"Fear builds walls to bar the light."
-- Baal Shem Tov

"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip".
-- Will Rogers

"Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers."
-- Jimmy Breslin

"What New York has is hipsters; I never thought I would miss them, yet there's something comforting about being able to keep up with trends by just looking at people around you."
-- Ozlem Alkan Karakus, Editor, Time Out Istanbul.

"Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters."
-- Margaret Halsey

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
-- Mark Twain

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
-- Will Rogers


Image from Faded Giant.

"Unless you can interest people, you're never going to educate them."
-- Steven Goldstein, former Oprah Producer, as quoted in The New York Blade.

"Like Joseph Campbell says: 'If you're on a path and it's beaten it's not your path... It's having the initiative to say 'God, that looks somewhat treacherous over there... This might really stir up some personal stuff for me or there's an archetype there that I've been avoiding for a long, long time'... That shadow stuff, that trickster stuff, that authoritative stuff, that rebellious stuff... or that straight down the line simplicity. The answers are there from moment to moment..."
-- Robert Downey, Jr., on Inside the Actor's Studio.


Image from Deluca.

"I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends."
--Mickey Spillane, 1918-2006


Image from Interlog.

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."
-- Edith Wharton

"What's another word for Thesaurus?"
-- Steven Wright

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
-- William Butler Yeats

"I've been a performer all my life. It's a very satisfactory profession. You get paid off on the spot. When they cheer, that's payment."
-- Red Buttons, (Aaron Chwatt) 1919-2006

Image from Delafont Agency.

"Ah yes, my bright tie. I like bright ties. You know, when you reach a certain age, all you've got left is bright ties and bullshit."
-- Bill Clinton, as quoted by NY Magazine's Intellegencer, at opening night of Shakespeare in the Park, by Melena Ryzik.

"I'm a feeler. As a matter of fact, I think if we had more feelers and less thinkers we'd be a hell of a lot better off - not only in the theater, either."
-- Barnard Hughes, 1915-2006.

Image from Genarians.com

"Some things have to be believed to be seen."
-- Ralph Hodgson

"Assume nothing."
-- Bumper sticker

"When all else fails, read the instructions."
-- Agnes Allen

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."
-- Andre Gide

"We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming".
-- Don Delillo

"It takes a long time to grow young".
-- Pablo Picasso

"Happy Birthday! You are young and beautiful and powerful and surrounded by great things".
-- Don Cummings

"Remember, if our founders hadn't done that brave thing 230 years ago, we'd all be helping pay Prince Charles' salary today."
-- Bob Schieffer, on Face The Nation, Sunday.

"You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart."
-- Fred Allen

"In the circle of life
It's the wheel of fortune
It's the leap of faith
It's the band of hope
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle, the circle of life...

"Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars"

-- The Lion King, The Circle of Life.

"If you're looking to change an outdated behavior and annoying habit,
which you'd prefer to replace with something more positive, then the
perspective needed to deal with it is present today. Get serious,
Cancer, as this is the year to advance as far as possible. If stagnating
is not an option, then changes are necessary. Do what you have to do to make it happen, even if it means taking temptation out of arm's reach."
-- Susan Miller, Astrologer, New York Daily News today.

"He knows all about art, but he doesn't know what he likes."
-- James Thurber

"NYC is home to more than 8 million people, so why is it so hard to meet someone nice?"
-- TONYpersonals.com

"Hydrate. Then exfoliate. Then moisturize, and then exercise, and then floss."
-- ellen degeneres, in her commencement address at tulane university.

"Anybody can win unless there happens to be a second entry".
-- George Ade

"I'm not wearing underwear today,
No, I'm not wearing underwear today.
Not that you probably care
Much about my underwear
Still none the less I gotta say
That I'm not wearing underwear today"
-- Avenue Q

“Let the little fairy in you fly!”
-- Rufus Wainwright


Image from Lisboacultural.pt.

"What they were saying was, they like to be entertained, and I think our shows are entertaining..."
-- Aaron Spelling, 1923-2006


Image from CBS News.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe."
-- Laurence J. Peter

"It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or the fourteenth."
-- George Burns

"when you meet somebody great, tear off your brassiere (metaphorically) and scream from the nearest mountaintop. don't be coy. don't strategize. don't play hide and seek: surrender!"
-- simon doonan, my ten gay commandments in pride: the official magazine of interpride 2006.

"don't let your happiness be contigent on anyone else's approval or disapproval. Tell any detractors where they can shove their negativity. and if that doesn't work, move to a bigger town."
-- simon doonan, my ten gay commandments in pride: the official magazine of interpride 2006.

"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy."
-- Isaac Newton

"keep your eye on the ball and your head on the game."
-- mac anderson

"Just hanging out doesn't put food in your mouth. And as you know, until I had the gastric bypass, I liked to put food in my mouth. So I knew I had to work hard."
-- Al Roker, Commencement address to Shaw University.

"The great thing about computers is that anything you imagine can now be put on the screen. The terrible thing is that anything you imagine can now be put on the screen."
-- Phil Tippet, Animatronic and F/X designer

"If you want a future darling, why don't you get a past?"
-- Eartha Kitt

"every excess becomes a vice."
-- fortune cookie

"Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it".
-- Jane Wagner

"of course i'm for gay marriage i mean for tax reasons. anybody should be able to have a kid that wants that. everybody should be able to get married if they love each other. do i personally want to walk down the aisle? no. to me, it's a corny heterosexual tradition that i can't stand going to. i want to invest in divorce and tattoo removal."
-- john waters

"Oh, I have no I.Q."
-- Carol Channing, in Hello Dollys! by Jesse Green in Sunday's New York Times.

"Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend... when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present / love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure / the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth."
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying".
-- Bertrand Russell

"Let not the sands of time get in your lunch".
-- National Lampoon

"Nothing from nothing leaves nothing
You gotta have something, if you wanna be with me."
-- Billy Preston, 1946-2006

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition."
-- Samuel Johnson

"If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age".
-- George Burns

"More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them".
-- Harold J. Smith

"On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time".
-- George Orwell

"I love being in the spotlight, but there's also something to be said about having an office to go to and being responsible for the people who are on your payroll."
-- Joan Rivers

"Put all your eggs in one basket and - WATCH THAT BASKET!"
-- Mark Twain

"I don't have to do anything special. I'm in New York. Look at me, I'm in an elevator and it's in New York. I'm in a taxi, in New York. I'm in a subway and it's in New York."
-- William Hamb, Petty Officer First Class, on his shore leave during Fleet Week 2006, as quoted in The New York Times.

"Cabbage: A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head".
-- Ambrose Bierce

"I wanted it, and it was not to be. I am not pursuing it. I have been there, and I have done that."
-- Al Gore, in Back in the Limelight, Gore Insists He's Over Politics, The New York Times, Sunday.


(Image from Top Synergy).

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it".
-- Stephen Vizinczey

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones".
-- John Cage

"You can do one of two things: just shut up, which is something I don't find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast, which is what I tried to do."
-- Jane Fonda


(Image from USA Today).

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."
-- Carl Jung

"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
-- Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, 1921-2006, in his debate with Dan Quayle in 1988.

"I'm on my boogie board. I'm just going to keep on riding."
-- Mayor C. Ray Nagin, relected as Mayor of New Orleans.

"Inside your home, you keep mementos of your past that help or hinder your movement into the future."
-- Kathryn L. Robyn

"I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer."
-- Jim Carrey, on the chalkboard at Giorgios Country Grill this morning.

"The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded... This invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all... Senator McCain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our civic and moral obligation in times of crisis, and I agree... I consider this a time of crisis, and I feel obligated to speak... Senator McCain will also tell us about his strong-headed self-assuredness in his youth, which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others, and in so doing he will imply that those of us who are young are too naïve to have valid opinions... I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong... Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."
-- Jean Sara Rohe, 21, at graduation cerimonies for The New School, yesterday, as quoted by The New York Times.

"I am an obsessive, and the Internet rewards obsession".
-- Arianna Huffington

"You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly posess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality."
-- Florida Pier Scott-Maxwell

"If you continually give, you will continually have."
-- Fortune Cookie

"On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does."
-- Will Rogers

"One must be something, in order to do something."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think."
-- Dorothy Parker

"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness."
-- Robertson Davies

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a new door."
-- Milton Berle, on the chalkboard at Giorgios Country Grill, this morning.

"Don't ask, don't say. Everything lies in silence."
-- Fortune Cookie

"You can't think and hit at the same time."
-- Yogi Berra

"I'd like my legacy to be that Teacher's College continues to realize
its legacy, to be the great education school not only through its
research and contributions to knowledge to help us understand and
improve American education, but also to directly put those ideas ro
work."
-- Dr. Susan H. Fuhrman, newly appointed president of Columbia
University's Teacher's College.

"I ask that you not try this yourself. This is a deadly, trying test of
endurance."
-- David Blaine, Drowned Alive, at Lincoln Center last night.

"By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece".
-- GK Chesterton

"I do know enough to know I need help."
-- Patrick J. Kennedy, Congressman

"Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation".
-- Kin Hubbard

"I don't really trust a sane person."
-- Lyle Alzado

"I wasn't kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth."
-- Chico Marx

"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'"
-- Sydney J. Harris

"Like many natural beauties, New York is effortlessly photogenic. It has fabulous bones and hardly any bad angles."
-- Holland Cotter, Art critic for The New York Times.

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?"
-- Harry Shearer

"Stay away from high tech stuff. Quill pens do not need a product support line".
-- Roger Pollack, of Eclectica.

"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."
-- George W. Bush

"Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant -
No! No! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone -
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)

"Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee -
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)"

-- Laura E. Richards, Eletelephony.

"The authentic self is the soul made visible."
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"When you learn to be flexible, amazing opportunities reveal themselves".
-- Fortune Cookie

"Weather forcast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning".
-- George Carlin

"The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say."
-- Tom Stoppard

“Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.”
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Blame someone else and get on with your life."
-- Alan Woods

"There are people I know who won't hurt me. I call them corpses".
-- Randy K. Milholland

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.
- - Russell Lynes, as quoted by dAAve