As we grow older, we should learn that these are two quite different things. Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. Some people have easy temperaments and weak characters; others have difficult temperaments and strong characters. We are all prone to confuse the two in assessing people we associate with. Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable.

People decline invitations when they are "indisposed" physically, and I wish they would do likewise when they feel indisposed emotionally. A person has no more right to attend a party with a head full of venom than with a throat full of virus.

Gourmet: Usually little more than a glutton festooned with credit cards.

Genealogy: A perverse preoccupation of those who seek to demonstrate that their forebears were better people than they are.

A loser says that's the way it's always been done. A winner says there ought to be a better way.

Filth is always a sign of weakness - in the mouth of the user and in the mind of the writer.

An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.