Ambrose's Antidote: CLOCK

CLOCK, n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him.

  A busy man complained one day:
  "I get no time!"  "What's that you say?"
  Cried out his friend, a lazy quiz;
  "You have, sir, all the time there is.
  There's plenty, too, and don't you doubt it --
  We're never for an hour without it."

Purzil Crofe

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One for the children. Over and out. For a while...

The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.

W
Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society.

W
Santa Clara, CA
1 May 2002

I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children.

W
Presidential Debate.
11 Oct 2000

Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis.

W
CNBC
15 April 2000

Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?

W
Florence, S.C.
11 Jan 2000

Ambrose's Antidote: CLIO

CLIO, n. One of the nine Muses. Clio's function was to preside over history -- which she did with great dignity, many of the prominent citizens of Athens occupying seats on the platform, the meetings being addressed by Messrs. Xenophon, Herodotus and other popular speakers.

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We like living in the White House. It's a nice place to live.

GWB
25 Aug 2001
Speaking to a reporter at his Crawford, TX ranch.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLERGYMAN

CLERGYMAN, n. A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of better his temporal ones.

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Reading is the basics for all learning.

GWB
28 Mar 2000
Comment from campaign stop in Reston, Virginia. The candidate was announcing his "Reading First" initiative.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLARIONET

CLARIONET, n. An instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears. There are two instruments that are worse than a clarionet -- two clarionets.

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It's amazing to be interested in history and living -- making history. It's an interesting coincidence.

GWB
5 Feb 1999
From a C-Span interview and as quoted in the Jewish World Review.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLAIRVOYANT

CLAIRVOYANT, n. A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron, namely, that he is a blockhead.

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I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs.

GWB
12 Sep 2000
Quoted by Slate magazine from comments in Orlando, Florida.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLAIRVOYANT

CLAIRVOYANT, n. A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron, namely, that he is a blockhead.

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We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House. Make no mistake about it.

GWB
7 Feb 2001
Washington, D.C.

Ambrose's Antidote: CIRCUS

CIRCUS, n. A place where horses, ponies and elephants are permitted to see men, women and children acting the fool.

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There's a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, 'I don't want you to let me down again.'

GWB
3 Oct 2000
Boston, Massachusetts

Ambrose's Antidote: CHRISTIAN

CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.

  I dreamed I stood upon a hill, and, lo!
  The godly multitudes walked to and fro
  Beneath, in Sabbath garments fitly clad,
  With pious mien, appropriately sad,
  While all the church bells made a solemn din --
  A fire-alarm to those who lived in sin.
  Then saw I gazing thoughtfully below,
  With tranquil face, upon that holy show
  A tall, spare figure in a robe of white,
  Whose eyes diffused a melancholy light.
  "God keep you, strange," I exclaimed.  "You are
  No doubt (your habit shows it) from afar;
  And yet I entertain the hope that you,
  Like these good people, are a Christian too."
  He raised his eyes and with a look so stern
  It made me with a thousand blushes burn
  Replied -- his manner with disdain was spiced:
  "What!  I a Christian?  No, indeed!  I'm Christ."

G.J.

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I'm sure there'll be moments when we don't agree 100% of the time.

George W. Bush
December 2, 2000
Speaking to press. Referring to relationship between himself and Republican
Congress.

Ambrose's Antidote: CHILDHOOD

CHILDHOOD, n. The period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth -- two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.

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You know, I hear people say, well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box.

George W Bush
Prairie Chapel Ranch
Crawford, Texas
7 August 2006

Ambrose's Antidote: CERBERUS

CERBERUS, n. The watch-dog of Hades, whose duty it was to guard the entrance -- against whom or what does not clearly appear; everybody, sooner or later, had to go there, and nobody wanted to carry off the entrance. Cerberus is known to have had three heads, and some of the poets have credited him with as many as a hundred. Professor Graybill, whose clerky erudition and profound knowledge of Greek give his opinion great weight, has averaged all the estimates, and makes
the number twenty-seven -- a judgment that would be entirely conclusive is Professor Graybill had known (a) something about dogs,and (b) something about arithmetic.

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I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking.

GWB
10 Aug 2000
Salinas, California

Ambrose's Antidote: CENTAUR

CENTAUR, n. One of a race of persons who lived before the division of labor had been carried to such a pitch of differentiation, and who followed the primitive economic maxim, "Every man his own horse." The best of the lot was Chiron, who to the wisdom and virtues of the horse added the fleetness of man. The scripture story of the head of John the Baptist on a charger shows that pagan myths have somewhat sophisticated sacred history.

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There is a lot of speculation and I guess there is going to continue to be a lot of speculation until the speculation ends.

GWB
October 18, 1998
The Texas governor commenting on the possibility of his running for the presidency. Reported by the Austin American-Statesman

Ambrose's Antidote: CEMETERY

CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager. The inscriptions following will serve to illustrate the success attained in these Olympian games:

      His virtues were so conspicuous that his enemies, unable to
  overlook them, denied them, and his friends, to whose loose lives
  they were a rebuke, represented them as vices.  They are here
  commemorated by his family, who shared them.
      In the earth we here prepare a
      Place to lay our little Clara.

Thomas M. and Mary Frazer

      P.S. -- Gabriel will raise her.

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There's not going to be enough people in the system to take advantage of people like me.

GWB
9 Jun 2000
Referring to a possible Social Security crisis. Wilton, Connecticut.

Ambrose's Antidote: CAVILER

CAVILER, n. A critic of our own work.

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Do not subscribe---I mean, you know, you cannot subscribe those views to me...

GWB
13 Feb 2000
Comment made on NBC's Meet the Press. Mr. Bush was referring to whether or not he agreed with the views espoused by the chancellor of Bob Jones University.

Ambrose's Antidote: CAT

CAT, n. A soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle.

  This is a dog,
      This is a cat.
  This is a frog,
      This is a rat.
  Run, dog, mew, cat.
  Jump, frog, gnaw, rat.

Elevenson

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I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.

GWB
29 Jan 2001
Washington, D.C.