Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
Scottish author & novelist (1771 - 1832)

“Laws, like the spider’s web, catch the fly and let the hawk go free”  Spanish Proverb

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure." --  Clarence  Darrow

 
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a  reader to the
dictionary." --  William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
 
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't  it." -- 
Groucho Marx
 
"I didn't attend the funeral,  but I sent a nice letter saying I
approved of it." --  Mark Twain
 
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." -- 
Oscar Wilde
 
"I am enclosing two tickets  to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend... If you have one."  --  
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill ...followed  by:
Churchill's response: "Cannot possibly attend first night, will  attend
second, if there is one." -- Winston  Churchill

 
"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here."
--  Stephen Bishop
 
"He is a  self-made man and worships his creator." --  John Bright
 
"I've  just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing
trivial." --  Irvin S. Cobb
 
"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others."
--  Samuel Johnson
 
"He is simply a  shiver looking for a spine to run up." -- Paul Keating
 
"He had  delusions of adequacy." --  Walter Kerr
 
"Why do you sit there  looking like an envelope without any address on
it?" --  Mark Twain
 
"His mother  should have thrown him away and kept the stork." --  Mae 
West
 
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they  go." --
Oscar Wilde
 
Lady Astor once remarked to Winston  Churchill at a Dinner Party,
"Winston, if you were my husband, I would  poison your coffee!" Winston
replied, "Madam if I were your husband I would drink it!"
 
Lady Astor looked at Churchill and said, "Sir, you are drunk!"  He
replied, "And Madam, you are ugly.  At  least in the morning I'll  be
sober."
 
Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty
Michael S. Klein

 

Einstein quotes

 

"You spend 30 minutes with a beautiful girl, it seems like a moment. You spend a moment sitting on a hot stove, it seems like 30 minutes." (giving the most practical, understandable explanation of the Theory of Relativity; how time can expand or contract)

 

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

 

"I do not much believe in education. Each man ought to be his own model, however frightful that may be."

 

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."

 

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

 

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."

 

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

 

"The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat."

 

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

 

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."

 

"There is a race between mankind and the universe. Mankind is trying to build bigger, better, faster, and more foolproof machines. The universe is trying to build bigger, better, and faster fools. So far the universe is winning."

 

"As a young man, my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However while working in the customs office I thought deeply about the matter and concluded that it was far too difficult a subject. With some reluctance, I then turned to physics as a substitute."

 

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

 

"I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research."

 

"I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right."

 

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."

 

"I made one great mistake in my life — when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made ... but there was some justification — the danger that the Germans would make them." [Quoted by Ted Morgan in the book 'FDR', Simon & Schuster, 1985]

 

"The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms." [quoted in Life magazine, 9 January 1950]

 

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

 

(Upon learning of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima): "If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith!"

 

"Generations to come, it may be, we’ll scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth!" (Referring to Mahatma Gandhi after Gandhi was assassinated)

 

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

 

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever. This is a somewhat new kind of religion.

 

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

 

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

 

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

 

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

 

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.

 

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

 

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

 

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

 

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."

 

"An empty stomach is not a good political adviser."

 

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax."