Monday, May 31, 2010

Post #241

You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.
—Jim Bouton

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Post #240

You can never have a greater or a lesser dominion than that over yourself.
—Leonardo da Vinci

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Post #239

A frightened captain makes a frightened crew.
—Lister Sinclair

Friday, May 28, 2010

Post #238

If you are out to describe the truth, leave the elegance to the tailor.
—Albert Einstein

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Post #237

Whoever has his foe at his mercy, and does not kill him, is his own enemy.
—Sa'di

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Post #236

A great many open minds should be closed for repairs.
—Toledo Blade

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Post #235

We do not inherit this land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
—Haida saying

Monday, May 24, 2010

Post #234

It is well to moor your bark with two anchors.
—Publilius Syrus

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Post #233

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
—Viktor Frankel

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Post #232

Glass, china, and reputation, are easily cracked, and never well mended.
—Benjamin Franklin

Friday, May 21, 2010

Post #231

Dying man couldn't make up his mind which place to go - both have their advantages, "heaven for climate, hell for company!"
—Mark Twain

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Post #230

Thought is born of failure.
—Lancelot Law Whyte

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Post #229

There's nothing like the sight of an old enemy down on his luck.
—Euripides

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Post #228

Strength comes from waiting. 
José Martí

Monday, May 17, 2010

Post #227

Never be haughty to the humble.  Never be humble to the haughty.
—Jefferson Davis

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Post #225

A sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
—Irving Washington

Friday, May 14, 2010

Post #224

There's no pleasure i' living. If you're to be corked up for ever, and only dribble your mind out by the sly, like a leaky barrel. 
—George Eliot

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Post #223

No injustice is is done to someone who wants that thing done.
—Ulpian

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Post #222

One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels.  The thing to be supplied is light, not heat.
—Woodrow Wilson

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Post #221

The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter - it's the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
—Mark Twain

Monday, May 10, 2010

Post #220

The best way to get the better of temptation is just to yield to it.
—Clementina Sterling Graham

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Post #219

The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going.
—David Starr Jordan

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Post #218

Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee.
—Ben Jonson

Friday, May 07, 2010

Post #217

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Post #216

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
—Napoleon Bonaparte

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Post #215

One loses so many laughs by not laughing at oneself.
—Sara Jeanette Duncan

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Post #214

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
—Henry David Thoreau

Monday, May 03, 2010

Post #213

The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing.
—Publilius Syrus

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Post #212

The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.
—Napoleon Bonaparte

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Post #211

The simplest questions are the hardest to answer.
—Northrop Frye

The Penalty of Leadership

In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone – if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a -wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live — lives.
written by Theodore F. MacManus

A deadly viper once bit a hole snipe's hide; But 'twas the viper, not the snipe, that died.

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El Paso, Texas, United States
Native Texan · Navy Veteran · Various Scars and Tattoos · No Talent yet a Character

One From the Archives

Post #1234

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied...

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