"To appreciate and use correctly a valuable maxim requires a genius, a vital appropriating exercise of mind, closely allied to that which first created it."

William R. Alger Literature See all quotes by William R. Alger →

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“Men often make up in wrath what they want in reason.”

“When man seized the loadstone of science, the loadstar of superstition vanished in the clouds.”

“The best aphorisms are pointed expressions of the results of observation, experience, and reflection. They are portable wisdom, the quintessential extracts of thought and feeling. They furnish the largest amount of intellectual stimulus and nutriment in the smallest compass. About every weak point in human nature, or vicious spot in human life, there is deposited a crystallization of warning and protective proverbs.”

“Andover-Harvard Theological Library page on the notebooks of William Rounseville Alger”

“Most men give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.”

Resonant Thoughts

"But we all do sort of the same thing and that is rearrange what you thought was real, and, uh, they remind you of the beauty of very simple things. You forget, because you're so busy going from A to Z…"

— Grace Slick

Art1939

#mind

"The utter childishness of our provincial public's verdict upon any art-manifestation that may chance to make its first appearance in their own theatre — for they are only accustomed to witness perform…"

— Richard Wagner

Music1813–1883

#time

"I didn't cry after learning Skip Muck was dead. That would come later. Much later. Not that it didn't hurt. Hell, I'd never felt pain so deep. He was like my brother. No, closer than my brother. But b…"

— Donald Malarkey

Military1921–2017

#mind

"Notice the sleight of hand. The repair of temples is allowed! Temples can be constructed in villages! Temples can be constructed ‘within the privacy of homes’! Thus ‘liberal policy’ is the norm which …"

— Arun Shourie

Politics1941

#knowledge