Todays Thought

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. 

-William Somerset Maugham, writer (25 Jan 1874-1965)

Todays Thought

I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an islander, that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us. 

-Lord Byron, poet (22 Jan 1788-1824)

Todays Thought

Walking is also an ambulation of mind. 

-Gretel Ehrlich, novelist, poet, and essayist (b. 21 Jan 1946)

Todays Thought

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman ... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French. 

-Montesquieu, philosopher, lawyer, and writer (18 Jan 1689-1755)

Todays Thought

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way. 

-Martin Luther King Jr., civil-rights leader (15 Jan 1929-1968)

Todays Thought

People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. 

-Haruki Murakami, writer (b. 12 Jan 1949)

Todays Thought

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. 

-William James, psychologist and philosopher (11 Jan 1842-1910)

Todays Thought

Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors. 

-Lewis H. Lapham, editor and writer (8 Jan 1935-2024)

Todays Thought

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth -- and truth rewarded me. 

-Simone de Beauvoir, author and philosopher (9 Jan 1908-1986)

Todays Thought

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. 

-Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (6 Jan 1883-1931)

Todays Thought

We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. 

-Konrad Adenauer, statesman (5 Jan 1876-1967)

Todays Thought

A raindrop, dripping from a cloud, / Was ashamed when it saw the sea. / "Who am I where there is a sea?" it said. / When it saw itself with the eye of humility, / A shell nurtured it in its embrace. 

-Saadi of Shiraz (c. 1200 AD)

Todays Thought

The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it. 

-George Marshall, US Army Chief, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Nobel laureate (31 Dec 1880-1959)

Todays Thought

Every noon as the clock hands arrive at twelve, / I want to tie the two arms together, / And walk out of the bank carrying time in bags. 

-Robert Bly, poet (23 Dec 1926-2021)

Todays Thought

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. 

-Margaret Mead, anthropologist (16 Dec 1901-1978)

Todays Thought

Let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle. 

-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (11 Dec 1918-2008)

Todays Thought

One trouble with living beyond your deserved number of years is that there's always some reason to live another year. And I'd like to live another year so that Nixon won't be President. If he's re-elected I'll have to live another four years. 

-Rex Stout, novelist (1 Dec 1886-1975) [Nixon resigned in 1974.]

Todays Thought

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together. 

-Eugene Ionesco, playwright (26 Nov 1909-1994)

Todays Thought

To learn who rules over you, simply find out whom you are not allowed to criticize. 

-Voltaire, philosopher (21 Nov 1694-1778)

Todays Thought

If you want a symbolic gesture, don't burn the flag, wash it. 

-Norman Thomas, minister and social reformer (20 Nov 1884-1968)