CBS's wonderful 60 Minutes correspondent Andy Rooney with his wry and dry wit, hit it right on when he says It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone. Now that's something to think about, isn't it.



Adversity

Adversity always finds at last the man she has passed by.
—Seneca

Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
—William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Adversity introduces a man to himself.
—Anonymous

In prosperity, caution; in adversity, patience.
—Dutch proverb

Kindness

Kindness begets kindness.
—Sophocles

Wherever there is a human being there is a chance for kindness.
—Seneca

The best portion of a good man’s life,— His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness.
—William Wordsworth

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
—Joseph Jourbert

Learning

What is most needed for learning is a humble mind.
—Confucius

I am still learning.
—Favorite saying of Michelangelo

The mind

Rule your mind or it will rule you.
—Horace

It is good to rub and polish your mind against the minds of others.
—Michel De Montaigne

The true and strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.
—Samuel Johnson

Self-reliance

Whate’er your lot may be, Paddle your own canoe.
—Edward P. Philpots

Every man must scratch his head with his own nails.
—Arab proverb

Common sense

The worst kind of pedants among learned men are such as are naturally endowed with a very small share of common sense.
—Joseph Addison

Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: Abide by it; it will counsel you best.
—Lord Chesterfield

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
—R.W. Emerson

Silence

I regret often that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.
_Publius Syrus

Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
—Proverbs XVII

Listen, look and be silent, if you wish to live in peace.
—The Gesta Romanorum, c.1472

Blessed is the man who having nothing to say abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
—Marian Evans (George Eliot)

Most of us know how to say nothing, few of us know when.
—Anonymous

Simplicity

There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.
—Alexander Pope

Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.
—R.W. Emerson

Sincerity

Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people. What we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.
—La Rochefoucauld

Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
—Benjamin Franklin

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
—Oscar Wilde

On aging

Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
—Satchel Paige

Age is not important unless you are a cheese.
—Helen Hayes

The prime of life is that fleeting time between green and over-ripe.
—Cullen Hightower

Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.
—Maurice Chevalier

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
—Lucille Ball

It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.
—Andy Rooney

On marriage

Marriage is a great institution, but I’m not ready for an institution yet.
—Mae West

In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.
—Rita Rudner

If marriage is your object, you’d better start loving your subject.
—Anonymous

I’d marry again if I found a man who had $15 million, would sign half over to me, and guarantee he’d be dead within a year.
—Bette Davis

Husbands are like fires. They go out if unattended.
—Zsa Zsa Gabor

Only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other, to let her have it.
—Lyndon B. Johnson

If at first you don’t succeed, do it the way your wife told you to.
—Yvonne Knepper

The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they’re too old to do it.
—Shirley Maclaine

All marriages are happy. It’s trying to live together afterwards that causes all the problems.
—Shelley Winters


On family

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
—George Bernard Shaw

A lot of parents pack up their troubles and send them off to summer camp.
—Raymond Duncan

Who of us is mature enough for offspring before the offspring themselves arrive? The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.
—Peter De Vries

No matter how many communes anybody invents, the family always creeps back.
—Margaret Mead

On food

Gluttony is not a secret vice.
—Orson Welles

I wish my ulcers and I could get together on a mutually satisfactory diet.
—Irvin S. Cobb

A growing boy has a wolf in his belly.
—German proverb

As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.
—Anonymous

What is called a high standard of living consists, in considerable measure, in arrangements for avoiding muscular energy, increasing sensual pleasure and for enhancing caloric intake above any conceivable nutritional requirement.
—John Kenneth Galbraith


Hone your skills for work and family and you hone them for living life to the fullest