All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be--this is elemen tary. -C.S.

Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. At this point there occurred an incident that Western writers have seized on as a seminal clue to Mao's later life. During a reception Mao's father began to ber ate him for being lazy and useless. Infuriated, he fled to a nearby pond, threat ening to jump in. Eventually the quarrel was resolved by compromise when Mao agr eed to kowtow--on one knee only--in exchange for his father's promise to stop th e beatings. "Thus the war ended," Mao recalled, "and from it I learned that when I defended my rights by open rebellion my father relented, but when I remained meek and submissive he only cursed and beat me the more." -Fox Butterfield, Th e New York Times, Mao Tse-Tung: Father of Chinese Revolution, Obituary, Septembe r 10, 1976. Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; Bliss is the same in subject or in king. Pope, Essay on Man, Epis. 4., Line 57. When all is equally agitated, nothing appears to be agitated, as in a ship. When all tend to debauchery, none appears to do so. He who stops draws attention to the excess of others, like a fixed point. -Blaise Pascal, Pensees, Number 382. The heart of some humor is in the disproportionate reaction of a person to the s urrounding circumstances. -China Sinclair Each day delivers a totally new set of circumstances and experiences. The same h ours and minutes which capture the wonder of a child may deepen the rut of an ad ult. -Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life. Foolish men mistake transitory semblances for eternal fact, and go astray more a nd more. -Carlyle Wikipedia is just an incredible thing. It is fact-encirclingly huge, and it is i diosyncratic, careful, messy, funny, shocking, and full of simmering controversi es and it is free, and it is fast. In a few seconds you can look up, for instanc e, "Diogenes of Sinope," or "turnip," or "Crazy Eddie," or "quadratic formula," and you will have knowledge you did not have before. It is like some vast aerial city with people walking briskly to and fro on catwalks, carrying picnic basket s full of nutritious snacks. -Nicolson Baker, How I fell in love with Wikipedia , The Guardian, April 2008. No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are n o longer the same interpreters. -George Eliot Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is n ot entitled. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning, and are impress ed by character; so that if you allow your adversary a respectable character, th ey will think that, though you differ from him, you may be in the wrong. Treatin g your adversary with respect is striking soft in a battle. -Samuel Johnson The best armor is to keep out of gunshot. -Lord Bacon Get your facts first, and then you can distort 'em as much as you please. -S. L . Clemens Learning requires great effort. Unlearning requires greater effort. -China Sinc lair We have taken it upon us to say that if such is, in any sense, the state of the case with regard to Goethe, he deserves not mere approval as a pleasing poet and sweet singer; but deep, grateful study, observance, imitation, as a Moralist an d Philosopher. -Preface, Truth and Fiction Relating to My Life. He knew what is what. -John Skelton, Colyn Cloute. Line 1106. He who seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius, as he must needs paint for other minds and not for his own. -Washington Allston One of the nice things about writing for children is their total acceptance of t he fantastic . . . I did learn though, that to make fantasy work you have to bel ieve in it yourself. If an author doesn't believe in his inventions and his char acters nobody else will. -Michael Bond Better is to bow then breake. -John Heywood, Proverbes. Better is halfe a lofe than no bread. -John Heywood, Proverbes. Many hands make light warke. -John Heywood, Proverbes. Set the cart before the horse. -John Heywood, Proverbes.

I know on which side my bread is buttred. -John Heywood, Proverbes. The trouble with success is that the formula is the same as the one for a nervou s breakdown. -Executives Digest Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by t he river. -The Bible, Jeremiah 17:7-8, KJV. I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. -The Bible, Ecclesiastes 2:13, NIV. At Washington University, researchers have been conducting brain imaging to inve stigate a trait they call persistence--the ability to stay focused on a task unt il it's completed just so--which they consider one of the critical engines drivi ng ambition. -Jeffery Kluger, Ambition: Why Some People Are Most Likely To Succ eed, November 06, 2005. The more the words, the less the meaning. -The Bible, Ecclesiastes 6:11, NIV. Worship is a response. -Unknown Stop your striving; start your trusting. -China Sinclair If the object were to make pupils think, rather than to make them accept certain conclusions, education would be conducted quite differently; there would be les s instruction and more discussion. -Bertrand Russell, Principles of Social Reco nstruction, Chapter 5, 1916. The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable; for the happy impute al l their success to prudence or merit. -Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subj ects, 1706. Education should have two objects: first, to give definite knowledge, reading an d writing, language and mathematics, and so on; secondly, to create those mental habits which will enable people to acquire knowledge and form sound judgments f or themselves. -Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays, 1928. The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree tha t no human acumen is able to see beyond the first battle. In this sense one shou ld understand Napoleons saying: I have never had a plan of operations. Therefore no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force. -Helmuth von Moltke, On Strategy, 1871.