QOD

This blog purely for my own amusement. I like to start the day with a quote, be it amusing, inspiration, or simply something that caught my fancy.

On occasion, I might also include some commentary on the day's crossword puzzle that is published in the Los Angeles Times.

Friday 28 December 2012

Friday, December 28, 2012

QOD:  A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits.  ~  Woodrow Wilson (né  Thomas Woodrow Wilson; Dec. 28, 1856 ~ Feb. 3, 1924), 28th President of the United States

Thursday 27 December 2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012

QOD:  Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.  ~  Marlene Dietrich (née Marie Magdalene Dietrich; Dec. 27, 1902 ~ May 6, 1992), German actress

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

QOD:  The one thing we can never get enough of is love.  And the one thing we never give enough is love.  ~  Henry Miller (né Henry Valentine Miller; Dec. 26, 1891 ~ June 7, 1980), American writer

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Tuesday, December 25, 2012 / Christmas

QOD:  Ask yourself: Have you been kind today?  Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.  ~  Annie Lennox (b. December 25, 1954), Scottish singer-songwriter

Monday 24 December 2012

Monday, December 24, 2012

QOD:  Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.  ~  Ava Gardner (Dec. 24, 1922 ~ Jan. 25, 1990), American actress

Sunday 23 December 2012

Sunday, December 23, 2012

QOD:  When you stop thinking about yourself all the time, a certain sense of repose overtakes you.  ~  Leonard Cohen (né Leonard Norman Cohen; b. Sept. 21, 1934)  , Canadian singer-songwriter [Leonard Cohen died on November 7, 2016]

Friday 21 December 2012

Friday, December 21, 2012

QOD:  We make up horrors to cope with the real ones.  ~  Stephen King (b. Sept. 21, 1947), American writer of horror fiction

Thursday 20 December 2012

Thursday, December 20, 2012

QOD:  You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.  ~  Ayn Rand (née Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; Feb. 2, 1905 ~ Mar. 6, 1982), Russian-American author

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

QOD:  Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams.  If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you any more.  ~  Lady Gaga (née Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta; b. Mar. 28, 1986), American singer-songwriter

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

QOD:  If it weren't for problems, the work day would be over by 10 a.m.  ~  Woody Allen (né Allan Steward Konigsberg; b. Dec. 1, 1935), American movie director

Monday 17 December 2012

Monday, December 17, 2012

QOD:  Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.  ~  Ludwig van Beethoven (Dec. 17, 1770 ~ March 26, 1827), German composer

Sunday 16 December 2012

Sunday, December 16, 2012

QOD:  Less is more.  ~  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Mar. 27, 1886 ~ Aug. 17, 1969), German architect

Friday 14 December 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

QOD:  A Cannibal is a person who walks into a restaurant and orders a waiter.  ~  Morey Amsterdam (né Moritz Amsterdam; Dec. 14, 1908 ~ Oct. 27, 1996), American actor and comedian

Thursday 13 December 2012

Thursday, December 13, 2012

QOD:  I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.  ~  Heinrich Heine (né Christian Johann Heinrich Heine; Dec. 13, 1797 ~ Feb. 17, 1856), German writer

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

QOD:  Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.  ~  Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 ~ May 8, 1880), French novelist

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

QOD:  How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?  ~  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Dec. 11, 1918 ~ Aug. 3, 2008), Russian author and recipient of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature

Monday 10 December 2012

Monday, December 10, 2012

QOD:  Creativity is intelligence having fun.  ~  Albert Einstein (Mar. 14, 1879 ~ Apr. 18, 1955), German-born theoretical physicist

Sunday 9 December 2012

Sunday, December 9, 2012


QOD:  It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it.  ~  Dame Judy Dench (née Judith Olivia Dench; b. Dec. 9, 1934), British actress

Friday 7 December 2012

Friday, December 7, 2012


QOD:  Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.  ~  Tom Waits (né Thomas Alan Waits; b. December 7, 1949), American singer-songwriter

Thursday 6 December 2012

Thursday, December 6, 2012

QOD:  I busted a mirror and got seven years of bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.  ~  Steven Wright (b. December 6, 1955), American comedian

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

QOD:  The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.  ~  Walt Disney (né Walter Elias Disney; December 5, 1901 ~ December 15, 1966), American entrepreneur 

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

QOD:  In law, nothing is certain but the expense.  ~  Samuel Butler (December 4, 1835 ~ June 18, 1902), British author

Monday 3 December 2012

Monday, December 3, 2012

QOD:  Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists primarily in dealing with men.  ~  Joseph Conrad (Dec. 3, 1857 ~ Aug. 3, 1924), Polish-born British writer

Sunday 2 December 2012

Sunday, December 2, 2012

QOD:  I enjoy the last quarter of all basketball games.  ~  Sarah Silverman (née Sarah Kate Silverman; b. December 2, 1970), American comedian

Friday 30 November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

QOD:  Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.  ~  Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 ~ October 19, 1745), Irish writer

Thursday 29 November 2012

Thursday, November 29, 2012

QOD: It’s the ability to choose which makes us human.  ~  Madeleine L’Engle (Nov. 29, 1918 ~ Sept. 6, 2007), American author

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

QOD:  A man is not finished when he is defeated.  He is finished when he quits.  ~  Richard Nixon (né Richard Milhous Nixon; Jan. 9, 1913 ~ Apr. 22, 1994), 37th President of the United States

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

QOD:  Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.  ~  Jimi Hendrix (né James Marshall Hendrix; November 27, 1942 ~ September 18, 1970), American musician and guitarist 

Monday 26 November 2012

Monday, November 26, 2012

QOD:  Consultant:  any ordinary guy more than fifty miles from home.  ~  Eric Sevareid (né Arnold Eric Sevareid; November 26, 1912 ~ July 9, 1992), American journalist

Sunday 25 November 2012

Sunday, November 25, 2012

QOD:  People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their talents.  ~  Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 ~ August 11, 1919), Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist


Friday 23 November 2012

Friday, November 23, 2012

QOD:  My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.  ~  John F. Kennedy (né John Fitzgerald Kennedy; May 29, 1917 ~ Nov. 22, 1963)

Thursday 22 November 2012

Thursday, November 22, 2012 / Thanksgiving

QOD:  We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.  ~  Frederick Koenig (né Friedrich Gottlob Koenig; Apr. 17, 1774 ~ Jan. 17, 1833), German inventor

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

QOD:  I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.  ~  Voltaire (né François-Marie Arouet; November 21, 1694 ~ May 30, 1778), French writer

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

QOD:  An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having been the first in inventing something.  ~  Benoît Mandelbrot (November 20, 1924 ~ October 14, 2010), Polish-born mathematician

Monday 19 November 2012

Monday, November 19, 2012

QOD:  Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.  ~  Peter Drucker (né Peter Ferdinand Drucker; November 19, 1909 ~ November 11, 2005), American management consultant and author

Sunday 18 November 2012

Sunday, November 18, 2012


QOD:  You have no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself and how little I deserve it.  ~  Sir William S. Gilbert (né William Schwenck Gilbert; November 18, 1836 ~ May 29, 1911), British librettist and dramatist

Friday 16 November 2012

Friday, November 16, 2012

QOD:  Thank Heaven, the sun has gone in, and I don’t have to go out and enjoy it.  ~  Logan P. Smith (né Logan Pearsall Smith; Oct. 18, 1865 ~ Mar. 2, 1946), British essayist and critic

Thursday 15 November 2012

Thursday, November 15, 2012


QOD:  To some lawyers, all facts are created equal.  ~  Felix Frankfurter (Nov. 15, 1882 ~ Feb. 22, 1965), United States Supreme Court Associate Justice

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

QOD:  Life is like a game of cards.  The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.  ~  Jawaharlal Nehru (Nov. 14, 1889 ~ May 27, 1964), Prime Minister of India

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

QOD:  The logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.  ~  Louis D. Brandeis (né Louis Dembitz Brandeis; November 13, 1856 ~ October 3, 1941), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Monday 12 November 2012

Monday, November 12, 2012

QOD:  The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.  ~  Oscar Wilde (né Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde; Oct. 16, 1854 ~ Nov. 30, 1900), Irish playwright and poet

Friday 9 November 2012

Friday, November 9, 2012


QOD:  If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.  ~  Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934 ~ December 20, 1996), American astronomer

Thursday 8 November 2012

Thursday, November 8, 2012

QOD:  Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.  ~  Margaret Mitchell (née Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell; Nov. 8, 1900 ~ Aug. 16, 1949), American novelist

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

QOD:  At 30 a man should known himself liked the palm of his hand, and know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures ~ be what he is.  And, above all, accept these things.  ~  Albert Camus (Nov. 7, 1913 ~ Jan. 4, 1960), French philosopher, writer and recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Tuesday, November 6, 2012 / Election Day

QOD:  Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.  ~  H.L. Mencken (né Henry Louis Mencken; Sept. 12, 1880 ~ Jan. 29, 1956), American journalist and cultural critic

Monday 5 November 2012

Monday, November 5, 2012

QOD:  Sunshine is a welcome thing.  It brings a lot of brightness.  ~  Jimmie Davis  (né James Houston Davis; September 11, 1899 ~ November 5, 2000), 47th Governor of Louisiana

Sunday 4 November 2012

Sunday, November 4, 2012

QOD:  You don't make peace with friends.  You make it with very unsavory enemies.  ~  Yitzhah Rabin (March 1, 1922 ~ November 4, 1995), Israeli Prime Minister

Friday 2 November 2012

Friday, November 2, 2012

QOD:  I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.  ~  Daniel Boone (November 2, 1734 ~ September 22, 1820), American pioneer