Jim McGarrah > Jim's Quotes

“Not everything that can be counted counts.
Not everything that counts can be counted.”
― William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: a casual introduction to sociological thinking

“A book is not completed till it's read.”
― Salman Rushdie

“Scholars look for final truths they will never find. Creative writers concern themselves with possibilities that are always there to the receptive.”
― Richard Hugo

“There are those who reason well, but they are greatly outnumbered by those who reason badly.”
― Galileo Galilei

“A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line...To snatch in a moment of courage, from the remorseless rush of time, a passing phase of life is only the beginning of the task. The task approached in tenderness and faith is to hold up unquestioningly, without choice and without fear, the rescued fragment before all eyes and in the light of a sincere mood. It is to show its vibration, its colour, its form; and through its movement, its form, and its colour, reveal the substance of its truth -- disclose its inspiring secret: the stress and passion within the core of each convincing moment. In a single-minded attempt of that kind, if one be deserving and fortunate, one may perchance attain to such clearness of sincerity that at last the presented vision of regret or pity, of terror or mirth, shall awaken in the hearts of the beholders that feeling of unavoidable solidarity; of the solidarity in mysterious origin, in toil, in joy, in hope, in uncertain fate, which binds men to each other and all mankind to the visible world.”
― Joseph Conrad

“The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.”
― Seamus Heaney

“The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.”
― Henry Louis Gates

“You fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye”
― Margaret Atwood

“The true enemy of man is generalization.”
― Czesław Miłosz, Testimony to the Invisible: Essays on Swedenborg

“The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history.”
― Czesław Miłosz

“The poetic image exists apart from causality.”
― Gaston Bachelard

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
― Oscar Wilde

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
― Mark Twain

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
― Socrates

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
― Confucious

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“May you live every day of your life.”
― Jonathan Swift

“I think I've discovered the secret of life -- you just hang around until you get used to it.”
― Charles Schultz

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, "Lighthouses" as the poet said "erected in the sea of time." They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Religion: A Dialogue and Other Essays

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
― Mark Twain

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
― Mark Twain

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
― Mark Twain