July 29, 2014

Good Morning! Here are your daily birthday quotations...

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859):

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”

and

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

and

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”

Booth Tarkington (1869 – 1946):

“Gossip is never fatal until it is denied. Gossip goes on about every human being alive and about all the dead that are alive enough to be remembered, and yet almost never does any harm until some defender makes a controversy. Gossip's a nasty thing, but it's sickly, and if people of good intentions will let it entirely alone, it will die, ninety-nine times out of a hundred.”

Don Marquis (1878 – 1937):

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”

and

“A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.”

and

“Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.”

and

“The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.”

Stanley Kunitz (1905 – 2006):

“The heart breaks and breaks

and lives by breaking

it is necessary to go through

dark and deeper dark

and not to turn ”

Harry Mulisch (1927 – 2010):

“All human beings were of course unique, and they only discovered that when someone else fell in love with them or when no one ever fell in love with them.”

and

“Using someone's name during a conversation was like a casual caress, like stroking their hair.”

Ken Burns (1953 - ):

“There is no communication in this world except between equals.”

and

“Do something that will last and be beautiful. It doesn't have to be a bridge-or a symphony or book or a business. It could be the look in the eye of a child you raise or a simple garden you tend. Do something that will last and be beautiful.”

and

“It is the great arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past”

Chang-rae Lee (1965 - ):

“You can be affected by a person because of something particular they said or did but sometimes how a person was, a manner of being, that gets most deeply absorbed, and prompts you to revisit certain parts of your life with an enhanced perspective, flowing forward right up to now.”

Josh Radnor (1974 - ):

“Nobody feels like an adult. It’s the world’s dirty secret.”

and

“I was an English major, with a minor in history, just to make sure I was fully unemployable.”

and

“Don't be a genius who dies young. Be one who dies old. Being old is cool. Grow old, and die old. It's a better arc.”