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I run into some interesting quotes from time to time. I thought I'd begin to assemble them here. I am not sure yet as to the purpose this collection will serve. Ideally, it will entertain and edify :-).

Philosophy of life

• Oscar Wilde: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. (This was a favorite of my father's.)
• Erich Fromm: Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
• Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out. But when darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

Science

• Bertolt Brecht (from Life of Galileo) The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.
• Immanuel Kant: Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
• Max Planck: A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

General insights

• Jonathan Kozol: Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
• Abba Eban: A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
• Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut: In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
• Roald Dahl (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes: A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

Writing

• Alfred Kazin: In a very real sense, the writer writes to teach himself, to understand himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratifications, is a curious anticlimax.
• Blaise Pascal: The last thing one finds out when constructing a work is what to put first.
• Salman Rushdie: Books, if you don't put them first, tend to sulk. They retreat into a corner, and refuse to work.
• Maxwell Perkins: Just get it down on paper, and then we'll see what to do with it.

Work

• Pablo Picasso: When I work I relax; doing nothing or entertaining visitors makes me tired.