| Favorite Quotes | Song Lyrics | Movie Lines | Random Thoughts |

Quotes by C.S. Lewis, John Muir, John Wesley Powell, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, and others.
(Click on the name to jump directly to the quotes on this page.)

| Get lots of quotes at uselessknowledge.com |

Shakespeare:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.  Shakespeare from Hamlet.

C.S. Lewis:

....and you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.  C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity.

John Muir:

the magnitudes of the mountains are so great that unless seen and submitted to a good long time they are not seen or felt at all.  John Muir.  (Muir Trail)

I will follow my instincts, be myself for good or ill, and see what will be the upshot.  As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.  I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and avalanche.  I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near to the heart of the world as I can. . . .I could have been a millionaire, but I chose to become a tramp.  John Muir--from Self Reliance (borrowed from Emerson).

I can hardly conceive of any bodily condition dependent on food or breath any more that the ground or the sky. How glorious a conversion, so complete and wholesome it is, scarce memory enough of old bondage days left as a standpoint to view it from! In this newness of life we seem to have been so always. John Muir.

I did not mean to climb it, but got excited and soon was on top.  John Muir (from a letter to his wife explaining why he climbed Mount Rainier.)

.....there is not a sane man in San Francisco.   John Muir.

John Wesley Powell:

I have heard the venerable and impassioned orator on the camp meeting stand rehearse the story of the crucifixion, and seen the thousands there weep in contemplation of the story of divine suffering. . . .but the scene was not one whit more dramatic than I have witnessed in the evergreen forest of the Rocky Mountains, where a tribe was gathered under the great pines, and the temple of light from the blaxing fire was walled by the darkness of midnight, and in the mist of the temple stood the wise old man telling, in simple savage language, the story of Ta-wats wen he conquered the sun and established the seasons and the days.  Major John Wesley Powell.   Here are some of my thoughts on this (Scroll down to Powell).

As the sun sank to the western edge of the outer world, we were rushing down a long straight stretch of canyon, and the colossal precipices looming on all sides as well as dead ahead across our pathway, positively appeared about to overwhelm the entire river by their ponderous magnificence, burnished at their summits by the dying sun.  On, down the headlong flood our faithful boats carried us to the gloom that seemed to be the termination of all except subterranean progress.  Frederick Dellenbaugh on the Colorado River expedition with John Powell.  Read the account of their adventure!  It's amazing.  (Photo Tour.)

We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats. . . are chafing each other, as they are tossed by the fretful river. We have but a month’s rations remaining. The flour has been resifted through the mosquito-net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried. . . the sugar has all melted and gone on its way down the river. We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks uinto insifnificance, as it dashes its angry waves agains the walls and cliffs, that rise to the world above; they are but puny ripples, and we are but pigmies, running up and down the sands, or lost among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run; an unknown river yet to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not.  Major John Wesley Powell, from Exploration

I am not sure that we can climb out of the canyon here, and, when at the top of the wall, I know enough of the country to be certain that it is a desert of rock and sand.. . .I almost conclude to leave the river. But for years I have been contemplating this trip. To leave the exploration unfinished, to say that there is a part of the canon which I cannot explore, having already almost accomplished it, is more than I am willing to acknowledge, and I determine to go on. Major John Wesley Powell, from Exploration (three of his companions deserted that day and were shot while trying to find their way out)

We had the greatest ride that was ever got. . . . Andy Hall on rafting the Colorado with John Powell (stated after it was over, of course.)

Albert Einstein:

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."  Albert Einstein

Not all that counts can be counted, and not all that can be counted, counts.  Albert Einstein (attributed) 

There is too much education altogether.  Albert Einstein - from the World as I see it. (click on the link for tons of other Einstein quotes.)

Abraham Lincoln:

I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.   Abraham Lincoln

John James Audubon

What!  Have I come here to mimic nature in her grandest enterprise - to add my caricature of one of the wonders of the world to those which I see here?  No - I give up the idea as a vain attempt.  I will look on these mighty cateracts and imprint them on my mind - there alone can they be represented!  John James Audubon on deciding not to paint a scene of Niagara Falls.

The Cray is certainly not a fish, but a handsome crustaceous animal, one ... I consider of the first order, above all when stripped of its coat and blended in 'gumbo'.  - John James Audubon from Ornithological Biography - The White Perch,  1835.  

Gordon B. Hickley:

Now you can't just go on being good....you've got to be good for something.  Gordon B. Hinckley (LDS Church President.)

God will have a humble people--we can choose to be humble, or we can be compelled to be humble.  Gordon B. Hinckley (quoting  Ezra Taft Benson)

...cram your head full of knowledge.  Assimilate it.   Then live it.  Gordon B. Hinckley (paraphrased from Jan. 1999 Ensign)

Others:

...to divine that wonderful arts lie behind trivial and childish things is a conception for superhuman talents.  Galileo--from Dialogue...

What (climbers) seek I think is the possibility of courage.   When (a climber) pushes up Everest, they place themselves in situations where heroism will be summoned.  A century ago they might have battled blizzards or mountain passes in the course of frontier life, but today these hardships are overcome in the comfort (of a wide bodied jet.)  Today courage comes in a thousand small decisions and discrete acts; rare is the chance to stand before a Tiananmen Square tank and bask in the bold moment.  Even rarer to stand before challenge from the natural world, though we crave the chance.  And so we induce courage by artificial means...   Bruce Barcott from Measure of a Mountain

The popular pink marshmallow conception of love, which considers it a lush force that does for human beings that which they are too lazy or greedy to do for themselves, instead of the call to battle which it is, has always irritated me.  Lawrence Van der Post from Kalahari.

There is nothing so fearful as a man who is certain beyond doubt that he is right...Lawrence Van der Post from Kalahari.

That which is freely given is worth a hundred times that which is conceded by coercion...Lawrence Van der Post from Kalahari.  

Every man has the liability for what he personally has acquired. Koran:  Surah 52.18

Early in life I learned that if you want something, you'd better make some noise.   Malcolm X

I could carve a better man out of a banana!  Teddy Roosevelt

I prefer the saddle to the streetcar and star-sprinkled sky to a roof, the obscure and difficult tral, leading into the unknown, to any paved highway, and the deep peace of the will to the discontent bred by cities...it is enough that I am surrounded with beauty...  Everett Ruess.

Music, after silence, comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible.  Aldous Huxley

The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray.  Aldous Huxley from Brave New World.

I like nonsense. . . it wakes up the brain cells.  Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss.)

It is impossible to make all institutions good, unless you make all men good, and that I do not expect to see.  Thomas More from Utopia

All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.  J.D. Salinger--from Catcher in the Rye

I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness.  ...work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor--such is my idea of happiness.  And then...a mate, and children, perhaps--what more can the heart of man desire?  Leo Tolstoy from Family Happiness 

I shall not attempt to describe our feelings of joy; these things are known by experience, not by language.  Parley P. Pratt (on seeing his wife after one year's absence for a mission.)

Go to Provo, or go to hell. . .   Brigham Young (on assigning Abraham Smoot to help found Brigham Young University.)

I want people to know I'm very upset about what we're feeding our children.  Philo Farnsworth (BYU alum and inventor of the television)

In good times, people will shy away from human suffering at the periphery of their existence, in order to prolong their well-being. Yet a man who is approaching the last frontier, who is already a naked beggar deprived of everything that may be thought to beautify life, can suddenly find in himself the strength to dig in his heels. . . surrender his life but not his principles. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Alpine climbing and long distance running are the closest I come to religion.  Amy Smith

The greatest compliment I can receive is to be told that some of my books are held together with more Scotch tape than there is paper in the original book... They've been used so much, they've been torn to pieces, I see babies looking at the pictures even if they're holding the book upside down. And plenty of teenagers, too, sneak back to my books when they think no one is looking.  Richard Scarry.

You can talk and never teach until you practice what you preach.  Anonymous

...make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt.  So many people live within unhappy circumstance and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.  The very basic core of man's living spirit is his passion for adventure.  The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.  If you want to get more out of life...you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.  But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.  ...in short... hit the Road.  I guarantee you'll be glad you did.  Alex McCandless (found frozen in Alaska--from a letter to a friend.)

In a way, art is a theory about how the world looks to human beings. Michael Feigenbaum

Somehow the wondrous power of the earth is that there are things beautiful in it, things wondrous and giving and by virtue of your trade you want to understand them. Michael Feigenbaum

Chaos could have been discovered long ago…If you just look, there it is. ...Perhaps we should believe in magic. Crutchfield

[Chaos is] an operational way to define free will, in a way that allowed you to reconcile free will with determinism. The system is deterministic, but you can’t say what it’s going to do next.  Farmer

I cannot study … guilt without raising the very obvious and tragic thought that religion – my own as well as that of all believers – can crush instead of liberate. Paul Tournier. 

Time is what keeps everything from happening at once. Anon.

I’d rather be happy than right any day. - Douglas Adams from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination. - Douglas Adams from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

On planet earth, man had assumed he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much; the wheel, New York, wars, and so on, when all the while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about the water doing no good. But conversely, dolphins had always believed they were far more for precisely the same reason. - Douglas Adams from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

And thumbs down to:

Sometimes a scoundrel is useful to our party precisely because he is a scoundrel.  Lenin

Leave them in peace, we can always shoot them later.  Stalin (concerning the Russian physicists attempting to copy the U.S. atomic bomb)

- from my booklist -
(more to come....)

| Contact |