Quotes of the day from previous years:
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent asObama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
~ TheNorwegian Nobel Committee on theNobel Peace Prize of 2009 ~
| Besides thenobleart of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. Thewisdom oflife consists in the elimination of non-essentials. |
| ~Lin Yutang ~ |
| Aman who has to bepunctually at a certain place at five o'clock has the whole afternoon from one to five ruined for him already. |
| ~Lin Yutang ~ |
| To thinkbadthoughts isreally the easiest thing in theworld. If you leave yourmind to itself it will spiral down into ever-increasingunhappiness. To thinkgood thoughts, however, requireseffort. This is one of the things thatdiscipline —training — is about. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| Everyhuman being on thisearth isborn with a tragedy, and it isn't originalsin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, thesecurity, and go out to dobattle. He has to lose everything that islovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot ofpeople don't have thecourage to do it. |
| ~Helen Hayes ~ |
| I do not think that anycivilization can be calledcomplete until it has progressed from sophistication to unsophistication, and made aconscious return tosimplicity ofthinking andliving, and I call no man wise until he has made theprogress from thewisdom ofknowledge to thewisdom offoolishness, and become alaughingphilosopher,feeling first life's tragedy and then life'scomedy. For we mustweep before we can laugh. Out ofsadness comes theawakening, and out of the awakening comes the laughter of the philosopher, withkindliness andtolerance to boot. |
| ~Lin Yutang ~ |
| Whensmall men begin to cast bigshadows, itmeans that thesun is about to set. |
| ~Lin Yutang ~ |
| Thegooddieyoung — but not always. Thewickedprevail — but not consistently. I amconfused bylife, and Ifeelsafe within the confines of thetheatre.O'Neil's dramas are slapstick farces,Albee's riddles aresimpleexplanations,Pinter's threatening and threatened anti-heroes areinnocent babes — next to life and the living. I cry out fororder and find it only inart. |
| ~Helen Hayes ~ |
| Of coursewars arefought by teenagers — you realize that — they really ought to be fought by thepoliticians and the old people who start these wars. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| Theneed for internationalsolidarity and multilateralcooperation is more conspicuous than ever. TheNorwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award theNobel Peace Prize for 2020 to theWorld Food Programme for itsefforts to combathunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions forpeace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as aweapon ofwar andconflict. |
| ~Norwegian Nobel Committee ~ |
| The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award theNobel Peace Prize for 2021 toMaria Ressa andDmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguardfreedom of expression, which is a precondition fordemocracy and lastingpeace. Ms Ressa and Mr Muratov are receiving the Peace Prize for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in thePhilippines andRussia. At the same time, they are representatives of alljournalists who stand up for thisideal in aworld in whichdemocracy andfreedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions. |
| ~Norwegian Nobel Committee ~ |
| By awarding theNobel Peace Prize for 2022 toAles Bialiatski,Memorial and theCenter for Civil Liberties, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour three outstanding champions ofhuman rights,democracy andpeaceful co-existence in the neighbour countriesBelarus,Russia andUkraine. Through their consistent efforts in favour ofhumanistvalues, anti-militarism andprinciples oflaw, this year’s laureates have revitalised and honouredAlfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations — a vision mostneeded in theworld today. |
| ~Norwegian Nobel Committee ~ |
| We are embarking on a long and difficultwar. The war was forced upon us by amurderous attack byHamas. |
| ~Benjamin Netanyahu ~ |
| I likespring, but it is too young. I likesummer, but it is too proud. So I like best of allautumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little withsorrow and a premonition ofdeath. Its golden richness speaks not of theinnocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindlywisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations oflife and iscontent. From a knowledge of those limitations and its richness ofexperience emerges a symphony of colours, richer than all, its green speaking of life andstrength, its orange speaking of golden content and its purple of resignation and death. |
| ~Lin Yutang ~ |
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One is always considered mad when one perfects something that others cannot grasp. ~Ed Wood (date of birth)
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. ~Gautama Buddha
Now dig my grave
Beneath the bay willows' boughs
And with blackness cover it over again,
There for evermore
Go from my domain:
I wish to slumber in peace. ~Aleksis Kivi
In the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them. ~Lin Yutang
It is not when he is working in his office but when he is lying idly on the sand that his soul utters, "Life is beautiful." ~Lin Yutang
When the mirror meets with an ugly woman, when a rare ink-stone finds a vulgar owner, and when a good sword is in the hands of a common general, there is utterly nothing to be done about it. ~Lin Yutang
I disagree that I'm on the wrong side. I'm just not on your side. ~Francis Escudero
In a democracy, you must follow the will of the majority, which may be right or wrong, moral or immoral, just or unjust. If that's the ruling of the majority that is what you should follow, respect, and obey — although you may continue to disagree with it. ~Francis Escudero
Winning doesn't necessarily mean you're right. History will be a better judge of that. But that's the beauty of democracy - you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe. ~Francis Escudero
If you rest, you rust. ~Helen Hayes
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it did alright by me. ~Helen Hayes
Age is not important unless you're a cheese. ~Helen Hayes
From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings. ~Helen Hayes
For too long, we have allowed fear to dictate our politics and suspicions, to shape how we perceive other communities. ~Epeli Ganilau
Race is a fact of life and is not a problem unless people make it out to be so. ~Epeli Ganilau
In bed we laugh, in bed we cry;
And, born in bed, in bed we die.
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss to human woe. ~Isaac de Benserade (date of death)
Egocentrics are attracted to the inept. It gives them one more excuse for patting themselves on the back. ~Helen Hayes
Actors work and slave — and it is the color of your hair that can determine your fate in the end. ~Helen Hayes
To me personally the only function of philosophy is to teach us to take life more lightly and gayly than the average businessman does, for no businessman who does not retire at fifty, if he can, is in my eyes a philosopher. ~Lin Yutang
| All stories have abeginning, a middle and anending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| I can transport matter — anything — at the speed oflight, perfectly. Of course this is only a crude beginning, but I've stumbled on the most important discovery since man sawed off the end of a tree trunk and found the wheel. The disintegrator-integrator will change life as we know it. Think what it means. Anything, even humans, will go through one of these devices. No need for cars or railways or airplanes, even spaceships. We'll set up matter-receiving stations throughout theworld, and later theuniverse. There'll never be famine. Surpluses can be sent instantaneously at almost no cost, anywhere.Humanity need never want or fear again. I'm a very fortunate man, Hélène. |
| ~James Clavell ~ in ~The Fly ~ |
| God gives usintelligence to uncover thewonders ofnature. Without thegift,nothing is possible. |
| ~James Clavell ~ in ~The Fly ~ |
| The more Iknow, the moresure I am I know so little. Theeternalparadox. |
| ~James Clavell ~ in ~The Fly ~ |
| Only by living at the edge ofdeath can you understand the indescribablejoy oflife. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| So much of 'normal, civilized' life is bull that you can't imagine. … Whatfrightens you, doesn't frighten me, what frightens me, you'dlaugh at. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| Maybe we didn'tpray hard enough. Perhaps we should kneel down like is done inchurch. Perhaps were using the wrongname. Instead ofGod, let's say "OurLeader." Let's pray to our leader for candy! Let's pray extra specially hard, and don't open youreyes until I say. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| Changi was set like a pearl on the eastern tip of Singapore Island, iridescent under the bowl of tropicalskies. It stood on a slight rise and around it was a belt of green, and farther off the green gave way to the blue-green seas and the seas to infinity of horizon. Closer, Changi lost itsbeauty and became what it was — an obscene forbiddingprison. Cellblocks surrounded by sun-baked courtyards surrounded by towering walls. Inside the walls, inside the cellblocks, story on story, were cells for two thousand prisoners at capacity. Now, in the cells and in the passageways and in every nook and cranny lived some eight thousand men. ... These men too were criminals. Theircrime was vast. They had lost awar. And they had lived. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| Now thesun touched the horizon and the man reined in hishorse tiredly, glad that thetime forprayer had come. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| Changi became myuniversity instead of myprison. … Among the inmates there were experts in all walks oflife — the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could fromphysics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |
| She studied her husband's flower arrangement. He had chosen the blossom of a single white wild rose and put a single pearl of water on the green leaf, and set it on red stones. Autumn is coming, he was suggesting with the flower, talking through the flower, do not weep for the time of fall, the time of dying when the earth begins to sleep; enjoy the time of beginning again and experience the glorious cool of the autumn air on this summer evening … soon the tear will vanish and the rose, only the stones will remain — soon you and I will vanish and only the stones will remain. |
| ~James Clavell ~ |