Adrian Mole, via Sue Townsend
“Pandora found Cavendish’s A4 torture list. She has made an appointment for me to see her friend Leonora De Witt, who is a psychotherapist. I agreed reluctantly. On the one hand, I am terrified of my unconscious and what it will reveal about me. On the other, I am looking forward to talking about myself non-stop for an hour without interruption, hesitation or repetition.”
George Bernard Shaw
“Alcohol is the anaesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.”
Unknown, though Daniel Lutece taught me the phrase whilst I was in Paris
“On ne peut pas s’attendre à un homme qui est sérieux du matin au soir pour être sérieux du soir au matin.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Money has never appeared to me as valuable as it is generally considered. More than that, it has never even appeared to me particularly convenient. It is good for nothing in itself; it has to be changed before it can be enjoyed; one is obliged to buy, to bargain, to be often cheated, to pay dearly, to be badly served.”
Seneca the Younger
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
To know nothing of the about what happened before you were born is to forever remain a child.”
H.R. McMaster
“It’s so damn complex. If you ever think you have the solution to this, you’re wrong and you’re dangerous.”
Tony Blair
“When I arrived for the first time on that Sunday, the valet – yes, you got your own valet – asked me if he could fold my clothes and generally iron the underpants and that type of thing, and so disconcerted me that when he then asked me if he could ‘draw the bath’, I lost the thread completely and actually thought for a moment he wanted to sketch the damn thing. Using the bathroom on the other side of the corridor was a singular act of courage, sneaking open the bedroom door, glancing right and left and then making for it at speed.”
Galileo Galilei
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
Confucius
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in getting up every time we do.”
“Study the past if you would define the future.”
Unknown
“The trouble with life is you’re halfway through before you realise it’s a ‘do it yourself’ thing”
Napoleon Bonaparte
“Les hommes sont comme les chiffres : ils n’acquièrent de valeur que par leur position.”
René Descartes
Perfect numbers are like perfect men: very rare.
Heinrich Heine
“Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende”
(Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.)
“Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.”
A Single Man
“I was never terribly fond of waking up. I was never one to jump out of bed and greet the day with a smile like Jim was. I used to want to punch him sometimes in the morning, he was so happy.
I always used to tell him that only fools would greet the day with a smile, that only fools could possibly escape the simple truth that now isn’t simply now. It’s a cold reminder, one day later than yesterday, one year later than last year and that sooner or later, it will come.”
Socrates
“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”
“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have laboured hard for.”
Location:Dugard Way,Lambeth,United Kingdom