In almost every book there's a line or two that will make you say, "Oh, that's perfect!" Maybe it's a line that strikes just the right chord or one that makes you think or look at something in a new way. Sometimes... it's just a smile. 

So what do I do?  I steal 'em!  Well, I borrow them anyway and share them with friends. Who knows... it might just get you to go out and find the book.  Steve K  6/8/2003

"I believe that good philosophers fly alone, like eagles," Galileo said in 'The Assayer', " and not in flocks like starlings. It is true that because eagles are rare birds they are little seen and less heard, while birds that fly like starlings fill the sky with shrieks and cries, and wherever they settle befoul the earth beneath them."

* * *

But even in conclusions which can be known only by reasoning, I say that the testimony of many has little more value than that of few, since the number of people who reason well in complicated matters is much smaller that of those who reason badly. If reasoning were like hauling I should agree that several reasoners would be worth more than one, just as several horses can haul more sacks of grain than one can. But reasoning is like racing and not like hauling, and a single Barbary steed can outrun a hundred dray horses.

Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel

I know not how such things can be;
I only know there came to me
A fragrance such as never clings
To aught save happy living things;
...

The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,--
No higher than the soul is high.

RENASCENCE by Edna St. Vincent Millay

America had changed in many ways, but it had yet to adopt the metric system.

* * *

If you go back through history, you'll find that the people who have been most eager to rule, to make the laws, to enforce the laws and to tell everybody exactly how God Almighty wants things here on Earth -- those people have forgiven themselves and their friends for anything and everything. But they have been absolutely disgusted and terrified by the natural sexuality of common men and women.

* * *

Eighty-one small sparks of human life were kept in an orphanage set up by Catholic nuns in what had been the gamekeeper's house on a large estate overlooking the Rhine.

* * *

I admit I know next to nothing about international politics, but it seems reasonable to suppose that nobody would want to fight wars if there were enough of everything to go around... It isn't a lack of food or resources that has us on the brink of war - it's a struggle for power. Who's going to be in charge of the world, our kind of people or theirs?

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut

By the time you realize your life isn't headed the way you expected you're to busy to look over your shoulder to see what went wrong. That's what happened to me... I was going downhill with my brakes out, always barely avoiding a crash.

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris

In the 'Winter 2003' issue I quoted Harry Truman as follows:

        The only thing new under the sun is the history you don't know." Harry S. Truman

A reader replied saying that the quote was not accurate and suggested that I *Advanced Search* Google using both: 1) "The only thing new under the sun"; and, 2) "There is nothing new in the world" in the *exact phrase* text box... Sure enough **nothing new** beat **under the sun** 104 to 14. 

The following CORRECT quote comes from the Truman Library... 

"While I was still a boy, I could see that history had some extremely valuable lessons to teach," said Harry. He read Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World and included it on the list of books which had most influenced his life. He added, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know."

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/hh/ywyr_9.htm 

thanks for the feedback... isn't this fun!

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards.

Samuel Clemens

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