Read moreA man‘s ignorance sometimes is not only useful, but beautiful, while his knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless, besides being ugly. Which is the best man to deal with, he who knows nothing about a subject, and, what is extremely rare, knows that he knows nothing, or he who really knows something about it, but thinks that he knows all?
Henry David Thoreau
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
—Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain (1835–1910) via a letter to George Bainton, 10/15/1888
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
—Julius Henry Marx, a.k.a. Groucho Marx (1890–1977) via Wikipedia
Creativity is the residue of time wasted.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) via Goodreads
There are no born masters of typography.
—Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) via The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design
How to write a good short story:
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
Start as close to the end as possible.
Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) via Brain Pickings &; YouTube
Swallow a toad in the morning if you want to encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.
—Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) via QI
Downtown L. A. looks like they started to build Chicago and then gave up…and let it become a sprawling suburb.
—Gary Oldman (b. 1958) via Esquire
If you’re looking for sympathy you’ll find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.
—David Sedaris (b. 1956), via Barrel Fever
The scientist has marched in and taken the place of the poet. But one day somebody will find the solution to the problems of the world and remember, it will be a poet, not a scientist.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) via The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) via Self-Reliance, 1841
Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.
—Frank Zappa (1940 – 1993)
Television is chewing gum for the eyes.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959)
It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.
—Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) via The Prince, Chapter VI (1513)
We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.
—John M. Culkin, Jr. via A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan (The Saturday Review), (typically attributed to Marshall McLuhan)
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