Sunday, September 25, 2005

"[A] woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

-- Dr Johnson. The reference to women makes it non-PC these days, but it can be easily adapted to any phenomenon the citer disparages. Quote in context, collected by Boswell in the Life, according to the Samuel Johnson site:
I told him I had been that morning at a meeting of the people called Quakers, where I had heard a woman preach. Johnson: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

Friday, September 23, 2005

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

George Bernard Shaw
(cited on BrainyQuote)