• Abraham Lincoln's "House Divided Speech"
• Pope Benedict XVI's Resignation Speech
• Barack Obama's State of the Union Address
• Steve Jobs "If today were the last day of my life..."
• Who does Bruce Lee fear?
• Albert Einstein "The most important thing is not to stop thinking."
• Martin Luther King on the ultimate measure of a man
• William Shakespeare "A fool thinks himself to be wise"
• Aristotle's take on anger
• The right film in Woody Allen's eyes
• Lady Thatcher on the difference between man and woman
• Florentijn Hofman talks about the Duck
• Buddha on friends to be feared
• Mother Teresa on smiles
• Dalai Lama on the passing of days
• George Bush on leadership
• David Beckham on criticism
• Angelina Jolie on femininity
• J.K. Rowling on human's knack for choosing the worst
• Jesus Christ on treasure in heaven
• Oscar Wilde“True friends stab you in the front”
• Jane Austen on friendship
• Barack Obama congratulated the royal couple
• Chris Hemsworth's personal heroes
• Charles Darwin on adaptability
• Princess Diana "Whoever is in distress can call on me"
• Benjamin Franklin "Beauty and folly are old companions"
• C.S. Lewis "Hatch, or go bad"
• J.F. Kennedy on knowledge and ignorance
• Henry David Thoreau on the value of a house
• Brad Pitt on family
• Francis Bacon on commanding nature
• William Gladstone on the essence of liberalism
• Zola "I'm coming to live out loud"
• Gandhi on the freedom to err
• Jules Verne on the law of nature
• Samuel Butler on human-animal relationship
• Mark Twain on Ageing
• Winston Churchill on art
• Nelson Mandela's definition of freedom
• Ronald Reagan "Inflation is... as deadly as a hit man"
• Balzac "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime"
• Discover a person through play
• Nixon likening Olympics to politics
• Gina McCarthy on fine particle pollution
• Mia Hamm on athletic training
• Henry Adams "Everyone carries his own rule of taste..."
• Alfred Hitchcock thankful to be a coward
• Emerson "You can never say anything but what you are"
• Nile Rodgers thinks he's like a shark?
• Donald Rumsfeld on the "unknown unknowns"
• A rock pile in Saint-Exupery's eyes
• Khalil Gibran is ungrateful to some teachers
• "Dogs are wise." Agatha Christie tells you why
• Karl Marx "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
• Edmund Burke on slavery
• John Lennon "Love is the flower you've got to let grow"
• Malala is not afraid
• Issac Asimov the speed understander
• Aung San Suu Kyi on the democratic process
• George Orwell "Serious sport is war minus the shooting"
• Pele's guitar string/enthusiasm analogy
• Roy Jenkins rethinking the "permissive society"
• Hillary Clinton on dignity
• Carl Jung "The shoe that fits one person pinches another"
• Jimi Hendrix "Power of love vs. Love of power"
• Orlando Bloom's rite of passage
• Robert Kiyosaki on toughness
• Bill Gates reviewing modern pandemic
• Gandhi on the greatness of a nation
• Sean Connery on cultivating an English accent
• Al Gore: Let's get down to reality!
• Chaz Bono "Gender is not between your legs"
• Plato on the reason to speak
• Edward Snowden on terrorism
• What type of girls does Shia LaBeouf like?
• Edmund Burke on the way of reading
• Fred Allen "I sued the college the day I graduated"
• Karen Armstrong on the way to deal with the gritty realities
• Percy Shelley on the veil of death
• James Faust "Cheating is self-deception"
• Sugar Ray Leonard on the idea of contract
• Gilbert Chesterton on Buddhism
• Does a single man of wealth need a wife?
• Cheese is milk’s leap toward immortality
• Mother Teresa "Being unloved is the greatest poverty"
• Winston Churchill on the most abhorrent act against democracy
• Who's playing God in documentary?
• What did Alexander the Great fear most?
• Humour is the weapon of unarmed people
• Taylor Swift on fairy tales
• Hamlin Garland's escape from city life
• Elisha Cuthbert"I'm sort of a control freak, but..."
• Polly Toynbee on the clash of civilisations
• Alan Kay's take on AI
• Herb Caen "Eternal conflict may produce eternal truths"
• Roger Ebert"Your intellect may be confused"
• Dr. Seuss "Never too wacky to read to a child"
• Good weather in John Ruskin's opinion
• Buddha "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal"
• Eleanor Roosevelt"A woman is like a tea bag"
• James Hutton's explanations about the globe
• Bruce Barton on the rhythm of living
• Napoleon on public opinion
• Audrey Hepburn "Beauty of a woman must be seen from her eyes"
• Eleanor Roosevelt "Most useful gift for a child"
• Lincoln "If you want to test a man's character, give him power"
• Albert Einstein "God does not play dice"
• Gilbert K. Chesterton "A stiff apology is a second insult"
• Doug Larson "Nostalgia is..."
• How to portray the ideal types of beauty?
• Thomas Fuller "In fair weather prepare for foul"
• Gustave Flaubert "Life must be a constant education"
• What did Galileo think about Nature?
• William A. Dembski on the question of legitimacy
• Brooke Foss Westcott on the nature of crisis
• Samuel Ullman "Youth is not a time of life"
• Arthur Erickson's take on tourism
• Pope John Paul II "The great danger for family life lies in..."
• A. C. Benson "A change of self is needed more than a change of scene"
• Erik Erikson on the sense of identity
• H. L. Mencken "It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion"
• Robin Williams on comedy and trauma
• Dorothea Lange "Photography alters life by holding it still"
• Jackie Kennedy "I want to live my life, not record it"
• Margaret Mead on stages of life
• Doug Larson "If green vegetables smelled as good as bacon..."
• Vincent Van Gogh "Knowledge of fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes"
• Saint Augustine "What does love look like? "
• Victor Hugo "Concision, precision, decision"
• 1st Duke of Wellington "Be discreet in all things"
• Stephen Hawking "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster"
• Paul Prudhomme "You don't need a silver fork to eat good food."
• David Lynch on absurdity
• Abu Bakr "Too much knowledge leads to exploitation"
• David Cameron "Flexibility over rigidity"
• Jann Wenner "Clean up after yourself!"
• Salman Rushdie "Dance on"
• Kierkegaard "Life is not a problem to be solved"
• T. S. Eliot "We shall not cease from exploration"
• Jesse Owens "Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust"
• Thich Nhat Hanh on the way to success
• Mahatma Gandhi "Learn as if you were to live forever"
• John D. MacDonald "Integrity is not a conditional word"
• Abraham Lincoln "The ballot is stronger than the bullet."
• Dennis Christopher "Work has been my lover..."
• Goethe on the biggest problem of art
• Somerset Maugham "Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull"
• George Santayana "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
• Virginia Woolf on the first gift to perish in a foreign language
• Indira Gandhi "You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist"
• Plato "Let parents bequeath to their children not riches..."
• Montesquieu on tyranny under the shield of law
• Why did Aesop prefer a crust than a banquet?
• What happens when people merely follow their hopes?
• Exercise your mind!
• What is the purpose of education?
• The father of Snoopy "Dread one day at a time"
• Karl Marx "Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex"

Mark Twain on Ageing

 

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

年齡在乎心境多於現實。如果你不在乎，那就不要緊了。

 

Mark Twain 馬克‧吐溫　（1935-1910）

 

馬克‧吐溫乃美國幽默大師、小說家，著有《湯姆歷險記》、《乞丐王子》等。Mind 和 matter 二字，用作名詞、動詞皆可，馬克利用此點，為衰老作了漂亮註腳。

 

mind 心境

(noun 名詞)

 

例子：peace of mind

 

mind 在乎/ 在意/ 小心

(verb 動詞)

 

例子：Would you mind passing me the salt?

例子：Mind your language!

 

注意 mind  搭配另一個動詞必須加 -ing，如 mind having, mind telling me 等等。

 

matter 物質/ 事情

(noun 名詞)

 

例子：What’s the matter? 什麼事?

例子：It’s a matter of life and death. 這件事生死攸關。

 

matter 要緊

(verb 動詞)

 

例子：Does it matter whether Peter remembers you or not?

 

 

 

something over the other

= 前者比後者重要

 

例子：quality over quantity 質重於量

例子：equality over freedom 平等重於自由

 

 

Also by Mark Twain:

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.”

皺紋只是指示微笑過的地方。