squawpaws

@squawpaws, member from Jan. 11, 2021
William Faulkner photo
Zhou Enlai photo

“China is an attractive piece of meat coveted by all … but very tough, and for years no one has been able to bite into it.”

Zhou Enlai (1898–1976) 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China

To the Chinese Communist Party Congress, as quoted in The New York Times (1 September 1973).

Ted Hughes photo

“Applause is the beginning of abuse”

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) English poet and children's writer
John Wooden photo

“The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

John Wooden photo

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Wooden only repeated a common aphorism (e.g. Interview on Charlie Rose, reported by Bill Walton), which was already in circulation as early as the 1920s, when he was a youth. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbs=bks%3A1%2Ccdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3AJan+1_2+1900%2Ccd_max%3ADec+31_2+1930&q=%22fail+to+prepare%22+%22prepare+to+fail%22
Misattributed

John Wooden photo

“Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating… too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

John Wooden photo

“Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and Off the Court (1997)

John Wooden photo
John Wooden photo

“You are not a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Source: Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organizaion

W. H. Auden photo
W. H. Auden photo

“About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters.”

Source: Musée des Beaux Arts (1938), Lines 1–2

W. H. Auden photo
W. H. Auden photo

“No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”

"Notes on Music and Opera", p. 472
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

W. H. Auden photo

“Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods.”

"The Virgin & The Dynamo", p. 62
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

W. H. Auden photo
W. H. Auden photo

“A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.”

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet

Often attributed to Auden, but he was repeating an anonymous joke; he did not claim to have originated it. See "Who Wrote Auden's Definition of a Professor?" http://www.audensociety.org/definition.html
Misattributed

W. H. Auden photo

“One cannot review a bad book without showing off.”

"Reading", p. 11
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)