COACHES HOT SEAT NFL

Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Wednesday, April 30, 2014 – Wilt Chamberlain

“Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.””

And

“With all of you men out there who think that having a thousand different ladies is pretty cool, I have learned in my life I’ve found out that having one woman a thousand different times is much more satisfying.”

And

“The man who won’t loan money isn’t going to have many friends – or need them.”

And

“I guarantee you, if you could give me 10 points in all those seventh games against the Boston Celtics, instead of Bill Russell having 11 rings, I could’ve at least had nine or eight.”

And

“I believe that good things come to those who work.”

And

“I get constant reminders from fans who equate that game and my career as one and the same.”

And

“And I remember leaving my place in L.A. and – my father is a big fight fan – and I said, ‘Dad, I got a couple of days off and I’m getting ready to go to Houston to sign to fight Muhammad Ali.”

And

“When you go out there and do the things you’re supposed to do, people view you as selfish.”

And

“If you have ability in a certain area, why not capitalize on it and improve it and use it?”

And

“We’re all fascinated by the numbers, as we were about the 100 points.”

And

“I couldn’t have come close without my teammates’ help because the Knicks didn’t want me to make 100.”

And

“You must understand as a kid of color in those days, the Harlem Globetrotters were like being movie stars.”

And

“They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.”

And

“Everything is habit forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.”

And

“Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another one like him.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who broke Chamberlain’s record to become the NBA’s leading career scorer.

And

“When I started to play with him, he helped make me a better player. We seemed to have a real good feel together, I think it translated into a confidence with him. All players are generally judged by the number of championships they won. Unfortunately, he only won two. His greatness as a basketball player can’t be questioned. He was fun, we used to laugh at him a lot, some of the things that would happen. I once told him, no one roots for Goliath.” – Jerry West, former teammate and current executive vice president of basketball operations with the Lakers.

And

“As I grew up, Wilt the Stilt was the player. Just the things he was able to do. I guess one year they told him he couldn’t make as much money as he wanted because he couldn’t pass the ball, so he went out and led the league in assists. Watching Wilt, you always kind of got the idea he was just playing with people. That he was on cruise control and still 10 times better than anybody else that was playing at that time.” – Denver Nuggets Coach Dan Issel.

And

“Obviously, he was both literally and figuratively a larger-than-life sports figure of the 20th century. He dominated his sport like almost no one else.” – Atlanta Hawks president Stan Kasten.

And

“He was the NBA. He was the guy on the top. Wilt was the guy you talked about – he and Bill Russell. He was the most dominating center – the best center to ever play in the NBA.” – Former NBA center and Bulls coach Johnny “Red” Kerr, who played part of one season in Philly with Wilt and against him for six-plus years.

And

“He was always a person that I viewed as being bigger than life in more ways than one. I had recently heard through friends and associates that he hadn’t been feeling well, but again, I felt Wilt was a person who was able to overcome anything, so I was totally shocked to hear of his death.” – Al Attles, a former teammate of Chamberlain’s with the Warriors and now the team’s vice president and assistant general manager.

And

“Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA. His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all. He will be sorely missed by myself and everyone in the basketball community. Wilt was a great performer and a great athlete.” – Former Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach.

And

“He was a terrific guy. It is a great loss to the sports world. Wilt Chamberlain had a special place in basketball history and he will be missed. We had many battles with Wilt. He was a fun guy to be around; he was a ‘Gentle Giant.’ ” – Boston Celtics great and Hall of Famer Tom Heinsohn.

And

“I spent 12 years in his armpits, and I always carried that 100-point game on my shoulders. After I got my third foul, I said to one of the officials, Willy Smith, ‘Why don’t you just give him 100 points and we’ll all go home?’ Well, we did.” – Darrall Imhoff, who as a 6-foot-10 rookie center for the Knicks, guarded Chamberlain during his 100-point game.

And

“We’ve lost a giant of a man in every sense of the word. The shadow of accomplishment he cast over our game is unlikely ever to be matched.” – NBA Commissioner David Stern.

And

“It’s a shock to all of us in the basketball community. This is a guy whose impact changed the rules of the game … he changed the interior part of our basketball game.” – Los Angeles Lakers Coach Phil Jackson.

And

“He was more inquisitive than anybody I ever knew. He was writing a screenplay about his life. He was interested in world affairs, sometimes he’d call me up late at night and discuss philosophy. I think he’ll be remembered as a great man. He happened to make a living playing basketball but he was more than that. He could talk on any subject. He was a Goliath.” – Sy Goldberg, Chamberlain’s longtime attorney.

And

“He just was a wonderful person. He comes off one way, but he is truly a family-oriented person, a person who loves his friends and friends loved him. … He is a person that will always be one of our favorite, favorite people. Not only because he was a great basketball player, but he was a great son, a great brother, a great uncle and he was just a nice, nice person.” – Chamberlain’s sister, Barbara Lewis.

And

“I did see him about four times a week – big, strong, big smile. He always thought he could play still better than all the guys in the game could play. He is gone and I can’t believe it.” – Announcer Chick Hearn, who broadcast all of the Lakers games when Chamberlain played for them.

And

“The 76ers family is deeply saddened by the loss of not only one of our greatest players of all time, but by an incredible human being. We pass along our condolences to his family and join the millions of basketball fans around the world mourning this loss.” – 76ers owner Pat Croce.

And

“Wilt was a tremendous individual, I really got to know him when I was coaching at UCLA. He spent a lot of time with the team. As far as basketball, he changed the way the game is played. This is a great loss.”
– 76ers Coach Larry Brown

Wikipedia:  Wilt Chamberlain

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, April 29, 2014 – William Tecumseh Sherman

“An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army.”

And

“An army to be useful must be a unit, and out of this has grown the saying, attributed to Napoleon, but doubtless spoken before the days of Alexander, that an army with an inefficient commander was better than one with two able heads.”

And

“Courage – a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.”

And

“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”

And

“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.”

And

“If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”

And

“I make up my opinions from facts and reasoning, and not to suit any body but myself. If people don’t like my opinions, it makes little difference as I don’t solicit their opinions or votes.”

And

“In our Country… one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.”

And

“It’s a disagreeable thing to be whipped.”

And

“My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

And

“If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

And

“I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.”

And

“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”

And

“Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”

And

“Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.”

And

“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.”

And

“I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace.”

And

“There will soon come an armed contest between capital and labor. They will oppose each other, not with words and arguments, but with shot and shell, gun-powder and cannon. The better classes are tired of the insane howling of the lower strata and they mean to stop them.”

And

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”

And

“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”

And

“If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.”

Wikipedia:  William Tecumseh Sherman

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Monday, April 28,  2014 – Carl Von Clausewitz

“All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.”

And

“Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.”

And

“Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.”

And

“If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.”

And

“It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.”

And

“Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.”

And

“Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.”

And

“The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.”

And

“The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.”

And

“The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes.”

And

“Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.”

And

“War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.”

And

“Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.”

And

“Determination in a single instance is an expression of courage; if it becomes characteristic, a mental habit. But here we are referring not to physical courage but to courage to accept responsibility, courage in the face of a moral danger. This has often been called courage d’esprit, because it is created by the intellect. That, however, does not make it an act of the intellect: it is an act of temperament. Intelligence alone is not courage; we often see that the most intelligent people are irresolute. Since in the rush of events a man is governed by feelings rather than by thought, the intellect needs to arouse the quality of courage, which then supports and sustains it in action.
Looked at in this way, the role of determination is to limit the agonies of doubt and the perils of hesitation when the motives for action are inadequate.”

And

“We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.”

And

“Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy’s strength too high than too low, such is human nature.”

And

“With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.”

And

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.”

And

“Any complex activity, if it is to be carried on with any degree of virtuosity, calls for appropriate gifts of intellect and temperament. If they are outstanding and reveal themselves in exceptional achievements, their possessor is called a ‘genius’.”

And

“If the mind is to emerge unscathed from this relentless struggle with the unforeseen, two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.”

And

“There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom.”

And

“Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.”

Wikipedia Page:  Carl Von Clausewitz

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Sunday, April 27, 2013 – Warren Buffett

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”

And

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.  If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

And

“It’s better to hang out with people better than you.  Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

And

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

And

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

And

“Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.”

And

“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”

And

“The first rule is not to lose.  The second rule is not to forget the first rule.”

And

“It’s never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.”

And

“A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.”

And

“Our favorite holding period is forever.”

And

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

And

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

And

“Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”

And

“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

And

“You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.”

Wikipedia:  Warren Buffett

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Saturday, April 26, 2014 – Harper Lee

Below – To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”

And

“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.”

And

“The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.”

And

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions… but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

And

“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view–until you climb into his skin and walk around it.”

And

“Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. “Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

And

“With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.”

And

“When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles ’em.”

And

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.”

And

“You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ’em get your goat. Try fightin’ with your head for a change.”

And

“There is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is the court.”

And

“We’re paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It’s that simple.”

And

“There are just some kind of men…who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one.”

And

“Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere.”

And

People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.

And

Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in.

And

“Try fighting with your head for a change…it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.”

And

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.  It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”  

Above – To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

“Well, they’re Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldn’t dream of interrupting you at golf. ” Harper Lee

And

“Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself…It’s a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.” Harper Lee

Wikipedia Page:  Harper Lee

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Friday, April 25, 2014 – Leonardo da Vinci

“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”

And

“Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.”

And

“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.”

And

“He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.”

And

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”

And

“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.”

And

“Learning never exhausts the mind.”

And

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”

And

“Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature.”

And

“The earth is not in the centre of the Sun’s orbit nor at the centre of the universe, but in the centre of its companion elements, and united with them. And any one standing on the moon, when it and the sun are both beneath us, would see this our earth and the element of water upon it just as we see the moon, and the earth would light it as it lights us.”

And

“The motive power is the cause of all life.”

And

“Every action needs to be prompted by a motive. To know and to will are two operations of the human mind. Discerning, judging, deliberating are acts of the human mind.”

And

“The acquisition of any knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.”

And

“He who thinks little, errs much.”

And

“It is easier to contend with evil at the first than at the last.”

And

“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”

And

“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”

And

“Wisdom is the daughter of experience.”

And

“Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.”

Wikipedia: Leonardo da Vinci

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Thursday, April 24, 2014 – William Shakespeare

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”

And

“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

And

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

And

“Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.”

And

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

And

“Listen to many, speak to a few.”

And

“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.”

And

“Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.”

And

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”

And

“Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.”

And

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”

And

“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

And

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

And

“To be, or not to be, — that is the question: —
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? — To die, to sleep, —
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, — ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; —
To sleep, perchance to dream: — ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death, —
The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, — puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know naught of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.”
Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1

And

“She should have died hereafter;
There would have been time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5

And

“There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
Julius Caesar, Brutus, Act IV, Scene 3

And

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.”
Romeo and Juliet

And

“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
Romeo and Juliet

And

“Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”
Romeo and Juliet

And

“Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.”
Romeo and Juliet

And

“There’s an old saying that applies to me: you can’t lose a game if you don’t play the game. (Act 1, scene 4)”
Romeo and Juliet

And

“True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger’d, puffs away from thence,
Turning his side to the dew-dropping south.”
Romeo and Juliet

Wikipedia:  William Shakespeare

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Wednesday, April 23, 2014 – Carl Sagan

“All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.”

And

“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”

And

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

And

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”

And

“I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.”

And

“I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.”

And

“If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?”

And

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

And

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.”

And

“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”

And

“Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.”

And

“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.”

And

“Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.”

And

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

And

“The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.”

And

“The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.”

And

“The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.”

And

“We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”

and

“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”

And

“Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.”

And

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.”

And

“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever it has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?”

And

“The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no place in the endeavor of science.”

And

“Matter is composed chiefly of nothing.”

And

“Other things being equal, it is better to be smart than to be stupid.”

And

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”

And

“Humans are very good at dreaming, although you’d never know it from your television.”

And

“In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature.”

And

“We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.”

And

“As a boy Kepler had been captured by a vision of cosmic splendour, a harmony of the worlds which he sought so tirelessly all his life. Harmony in this world eluded him. His three laws of planetary motion represent, we now know, a real harmony of the worlds, but to Kepler they were only incidental to his quest for a cosmic system based on the Perfect Solids, a system which, it turns out, existed only in his mind. Yet from his work, we have found that scientific laws pervade all of nature, that the same rules apply on Earth as in the skies, that we can find a resonance, a harmony, between the way we think and the way the world works. When he found that his long cherished beliefs did not agree with the most precise observations, he accepted the uncomfortable facts, he preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions. That is the heart of science.”

And

“Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

And

“A scientific colleague tells me about a recent trip to the New Guinea highlands where she visited a stone age culture hardly contacted by Western civilization. They were ignorant of wristwatches, soft drinks, and frozen food. But they knew about Apollo 11. They knew that humans had walked on the Moon. They knew the names of Armstrong and Aldrin and Collins. They wanted to know who was visiting the Moon these days.”

And

“Education on the value of free speech and the other freedoms reserved by the Bill of Rights, about what happens when you don’t have them, and about how to exercise and protect them, should be an essential prerequisite for being an American citizen — or indeed a citizen of any nation, the more so to the degree that such rights remain unprotected. If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.”

And

“When we consider the founders of our nation: Jefferson, Washington, Samuel and John Adams, Madison and Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, Tom Paine and many others; we have before us a list of at least ten and maybe even dozens of great political leaders. They were well educated. Products of the European Enlightenment, they were students of history. They knew human fallibility and weakness and corruptibility. They were fluent in the English language. They wrote their own speeches. They were realistic and practical, and at the same time motivated by high principles. They were not checking the pollsters on what to think this week. They knew what to think. They were comfortable with long-term thinking, planning even further ahead than the next election. They were self-sufficient, not requiring careers as politicians or lobbyists to make a living. They were able to bring out the best in us. They were interested in and, at least two of them, fluent in science. They attempted to set a course for the United States into the far future — not so much by establishing laws as by setting limits on what kinds of laws could be passed. The Constitution and its Bill of Rights have done remarkably well, constituting, despite human weaknesses, a machine able, more often than not, to correct its own trajectory. At that time, there were only about two and a half million citizens of the United States. Today there are about a hundred times more. So if there were ten people of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson then, there ought to be 10 x 100 = 1,000 Thomas Jefferson’s today. Where are they?”

Wikipedia:  Carl Sagan

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, April 22, 2014 – James Dean

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”

And

“There is no way to be truly great in this world. We are all impaled on the crook of conditioning.”

And

“Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have.”

And

“Only the gentle are ever really strong.”

And

“Being a good actor isn’t easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I’m done.”

And

“When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn’t acting. It’s following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.”

And

“If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he’s dead, then maybe he was a great man.”

And

“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication.”

And

“The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.”

And

“The only greatness for man is immortality.”

And

“I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.”

Wikipedia:  James Dean

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Monday, April 21, 2014 – Alexander Graham Bell

“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.”

And

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”

And

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.  The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

And

“The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.”

And

“What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.”

And

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

And

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.”

And

“Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.”

And

“Mr. Watson — Come here — I want to see you.”
First intelligible words spoken over the telephone (10 March 1876), as recorded in Bell’s Journal entry (10 March 1876). These are often misquoted as “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” Watson later recounted that Bell had spilled battery acid and had called for him over the phone with these words, but this may have been in a separate incident.

And

“There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.”

And

“The inventor…looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.”

And

“I begin my work at about nine or ten o’clock in the evening and continue until four or five in the morning. Night is a more quiet time to work. It aids thought.”

And

“Perseverance must have some practical end, or it does not avail the man possessing it. A person without a practical end in view becomes a crank or an idiot. Such persons fill our asylums.”

And

“I am a believer in unconscious cerebration. The brain is working all the time, though we do not know it. At night it follows up what we think in the daytime. When I have worked a long time on one thing, I make it a point to bring all the facts regarding it together before I retire; I have often been surprised at the results… We are thinking all the time; it is impossible not to think.”

And

“You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them.”

And

“Don’t keep forever on the public road. Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. You will be certain to find something you have never seen before, and something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the result of thought.”

Wikipedia Page:  Alexander Graham Bell

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