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Quotes: Knowledge If we value the pursuit of
knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free
mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain. All men by nature desire
knowledge. To be conscious that you
are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. There is much pleasure to
be gained from useless knowledge. When you know a thing, to
hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do
not know it - this is knowledge. Convinced myself, I seek
not to convince. It is no good to try to
stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.
The beginning of knowledge
is the discovery of something we do not understand. If knowledge can create
problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them. His priority did not seem
to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing,
not even... knowledge, was foolproof. People are difficult to
govern because they have too much knowledge. If you have knowledge, let
others light their candles at it. Knowledge and timber
shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned. I was born not knowing and
have had only a little time to change that here and there. You can know the name of a
bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know
absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see
what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference
between knowing the name of something and knowing something. Knowledge is of two kinds.
We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.
Mankind have a great
aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily
attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a
little trouble to acquire it.
Knowledge is power.
Marriage The conception of two
people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word
suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep. All married couples should
learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle
is objective and honest - never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and
constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership. A simple enough pleasure,
surely, to have breakfast alone with one's husband, but how seldom married
people in the midst of life achieve it. All marriages are mixed
marriages. There's only one way to
have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again.
A great marriage is not
when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns
to enjoy their differences. Despite everything I've
achieved in my life, the culinary awards, the military commendations, the
honorary degrees, I have never, ever lost sight of what's truly important. The
thing that gives meaning to these triumphs. Someone to share them with. A
companion. A help mate. A wife. Marriage is the union of
disparate elements. Male and female. Yin and yang. Proton and electron. What are
we talking about here? Nothing less than the very tension that binds the
universe. You see, when we look at marriage, people, we're are looking at
creation itself. "I am the sky," says the Hindu bridegroom to the bride. "You
are the earth. We are sky and earth united.... You are my husband. You are my
wife. My feet shall run because of you. My feet shall dance because of you. My
heart shall beat because of you. My eyes see because of you. My mind thinks
because of you and I shall love because of you." Marriage. It's a hard term
to define. Especially for me--I've ducked it like root canal. Still there's no
denying the fact that marriage ranks right up there with birth and death as one
of the three biggies in the human safari. It's the only one though that we'll
celebrate with a conscious awareness. Very few of you remember your arrival and
even fewer of you will attend your own funeral. Marriage. It's like a
cultural hand-rail. It links folks to the past and guides them to the future. What are man and woman if
not members of two very different and warring tribes? Yet decade after decade,
century after century, they attempt in marriage to reconcile and forge a union.
Why? I don't know. Biological imperative? Divine law? Or just a desire to
connect to that mysterious other? In any case, it's always struck me as a
hopeful thing. Man's
best possession is a sympathetic wife. Never say that marriage
has more of joy than pain. One man's folly is another
man's wife. Nearly all marriages, even
happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect
world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners
might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are
actually married to. I pay very little
regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they
profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen
the right person. Marriage. Why do we do it?
Everybody knows the stats. One in two marriages end up in broken dishes and a
trip to Tijuana. Is it loneliness? Partly. Is it teamwork? Definitely. Things
just kind of go easier when there's two of you. One of you can wait in line at
the movie theater while the other guy parks the car. Get better seats that way.
Better room rate when it's a double. Are you ready to file jointly?...Above you
is the sun and sky. Below you, the ground. Like the sun, your love should be
constant, like the ground, solid. If there was strife and
contention in the home, very little else in life could compensate for it. Marriage is a great
institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet. Always get married early in
the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.
My toughest fight was with
my first wife. We were happily married for
eight months. Unfortunately, we were married for four and a half years. If you would marry
suitably, marry your equal. A good marriage is one
which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they
express their love. I love being married. It's
so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your
life. In Hollywood a marriage is
a success if it outlasts milk. When I meet a man I ask
myself, 'Is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?'
Happiness just wasn't part
of the job description back then. You tried to find a helpmate to keep the cold
wind and dogs at bay. Happiness just wasn't part of the equation. Survival was.
Such is the common process
of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together
by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one
another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find
themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be
happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness
had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with
cruelty. There is no observation
more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of
mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution
of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter
into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy
of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it. Remember, that if thou
marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance
will neither last nor please thee one year; and when thou hast it, it will be to
thee of no price at all; for the desire dieth when it is attained, and the
affection perisheth when it is satisfied.
By all means marry; if you
get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a
philosopher. Marriage is the only
adventure open to the cowardly. I'm not a real movie star.
I've still got the same wife I started out with twenty-eight years ago. Never marry but for love;
but see that thou lovest what is lovely. I tended to place my wife
under a pedestal. I know nothing about sex
because I was always married.
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