Charles Van Doren Quotes

#1. The last part, the part you're now approaching, was for Aristotle the most important for happiness.

Charles Van Doren

#2. Wisdom is not the domain of the Wiz.

Frank Zappa

#3. I was a boy, suddenly treated like the men and expected to act like them.

Robbie Fowler

#4. Be still, and the world is bound to turn herself inside out to entertain you. Everywhere you look, joyful noise is clanging to drown out quiet desperation.

Barbara Kingsolver

#5. Plans are nothing; planning is everything.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

#6. Liberalism is moral syphilis. And I'm stepping over it.

Jonathan Bowden

#7. It may be a species of impudence to think that the way you understand God is the way God is. (60).

Joseph Campbell

#8. I never wanted to see another quiz show.

Charles Van Doren

#9. I worked hard at memorizing lists of facts and figures, and carried with me a book of facts.

Charles Van Doren

#10. Education in the West, particularly higher education in America, has lost the ability to see the universe from very far away.

Charles Van Doren

#11. Because the world is radically new, the ideal encyclopedia should be radical, too.

Charles Van Doren

#12. Our All is at Stake, and the little Conveniencys and Comforts of Life, when set in Competition with our Liberty, ought to be rejected not with Reluctance but with Pleasure.

George Mason

#13. I hoped that it would be possible to slide slowly from my public life back to the life of teaching and writing that I had always wanted. But things didn't work out that way.

Charles Van Doren

#14. I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception ... I have deceived my friends - and I had millions of them.

Charles Van Doren

#15. There are few things more abrasive to the human spirit, even in Patagonia, than someone standing behind you chomping and sucking ice cubes.

Paul Theroux

#16. you have to understand in order to disagree.

Charles Van Doren

#17. We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it. Our too great love for it makes us restless with fears, burdens us with cares, and exposes us to insults.

Seneca.

#18. I cannot take back one word or action; the past does not change for anyone.

Charles Van Doren

#19. When you feel a snake slither down your spine and your nipples are itchy, when your armpits tingle and your mouth is dry when you see him, that's first love.

Chloe Thurlow

#20. Our nation suffers when Congress fails to pay America's bills on time.

Jim Cooper

#21. You ever want to see real witchcraft, you watch people protecting their comfort, their beliefs.

Peter S. Beagle

#22. My total winnings after 14 appearances were $129,000.

Charles Van Doren

#23. I've learned a lot about good and evil. They are not always what they appear to be.

Charles Van Doren

#24. As you near a finish line, do not slow down. Instead, run faster. Give all you have left until it is done. It is then that you may collapse.

Christy Hall

#25. Learn to live small and you will discover great pleasures. You will accomplish more in your life than you could ever predict if you were overly ambitious.

Thomas Moore

#26. Gluttony is a great fault; but we do not necessarily dislike a glutton. We only dislike the glutton when he becomes a gourmet-that is, we only dislike him when he not only wants the best for himself, but knows what is best for other people.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#27. Some of you read with me 40 years ago a portion of Aristotle's Ethics, a selection of passages that describe his idea of happiness. You may not remember too well.

Charles Van Doren