Some of us might find happiness if we would quit struggling so desperately for it.
William Feather (1889-1981) American publisher, author
(Attributed)
I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem with decency and self-respect and whatever courage is demanded, is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from.
William Faulkner (1897-1962) American novelist
Letter to David Kirk, Oxford, Miss. (8 Mar 1956)
(Source)
Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.
David Fasold (1939-1998) American salvage expert, amateur archaeologist
(Attributed)
No man is a failure who is enjoying life.
William Feather (1889-1981) American publisher, author
(Attributed)
Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious.
William Feather (1889-1981) American publisher, author
(Attributed)
Beware of the person who can’t be bothered by details.
William Feather (1889-1981) American publisher, author
(Attributed)
So long as we are full of self, we are shocked at the faults of others. Let us think often of our own sin, and we shall be lenient to the sins of others.
François Fénelon (1651-1715) French theologian, poet, writer [François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon]
(Attributed)
With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress.
Ransom K. Ferm (contemp.)
(Attributed)
There are two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery.
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) Italian-American physicist
(Attributed)
The inexperienced, and crackpots, and people like that, make guesses that are simple, but you can immediately see that they are wrong, so that does not count. Others, the inexperienced students, make guesses that are very complicated, and it sort of looks as if it is all right, but I know it is not true because the truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
The Character of Physical Law, ch 7 “Seeking New Laws” (1965)
(Source)
Scientists take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure — that it is possible to live and not know. But I don’t know whether everyone realizes that this is true.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988)
I have argued flying saucers with lots of people. … I was interested in this: they keep arguing that it is possible. And that’s true. It is possible. They do not appreciate that the problem is not to demonstrate whether it’s possible or not, but whether it’s going on or not. Whether it’s probably occurring or not, not whether it could occur.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
“Cargo Cult Science,” commencement address, California Institute of Technology (1974)
(Source)
Madam, there’s no such thing as a tough child — if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender.
W.C. Fields (1880-1946) American entertainer [b. William Claude Dukenfield]
(Attributed)
Everybody should believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.
W.C. Fields (1880-1946) American entertainer [b. William Claude Dukenfield]
(Attributed)
Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.
Marshall Field (1834-1906) American merchant
(Attributed)
If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) American author and essayist
(Attributed)
There is no point at which you can say, ‘Well, I’m successful now. I might as well take a nap.’
Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) American actress, writer
(Attributed)
Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite; and furthermore, always carry a small snake.
W.C. Fields (1880-1946) American entertainer [b. William Claude Dukenfield]
(Attributed)
It isn’t where you came from; it’s where you’re going that counts.
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) American jazz singer
(Attributed)
in Kliment, Bud, Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of American Song
Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) American jazz singer
(1987)
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
“The Crack-Up,” Esquire (Feb 1936)
If you’re strong enough, there are no precedents.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) American writer [Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald]
The Crack-Up, “The Note-Books,” ed. Edmund Wilson (1945)
It seems to me that if we were all supposed to wind up in the same place, we would have been put there to begin with.
Nancy Flannigan (contemp.)
Belief-L
It is only when you recognize that you CAN do what Hitler did that you can consciously choose not to.
Joseph C. Fletcher (1905-1991) American ethicist
(Attributed)
Enlightened self-interest is a wonderful thing. Turning on the light can be hard.
Peter Flom (contemp.)
Belief-L (24 Jan. 2001)
The (to me) proper reason for treating people nicely is not so they will treat you nicely, but because it is, in a word, nicer to do so.
Peter Flom (contemp.)
Belief-L (24 Jan. 2001)
Money can’t buy happiness, but poverty can’t buy anything.
Peter Flom (contemp.)
Belief-L (6 Jun. 2001)
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make misery a lot more comfortable.
Peter Flom (contemp.)
Belief-L (6 Jun. 2001)
I believe that the First Amendment should cover everything. Even the incredibly icky, distasteful stuff. Because if we let “them” start making ethical judgments, they might not stop until it’s nothing but Norman Rockwell and Hummel figurines.
Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
(Attributed)
confirmed in private e-mail, 6-Sep-03
It isn’t what they say about you, it’s what they whisper.
Errol Flynn (1909-1959) Australian-American actor
(Attributed)
There are those who have thought that Winslow was the ideal form for life itself. Advanced civilizations who hold this theory, while interesting for a while, tend not to last very long. A very few civilizations have decided that Winslow is merely the ideal form for small fuzzy green aligators and never quite understood what all the fuss was about. They are usually exterminated in holy wars by their neighbors.
Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
“Winslow” (1982)
Heroes come in many forms. Some are more frightening than others.
Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
Bill & Barry – The Heterodyne Boys! (1987)
MINSK: Dis iz turnink into vun of dose plans … the kind vere ve kill everybody dot notices dot ve’s killin’ people?
GORB: It is?
MINSK: Uh huh. And how do dose alvays end?
GORB: De dirigible iz in flames, everyboddyz dead an’ I’ve lost my hat.
MINSK: Dot’s right. Und any plan vere you lose you hat iz?
GORB: A bad plan?
MINSK: Right again!Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
Girl Genius, #6 (May-Jun. 2002)
We are living in a new culture, one of responsibility dodgers and corner cutters. Nobody cares if a thing is right or not. If you try to trace a poor job or craftsmanship back, you will find, inevitably, that nobody did it.
Robert Fontaine (contemp.)
(Attributed)
The one important think I have learnt over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking oneself seriously. The first is imperative and the second disastrous.
Dame Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991) English dancer [b. Margaret Hookham]
Margot Fonteyn: An Autobiography (1976)
Don’t forget until too late that the business of life is not business, but living.
Any business arrangement that is not profitable to the other person will in the end prove unprofitable for you. The bargain that yields mutual satisfaction is the only one that is apt to be repeated.
Bertie Charles (B. C.) Forbes (1880-1954) American publisher
(Attributed)
History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.
Bertie Charles (B. C.) Forbes (1880-1954) American publisher
Forbes, Issue No. 1 (Sep 1917)
(Source)
One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.
Bertie Charles (B. C.) Forbes (1880-1954) American publisher
(Attributed)
(also attrib. Malcolm Forbes)
Anyone who says businessmen deal in facts, not fiction, has never read old five-year projections.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
(Attributed)
People who matter are most aware that everyone else does, too.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
The Sayings of Chairman Malcolm (1978)
The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
(Attributed)
If you have a job without aggravations, you don’t have a job.
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
(Attributed)
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) American politician, US President (1974-77) [b. Leslie Lynch King, Jr.]
Speech to the Republican National Convention (19 Aug 1976)
Also cited as a speech to Congress (12 Aug 1976) Also attrib. B. Goldwater
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
Betty Ford (1918-2011) American First Lady (1974-77), philanthropist [Elizabeth Bloomer Warren Ford]
(Attributed)
Administrivia: W, not V
A reader was kind enough to point out that the W page was showing V quotes. I discovered what the error was, and things seem to be working again.
I encourage folks to write me (via the Contact Me link in the sidebar) if you run across errors in structure or format. WIST relies on your help!
Administrivia: Updates to A, B, and C
Finished going through A, B, and C for citations, and the updated files have been posted. (Of course, I added a bunch of quotes along the way. Otherwise, it would hardly be fun.)
Administrivia: Author, author!
I’ve reinstated one of the old features from the previous version of WIST, the list of quoted folk, now available in the Authors link in the sidebar.
I’ve not done it as a Table as I did before. It looked good, but, damn, it took forever to load a 1,500 row. Now it’s just bulleted text, and much faster.
The names are hyperlinked; ultimately, they’ll go to anchors on the right page where the person’s quotes start, but I’ll have to change the quotations exports to include those links. For the moment, they go only to the right page.
Administrivia: Saving Space
Just cut-over from the FrontPage pages to the MT pages. It appears to have gone nearly no hitch (a couple of graphics paths were a tad off).
One intersting item is looking at system resources used.
In FrontPage, the system took up 4.2Mb of space, consisting of 803 files in 41 folders under root.
In MT, the system takes up 2.2Mb of space, 153 files, 1 folder under root.
Note that’s with 300 extra quotations. And with all the content being duplicated between two directories (for odd reasons I won’t go into here).
Sweet.
Administrivia: Doing the numbers, 8/2003
For those who are interested in such things, here are some stats related to WIST.
First off, how many quotes do I actually have here?
Hmmm. Looks like I’ve been slacking. In reality, though, I’ve been focusing on cleaning up and fleshing out citations. Quality over quantity, so to speak.
Secondly, who said what — and who are the most “popular” quote-makers here?
Bear in mind, of course, that things like having a Shakespeare Quote-a-Day calendar could influence the count …
One last bit — total visitors to the front page of WIST since June 1999 have gone as follows:
September 2001: 8,400
Februrary 2002: 12,859
August 2003: 46,958
Cool!
Added on 19-Aug-03; last updated 19-Aug-03
Link to this post | Comments Off on Doing the numbers, 8/2003
Link to this post | Comments Off on Doing the numbers, 8/2003
Administrivia: Searching glances
I neglected to mention that I’m using Atomz for the search engine here. As a free (limited) service, they do some very slick search stuff, and because they provide contextual results (showin the words they found, in context), they are ideal here. I heartily recommend them.
UPDATE (24 Jul 07): No longer using Atomz, but the internal MT search system (possibly to be someday updated to MT FastSearch, or even possibly MTGoogle). Atomz (now part of WebSideStory) has done well by me, so I still encourage you to consider it in your own site design, even if it doesn’t fit mine any more.
Administrivia: MT promises
Unlike what I scribed previously, it wasn’t quite as trivial to plug this stuff into MT as I’d hoped, largely because of limits in HTML form entry sizes.
So instead I’m using Server Side Includes to bring in formatted text files to the entries. Still a lot of advantages to doing things this way (not least of which is that content and presentation are logically divided), but I thought I’d mention the problem I ran into.
Administrivia: Searching glances
Just going to show that I don’t actually search my own database often, I discovered in the MT redesign that the Atomz search index was all frelled up, and since I’d turned off automated reindexing, it had remained frelled up for a lengthy period time. Sorry about that. I’ve turned the scheduled reindexing back on.
One disadvantage to how I’m doing this WIST implementation in MT is that I can’t use MT’s built-in search engine. But, hey-presto, no biggie, because I can still use Atomz — and, it seems, Atomz is actually a better choice, since it gives contextual results. Cool.
Administrivia: Typography
This listing actually comes from a database I’ve put together myself. The database serves two purposes: to put together the web pages (in which case full typographical control is desireable) and to create the input file for my sig file (in which case the lowest common denominator is desired).
Rather than come up with something elaborate that translates stuff back and forth, for the moment you’ll have to put up with italicized items in the quotation text showing up as *starred*, and _underscored_, and other Net-like typographical conventions. If you don’t like it … sorry. Maybe I’ll do something fancier one of these days.
UPDATE (24 Jul 07): One of these days is now, since, working through MT, I can actually do rich text formatting and the like in HTML. Yay. I did some mass conversions of quotions to turn the _s and *s into italics — in some cases that messed up, so if you spot a problem, please let me know.