Phrases and quotes to make you think

Sir — When reading the Sunday Independent Iam sometimes struck by a particular phrase or thought which merits further consideration and I make a point of writing it down for further thought and study.

You may be interested in my recent entries:

Brendan O’Connor (Sunday Independent, November 25) quoting Woody Allen: The best you can do to get through life is distraction so we don’t have to face up to the fact that we’re just temporary people in a universe that will eventually be completely gone and everything that you value, whether it’s Shakespeare, Beethoven, Da Vinci or whatever will be completely gone.

Editorial (December 2): We live in a society, not an economy the argument goes. A fuller truth, however, is that a modern society needs an economy to prosper and a modern economy needs a stable society to function.

Colm McCarthy (December 2): If you forecast a preventable disaster, identify evasive action but fail to implement it, the unpleasant outcome ceases to be a forecast and becomes your current reality.

Eoghan Harris (December 2): Aristotle did not believe in abstractions. For him virtue had no existence separate from people who tried to make a habit of doing the right thing. Schmidt’s favourite Aristotelian aphorism was: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

Reflections on sayings such as these may deepen our understanding of life. S Jennings, Blackrock, Co Dublin