Accounts Quotes - Page 35

• We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.

  Ellen Swallow Richards

  Wise, Perseverance, Purpose

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• Each such answer to the great question, invariably asserted by the followers of its propounder, if not by himself, to be complete and final, remains in high authority and esteem, it may be for one century, or it may be for twenty: but, as invariably, Time proves each reply to have been a mere approximation to the truth tolerable chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted, and wholly intolerable when tested by the larger knowledge of their successors.

  Thomas Huxley

  Ignorance, Twenties, Finals

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.66, University of Georgia Press

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• We love everything on our own account; we even follow our own taste and inclination when we prefer our friends to ourselves; and yet it is this preference alone that constitutes true and perfect friendship.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Friendship, Perfect, Taste

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• A man who owes a little can clear it off in a very little time, and, if he is a prudent man, will; whereas a man, who by long negligence, owes a great deal, despairs of ever being able to pay, and therefore never looks into his accounts at all.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, Long, Despair

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.203

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• Used with due abstinence, hope acts as a healthful tonic; intemperately indulged, as an enervating opiate. The visions of future triumph, which at first animate exertion, if dwelt upon too intently, will usurp the place of the stern reality; and, noble objects will be contemplated, not for their own inherent worth, but on account of the day-dreams they engender. Thus hope, aided by imagination, makes one man a hero, another a somnambulist, and a third a lunatic; while it renders them all enthusiasts.

  James Fitzjames Stephen

  Dream, Hope, Hero

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• Every woman in choosing a lover takes more account of the way in which other women regard the man than of her own.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Women, Way, Lovers

  Sébastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort (1902). “The Cynic's Breviary: Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort”

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• I account the office of benefactor, or almoner, to which God appoints all those whom he has favored with wealth, one of the most honorable and delightful in the world. He never institutes a channel for the passage of His bounties that those bounties do not enrich and beautify.

  J. G. Holland

  Office, World, Wealth

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• One may guess the why and wherefore of a tear and yet find it too subtle to give any account of. A tear may be the poetical resume of so many simultaneous impressions, the quintessence of so many opposing thoughts! It is like a drop of one of those precious elixirs of the East which contain the life of twenty plants fused into a single aroma.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Giving, Tears, May

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• There is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgments as anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death who should condemn a criminal upon the account of his own choler; why then should fathers and pedants be any more allowed to whip and chastise children in their anger? It is then no longer correction bat revenge. Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and should we suffer a physician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Children, Revenge, Father

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• Which is more worthwhile earning: a large fortune or the esteem and gratitude of the nation? This question is prompted anew by the death of ex-Secretary of the Interior [Franklin K.] Lane. He remained in public service, doing most noble work, until his means became absolutely exhausted, and he died before having had the opportunity to reaccumulate any bank account.... He died leaving no estate whatsoever. Is what he did leave more to be desired, more to be coveted, than a fortune reaching into six or seven figures?

  B. C. Forbes

  Gratitude, Mean, Opportunity

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• Just to show you how little reliance can be placed even on what are supposed the best accounts of a battle, I mention that there are some circumstances mentioned in General -'s account which did not occur as he relates them. It is impossible to say when each important occurrence took place, or in what order.

  Duke of Wellington

  Order, Important, Battle

  Arthur Wellesley (1st duke of Wellington.) (1838). “The dispatches of ... the duke of Wellington, compiled by lieut. colonel Gurwood. [With] Suppl. to vol. 1/3 [and] Index. [With] Index”, p.609

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• While it is probably a poor idea to own actively managed funds in general, it is truly a terrible idea to own them in taxable accounts... taxes are a drag on performance of up to 4 percentage points each year... many index funds allow your capital gains to grow largely undisturbed until you sell... For the taxable investor, indexing means never having to say you're sorry.

  William J. Bernstein

  Sorry, Mean, Years

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• [What if my advisor talks only about returns, not risk?] ... It's his job to take risk into account by telling you the range of possible outcomes you face. If he won't, go get a new planner, someone who will get real.

  William Forsyth Sharpe

  Jobs, Real, Risk

  "The man who explained it all". Interview with Jason Zweig, money.cnn.com. July 6, 2007.

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• Never mingle your speculative and investment operations in the same account nor in any part of your thinking.

  Benjamin Graham

  Thinking, Investing, Investment

  Benjamin Graham (2009). “The Intelligent Investor, Rev. Ed”, p.22, Harper Collins

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• It [1991 Federal budget] contains almost 190,000 accounts. At a rate of one per minute, eight hours a day, it would take over a year to reflect upon these!

  Richard Darman

  Eight, Years, Hours

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• Every existence above a certain rank has its singular points; the higher the rank the more of them. At these points, influences whose physical magnitude is too small to be taken account of by a finite being may produce results of the greatest importance.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Taken, May, Influence

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• I should like to suggest that at least on the face of it a stroke by stroke story of a copulation is exactly as absurd as a chew by chew account of the consumption of a chicken's wing.

  William H. Gass

  Wings, Stories, Faces

  William H. Gass (2014). “On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry”, p.20, New York Review of Books

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• When you start cutting government expenditure, at some point you are cutting essential services rather than excessive services. So you have to take into account the social costs involved in cutting government spending.

  Raghuram Rajan

  Cutting, Government, Cost

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• It is better in some respects to be admired by those with whom you live than to be loved by them; and this not on account of any gratification of vanity, but because admiration is so much more tolerant than love.

  Arthur Helps

  Vanity, Admiration, Gratification

  Sir Arthur Helps (1871). “Brevia: Short Essays and Aphorisms”, p.83

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• Although it is easier to find information these days, it is easier than ever before to find misinformation, pseudo-facts, unsupported and fringe opinions, and the like. Children should be taught at an early age what constitutes evidence, how to detect biases or distortions in newspaper accounts, and that there exist hierarchies of information sources. In the medical field, for example, a controlled experiment published in a peer-reviewed journal is a better source than a blog by the Ginseng Growers Association, promoting the health benefits of their own product.

  Daniel Levitin

  Children, Age, Peers

  "Daniel J. Levitin Q&A: 'We've created more information in the past few years than in all of human history before us'". Interview with Lisa O'Kelly, www.theguardian.com. January 18, 2015.

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• Out of 30,000 edible plants thought to exist on earth, just eleven account for 93% of all that humans eat: oats, corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, yucca (also called tapioca or cassava), sorghum, millet, beans, barley, and rye.

  Daniel Levitin

  Oats, Earth, Corn

  Daniel J. Levitin (2014). “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload”, p.42, Penguin

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• There is no coherent knowledge , i.e. no uniform comprehensive account of the world and the events in it. There is no comprehensive truth that goes beyond an enumeration of details, but there are many pieces of information , obtained in different ways from different sources and collected for the benefit of the curious. The best way of presenting such knowledge is the list - and the oldest scientific works were indeed lists of facts, parts, coincidences, problems in several specialized domains.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Facts, Events, Details

  Paul Feyerabend, Paul K. Feyerabend (1987). “Farewell to Reason”, p.98, Verso

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• Many of us who read the literature of social science as laymen are conscious of being admitted at a door which bears the watchword "scientific objectivity" and of emerging at another door which looks out upon a variety of projects for changing, renovating, or revolutionizing society. In consequence, we feel the need of a more explicit account of how the student of society passes from facts to values or statements of policy.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Doors, Objectivity, Bears

  Richard M. Weaver, Ted J. Smith (2000). “In defense of tradition: collected shorter writings of Richard M. Weaver, 1929-1963”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• The computer field is intoxicated with change. We have seen galloping growth over a period of four decades and it still does not seem to be slowing down. The field is not mature yet and already it accounts for a significant percentage of the Gross National Product both directly and indirectly.

  Fernando J. Corbato

  Growth, Doe, Four

  "On Building Systems That Will Fail". Fernando J. Corbato, "Communications of the ACM", Volume 34, Issue 9, dl.acm.org. September 1991.

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• At some time, here or hereafter, every account must be settled, and every debt paid in full.

  John H. Vincent

  Justice, Debt, Paid In Full

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 361, 1895.

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