Hello
Everyone,
Welcome
to all new subscribers! We have a new Staying Awake banner
for the spring equinox. That big yellow word up there reminds us
of our awakening and paying attention to the beehive of activity
our planet has become.
My website has been given a total facelift which I designed for the spring,
and is ready for your critique. Let me know what you think—I’m for
hire, too! I especially enjoy designing and producing professionals’ ezines.
See graphic and web designs at Focused Excellence.
We
readers love quotations. I receive emails from organizations and
authors just to see whom they’ve quoted. If the truth be known,
some of you like better the quotes in Staying Awake than
my rhapsodic roars and rapturous cosmology. As Linus Pauling said,
‘The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.’
And, I would add the more diverse, the better!
So,
this edition contains some 50 quotes. If I had my druthers, I would
have stuffed this ezine with slabs of wisdom by the likes of Adrienne
Rich and Albert Einstein. Now, that would be a treasury. By the
way, the quotes below are in no particular order unless you think
they are. Enjoy!
When
I was born, I was so surprised, I didn’t talk for a year and a half.
~ Gracie Allen (b 1895), an American comedian, famous as the zany partner of
husband George Burns
Laughter
is like the human body wagging its tail.
~ Anne Wilson Schaef, lecturer, organizational consultant, former
psychotherapist
We
don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because
we laugh.
~ William James (b 1842), a pioneering American psychologist, philosopher,
psychology of religious experience, mysticism, philosophy of pragmatism
If
you have any doubts that we live in a society controlled by men,
try reading down the index of contributors to a volume of quotations,
looking for women’s names.
~ Elaine Gill (?)
I
would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without
signing them, was often a woman.
~ Virginia Woolf (b 1882), a British author, modernist, feminist
But
life lived only for oneself does not truly satisfy men or women.
There is a hunger in Americans today for larger purposes beyond
the self.
~ Bettye Naomi Goldstein (Betty Friedan) (b 1921), an American feminist,
social activist and writer, married Carl Friedman in 1947 (the ‘m’
was dropped after they were married)
A
woman under stress is not immediately concerned with finding solutions
to her problems but rather seeks relief by expressing herself and
being understood.
~ John Gray, author, speaker, champions relationships and personal
growth
The
world of education is like an island where people, cut off from
the world, are prepared for life by exclusion from it.
~ Maria Montessori (b 1870), an Italian educator, scientist, physician,
philosopher, feminist, and humanitarian
Sometimes
I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are
putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.
~ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) (b 1835), an American humorist,
novelist, writer, and lecturer
Son,
I love your strategy, but don’t let them get to know you.
~ Barbara Pierce Bush (b 1925), wife of George H. W. Bush, 41st
President of the United States
We
shall have a World government, whether or not we like it. The only
question is whether World government will be achieved by conquest
or consent.
~ James Paul Warburg, spoken Feb. 17, 1950, before the U.S. Senate,
an American banker and economic adviser to U.S. Treasury
Any
intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It
takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite
direction.
~ Albert Einstein (b 1879), a German-born theoretical physicist, author of the
general theory of relativity, contributed to special theory of relativity, quantum
mechanics, statistical mechanics, and cosmology, Physics Nobel Prize 1921
Nobody
can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.
~ Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (b 1902), an American actress, talk-show
host and bonne vivante
The
woman I needed to call my mother was silenced before I was born.
~ Adrienne Rich (b 1929), an American feminist, poet, teacher, and
writer
The
phrase ‘working mother’ is redundant.
~ J Sellman (?)
And,
then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more
painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~ Anaïs Nin (b 1903), a French-born author of Catalan and Danish
descent, known for her published diaries
If
high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them.
~ Sue Taylor Grafton (b 1940), a contemporary American author of
detective novels
If
men can run the world, why can’t they stop wearing neckties? How
intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around
your neck?
~ Linda Jane Smith (Linda Ellerbee) (b 1944), an outspoken journalist,
known for several jobs at NBC News, Washington (DC) correspondent
He
who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned
my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for
him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization
should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently
I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather
be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my
conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an
act of murder.
~ Albert Einstein
Violence
is the last refuge of the incompetent. (Salvor
Hardin, a character in Foundation)
~ Isaac Asimov (b 1920), a prolific American author and biochemist who loved
explaining complicated things in ordinary language
[…]
those who formally rule take their signals and commands, not from the electorate
as a body, but from a small group of men (plus a few women). This group will
be called the Establishment. It exists even though that existence is stoutly
denied; it is one of the secrets of the American social order. A second secret
is the fact that the existence of the Establishment—the ruling class—is
not supposed to be discussed.
~ Arthur Asher Miller (b 1915), an American playwright, essayist and author,
from The Secret Constitution and The Need For Constitutional Change,
Greenwood Press, New York, 1987, prologue, p. 3.
Much
male fear of feminism is the fear that, in becoming whole human beings, women
will cease to mother men, to provide the breast, the lullaby, the continuous
attention associated by the infant with the mother. Much male fear of feminism
is infantilism—the longing to remain the mother’s son, to possess
a woman who exists purely for him.
~ Adrienne Rich (b 1929), an American feminist, poet, teacher, and writer
The
most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
~ Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (Coco Chanel) (b 1883), a French couturier
of modernist philosophy
I
think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except
yourself.
~ Rita Mae Brown (b 1944), a prolific American writer and social
activist, notable for novels, poetry, and screenwriting
Asking
for help doesn’t mean that we are weak or incompetent. It
usually indicates an advanced level of honesty and intelligence.
~ Anne Wilson Schaef, lecturer, organizational consultant, former
psychotherapist
Let
us never confuse stability with stagnation.
~ Mary Jean LeTendre, a champion for disadvantaged children, served
U.S. Department of Education 1971-2001
Even
if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
~ William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers (b 1879), an American humorist
and entertainer
Don’t
worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will
have to ram it down their throats.
~ Howard Hathaway Aiken (b 1900), electrical engineer and physicist,
primary engineer behind IBM’s Harvard Mark I computer
Orthodoxy
means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
~ Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) (b 1903), British author and journalist,
from his book 1984
Nothing
pains some people more than having to think.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (b 1929), a Baptist minister, political
activist, Nobel Peace Prize 1968
Choose
your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing
your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your
friends by their color is unthinkable.
~ Anon
Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
~ Arthur C. Clarke (b 1917), a British inventor, author of science-fiction
novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, survived the 2004 Indian Ocean
tsunami
We’ve
all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters
will eventually produce a masterpiece. Now, thanks to the Internet,
we know this is not true.
~ Eyler Coates (?)
Just
because we increase the speed of information doesn’t mean we can
increase the speed of decisions. Pondering, reflecting and ruminating
are undervalued skills in our culture.
~ Dale Dauten, an American author, speaker, journalist
You
don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (b 1929), a Baptist minister, political
activist, Nobel Peace Prize 1968
Flair!
Sparkle! Don’t call me competent.
~ Thomas J. Peters (b 1942), a business management guru of the late 1970s to
the present
Whatever
women must do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half
as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
~ Charlotte Whitton (b 1896), Canada’s first woman mayor elected in
1951, social worker, politician, feminist |
