Raw Wit And Wry Wisdom by Lin Stone - HTML preview

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QUOTES

About Courage

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There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it. Alfred Hitchcock

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Sir, you know courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues, because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other. ~ Samuel Johnson

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An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. —— Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

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It is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you. Woodrow Wilson

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Damn the torpedoes! Captain Drayton, go ahead! David Glasgow Farragut

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Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees. Stonewall Jackson

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Courage is what lets you stick around long enough to see why you are too scared to run.

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Some people have a tendency to drop the success they so richly deserve from life and business. Just before everything clicks into place, the victory cup falls from their lips. Because they don't know how to marshal the edge to act, they freeze helplessly in place. "Am I afraid to act -- or is some wisdom greater than mine telling me not to act?"

After all, you DO NOT WANT to be rushed into something it will take you years, sometimes even a lifetime, to pay it back. The only way to tell your courage is not in question is to know you are brave enough and would be brave enough to act.

For me the fear of being afraid was the driving force for all the foolish and even stupid things I did for nearly 40 years. Was I afraid to jump off that cliff? I had to jump off to see if I was. It was a long ways to the bottom of some of those cliffs. Bone-crushing results did little to make me happy. "If only I knew that I wasn't afraid!"

When you are confident of your own ability to act when the time truly IS right then you can evaluate the opportunity freely and fairly.

Then came the day I was taking my mother up a mountain trail. She was right in front of me when suddenly a grizzly bear roared into view. I grabbed Mama with both hands and set her behind me while she was still just beginning to scream.

"RUN!" I told her, then I lunged towards the grizzly bear, armed with nothing but my bare hands.

The bear was startled and confused by the target switch. It backed up, then left.

Ever afterwards I never once worried about my courage.

Finding a friendly grizzly bear is not a good way to find out if you are brave. But there are easier ways for you to build your confidence and remove those trials by conscience that could be robbing you of the success you really deserve.

If you’re plagued with:

• Not knowing what the meaning is behind fear

• Not understanding even what might be frightening you

• Not knowing how to move boldly forward when your heart tells you it is a lost cause then it's time to go prove your courage to yourself.

You see, Fear may come in numerous forms and it's crucial to comprehend that it is a good thing in most circumstances to act with caution, but you will  miss out on a great deal of wonderful living if you let your can of worms explode into a basket overflowing with something unhealthy, unpredictable and uncontrollable. And the worst part? The more you blame yourself, the harder it is to CHANGE!

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Many of our worst fears are rooted in delusions- confused, unresolved ways of viewing ourselves and the world around us. If we learn to automatically take control, to relax in the face of fear, and dismember the situation until you see it exactly as it really is.. Then you can push your dwindling fears aside and deal with the trivial matters of your life from a power base sharper than a two edged sword.

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I have lived with rotten foundations because of fear, and I have experienced that wild exuberance of success when I took control of the fears in my life -- at the right time.

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I never thought much of a lion tamer's courage. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people. George Bernard Shaw

Turn up the lights.

I don't want to go home in the dark. O. Henry

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If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home in the dark. Lin Stone

No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected. ~ Caesar

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"The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted -- it belongs to the brave," ~ Ronald Reagan

Sometimes when we reach for the stars, we fall short ~ Ronald Reagan

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There is no journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he sets his heart to it. There is nothing that he cannot do, there are no mountains he may not climb, there are no deserts he cannot cross. ~ H. Rider Haggard

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We are not weak, if we make proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power... The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. -- Patrick Henry

Don't let it end like this.

Tell them I said something. ~ Pancho Villa

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The thinner the ice the more anxious is everyone to see whether it will bear. Josh Billings

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Let the tent be struck. last words of Robert E. Lee

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Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Common Wealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour. ~ Winston Churchill

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Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. ~ Winston Churchill

The timid man calls himself "cautious,"
the sordid man "thrifty."
Syrus Publilius

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Nothing beats an idealist who can face facts. ~ Lester del Rey

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Those who once pander to tyrany are never free from it. ~ Conrad Richter

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This may look like a mess but actually it is evidence of a superior intellect in the act of primal organization. Please come back next week.

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The truly great among us are those who are the salt of the earth, the strength of the world and the backbone of their nation. Bless the man that sees what is to be done and springs forward eagerly to do them.

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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." Adolf Hitler

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Hitler's originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the state: The correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal. (the historian) Alan Bullock

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Time makes more converts than reason. Thomas Paine

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I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me.

I'm from Missouri; you've got to show me. William Duncan Vandiver, 1899 at a naval banquet in Philadelphia.

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I enjoy reading words of wisdom especially those our leaders of today seem to forget about.

Norman Jones.

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Be not the first by which the new is tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside. anon

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We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Molly Ivins, syndicated columnist

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I realize that there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I may not be able to say all I think, but I am not going to say anything I do not think. Eugene V. Debs

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Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability. -- George Bernard Shaw

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"I believe there is something out there watching us.

"I believe it's the government." Woody Allen

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Small minds talk about famous people. Mediocre minds talk about famous events. Great minds talk about ideas that will never be forgotten. I can't remember who said that.

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People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going. Earl Nightingale

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What would chairs look like if our knees buckled the other way?

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These are the worst of days, a time when telling the truth is labeled "derogatory." Anon.

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In this world a man must be either anvil or hammer. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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I'd rather be the hammer than the anvil. ~ Erwin Rommel

"You name them. I'll shoot them." George Patton, to Eisenhower.

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No life is of much value and every death is but a little loss. Clarence Darrow.

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It is sad to think how many of those telling points (from scientific discoveries) that turned some of our best students away from the gospel have turned out to be dead wrong! Hugh B. Nibley

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In every presidential campaign you hear the sweet words that sweeps candidates into power. But after the Oval Office is achieved all you hear is a cry for compromise -- and patience. Lin Stone

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The government needs to find better ways to spend its time and our money. Mike McLean, Richfield Minn.

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Energy and Persistance Conquer All Things Benjamin Franklin

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I am not the type who wants to go back to nature. I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel. Fran Lebowitz

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PATRIOTISM

War is not the best way of settling differences; however, it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you. G.K. Chesterton

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“He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf.” Shakespeare

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Liberal doctrines are less scientifically provable than the story of Noah's Ark. Ann Coulter.

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We've got a duty to die and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society, our kids, build a reasonable life. Richard Lamm.

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Where we once had a few big rules, now we need an encyclopedia of little rules. Chesterson.  

The main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail. You can safely appeal to the United Nations in the comfortable certainty that it will let you down. Conor Cruise O'Brien

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Women should not be allowed to serve in the military. They are too vicious. Ann Coulter.

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When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children. Albert Shanker.

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You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money. -- P.J O'Rourke

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I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President. Charlie Chaplin

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I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor. Lord Byron

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There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong. Gilbert K. Chesterton

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In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, Brave, Hated, and Scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, For then it costs nothing to be a Patriot. -- Mark Twain

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Once upon a time, government budgets were balanced, our money was sound, the streets were safe, and taxes imposed by all levels of government took less than 10% of our income. -- Harry Browne

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Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened. -- Sir Winston Churchill

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To disarm the people (is) the best and most effectual way to enslave them... -- George Mason

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The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes. -- Jonathan Swift

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We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs. -- Mikhail Gorbachev

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If we can't legislate what goes on in the bedroom, why can't I hide money from the IRS under my mattress? Ann Coulter.

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Humans have rights under any and all conditions. KATHY KASTEN

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“If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill each other? … Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.” Mother Teresa.

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If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean. Henry Clay

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Marriages can die from a lack of spiritual nourishment. James E. Faust.

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The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries. It marks its victim, denounces it, and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments. Henry Clay.

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Bumper Stickers

You Can Hang Your Hat On

Be careful, son. What you don't know can kid you.

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You can trust me, I'm a volunteer dentist!!

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Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. So too do fools. That is the only way the world can tell them apart.

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This is the Lost and Found Department? Have you seen an old man that looks like he's hunting for his wife?

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When your money is all gone you only have 3 options. Beg, borrow and steal. Work is not an option for real men. 

It is impossible to argue with anyone who isn't neurotic, or wrong!

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Well, here's our car and the key still works, so we know the bank hasn't been here yet.

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One inadvertent glance from him turned my dog ever after into a pessimist about human nature.

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I'm so old that our "WATER FEATURES" were still called DUCK PONDS when I was plumb grown.

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Keep both eyes on him. He may look harmless, but he's SNEAKY! and he's waiting for the last pinch.

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One thing every writer needs occasionally is a good quote just to prove s/he can still afford to read bumper stickers. Lin Stone

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My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted. ~ Ed Dyson

We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it. Lawrence Block.

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"He'll doublecross that bridge when he comes to it." Oscar Levant

If a clock is hungry does it go back four seconds? ~ Ed Dyson

I am not stupid. Everyone else is just smarter than me. ~ Ed Dyson

I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you...you're just not laughing yet. ~ Ed Dyson

What should you do if you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant? ~ Ed Dyson

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Children are geniuses at keeping the secrets that eat them alive. ~ Carol O'Connell

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I have a choice to make, but do I get to choose what that choice will make? The older I get the more old choices I discover that need repenting of before I can bury them. Oh, if only I had known then how important my choices were going to be. ~ Lin Stone

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Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. ~ MarkTwain

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People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy. Bob Hope

No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that's why we have two parties. Bob Hope

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Am I saying that you don't know God since your beliefs don't agree with mine? Yes.

Just because you have a right to be wrong doesn't mean your right isn't wrong. In fact, let's face it, even if you agree with everything I say; you're still wrong.

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Perfect Health is the slowest possible rate at which one can die. ~ John Hart

Bow Ties should be reserved for the collars of tiny dogs hatched from peanut shells. ~ Carol O'Connell

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Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. Don Marquis

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A dollar saved is a quarter earned. Oscar Levant

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There is bound to be a certain amount of trouble in running any country. If you are president all the trouble happens to you but if you are a tyrant you can arrange things so that most of the trouble happens to other people. Don Marquis

Lead us not into more temptation and deliver us from getting caught off base about yesterday's main event. Matthew 6: 13

There is a lot of difference in pioneering for gold and pioneering for spinach. Will Rogers

All I know is just what I read in the papers. Will Rogers

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She looked just like a fireplug with a bright red wig clamped on sideways.

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Sheila and curbs are intimately acquainted.

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Even the most inept nurses are professionally adept at making patients believe there is something important being done for them somewhere else, far away.

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You never realize how short a month is until you start paying alimony. ~ John Barrymore

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ACCIDENTS! If you don't do something about them they just seem to happen.

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In my country we go to prison first and then become President. ~ Mandela

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You never want your enemy to know how smart you are.

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If nothing ever sticks to TEFLON, how do they make TEFLON stick to the frying pan? ~ Ed Dyson

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He is so insensitive that he just doesn't care any more.

If you become too open-minded your brains will fall out.

Forgive your enemies and they may let you breathe again. When an elevator is overloaded with convicts, who is criminally responsible?

Will be back in 2 hours; gone out to search the world for a life that doesn't suck.

It only takes 10 minutes for the shrink to slap a label on your forehead; but it costs your insurance company 10 grand before he cuts you in on the secret. 

I felt righteous and stupid at the same time. It's remarkable how often those two feelings show up together. ~ Lawrence Block

The clutter you see clattering my desk is the sign of a genius in the throes of organizing my work station according to Makeshift Management Procedures. Please come back next week for the final results.

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I am NOT devious! You just got confused by trying to read my mind from a tottering angle

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My doctor said I was sick, he said I was a sick man in a perfectly healthy body. He might be right; I did let him run all those tests he charged me for. ~

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The only thing worse than a psychiatrist is a doctor that thinks he is smart enough to practice psychiatry without studying. "Doc, not even a psychiatrist teaching doctors how to be psychiatrists is smart enough to practice psychiatry."

When a mechanic can not find what's wrong with his patient his reputation shrivels until he is judged incompetent. When a medical doctor can't find the problem s/he soon becomes a specialist demanding top consultant fees for running more tests. 

Obesity is usually caused by the habit of eating everything on your plate. When psychiatrists realized that mothers would take the blame for causing that habit, family services were invented and no psychiatrist has gone hungry since then.

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I have a choice to make. But have I got a choice what choice I make? ~ Lawrence Block

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My garage only hires mechanics trained to practice alternative medicine; Mine uses acupuncture to repair tires.

The man who goes farthest in life usually has an Energizer Bunny beneath the hood.

In Africa last week a man broke into a home and slaughtered the helpless family. Millions of Africans declared him a hero. Yes, they declared Africa was on the brink of a brilliant take off. I ask you, can a people with hearts set on black deeds like this ever be permitted to participate in our modern warfare activities?

The clerk came over and said, Sir, you look confused.” so I said. “I've been practicing that look for 10 years.” He looked quite colnfused when he left me.

Everything I read just goes in one eye and out the other.

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The pool was so crowded today that I had to dive in 3 times before I hit the water.

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After wars, enemies trade? Why the hell did we buy the war when credit was on the way? ~ Lin Stone

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My bookkeeper is a ledger on his own time.

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I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that! ~ Ed Dyson 

I've become addicted to therapy and no one knows how to treat me. Ed Dyson

Laziness is only the art of resting before you get tired. Ed Dyson

This project is so important, we can't even let things that are more important interfere with it. Ed Dyson

Whoever said nothing is impossible never tried to slam a revolving door shut.

If you have 24 odds and ends on a table, and 23 fall off, what do you have left, an odd or an end?

I never apologize. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I am. Ed Dyson

Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world's population.

Ed Dyson: Stop being so stupid... it's my turn.

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Ed Dyson: There ought to be a better way to start the day than by getting up in the morning.

Ed Dyson: Everyone is entitled to my opinion.

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I don't believe reincarnation is very successful; I had this same job last time.

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The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it. -Franklin P. Jones

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She ran away from home 3 years ago and nobody missed her; they thought she was still in the bathroom.

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Children are crucial to family life; without them we'd never get the telly programmed right.

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Why is it that every time a witness volunteers to tell the truth that some lawyer objects?

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The issue of whether Freemasons have secrets or not is a closely guarded secret.

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Postal workers are asking for another holiday this year so they can catch up on their emails.

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A lot of things have happened to us since we went to school here together. Some of you went on to become lawyers, politicians, stockbrokers or accountants, while the rest of us went on to become useful members of society.

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Isn't it wonderful to get together like this every 25 years to see who is coming apart?

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When I was young I used to think wealth and power would make me happy; and I was right. ~ Gahan Wilson

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His ancestors were so short his family tree is a stump.

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The biggest thing wrong with referees is that they don't care much who wins.

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A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her. ~ W. C. Fields

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What's the use of being Irish if the world doesn't break your heart? - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

We are bound to lose Ireland in consequence of years of cruelty, stupidity and misgovernment and I would rather lose her as a friend than as a foe. - William E. Gladstone

God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world. - Ed McMahon

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. - William Butler Yeats

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized. ~ Oscar Wilde

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.- Alex Levine

You can't kiss an Irish girl unexpectedly. You can only kiss her sooner than she thought you would.

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could. - George Bernard Shaw

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An Irishman needs three things: silence, cunning and exile. - James Joyce

Put an Irishman on the spit and you can always get another Irishman to turn him. - George Bernard Shaw

If you are lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough. - Grace Boyle

In order to find his equal, an Irishman is forced to talk to God. - Stephen Braveheart 

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The Irish are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false representations of the merits of their countrymen. No, Sir, the Irish are a fair people; -- they never speak well of one another. - Samuel Johnson

The English are not happy unless they are miserable, the Irish are not at peace unless they are at war, and the Scots are not at home unless they are abroad. - George Orwell

Get down on your knees and thank God you're still on your feet.

You'll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

No two people ever lit a fire without disagreeing.

A good diplomat must always think twice before he says nothing.

Put a beggar on a horse and he'll ride it to hell.

May neighbours respect you,

Trouble neglect you,

The angels protect you,

And heaven accept you.

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Love is life's end, but never ending. Love is life's wealth, never spent, but ever spending. Love's life's reward, rewarded in rewarding. ~ Herbert Spencer

We have bad news for you John. The bridesmaid just brought 3 more aspirins for Joan and this is her second trip.

I never married; I didn't like the hours. ~ Angela Colley

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If any of you have arrived late for the wedding let me bring you up to speed; in this corner we have the bridegroom's family and over there and staring this way we have --

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It's always a relief to wake up in a wedding scene and realize it isn't yours.

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Money is a lot like cow manure. If you spread it around, it can do a lot of good, but if you pile it up in one place, it stinks like hell. ~ Clint W. murchison

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Money makes you feel better even if you don't like the stuff. Joe Louis.

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Everything you do, it's always got a price tag on it." ~ Lawrence Block

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The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion to the devaluation of the world of men. Labour produces not only commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity -- and does so in the proportion in which it produces commodities generally. ~ Karl Marx

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Quality is more important to poor people than it is to rich people; but they can't afford quality even if they could recognize it. Lin Stone

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Avoiding this monetary predicament takes maturity and planning. I can only help you with the planning; See your mother about the maturity.

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