Wit & Wisdom

“Why don’t people just accept that life is sad and cheer up? After all, it’s not going to last forever.” Jeremy Hardy, quoted in the I newspaper “Fortune favours the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.” George Bernard Shaw, quoted in the LA Times “One of the hardest things in life to learn is which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn.” Oprah Winfrey, quoted in the New York Post “An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.” William Hazlitt, quoted on Spiked “Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.” James Russell Lowell, ibid. “We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.” Samuel Johnson, quoted on The Browser “Contentment is knowing you’re right. Happiness is knowing someone else is wrong.” Bill Bailey, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” Physicist Niels Bohr, quoted in The Press

Statistic of the week

Record numbers of students from China and Hong Kong are applying for places at British universities. There were 21,000 such applications this year, up from 17,000 last year – more than from Wales (18,850). Overall, international applications were up 9% on last year.