I’ve put together about 1,050 quotes – with more on the way – that randomly surface every few seconds in the right hand column of this page. By now, certainly you’ve noticed them.

Some of them, narcissistic*, are my own words wrapped around my own thoughts. Others are from the great lights of mankind or from the Christian scriptures. A few were scavenged from the rubble pile of history before they could be covered completely over. They come from the little read, seldom quoted, list of thinkers.

And I have no desire to get ugly. But I cannot help mentioning that the door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly. — Ogden Nash, "Seeing Eye to Eye Is Believing"

I’m curious to know which of these have sparked an “aha” moment for you?

I have a pet theory which, even though I do not allow it to lay upon the sofa, I am quite fond of.

I am convinced that the quotations that we choose to save and savor later speak reams about us as individuals and as a society. I lament that I am confined to English language quotations. I suspect that I would find a rich repository of them in nearly every written language known to mankind. But, confined I am.

I cannot, in good conscience, lift a quote from a Chinese website that might turn out to be nothing more than an Oriental version of the television listings for next Thursday. It could be the weather forecast or just the smog warnings … I wouldn’t know. So, instead of having lasting importance, it would barely serve for wrapping fish entrails by Friday.

Although, such a mis-placed quote would also speak reams about me and help to prove my theory. However, I’m not certain that I want quotes which highlight how careless I can be: that’s what friends are for.

* I am SO proud of myself for spelling that word entirely from memory!