Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

It ought to be plain
how little you gain
by getting excited and vexed.
You'll always be late
for the previous train,
and always in time for the next. –
Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

I think I will try to cultivate this attitude.

P.J. O'Rourke, writer (b. 1947)

You can't shame or humiliate modern celebrities. What used to be called shame and humiliation is now called publicity. -P.J. O'Rourke, writer (b. 1947)

So sad but so true.

Sydney J. Harris, journalist (1917-1986)

Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity. -Sydney J. Harris, journalist (1917-1986)

This is no doubt sometimes true, but anyone who thinks it is always the case is clearly an elitist!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr - poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (1809-1894)

We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were implanted in his imagination, no matter how utterly his reason may reject them. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (1809-1894)

Perhaps not all the beliefs of our tribe that Dr. Holmes would like to eradicate from our minds are superstitious fears. Some of them may in fact be part of our nature as human beings. Holmes, however, likely did not believe in such a thing as a human nature innate in all men. I think he was inclined toward the tabula rasa view of epistemology.