"Flow with whatever may happen..."

Quote of the Week:

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.
~ Zhuangzi (c. 369-286 BC)

"All rising to a great place..."

Quote of the Week:

All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.
~ Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"Light the match"

Quote of the Week:

I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.
~ Mia Hamm (1972- ), American Olympic athlete

"Competing at the highest level..."

Quote of the Week:

Competing at the highest level is the greatest test of one's character.
~ Russell Mark (1964- ), Australian Olympic athlete

"Languages do not improve or deteriorate..."

Quote of the Week: 

Languages do not improve or deteriorate. They just change, like the tides. Yesterday's tide is no better or worse than today's or tomorrow's.... Words come and go. Grammar fluctuates. Pronunciations alter. Spelling preferences vary. None of it adds up to a doomsday scenario, notwithstanding the best efforts of media pundits to say that it does.
~ David Crystal, Words Words Words (2006)

"I was missing English one day..."

Quote of the Week:

I was missing English one day, American, really,
     with its pill-popping Hungarian goulash of everything
from Anglo-Saxon to Zulu, because British English
    is not the same, if the paperback dictionary
I bought at Brentano's on the Avenue de l'Opera
    is any indication, too cultured by half.
~ Barbara Hamby (1952- ), "Ode to American English"

"The difference between the right word..."

Quote of the Week:

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
~ Attributed to Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"If you know a thing only..."

Quote of the Week: 

If you know a thing only qualitatively, you know it no more than vaguely.  If you know it quantitatively — grasping some numerical measure that distinguishes it from an infinite number of other possibilities — you are beginning to know it deeply.
~ Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

"Knowledge is power"

Quote of the Week:

As your body grows bigger
Your mind must flower
It's great to learn
'Cause knowledge is power!
~ "Schoolhouse Rock" theme song

"You cram these words into mine ears..."

Quote of the Week:

You cram these words into mine ears against
The stomach of my sense.
~ William Shakespeare (c. 1564-1616), The Tempest

"Spelling counts..."

Quote of the Week:

Spelling counts. Spelling is not merely a tedious exercise in a fourth-grade classroom. Spelling is one of the outward and visible marks of a disciplined mind.
~ James J. Kilpatrick (1920-2010)

"Why I used a particular word..."

Quote of the Week:

I am not... in a position to say why I used a particular word, any more than many musicians are able to say why they use a particular chord.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008)

"Words are timeless..."

Quote of the Week:

Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness.
~ Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

"When I use a word..."

Quote of the Week:

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
~ Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), Through the Looking-Glass

"language disrupts..."

Quote of the Week:

Like desire, language disrupts, refuses to be contained within boundaries.
~ bell hooks (1952- )

"a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters..."

Quote of the Week:

We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
~ Robert Wilensky (1951- )

"the most powerful drug"

Quote of the Week:

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
~ Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

"Passion drives out reason..."

Quote of the Week:

Never act in a Passion. If you do, all is lost. You cannot act for yourself if you are not yourself, and passion drives out reason.... That is why lookers-on see most of the game, because they keep cool.
~ Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658), Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia (1647)

"Kwyjibo on the loose!"

Quote of the Week:

Bart:  Here we go.  Kwyjibo.  [places his tiles]  K-W-Y-J-I-B-O. Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters.  Game's over.  I'm outta here. [gets up]
Homer: [grabs Bart with his left hand, holding a banana in his right]  Wait a minute, you little cheater! You're not going anywhere until you tell me what a kwyjibo is.
Bart:  Kwyjibo.  Uh... a big, dumb, balding North American ape.  With no chin.
Marge: And a short temper.
Homer: I'll show you a big, dumb, balding ape!  [leaps for Bart]
Bart:  [making his escape]  Uh oh.  Kwyjibo on the loose!
~ from The Simpsons TV show, "Bart the Genius" episode (1990)

"One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing..."

Quote of the Week:

One forgets words as one forgets names. One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.
~ Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)