Editorial note

This page was initially posted shortly after MIT debuted https://wikis.mit.edu. Its intent was to allow people to become familiar with using the wiki by sharing something fun.

How do I use this wiki thing?

How to add your own quotes (ie edit the page)
Click on the edit link in the upper right-hand corner of the page. The screen will change to one that includes a large text box. Click in the textbox. Move the cursor to where you want to add your quote and type or paste away. Click save when done. (Don't see an edit link? If you just logged into the wiki for the first time, the system doesn't know you belong to a group who can edit this page. It will periodically update the permissions, so check back later. You can add a comment now, however. See below.)

How to see what the page will look like before you save your changes
Above the textbox on the edit page screen, there are two tabs, one labeled WikiMarkup and one labeled preview. Click the preview tab. The preview will appear at the top of the page, the edit text box will appear below the preview. Be sure to save your changes after previewing.

How to add a comment about a quote (ie comment without editing the actual content)
There are five columns of links at the bottom of the page. Click on the "Add Comment" link in the "Add Content" column. The Comment textbox will appear. Type your comment, then click post.

Profound, interesting or just plain fun quotes

Don't have a quote to add? Find one here

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. - Denis Watley

The cat, of course, said nothing. - Kinky Friedman in several of his books

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. - Dorothy Parker

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble. - Agatha Christie

It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret. - Jackie Joyner-Kersee

We have discovered that we very rarely make sense. Almost never. It begins to seem that making sense is a skill not unlike the playing of the violin. It can, of course, be done, but no one simply falls into the habit of playing the violin. Even those who can do it, do it only by deliberate design. They don't just find themselves doing it without having intended to. It requires some special focusing, some stern singleness of purpose. - The Underground Grammarian

"I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence? - R.I.P. George Carlin

Le désir de l'ordre est en même temps désir de mort, parce que la vie est perpétuelle violation de l'ordre. - Milan Kundera (source and context at http://www.gilles-jobin.org/citations/?P=k&au=203)

From an email that keeps going around:

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
– Winston Churchill

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure.
– Clarence Darrow

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the
dictionary.
– William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

Ive had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasnt it.
– Groucho Marx

I didnt attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved
of it.
– Mark Twain

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
– Oscar Wilde

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend ... if you have one.
– George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
followed by Churchills response:
Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is
one.
– Winston Churchill

I feel so miserable without you; its almost like having you here.
– Stephen Bishop

He is a self-made man and worships his creator.
– John Bright

He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.
– Samuel Johnson

He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.
– Paul Keating

He had delusions of adequacy.
– Walter Kerr

Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on
it?
– Mark Twain

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.
– Mae West

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
– Oscar Wilde

Lady Astor once remarked to Winston Churchill at a dinner party,
"Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee!"
"Churchill replied, Madam, if I were your husband I would drink it!"