Improve

Famous quotes containing the word improve:

“The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the infringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“So much of our lives is given over to the consideration of our imperfections that there is no time to improve our imaginary virtues. The truth is we only perfect our vices, and man is a worse creature when he dies than he was when he was born.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)

“Being a father
Is quite a bother . . .
You improve them mentally
And straighten them dentally, . . .
They’re no longer corralable
Once they find that you’re fallible . . .
But after you’ve raised them and educated them and
gowned them,
They just take their little fingers and wrap you around
them.
Being a father
Is quite a bother,
But I like it, rather.”
—Ogden Nash (1902–1971)