I.B. George Quotes

A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind, a distinctive luminous character.

In the contemplation of beauty we are raised above ourselves, the passions are silenced and we are happy in the recognition of a good that we do not seek to possess.

The same battle in the clouds will be known to the deaf only as lightning and to the blind only as thunder.

That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.

There are three traps that strangle philosophy: The church, the marriage bed, and the professor's chair.

My soul hates the fool whose only passion is to live by rule.

It is rash to intrude upon the piety of others: both the depth and the grace of it elude the stranger.

A friend's only gift is himself.

Plasticity loves new moulds because it can fill them, but for a man of sluggish mind and bad manners there is decidedly no place like home.

The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour.

Love is at once more animal than friendship and more divine.

It is not society's fault that most men seem to miss their vocation. Most men have no vocation.

Art supplies constantly to contemplation what nature seldom affords in concrete experience - the union of life and peace.

To condemn spontaneous and delightful occupations because they are useless for self-preservation shows an uncritical prizing of life irrespective of its content.

The brute necessity of believing something so long as life lasts does not justify any belief in particular.

It is one thing to lack a heart and another to possess eyes and a just imagination.

A dream is always simmering below the conventional surface of speech and reflection.

Guard you thoughts as you would your wallet. Habit is stronger than reason.

Philosophers are as jealous as women; each wants a monopoly of praise.

Columbus gave the world another world.

A musical education is necessary for musical judgement. What most people relish is hardly music; it is rather a drowsy reverie relieved by nervous thrills.

Fear first created the gods.

The darkness, of which the historians complain, is essentially the darkness of their own ignorance.

Err in the direction of kindness.

The contours of the coming disaster expanded to include the deaths of all present.

Honestly, the choice is: I can be a cheerful person, more awake to correction, more of a force for good ... when I'm writing. Or I can be the opposite of all those things, when I'm not writing.

The number of rooms in a fictional house should be inversely proportional to the years during which the couple living in that house enjoyed true happiness.

Monologue is the most honest way to represent human beings.

I understand what something short should be like. I understand beauty in that form. If I start extending, somehow I kind of lose my bearings.

The artist’s job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery.

It seems to me that there are certain thoughts and vignettes and attitudes that I have always had the desire to represent.

Comedy is what keeps us alive.

The quality of leaders matters less than the quality of citizens.

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail; and when you're a left-wing sorehead, everything is an occasion to damn the rich.

If you establish an identity, you build a monster-and thats right, youve got to live with it. Of course, you can enjoy it, too.

The heart of blogging is linking - linking and commenting. Connecting and communicating - the purpose of the Internet.

Blogging is best learned by blogging...and by reading other bloggers.

Don't try to outguess what's going on in publishing, and write what you want to write.

My original intention was to spend the money in my lifetime.

The world is looking to us for leadership. We have provided it in the past; the main reason why anti-American feelings are so strong in the world today is that we are not providing it in the present.

If every rich person gave 50 percent of their wealth to charity, I would not say they should pay more taxes.

However, even a strong government can't perform miracles. It needs money from the taxpayers.

I have made it a principle to give advice that does not serve my personal interest but rather the common interests.

I respect a lot of people I don't agree with.

I never watched wrestling, I was never a fan of wrestling really.

I'm pretty excited, this is a big, big one.

I owe everything to a system that made me learn by heart till I wept. As a result I have thousands of lines of poetry by heart. I owe everything to this.

When it turned on the Jew, Christianity and European civilization turned on the incarnation - albeit an incarnation often wayward and unaware - of its own best hopes.

And starward drifts the stricken world, Lone in unalterable gloom Dead, with a universe for tomb, Dark, and to vaster darkness whirled. (“The Testimony of the Suns”)

For me it's absolutely necessary to start from the very beginning. I can't think of coming and contributing something anywhere along the line other than the very start.