Explain Quote of the Day

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The Four Stages of Public Opinion
I (Just after publication): The novelty is absurd
and subversive of Religion and Morality.
The propounder both fool and knave.
II (Twenty years later): The Novelty is absolute Truth
and will yield a full and satisfactory
explanation of things in general -
The propounder a man of sublime genius and perfect virtue.
III (Forty years later): The Novelty won't explain
things in general after all, and therefore is a wretched failure.
The propounder a very ordinary person advertised by a clique.
IV (A century later): The Novelty a mixture of truth and error.
Explains as much as could reasonably be expected.
The propounder worthy of all honor
in spite of his share of human frailties,
as one who has added to the permanent possessions of science.
- Thomas Henry [T. H.] Huxley

A politician needs the ability to
foretell what is going to happen
tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year.
And to have the ability afterwards
to explain why it didn't happen.
- Winston Churchill

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
- William Arthur Ward

When we remember we are all mad,
the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
- Mark Twain

Never ascribe to malice that which is
adequately explained by incompetence.
- Napoleon

Time to Die:
A Zen teacher had a rare and priceless teacup.
One day, his precocious student accidentally broke the cup.
Hearing the footsteps of his teacher,
the student held the pieces of the cup behind his back.
When the master appeared, he asked: "Why do people have to die?"
"This is natural," explained the teacher.
"Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
The student showed the shattered cup, saying,
"It was time for your cup to die."
- Traditional Zen Koan

For centuries, theologians have been explaining
the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.
- H. L. Mencken

Interesting.
You Earth people glorify organized violence for 40 centuries,
but you imprison those who employ it privately.
- the character Spock in the television series Star Trek

The African is my brother but he is
my younger brother by several centuries.
- Albert Schweitzer

The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions.
- Susan Sontag

The most interesting information comes from children,
for they tell all they know and then stop.
- Mark Twain

I wanted to see exotic Vietnam, the jewel of Southeast Asia.
I, uh, I wanted to meet interesting
and stimulating people of an ancient culture,
and kill them.
- the movie Full Metal Jacket

A lot of presidential memoirs, they say, are dull and self-serving.
I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.
- William J. Clinton

It is an interesting question how far men
would retain their relative rank
if they were divested of their clothes.
- Henry David Thoreau

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are only two or three human stories,
and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely
as if they had never happened before.
- Willa Cather

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only
grow if you are willing to feel awkward and
uncomfortable when you try something new.
- Brian Tracy

We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand -
and melting like a snowflake.
- Marie B. Ray

Majority rule only works if you're also
considering individual rights,
because you can't have five wolves and one sheep
voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

Life is an adventure.
I can only wonder what treasure
awaits at the top of the path.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Play with life, laugh with life,
dance lightly with life,
and smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life's only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Choose Inner Peace.
Nothing is worth losing your inner peace.
Take action as circumstances require,
but never surrender your inner peace.
Stop. Breathe deeply.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply again.
Then, and only then, take action -
from a peaceful heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The essence of all religions is one.
Only their approaches are different.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Friendship is born at that moment
when one person says to another,
"What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
- C. S. Lewis

One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu

You're only here for a short visit.
Don't hurry. Don't worry.
And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
- Walter Hagen

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie

Truth is not only violated by falsehood;
it may be equally outraged by silence.
- Henri Frederic Amiel

Far from idleness being the root of all evil,
it is rather the only true good.
- Soren Kierkegaard

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

Books can only reveal us to ourselves,
and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.
- Henry David Thoreau

Only aim to do your duty,
and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
- Thomas Jefferson

You cannot teach a man anything;
you can only help him find it within himself.
- Galileo Galilei

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at.
Therefore, they had better aim at something high.
- Henry David Thoreau

The distinction between the past, present and future
is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
- Albert Einstein

Example is not the main thing in influencing others.
It is the only thing.
- Albert Schweitzer

Yesterday is a canceled check;
tomorrow is a
promissory note;
today is the only cash you have;
so spend it wisely.
- Kay Lyons

Yesterday is ashes.
Tomorrow is green wood.
Only today does the fire burn brightly.
- Eskimo Proverb

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys
the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist,
and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.
- Albert Schweitzer

Only those who have learned the power
of sincere and selfless contribution
experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment.
- Tony Robbins

Only when life is difficult,
are we challenged to become our greatest selves.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere,
while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight.
The truly wise person is colorblind.
- Albert Schweitzer

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank you, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart

Trust only movement.
Life happens at the level of events, not of words.
Trust movement.
- Alfred Adler

Could we change our attitude,
we should not only see life differently,
but life itself would be different.
- Katherine Mansfield

Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual,
you have an obligation to be one.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
- The Buddha

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Jonathan Huie jlh(at)jlhuie(dot)com - About & Disclosure

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