I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:
Plagiarize!

Plagiarize!
Let no one else's work evade your eyes!
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes!
So don't shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -
Only be sure always to call it please 'research'."

[Lobachevsky]


Tom Lehrer

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

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 Tom Lehrer

Be prepared, and be careful not to do your good deeds when there's no one watching you.
TOM LEHRER
I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.
TOM LEHRER
Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.
TOM LEHRER
I wish people that have trouble communicating would just shut up!
TOM LEHRER
I feel that if a person has problems communicating the very least he can do is to shut up.
TOM LEHRER
Hark, the Herald Tribune sings, Advertising wondrous things!
TOM LEHRER
I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.
TOM LEHRER
Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
TOM LEHRER
Political satire became obsolete when they awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize.
TOM LEHRER
Bad weather always looks worse through a window.
TOM LEHRER
I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!
TOM LEHRER
On my income tax 1040 it says 'Check this box if you are blind.' I wanted to put a check mark about ...
TOM LEHRER
The Army has carried the American ... ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit dis...
TOM LEHRER
It is a sobering thought, that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for two years.
TOM LEHRER
Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
TOM LEHRER
If a person feels he can't communicate, the least he can do is shut up about it.
TOM LEHRER
All books can be indecent books, though recent books are bolder.For filth, I'm glad to say, is in th...
TOM LEHRER
I have always found it interesting... that there are people who regard copyright infringement as a f...
TOM LEHRER
I thought about majoring in Math, Chemistry and English, but Math had the fewest requirements, so I ...
TOM LEHRER
I was immersed in popular songs of the time, of the '30s and '40s. I was writing songs, maki...
TOM LEHRER
"Brush your teeth with the best toothpaste,Then rinse your mouth with industrial waste".
TOM LEHRER
Irreverence is easy - what's hard is wit.
TOM LEHRER
Laughter is involuntary. If it's funny you laugh.
TOM LEHRER
On Christmas day you can't get sore, Your fellow man you must adore, There's time to cheat him all t...
TOM LEHRER
On my income tax 1040 it says 'Check this box if you are blind.' I wanted to put a check mar...
TOM LEHRER
There's something mathematically satisfying about music: notes fit together and harmony and all ...
TOM LEHRER
One of the things I'm proudest of is, on my record 'That Was the Year that Was' in 1965,...
TOM LEHRER
The real issues I don't think most people touch. The Clinton jokes are all about Monica Lewinsky...
TOM LEHRER
Be prepared, and be careful not to do your good deeds when there's no one watching you.
TOM LEHRER
It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year.
TOM LEHRER
Once all the Germans were warlike and mean But that couldn't happen again We taught them a lesson in...
TOM LEHRER
Apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
TOM LEHRER
"Brush your teeth with the best toothpaste,
Then rinse your mouth with industrial waste".
TOM LEHRER
Radio news is bearable. This is due to the fact that while the news is being broadcast the disc jock...
TOM LEHRER
Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unhewn marble of a great sculpture.
TOM LEHRER
An actress must never lose her ego - without it she has no talent.
TOM LEHRER
If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also to den...
TOM LEHRER
Base eight is just like base ten really, if you're missing two fingers
TOM LEHRER
On my income tax 1040 it says "Check this box if you are blind." I wanted to put a check mark about ...
TOM LEHRER
It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.
TOM LEHRER
In my youth there were words you couldn't say in front of a girl; now you can't say 'girl'
TOM LEHRER
I figure I wrote 37 songs in 20 years, and that's not exactly a full-time job. It wasn't tha...
TOM LEHRER
I always prided myself on at least trying to be literate and use the right words, and if the audienc...
TOM LEHRER
The Army has carried the American ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrim...
TOM LEHRER
If a person feels he can't communicate, the least he can do is shut up about it.
TOM LEHRER
Counting in octal is just like counting in decimal, if you don't use your thumbs.
TOM LEHRER
You can't be satirical and not be offensive to somebody.
TOM LEHRER
A debate has one purpose, one purpose only, and that is to facilitate the exchange of ideas directly...
JIM LEHRER
I wanted to be a bus driver when I was a kid. I look at bus driving through the eyes of a little boy...
JIM LEHRER
You grew up in Germany during a terrible time. We not only see in you the head of the Catholic Churc...
ABRAHAM LEHRER
The Vatican should now open its archives.
ABRAHAM LEHRER
We will not mention this story to the pope today.
ABRAHAM LEHRER
It is easier for Pope Benedict, who grew up in the war generation with a special knowledge of German...
ABRAHAM LEHRER
It is for us and for all Jews around the world a truly great event. We are very excited and full of ...
ABRAHAM LEHRER
There's only one interview technique that matters... Do your homework so you can listen to the a...
JIM LEHRER
There's always a germ of truth in just about everything.
JIM LEHRER
People can get their news any way they want. What I love about what's happened is that there are...
JIM LEHRER
I'm an expert on the NewsHour and it isn't how I practice journalism. I am not involved in t...
JIM LEHRER
If you go to the ball game, you don't need to read the game story.
JIM LEHRER
If people want bells and whistles and all of that, there are bells and whistles available. If they d...
JIM LEHRER
You want to see an angry person? Let me hear a cell phone go off.
JIM LEHRER
If we don't have an informed electorate we don't have a democracy. So I don't care how p...
JIM LEHRER
I have great faith in the intelligence of the American viewer and reader to put two and two together...
JIM LEHRER
I'm a gatekeeper, and the gatekeepers all used to be mostly old, white men.
JIM LEHRER
I've always said this and finally I had a chance to demonstrate it: The moderator should be seen...
JIM LEHRER
Creativity is a spark. It can be excruciating when we're rubbing two rocks together and getting ...
JONAH LEHRER
I always wanted to be a scientist, I always thought I'd be a scientist, that was the narrative I...
JONAH LEHRER
The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all foll...
JONAH LEHRER
The only way to maximize group creativity—to make the whole more than the sum of its parts—is to...
JONAH LEHRER
And so we keep on thinking, because the next thought might be the answer.
JONAH LEHRER
Every creative story is different. And every creative story is the same. There was nothing. Now ther...
JONAH LEHRER
I want to give people theories, I want to expose them to scientific stories that force them to re-ev...
JONAH LEHRER
[But he was tripped up by a question posed by Lehrer on how he would handle the difficulties and unc...
JIM LEHRER
Children can't help but create: they need to put their mind on the page, they want to paint, to ...
JONAH LEHRER
Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved d...
JONAH LEHRER
There are very few really stark black and white stories.
JIM LEHRER
The study findings suggest that depression or elevated depressive symptoms during adolescence may, a...
JOCELYN LEHRER
The great ages did not perhaps produce much more talent than ours,' [T.S.] Eliot wrote. 'But less ta...
JONAH LEHRER
It doesn't matter if people are playing jazz or writing poetry -- if they want to be successful, the...
JONAH LEHRER
People who are more rational don't perceive emotion less, they just regulate it better.
JONAH LEHRER
The findings of this study suggest that elevated depressive symptom levels during adolescence may se...
JOCELYN LEHRER
While it's understood that partner violence often leads to depression in women, few studies have loo...
JOCELYN LEHRER
Both destiny and free will exist simultaneously. You are destined to be given some opportunities but...
TOM TOM
During times of hardship people find happiness in simplest pleasures
TOM TOM
Am I good enough?
Trust.
TOM
The demons you have are what motivate you to make your art. This is what drives the detective, this ...
TOM REISS
Really, coaching is simplicity. It's getting players to play better than they think that they ca...
TOM LANDRY
There's this misconception that the Navy is this cruise ship, and you get to go out and sail aro...
TOM HANKS
Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes.
TOM CRUISE
Nothing ends nicely, that's why it ends.
TOM CRUISE
Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomo...
TOM CRUISE
When I first started out all the attention could be a bit unnerving, especially when people stared. ...
TOM CRUISE
I've spent many birthdays on a movie set, all great days.
TOM CRUISE
I've always had the same values. Family for me has always been important. When I shoot, everybod...
TOM CRUISE
When I'm promoting a film, I'm not going to get caught up in anything else, and that include...
TOM CRUISE
Whether it's making a film or raising my children, personally I'm striving to do the right t...
TOM CRUISE
I like to work with people that I like hanging out with, that I admire, that are really smart and ta...
TOM CRUISE
If I don't talk about my religion, if I say I'm not discussing it or different humanitarian ...
TOM CRUISE
Saddam has committed many crimes against humanity and against his own people.
TOM CRUISE
What I find sometimes that is tricky is if actors are using too much of their own life in a picture,...
TOM CRUISE
I'm always around my mother and sisters. I always wanted to be a father, a husband.
TOM CRUISE
As a young actor, people were trying to define who I was before I really knew that for myself. But I...
TOM CRUISE
The thing about film-making is I give it everything, that's why I work so hard. I always tell yo...
TOM CRUISE
The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you sur...
TOM CRUISE
I've never made a film that I didn't believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I&...
TOM CRUISE
I didn't become an actor to have power, but it just happens that I have it and so I have a lot o...
TOM CRUISE
I've never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn'...
TOM CRUISE
Do I make mistakes? Yeah.
TOM CRUISE
I've learned to relax more. Everybody feels pressure in what they do, maybe mine is just a littl...
TOM CRUISE
I go without sleep, I just go hard.
TOM CRUISE
When you have to cope with a lot of problems, you're either going to sink or you're going to...
TOM CRUISE
Football is unconditional love.
TOM BRADY
My favorite meal has always been fried chicken.
TOM WATSON
The dream is to keep surprising yourself, never mind the audience.
TOM HIDDLESTON
Eighteenth-century doctors prescribed sugar pills for nearly everything: heart problems, headache, c...
TOM REISS
Treat everyone with respect and kindness. Period. No exceptions.
KIANA TOM
Good things, when short, are twice as good.
TOM STOPPARD
Time is short, life is short, there's a lot to know. So I skip the entertainers in the newspaper...
TOM STOPPARD
The thing that happens remarkably often is that the people who are writing a dissertation believe th...
TOM STOPPARD
I'm offended by things and take pathetic little stands against them.
TOM STOPPARD
My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.
TOM STOPPARD
The text loses its virginity simply by being staged: it's no longer the abstract ideal version; ...
TOM STOPPARD
I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones...
TOM STOPPARD
Any revival in which I am involved is liable to change.
TOM STOPPARD
Hotel rooms inhabit a separate moral universe.
TOM STOPPARD
All your life, you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye. An...
TOM STOPPARD
Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
TOM STOPPARD
The whole philosophy of modern times is to dissolve distinctions between individuals and deal with t...
TOM STOPPARD
For me, human rights simply endorse a view of life and a set of moral values that are perfectly clea...
TOM STOPPARD
Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
TOM STOPPARD
Procrastination is probably my worst habit out of many. Especially when it comes to paperwork.
TOM CONTI
I love what I do. I take great pride in what I do. And I can't do something halfway, three-quart...
TOM CRUISE
Mentally, the only players who survive in the pros are the ones able to manage all their responsibil...
TOM BRADY
Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day - it all...
TOM BRADY
Every man should know, if you're comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always ...
TOM BRADY
The only thing I ever wanted to be was a professional football player.
TOM BRADY
I'm never going to be fast, and nobody will ever mistake me for being fast.
TOM BRADY
So many guys are so conservative with their hair, and I always joke with all my buddies when they me...
TOM BRADY
If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
TOM BRADY
My job is to play quarterback, and I'm going to do that the best way I know how, because I owe t...
TOM BRADY
There's not much time to unwind, but you know what, it's because I love what I do. I look fo...
TOM BRADY
I think the great part about what I do is that there's a scoreboard. At the end of every week, y...
TOM BRADY
I don't think any country is perfect. It's our responsibility to do the best we can do to ch...
TOM BRADY
You have to believe in your process. You have to believe in the things that you are doing to help th...
TOM BRADY
The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.
TOM BRADY
When you're one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off.
TOM BRADY
I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn't think I'...
TOM BRADY
Geometric shapes hold an energy pattern, and scientists did some experiments which say certain geome...
TOM DELONGE
I just love working hard. I love being part of a team; I love working toward a common goal.
TOM BRADY
What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and t...
TOM COTTON
So rather than face the bitter truth, China has placed severe restrictions on the Internet and enlis...
TOM LANTOS
I think these movies are definitely comedies. It's quite difficult to take a superhero movie ser...
TOM HOLLAND
Every chef has his treats. By that, I mean bits and pieces from things you're working on - crust...
TOM DOUGLAS
I've gotten very good at scheduling my life, scheduling the scene and preparing myself for knowi...
TOM CRUISE
I grew up watching 'Superman.' As a child, when I first learned to dive into a swimming pool...
TOM HIDDLESTON
Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Ever...
TOM WAITS
Catfish has a nice firm texture and mild flavor.
TOM DOUGLAS
You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I've learned, eac...
TOM RIDGE
America's health care system is in crisis precisely because we systematically neglect wellness a...
TOM HARKIN
My wife and I decided to try and kick start our kitchens to a $15 minimum wage for cooks. I've p...
TOM DOUGLAS
I think we're very uptight in America. You have to remember that we're descended from Purita...
TOM FORD
Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema...
TOM HANKS
I have a weakness for watches. I have to stop myself buying more.
TOM JONES
We are set to make very bad history.
TOM WILSON
These days an income is something you can't live without - or within.
TOM WILSON
If I had a nickel for every time I said 'Why me?' I'd have probably said 'Why me?...
TOM WILSON
What this country needs is a credit card for charging things to experience.
TOM WILSON
The waist is a terrible thing to mind.
TOM WILSON
Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
TOM WILSON
If you spend all of your time racing ahead to the future, you're liable to discover you've l...
TOM WILSON
Many of us are more capable than some of us... but none of us is as capable as all of us!
TOM WILSON
Happiness doesn't depend on how much you have to enjoy, but how much you enjoy what you have.
TOM WILSON
There's no future in spending our present worrying about our past.
TOM WILSON
Nobody got where they are today by living for tomorrow.
TOM WILSON
About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you're fighting temptation.
TOM WILSON
If I ever had an out-of-body experience - I'd try to come back to a different one.
TOM WILSON
I wouldn't mind the rat race - if the rats would lose once in a while.
TOM WILSON
Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.
TOM WILSON
A smile is a facelift that's in everyone's price range!
TOM WILSON
Love is the ultimate expression of the will to live.
TOM WOLFE
It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
TOM STOPPARD
Miami is a melting pot in which none of the stones melt. They rattle around.
TOM WOLFE
Stem cell research holds out the promise of finding cures and treatments for a wide range of disease...
TOM ALLEN
Some people are cowards... I think by and large a third of people are villains, a third are cowards,...
TOM HANKS
Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. B...
TOM STOPPARD
Everybody who is anyone wanted to meet a real life gangster, and here's Joey Gallo hitting the s...
TOM FOLSOM
The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.
TOM LANDRY
From as long as, literally as far back as I can remember I've liked puns, word jokes, I can lite...
TOM STOPPARD
No other game combines the wonder of nature with the discipline of sport in such carefully planned w...
TOM WATSON
Golf is a game of ego, but it is also a game of integrity: the most important thing is you do what i...
TOM WATSON
Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick invo...
TOM PETTY
I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term w...
TOM STOPPARD
I understand the concept of optimism. But I think with me what you get is a lack of cynicism.
TOM HANKS
Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk.
TOM WAITS
A great production of a black comedy is better than a mediocre production of a comedy of errors.
TOM STOPPARD
I have spoken to Donald Trump about this. He understands the dramatic budget cuts our military has f...
TOM COTTON
When I was 20, in 1957, and maybe you would say I was old enough to know better, but nevertheless, I...
TOM STOPPARD
We give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.
TOM STOPPARD
The notion that the 'leader' has the right to ask huge sacrifices of your generation for a n...
TOM STOPPARD
The dominant male is history. Could you see a male Lady Gaga? The closest we've got is Justin Bi...
TOM ODELL