The Last Word

By Christine S. Tian | Thursday, October 5, 2006

“People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.”
—Hermann Hesse

“If the human mind was simple enough to understand, we’d be too simple to understand it.”
—Emerson Pugh

“Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.”
—Edward Young

“The ozone layer or cheese in a spray can. Don’t make me choose.”
—Anonymous

“I would rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard University.”
—William F. Buckley, Jr.

“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”
—H. L. Mencken

“If you build a man a fire, you keep him warm for a day. If you set a man on fire, you keep him warm for the rest of his life.”
—Terry Pratchett

“Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people’s values.”
—Gerald Brenan

“The American political system is like fast food—mushy, insipid, made out of disgusting parts of things and everybody wants some.”
—P. J. O’Rourke

“The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.”
—W. Somerset Maugham

“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
—Albert Einstein

“Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.”
—Oscar Wilde

“Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.”
—Lester B. Pearson
“The purpose of an open mind is to close it, on particular subjects. If you never do — you’ve simply abdicated the responsibility to think.”
—William F. Buckley, Jr.

“The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.”
—Assyrian tablet, c. 2800 BC

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are actually rearranging their prejudices.”
—William James
“There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.”
—Woody Allen

“The worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades.”
—Demetri Martin

“Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.”
—David Hume

“No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather.”
—Michael Pritchard

“Be profound, funny or quiet.”
—Anonymous

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
—Oscar Wilde

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
—Mark Twain

“What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?”
—Irv Kupcinet

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
—Voltaire

“An education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.”
—Terry Pratchett

The Last Word

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