Leonard Michaels Quotes

In 1982, Raphael Nachman, visiting lecturer in mathematics at the university in Cracow, declined the tour of Auschwitz, where his grandparents had died, and asked instead to visit the ghetto where they had lived. ~ Leonard Michaels

Looking at a cat, like looking at clouds or stars or the ocean, makes it difficult to believe there is nothing miraculous in this world. ~ Leonard Michaels

There's hardly anywhere in literature where you don't find a triangle. ~ Leonard Michaels

Feb. 1, 1965
Storm late at night, heavy rain, a thunderous racket, the windows shaking. I heard my name called. A woman's voice in hell pleading with me to join her. ~ Leonard Michaels

Most offensive is what he imagines a person thinks about himself. ~ Leonard Michaels

Some animals are secretive; some are shy. A cat is private. ~ Leonard Michaels

There is always something for which there is no accounting. Take, for example, the whole world. ~ Leonard Michaels

Stories should be natural as apples, brief as lust, long as a thought. ~ Leonard Michaels

I can only gesture at what makes a story good. ~ Leonard Michaels

The prose as such has to be singing the song the story is telling. ~ Leonard Michaels

Is the story developing an attitude or victimized by it. ~ Leonard Michaels

Self-confidence can be crippling. ~ Leonard Michaels

Of mystery there is no end. Of clarity, there is precious little. ~ Leonard Michaels

I read assiduously. I kept in touch with my species. ~ Leonard Michaels

So many writers make dope glamorous; a form of romantic transgression, or world-weariness, or poetic sensitivity, or hipness. Mainly it's the stuff of ritualistic communion among inarticulate bores. ~ Leonard Michaels

March 6, 1961

I remembered a party in a house outside of Ann Arbor. There was a jazz band -- piano, bass, drums, and sax -- playing in one of the large rooms. A heavy odor of marijuana hung in the air. The host appeared now and then looking pleased, as if he liked seeing strangers in every room, the party out of his control. It wasn't wild, but with a constant flow of people, who knows what they're doing. It became late and I was a little drunk, wandering from one part of the house to another. I entered a long hall and was surprised by the silence, as if I had entered another house. A girl at the other end of the hall was walking toward me. I saw large blue eyes and very black hair. She was about average height, doll-like features delicate as cut glass, extremely pretty, maybe the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. When she came up to me I took her in my arms and kissed her. She let it happen. We were like creatures in a dream. Holding her hand, I drew her with me and we passed through rooms where people stood about, and then left the house. As we drove away, she said her name was Margo. She was a freshman at the university, from a town in northern Michigan. I took her home. It was obvious she'd never gone home with a man. She didn't seem fearful, only uncertain, the question in her eyes: "What happens next?" What happened next was nothing much. We fell asleep in our clothes. I wasn't the one to make her no different from everyone. ~ Leonard Michaels

The ultimate creative capacity of the brain may be, for all practical purposes, infinite. ~ George Leonard

Do not seek the answers. Let the answers find you. ~ Leonard Jacobson

The most difficult step in the study of language is the first step. ~ Leonard Bloomfield

[There is] a widespread approach to ideas which Objectivism repudiates altogether: agnosticism. I mean this term in a sense which applies to the question of God, but to many other issues also, such as extra-sensory perception or the claim that the stars influence man's destiny. In regard to all such claims, the agnostic is the type who says, "I can't prove these claims are true, but you can't prove they are false, so the only proper conclusion is: I don't know; no one knows; no one can know one way or the other."

The agnostic viewpoint poses as fair, impartial, and balanced. See how many fallacies you can find in it. Here are a few obvious ones: First, the agnostic allows the arbitrary into the realm of human cognition. He treats arbitrary claims as ideas proper to consider, discuss, evaluate - and then he regretfully says, "I don't know," instead of dismissing the arbitrary out of hand. Second, the onus-of-proof issue: the agnostic demands proof of a negative in a context where there is no evidence for the positive. "It's up to you," he says, "to prove that the fourth moon of Jupiter did not cause your sex life and that it was not a result of your previous incarnation as the Pharaoh of Egypt." Third, the agnostic says, "Maybe these things will one day be proved." In other words, he asserts possibilities or hypotheses with no jot of evidential basis.

The agnostic miscalculates. He thinks he is avoiding any position that will antagonize anybody. In fact, ~ Leonard Peikoff

I'm a much nicer person since my wife died. I found out what pain is, so on that level I'm much nicer. ~ Hugh Leonard

All you have to do is get in a closer walk with God and you'll find your enemies are in your own church. ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. ~ Leonard Cohen

People know Detroit for the cars, but the suburban areas of the city are really beautiful. It's much more inhabitable than people think. Many believe it's like Berlin at the end of World War II. ~ Leonard Slatkin

We have here another interesting proof of a connection between XIIth Dynasty Egypt and early Minoan Crete. ~ Leonard W. King

Suzanne had a room on a waterfront street in the port of Montreal. Everything happened just as it was put down. She was the wife of a man I knew. Her hospitality was immaculate. Some months later I sang it for Judy Collins over the telephone. The publishing rights were lost in New York City, but it is probably appropriate that I don't own this song. Just the other day I heard some people singing it on a ship in the Caspian Sea. ~ Leonard Cohen

I've always believed fitness is an entry point to help you build that happier, healthier life. When your health is strong, you're capable of taking risks. You'll feel more confident to ask for the promotion. You'll have more energy to be a better mom. You'll feel more deserving of love. ~ Jillian Michaels

Do you realize that there is nothing in our genes that tells us when to die? There are genetic codes that tell us how to grow, how to breathe, and how to sleep, but NOTHING that tells us to die. So why do we? Because we literally rust and decay our bodies from the inside out with poor food and lifestyle choices. ~ Jillian Michaels

There are two ways to think about all this. One way is that life is absurd to start with and that only a mad man goes out and tries to change the world, to fight for good and against evil. The other way is that life is indeed absurd to start with and that it can be given meaning only if you live it for your ideals, visions and poetic truths, and despite all the skepticism of all the Sancho Panzas' in the world, saddle up whatever worn out horse you've got and go after those visions. ~ Leonard Bernstein

Art is man's distinctly human way of fighting death. ~ Leonard Baskin

Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the audience; that all his efforts, however strenuous or glamorous, be made in the service of the composer's meaning - the music itself, which, after all, is the whole reason for the conductor's existence. ~ Leonard Bernstein

If you want to know who you are, look into the true mirror. The flower will reflect your beauty. The sky will reflect your vastness. The ocean will reflect your depth. The child will reflect your innocence. But if you look into the mirror that is unconscious humanity, you are looking into the wrong mirror. Your reflection will be distorted by their projections. ~ Leonard Jacobson

Is that really so much to ask? One sexy, gorgeous, mentally stable, gainfully employed guy with an amazing personality, that doesn't smell like mothballs or live with his mother? ~ Victoria Michaels

Sure, theater is tough because you're not home at night a lot and you work on weekends - every job has its downside. But to do something that you love doing for two hours a night, that's a pretty sweet gig. ~ Robert Sean Leonard

Our part in life may seem small, but it should bulk large in our thought when we remember that it is helping to complete the plan of the Divine Architect. ~ J. Grant Howard

The man who can get believers to praying would, under God, usher in the greatest revival that the world has ever known. ~ Leonard Ravenhill

For while anyone can sit back and point to the bottom line as justification, assessing instead a person's actual knowledge and actual ability takes confidence, thought, good judgement, and, well, guts. You can't just stand up in a meeting with your colleagues and yell, "Don't fire her. She was just on the wrong end of a Bernoulli series." Nor is it likely to win you friends if you stand up and say of the gloating fellow who just sold more Toyota Camrys than anyone else in the history of the dealership, "It was just a random fluctuation. ~ Leonard Mlodinow

When everything is out, you gotta take it in. ~ Hal Leonard Publishing Company

That could also be because at one point during the film, our hands found each other. And when I felt Michael's middle finger caress the inside of my palm, it sent a tickle up my spine, and the fingers of my right hand were soon exploring his left hand, and we each took turns tracing the contours of the other's hands. ~ Zack Love

Without boxing, because of my neighborhoods, who knows what would have happened to me. It was always about following the leader. And I definitely was not a leader. Boxing gave me discipline; a sense of self. It made me more outspoken. It gave me more confidence. ~ Sugar Ray Leonard

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse ... by Floyd Gottfredson will be warmly received by comics aficionados but should also intrigue Disney animation buffs who aren't necessarily plugged into comic strip history ... I have a feeling that this book, crafted with such obvious care, will earn Gottfredson a new legion of admirers. ~ Leonard Maltin

Someone who has come through heartache and maintains wit and charm is far more interesting than someone who has been kept on a pedestal all her life. ~ Jess Michaels

Our bodies surround what has always been there ~ Anne Michaels

Matt, as captain of this crazy ship, kept the rudder straight, the laundry done, and his boyfriend well fucked enough to carry on another day. ~ Tere Michaels

If you're willing to go along for this farcical ride, you'll find 'Dead Snow 2' to be one terrific zombie movie. ~ Leonard Maltin

A community is an alibi for the failure of individual love. ~ Leonard Cohen

Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution - the 60's comes from it. ~ Leonard Bernstein

The modern concept of the unconscious, based on such studies and measurements, is often called the "new unconscious," to distinguish it from the idea of the unconscious that was popularized by a neurologist-turned-clinician named Sigmund Freud. ~ Leonard Mlodinow

Leonard Pitts, Jr. is the most insightful and inspiring columnist of his generation. ~ Tavis Smiley

I think one of the serious breakdowns in modern evangelism is this: it has offered too much for too little. What we do mostly is offer forgiveness. We need cleansing! There is no true conversion until a man takes up his cross. ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Michaels head was down in the one of the files when he heard Ruxs' deep voice murmur. "Oh. My. Fucking. God." Chairs ~ A.E. Via

I became hooked on the idea of being able to shoot an image and process it myself, and end up with a product. ~ Leonard Nimoy

Michael!" Oliver's voice came faint through the front door. "Something you should see, my boy! Look out your windows!"
"Trap," Shane said instantly, and reached out to grab Michael's arm as he walked by. "Don't, man."
"What's he going to do? Make faces at me? ~ Rachel Caine

Good writing is like music. It has its distinctive rhythm, its pace, flow, cadence. It can be hummed. The great stylists seem to have an inner music... ~ Leonard Ray Teel

Part of Michael's uniqueness, I think, comes from the fact that he worked with music. He had a tape which he gave me with many different compositions, really eclectic. These pieces of music were sources of inspiration. ~ Madeleine Stowe

I predict the future of this earthly human race is that having made a mess of Earth they'll move to outer space. ~ Leonard Nimoy