Quote Vadis - Quotes, Inspiration, Wisdom

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:12:00 -0500

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”

— Lou Holtz, a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the University of Arkansas (1977–1983), the University of Minnesota (1984–1985), the University of Notre Dame (1986–1996), and the University of South Carolina (1999–2004), compiling a career record of 249–132–7. Holtz’s 1988 Notre Dame team went 12–0 with a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and was the consensus national champion. Holtz is the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Holtz also coached the New York Jets of the NFL during the 1976 season.

“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call...

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:37:43 -0500

“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.”

— Aaron Swartz, an American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist.

“If you want something you never had, you have to do...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:58:00 -0500

“If you want something you never had, you have to do something you never did.”

— Unknown

“There are no rules. Don’t let anyone tell you any...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:14:05 -0500

“There are no rules. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

— Jim Everingham

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:04:58 -0500

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!”

— Unknown

“Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:50:46 -0500

“Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.”

— Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United States (1801–1809). At the beginning of the American Revolution, he served in the Continental Congress, representing Virginia and then served as a wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781). Just after the war ended, from mid-1784 Jefferson served as a diplomat, stationed in Paris. In May 1785, he became the United States Minister to France. Jefferson was the first United States Secretary of State (1790–1793) serving under President George Washington. With his close friend James Madison he organized the Democratic-Republican Party, and subsequently resigned from Washington’s cabinet. Elected Vice President in 1796, when he came in second to John Adams of the Federalists, Jefferson opposed Adams and with Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which attempted to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts.

“Better know nothing than half-know many things.” —...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:40:03 -0500

“Better know nothing than half-know many things.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche, a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism.

“The absence of alternatives clears the mind...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:16:53 -0500

“The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.”

— Henry Kissinger, a German-born American writer, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, he served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. After his term, his opinion was still sought by some subsequent US presidents and other world leaders.

“Ask yourself honestly, who do you wanna be and what are...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:44:00 -0500

“Ask yourself honestly, who do you wanna be and what are you willing to do to become that person?”

— Unknown

“The fewer the tools, the greater the...

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:31:00 -0500

“The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination.”

— Ben Orki, a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions and has been compared favorably with authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez.

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:58:00 -0500

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”

— Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. From 2006 to 2011 he hosted the educational science television show NOVA scienceNOW on PBS and has been a frequent guest on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Jeopardy!. It was announced on August 5, 2011, that Tyson will be hosting a new sequel to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage television series.

“Toilets in modern day water closets rise up from the...

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:58:11 -0500

“Toilets in modern day water closets rise up from the floor like white water lilies. The architect does all he can to make the body forget how paltry it is, and to make man ignore what happens to his intestinal wastes after the water from the tank flushes them down the drain. Even though the sewer pipelines reach far into our houses with their tentacles, they are carefully hidden from view, and we are happily ignorant of the invisible Venice of shit underlying our bathrooms, bedrooms, dance halls, and parliaments.”

— From the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera. Milan Kundera, a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in both Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; these therefore are not considered translations but original works. His books were banned by the Communist regimes of Czechoslovakia until the downfall of the regime in the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:14:46 -0500

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone”

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox, an American author and poet. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion.

“A boy of fifteen who is not a democrat is good for...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:16:00 -0500

“A boy of fifteen who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at twenty.”

There is a detailed research on the origins of this quote worth reading here.

“The farther you go, the less you know.” — Lao Tzu, ...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:33:11 -0500

“The farther you go, the less you know.”

— Lao Tzu, a philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching (often simply referred to as Laozi). His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of philosophical Taoism (pronounced as “Daoism”). He is also revered as a deity in most religious forms of Taoist philosophy, which often refers to Laozi as Taishang Laojun, or “One of the Three Pure Ones”.

“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:37:51 -0400

“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, & thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”

— Virginia Woolf, a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), with its famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

“Not once or twice in our rough island-story, The path of...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:09:17 -0400

“Not once or twice in our rough island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory.”

— Alfred Tennyson, a Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria’s reign and remains one of the most popular British poets.

“The less choices I have, the more freedom I can have to...

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:14:05 -0400

“The less choices I have, the more freedom I can have to experience those choices. As an example, a teapot on the stove really rocks and moves and makes noise when the heat is on high, because the aperture where the steam comes out is so small on the teapot, that it jumps all over the stove, but a normal pot doesn’t jump when the heat is on high, because there is a big huge opening at the top of the pot.

Limiting your choices gives you power.”

— Channa Horwitz, a contemporary artist based in Los Angeles, United States. She received a B.F.A. from CalArts in 1972 and has been making logically-derived compositions for the past five decades. Her visually complex, systematic works are generally structured around linear progressions using the number eight.

“May others come and do it better.” — Ludwig...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:44:28 -0400

“May others come and do it better.”

— Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947. In his lifetime, he published just one book review, one article, a children’s dictionary, and the 75-page Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). In 1999, his posthumously published Philosophical Investigations (1953) was ranked as the most important book of 20th-century philosophy by the Baruch Poll , standing out as “…the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations”. Philosopher Bertrand Russell described him as “the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating”.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose...

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:31:21 -0400

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”

— Greek proverb

Quote Vadis - Quotes, Inspiration, Wisdom

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s...

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”

“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call...

“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.”

“If you want something you never had, you have to do...

“If you want something you never had, you have to do something you never did.”

“There are no rules. Don’t let anyone tell you any...

“There are no rules. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you...

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!”

“Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote...

“Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.”

“Better know nothing than half-know many things.” —...

“Better know nothing than half-know many things.”

“The absence of alternatives clears the mind...

“The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.”

“Ask yourself honestly, who do you wanna be and what are...

“Ask yourself honestly, who do you wanna be and what are you willing to do to become that person?”

“The fewer the tools, the greater the...

“The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination.”

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or...

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”

“Toilets in modern day water closets rise up from the...

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep...

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone”

“A boy of fifteen who is not a democrat is good for...

“A boy of fifteen who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at twenty.”

“The farther you go, the less you know.” — Lao Tzu, ...

“The farther you go, the less you know.”

“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one...

“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, & thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”

“Not once or twice in our rough island-story, The path of...

“Not once or twice in our rough island-story, The path of duty was the way to glory.”

“The less choices I have, the more freedom I can have to...

“May others come and do it better.” — Ludwig...

“May others come and do it better.”

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose...

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”

“Not once or twice in our rough island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory.”