Secrets - Quotation

Statue of Roman Tacitus (you can see his name carved under his foot) outside Austrian Parliament building.

Things forbidden have a secret charm.

Tacitus.

To keep your secret is wisdom. To expect others to keep it is folly.

William Samuel Johnson, American who signed the US constitution.

A shared secret is no secret / no longer a secret.
If a secret's too big for you to keep, what makes you think someone else is strong enough to keep it?

There are no secrets that time does not reveal. 

Jean Racine

The soul has no secret that behaviour does not reveal.

Lao Tsu (Chinese). Freud said something similar but more long-winded.

Dead men tell no tales.

Truth will out.

The Secret Garden.

Book by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

"there are known unknowns," Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, 

 ...as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. ..."

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations

See my books on quotes

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I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

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Quotations on Engineering and Science

I saw this quotation on the wall inside the engineering block 5 when I attended a Toastmasters International speakers club of the university. I attended one of their groups. Four different groups met in four adjacent rooms, each one with different members, presidents and so on. However, they all met up to socialise and network at the break, a huge gathering in the hallway in front of this sign.

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

James A. Michener

James A Michener (February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) inspired the film South Pacific, was the author of 40 books, and a major donor to the University of Texas. He has been honoured by a US postage stamp, and a suite is named after him in Raffles Hotel, Singapore, where he stayed.

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations (Lulu).

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Food and Medicine quotations

Food, glorious food ...
Oliver (musical).

You are what you eat.

Let food be your medicine.
Hippocrates.


Doctors amuse the patient while the bod heals itself.

Doctors bury their mistakes.

See my other post on Cervantes on food.

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations, 

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Quotations by Angela Lansbury, author

I thought I ought to collect my own quotations in one place, for an article or book.

I wrote on the page for my good friend Shan Shan, under a picture of her with birthday cake:
As Marie Antoinette said on her birthday: Let them eat cake.

From my radio phone in when I was the etiquette expert for brides and weddings on BBC Radio London and I responded to a listener's query:
Of course you can wear white (as a bride) if you are not a virgin. Everybody else does.

On reading about hedgehogs:
I have lots of prickly friends but none of them are hedgehogs.
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.

Angela Lansbury with her book Quick Quotations.

About the author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Quotations from a speaker's meeting on Time

Time is money.

Warren said that stealing time is like stealing money.

Yes, working overtime costs more. People are paid by the hour. Taking an extra minute means somebody else loses their leisure time or their speaking time. If you are annoyed at being stopped when you reach your time limit, imagine how annoyed others feel if they get less time because you had more - or there's no time for their speech!

Angela Lansbury, author of:
Quick Quotations
Wedding Speeches and Toasts
Who Said What When

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Quotations For Fun and Funerals, Villanelles and Hymns: Dylan Thomas

Statue of Dylan Thomas in Swansea, Wales, UK. Photo by Ham in Wikipedia article on Dylan Thomas. 

Plaque to Dylan Thomas in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, London, England, UK. Photo supplied by Welshboy2012, in article on Dylan Thomas in Wikipedia.

Poems and hymns can be stirring or soothing. It's good to start a meeting with something stirring to get attention and wake up the audience. But it's sometimes good to end on a peaceful and soothing note.

I was thinking about being the backup speaker on poetry, and I thought I would start with a villanelle. My choice would be the well known villanelle by Dylan Thomas, 

Do not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I thought of mentioning that it's handy to have a card index card in my pocket with a couple of lines of poetry for births, marriages and deaths. The villanelle from Dylan Thomas fits a funeral. But you want to end on a more positive note. The phrase which popped into my mind was,

 'Give us, we pray, your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day'.

I went searching for it on the internet. Up came several useful links, including one to my own book of quotations, Quick Quotations. As for the full words of the hymn, an d the background to it, here's what I found:

Useful Websites
http://www.namethathymn.com/hymn-lyrics-detective-forum/index.php?a=vtopic&t=763
The full verses for the hymn for dawn, work, going home and sleeping.,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3668150/The-story-behind-the-hymn.html

The hymn which brought America into the war.

Some websites refer to the Irish melody, others to the Irish tradition of the text.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VNC2RJBWQUkC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=quotation+give+us+we+pray+your+peace+in+our+hearts&source=bl&ots=Qv1tp81ThO&sig=LlVH2qzZx0oo9vXDhSV8hy3AI14&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAmoVChMI2K601ZbvxgIVi7wUCh1nBQPP#v=onepage&q=quotation%20give%20us%20we%20pray%20your%20peace%20in%20our%20hearts&f=false

https://www.funeralguide.co.uk/help-resources/arranging-a-funeral/planning-the-service/funeral-poems/when-i-m-gone#_=_

Angela Lansbury, B A Honours, author of two books on quotations:

Quick Quotations.
Who said what where when.

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Quotation by T S Eliot on libraries

Pictures from Wikipedia. T S Eliot. Plaques on buildings in London. Last one on SOAS, School of Oriental and African studies.

"The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man."
T S Eliot

I found this quotation in the May issue of Singapore's Tanglin Club magazine in an article about a questionnaire on the club library.

I had to read the quotation twice. I was confused by '... that we may yet have.' I am trying to put this idea more clearly (easy to understand) and succinctly (shortly - in few words) and positively.

The very existence - why not just the existence. Affords - why not gives. the best evidence - just evidence will do. We may yet - too namby pamby. I've been on several writing courses where we writers aspiring to improve our writing have been told to cut the word very and to say that something is the case rather than may be the case, to provide a firmer statement or conclusion.

"Libraries provide overwhelming evidence that mankind's future is a world of millions of exciting facts and glorious possibilities."

Writing the blurb for this post I came up with a sentence which was longer but included more and better ideas:

"Libraries allow and encourage the ordinary person, and the extraordinary person. to meet the geniuses of the past and present, to be inspired and motivated to explore new places, enjoy worldwide art, develop new products and plan beautiful cities to create a better world for everybody to enjoy."

I shall try to condense this into a succinct and memorable sentence:
Libraries introduce every reader to the world's geniuses, so we can co-operate to create a better world.
Angela Lansbury, author

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Wine Quotation in Singapore

Three be the things I shall never obtain, envy, content and sufficient Champagne, said Dorothy Parker.

This is quoted on the window of a wine shop in Singapore.


Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations

Quotations on Coffee, Tea and Water

If this is tea, bring me coffee, if this is coffee, bring me tea.
Abraham Lincoln

I never drink water, fish f... in it.
W C Fields

Angela Lansbury B A Hons
Author of
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Quotes of the Day - see Wikiquote

Wikipedia symbol

Wikiquote symbol

At last I've found what I've been searching for: Quotations of the day, relating to somebody who was born or who died on that day. Useful, memorable, insightful quotations.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day

Angela Lansbury B A Hons
Author of :
Quick Quotations (Lulu)
Who Said What When? (Lulu)

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Quotations on Wine

Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine, said Joan Collins.

West Street vineyard in Coggeshall has a restaurant decorated with quotations about wine - even in the elegant ladies toilet.

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading, said Henry Youngman.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

English Wine Barn, West Street

Coggeshall, Essex CO6 INS

tel: 01376 563303

www.weststreetvineyard.co.uk

on Facebook and Twitter @weststreetwine

See previous post about lovely buildings to look at in Coggeshall.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Quotations on death or funerals: Dead funny

Diary of Anne Frank. 

I want to go on living even after my death.
Anne Frank.

Death is not an event in life; it is the end of life.
Wittgenstein.

Death is death. 
Marlene Dietrich.

Better to be tried by twelve than carried by six. 

(American favourite saying about the right to carry concealed weapons.)

Shoot first, ask questions later. 

Most people are more afraid of giving a speech than dying. 

(A favourite saying to encourage confidence at Toastmasters International speakers' clubs.)

Most Americans are more afraid of giving a speech than dying. So they would rather be in the coffin than giving the funeral speech. 

(American comedian. Seinfeld? I've forgotten who - I'll look this up and come back with the answer.)

Useful Websites

wikiquote

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day

Angela Lansbury B A Hons
Author of
Quick Quotations. (Lulu.com)
Who Said What When. (Lulu.com)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Quotations for a funeral: sad, serious, soulful

Do not mourn for me, better you should laugh and forget, than be sad.
Christina Rossetti.
This quotation is also used in advertisements for bereavement counselling services, paid for or free.

I am not gone, only sleeping in the next room.

Sadness is the price we pay for love.

To the world they were one person, but to one person they were the world.

Stonemasons and funeral directors who supply thank you cards for condolences have lots of quotations you can choose to put on thank you cards, mostly rhyming poems.

These poems can also be used in funeral notices in newspaper and on gravestones.

Religious ceremonies can use quotations from the holy books, such as the bible, Old Testament, New Testament, and from other religions.

Those organising Humanist and secular funerals can choose poems of a spiritual or optimistic nature, about the memory of love, of nature, the wheel of life and life going on.

A funeral official can offer you a choice of poems.

Useful Websites

https://www.funeralguide.co.uk/help-resources/arranging-a-funeral/planning-the-service/funeral-poems/when-i-m-gone#_=_

About The Author
Angela Lansbury B A Hons
Author of:
Quick Quotations (Lulu.com)
Who Said What When (Lulu.com)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quotations on Anzac Day and War memorials

The short quotation we recall easily is 'for your tomorrow they gave their today'.

But even more relevant to Gallipoli is the quotation from the speech given there by the Turkish leader, Kemal Ataturk, a masterpiece of the rhetoric of reconciliation. "Having lost their lives in this land, they have become our sons as well." The words of the founder of the republic of Turkey are on monuments in Turkey and Australia.

Please follow this blog for daily quotations. Email me if you wish to be send a daily quotation in a brief daily or weekly or monthly newsletter.

Useful Websites

https://www.funeralguide.co.uk/help-resources/arranging-a-funeral/planning-the-service/funeral-poems/when-i-m-gone#_=_

Angela Lansbury B A Hons
Author of:
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When
Wedding Speeches and Toasts

See my books on quotes

Order from Lulu.com and Amazon.com

I hope to add to Shopify on Facebook in the next month. You can also buy at Swanwick Writers Summer School, every August. Get a copy signed by me. Or bring your previously bought copy of one of my books and ask me to sign it.

Please share links to your favourite post, this one and others on this blog and my other blogs on blogspot.com

Who said What, When?

Life's a Jest and All things show it, I thought so once, but now I know it.

I looked up that quotation and found it was by John Gay. I had numerous quotations in my book Quick Quotations, by people I did not know.

Who were they? If their names sounded English, were they English or American? If their names sounded Spanish, were they Spanish or South American? 

When did they live?

John Gay wrote the Beggar's Opera. His words are recorded in Westminster Abbey, Poets' Corner.

I started researching the authors of quotations, had to use card index cards to keep track, and ended up with a second book, Who Said What When.

Angela Lansbury, author of
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When

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Collecting Quotations

I love quotations. I have a huge collection of books of quotations by others, such as

Bartletts Quotations
Humorous Quotations
Jewish Quotations
Oxford Quotations
Theatre Quotations
Shopping Quotations

I photograph quotations all over the world, on war memorials, pub and restaurant walls, shopping malls, theatres, wine labels.

When I started giving speeches regularly at Toastmasters International club meetings, I needed short quotations to start speeches. I could not remember long quotations. So I looked for short quotations. I ended up compiling them into a paperback book which I printed under the title Quick Quotations. You can buy it as a paperback book and it will shortly be available as an e-book.

You may be wondering, what is Angela's favourite quotation?

My favourite quotation is from Disraeli: When I want to read a book, I write one.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons, author and speaker
Author of
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When
Wedding Speeches and Toasts