Quote of the day, Dec. 31

From Ecclesiastes

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 30

James A. Michener, on writing (1985)

“The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 29

Ralph Waldo Emerson, on living

“We are always getting ready to live, but never living.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 28

Alexander Cockburn, on writing (1985)

“The travel writer seeks the world we have lost — the lost valleys of the imagination.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 27

Eric Kandel, on the self

“Since Socrates and Plato first speculated on the nature of the human mind, serious thinkers through the ages—from Aristotle to Descartes, from Aeschylus to Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman—have thought it wise to understand oneself and one’s behaviour.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 26

P.D. James, on writing mystery (1998)

“I love the idea of bringing order out of disorder, which is what the mystery is about. I like the way in which it affirms the sanity of human life and exorcises irrational guilts.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 25

Winston S. Churchill, on history (letter to his brother, John S. Churchill)

“A good knowledge of history is a quiver full of arrows in debate.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 24

Winston S. Churchill, on writing books

“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”

Quote of the day, Dec. 23

Dick Cavett, on television

“There’s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?”

Quote of the day, Dec. 22

Publilius Syrus, from Maxims

“Speech is a mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.”