The Power of Words / Touche

The graveyards are full of indispensable men. - Charles de Gaulle

Brilliant ideas are often met with brilliant objections from mediocre minds. - Gordon Wu

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

Why can't you give me something more readable? It's so difficult to say. - Queen Elisabeth II, to her advisors on the speech given to her to read at Parliament opening

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. - Thomas Jefferson

I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter. - Pascal

A speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start it, but to end it requires considerable skill. - Lord Mancroft

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words. - Ecclesiasticus 32:8

Have you ever seen a dead man smoke? - P. C. Mar

The blows of a whip raise a welt, but a blow of the tongue crushes bones. - Ecclesiasticus 28:17

When they circumcised him, they threw away the wrong bit. - Lloyd George

Like being savaged by a dead sheep. - Denis Healey on Geoffrey Howe

He can compress the most words in the smallest idea of any man I ever met. - Abraham Lincoln

A manÖof the utmost insignificance. - Curzon on Stanley Baldwin

How can they tell? - Dorothy Parker, when told that Pres. Calvin Coolidge had died

In answer to the question of how the world might be different if Nikita Khruschev rather than John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, "Don't know, but I doubt if Aristotle Onassis would have married Mrs. Khruschev." - Mao Tse Tung

Judge me by the enemies I have made. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I'd rather have the guy inside my tent pissing out, rather than outside my tent, pissing in. - Lyndon B. Johnson

It's not how you start the game, but how you end it. - Anonymous, perhaps referring to the game of golf

Never Assume, because it makes an Ass out of u and me. - Benny Hill

Sometimes you make the right decision, and other times, you have to make the decision right. - Dr. Phil McGraw, commenting on a couple's regret at having had a baby.

If you walk out the door, don't bitch about what's behind it. - Dr. Phil McGraw

Life is supposed to be hard. - Dr. Paul Liao, repeating something told him by his father.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that airplanes take off against the wind, not with it. - Henry Ford

Not everyone can be famous, but everyone can be great, because greatness is achieved by service. - Dr. Martin Luther King

Honesty is saying the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, to the right person, for the right reason. - Aristotle

All the greatest things are simple and can be expressed in a single word:  Freedom, Justice, Honour, Duty, Mercy, Hope. - Winston Churchill

Man is at his best when he can practice these five things:  humility, magnanimity, sincerity, diligence, and graciousness.  If you are humble, you will not be laughed at; if you are magnanimous, you will attract many to your side; if you are sincere, people will trust you; if you are diligent, you will be successful; and if you are gracious, you will get along with your subordinates. - Confucius

There are three kinds of people -- those who do, those who observe, and those who wondered what happened. - Armand Jacques (Consul General of Mexico to Hong Kong, 1999)

Be a poet - for they change the world. - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

On sex: the expense is exorbitant, the position ridiculous, and the pleasure transitory.  On doing: what's worth doing is worth doing well, and don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today. - Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.
 

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