quotes by author B

Roger Babson (1875-1967) Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. --Roger Babson (1875-1967) Lauren Bacall (1924-____) People should tell your children what life is all about -- it's about work. Lauren Bacall (1924-____) I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.Lauren Bacall (1924-____)In "Daily Telegraph" (London), 2 Mar 1988. Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life. Lauren Bacall (1924-____) In "Daily Mail" (London), 1 Nov 1990. J S Bach (1685 &endash; 1750) An agreeable harmony for the honour of God and the permissible delights of the soul. J S Bach's definition of music, in Derek Watson, Music Quotations, 1911 The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging. J.S. Bach There is nothing to it,. You only have to hit the right notes at the right time and the instrument plays itself. J S Bach Of the Organ, in K Geiringer, The Bach Family, 1954 Richard Bach (1936 &endash; ) Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't. - Richard Bach (1936 &endash; ) There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing that can't become a disaster. -- Richard Bach, "ONE". Francis Bacon. 1561-1626 He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. -- Francis Bacon If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.--- Francis Bacon Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.- Francis Bacon, 1561 - 1626 Natural abilities are like plants that need pruning by study.--- Francis Bacon Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. --Francis Bacon Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Silence is the virtue of fools --Francis Bacon The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears: they cannot utter the one, nor will they utter the other. Francis Bacon There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.-- Francis Bacon They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea. -Francis Bacon Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est. Knowledge is power. -- Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Meditationes Sacrae, De Haeresibus The ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding.-Francis Bacon_New Organon_I, Aphorism 42 This delivering of knowledge in distinct and disjointed aphorisms doth leave the wit of man more free to turn and toss, and to make use of that which is so delivered to more several purposes and applications. -- Francis Bacon, _Novum Organum_, 1620 Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Discourse. Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Empire. Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Fortune. The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Goodness. All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.-- Sir Francis Bacon, 'Of Great Place', _Essays_, Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it. Francis Bacon Essays "Of Love" (1597) He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Marriage and Single Life. Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Marriage and Single Life. The remedy is worse than the disease. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Seditions. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Studies. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Studies. Who then to frail mortality shall trust But limns on water, or but writes in dust. -- Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Studies. No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.-- Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Truth. Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business. Francis Bacon. 1561-1626 Of Youth and Age. Zakki Badawi Muslim Theology offers, up to present, no systemetic formulation of a status of being a minority - Zakki Badawi quoted in "Islam in Britain" Philip Lewis, London 1981. Frank Baer Happiness is often the result of being too busy to be miserable. &emdash;Frank Baer Isn't it curious that narrow-minded people are often the most thickheaded? -- Frank Baer Reforms come from the bottom. No man with four aces requests a new deal. Frank Baer To get nowhere, follow the crowd. --Frank Baer When you don't have an education, you have to use your brains. Frank Baer Joan Baez (1941-____) Hypothetical questions get hypothetical answers. Joan Baez You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. -- Joan Baez (1941-____) Walter Bagehot  (1826 &endash; 1877) A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault. -- Walter Bagehot   Covert Bailey No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office. Covert Bailey Gamaliel Bailey Night brings out stars, as sorrow shows us truths. -- Gamaliel Bailey John Baillie (1886-1960) Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens. Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others. Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee, O Lord. ... John Baillie (1886-1960) The evidence for Christian truth is not exhaustive, but it is sufficient. Too often, Christianity has not been tried and found wanting -- it has been found demanding, and not tried.... John Baillie (1886-1960) Robert A. Baker To assume that either conversation or drugs --or a combination of both-- could solve all the problems of human existence and make every life fulfilled and complete is the kind of magical and wishful thinking that has made one class of our citizenry, the therapeutic community, successful and wealthy; and another class, their clients, more miserable and unsettled than they were before they began placing their hopes on the promissory note that someone else could tell them what to think and how to live, and thereby make them happy.---------- Robert A. Baker, American psychologist, from his book, "Mind Games: are we obsessed with therapy?";1996. Christina Baldwin Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix. - Christina Baldwin James Baldwin (1924-1987) Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. James Baldwin People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.-James Baldwin (1924-1987) Stanley Baldwin What the proprietorship of these newspapers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility - the prerogative of the harlot through the ages.-- Stanley Baldwin A. J. Balfour (1848-1930) He has only half learned the art of reading who has not added to it the even more refined accomplishments of skipping and skimming.A. J. Balfour (1848-1930) It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be entrusted to speak the truth. ~ Arthur James Balfour. The motor-car will help solve the congestion of traffic.--A. J. Balfour, c.1910 His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed in any other country.--Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour writes to Baron Rothschild, 2 November 1917 George W. Ball Nostalgia is a seductive liar. - George W. Ball Irving Ball The past should be a springboard not a hammock. Irving Ball Lucille Ball (1911 &endash; 1989) Divorce is defeat. One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. Lucille Ball (1911-1989) The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.- Lucille Ball (1911-1989) In "An Uncommon Scold," by Abby Adams, 1989. The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.    - Lucille Ball, 1911 - 1989 Honore de Balzac (1799 &endash; 1850) Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. -- Honore de Balzac Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995) [W]e have not been scuffling in this waste-howling wildness for the right to be stupid.-- Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995) "The Salt Eaters," 1980. George Bancroft He that will not honor the memory, and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American independence. -- George Bancroft [The Confession of Faith] infused enduring elements into the institutions of Geneva, and made it for the modern world, the impregnable fortress of popular liberty--the fertile seed-plot of Democracy.-- George Bancroft W. N. P. Barbellion Life pursues me like a fury. Everything, at all times, I am feeling, thinking, hoping, hating, loving, cheering. It is impossible to escape.-- W. N. P. Barbellion William Barclay (1907-1978) A saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God. - William Barclay Love always involves responsibility, and love always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are prepared to face His task and to take up His Cross.... William Barclay (1907-1978) True prayer is asking God what He wants. --William Barclay Division has always been a disease of the church... The Love Feast, which should have been the sign and symbol of perfect unity, has become a thing of divisions and class distinctions. And here there is something which only the newer translations reveal. In the older translations, it is said that to eat and drink at the sacrament without discerning the Lord's body is the way to judgment and not to salvation. But in the best Greek text, the word Lord's is not included. The sin is not to discern the body; that is to say, not to discern that the church is a body, not to be aware of the oneness of the church, not to be aware of the togetherness in which all its members should be joined.... William Barclay (1907-1978), Ethics in a Permissive Society We may not understand how the spirit works; but the effect of the spirit on the lives of men is there for all to see; and the only unanswerable argument for Christianity is a Christian life. No man can disregard a religion and a faith and a power which is able to make bad men good... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John (Vol.1) For the Christian, heaven is where Jesus is. We do not need to speculate on what heaven will be like. It is enough to know that we will be for ever with Him. When we love anyone with our whole hearts, life begins when we are with that person; it is only in their company that we are really and truly alive. It is so with Christ. In this world our contact with Him is shadowy, for we can only wee through a glass darkly. It is spasmodic, for we are poor creatures and cannot live always on the heights. But the best definition of it is to say that heaven is that state where we will always be with Jesus, and where nothing will separate us from Him any more. ... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John (Vol. 2) The humblest and the most unseen activity in the world can be the true worship of God. Work and worship literally become one. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever; and man carries out that function when he does what God sent him into the world to do. Work well done rises like a hymn of praise to God. This means that the doctor on his rounds, the scientist in his laboratory, the teacher in his classroom, the musician at his music, the artist at his canvas, the shop assistant at his counter, the typist at her typewriter, the housewife in her kitchen -- all who are doing the work of the world as it should be done are joining in a great act of worship. ... William Barclay, The Revelation of John, vol. 1 [1961] K. A. Barden Casual Christians Become Christian Casulties.--. K. A. Barden Brigitte Bardot (1934-____) I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals. - Brigitte Bardot (1934-____)In "The Harper Book of Quotations," by Robert I. Fitzhenry, 1993. It's sad to grow old, but nice to ripen. - Brigitte Bardot I have been very happy, very rich, very beautiful much adulated, very famous and very unhappy.- Brigitte Bardot (1934-____)"London Times," 28 Sep 1984. Kevin G. Barkes The Internet is run by a guy named Heisenberg, and his principles are uncertain.~ Kevin G. Barkes, alt.quotations, 3 Oct 2001 Christiaan H. Barnard  (1922 &endash; 2001) Suffering isn't ennobling; recovery is. Christiaan H. Barnard Clive Barnes Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what the people do want.~Clive Barnes Simon Barnes I'll tell you what Fowler's trouble is. It is making jokes. It is falling foul of the global conspiracy of the humourless. Jokes humanise, jokes civilise, jokes deflect wrath. Jokes give perspective, insight, clarity. Jokes give complexity. Jokes add life-giving layers of possibility. Jokes do not compromise the seriousness: jokes add to a serious intention and make deeper the meaning. Ask Shakespeare if you don't believe me, or Donne, or Joyce. But so much of daily life is organised by the conspiracies of the jokeless: the dehumanisers, those who dread perspective, balance, thought. Lord deliver us from the humourless - I fear Fowler has fallen into their clutches. Moral: don't make jokes. Ever. The humourless always win. Simon Barnes, The Times, April 7 1999 - (written after Fowler landed in hot water for sniffing the touchline as if it was a line of coke) Carl Barney There are three types of men in the world. One type learns from books. One type learns from observations. And one type just has to urinate on the electric fence himself.'--Carl Barney, quoted in `` Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives,'' Dr. Laura Schlessinger Natalie Barney Fashion: the search for a new absurdity. -- Natalie Barney, _Little Mistresses_ Eaton Stannard Barrett Woman--last at the cross, and earliest at the grave.-- Eaton Stannard Barrett Donald Grey Barnhouse Just as the Holy Spirit came upon the womb of Mary, so He came upon the brain of a Moses, a David, an Isaiah, a Paul, a John and the rest of the writers of the divine library. The power of the Highest overshadowed them, therefore that holy thing which was born of their minds is called the Holy Bible, the word of God. The writing of Luke will, of course, have the vocabulary of Luke and the work of Paul will bear the stamp of Paul s mind. However, this is only in the same manner that the Lord Jesus might have had eyes like his mother s or hair that was the same color and texture as hers. He did not inherit her sins because the Holy Spirit has come upon her. If we ask, how could this be, the answer is God says so. And the writings of men of the Book did not inherit the errors of their carnal minds because their writings were conceived by the Holy Spirit and born out of their personalities without partaking of their fallen nature. If we ask, how could this be, again the answer is God says so. DONALD GREY BARNHOUSE, The Invisible War  Marice Barres (1862 &endash; 1923) The politician is an acrobat; he keeps his balance by doing the opposite of what he says. Marice Barres (1862 &endash; 1923) James M. Barrie (1860-1937) If I were younger, I'd know more. -- James Barrie Life is a long lesson in humility.~James M. Barrie The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humbles hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. --Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937) _The Little Minister_ [1891], Chapter 1 George Barrington From distant climes o'er widespread seas we come. Though not with much eclat or beat of drum, True patriots all; for be it understood. We left our country for our country's good. [author uncertain. First known use by George Barrington, pickpocket, Sydney,1796 as prologue to a play Dave Barry A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.~ Dave Barry Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing all kinds of late-breaking dog news items, which, if they are especially urgent, are often continued in the next yard. -Dave Barry Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet. - Dave Barry To judge from the covers of countless women's magazines, the two topics most interesting to women are: (1) Why men are all disgusting pigs and (2) How to attract men. -- Dave Barry John Barrymore A person is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. -John Barrymore The way to beatt a woman is with your hat. Grab it and run. -- John Barrymore Joseph Barth Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up. Joseph Barth Karl Barth (1886-1968) In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians -- Karl Barth Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.-Karl Barth Men have never been good, they are not good, they never will be good.- Karl Barth (1886 &endash; 1968) Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone. Karl Barth The statement that God is dead comes from Nietzsche and has recently been trumpeted abroad by some German and American theologians. But the good Lord has not died of this; He who dwells in the heaven laughs at them. KARL BARTH The theologian who has no joy in his work is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this science. --Karl Barth (1886-1968) (Quoted in his obituary, _New York Times_ [December 11, 1968]) We may all be inclined to think of man's countless foolish and selfish intentions, his twisted and mischievous words and deeds. From all these, sin can be known, as a tree can be known from its fruits. Yet these outward signs are not sin itself, the wages of which are death. Sin is not confined to the evil things we do. It is the evil within us, the evil which we are. Shall we call it our pride or our laziness, or shall we call it the deceit of our life? Let us call it for once the great defiance which turns us again and again into the enemies of God and of our fellowmen, even of our own selves. -- Karl Barth (1886-1968) What God chooses for us children of men is always the best. -- Karl Barth Bruce Barton Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things--a chance word, a tap on the shoulder, or a penny dropped on a newstand--I am tempted to think...there are no little things.--Bruce Barton Bernard Baruch (1870 &endash; 1965) Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. -- Bernard M. Baruch. No man can humiliate me or disturb me. I won't let him. -- Bernard Baruch To me old age is always fifteen years older than I am. Bernard M. Baruch (1870 &endash; 1965) Jacques Barzun A man who has both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal as opposed to the conservative, who has both feet firmly planted in his mouth. Jacques Barzun  The lexicon of pussyfooting is familiar. On its title page should appear the motto: `Never say, "I think," which is obsolete; always say, "I feel," as in, "I feel that the Treasurer has been dipping into the till"; then, if you are wrong, you haven't said anything. --Jacques Barzun _The House of Intellect_ (1959), Chap. III, "Conversation, Manners, and the Home" Finding oneself was a misnomer; a self is not found but made. --Jacques Barzun, _From Dawn to Decadence_ The sexual reality [after the sexual revolution] was often halfhearted and disappointing, much obsession but little passion--what D. H. Lawrence had called "sex in the head." Men and women did not benefit from the boasted "revolution" as they had expected; it did give some people the free play they wanted, but it pushed many more into courses unsuited to their nature and capacities. It did not install the Mohammedan paradise on earth, although everything in sight suggested that it had. Pornography is a form of utopian literature and, like the advertising of Desire, it set a standard that brought on paralysis. When an erectifying drug was put on the market, the millions who rushed to obtain it numbered the healthy young as well as the ailing old, and women at once demanded its feminine equivalent. It was apparently not known that desire must be dammed up to be self-renewing. -- Jacques Barzun, _From Dawn to Decadence_, 2000 Andrew Basden This is the glory of the Biblical view of sin: it is not inherent and will not last forever - a very optimistic view. And, on a personal level, it can be forgiven and even woven into God's plan.Those who deny the reality of sin, have a very pessimistic view: that evil is with us forever because it is in inherent in reality.- Andrew Basden, post on Thinknet Frédéric Bastiat The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else. -- Frederic Bastiat What then, is the common denominator to which all forms of socialism are reducible, and what is the bond that unites them against natural society, or society as planned by Providence? There is none except this: They do not want natural society. What they want is an artificial society, which has come forth full-grown from the brain of its inventor... They quarrel over who will mould the human clay, but they agree that there is human clay to mould. Mankind is not in their eyes a living and harmonious being endowed by God Himself with the power to progress and to survive, but an inert mass that has been waiting for them to give it feeling and life; human nature is not a subject to be studied, but matter on which to perform experiments. - Frederic Bastiat We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life˜physical, intellectual, and moral life. But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. This process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course. Life, faculties, production˜in other words, individuality, liberty, property˜this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.- Frédéric Bastiat _The Law_ Herbert Ernest Bates Climate helps to shape the character of peoples, certainly no people more than the English. The uncertainty of their climate has helped to make the English, a long-suffering, phlegmatic, patient people rather insensitive to surprise, stoical against storms. slightly incredulous at every appearance of the sun, touched by the lyrical gratitude of someone who expects nothing and suddenly receives more than he dreamed. --- Herbert Ernest Bates, The Country Heart. Katharine Lee Bates O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassion'd stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness. America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw, Confirm thy soul in self control, Thy liberty in law! Katharine Lee Bates, "America, the Beautiful" Lida Bates Clinton smoked marijuana but did not inhale. He had an inappropriate relationship with a woman but did not have sex. He lied but did not commit perjury. So, what else did he not do, this self-defined innocent sinner?--Lida Bates, NEWSWEEK,12 October 1998 Basil the Great A woman who intentionally destroys a fetus is guilty of murder. And we do not even talk about the fine distinction as to its being completely formed or unformed. Basil the Great Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) As a remedy against all ills - poverty, sickness, and melancholy - only one thing is absolutely necessary: a liking for work. --Baudelaire (1821-1867) Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.-- Charles Baudelaire I am unable to understand how a man of honor can take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust. --Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) My dear brothers, never forget when you hear the progress of the Enlightenment praised, that the devil's cleverest ploy is to persuade you he doesn't exist - attributed to Baudelaire (1821-67) Herman Bavinck According to Scripture, God is incomprehensible yet knowable, absolute yet personal. HERMAN BAVINCK The essence of the Christian religion consists therein: that the creation of the Father, destroyed by sin, is again restored in the death of the Son of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy Spirit to a Kingdom of God.--Herman Bavinck Richard Baxter (1615-1691) And the longer you delay, the more your sin gets strength and rooting. If you cannot bend a twig, how will you be able to bend it when it is a tree? Richard Baxter As the enjoyment of God is the heaven of the Saints, so the loss of God is the hell of the ungodly. And, as the enjoying of God is the enjoying of all, so the loss of God is the loss of all.... Richard Baxter (1615-1691) He is not drowning His sheep when He washeth them, nor killing them when He is shearing them. But by this He showeth that they are His own; and the new shorn sheep do most visibly bear His name or mark, when it is almost worn out and scarce discernible on them that have the longest fleece. Richard Baxter on Affliction If they can see you love them, you can say anything to them. Richard Baxter I remember myself, that when I was young, I had sometime the company of one ancient godly minister, who was of weaker parts than many others, but yet did profit me more than most; because he would never in prayer or conference speak of God, or the life to come, but with such marvelous seriousness and reverence, as if he had seen the majesty and glory which he talked of. - RICHARD BAXTER Lord, it belongs not to my care, Whether I die or live; To love and serve Thee is my share, And this Thy grace must give. If life be long I will be glad, That I may long obey; If short--yet why should I be sad To soar to endless day? Christ leads me through no darker rooms Than He went through before; He that unto God's kingdom comes, Must enter by this door. Come, Lord, when grace has made me meet Thy blessed face to see; For if Thy work on earth be sweet, What will Thy glory be! Then shall I end my sad complaints, And weary, sinful days; And join with the triumphant saints, To sing Jehovah's praise. My knowledge of that life is small, The eye of faith is dim; But 'tis enough that Christ knows all, And I shall be with him. Richard Baxter (1615-1691) Overvalue not therefore the manner of your own worship, and overvilify not other men's of a different mode.- Richard Baxter Never does sin so reign in the Church or State, as when it has gained reputation,or, at least, is no disgrace to the sinner,nor is a matter of offence to we who behold it. - Richard Baxter Rebirth brings us into the Kingdom of grace, and death into the Kingdom of glory.-- - Richard Baxter Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship, that he is a Spirit, and therefore to be worshipped in spirit and truth; and that he is most great and terrible, and therefore to be worshipped with seriousness and reverence, and not to be dallied with, or served with toys or lifeless lip-service; and that he is most holy, pure, and jealous, and therefore to be purely worshipped; and that he is still present with you, and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do. The knowledge of God, and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence, are the most powerful means against hypocrisy. RICHARD BAXTER Screw the truth into men's minds.- RICHARD BAXTER (on preaching) See that your chief study be about heart, that there God's image may be planted, and his interest advanced, and the interest of the world and flesh subdued, and the love of every sin cast out, and the love of holiness succeed; and that you content not yourselves with seeming to do good in outward acts, when you are bad yourselves, and strangers to the great internal duties. The first and great work of a Christian is about his heart. RICHARD BAXTER Serve God with gladness and cheerfulness of heart, as one that hath found the way of life, and never had cause of gladness until now. If you see your servant do all his work with groans, and tears, and lamentations, you will not think that he is well pleased with his master and his work.- Richard Baxter Unity in things Necessary, Liberty in things Unnecessary, and Charity in all. Richard Baxter 1651 You may know God, but not comprehend Him. - Richard Baxter Keep up you conjugal love in constant heat and vigour. Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory 2.43 I preached as never sure to preach again, And as a dying man to dying men. Richard Baxter, 1615-1691, Love Breathing Thanks and Praise.  ".... he thought secracy a virtue, and dissimulation no vice, and simmulation, that is in plain English, a lie, or perfiderousness to be tolerable fault in case of necessity. - Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae.. on Oliver Cromwell He was of a sanguine complexion, naturally of such a vivacity, hilarity and alacrity as another man is when he hath drunken a cup too much. - Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae.. on Oliver Cromwell I was but a pen, and what praise is due to a pen? -- Baxter, _Reliquiae Baxterianae_ Pierre Bayle It is pure illusion to think that an opinion that passes down from century to century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false. Pierre Bayle The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth. Pierre Bayle Paul Bayne Beware of a strong head and a cold heart.- Paul Bayne Stephen F. Bayne, Jr. (1908-1974) It is absolutely unimportant in the eyes of God how many people follow the "Anglican tradition" of belief and practice. It is of the greatest importance how many people there are who have come to know and love our Lord because of what we Anglicans have said and done. .. Stephen F. Bayne, Jr. (1908-1974) Todd Beamer [Todd] Beamer then told Jefferson [the GTE supervisor with whom he was in mobile phone contact] that he and the others had decided to "jump on" the hijacker wearing the bomb. Jefferson could hear shouts and commotion and then Beamer asked her to pray with him. They recited the 23rd Psalm. He got Jefferson to promise that she would call his family, then dropped the phone, leaving the line open. That's when Jefferson heard what Lisa Beamer believes were her husband's last words: "Let's roll. ~from post-gazette.com Melody Beattie What if we knew for certain that everything we're worried about today will work out fine? What if . . . we knew the future was going to be good, and we would have an abundance of resources and guidance to handle whatever comes our way? What if . . . we knew everything was okay, and we didn't have to worry about a thing? What would we do then? We'd be free to let go and enjoy life. -- Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go Charles A. Beard The lessons of history? There are four: The bee fertilizes the flower it robs; whom the gods would destroy they first make mad with power; the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small; when it is dark enough, you can see the stars. Charles A. Beard When it is dark enough, you can see the stars... Charles A. Beard Pierre De Beaumarchais It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -- Pierre De Beaumarchais Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964) Buy old masters. They fetch a better price than old mistresses. -- attributed to Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964) He did not seem to care which way he travelled providing he was in the driver's seat. Lord William Maxwell Aitken Beaverbrook (1879 &endash; 1964), on David Lloyd George The British electors will not vote for a man who does not wear a hat.-- Lord Beaverbrook ..the King had only to persevere in order to prevail. - Lord Beaverbrook's opinion , November 1936, in Lord Beaverbrook, The Abdication of King Edward VIII p.46 ( In a month the king had abdicated) Samuel Beckett The quantum of wantum remains constant. - Samuel Beckett Bede I pray you, noble Jesus, that as you have graciously granted me joyfully to imbibe the words of Your Knowledge, so You will also of Your bounty grant me to come at length to Yourself, the fount of all wisdom, and to dwell in Your presence forever.- Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, translated by Benjamin Webb Thomas Beecham (1897 &endash; 1961) Everything is controlled by the sods. The country is riddledwith homosexuals who are teaching the world how to behave--a spectacle of revolting hypocrisy.--Sir Thomas Beecham 'Have you heard any Stockhausen?' Sir Thomas Beecham was asked. 'No,' he replied, 'but I believe I have trodden in some.' Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands - and all you can do is scratch it. Sir Thomas Beecham to a lady cellist during a rehearsal When we sing, 'All we like sheep have gone astray', might we, please, have a little more regret and a little less satisfaction? - Sir Thomas Beecham while rehearsing for a performance of Messiah; Beecham stopped the proceedings and addressed the choir. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1878) A man that does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good. Now and then a man should be shaken to the core with indignation overthings evil. Henry Ward Beecher A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble in the road. Henry Ward Beecher Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher Christianity works while infidelity talks. She feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits and cheers the sick, and seeks the lost, while infidelity abuses her and babbles nonsense and profanity. "By their fruits ye shall know them.-- Henry Ward Beecher Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. Henry Ward Beecher Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving cheering words while their ears can hear them and while their hearts can be thrilled by them. Henry Ward Beecher Memory can glean, but never renew. It brings us joys faint as is the perfume of flowers, faded and dried, of the summer that is gone. -- Henry Ward Beecher Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety--all this rust of life--ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth.--Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) Oh, ye infidel philosophers, teach me how to find joy in sorrow, strength in weakness, and light in darkest days; how to bear buffeting and scorn; how to welcome death, and to pass through it inot the sphere of life, and this not for me only, but for the whole world that groans and travails in pain; and till you can do this, speak not to be of a better revelation than the Bible.-- Henry Ward Beecher On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that, citizens; on this side, orphans; on that, children; on this side, captives; on that, freemen. Henry Ward Beecher Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. -- Henry Ward Beecher Sorrow makes men sincere. Henry Ward Beecher The blossom cannot tell what becomes of its odor; and no man can tell what becomes of his influence. --Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. Henry Ward Beecher The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy-- Henry Ward Beecher Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged.-- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) In "Correct Quotes for DOS," WordStar International, 1991. There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots ... the other, wings. --Henry Ward Beecher There is no system which equals Calvinism in intensifying, to the last degree, ideas of moral excellence and purity of character. It has always worked for liberty. There never was a system since the world began, which puts upon man such motives to holiness, or builds batteries which sweep the whole ground of sin with such horrible artillery. -- Henry Ward Beecher We are always in the forge, or on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things. -- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1878) We are never ripe till we have been made so by suffering.~Henry Ward Beecher Where is human nature so weak as in a bookstore? Henry Ward Beecher Thank God for books! And yet thank God that the great realm of truth lies yet outside of books, too vast to be mastered by types or imprisoned in libraries. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit (1887) There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men that public opinion.--Henry Ward Beecher_Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit_ [1887] When a man says that he is perfect already, there is only one of two places for him, and that is heaven or the lunatic asylum. --Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) _Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit_ [1887] Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Applaud friends, the comedy is over. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave. - Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770 - 1827 Brendan Behan Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They're there every night, they see it done every night, they see how it should be done every night, but they can't do it themselves. Brendan Behan--Quoted by Gyles Brandreth in *Theatrical Disasters* I'd rather be dead than think about death. --Brendan Behan I never turned to drink. It seemed to turn to me. Brendan Behan when told to turn from drinking 12 pints plus 2-3 bottles of whisky a day. Aphra Behn (1640 &endash; 1689) Come away; poverty's catching. - Aphra Behn (1640 &endash; 1689) S. N. Behrman (1893 &endash; 1973) A wonderful discovery, psychoanalysis. Makes quite simple people feel they're complex. --S. N. Behrman Arnold Beichmen ...the myth of socialism is far stronger than the reality of capitalism. That is because capitalism is not really an ism at all. It is what people do if you leave them alone. --Arnold Beichmen Alexander Graham Bell, (1847-1922) So little done, so much to do.--- Alexander Graham Bell, his last words. When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.... Alexander Graham Bell, (1847-1922) Bernard Iddings Bell Thank God, our Christian chance is not permanently gone from us [in world affiars]. Ecclesiastics seems for the most part to have failed, failed both man and God; but God has not failed, Jesus has not failed. The God-man still remains the only leader into cooperation whose wisdom is sufficient for a permanent, competent, and free Society. The dictators and would-be dictators will not do. They overreach themselves. Eventually they will destroy one another, and kill off most of us. But even that disaster will not eradicate the desire of men and women to lay down lives for that which is more than themselves. Men will continue to demand not the freedom from that degree of unity for which the dictatorships stand, but rather a finer, more noble, more perceptive kind of unity: a human solidarity which is not nationalistic but world-embracing, a human integration which in aim and purpose is not secularist but spiritual. What the world unwittingly is groping after is allegiance to the eternal, the compassionate, the completely integrating Christ.... Bernard Iddings Bell, Still Shine the Stars [1945] Gerald D. Bell You are 100 percent responsible for your own happiness. Other people aren't responsible. Your parents aren't responsible. Your spouse isn't. You alone are. So if you are not happy, it's up to you to change something. It's not up to someone else to "fix it" for you.    Gerald D. Bell Thomas Bell (1792-1880) 1858 has not, indeed, been marked by any of those discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science in which they occur.Thomas Bell (1792-1880) President of the Linnean Society, speaking of the year in which Darwin read his papers on the origin of species to the society.in Robert Youngson, Scientific Blunders: A brief history of how wrong scientists can sometimes be, Robinson,1998 Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Blood thought he knew the native mind; He said you must be firm, but kind. A mutiny resulted. I shall never forget the way That Blood stood upon this awful day Preserved us all from death. He stood upon a little mound Cast his lethargic eyes around, And said beneath his breath: 'Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim Gun, and they have not.' Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)"The Modern Traveller" (1896) Saul Bellow(1915 &endash;2005 ) Ignorance of death is destroying us. Death is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything. -- Saul Bellow Joel Belz Everything in life has to do with your world view. You go to the zoo either to rejoice in the Creator or to find some alternative to Him. Your help for the needy is wrapped either in the arrogance that you are godlike and can figure out every detail, or in the modesty and humility that admits even your kindness might be wrong. Your starting point, and your discoveries along the way, determine how you build and manage both your zoos and your governments --- if, indeed, these days you can tell the difference. --Joel Belz in WORLD [W]hile I have no late-breaking evidence that this conflict is imminent, only a fool would fail to get ready for what is almost certainly just ahead. I refer to the threat faced by thousands of churches, schools, and other charitable organizations that their tax-exempt status will sooner or later be placed in jeopardy unless they follow the "public interest" and extend full rights, of every conceivable kind, to homosexuals. Many of us&emdash;and that includes WORLD magazine&emdash;choose to discriminate on the basis of sexual behavior when it comes to initial employment, position, and promotion. But when we do so, it is not merely a matter of choice; we are obligated, we believe, by our most basic convictions to do so....But the homosexual chant is unrelenting: "Separate is never equal," they say, drawing gratuitously on our sensitivities to racial injustices of the past. They don't just want their rights; they want the privilege to exercise those rights smack in the middle of our cherished settings. They want to change our families, our schools, our workplaces, and our churches. For until they do, they know our institutions will sit in implied judgment on their ways. It is that implied judgment they cannot tolerate.- Joel Belz: Rick Beneteau You might be poor, and unhappy; but become suddenly rich, and you will still be unhappy.-- Rick Beneteau Judah Philip Benjamin (1811-1884) The gentleman will please remember that when his half-civilised ancestors were hunting the wild boar in Silesia, mine were princes of the earth. Judah Philip Benjamin (1811-1884), said in reply to an anti-Semitic remark made by a senator of German origin: Robert Benchley (1889-1945) Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment. - Robert Benchley (1889-1945) In "The Algonquin Wits," ed. by Robert E. Drennan, 1968. Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people. Robert Benchley Don't worry if you're a kleptomaniac, you can always take something for it. Robert Benchley Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a felony. Robert Benchley There may be said to be two classes of people in the world: those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.- Robert Charles Benchley Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) The trouble is not that we are never happy -- it is that happiness is so episodical. Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) In "Webster's Electronic Quotebase," ed. Keith Mohler, 1994. No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. - Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) "Patterns of Culture," ch. 1, 1934 Our faith in the present dies out long before our faith in the future. Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) "An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict," by Margaret Mead, 1959 Alan Bennett (1934-) Gielgud is a very humble man. He can be wayward, obstinate and maddeningly changeable, but one can forgive all these because he sets so little store by his own reputation.-Alan Bennett, 8 October 1968. Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key.- Alan Bennett Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.- Alan Bennett Of course my standards are out of date! That's why they're called standards. - Alan Bennett We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules. - Alan Bennnett  I am all in favour of free expression as long as it's kept rigidly under control.~ Alan Bennett 1934-, Forty Years On (1969) Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) It is well, when one is judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality.-- Arnold Bennett Arthur Bennett I have often loved darkness, observed lying vanities, forsaken thy mercies, trampled underfoot they beloved Son, mocked thy providence, flattered thee with my lips, broken thy covenant, It is of thy compassion that I am not consumed. Lead me to repentance, and save me from despair; Let me come to thee renouncing, condemning, loathing myself, but hoping in the grace that flows even to the chief of sinners. At the cross may I contemplate the evil of sin, and abhor it, look on him whom I pierced, as one slain for me, and by me. - From The Valley of Vision. Arthur Bennett Dan Bennett The reason that the Ten Commandments are short and clear is that they were handed down direct, and not through several committees... Dan Bennett William Bennett Blessed is he who expects no gratitude, for he shall not be disappointed.--W. C. Bennett There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes. --William Bennett In America today, the only respectable form of bigotry is bigotry directed at religious people.- William Bennett, quoted in John Bolt, A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology, Eeerdmans, 2001 Christianity's record is indisputably spotted. But standing in eternal reproof of that record, crying hypocrisy and betrayal, is Christianity itself, quitessentially embodied in the example of Jesus. In the case of Islam, the charge of hypocrisy hardly applies--certainly not on the matter of religious violence. To put the issue at its starkest, there is simply no equivalent in the Koran to the New Testament's admonishment to "turn the other cheek"; conversely, there is no equivalent in the New Testament to the Koranic injunction to "kill the disbelievers wherever you find them".-- William Bennett, _Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism_, 2002 A. C. Benson (1862 &endash; 1925) I don't like authority. At least I don't like other people's authority. - A. C. Benson (1862 &endash; 1925) Jeremy Bentham (1748 &endash; 1832) The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.-- Jeremy Bentham It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual. -Jeremy Bentham _An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation_, 1789 Chapter I, "Of the Principle of Utility" Nicolai A. Berdyaev We find the most terrible form of atheism, not in the militant and passionate struggle against the idea of God himself, but in the practical atheism of everyday living, in indifference and torpor. We often encounter these forms of atheism among those who are formally Christians. - Nicolai A. Berdyaev Ralph Bergengren (1871- ) Christmas itself may be called into question, If carried so far it creates indigestion. Ralph Bergengren (1871- ) _The Unwise Christmas_ Peter Berger There is a hidden double standard. The past can be relativized simply by explaining the misconceptions of the ancient worldview. The present, however, remains strangely immune from relativization...In other words, the New Testament writers are seen as afflicted with a false consciousness rooted in their time, but the contemporary analyst take the consciousness of his time as an unmixed intellectual blessing. The electricity- and radio-users are placed intellectually above the Apostle Paul. - PETER BERGER Ingrid Bergman Happiness is good health and a bad memory. Ingrid Bergman. It is not fatness; it is development.-- Ingrid Bergman, on her middle-age spread, @ 20 years ago Bishop Berkeley It is impossible that a man who is false to his friends and neighbours should be true to the public. -- Bishop Berkeley, _Maxims Concerning Patriotism_ Milton Berle If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? --Milton Berl Money can't buy happiness. It just helps you look for it in more places. --Milton Berle Louis Berkof According to Scripture the essence of man consists in this, that he is the image of God. As such he is distinguished from all other creatures and stands supreme as the head and crown of the entire creation. -LOUIS BERKOF David Berlinsky The history of science resembles a collection of ghosts remembering that once they too were gods.-- David Berlinsky Silvio Berlusconi We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for hman rights and - in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance. - Silvio Berlusconi, BBC News, 27 Sep 2001 Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) A pretext is never lacking to him who would break with a friend. - Bernard of Clairvaux, _Letters_ Prayer is a wine which makes glad the heart of man.-- Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a song of gladness in the heart.... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) Sermon 15 on the Canticle of Canticles Dorothy Bernard Courage is fear that has said its prayers. - Dorothy Bernard Carl Bernstein For the first time in our history the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.-- Carl Bernstein Dale Berra The similarities between me and my father are different. --Dale Berra (Yogi Berra's son) Lawrence "Yogi" Berra (1925 &endash; ) Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours. --Yogi Berra Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical. --Yogi Berra Even Napoleon had his Watergate.-- Yogi Berra I don't want to make the wrong mistake - Yogi Berra(1925-____) If the people don't want to come out to the park, nobody's gonna stop 'em.--Yogi Berra If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.-- Yogi Berra If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere else.... Yogi Berra I really didn't say everything I said. --Yogi Berra It's like deja vu all over again. Yogi Berra I wish I had an answer to that, because I'm tired of answering that question...Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925) No wonder nobody comes here; it's too crowded. --Yogi Berra The future ain't what it used to be...Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925) We're lost, but we're making good time...Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925) When asked what time it is: Do you mean now?..Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925) Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel. .Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra (b. 1925) You can observe a lot by just watching. --Yogi Berra Wendell Berry Every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Love someone who doesn't deserve it. Plant sequoias. Be joyful even though you've considered the facts. Practice resurrection. - Wendell Berry George Best I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best, who also squandered the greatest football talent of his generation. Alfred Bester (1913 &endash;-1987) And the bartender says to Rene Descartes, 'Another beer?' And Descartes says, 'I think not,' and disappears. - Alfred Bester (1913 &endash;-1987) John Betjeman And is it true, This most tremendous tale of all, Seen in a stained-glass window's hue, A Baby in an ox's stall ? The Maker of the stars and sea Become a Child on earth for me ? And is it true ? For if it is, No loving fingers tying strings Around those tissued fripperies, The sweet and silly Christmas things, Bath salts and inexpensive scent And hideous tie so kindly meant, No love that in a family dwells, No carolling in frosty air, Nor all the steeple-shaking bells Can with this single Truth compare - That God was man in Palestine And lives today in Bread and Wine. John Betjeman Christmas From A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) Parish of enormous hayfields Perivale stood all alone, John Betjeman Middlesex From "A Few Late Chrysanthemums" (1954) There's a line of harbour lights at Perivale, John Betjeman Harrow-on-the-Hill From "A Few Late Chrysanthemums" (1954) When things go wrong it's rather tame To find we are ourselves to blame, It gets the trouble over quicker To go and blame things on the Vicar. The Vicar, after all, is paid To keep us bright and undismayed John Betjeman: "Blame the Vicar" -from "Church Poems", published by John Murray Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows. --John Betjeman _Summoned by Bells_ Aneurin Bevan (1897 &endash; 1960)  This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time. - Aneurin Bevan (1897 &endash; 1960) Ernest Bevin (1881 &endash; 1951) If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut right out from under your feet. - Ernest Bevin Jello Biafra Don't hate the media, become the media - Jello Biafra; Dead Kennedys Elizabeth Bibesco Death is part of this life and not of the next. -- Elizabeth Bibesco, _Haven_, 1951 Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate.-- Ambrose Bierce. Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.-- Ambrose Bierce The covers of this book are too far apart. --Ambrose Bierce Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. Ambrose Bierce Apothecary, n. The physician's accomplice, undertaker's benefactor and grave-worm's provider. -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary Capital Punishment, a penalty regarding the justice and expediency of which many worthy persons -- including all the assassins -- entertain grave misgivings. -- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911 CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, *Cogito ergo sum* -- whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: *Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum* -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made. --Ambrose Bierce (1842-c.1914) in The Devil's Dictionary (1911) CLAIRVOYANT, n. A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron, namely, that he is a blockhead. Ambrose Bierce: Devil's Dictionary Egotist, n: A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me. --"The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce Female: One of the opposing, or unfair, sex. Ambrose Bierce Future, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured - Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary Harbour, n. A place where ships taking shelter from storms are exposed to the fury of the Customs.The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce MAMMON, n. The god of the world's leading religion. The chief temple is in the holy city of New York. - THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Old Age, n. That time in life when we condemn the vices we no longer have the enterprise to commit.The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce Opiate, n. An unlocked door in the prison of Identity. It leads into the jail yard.--Ambrose Bierce, 1906 Peace - In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting. Ambrose Bierce: Devil's Dictionary POLITICS: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911) RED-SKIN, n. A North American Indian, whose skin is not red -- at least not on the outside. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911 Responsibility. A detachable burden easily shifted to shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. --Ambrose Bierce Satan, n. One of the Creator's lamentable mistakes, repented in sashcloth and axes. Being instated as an archangel, Satan made himself multifariously objectionable and was finally expelled from Heaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent his head in thought a moment and at last went back. "There is one favor that I should like to ask," said he. "Name it." "Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws." "What, wretch! you his appointed adversary, charged from the dawn of eternity with hatred of his soul˜you ask for the right to make his laws?" "Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make them himself." It was so ordered. A Bierce The Devil's dictionary SELF-ESTEEM, n. An erroneous appraisement. -- Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary Year, n. A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.- The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce The average person thinks he isn't. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911 Henry Wheeler "Josh Billings" Shaw (1818 &endash; 1885) About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment. Josh Billings (1818-1885) In "Webster's Electronic Quotebase," ed. Keith Mohler, 1994 As scarce as the truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.-- Josh Billings Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there. Josh Billings Knowledge is like money: the more he gets, the more he craves. Josh Billings (1818-1885) Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute. Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) The problem with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so. -- Josh Billings (c.1874) To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while. --Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818-1885) He whom prosperity humbles, and adversity strengthens, is the true hero. -- Josh Billings, "Stray Children," Everybody's Friend, 1874 Rowland Bingham There are no accidents in the life of the Christian.- ROWLAND BINGHAM Laurence Binyon They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We shall remember them. Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen, 1914. Max Bircher The those two great medicines: Diet and Self-Control.--Max Bircher (As quoted in Gordon Young's _Doctors Without Drugs_ [1962]) Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans. Otto von Bismarck No civilization other than that which is Christian, is worth seeking or possessing.-- Otto von Bismarck People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.-Otto von Bismarck The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night. -- Otto von Bismarck, attributed To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.- Otto von Bismarck, 1815 - 1898 You can trust all Englishmen except those who speak French. ---Otto von Bismarck, attributed Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable . . . the art of the next best.--Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Remark to Prince Meyer von Waldeck, 11 Aug 1867. Shirley Temple Black (1928- ) I stopped believing in Santa Claus at age six when my mother took me to see him in a store and he asked for my autograph. Shirley Temple Black H. J. Blackham On humanist assumptions, life leads to nothing; and every pretense that it does not is a deceit. ... H. J. Blackham Sir William Blackstone (1723 &endash; 1780) It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. - Sir William Blackstone (1723 &endash; 1780) Upon these foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation (Holy Scripture), depend all human laws; that is to say no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. WILLIAM BLACKSTONE No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God. ~Blackstone, Commentaries on the English Common Law Lawana Blackwell The hatred you're carrying is a live coal in your heart - far more damaging to yourself than to them. --Lawana Blackwell, The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark, 1999 Robert Blair Of joys departed, not to return, how painful the remembrance. -- Robert Blair John Blanchard An elastic ecclesiastic -- J Blanchard Evangelicalism is like a swimming bath. Most noise at the shallow end. J Blanchard Michelle Blake ... one of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God,we are with God all along, that while we need to be reassured of God's arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already at home. While we wait, we have to trust, to have faith, but it is God's grace that gives us that faith. As with all spiritual knowledge, two things are true, and equally true, at once. The mind can't grasp paradox; it is the knowledge of the soul. Michelle Blake The Tentmaker, 1999, p. 153 (in Ch. 16) William Blake (1757-1827) Great things are done when men and mountains meet; This is not done by jostling in the street. William Blake, "Gnomic Verses" The whore and gambler, by the state Licensed, build the nation's fate. William Blake, Auguries of Innocence Both read the Bible day and night But thou read'st black where I read white Wm Blake, The Everlasting Gospel. (1818) God appears, and God is Light, To those poor souls who dwell in Night; But does a Human Form display To those who dwell in realms of Day. William Blake (1757-1827) He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. -- William Blake The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. --William Blake (1757-1827) The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.- William Blake, (1757-1827) There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on. - William Blake William D. Blake Expect more! - William D Blake God's people fail a hundred times Before each day is done. But Grace, in whispers, lifts them up ˜ One hundred times and one. William D. Blake Jesus never married. So, should we not marry also? Jesus never used an electric appliance; never endorsed any medical procedure; never worked to save a troubled marriage. He never endorsed community volunteerism [i.e., Boy Scouts, Red Cross, United Way, etc.]; never owned a car; never went to college; never addressed juvenile delinquency or civil rights; never healed a case of alcoholism/alzheimer's/crib death/down's syndrome/drug abuse. Jesus never took time out for a hobby; never addressed professional burnout; never endorsed the ideals of saving money, of planning for retirement, of democracy. Do we REALLY want to "do as Jesus did" in these matters? His life was perfect in those areas that his life and words directly addressed. - William D Blake Sometimes I suffer from delusions of adequacy. -- William D Blake The evidence of God's "Expect more" message is evident even within the short time frame of the New Testament. For example, Jesus never mentioned "giving thanks" in the Lord's Prayer. But Paul did! In Phil. 4:6, Paul not only advised Christians to pray with thanksgiving, but to "pray about everything!" Jesus didn't ask us to ask God for "wisdom" when we pray; but James did! [Jas 1:5] Jesus' model prayer never included the provision for asking God to heal the sick. But James 5:13 gives us sanction to do exactly that in our prayers. And no Christian, praying with a burden for others, to my knowledge, has ever hesitated over whether he should ask for God's help in doing a hundred other tasks, just because Jesus' Model Prayer never instituted it.- William D Blake Harry Blamires Of what significance is it to us that, on this particular occasion, at this particular time, there are but half a dozen of us, or thirty of us, or a hundred of us, gathered together for the breaking of bread and for prayers,when these acts themselves unite us with millions who have repeated them daily throughout the centuries and now gather unseen at our side? Harry Blamires, The Tyranny of Time There is no longer a Christian mind ... the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion -- its morality, its worship, its spiritual culture; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, the view which relates all human problems social, political, cultural to the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Faith, the view which sees all things here below in terms of God's supremacy and earth's transitoriness, in terms of Heaven and Hell. HARRY BLAMIRES Lady Marguerite Blessington (1789 &endash; 1849) Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our buried hopes.Lady Marguerite Blessington (1789-1849) Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached, but great men resemble them not in this particular. - Lady Marguerite Blessington (1789 &endash; 1849) Ernest Blevins The best exercise for strengthening the heart is reaching down and lifting people up.-- Ernest Blevins George John Blewett The last and highest result of prayer is not the securing of this or that gift, the avoiding of this or that danger. The last and highest result of prayer is the knowledge of God -- the knowledge which is eternal life -- and by that knowledge, the transformation of human character, and of the world. ... George John Blewett Allan Bloom [Children who have undergone divorce counseling] have beentold how to feel and what to think about themselves by psychologists who are paid by their parents to make the whole thing work out as painlessly for the parents as possible. This, it seems, is a part of no-fault divorce. If ever there was a conflict of interest, this isfast are the sworn enemies of guilt. And they have an artificial language for the artificial feelings with which they equip children. Prosthesis for spiritual amputees, which unfortunately does not permit them to get a firm grip on anything." --Allan Bloom, 1985 Anthony Bloom  There are whole periods when you are neither at the bottom of the sea nor at the top of the peak, when you have to do something about praying, and that is the period when you cannot pray from spontaneity but you can pray from conviction.-Anthony Bloom   Theresa Bloomingdale If your baby is "beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time," you're the grandma. Theresa Bloomingdale Dennis Bloodworth The Chinese are only too often ready to sweep the dust of reality under the carpet of appearance. --Dennis Bloodworth, _Chinese Looking Glass_, (1967) Ronald Blythe I sometimes think that God will ask us, 'That wonderful world of mine, why didn't you enjoy it more?--Ronald Blythe , "Out of the Valley" The British churchman goes to church as he goes to the bathroom, with the minimum of fuss and no explanation if he can help it. Ronald Blythe "The Age of Illusion" Boadicea But now, it is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters. Roman lust has gone so far that not our very person, nor even age or virginity, are left unpolluted. But heaven is on the side of a righteous vengeance; a legion which dared to fight has perished; the rest are hiding themselves in their camp, or are thinking anxiously of flight. They will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands, much less our charge and our blows. If you weigh well the strength of the armies, and the causes of the war, you will see that in this battle you must conquer or die. This is a woman's resolve; as for men, they may live and be slaves. -- Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, in Tacitus' _Annals_, Book XIV David D. Boaz The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community. -- David D. Boaz (1997) Jan H. Boer Muslims and Christians are at war with each other in Nigeria--and in many other places, unfortunately. That is a normal situation, for Islam regards its relationships with others as one of permanent war. Peaceful relations with others are only a matter of temporary strategy. Genuine Muslim peace with others is realized only when they have turned Muslim, when the House of War has become the House of Islam. They fully expect others to enter the House of Islam at one time or another and they are willing to work towards that with the patience of Job. = The Anatomy of Miss World, Dr. Jan H. Boer, (January, 2003) William J.H. Boetcker (1873-1962) The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow.-- William J.H. Boetcker You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. --William John Henry Boetcker Boethius Nothing is miserable but what is thought so, and contrariwise, every estate is happy if he that bears it be content. -- Boethius L Boettner The doctrine of Total Inability, which declares that men are dead in sin, does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as bad as he could be, nor that any one is entirely destitute of virtue, nor that human nature is evil in itself, nor that man's spirit is inactive, and much less does it mean that the body is dead. What it does mean is that since the fall man rests under the curse of sin, that he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is wholly unable to love God or to do anything meriting salvation. His corruption is extensive but not necessarily intensive. -- Boettner Peter Bohler (1712-1775) Preach faith until you have it.-- Peter Bohler (1712-1775) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997 Henry George Bohn (1796-1884) He who knows himself best esteems himself least.--Henry George Bohn (1796-1884) Neils Bohr (1885-1962) No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical. -Niels Bohr, (1885-1962) Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.-- Neils Bohr James Montgomery Boice The cross means this: Jesus taking our place (huper) to satisfy the demands of God's justice and turning aside God's wrath. JAMES M. BOICE ..if the death of Christ on the cross is the true meaning of the Incarnation, then there is no gospel without the cross. Christmas by itself is no gospel. The life of Christ is no gospel. Even the resurrection, important as it is in the total scheme of things, is no gospel by itself. For the good news is not just that God became man, nor that God has spoken to reveal a proper way of life for us, or even that death, the great enemy, is conquered. Rather, the good news is that sin has been dealt with (of which the resurrection is a proof); that Jesus has suffered its penalty for us as our representative, so that we might never have to suffer it; and that therefore all who believe in him can look forward to heaven. ...Emulation of Christ s life and teaching is possible only to those who enter into a new relationship with God through faith in Jesus as their substitute. Theresurrection is not merely a victory over death (though it is that) but a proof that the atonement was a satisfactory atonement in the sight of the Father (Rom 4:25); and that death, the result of sin, is abolished on that basis. Any gospel that talks merely of the Christ-event, meaning the Incarnation without the atonement, is a false gospel. Any gospel that talks about the love of God without pointing out that his love led him to pay the ultimate price for sin in the person of his Son on the cross is a false gospel. The only true gospel is of the one mediator (1 Tim. 2:5-6), who gave himself for us. Finally, just as there can be no gospel without the atonement as the reason for the Incarnation, so also there can be no Christian life without it. Without the atonement the Incarnation themeeasily becomes a kind of deification of the human and leads to arrogance and self advancement. With the atonement the true message of the life of Christ, and therefore also of the the life of the Christian man or woman, is humility and self sacrifice for the obvious needs of others. The Christian life is not indifference to those who are hungry or sick or suffering from some other lack. It is not contentment with our own abundance, neither the abundance of middle class living with home and cars and clothes and vacations, nor the abundance of education or even the spiritual abundance of good churches, Bibles, Bible teaching or Christian friends and acquaintances. Rather, it is the awareness that others lack these things and that we must therefore sacrifice many of our own interests in order to identify with them and thus bring them increasingly into the abundance we enjoy...We will live for Christ fully only when we are willing to be impoverished, if necessary, in order that others might be helped. JAMES MONTGOMERY BOICE, Foundations of the Christian Faith We are to believe and follow Christ in all things, including his words about Scripture. And this means that Scripture is to be for us what it was to him: the unique, authoritative, and inerrant Word of God, and not merely a human testimony to Christ, however carefully guided and preserved by God. If the Bible is less than this to us, we are not fully Christ's disciples.... James Montgomery Boice, "The Preacher & God's Word" John Bolt ..sectarian governments with coercive sword power eliminate their dissenting opposition. The sectarian world brooks no opposition; s view of justice and liberty demands purity. Thus, hard line theocrats vehemently oppose genuine pluralism; any pluralism that permits "false religions" full opponent be tolerated in "Christian America". Similarly, sectarian secularists cannot tolerate even the teeny-tiniest vestige of religious symbolism in the square. The full exercise of the state's coercive power must be used to remove every creche or menorah from the town squares of America, which are to be kept purely and nakedly secular. - John Bolt, A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology, Eerdmans, 2001, p 379 The coalition with Roman Catholics was born out of a cultural cobelligerance against the overwhelming and growing pressures of secularism in Dutch nineteeth century education. - - John Bolt, A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology, Eerdmans, 2001, p 394 The fight for liberty is one in which we ought to be willing to engage. It goes without saying that Christians who judge the battle to be one that requires active participation are required to fight in accordance with the appropriate application of Christian "just war" criteria. In the political arena, the rule of civility is top of the list. - John Bolt, A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology, Eerdmans, 2001 p.384 Robert Bolton For it is utterly impossible that any finite cause, created power, or anything out of God himself, should primarily move and incline the eternal, immutable, uncreated, omnipotent will of God. The true original and prime motive of all gracious, bountiful expressions and effusions of love upon his elect, is the good pleasure of his will. And therefore to hold that election to life is made upon foresight of faith, good works the right use of free will, or any created motive, is not only false and wicked, but also ignorant and absurd tenet. To say no more at this time, it robs God of his all-sufficiency, making him go out of himself, looking to this or that in the creature, upon which his will may be determined to elect. - ROBERT BOLTON Gold can no more fill the spirit of a man, than grace his purse. A man may as well fill a bag with wisdom, as the soul with the world.-- Robert Bolton He that thirsts after grace is already entitled to the well of life and fullness of heavenly bliss, by a promise from God's own mouth. . . (Rev. 21:6) - ROBERT BOLTON Were the holiest heart upon earth enlarged to the vast comprehension of this great world's wideness; nay, made capable of all the glorious and magnificent hallelujahs and hearty praises offered to Jehovah,both by all the militant and triumphant church, yet would it come infinitely short of sufficiently magnifying, admiring, and adoring the inexplicable mystery and bottomless depth of this free, independent mercy, and love to God, the Fountain and First Mover of all our good. - ROBERT BOLTON Samuel Bolton The law sends us to the gospel , that we may be justified, and the gospel sends us to the law again to enquire what is our duty, being justified. Samuel Bolton There are no provisos to be laid down in point of faith; all is truth, and we must believe all. Faith does not single out its object; it does not pick and choose, but believes all that God has spoken.-- Samuel Bolton Sarah Knowles Bolton Be glad today. Tomorrow may bring tears. Be brave today. The darkest night will pass. And golden rays will usher in the dawn. Who conquers now shall rule the coming years. Sarah Knowles Bolton Erma Bombeck (1927-96) I am not a glutton -- I am an explorer of food. -- Erma Bombeck I have never understood, for example, how come a child can climb up on the roof, scale the TV antenna and rescue the cat--yet cannot walk down the hallway without grabbing both walls with his grubby hands for balance. Or how come a child can eat yellow snow, kiss the dog on the lips, chew gum that he found in the ashtray, put his mouth over a muddy garden house . . . and refuse to drink from a glass his brother has just used. ~ Erma Bombeck 1927-1996 , If Life is a Bowl of Cherries--What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1978) Gustave le Bon (1841-1931) If atheism spread, it would become a religion as intolerable as the ancient ones. ~ Gustave le Bon 1841-1931, Aphorisms du temps présent Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) A man occupied with public or other important business cannot, and need not, attend to spelling. --Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. ... Napoleon Bonaparte, "Maxims", 1804-1815 England is a nation of shopkeepers. -- Napoléon Equality for women? This is madness. --Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) (Quoted in Daniel Savage Gray's _In the Words of Napoleon_ [1977]) Fashion condemns us to many follies; the greatest is to make ourselves its slave. -- Napoleon Bonaparte Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. --Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) I die before my time and my body shall be given back to the earth and devoured by worms. What an abysmal gulf between my deep miseries and the eternal Kingdom of Christ. I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself and of Alexander and of Caesar should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant-Jesus-should be able to stretch his hands across the centuries, and control the destinies of men and nations.--NAPOLEON In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.-- Napoleon Bonaparte Philosophers try to solve the mysteries of the universe by their empty theories. Fools! They are like children who demand the moon for a toy. Christ never hesitates. He speaks with authority. His religion is a mystery, but it subsists by its own power. He seeks, and absolutely requires, the love of men, the most difficult thing in the world to get. Alexander, Caesar and Hannibal conquered the world, but had no friends. I am perhaps the only person today who loves them. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded empires, but upon what? Force! Jesus founded His empire on love, and at this hour millions would die for Him. I myself have inspired many people such that they would die for me. But my presence was needed. Now that I am in St Helena, where are my friends? I am forgotten, soon to return to the earth, and become food for worms. But Christ is proclaimed, loved and adored, and His eternal kingdom is extending over all the earth. Is this death? I tell you, the death of Christ is the death of a God. I tell you, Jesus Christ is God. --Napoleon I The only conquests that are permanent and leave no regrets are our conquests over ourselves.--- Napoleon Victory belongs to the most persevering. -- Napoleon (1769-1821) What, sir, you would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense. - - Napoleon to Robert Fulton You think you are too intelligent to believe in God. I am not like you. ~Napoleon Bonaparte 1769 -1821 Andrew Bonar I have often felt things in study so plainly given me, not at all like the products of my own skill, that this is the way in which I account for them. The Lord sends them because of people praying for me. - Andrew Bonar s journal: DECEMBER 18, 1846 Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up all the former weary efforts to do or feel something good, in order to induce God to love and pardon; and the calm reception of the truth so long rejected, that God is not waiting for any such inducements, but loves and pardons of His own goodwill, and is showing that goodwill to any sinner who will come to Him on such a footing, casting away his own poor performances or goodnesses, and relying implicitly upon the free love of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. ... Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), "The Everlasting Righteousness" He has come! the Christ of God; Left for us His glad abode, Stooping from His throne of bliss, To this darksome wilderness. He has come! the Prince of Peace; Come to bid our sorrows cease; Come to scatter with His light All the darkness of our night. He, the Mighty King, has come! Making this poor world His home; Come to bear our sin's sad load,-- Son of David, Son of God! He has come whose name of grace Speaks deliverance to our race; Left for us His glad abode,-- Son of Mary, Son of God! Unto us a Child is born! Ne'er has earth beheld a morn, Among all the morns of time, Half so glorious in its prime! Unto us a Son is given! He has come from God's own heaven, Bringing with Him, from above, Holy peace and holy love. Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) Not what