John Mason's Quotes & Sayings

It is in the hard rockpile labour of seeking to win, hold, or deserve a reader's interest that the pleasant agony of writing comes in. — John Mason Brown

Friendship should be a private pleasure, not a public boast. I loathe those braggarts who are forever trying to invest themselves with importance by calling important people by their first names in or out of print. Such first-naming for effect makes me cringe. — John Mason Brown

Even when the facts are available, most people seem to prefer the legend, and refuse to believe the truth when it in any way dislodges the myth. — John Mason Brown

Charm is a glow within a woman that casts a most becoming light on others. — John Mason Brown

The perfection of an art consists in the employment of a comprehensive system of laws, commensurate to every purpose within its scope, but concealed from the eye of the spectator; and in the production of effects that seem to flow forth spontaneously, as though uncontrolled by their influence, and which are equally excellent, whether regarded individually, or in reference to the proposed result. — John Mason Good

When you're good at making excuses, it's hard to excel at anything else. — John Landis Mason

The comic book is the marijuana of the nursery, the bane of the bassinet, the horror of the home, the curse of the kids and a threat to the future. — John Mason Brown

What a man is is the basis owhat he dreams and thinks, accepts and rejects, feels and perceives. — John Mason Brown

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize. — John Landis Mason

(John Cheever thought that you couldn't even type a business letter without revealing something of your inner self - isn't that the truth?) — Mason Currey

Never take direction for your personal life from a crowd. — John Landis Mason

A good conversationalist is not one who remembers what was said, but says what someone wants to remember. — John Mason Brown

So much of TV seems to be chewing gum for the eyes ... TV desperately needs more self-reliance and pride in the medium. — John Mason Brown

How prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles! — John Mason Brown

Reasoning with a child is fine, if you can reach the child's reason without destroying your own. — John Mason Brown

So often we rob tomorrow's memories by today's economies. — John Mason Brown

It has been demonstrated that freemason - in an operative context - is a contraction of 'freestone mason' ... The earliest printed use so far traced comes in The Pilgrimage of Perfection - usually attributed to William Bonde - printed in 1536 by Wynkyn de Worde. — John Hamill

Something deathless and dangerous in the world sweeps past you ... It is something fearful and ominous, something turbulent and to be dreaded, which distends the drama to include the life of nations as well as of men. It is an ageless warning ... — John Mason Brown

Part of the American myth is that people who are handed the skin of a dead sheep at graduating time think that it will keep their minds alive forever. — John Mason Brown

I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood. — John Mason Brown

No one is worthy of a good home here or in heaven that is not willing to be in peril for a good cause. — John Mason Brown

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. — John Mason Brown

To many people, dramatic criticism must seem like an attempt to tattoo soap bubbles. — John Mason Brown

Indifference, lukewarmness, and neutrality are always attached to failure. — John Landis Mason

The wonder of imagination is this: It has the power to light its own fire. — John Landis Mason

She knows what is the best purpose of education: not to be frightened by the best but to treat it as part of daily life. — John Mason Brown

Some television programs are so much chewing gum for the eyes. — John Mason Brown

Brief life is here our portion. — John Mason Neale

Breaking down does not have to mean reaching a catastrophe. — Valerie Mason-John

What happiness is, no person can say for another. But no one, I am convinced, can be happy who lives only for himself. The joy of living comes from immersion in something that we know to be bigger, better, more enduring and worthier than we are. — John Mason Brown

The critic is a man who prefers the indolence of opinion to the trials of action. — John Mason Brown

Most people spend most of their days doing what they do not want to do in order to earn the right, at times, to do what they may desire. — John Mason Brown

America is a land where men govern, but women rule. — John Mason Brown

Happiness consists in activity. It is running steam, not a stagnant pool. — John Mason Good

He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace. — John Mason Brown

You can be a mason and build 50 buildings, but it doesn't mean you can design one. — John Malkovich

Only those who do not expect anything are never disappointed. Only those who never try, never fail. Anyone who is currently achieving anything in life is simultaneously risking failure. It is always better to fail in doing something than to excel in doing nothing. A flawed diamond is more valuable than a perfect brick. People who have no failures also have few victories. — John Landis Mason

Let the whole Earth be filled with his Glory! Thus the LORD was pleased to smite our Enemies in the hinder Parts, and to give us their Land for an Inheritance: Who remembred us in our low Estate, and redeemed us out of our Enemies Hands: Let us therefore praise the LORD for his Goodness and his wonderful Works to the Children of Men! — John Mason

I am as content to die for God's eternal truth on the scaffold as in any other way. — John Mason Brown

I have lived long enough to be battered by the realities of life, and not too long to be downed by them. — John Mason Brown

God spare me sclerosis of the curiosity, for the curiosity which craves to keep us informed about the small things no less than the large is the mainspring, the dynamo, the jet propulsion of all complete living. — John Mason Brown

In continental Europe,' wrote a distraught John Maynard Keynes, shortly after storming out of the British delegation at Versailles, 'the earth heaves and no one but is aware of the rumblings. There it is not just a matter of extravagance or "labour troubles"; but of life and death, of starvation and existence, and of the fearful convulsions of a dying civilization.'24 — Paul Mason

You were born an original, don't die a copy — John Mason Brown

My father was a stone mason, and a talented amateur pianist and vocalist. — John E. Walker

The more one has seen of the good, the more one asks for the better. — John Mason Brown

Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blessed, beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice oppressed. — John Mason Neale

But GOD was above them, who laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to Scorn, making them as a fiery Oven: Thus were the Stout Hearted spoiled, having slept their last Sleep, and none of their Men could find their Hands: Thus did the LORD judge among the Heathen, filling the Place with dead Bodies! — John Mason

Gain control of your time, and you will gain control of your life. — John Landis Mason

The purpose of writing is to hold a mirror to nature, but too much today is written from small mirrors in vanity cases. — John Mason Brown

Nowhere are prejudices more mistaken for truth, passion for reason and invective for documentation than in politics. — John Mason Brown

I am ready any time. Do not keep me waiting. — John Mason Brown