Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we have expressed them to someone else. I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer. When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people. The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal. By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean. It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane. I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don't know. In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession. The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself. A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live. Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable. Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place. Hope you enjoyed these. Let's laugh more. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
