Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?

Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round read more

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round as the moon, to stare up.
I want to be looking at them when they come
Picking among the dumb minerals, the roots.
I see them already-the pale, star-distance faces.
Now they are nothing, they are not even babies.
I imagine them without fathers or mothers, like the first gods.
They will wonder if I was important.

Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity.

Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity.

The opera isn't over till the fat lady sings. - "The Washington Post", June 13, 1978.

The opera isn't over till the fat lady sings. - "The Washington Post", June 13, 1978.

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. read more

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of read more

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible. read more

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible. -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.).

All my possessions for a moment of time.

All my possessions for a moment of time.

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a read more

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a boy playing upon the seashore and diverting myself and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay before me all undiscovered.