W. L. George Quotes

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

The whole iconography of ancient science is simply the fruit of wishful thinking.

From the humanistic point of view every human achievement is unforgettable and immortal in its essence, even if it is replaced by a "better" one.

There are but few saints amongst scientists, as among other men, but truth itself is a goal comparable with sanctity.

So I may not have had a gothic childhood, but childhood makes its own gothicity.

If you haven't read you don't have the voice. The lack of voice eliminates experience.

Whatever happens when we die, it would be really weird if it was what we had expected. Even if you were a lifelong Christian believer, it would be kind of weird if there actually were pearly gates.

It's so ironic that you often hear these right-wing people talking about the Constitution.

Chekhov - shall I be blunt? - is the greatest short story writer who ever lived.

When I'm explaining something to you, if I'm being long-winded, and twisty in a non-productive way, I could make you feel vaguely insulted. And you'd have a right to be.

Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it... Err in the direction of kindness.

I think people have come to expect that in artistic representation; that every work of art should be a work of extravagant hope.

One of the ideas that runs through this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] is this Buddhist notion that the mind is incredibly powerful; not the brain but the mind.

Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.

The vanity of teaching doth oft tempt a man to forget that he is a blockhead.

I wish I were one of those terribly clever people who, when they write their autobiographies, always say, when I was fifteen months old I distinctly remember my Aunt Fanny saying to me, etc.

When all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on.

My affiliation with England is borne out by the fact that I do come back for periodic visits.

The way it works: The orchestra plays a few selections of its own and I terminate the first part of the programme on piano, usually with a movement from a Mozart concerto.

Where the Internet is about availability of information, blogging is about making information creation available to anyone.

There's a ton of truth in Flannery O'Connor's notion that "Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days."

I have to deal with seven ex-stray dogs, and one ex-stray cat. One dog is nearing nineteen years old. Before I go to teach, he likes for me to tell him bedtime stories.

As I discovered, there is a great deal of similarity between a boom-bust process in the financial markets and the rise and fall of the Soviet system.

I called gold the ultimate bubble, which means it may go higher. But it’s certainly not safe and it’s not going to last forever.

The concept of a general equilibrium has no relevance to the real world (in other words, classical economics is an exercise in futility).

A lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional. A lot of people in the financial system did a lot of damage without intending to.

The bureaucratic method of building an integrated Europe has exhausted its potential.

When you sell options, you get paid for assuming risk. That can be a profitable business, but it does not mix well with the risks inherent in a leveraged portfolio.

I put forward a pretty general theory that financial markets are intrinsically unstable. That we really have a false picture when we think about markets tending towards equilibrium.

I'm not doing my philanthropic work out of any kind of guilt, or any need to create good public relations. I'm doing it because I can afford to do it, and I believe in it.

There are a lot of young great athletes out there; they're much better athletes than what we were. They're bigger, faster, stronger, unfortunately, there're fewer places to go.

When you're entrusted with a tradition, you've got to protect it.

Irabu is a fat, pus-y toad.

It was the class and dignity which he led his life that made him part of all of us. I will forever treasure the close friendship we shared over the years.

We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned.

I am tough. Sometimes I'm unreasonable. I have to catch myself every once in a while.

I don't want to be in the Hall of Fame. I don't think owners should be.

Ruth was probably the greatest athlete to perform in any sport. Never has there been anybody like him.

I'm really 95 percent Mr. Rogers, and only 5 percent Oscar the Grouch.'

I won't be active in the day-to-day operations of the ball club at all.

As I have said many times - my father was a great fan of Bill Dickey's and he certainly loved the Yankees. I hope that he would be pleased.

I haven't always made the right decisions.

Why would you want to stay manager and be second-guessed by me when you can come up into the front-office and be one of the second-guessers?

Once in a while, I played second base; once in a while, outfield. But those were just pickup games and softball leagues. So when I bought the Yankees, I tried to stay one pace ahead of the players.

Pornographers subvert this last, vital privacy; they do our imagining for us. They take away the words that were of the night and shout them over the roof-tops, making them hollow.

The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion.

The very opposite of freedom is cliche, and nothing is less free, more inert with convention and hollow brutality, than a row of four-letter words.

A good deal of classical music is, today, the opium of the good citizen.

I'm learning all the right vocabulary words - 'You're right, I'm wrong.'

From his moment of victory, a kinder, gentler Donald Trump - praise for the opponent he promised to jail.