What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Category: Quote of the Day
Aphorisms, proverbs, wise sayings and other witty, pithy stuff
19APR2020 – Quote of the Day
God changes appearances every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. One moment he is a glass of fresh water, the next, your son bouncing on your knees or an enchanting woman, or perhaps merely a morning walk.
Nikos Kazantzakis
18APR2020 – Quote of the Day
If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.
Robert A. Heinlein
17APR2020 – Quote of the Day
One hears a lot of talk about the hostility between scientists and engineers. I don’t believe in any such thing. In fact I am quite certain it is untrue… There cannot possibly be anything in it because neither side has anything to do with the other.
David Hilbert
16APR2020 – Quote of the Day
The Coffee Joke from Ninotchka
LEON: (starting to get sore) I suppose you don’t think that’s funny?
NINOTCHKA: No.
LEON: It seemed funny to me when I first heard it. Maybe the trouble isn’t with the joke. Maybe it’s with you!
NINOTCHKA: I don’t think so.
LEON: Maybe you haven’t any sense of humor. Well, I’ll give you one more chance! Now listen!
He gets up and speaks in a threatening voice audible to the entire room.
LEON: When I heard this joke for the first time I laughed myself sick. Here goes! A man comes into a restaurant and sits down and says, “Waiter! Get me a cup of coffee without cream.” After five minutes the waiter comes back and says, “I’m sorry, sir, we’re all out of cream, can it be without milk?”
(Written for the film Ninotchka by one of these men:
Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Walter Reisch or Melchior Lengyel)
15APR2020 – Quote of the Day
Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.
Archimedes
14APR2020 – Quote of the Day
“That’s wonderful. I do like a man that tells you right out he’s looking out for himself. Don’t we all? I don’t trust a man that says he’s not. And the man that’s telling the truth when he says he’s not I distrust most of all, because he’s an ass and an ass that’s going contrary to the laws of nature.”
― Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon
13APR2020 – Quote of the Day
“You always have, I must say, a smooth explanation ready.”
“What do you want me to do? Learn to stutter?”
― Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon
A Reading for Easter
A quote for the Faithful Few
John Chapter 20
1 The first [day] of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
5 And he stooping down, [and looking in], saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
10 Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, [and looked] into the sepulchre,
12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your God.
18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and [that] he had spoken these things unto her.
12APR2020 – Quote of the Day
“The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.”
― Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon