Saws and Slogans

(many unoriginal)

When truth eludes, half-truths are clues.

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Keep promises generously, claim gingerly. (original)

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. -Seneca

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. (?)

You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. -Ziggy

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. -Paulo Freire

Laugh when you can; cry when you must.

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The worst of all deceptions is self-deception. -Plato

When things go wrong - don't go wrong with them.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. -Ambrose Redmoon

Tell the truth and shame the devil.

The light heart lives long. (Irish?)

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. -Winston Churchill

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. -Benjamin Franklin

He who foresees calamities suffers them twice over.

Silence is the voice of complicity.

Don't wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day. -Albert Camus

What's done when thought is done ere forgot. (original)

Better doing than stewing. (original)

You wish to see; listen. Hearing is a step toward Vision. -St. Bernard

To gain that worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else. -Bernadette Devlin

Despise not a small wound, a poor kinsman, or a humble enemy. -English Proverb

Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped (African?)

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. -Linus Pauling

No one would talk much in society if he knew how often he misunderstands others. -Goethe

Whenever you fall, pick something up. -Oswald Avery

Moderation, of all things, in moderation.

A right which does not help the worst of us is just another lie.

A closed mouth catches no flies (Italian?)

Better give a penny then lend twenty. (Italian?)

The perfect is the enemy of the good. (Italian proverb)

Condemn not, lest you be condemned. (Jesus)

Il libro della natura è scritto in lingua mathematica. (G. Gallilei) ("The book of Nature was written in the language of mathematics.")

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever (Chinese?)

Many hands make light work. (John Heywood))

As well hanged for sheep as lambs. (English)

"One of these days" is none of these days. (English)

Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough. (Teddy Roosevelt!)

To the man who wears shoes, all the world is covered in leather. (Zen saying)

Reality is an educational toy.

Let him who is without sin throw the first stone. (Jesus)

The proud nail gets hammered. - (?)

Since we can't get what we like, let us like what we can get. (Spanish)

Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child. -Ron Wild

Be nice to people on your way up because you'll need them on your way down. -W. Migner

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. -Helen Keller

The lust for comfort murders the passions of the soul. -Kahlil Gibran

When you starve with a tiger, the tiger starves last. -Griffin's Thought

A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it. -Alistair Cooke

There never was child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. - Proverbs?

We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry. -John Webster

There is no security on this earth. There is only opportunity.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. -Maori Proverb

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers. -William Penn

A child becomes an adult when he realises that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong. -Thomas Szasz

One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a human. -Goethe

Work to become, not to acquire. -Elbert Hubbard

More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist. -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

It is easier to get forgiveness than permission. -Cecile Stewart

You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails. - (?)

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own. -Disraeli

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory. -Betty Smith

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart. -Jonathan Swift

Smooth sea ne'er made skillful sailor.

There is a budding morrow in midnight. -John Keats

That government is best which governs least. (Jefferson)

What wrongs a sleeping child wrongs an unborn child.

If you break a promise to your child, you are teaching your child to lie. (Some book on parenting, which I need to reread.)

Better wear out shoes than sheets (Scottish?)

Death pays all debts. (?)

Everyone pushes a falling fence (Chinese?)

Jedem gefaellt sein eigene Furzen.(German)

Who brings you a story carries two away. (?)

Pygmies standing on the shoulders of giants see more than the giants themselves. (Didaculus Stella)

Tysh'e yedesh, dal'she budesh'. (Russian proverb) ("The quieter you go, the farther you get.")

La loi, dans un grand souci d'égalité, interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain. (Anatole France) ("The law, in its great concern for equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal bread.")

Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire. -William Butler Yeats

All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. It's fiction's business to ask them. -Richard Hughes

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words. -Spinoza

Beware of small expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship. -Benjamin Franklin

Life is not so much a matter of position as of disposition. - (?)

A pessimist is a person who thinks everybody as nasty as himself, and hates them for it. -George Bernard Shaw

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. - (?)

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. -Bertrand Russell

The work praises the man. (Irish?)

You see things and say, "Why?" but I dream things that never were and say, "Why not?" -George Bernard Shaw

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. -Kahlil Gibran

Confide your secrets, resign your liberty. (Spanish)

What belongs to everybody belongs to nobody. (Spanish?)

Wen der putz steht, liegt der Schimmel in drerde. (Yiddish)

Make hay while the sun shines. (?)

If you strike at a king, you must kill him. (?)

Who begins too much accomplishes little. (German?)

Lie with dogs, arise with fleas. (Latin?)

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. (Greek?)

Le bruit ne fait pas de bien, et le bien ne fait pas de bruit. S. Vincent de Paul

Nature does nothing uselessly. -Aristotle

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. -Henry C. Link

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. -Winston Churchill

When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package. -John Ruskin

When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers. - (?)

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging; it is the skin of living thought and changes from day to day as does the air around us. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

If you want truly to understand something, try to change it. -Kurt Lewin

Formula for success: Underpromise and overdeliver. -Tom Peters

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