Dumbfounded, I stood before the court, trying to figure out if there was a state of being between “guilty” and “innocent.” Why were those my only alternatives? I thought. Why couldn’t I be “neither” or “both”? After a long pause, I finally faced the bench and said, “Your Honor, I plead human.
Paul Beatty
Related People are not an interruption of our business. People are our business. A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. It is hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground. The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed. The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in men. Ordinary people see no diff... The intelligence is proved not by ease of learning, but by understanding what we learn. Communication is something so simple and difficult that we can never put it in simple words. Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads Let love through good deeds show. How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. In everyone's heart stirs a great homesickness. That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it. Our wisdom comes usually from our experience, and our experience comes largely from our experience. One thing about the school of experience is that it will repeat the lesson if you flunk the first ti... To reprove small faults within due vehemence, is as absurd as if a man should take a great hammer to... Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light. Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of... Some families can trace their ancestors back three hundred years, but can't tell you where their chi... A recent survey was said to prove that the people we Americans most admire are our politicians and d... If a man defrauds you one time, he is a rascal; if he does it twice, you are a fool. Flattery looks like friendship, just like a wolf looks like a dog. Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it ... Freedom also includes the right to mismanage your own affairs. Let your friends be the friends of your deliberate choice. The man who has strong opinions and always says what he thinks is courageous - and friendless. Friendship is love with understanding. So few people think. When we find one who really does, we call him a genius Your life can't go according to plan if you have no plan. Practicing the Golden Rule is not a sacrifice; it is an investment. Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue. An expert gossiper knows how much to leave out of a conversation To live so that you would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip, is to have li... Gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts. We are born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy. People are changed, not by coercion or intimidation, but by example. Children are natural mimics; they act like their parents in spite of every effort to teach them good... The guilty catch themselves. Good habits are formed; bad habits we fall into. If happiness could be brought, few of us could pay the price. Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it. Hate pollutes the mind. If we miraculously became the people we hate, how lovable we would find ourselves. To feel "fit as a fiddle" you must tone down your middle. Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it. A patient going to a doctor for his first visit was asked, "And whom did you consult before coming t... "Oh," replied his patient, with no malice aforethought, "he told me to come and see you." It is impossible to make wisdom hereditary. Honesty is a question of right or wrong, not a matter of policy. It is a pleasure to give advice, humiliating to need it, normal to ignore it. It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside. Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the t... Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for ... Humor - the perfect relationship of the parts to the whole. Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth - a sense of humor. "What made the deepest impression upon you?" inquired a friend one day of Lincoln, "when you stood i... It isn't easy for an idea to squeeze itself into a head filled with prejudice. Too many people run out of ideas long before they run out of words. Imagination is the pontoon bridge making way for the timid feet of reason. Practical observation commonly consists of collecting a few facts and loading them with guesses. Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy and u... Having supplied them with names, omnipotence, justice, knowledge, Providence, - what are they? A good laugh is sunshine in a house. When you laugh, be sure to laugh at what people do and not at what people are. One look around us ought to show that all our arbitrary measures and bounds have been clamped on us ... No punishment of the unrighteous has ever been too severe in the eyes of the righteous. Why keep on enacting laws when we already have more than we can break. The best leader is the one who has the sense to surround himself with outstanding people and self-re... Advice is the only commodity on the market where the supply always exceeds the demand. Successful men follow the same advice they prescribe for others. You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea Old age may seem a long way off. But on the day it doesn't, it will be too late to do anything about... Age withers only the outside. Where ambition ends happiness begins. The best answer to answer to anger is silence. The size of a man is measured by the size of the thing that makes him angry. A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about. People who know the least always argue the most. If you look for the positive things in life; you will find them. What we are doing at the moment is more that just one thing added to the rest; it is a memoir. Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes The human mind must believe in something, so why not let it believe what it does believe. He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance It is better to live richly than to die rich. On his examination paper a boy wrote, "A natural death is where you die by yourself without a doctor... Many things are worse than defeat,and compromise with evil is one of them. Desire for security keeps littleness little and threatens the great with smallness. We cannot be too earnest, too persistent, too determined, about living superior to the herd-instinct... A college education never hurt anybody who was willing to learn after he got it. Shortchange your education now and you may be short of change the rest of your life. Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them Catch your people doing something right and let them know you appreciate it. Create the kind of climate in your organization where personal growth is expected, recognized and re... Enthusiasm is very good lubrication for the mind. Enthusiasm is that kindling spark which marks the difference between the leaders in every activity a... There are many roads to hate, but envy is the shortest of them all. The only person worth envying is he person who doesn't envy.
More Paul Beatty
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PAUL BEATTY I understand now that the only time black people don't feel guilty is when we've actually done somet... PAUL BEATTY I seriously doubt that some slave ship ancestor, in those idle moments between being raped and beate... PAUL BEATTY Sometimes I wish Darth Vader had been my father. I'd have been better off. I wouldn't have a right h... PAUL BEATTY For the kids at Chaff, the annual Career Day, held about two weeks before the summer break, was enou... PAUL BEATTY I have a day job. I can make movies when I want to. WARREN BEATTY But the Republican right-wing agenda, these people - Arnold and his patrons - felt it could be accom... WARREN BEATTY Arnold has had his spokesman call me a crackpot. That was a mistake. WARREN BEATTY When I saw Arnold say that he didn't need a union, because people in his position don't need... WARREN BEATTY There's no point in making a movie just to be making a movie. WARREN BEATTY That's all gone, now, the old, Hollywood. 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SARAH BEATTY Her hand accidentally brushed up against his chest. She froze. His breathing remained steady and reg... CATE CAMPBELL BEATTY Jobs fill your pockets, adventures fill your soul. JAMIE LYN BEATTY My first paying job might have been doing a play, actually. My mom paid me to dress up as a flounder... PAUL DANO We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they ... PAUL TILLICH Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself. PAUL BRYANT Mr. President how long must women wait to get their liberty? Let us have the rights we deserve. ALICE PAUL The shortage of buyers, which the world is suffering from, is readily understood, not as due to peop... PAUL DIRAC I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They ... PAUL DIRAC It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and... PAUL DIRAC I should like to suggest to you that the cause of all the economic troubles is that we have an econo... PAUL DIRAC In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that n... PAUL DIRAC Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star. PAUL DIRAC Civilisation was built around wheat, around people settling down and not being nomadic. Baking is on... PAUL HOLLYWOOD As an opinion manager, a campaign consultant, fixing personality negatives is a lot easier than fixi... PAUL MANAFORT What we know about the global financial crisis is that we don't know very much. PAUL SAMUELSON No matter where you put me, I don't care if it is North Carolina, Florida, California, New York ... CHRIS PAUL The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and... JEAN PAUL If my son is happy, then I am happy. CHRIS PAUL A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone. PAUL VALERY Each one of my budgets has taken a meat axe to foreign aid, because I think we ought to quit sending... RAND PAUL I don't think I've ever used the word 'gay rights,' because I don't really belie... RAND PAUL Does the owner of the restaurant own his restaurant? Or does the government own his restaurant? RAND PAUL People say America is exceptional. I agree, but it's not the complexion of our skin or the twist... RAND PAUL I think public awareness of how good vaccines are for kids and how they are good for public health i... RAND PAUL Some Libertarians argue that Western occupation fans the flames of radical Islam; I agree. But I don... RAND PAUL You can't solve a dignity problem with military force. RAND PAUL As a Christian, I believe in redemption. And I believe in second chances. RAND PAUL Mandatory minimum sentencing has disproportionately affected blacks, Hispanics and others who often ... RAND PAUL How will we defend ourselves if the Patriot Act expires? Well, perhaps we could just rely on the Con... RAND PAUL We must always embrace individual liberty and enforce the constitutional rights of all Americans-ric... RAND PAUL The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Many of those people deserve to b... RAND PAUL The government has a history of not treating people fairly, from the internment of Japanese American... RAND PAUL The defeat of Obamacare will come from the realization that the very idea of a government-administer... RAND PAUL If our freedom is taken, the American dream will wither and die. RAND PAUL I grew up in a family that despised not only communism but collectivism, socialism, and any 'ism... RAND PAUL Naples is curiously chaotic and, if I'm honest, a bit dilapidated. It certainly has a 'lived... PAUL HOLLYWOOD How did we win the election in the year 2000? We talked about a humble foreign policy: No nation-bui... RON PAUL There is nothing wrong with describing Conservatism as protecting the Constitution, protecting all t... RON PAUL You don't have freedom because you are a hyphenated American; you have freedom because you are a... RON PAUL The obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the worl... RON PAUL Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven't had capitalism. RON PAUL All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individ... RON PAUL When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three cho... RON PAUL Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy. RON PAUL You wanna get rid of drug crime in this country? Fine, let's just get rid of all the drug laws. RON PAUL Maybe we ought to consider a Golden Rule in foreign policy: Don't do to other nations what we do... RON PAUL What is not conservative about saying, 'Don't go to war unless we go to war properly with a ... RON PAUL Well, I don't think we should go to the moon. I think we maybe should send some politicians up t... RON PAUL 1913 wasn't a very good year. 1913 gave us the income tax, the 16th amendment and the IRS. RON PAUL If you like small government you need to work hard at having a strong national defense that is not s... RON PAUL When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads. RON PAUL The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our lib... RON PAUL There is only one kind of freedom and that's individual liberty. Our lives come from our creator... RON PAUL Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense. RON PAUL Exploiting people's emotions of fear, envy and anxiety is not hope, it's not change, it'... PAUL RYAN For the most ambitious young people, the corporate ladder is obsolete. PAUL GRAHAM I only think about the pitch. I want to do great. I want to be one of the best. I want to win titles... PAUL POGBA Shadow is a colour as light is, but less brilliant; light and shadow are only the relation of two to... PAUL CEZANNE A winner never whines. PAUL BROWN We'll lose more species of plants and animals between 2000 and 2065 than we've lost in the l... PAUL WATSON Hey, I'm like the Wayne Gretsky of the entertainment biz - I have other people do my dirty work ... PAUL FEIG If one takes pride in one's craft, you won't let a good thing die. Risking it through not pu... PAUL KEATING Baking is therapy. PAUL HOLLYWOOD Baking can be done with a few simple ingredients, so it's about simplicity and nostalgia - peopl... PAUL HOLLYWOOD When it comes to wildfires, 2013 wasn't a good year, which is why I'm especially proud that ... PAUL GOSAR It isn't hard to find injustice around us, but we must not let injustice smear the good deeds th... RAND PAUL Immigration is one of the leading contributors to population growth. PAUL WATSON Whatever I'm working on, the character I'm playing tends to slowly bleed into my own real li... PAUL RUDD It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the ... PAUL STRAND I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society ... RON PAUL The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner struc... PAUL VALERY There are souls which fall from heaven like flowers, but ere they bloom are crushed under the foul t... JEAN PAUL If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. PAUL MCCARTNEY Dressing up is inevitably a substitute for good ideas. It is no coincidence that technically inept b... PAUL GRAHAM Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. PAUL THEROUX When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make ... PAUL THEROUX It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled. PAUL THEROUX Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with su... PAUL THEROUX Travel magazines are just one cupcake after another. They're not about travel. The travel magazi... PAUL THEROUX When I started writing, I did have some idealised notion of my dad as a writer. But I have less and ... PAUL THEROUX An island is a fixed and finite piece of geography, and usually the whole place has been carved up a... PAUL THEROUX Because of my capacity for listening to strangers' tales, or the details of their lives, my pati... PAUL THEROUX