February 2009
26 posts
Schadenfreude →
is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
“Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.”
– George Jean Nathan
“The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively...”
– Henry S. Haskins
“Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway.”
– John Wayne
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
– Thomas Edison
“Gamble everything for love,
if you’re a true human being.
If not, leave this...”
– Rumi
“They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing...”
– Francis Bacon
Non sequitur →
It is a comment which, due to its lack of meaning relative to the comment it follows, is absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing.
Literally “It does not follow.” (Latin)
“A man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more...”
– Henry David Thoreau
“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders...”
– Isaac Newton
In vino veritas →
In wine [there is the] truth
(Latin)
“If a man points at the moon, an idiot will look at the finger.”
– Sufi
“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the...”
– Helen Keller
“One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the...”
– Stephen Hawking
“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much of life. So aim above...”
– Henry David Thoreau
“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.”
– Heraclitus
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood...”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
– Albert Einstein
“Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”
– Mark Twain
“We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, “Beauty” (1860)
Diatribe →
1. An abusive, bitter denunciation. 2. A prolonged discourse.
Pyrrhic victory →
A victory with devastating cost to the victor.
The phrase is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War.
“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out...”
– Malcolm X
Totus Tuus →
Totally yours. (Latin)
Desire to offer ones life in total commitment to another. The motto was adopted by Pope John Paul II to signify his love and servitude to Mary the Mother of Jesus.
“If you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny or they’ll kill...”
– Billy Wilder
“The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.”