In "Simplicity", William Zinsser wrote:

"We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon...
How can the rest of us achieve such enviable freedom from clutter? The answer is to clear our heads of clutter..."

photo by Gabe Photos

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ralph Waldo Emerson in "History" wrote:

" Nothing is so fleeting as form..."

photo by sarchi





















also by R. W. Emerson in History:


"A mind might ponder its thought for ages, and not gain so much self-knowledge as the passion of love shall teach it in a day. Who knows himself before he has been thrilled with indignation at an outrage, or has heard an eloquent tongue...No man can antedate his experience, or guess what faculty or feeling a new object shall unlock, any more than he can draw to-day the face of a person whom he shall see to-morrow for the first time."

Ralph Waldo Emerson in "History" wrote:

"The student is to read history actively and not passively...There is no age or state of society or mode of action in history, to which there is not somewhat corresponding in his life...Every mind must know the whole lesson..."

photo by kk+

Isaac Asimov in "Intelligence" wrote:

"...I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80...Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously...listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles- and he always fixed my car....
My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist on the rest as an arbiter of such matters."

photo by Tom Mascardo

In Model for Writers by A. Rosa and P. Eschholz , "Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name" was featured where James Lincoln Collier wrote::

"He had extinguished his anxiety the only way he could- by confronting it."
photo by janusz l

On nonverbal communication, Ronald B. Adler and Neil Towne in "Looking In, Looking out 9th Ed." wrote:

"This impossibility of not communicating is extremely important to understand because it means that each of us is a kind of transmitter that cannot be shut off. No matter what we do, we give off information about ourselves."

photo by s-a-m.

Carl T. Rowan in "Unforgettable Miss Bessie" wrote:

"But do you know what really takes guts? Refusing to lower your standards to those of the crowd."

photo by elroySF

George Orwell in "A Hanging" wrote(describing a man on death row walking to the site of execution):

"He walked clumsily with bound arms...And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.

It is curious, but till that moment I have never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive.

...He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing...the same world; and in two minutes, one of us would be gone--one mind less, one world less."

Leslie Savan in "Slam Dunks and No-Brainers:Pop Language in Your Life, the Media, and Like...Whatever" wrote:

"Trends overlap, shrink, bulge, and shrink again....

Not only is it impossible to always keep up-to-date, but the compulsion to do so make you look like a fool...

Always riding the cutting edge not only can produce some nasty burns, it's much less interesting than understanding the long-lasting stuff."


photo by porcelaingirl

Agnes Catherine Poirier in "Touche" said:

"Politeness is good...but too much of it verges on hypocrisy."

From "Come Be My Follower" by Watch Tower:

"To endure...is not simply a matter of experiencing inescapable hardship...Endurance involves steadfastness, keeping the right mental attitude and a hopeful outlook in the face of trials."

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in " Built to Last" wrote:

"...the continuity of superb individuals atop visionary companies stems from companies being outstanding organizations, not the other way around."

their site is here

photo by uwdigitalcollections

Charlotte Bronte in "Jane Eyre" wrote:

"...there are grains of truth in the wildest fable."

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte:

"The act pleased me, as it lifted me out of the passivity of my existence."

(said Jane Eyre after helping someone in distress)



photo by ivanatm

Theresa G. Runstedtler in "Journeymen: Race, Boxing, and the Transnational World of Jack Johnson" wrote:

"...“sparring” contests between Western nations over their relative levels of racial tolerance are by no means new, and in particular, African Americans have long served as important ciphers in these debates......

It is no longer enough to point the finger elsewhere, for the challenges we face require us to acknowledge the global routes of racial discourses."

for full text, pls click here.

Po Bronson in "What should I do with my life?: The true story of people who answered the ultimate question" wrote:

"THE HARDEST THINGS ARE THE MOST LIBERATING."




photo by ArchanaR

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen wrote:

"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."

(father talking to daughter)


photo by the moment

Stanley Karnow in "In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines" wrote:

"Dissimilarity also characterizes the Philippine people. They speak eight languages and some 70 dialects, and the linguistic jumble is only one clue to their variety."

Theresa Garcia-Runstedtler dedicating her dissertation to a fighter niece:

Dedicated to little Naomi,

who fought for her life and

inspired me to be a better person.

more quotes from her, pls see here .

Peter Williams & Roger Warwick, Editors of Gray's Anatomy in its 35th edition preface wrote:

"It is customary to eulogize the patience of wives- faint praise which is scarcely galante. Far from tolerating our preoccupation, our wives have supported us unfailingly with true and critical interest and sympathy in our labours."



photo by tanakawho

Honore De Balzac in "Eugenie Grandet" wrote:

Nothings resists the effects of time.

photo by Fabiola Medeiros

Dorothy Leeds in "Powerspeak" wrote:

Never underestimate the power of warmth.












photo by discoodoni

Tom Hodgkinson in "How to be Free" wrote:

Learning to live within limited means gives a great sense of security because you become free of wanting more and therefore free of struggle.













photo by Dazzie D

Sydney Finkelstein in"Why Smart executives Fail" wrote:

Some things are by their very nature quite complex...while others are made complex...unnecessary complexity is a warning sign because it tends to create bigger problems than it solves.

Dr. Bowen F. White in "Why Normal Isnt Healthy" wrote:

We can avoid changing by coping.

On death and dying, Maya Angelou in "Wouldnt Take Nothing for my Journey Now" wrote:

"I can accept the idea of my own demise, but I am unable to accept the death of anyone else." photo by Laszlo

David Gamon and Allen Bragdon in "Boost Your Brain Power" wrote

The more words heard, from infancy on up, the higher the verbal test scores.

On Change, Barrie Sanford Greiff, MD (in "A Life Worth Living", Regan Books, Harper Collins Publishers) wrote:

There is age change and work change and parents and kids change, success change, and failure change, too. And if you dont take change by the hand, it will surely take you by the neck.


photo by Lin Pernille

Dominique Grele in "Places with a Heart, Philippines" wrote:

The only way to survive in a megalopolis is to escape from it as often as you can.


photo by Squeezyboy

Agata, 15 year old high school student (as quoted in Watchtower magazine Nov 1, 2007) :

Who of us would dare to board an airplane if we did not think that the laws of aerodynamics were absolute truths?

photo by James Gordon

Andrew A Rooney in "Not that you asked" wrote:

A lot of people assume that we live in an orderly world where every event has a meaning and every problem has a solution. I suspect, however, that some events are meaningless and some problems insoluble.

Jim Collins in "Good to Great" (Harper Business) wrote:

The purpose of a compensation system should not be to get the right behaviors from the wrong people, but to get the right people on the bus in the first place, and to keep them there.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in "Built to Last" wrote

Myth 1: It takes a great idea to start a great company.

photo by norasun

Paul McFedries (WORD SPY, Broadway Books, NY)wrote:

Language wears many hats, but its most important job is to help us name or describe what's in the world.

The Mind Gym wrote (Give me Time, Time Warner Books):

"Finish things. A job half done is a lot of effort wasted."

Carl Honore wrote in "In Praise of SLOW" (Orionbooks):

Doing two things at once seems so clever, so efficient, so modern. And yet what it often means is doing two things not very well.Like many people, I read the paper while watching TV- and find that I get less out of both.

--Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote

(quoted in dedication of Atlas of Orthopedic Pathology, 2nd Ed by Peter G. Bullough, Gower Medical Publishing):

And many more, whose names on
Earth are dark,
But whose transmitted effluence can
not die,
So long as fire outlives the parent spark.