Wit & Wisdom

“The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears.”

Essayist Arthur Christopher Benson, quoted in Forbes.com

“Life is like a sewer ... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.”

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Tom Lehrer, quoted in the Montreal Gazette

“It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.”

Gertrude Stein, quoted in the Associated Press

“When someone says something is ‘off the record’ they have already told 20 people. When it is ‘strictly off the record’ they have already told 200.”

Poet John Betjeman, quoted in the London Daily Mail

“The hero cannot be common, nor the common the heroic.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in the Austin American-Statesman

“All that makes earlier times seem simpler is our ignorance of their complexities.”

Author Thomas Sowell, quoted in The American Spectator

“Politicians, old buildings, and prostitutes become respectable with age.”

Mark Twain, quoted in the Los Angeles Times