Daniel Bodi

Distiller of life's quintessence; writing on ancient Near Eastern proverbs and collecting pithy sayings

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

“You don’t seem to give much thought to the matter in hand,” I said at last, interrupting Holmes.
“No data yet,” he answered. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgement.” (Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

Don't worry about being unknown, but work on making yourself worthy of being known (Confucius, 555-479 BC)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

Make no mistake, our native land is our language and no other (Emil Cioran, 191-1995, a Romanian philosopher who wrote only in French)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking (new countries and) new landscapes but in having new eyes (Marcel Proust, 1871-1922)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

The heaviest burden is to exist without living
(Victor Hugo, 1803–1885)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

"Only a lion can recognize a lion's roar." -Kodo Sawaki

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

You can learn more about someone in an hour of play than in a year of conversation (Plato, 426–348 B.C.).

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

The world is on the side of the one who is standing (Arab proverb)
"I'm still standing, better than I ever did..." (Elton John)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

"A person who works dawn to dusk 360 days a year will not go hungry." (Chinese Proverb)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

It's really worth nothing to be useful to no one (Descartes, 1590-1650)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

The weakest creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something whereas the strongest, by dispersing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything (Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881, Scottish essayist)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

A wise person can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer (Bruce Lee, 1940-1973)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

It takes ivory tower intellectuals to come up with the dumbest ideas (George Orwell, 1903-1950, paraphrased)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

Wisdom is to have dreams big enough not to lose sight when we pursue them.

(Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

You can light dozens of candles from just one without shortening its life. You don’t diminish happiness by sharing it (Siddharta Gautama 536-480 BCE 'Buddha')

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

And you, Hector, will have the honor of tears whenever blood is spilled for the homeland, and as long as the sun shines on human misfortunes (Ugo Foscolo, Sepolcri)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

There are three kinds of people it’s useful to be friends with: the upright, the sincere, and those who have learned a lot (Confucius, 555-479 BCE)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

#Fate triumphs as soon as one believes in it
(Simone de Beauvoir, 1908-1986)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small. Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grind he all (Frederick von Langau, 1605-1655, German poet)

[Daniel Bodi @DanBody]

The world is divided roughly into three kinds of nations: those that spend lots of money to keep their weight down; those whose people eat to live; and those whose people don't know where the next meal is coming from (David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, 1998: xix)