This is great literature and great religious literature, this collection of ancient writings we call the Bible, and any translator has a deep sense of responsibility as he undertakes to transmit it to modern readers. He desires his transcript to be faithful to the meaning of the original, so far as he can reach that meaning, and also to do some justice to its literary qualities. But he is well aware that his aim often exceeds his grasp. Translation may be a fascinating task, yet no discipline is more humbling. You may be translating oracles, but soon you learn the risk and folly of posing as an oracle yourself. If your readers are dissatisfied at any point, they may be sure that the translator is still more dissatisfied, if not there, then elsewhere -- all the more so, because, in the nature of the case, he has always to appear dogmatic in print.

The cautious seldom err.

There are four types of people: Smart and lazy, Smart and full of energy, Stupid and lazy, Stupid and full of energy

Happy the heart that keeps its twilight hour, And, in the depths of heavenly peace reclined, Loves to commune with thoughts of tender power,-- A shining Jacob's-ladder of the mind!

Quotations offer one kind of break in what the eye can see, the ear can hear.

One will never reach distant shores, if he chooses to remain upon the dock, In fear his little ship of dreams may be dashed against the rocks.

Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Do you know why the Lord withheld the sense of humor from women? So that we may love you instead of laugh at you.

It's amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.

Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with lies, To please the fools, and puzzle all the wise.

Contentment is not satisfaction. It is the grateful, faithful, fruitful use of what we have, little or much. It is to take the cup of Providence, and call upon the name of the Lord. What the cup contains is its contents. To get all that is in the cup is the act and art of contentment. Not to drink because one has but half a cup, or because one does not like its flavor, or because somebody else has silver to one's own glass, is to lose the contents; and that is the penalty, if not the meaning, of discontent. No one is discontented who employs and enjoys to the utmost what he has. It is high philosophy to say, we can have just what we like if we like what we have; but this much at least can be done, and this is contentment: to have the most and best in life by making the most and best of what we have. ... Maltbie D. Babcock August 7, 2000 Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866 For all the vigour of his polemic, St. Paul does not content himself with the denunciation of error, but finds the best defense against its insidious approaches in a closer adherence to the love of God and faith in Christ.

It is fraud to accept what you cannot repay.

There is only one nature--the division into science and engineering is a human imposition, not a natural one. Indeed, the division is a human failure; it reflects our limited capacity to comprehend the whole.

Whether man is disposed to yield to nature or to oppose her, he cannot do without a correct understanding of her language.

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called "Huckleberry Finn."

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

I am afraid that direct confrontation, first of all between Washington and Peking, is inevitable.

Morale is faith in the man at the top.

Men are moved by only two things: fear and self-interest.