It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business. Mahatma Gandhi I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth. Mahatma Gandhi Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future. Mahatma Gandhi Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. Mahatma Gandhi I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice. Mahatma Gandhi Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness. Mahatma Gandhi A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion. Mahatma Gandhi God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith. Mahatma Gandhi Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed. Mahatma Gandhi There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good. Mahatma Gandhi If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are many paths to him. Mahatma Gandhi We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study. Mahatma Gandhi It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save one's head. Mahatma Gandhi A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident. Mahatma Gandhi Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison. Mahatma Gandhi He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire. Mahatma Gandhi One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's. Mahatma Gandhi I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian. Mahatma Gandhi Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment. Mahatma Gandhi I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed. Mahatma Gandhi We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop. Mahatma Gandhi We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party. Mahatma Gandhi I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality. Mahatma Gandhi Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause. Mahatma Gandhi God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us. Mahatma Gandhi But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac. Mahatma Gandhi Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's own religion. Mahatma Gandhi Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment. Mahatma Gandhi The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart. Mahatma Gandhi There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings. Mahatma Gandhi The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent. Mahatma Gandhi I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection. Mahatma Gandhi There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. Mahatma Gandhi A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. Mahatma Gandhi What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope. Mahatma Gandhi Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. Mahatma Gandhi It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh. Mahatma Gandhi Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent. Mahatma Gandhi If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty. Mahatma Gandhi Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in contentment. Mahatma Gandhi I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling gloom.' Mahatma Gandhi I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task. Mahatma Gandhi I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. Mahatma Gandhi I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps. Mahatma Gandhi Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame. Mahatma Gandhi I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following. Mahatma Gandhi Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point. Mahatma Gandhi Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul. Mahatma Gandhi We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts? Mahatma Gandhi Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience. Mahatma Gandhi Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God. Mahatma Gandhi Morality is contraband in war. Mahatma Gandhi Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having. Mahatma Gandhi Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is dishonor in being slave-owners. Mahatma Gandhi My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray. Mahatma Gandhi

Interesting that two directors are born on the same day, makes you almost believe in astrology.

Jean Toomer Quotes American - Author December 26, 1894 - March 30, 1967 We learn t he rope of life by untying its knots. Jean Toomer Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own. Jean Toomer People mistake their limitations for high standards. Jean Toomer The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing. Jean Toomer Talk about it only enough to do it. Dream about it only enough to feel it. Think about it only enough to understand it. Contemplate it only enough to be it. Jean Toomer No eyes that have seen beauty ever lose their sight. Jean Toomer I am not less poet; I am more conscious of all that I am, am not, and might become. Jean Toomer Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles. Jean Toomer Men try to run life according to their wishes; life runs itself according to necessity. Jean Toomer Most novices picture themselves as masters - and are content with the picture. This is why there are so few masters. Jean Toomer Alejo Carpentier Quotes Cuban - Novelist December 26, 1904 - April 24, 1980 The concept of the marvelous begins to take form when it arises from an unexpected alteration of reality, the miracle. Alejo Carpentier Even the pallid daughters of Albion forget for a moment their Pre-Raphaelite poses by burying themselves in the sonorous sortilege of the Antilles. Alejo Carpentier I studied harmony and composition in a very spontaneous manner. Alejo Carpentier I gladly accepted the commission but was uncertain about what the end result would be. On the one hand, Cuban music was conquering the world; being heard everywhere, and our small island was already producing one of the popular musical genres of the 20th century. Alejo Carpentier Those who have always had faith in its final success can do no less than rejoice as if it was our own triumph after five years of daily struggle to impose Cuban music on the European continent. Alejo Carpentier From the beginning, the sensation of the marvelous presupposes faith. Alejo Carpentier I had breathed in the atmosphere created by Henri Christophe, the monarch of incredible aims, much more surprising than all the kings invented by the surrealists. Alejo Carpentier Elizabeth David Quotes British - Writer December 26, 1913 - May 22, 1992 Everyday holds the possibility of a miracle. Elizabeth David Writing doesn't come easily to me. It gets more and more difficult. Elizabeth David I'm very interested in my new kitchen equipment shop. I've started it with two friends. Elizabeth David I don't copy recipes without trying them out. I don't reprint without trying them again. Elizabeth David An awful lot of people think it's easy to lift recipes out. Elizabeth David Steve Allen Quotes American - Entertainer December 26, 1921 - October 30, 2000 Asthma doesn't seem to bother me any more unless I'm around cigars or dogs. The thing that would bother me most would be a dog smoking a cigar. Steve Allen Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised officials improve their bank balances. Steve Allen One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imaginations. Steve Allen Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized. Steve Allen If the Old Testament were a reliable guide in the matter of capital punishment, half the people in the United States would have to be killed tomorrow. Steve Allen If there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is - holy war. Steve Allen The hair is real - it's the head that's a fake. Steve Allen Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots. Steve Allen In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist they be cheerleaders. Steve Allen Dark energy is perhaps the biggest mystery in physics. Steve Allen I used to be a heavy gambler. But now I just make mental bets. That's how I lost my mind. Steve Allen Richard Artschwager Quotes American - Artist December 26, 1923 - February 9, 2013 My most important quality or property is curiosity. And that had its beginning in what I was going to do with my life. Richard Artschwager There isn't any art until some creature sees and consumes it. And has a reaction. Richard Artschwager I would wake up at night and think, 'What the hell have I gotten myself into? You don't want to do that!' But you gotta do something, and with art, there's freedom - which is actually very seldom practiced by artists. Richard Artschwager The drawing is already partly there - it's in the paper. And the paper is talking before you do. Richard Artschwager Alan King Quotes American - Comedian December 26, 1927 - May 9, 2004 There's nobody to believe in anymore, nobody to trust. Alan King When I get up in the morning, I have to decide what I'm going to have for dinner or I can't get through the day. Alan King I learned to cook in self-defense. My wife doesn't know what a kitchen is. In the first month of our marriage, she broiled lamb chops 26 nights in a row. Then I took over. I used to mind her not caring about food, but no more - as long as I can eat what I want. Alan King Museums are good things, places to look and absorb and learn. Alan King I can't stay friends with anyone who doesn't have a passion for something; and, generally speaking, artistic people, creative people carry it right into the kitchen, too. They have a zest for life; the excitement of living. All of the great eaters I've known are also men of great wit. Alan King My mother's sister was killed in a trolley car accident, so I was raised as one of eight with my sister and six male cousins. Alan King I don't mind being 65, but nobody is gonna tell me to come in at 5:30 to have the early bird special. Alan King When I was in the hospital they gave me apple juice every morning, even after I told them I didn't like it. I had to get even. One morning, I poured the apple juice into the specimen tube. The nurse held it up and said, 'It's a little cloudy.' I took the tube from her and said, 'Let me run it through again,' and drank it. The nurse fainted. Alan King Banks have a new image. Now you have 'a friend,' your friendly banker. If the banks are so friendly, how come they chain down the pens? Alan King That's the great thing about New Year's, you get to be a year older. For me, that wasn't such a joke, because my birthday was always around this time. When I was a kid, my father used to tell me that everybody was celebrating my birthday. That's what the trees are all about. Alan King It's not easy being a father, but I've been allowed a comeback. Alan King I made it, Ma - Carnegie Hall. And I didn't have to practice. Alan King Marriage is nature's way of keeping us from fighting with strangers. Alan King You do live longer with bran, but you spend the last fifteen years on the toilet. Alan King The world is full of little dictators trying to run your life. Alan King Did you hear the one about the elderly Jew on his deathbed who sent for a priest, after declaring to his astonished relatives that 'I want to convert.' Asked why he would become a Catholic, after living all his life as a Jew, he answered: 'Better one of them should die than one of us.' Alan King And humor has always been a weapon. You want to get even on somebody? You want to attack somebody? Make fun of them. Alan King A summary of every Jewish holiday: They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat! Alan King My mother kept the house clean and we ate good. I didn't know we were poor until I started giving interviews. Alan King My father was a dreamer - my hero. He was a smart, tough guy from Poland, a cutter of lady's handbags, an old socialist-unionist who always considered himself a failure. His big line was: 'Don't end up like me.' Alan King We get the worrywart, the hypochondriac, the money-grubbing miser, the intractable negotiator... Some would say certain of these refer to the stereotypical, or 'stage' Jew. But objectively speaking, the only crime in humor is an unfunny joke. Alan King If you want to read about love and marriage, you've got to buy two separate books. Alan King Modesty is not one of my virtues. Alan King Comedy is a reflection. We create nothing. We set no styles, no standards. We're reflections. It's a distorted mirror in the fun house. We watch society. As society behaves, then we have the ability to make fun of it. Alan King You only live once, except for Shirley MacLaine. Alan King My brother is the youngest member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. And I wouldn't let him cut my nails. Alan King I think one of the big things about comedy is the ability for the audience to identify. Alan King As a parent, I'd - I'd be a better father. Alan King Let's face it: It's difficult enough to be funny without worrying about what is going to offend whom. Alan King If you stop and think about it, nearly all great humor is at the expense of someone or something. Alan King Milton took vaudeville, which, if you look up 'vaudeville' in the dictionary, right alongside of it, it says 'Milton Berle' - and he made it just a tremendous party. Alan King Right when I started in show... Milton Berle was my first idol. When I was a kid, I went to see Milton at Lowe's State, and I never laughed so much, and I said, 'That's who I want to be; that's what I want to be.' Alan King I'm only... I'm only unhappy when the reviews are bad, but give me a good review and I'm a... I'm just screaming all over the place with joy. Alan King There's a charm, there's a rhythm, there's a soul to Jewish humor. When I first saw Richard Pryor perform, I told him, 'You're doing a Jewish act.' Alan King The ability to absorb a book and make someone else's words and story your own was exactly was I was doing on stage. Alan King When I read Dickens for the first time, I thought he was Jewish, because he wrote about oppression and bigotry, all the things that my father talked about. Alan King My son says I never tell stories about anyone who's living. Alan King Age, style, where you come from, where you were born, it's different every time, which, to me, is refreshing because it says that there isn't any one thing, one formula or kind of character that makes a great comedian. Everybody has had a different approach. Alan King Comedy is an amazing calling. Once you get that first laugh, it's hard to turn away. Then, of course, you're hooked and you have to learn how to survive in the business. Alan King I had a sympathetic role in 'thirtysomething,' and in two weeks I'm going to do the role again. But in the movies, I just love the heavies. It's much more fun. Villains are a ball. People have been laughing at me for 50 years, so I love to sit in the back of the theater and listen to them hate me. Alan King One thing I've never said in my whole life is, 'Let's have dinner at a Japanese restaurant.' Alan King Everything my mother made had to cook for 80 hours, and when she made matzoh balls she didn't know fluffy. Everything sank. Alan King Smoked salmon is for dinner. Belly lox is for breakfast. Don't get that mixed up. Alan King I won't eat in a place that has suits of armor. Alan King I just never saw my mother in any other room but the kitchen. There were always pots going. Alan King My wife is a very attractive woman, and she's always worried about her diet. But she doesn't pay attention to me, and I don't pay attention to her. She's a vegetarian, and it drives me crazy. Alan King My father helped me leave. He said, 'It's all out there, it's not here.' Alan King I was a high school throw-out. Alan King Ed Sullivan brought me to TV first in 1952, then Garry Moore's program gave me a lot of confidence and freedom. Alan King Larry David finds a way to make jokes about the Holocaust. It would never have occurred to me. And it was funny. Alan King As you get older, as you become more sensitive, feel more, it becomes harder to make jokes. You censor yourself. Alan King Performing is just standing up there and doing something. Performance takes on an edge to it. It has a more dramatic context. Alan King If you keep yourself alive and current, funny is funny. Alan King My favorite way to spend Saturday is in and out of bed, watching sports on TV and eating. Alan King When I was a kid, I used to send away for those ventriloquist kits on the back of comic books. Alan King

Mortimer Adler Quotes American - Philosopher December 28, 1902 - June 28, 2001 When we ask for love, we don't ask others to be fair to us-but rather to care for us, to be considerate of us. There is a world of difference here between demanding justice... and begging or pleading for love. Mortimer Adler Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That's why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange. Mortimer Adler Love without conversation is impossible. Mortimer Adler Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely. Mortimer Adler If one wants another only for some self-satisfaction, usually in the form of sensual pleasure, that wrong desire takes the form of lust rather than love. Mortimer Adler Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity. Mortimer Adler We love even when our love is not requited. Mortimer Adler One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian. Mortimer Adler Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless. Mortimer Adler The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live. Mortimer Adler We acknowledge but one motive - to follow the truth as we know it, whithersoever it may lead us; but in our heart of hearts we are well assured that the truth which has made us free, will in the end make us glad also. Mortimer Adler Not to engage in the pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men. Mortimer Adler The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea. Mortimer Adler Work is toil: what one does only to earn a living. If it gives pleasure, it is leisure. Mortimer Adler In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you. Mortimer Adler The love which moves the world, according to common Christian belief, is God's love and the love of God. Mortimer Adler Idling is important. Most people don't know how. They're afraid of it. This explains why they turn on the television set or pick up the newspaper. They think they have to be doing something. Mortimer Adler Ultimately, we wish the joy of perfect union with the person we love. Mortimer Adler Aristotle uses a mother's love for her child as the prime example of love or friendship. Mortimer Adler Erotic or sexual love can truly be love if it is not selfishly sexual or lustful. Mortimer Adler Think how different human societies would be if they were based on love rather than justice. But no such societies have ever existed on earth. Mortimer Adler We are selfish when we are exclusively or predominantly concerned with the good for ourselves. We are altruistic when we are exclusively or predominantly concerned with the good of others. Mortimer Adler Love wishes to perpetuate itself. Love wishes for immortality. Mortimer Adler An educated person is one who, through the travail of his own life, has assimilated the ideas that make him representative of his culture. Mortimer Adler It is love rather than sexual lust or unbridled sexuality if, in addition to the need or want involved, there is also some impulse to give pleasure to the persons thus loved and not merely to use them for our own selfish pleasure. Mortimer Adler The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession of every kind of good, by the enjoyment of every type of satisfaction. Mortimer Adler There is only one situation I can think of in which men and women make an effort to read better than they usually do. It is when they are in love and reading a love letter. Mortimer Adler You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think. Mortimer Adler Men value things in three ways: as useful, as pleasant or sources of pleasure, and as excellent, or as intrinsically admirable or honorable. Mortimer Adler Freud's view is that all love is sexual in its origin or its basis. Even those loves which do not appear to be sexual or erotic have a sexual root or core. They are all sublimations of the sexual instinct. Mortimer Adler Theories of love are found in the works of scientists, philosophers, and theologians. Mortimer Adler Conjugal love, or the friendship of spouses, can persist even after sexual desires have weakened, withered, and disappeared. Mortimer Adler In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names. Mortimer Adler I find the selectivity of erotic love - the choice of this man or this woman - much more intelligible if liking the person is the origin of sexual interest, rather than the other way. Mortimer Adler I wonder if most people ever ask themselves why love is connected with reproduction. And if they do ask themselves about this, I wonder what answer they give. Mortimer Adler One of the aims of sexual union is procreation - the creation by reproduction of an image of itself, of the union. Mortimer Adler Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men. Mortimer Adler Ask others about themselves, at the same time, be on guard not to talk too much about yourself. Mortimer Adler If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you do not already possess. Mortimer Adler The philosopher ought never to try to avoid the duty of making up his mind. Mortimer Adler Being influential is not the mark of a great book. Mortimer Adler Leisure is not synonymous with time. Nor is it a noun. Leisure is a verb. I leisure. You leisure. Mortimer Adler In idling, the motor's running, but you're letting your mind take in anything. Things pop into it. Those are the gifts of subterranean conscious. Mortimer Adler Sam Levenson Quotes American - Author December 28, 1911 - August 27, 1980 Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going. Sam Levenson The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. Sam Levenson Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we'll find it. Sam Levenson If you want to know how your girl will treat you after marriage, just listen to her talking to her little brother. Sam Levenson Happiness is a by-product. You cannot pursue it by itself. Sam Levenson If you die in an elevator, be sure to push the Up button. Sam Levenson Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle. Sam Levenson You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself. Sam Levenson Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children. Sam Levenson It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.' Sam Levenson Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped. Sam Levenson Just try to be happy. Unhappiness starts with wanting to be happier. Sam Levenson It's a good thing that when God created the rainbow he didn't consult a decorator or he would still be picking colors. Sam Levenson I'm going to stop putting things off, starting tomorrow! Sam Levenson The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent. Sam Levenson It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite. Sam Levenson When I was a boy I used to do what my father wanted. Now I have to do what my boy wants. My problem is: When am I going to do what I want? Sam Levenson Our parents set the moral tone of the family. They expected more of some of us and less of others, but never less than they thought we were capable of. Sam Levenson I admit that: my wife is outspoken, but by whom? Sam Levenson We should not permit prayer to be taken out of the schools; that's the only way most of us got through. Sam Levenson One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination. Sam Levenson You must pay for your sins. If you have already paid, please ignore this notice. Sam Levenson Any kid who has two parents who are interested in him and has a houseful of books isn't poor. Sam Levenson Any beast can cry over the misfortunes of its own child. It takes a mensch to weep for others' children. Sam Levenson The difference between keeping things clean and keeping kids clean was that things just sat still and waited for the dirt to collect. We kids were carriers. We ran a pickup and delivery service. Sam Levenson