G-I

"The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones."
-------Solomon Ibn Gabirol
proverb, all

"Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything."
-------John Kenneth Galbraith

The cat is the only non-gregarious domestic animal.
-------Francis Galton

"I'll not listen to reason. Reason is always what someone else has got to say."
-------Elizabeth C. Gaskell
humor, all

"He's no failure. He's not dead yet."
-------W. L. George

Of course life is bizarre. The more bizarre it gets, the more interesting it is. The only way to approach it is to make yourself some popcorn and enjoy the show.
-------David Gerrold
humor, all

If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing for money.
-------David Gerrold
humor, all

Adolescence is that time of life when you discover your ability to be depressed.
-------David Gerrold
humor, all

"I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect."
-------Edward Gibbon

I want revenge. I'll accept justice. Mercy is negotiable, but not very.
-------Alexis A. Gilliland

Comedians and politicians each tell the audience what it wants to hear. The difference is that the audience laughs at the comedian and the politician laughs at the audience.
-------Alexis A. Gilliland
politics, humor, all

Robots make very good friends because they have very little idea of what their own self interest is.
blank--Alexis A. Gilliland
science, all

The people people work with best
Are sometimes very queer;
The people people own by birth
Quite shock your first idea.
The people people have for friends
Your common sense appall
But the people people marry
Are the queerest folk of all.
-------Charlotte Perkins Gillman
humor, life, marriage, love, all

You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived, I'm sure I would have played his mother. That's the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.
-------Lillian Gish
acting, humor, all

"Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time."
-------Arnold Glasgow
humor, inspiration, all

"No life is so hard that you can't make it easier by the way you take it."
-------Ellen Glasgow

"Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again."
-------Goethe
writing, all

Life isn't fair -- it's just fairer than death.
-------William Goldman
proverb, all

I regard this novel as a work without redeeming social value, unless it can be recycled as a cardboard box.
-------Ellen Goodman (on Message from Nam by Danielle Steel)
insult, writing, all

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
-------Vincent van Gogh
success, inspiration, all

"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg - not by smashing it."
-------Arnold Glasow
inspiration, success, all

The freedom of the press works in such a way that there is not much freedom from it.
blank--Princess Grace of Monaco
writing, politics, all

"A mistake is simply another way of doing things."
-------Katharine Graham
inspiration, all

Bromidic though it may sound, some questions don't have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.
-------Katharine Graham
life, all

No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time. It is just that the others are behind the time.
-------Martha Graham
art, all

In society it is etiquette for ladies to have the best chairs and get handed things. In the home the reverse is the case. This is why ladies are more sociable than gentlemen.
blank--Virginia Graham
men, women, humor, all

The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth which it prevents you from achieving.
-------Russell Green
humor, all

Men ought to be more conscious of their bodies as an object of delight.
blank--Germaine Greer
sex, love, all

Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.
-------Germain Greer
politics, government, all

Autobiography is now as common as adultery and hardly less reprehensible.
-------John Grigg
writing, humor, all

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post how it feels about dogs.
blank--Christopher Hampton
humor, writing, all

"We will either find a way, or make one."
-------Hannibal
military, war, all

To be able to be caught up into the world of thought - that is educated.
-------Edith Hamilton
education

"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."
-------Jack Handey
humor, all

"Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are."
-------Julius Charles Hare
inspiration, all

"You are all you will ever have for certain."
-------June Havoc
proverb, all

"English can most charitably be described as a generous, expansive, and flexible language; a less charitable description would characterize it as drunk and disorderly. This puts copyeditors in the interesting position of trying to impose a degree of regularity on something that is inherently irregular. It is therefore useful to realize that your task is, on some level, impossible. Cultivating this attitude can free up your common sense, which will make things a lot easier."
-------Teresa Nielsen Hayden _Making Book_
humor, writing, all

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.
-------Helen Hayes (at age 83)
humor, all

A beautiful young man came up to me and offered me some salted peanuts and he said, "I wish they were emeralds," as he handed me the peanuts, and that was the end of my heart. I never got it back.
blank--Helen Hayes
love, all

"Contrary to popular cable TV-induced opinion, aerobics have nothing to do with squeezing our body into hideous shiny Spandex, grinning like a deranged orangutan, and doing cretinous steps to debauched disco music."
-------Cynthia Heimel
fitness, humor, all

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."
------- Robert A. Heinlein

You can't enslave a free man. Only person can do that to a man is himself. The most you can do to a free man is to kill him.
-------Robert A. Heinlein
, all

Luck is the tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius.
-------Robert A. Heinlein
, all

Nothing gives you more zest than running for your life.
-------Robert A. Heinlein
humor, all

Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.
-------Rober A. Heinlein
humor, all

Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you get your second shot off perfect.
-------Robert A. Heinlein
military, war, humor, all

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.
-------Ernest Hemingway
writing, all

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get -- only with what you are expecting to give -- which is everything."
-------Katharine Hepburn
all

Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to make a living. After all, Shirly Temple could do it at the age of four.
-------Katharine Hepburn
humor, all

To be loved is very demoralizing.
blank--Katharine Hepburn
love, humor, all

Never count a human dead until you've seen the body. And even then you can make a mistake.
-------Frank Herbert
humor, all

Science is made up of things that appear obvious after they are explained.
blank--Frank Herbert
humor, all

I am happy now that Charles calls on my bed chamber less frequently than of old. As it is I now endure but two calls a week and when I hear his steps outside my door I lie down on my bed, close my eyes, open my legs and think of England.
blank--Lady Alice Hillingdon (1912)
sex, marriage, all

This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop.
-------Alfred Hitchcock
insults, humor, writing, all

"The only certain thing about the future is that it will surprise even those who have seen furthest into it."
-------Eric Hobsbawm

"Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem."
-------Eric Hoffer
, all

"The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post."
-------L. Thomas Holdcroft

Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
blank--Billie Holiday
, all

"Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke."
-------Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
, all

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
-------Lena Horne
humor, work, all

"The real tragedy of life is not being limited to one talent, but in failing to use that one talent."
-------Edgar Watson Howe
, all

Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies.
-------Ed Howe
politics, press, writing, all

"To escape criticism - do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."
-------Elbert Hubbard
inspiration, all

"Nobody ever forgets where he buried a hatchet."
-------Kim Hubbard

The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you.
-------Kim Hubbard
, all

Scratch an artist and you surprise a child.
-------James Gibbons Huneker
art, all

"To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs."
------- Aldous Huxley
humor, pets, all

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
-------Aldous Huxley
truth, all

Life is routine punctuated by orgies.
-------Aldous Huxley
humor, all

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.
-------Aldous Huxley
life, all

The only completely consistent people are dead.
-------Aldous Huxley
humor, all

It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
-------Dolores Ibarruri ("La Pasionaria")
inspiration, all

"Great minds have purposes, others have wishes."
-------Washington Irving
inspiration, all