZINESS - LEGACY | LEARNING | LEISURE - LIBERALS | LIBERTY - LIBRARY | LIES / LIARS / LYING | LIFE - PAGE 1 (A-L) | LIFE - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | LIFESTYLE - LIMITATIONS | LINCOLN (ABRAHAM) - LITTERING | LIVE - LONDON | LONELINESS - LOUISIANA | LOVE - PAGE 1 (A-L) | LOVE - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | LOVE & MARRIAGE - LYNCHING | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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