Editor Quotes

To be afraid and to be brave is the best kind of courage of all.

Alice Dalgliesh

They are detached from the language and inflated like little balloons.

In general, 'the market' is smarter than the smartest of its individual participants.

Robert L. Bartley

Above the warehouse and beneath the stars The poets creep on the harp of the Bridge. But see, They fall into the National Cold Storage Company One by one. The wind off the river is too cold, Or the times too rough, or the Bridge Is not a harp at all. Or maybe A monstrous birth inside the warehouse Must be fed by everything—ships, poems, Stars, all the years of our lives.

Harvey Shapiro (poet)

The truth is like salt. Men want to taste
a little, but too much makes everyone
sick.

Joe Abercrombie

Ah, we fondly cherish
Faded things
That had better perish.
Memory clings
To each leaf it saves.
Chilly winds are blowing.
It will soon be snowing
On our graves.

John Henry Boner

I saw two clouds at morning,
Tinged with the rising sun,
And in the dawn they floated on,
And mingled into one.
I thought that morning cloud was blest,
It moved so sweetly to the West.

John Gardiner Calkins Brainard

Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!...
Punch, brothers! Punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!

Isaac H. Bromley

Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.

John W. Campbell

Someone asked me the other day if I believe in conspiracies. Well, sure. Here's one. It is called the political system. It is nothing if not a giant conspiracy to rob, trick and subjugate the population.

A poor man cannot rival the rich in luxury of life, but he can in luxury of knowledge. He cannot furnish his house as the wealthy can, but he can furnish his head. He cannot found a house of note, but he may found a mind of mark. Though some kingdoms may be adorned or afflicted with kings, learning has always been a republic, where all are equal who know.

George Holyoake

O for a lodge in a garden of cucumbers!
O for an iceberg or two at control!
O for a vale that at midday the dew cumbers!
O for a pleasure trip up to the pole!

Rossiter Johnson

What is a bore? The answer will vary depending on whether one is at a cocktail party... or the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.

And long shall timorous fancy see The painted chief, and pointed spear, And Reason's self shall bow the knee To shadows and delusions here.

Philip Morin Freneau

No demon or mortal has ever challenged the second law of thermodynamics and won.

We lean on Faith; and some less wise have cried, "Behold the butterfly, the see that's cast!" Vain hopes that fall like flowers before the blast! What man can look on Death unterrified?

Richard Watson Gilder

The language of poetry is the only speech which has in it the power of permanent impression

George Gilfillan

In an age of specialization people are proud to be able to do one thing well, but if that is all they know about, they are missing out on much else life has to offer.

Dennis Flanagan

Science is not an abstract body of knowledge, but man's understanding of nature. It is not an idealized interrogation of nature by dedicated servants of truth, but a human process governed by the ordinary human passions of ambition, pride, and greed, as well as by all the well-hymned virtues attributed to men of science.

For most men, a stepford wife would bore them to tears after a couple of weeks

Na'ima B. Robert

At a ballgame, as in a place of worship, no one is alone in the crowd.

Make no mistake: The organization of the working class must be both economic and political. The capitalist is organized upon both lines. You must attack him on both.

The so-called "General" Crocco, who played an important part as a brigand and Bourbonist leader in the partisan war of 1860-61, was an escaped convict, with thirty offences, ranging from petty larceny to murder, registered against him in the books of the Neapolitan tribunals. He pillaged both Bourbonists and Liberals with strict impartiality.

Eliakim Littell

It is an old belief
That on some solemn shore
Beyond the sphere of grief
Dear friends shall meet once more.

John Gibson Lockhart

When evening closes Nature's eye, The glow-worm lights her little spark To captivate her favorite fly And tempt the rover through the dark.

James Montgomery