N
Contents of N:
(1850—1896)
U.S. humorist
We are both great men, but I have succeeded better in keeping it a profound secret than he has.
(also attributed to Fran Lebowitz)
It is not whether you win or lose, but who gets the blame.
(1940--)
U.S. actor
Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth.
"Thank God, I finally realized that pain may be mandatory, but suffering is optional..."
(1942—1995), US musician, singer
If it weren't for women, men would still be wearing last week's socks.
Canadians are cold so much of the time that many of them leave instructions to be cremated.
(1919--), Canadian writer
Very little is known about the War of 1812 because the Americans lost it.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.
(1884—1900), German philospher
The thought of suicide is a great comfort. It's helped me through many a bad night.
Art makes the sight of life bearable by laying over it the veil of unclear thinking.
He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
How should explanation be at all possible when we make everything into an image, our image! ... Cause and effect: such a duality probably never occurs. in reality there lies before us a continuum out of which we isolate a couple of pieces ...
I mistrust all systematizers and I avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity.
Moral sensibilities are nowadays at such cross-purposes that to one man a morality is proved by its utility, while to another its utility refutes it.
Reasonable thinking boils down to the interpretation on the basis of a concept we cannot fling off.
Speaking generally, punishment hardens and numbs, it produces concentration, it sharpens the consciousness of alienation, it strengthens the power of resistance.
The errors of great men are venerable because they are more fruitful than the truths of little men.
To live alone one must be a beast or a god, says Aristotle. Leaving out the third case: one must be both a philosopher.
The Germans are like women. You can scarcely ever fathom their depths--they haven't any.
(1882—1958)
U.S. drama critic
Like everyone else, when I don't know what else to do, I seem to go in for catching colds.
Testament of a Critic, p. 179
There is no such thing as a dirty theme. There are only dirty writers.
(1886—1968)
English diplomat
The Irish do not want anyone to wish them well; they want everyone to wish their enemies ill.
We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other anguages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
(1903—1957), German-born mathematics genius
Anyone attempting to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.
(1880—1966)
U.S. novelist, in Bread Into Roses, 1939.
There seems to be so much more winter than we need this year.
Letters to My Son: Reflections on Becoming a Man, 1994
It is much easier to become a father than to be one.
"We do not have censorship. What we have is a limitation on what newspapers can report."
How to become a personality? Do you want a quick answer? If you do, you are not.
It was difficult for the Angel of Death to kill everybody in the whole world, so he appointed doctors to assist him.
(1769—1821)
It is cowardly to commit suicide. The English often kill themselves--it is a malady caused by the humid climate.
(1769—1821)
Had you English not persecuted the Catholics in Ireland...the greatest number of them would before now have become Protestants.
(1769—1821)
I like convents, but I wish they would not admit anyone under the age of fifty.
(1769—1821)
If you want to get on in this world, make many promises, but don't keep them.
(1902—1971)
U.S. light poet
Progress might have been all right once, but it's gone one too long.
(1902—1971)
U.S. poet
A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.
(1902—1971)
U.S. poet
Children aren't happy without something to ignore, And that's what parents were created for.
(1902—1971)
U.S. poet
I prefer to forget both pairs of glasses and pass my declining years saluting strange women and grandfather clocks.
(1902—1971)
U.S. poet
Middle age is when you have met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else and usually is.
(1902—1971), "Frailty, Thy Name Is A Misnomer," Good Intentions
Women would rather be right than be reasonable.
(1902—1971), Will Consider Situation
People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up.
U.S. poet, in "The Parent," Happy Days, 1933
Children aren't happy without something to ignore, and that's what parents were created for.
God punishes us mildly by ignoring our prayers and severely by answering them.