—LAURENCE J. PETER
Peter’s Quotations
People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.
—MAX BEERBOHM
Don’t approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back or a fool from any side.
—YIDDISH PROVERB
Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.
—MARTIN LUTHER
LOST BY INDIFFERENCE . . .
More good things in life are lost by indifference than ever were lost by active hostility.
—ROBERT GORDON MENZIES
Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.
—BODIE THOENE
Love me or hate me, but spare me your indifference.
—LIBBIE FUDIM
I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate—it’s apathy.
—LEO BUSCAGLIA
Love
It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men have something worth fighting for, they do not feel like fighting.
—ERIC HOFFER
The True Believer
There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference.
—JUAN MONTALVO
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life but that it bothers him less and less.
—VACLAV HAVEL
Crime expands according to our willingness to put up with it.
—BARRY FARBER
GROW ANGRY SLOWLY . . .
Grow angry slowly—there’s plenty of time.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.
—ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
Anger is not only inevitable, it is necessary. Its absence means indifference, the most disastrous of all human failings.
—ARTHUR PONSONBY
Anger is a symptom, a way of cloaking and expressing feelings too awful to experience directly—hurt, bitterness, grief and, most of all, fear.
—JOAN RIVERS
Still Talking
Getting angry can sometimes be like leaping into a wonderfully responsive sports car, gunning the motor, taking off at high speed and then discovering the brakes are out of order.
—MAGGIE SCARF
in The New York Times Magazine
Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way—that is not easy.
—ARISTOTLE
Anger is a bad counselor.
—FRENCH PROVERB
Resentment is an extremely bitter diet, and eventually poisonous. I have no desire to make my own toxins.
—NEIL KINNOCK
There’s a bit of ancient wisdom that appeals to us: it’s a saying that a fight starts only with the second blow.
—HUGH ALLEN
I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
—BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
My life is in the hands of any fool who makes me lose my temper.
—JOSEPH HUNTER
It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.
—C. S. LEWIS
Mere Christianity
Temper, if ungoverned, governs the whole man.
—ANTHONY SHAFTESBURY
Temper is a quality that at a critical moment brings out the best in steel and the worst in people.
—WILLIAM P. GROHSE
Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst.
—WALTER WECKLER
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
—ISAAC ASIMOV
A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.
—FRANCIS BACON
Getting even throws everything out of balance.
—JOE BROWNE
in Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?
—SYDNEY J. HARRIS
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
—JAMES BALDWIN
To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.
—WILLIAM H. WALTON
Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice.
—STANLEY HOROWITZ
Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger.
—CHINESE PROVERB
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
—AMBROSE BIERCE
Hot words make a real cool friendship.
—FLO ASHWORTH
in Advertiser & News (Dawsonville, Georgia)
The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.
—JACQUELINE SCHIFF
in National Enquirer
GOSSIP NEEDN’T BE FALSE . . .
Gossip needn’t be false to be evil—there’s a lot of truth that shouldn’t be passed around.
—FRANK A. CLARK
There is nothing busier than an idle rumor.
—HERBERT V. PROCHNOW
The New Speaker’s Treasury of Wit and Wisdom
In our appetite for gossip, we tend to gobble down everything before us, only to find, too late, that it is our ideals we have consumed, and we have not been enlarged by the feasts but only diminished.
—PICO IYER
in Time
Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person.
—ETHEL WATTS
A gossip is a person who creates the smoke in which other people assume there’s fire.
—DAN BENNETT
Gossip is that which no one claims to like—but everybody enjoys.
—JOSEPH CONRAD
Bad news goes about in clogs, good news in stockinged feet.
—WELSH PROVERB
The gossip of the future may not be a backbiting, nosy, tongue-wagging two-face but a super-megabyte, random-access, digital interface.
—RONALD B. ZEH
Some people will believe anything if it is whispered to them.
—PIERRE DE MARIVAUX
Men gossip less than women, but mean it.
—MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN
Scandal is the coin of contemporary celebrity. It keeps the public interested.
—RICHARD CORLISS
He who is caught in a lie is not believed when he tells the truth.
—SPANISH PROVERB
Gossip, unlike river water, flows both ways.
—MICHAEL KORDA
Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.
—SHANA ALEXANDER
A rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way.
—JOHN TUDOR
in Omni
Just because a rumor is idle doesn’t mean it isn’t working.
—MAURICE SEITTER
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.
—WILL DURANT
WHEN FLATTERERS MEET . . .
When flatterers meet, the devil goes to dinner.
—ENGLISH PROVERB
Of all music, that which most pleases the ear is applause. But it has no score. It ends and is carried off by the wind. Nothing remains.
—ENRIQUE
SOLARI
Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.
—FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Beware the flatterer: he feeds you with an empty spoon.
—COSINO DEGREGRIO
A detour is a straight road which turns on the charm.
—ALBERT BRIE
Le Devoir
Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs.
—GEORGE CHAPMAN
The punishment for vanity is flattery.
—WILHELM RAABE
We protest against unjust criticism, but we accept unearned applause.
—JOSÉ NAROSKY
Si Todos Los Sueños
I have yet to be bored by someone paying me a compliment.
—OTTO VAN ISCH
Flattery is all right—if you don’t inhale.
—ADLAI E. STEVENSON
Praise, if you don’t swallow it, can’t hurt you.
—MORT WALKER
Praise can be your most valuable asset as long as you don’t aim it at yourself.
—O. A. BATTISTA
Fish for no compliments; they are generally caught in shallow water.
—D. SMITH
Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child.
—PHYLLIS MCGINLEY
in The Saturday Evening Post
Sometimes we deny being worthy of praise, hoping to generate an argument we would be pleased to lose.
—CULLEN HIGHTOWER
He who praises everybody praises nobody.
—SAMUEL JOHNSON
FORBIDDEN FRUIT . . .
While forbidden fruit is said to taste sweeter, it usually spoils faster.
—ABIGAIL VAN BUREN
A compulsion is a highbrow term for a temptation we’re not trying too hard to resist.
—HUGH ALLEN
Most people want to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.
—ROBERT ORBEN
Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address.
—LANE OLINGHOUSE
Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open.
—ARNOLD H. GLASOW
Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances.
—O. A. BATTISTA
There is no original sin; it has all been done before.
—LOUIS DUDEK
Be cautious. Opportunity does the knocking for temptation too.
—AL BATT
Being virtuous is no feat once temptation ceases.
—DANISH PROVERB
Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values—and witnesses.
—FRANKLIN P. JONES
In this era of rapid change, one thing remains constant: it’s easier to pray for forgiveness than to resist temptation.
—SOL KENDON
About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you’re fighting temptation.
—TOM WILSON
Come good times or bad, there is always a market for things nobody needs.
—KIN HUBBARD
When there’s a lot of it around, you never want it very much.
—PEG BRACKEN
The I Hate to Cook Almanack
LAZINESS HAS MANY DISGUISES . . .
Laziness has many disguises. Soon “winter doldrums” will become “spring fever.”
—BERN WILLIAMS
in National Enquirer
He who is carried on another’s back does not appreciate how far off the town is.
—AFRICAN PROVERB
If you get a reputation as an early riser, you can sleep till noon.
—IRISH PROVERB
Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.
—ANNE FRANK
The Diary of a Young Girl
The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
—C. S. LEWIS
The Screwtape Letters
Laziness is nothing more than resting before you get tired.
—JULES RENARD
—GEOFFREY NORMAN
Beware of the man who won’t be bothered with details.
—WILLIAM FEATHER SR.
It is better to have loafed and lost than never to have loafed at all.
—JAMES THURBER
The day will happen whether or not you get up.
—JOHN CIARDI
I’m lazy. But it’s the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t like walking or carrying things.
—LECH WALESA
About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.
—GLORIA PITZER
I can do only one thing at a time, but I can avoid doing many things simultaneously.
—ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT
What a fearful object a long-neglected duty gets to be!
—CHAUNCEY WRIGHT
A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
—WILLIAM COWPER
Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.
—JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON
The Mind in the Making
No one ever excused his way to success.
—DAVE DEL DOTTO
How to Make Nothing But Money
Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.
—DON WILDER AND BILL RECHIN
Whoever wants to be a judge of human nature should study people’s excuses.
— FRIEDRICH HEBBEL
Don’t tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.
—JAMES LING
in Newsweek
To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity.
—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
—BEVERLY SILLS
The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning—and the younger generation doesn’t think much of it either.
—JOHN J. WELSH
THE FAULTS OF OTHERS . . .
Rare is the person who can weigh the faults of others without putting his thumb on the scales.
—BYRON J. LANGENFIELD
Only God is in a position to look down on anyone.
—SARAH BROWN
The unforgiving man assumes a judgment that not even the theologians has [sic] given to God.
—SYDNEY J. HARRIS
I have never for one instant seen clearly within myself. How then would you have me judge the deeds of others?
—MAURICE MAETERLINCK
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
—H. G. WELLS
Other people’s faults are like bees — if we don’t see them, they don’t harm us.
—LUIS VIGIL
Pensamientos y Observaciónes
Make no judgments where you have no compassion.
—ANNE MCCAFFREY
Dragonquest
How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.
—BENJAMIN DISRAELI
What we all tend to complain about most in other people are those things we don’t like about ourselves.
—WILLIAM WHARTON
Tidings
I don’t like a man to be efficient. He’s likely to be not human enough.
—FELIX FRANKFRUTER
When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that three of his fingers are pointing at himself.
—ANONYMOUS
Ought is not a word we use to other people. It is a word we should reserve for ourselves.
—SISTER WENDY BECKETT
Perhaps no phenomenon contains so much destructive feeling as “moral indignation,” which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.
—ERICH FROMM
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.