Quotes: Benefactor. Bible. Biography.

The bold-face print is either an interpretation of the quote that follows or the quote without interpretation.

Benefactor
Benefactor 94 "There is a hook in every benefit, that sticks in his jaws that takes that benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will." Donne. 1625. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Bible
Bible 903 The Bible blotted out falsehoods and worn-out truths. "Upon the blazing heap of falsehood and worn-out truth—things that the earth had never needed, or had ceased to need, or had grown childishly weary of—fell the ponderous church-Bible…there, likewise, fell the family Bible, which the long-buried patriarch had read to his children—in prosperity or sorrow, by the fireside, and in the summer-shade of trees…." Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”

Bible 11 Why did God prefer Abel's sacrifice to Cain's? "Nobody has ever been able to understand why God preferred Abel’s sacrifice to that of Cain." Leo Shestov. 1905. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Bible 32 Why is the Bible called "The Good Book"? "The Good Book"--one of the most remarkable euphemisms ever coined." Ashley Montagu. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 32 I'm bothered by the parts of the Bible I do understand. "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand." Mark Twain. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 32 The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and enemies, probably the same people. "The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people." G. K. Chesterton. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 32 The ignorant are the ones who are inspired by reading the Bible. "The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it." Robert G. Ingersoll. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 95 W.C. Fields to visitor, who, during his last illness, caught him reading the Bible: “Just looking for loopholes.” Portable Curmudgeon.

Biography
Biography 69 We can learn something useful about life from any biography. "I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. Samuel Johnson." “Dignity and Uses of Biography.” 1750. Gross, ed. Essays.

Biography 71 The incidents that give excellence to biographies are the ones that are forgotten. "For the incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory and are rarely transmitted by tradition." Samuel Johnson. “Dignity and Uses of Biography.” 1750. Gross, ed. Essays.