“My toils in the quotation field have led me to formulate two or three laws about the way people use and abuse quotations. My first law is: When in doubt, ascribe all quotations to Bernard Shaw - which I don't mean to be taken literally, but as a general observation of the habit people have of attaching remarks to the nearest obvious speaker. Churchill, Wilde, Orson Welles and Alexander Woollcott are other useful figures upon whom to father remarks when you don't know who really said them.” PeopleKnowsWayFirstsMeanSaidTwoUseLawThreeFatherTakenDoubtFiguresFieldsHabitAbuseObviousObservationSpeakersQuotationsToilRemarksWhen In DoubtWildeBernard ShawUse And Abuse Author:Nigel Rees
“As the acceptance of democracy brings a certain life-giving power, so it has its own sanctions and comforts. Perhaps the most obvious one is the curious sense which comes to us from time to time, that we belong to the whole, that a certain basic well being can never be taken away from us whatever the turn of fortune.” GivingWellsWholeCertainTurnsDemocracyTakenAcceptanceComfortFortuneObviousCuriousWell BeingSanctions Book:Democracy and Social Ethics Source: Democracy and Social Ethics
“We are so placid that the smallest tremor of objection to anything at all is taken as a full-scale revolution. Should any soul speak up in favor of the obvious, it is taken as a symptom of the influence of the left, the right, the pink, the black, the dangerous. An idea for its own sake - especially an obvious idea - has no respectability.” ShouldIdeasSoulLeftSpeakBlackTakenInfluenceDangerousRevolutionSakeObviousFavorsScalesSmallestSymptomsObjectionsRespectabilityPlacid Book:Art & ardor: essays Source: Art & ardor: essays
“I marvel now that it was not obvious how inextricable suffering and fear are. It was not until fear left that I noticed, slowly, how it seemed to have taken suffering with it. It took a while to figure out that (for me, anyhow) suffering is mostly caused by fear-not by the circumstances themselves, but by my response to them.” SufferingLeftFearTakenFiguresCircumstancesResponseObviousFear Not Book:When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening Source: When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening
“Bored with obvious reality, I find my fascination in transforming it into a subjective point of view. Without touching my subject I want to come to the moment when, through pure concentration of seeing, the composed picture becomes more made than taken. Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself - less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive - less prose, more poetry.” WantMadeMomentsRealitySpeakViewsExistenceCreativeTakenSeeingSubjectsPureObviousPoint Of ViewBoredProseConcentrationJustifyTouchingSubjectiveFascinationTransformingInformativeCaption Author:Ernst Haas
“Beaumont specifically pointed out that the cultural elements and idioms regarded as "Egyptian" could not have originated in the land of the Nile. This single fact is inviolate and cannot be denied. It is obvious to those who have taken the time to study the subject, that the Egyptian civilization was transplanted by Western adepts and elders.” FactsStudyTakenLandSubjectsCivilizationElementsWesternObviousDeniedEldersEgyptianIdiomNileEgyptian Civilization Author:Michael Tsarion