Clarence Day Quotes

Information's pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.

The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead.

Age should not have its face lifted, but it should rather teach the world to admire wrinkles as the etchings of experience and the firm line of character.

The ant is knowing and wise, but he doesn't know enough to take a vacation.

Reason is the servant of instinct.

Too many moralists begin with a dislike of reality.

Ants are good citizens: they place group interests first.

Tender are a mother's dreams, But her babe's not what he seems. See him plotting in his mind To grow up some other kind.

You can't sweep other people off their feet, if you can't be swept off your own.

If your parents didn't have any children, there's a good chance that you won't have any.

There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.

As time goes on, new and remoter aspects of truth are discovered which can seldom be fitted into creeds that are changeless.

It is fair to judge peoples by the rights they will sacrifice most for.

The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man.

Will and wisdom are both mighty leaders. Our times worship will.

The artistic impulse seems not to wish to produce finished work. It certainly deserts us half-way, after the idea is born; and if we go on, it is labor.

The creatures that want to live a life of their own, we call wild. If wild, then no matter how harmless, we treat them as outlaws, and those of us who are specially well brought up shoot them for fun.

As to modesty and decency, if we are simians we have done well, considering: but if we are something else-fallen angels-we have indeed fallen far.

When eras die, their legacies Are left to strange police. Professors in New England guard The glory that was Greece.

The real world is not easy to live in. It is rough; it is slippery. Without the most clear-eyed adjustments we fall and get crushed. A man must stay sober; not always, but most of the time.

The egg it is the source of all. Tis everyone's ancestral hall. The bravest chief that ever fought, The lowest thief that e'er was caught, The harlot's lip, the maiden's leg, They each and all came from an egg.

A moderate addiction to money may not always be hurtful; but when taken in excess it is nearly always bad for the health.

Dogs have more love than integrity. They've been true to us, yes, but they haven't been true to themselves.

It is possible that our race may be an accident, in a meaningless universe, living its brief life uncared for, on this dark, cooling star: but even so - and all the more - what marvelous creatures we are! What fairy story, what tale from the Arabian Nights of the jinns, is a hundredth part as wonderful as this true fairy story of simians! It is so much more heartening, too, than the tales we invent. A universe capable of giving birth to many such accidents is - blind or not - a good world to live in, a promising universe. . . . We once thought we lived on God's footstool, it may be a throne.

The test of a civilized person is first self-awareness, and then depth after depth of sincerity in self-confrontation.