Thought of the day

After seeing the Lazy A Ranch blog getting all philosophical, I decided I needed some substance in here. Well pseudo- substance at least. I decided to add some quotes to my blog occasionally, and I started with Mark Twain because he was such a riot. Then I could not decide which to use!

So here is a start of things that seem to apply lately -- some gems from Mark Twain.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. This is of course supposed to be funny, but is actually a pretty good commentary on how people seem to operate lately.

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. That is a fact. I probably am more sensitive to this than is necessary, after dealing with clients all these years, but if one more person tells me what I HAVE to do for them, I may not be responsible for my actions.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. If that is not the truth, I do not know what is. It just does not pay to go out on a limb for anyone other than an animal, as they don't have the capacity to take advantage.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. The fun part is seeing which people will have which reaction---and that tells a lot about that person.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. That is kind of serious, but an important thing to remember when those around you are more focused on CANNOT than CAN.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on it's shoes. Why is that?

And my favorite: It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

So what is your favorite folk wisdom?