Category: Quote of the Day

“Everyone goes to the forest; some go for a walk to be inspired, and others go to cut down the trees.” – Vladimir Horowitz (October 1, 1903 – November 5, 1989)

“I, Sylvanus Wood, of Woburn, in the county of Middlesex, and commonwealth of Massachusetts, aged seventy-four years, do testify and say that on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, I was an inhabitant of Woburn, living with Deacon Obadiah Kendall; that about an hour before the break of day on said morning, I heard the Lexington bell ring, and fearing there was difficulty there, I immediately arose, took my gun and, with Robert Douglass, went in haste to Lexington, which was about three miles distant. When I arrived there, I inquired of Captain Parker, the commander of the …

“If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one.” – John Galsworthy, Swan Song (1928) Pt. II, Ch. 6

“The misfortune is not alone that it rends the concord of nations. The greater pity is that it rends the concord of our citizenship at home. It’s folly to think of blending Greek and Bulgar, Italian and Slovak, or making any of them rejoicingly American, when the land of adoption sits in judgement on the land from which he came. We need to be rescued from divisionary and fruitless pursuit of peace through super government. I do not want Americans of foreign birth making their party alignments on what we mean to do for some nation in the old world. …

“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” – Dr. Max Planck (His surname is also sometimes spelled Planek)

“And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, he said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.” – Matthew 9:23-26 (KJV)

“And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the …

“To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection: it is plunder.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.” – Judge Learned Hand, in his dissenting opinion to Commissioner v. Newman, 159 F.2d 848, 851 (2d Cir. 1947)

“They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow (Schlaukopf) of the first rank. But the truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to deal with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half.” – Otto Furst von Bismark, speaking with Gyula Andrássy in Salzburg on September 18, 1877. As quoted in Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Eastern Question. A Study in Diplomacy and Party Politics (1935) by Robert William Seton-Watson, p. 224

“It’s the friends you can call up at four a.m. that matter.” – Marlene Dietrich

“The Pilgrim and the Puritan whom we honor tonight were men who did a great deal of work in the world. They had their faults and their – shortcomings, but they were not slothful in business and they were most fervent in spirit.” – Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 – November 9, 1924)

“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” – Acts 10:34-35 (KJV)

“Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:4-6 (KJV)

“Never mind, we can do without them. But if we get out of here, you must send a message to Gibbs, the Hall Porter at Claridge’s in London, telling him on no account to allow the servants in the hotel to touch some dangerous medicines in my bathroom.” – OSS Director William J. Donovan, June 7, 1944, on Utah Beach, upon realizing that he left his cyanide pills behind, before the D-Day invasion