Austria, or wherever…

This is one of more than 350 vintage travel posters in an online collection compiled by The Boston Public Library’s Print Department—most date from the 1920s-1940s, the “Golden Age of Travel.” Enjoy the rest here.

—Mahatma Gandhi

(image source unknown)

I love, and collect, and occasionally share wise words and quotations… here are some that have resurfaced lately…

I quote others only the better to express myself.

—Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592 )

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

—Wilson Mizner (1876-1933)

We are no more than God’s imagination about himself.

—Thomas Mann (1875-1955)

The world is a tragedy to those who feel,

but a comedy to those who think.

—Horace Walpole (1717-1797)

A child of five would understand this.
Send someone to fetch a child of five!

—Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

—Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

To him who is in fear, everything rustles.

—Socrates (469 BC-399 BC)

Education is when you read the fine print.
Experience is what you get if you don’t.

—Pete Seger (1919— )

He of whom many are afraid ought to fear many.

— Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Everything has been thought of before—
the problem is to think of it again.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

There is no such thing as a pretty good omelette.

—French proverb

Many a scarecrow serves as a roost of the enlightened crow.

—(unknown)

The man who can’t visualize a horse
galloping on a tomato is an idiot.

—André Breton (1896-1966)

Please feel free to share with me the quotations that touch your own soul, tickle your fancy, or blow your mind, OK? You can contact me here.

R.I.P. Stéphane Hessel (1917-2013), Indignez-vous!

Boston, Massachusetts

My friend Chaz Maviyane-Davies, a Zimbabwean expat and Professor of Design at the Massachusetts College of Art, has for the past few years stuck a new tear-sheet flyer each month with a different quote on it outside his office door in the college… above is the current offering, and following is Chaz’s explanation…

Paul Peter Piech (1920–1996) was a mentor, teacher and friend. He was perhaps the most prolific, skillful and passionate graphic designer I will ever meet and whose influence on me still resonates. His obituary in the UK Independent began “Some remarkable individuals keep on believing, throughout their lives, that the world could change for the better. The artist and printer Paul Peter Piech was one such man.” They concluded “In our current climate of fin de siecle despair at the state of the world Paul Peter Piech stood out as a man who knew how to turn any anger about man’s inhumanity to man into creative work with a disturbing social message.”

Even as a troublesome upstart, he supported me totally and in 1980 just before I completed my BA at Middlesex University, he graciously illustrated (lino-cut) this identity for me for my stationery needs. A kindred spirit, this quote reminds me fondly of him as we need the likes of Paul more than ever today.

It seems that I have lost a week of my life.
I have just been informed that it is now March.
If anyone finds my lost week, please do let me know…