Smartish Quotes & Sayings

What's all this, I expect you're thinking, about "the tallest mountain in the world"? Everest, surely, deserves at least an honourable mention in this category? Well, it all depends on your point of view. Certainly, Everest stands a sturdy 29,028 feet above sea level, which is, in its way, impressive. But if you were going to climb Everest, you would probably start, fi you were using a reliable guide, somewhere in the Himalayas. Anywhere in the Himalayas is pretty damn high to start with, and so, to hear some people tell it, it's just a smartish jog to do the last little bit to the actual top of Everest. The way to keep it interesting these days is to do it without oxygen or in your underpants or something. — Douglas Adams

That old bald cheater, Time. — Ben Jonson

It has been acceptable for some time in America to remain "wound identified" (that is, using one's victimhood as one's identity, one's ticket to sympathy, and one's excuse for not serving), instead of using the wound to "redeem the world," as we see in Jesus and many people who turn their wounds into sacred wounds that liberate both themselves and others. — Richard Rohr

The reading of literature opens our eyes, offering us new perspectives on things that we can evaluate and adopt. — Alister E. McGrath

Always tell the truth, and people will never believe you. — Ronald Knox

It is high time for some congressional oversight backbone. — Bob Barr

It is normal for husband and wife to argue: it's normal. It always happens. But my advice is this: never let the day end without having first made peace. Never! — Pope Francis

As the former British chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks has expressed it: "If the Nazis searched out every Jew in hate, the Rebbe wished to search out every Jew in love. — Joseph Telushkin

Al leaned close, voice dangerous as he whispered, "We don't forget, Rachel, and it's not as if it was our ancestors who were betrayed. It was us. — Kim Harrison

What is true for the emotions may also be true for the intellect. Some of our perplexities may come from a mismatch between the purposes for which our cognitive faculties evolved and the purposes to which we put them today. — Steven Pinker