One more quote

From TRD, a Mongolian maxim : “While your father is alive make as many friends as you can, while your horse is alive, see as many lands as you can.”    I get the second at least. But so many sayings are now attributed to Mongolia. One I actually heard there more than once over …

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Commonplace Book

Another good quote: Samuel Johnson from Boswell’s Life: “Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen. It is assuming a superiority, and it is particularly wrong to question a man concerning himself. There may be parts of his former life he may not wish to be made known to other persons, or even brought …

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A Few Quotes

From John Updike in 1992 describing writing book reviews: “Knitting and purling at these reviews seems to be harder work for me than it used to be; we feel like field mice painstakingly weaving our little nests while the shadows of the hawks swirl all around us.” HT Richard Francis. “If guns cause crime, then …

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