Random Fate

Before subscribing to a conspiracy theory, remember...

Do not ascribe to malevolence what can be attributed to simple incompetence.
   -Hanlon's Razor (most common name)

Quote of the day

...it was an unwise apprentice who worked for a carpenter who'd sawn off his own damned thumb once through incompetence.
   -Velociman

Seems obvious, but is completely obscure to some

All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.
   -Douglas Adams

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A warning we ignore at our peril

When a culture become factionalized, when it becomes us vs. them, everyone starts setting up consistently smaller camps...first it's democrats vs. republicans...then it's mainstream republicans vs. conservative republicans...then it's conservative republicans vs. religious right republicans (with the democrats having equal problems on their side). As soon as we forget that we're *all* US, it begins to fall apart.
   -J. Michael Straczynski

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Mark Twain on faith

I admire the serene assurance of those who have religous faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.
   -Mark Twain

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As is being shown quite prominently...

Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both.
   -John Andrew Holmes

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The last word for 48 hours...

I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect.
   -George Carlin

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For a Monday

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
   -Abigail Adams

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No one bats 1.000

So of course, I am wrong more than occasionally.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
   -F. Scott Fitzgerald

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I cannot say it better myself

I make up my opinions from facts and reasoning, and not to suit any body but myself. If people don't like my opinions, it makes little difference as I don't solicit their opinions or votes.
   -William Tecumseh Sherman

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A quote on perspective

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
   -Ben Hecht

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Some thoughts on a Sunday

From the "sad but true" category:

A journey of a thousand miles sometimes ends very, very badly...
   -Unknown

You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers.
   -John J. Plomp

Life is too short to drink bad wine.
   -Winston Churchill

Never slap a man who's chewin' tobacco.
   -Will Rogers

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Quotes for a Saturday

Under the veil of the pompous and arrogant, often lives the sad and pathetic.
   -Jack G. Montgomery

All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.
   -Sean O'Casey

Honesty is the best image.
   -Tom Wilson

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It is all that any of us can hope for...

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
   -Isaac Newton

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Some things to think about for a Friday

Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.
   -Robert Orben

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
   -Kurt Cobain

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This applies to more than Physics

Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution.
   -Edward Teller

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Curmudgeonly thoughts for a weekend

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
   -Catherine Aird

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
   -George Bernard Shaw

Were one half of mankind brave and the other half cowards, the brave would be always beating the cowards. Were all brave they would lead an uneasy life; all would be continually fighting. But being all cowards we go on very well.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

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A difference often missed...

There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.
   -Charles M. Schulz

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From a cheesy sequel to a cheesy TV show comes something to think about...

I wonder if the Emperor Honorius watching the Visigoths coming over the seventh hill could truly realize that the Roman Empire was about to fall. This is really just another page of history, isn't it? Will this be the end of our civilization? Turn the page.
   -Captain Jean Luc Picard, "Best of Both Worlds Part 1", Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Winning... that's what it's all about

Today I made an appearance downtown
I am an expert witness because I say I am

And I said, "Gentlemen, and I use that world loosely,
I will testify for you, I'm a gun for hire, I'm a saint, I'm a liar.

Because there are no facts, there is no truth
Just data to be manipulated.

I can get you any result you like...
What's it worth to you?"

Because there is no wrong, there is no right
And I sleep very well at night

No shame, no solution, no remorse, no retribution...
Just people selling t-shirts

Just opportunity to participate in the pathetic little circus
And winning, winning, winning...
   -Don Henley, The Garden of Allah

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For those who complain about the "mainstream media"...

...a simple statement of priorities that explains the decisions made on what to publish and report, if you're willing think about it instead of simply rant and rage:

For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news.
   -Gloria Borger

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Harsh, but true?

Every government is run by liars and nothing they say sould be believed.
   -I. F. Stone

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Pithy thoughts on courage, liberty, and responsibility...

....since I'm far too tired to write coherently, quotes:

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.
   -Paul Tillich

Liberty means responsibility; that is why most men dread it.
   -George Bernard Shaw

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A useful reminder to inaugurate my return from vacation...

...can be found in this quote:

Only in a police state is the job of a policeman easy.
   -Orson Welles

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British Resolve

"The children won't leave without me, I won't leave without the King, and the King won't leave under any circumstances."

This is, of course, the famous quote from Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum), when it was suggested that the princesses be sent to Canada for safety during the WWII bombing of London. The fact the royals would not leave became symbolic of British resolve.

God bless the U.K.

From 1991

"The most effective means of ensuring the government's accountability to the people is an aggressive, free, challenging, untrusting press."

-Colin Powell

Sounds About Right

"Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly."

-Senator Robert M. La Follette

Something to think about!

While researching this post on Thomas Jefferson I ran across a quote from John Adams that made me think of the polarization of the United States and talk of the impending battle over the Supreme Court.

"Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

Independence Day

This will be my last post here until Tuesday, so I leave you some topical quotes...

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."

-Elmer Davis

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

-Thomas Paine

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself."

-Thomas Paine

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved."

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happy 4th, Americans.

On Prejudice

I'm in a Shakespearean mode of late, so I offer the words of Shylock, from The Merchant of Venice:

I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?

Wish This One Was Mine...

"Politicians, like diapers, have to be changed frequently--and for the very same reason."

-Author Unknown

Have truer words ever been spoken?

Common Ground

"Even revolutionaries like chocolate chip cookies."

-Trudeau's Doonesbury

Someone Has To Be First Second

Hello, Jack's readers. This is my second time guest-blogging here. I'm surprised Jack asked me to return, considering my own blog's lack of quality lately, but someone has to throw some quotes out now and then. May as well be me, I guess.

First I'd like to let you know that you will not get any thoughtful or visionary political commentary out of me. I find that sort of thing is best left to those with good blood pressure medication.

Now, how about a quote or two to bid Jack a bon voyage?

"A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking."

-Earl Wilson

"A vacation should be just long enough that your boss misses you, and not long enough for him to discover how well he can get along without you."

-Unknown

Enjoy yourself, Jack!

Cranky quotes for the day before vacation

Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses.
   -Unknown (see Clarke's Third Law)

The secret of eternal youth is arrested development.
   -Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Something forgotten all too often

This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim.
   -James Reston

From a man who had a strange path in life

Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
   -Pancho Villa, last words

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An assortment of quotes

At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.
   -Lord Salisbury

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
   -Douglas Adams

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I had to repeat this...

We don't handle randomness well.
   -Dr. Lucy Jones, scientist in charge of the Southern California office of the U.S. Geological Survey

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This quote intrigued me

If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify Him. They would ask Him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.
   -Thomas Carlyle

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Some random cynical quotes

Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.
   -Jules Renard

I put it down as a fact that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends left in the world.
   -Pascal

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Non-random thoughts of the moment

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
   -Oscar Wilde

Always drink upstream from the herd.
   -Will Rogers

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Whither us in a time where the indefensible is defended at any and all costs?

Although I have enjoyed the Star Wars movies, I am far from thinking that George Lucas is a deep thinker, nor do I feel he is one of the great artists of our age. He accidentally touched upon a nerve at the right time, just as Gene Roddenberry did in creating Star Trek, they both provided avenues of escape from an unpleasant reality to millions who were disenchanted and disconnected with the world around them.

However, I find rather insightful and particularly relevant at the moment one quote from the final movie in the Star Wars series, Return of the Jedi, a movie I find to be the weakest of all six made to date:

You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
   -George Lucas, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Yeah, right on target, Jack.

Except, to qualify as POWs under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention, al Qaeda and Taliban detainees would have to have satisfied four conditions:

1. They would have to be part of a military hierarchy.

2. They would have to have worn uniforms or other distinctive signs visible at a distance

3. They would have to have carried arms openly.

4. They would have to have conducted their military operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

So, maybe not so on target.

And you know what? That awful, evil BushHitler even decided that the prison at Guantanamo would treat Taliban prisoners under the Geneva convention, because Afghanistan was a signatory to the convention. Bastard, isn't he?

I am not saying we should be adhering to the Geneva Convention for ANY reason other than it is the morally right thing to do, REGARDLESS of what our enemies do or how they behave.

Otherwise, if we let THEM set the standards for OUR behavior, how are we different?

I also have never used the term "BusHitler", nor have I ever called the current President a bastard.

---

It appears that many are allowing their point of view, and their defense of it, to cloud their reason, their judgement, and their very perceptions of right, wrong, and what is honorable behavior.

I can find no other reason for this defense of behaviors that are indefensible, a defense that essentially says, "They piss on our flag, and they desecrate their own supposed holy book, so it's OK if we do it too."

When I was a child, my parents always said in response to my statements of "everyone is doing it" with a rebuke of "and if they jump of a bridge, will you do it too?"

The right-wing once fought against moral relativism, and still does when it is convenient for the advancement of their side and their agenda.

Apparently, though, when moral relativism is convenient for them, they defend it beyond all reason.

Although I describe myself as a left-leaning centrist who tries to be a moderate, I find myself in a position of explaining concepts of honor and absolute standards in response to those who could reasonably be described as at the least right-leaning.

I have in the past noted how the extreme rhetoric of our current age resembles that of immediately before the American Civil War, and what I see now only strengthens the similarities.

The "other" is demonized, even if they are fellow Americans.

The attitude of "us versus the-rest-of-the-world, with the rest of the world now including all dissenting Americans" now prevails.

I am not forecasting another Civil War such as that which we suffered upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, the infrastructure and fundamental issues are different.

However...

The intolerance, intransigence, and excessive rhetoric of the time and how what is present now so closely resembles it can teach us a lesson that I expect and fear will be ignored.

We allowed the intolerance to get so intense in 1861 that in a very literal sense, brother fought against brother in a conflict that is still the most murderous in our entire bloody history, where more Americans were killed than in any other conflict, with over half a million dead in both the North and the South.

Now, we fling similar overheated rhetoric at each other, after all that has happened in the last four years, after the deaths, after the revelations, after the fact, denying any inconvenient facts in our quest for winning.

Winning at any and all costs.

No thought as to what consequences might arise, and what costs might be too dear to pay.

I do not believe in "my side" winning at any cost, if that cost is to destroy the principles upon which my country was founded.

I believe in both honor and fundamental principles.

I have principles upon which I base my opposition to the prison at Guantanamo Bay, principles that are independent of how our enemies behave, because I do believe in absolute standards, even if I am willing to listen, discuss, and upon occasion alter my standards based upon what others believe in strongly.

Those who choose to defend immoral and dishonorable acts based upon how our enemies behave are only fooling themselves with the moral relativism they themselves claim to despise when they see it in others.

I often wonder where my country is going when I read the defense of the indefensible by those who claim to have a higher patriotism than anyone else.

I often wonder where my country is going when I read accusations of "excessive idealism" and "not recognizing reality" from those who claim to be "realists", despite their unrealistic view of the world as evidenced by the reality that has arisen in the last four years.

Am I infallible?

No, I am not, nor do I claim to be.

However, neither are those who present themselves as such, although there are many who if you read their writings appear to admit no possibility of any fallibility on their own part.

Is there a conclusion to this commentary?

No, there is not, although I wish I could find one, because it would be comforting.

Instead, we are left only with uncertainty and doubt, and I am left wondering what to think of those who I number as friends who seem to be intent upon defending what I find indefensible.

In the end, we are left only with uncertainty and doubt, the dual curses of thought...

Sorry, no comfort offered here, only questions.

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From the father of the Constitution...

...comes a concise statement of the mistrust of government, any government, that I hold:

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In forming a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
   -James Madison

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An observation from the 19th century that is still true

As scarce as truth is, the supply is always greater than the demand.
   -Josh Billings

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After viewing recent trends...

...I find that sometimes, perhaps, they are one and the same...

Is that a dagger or a crucifix I see
Held so tightly in your hand?
   -Peter Gabriel, song: The Blood of Eden

He said this before weblogs were invented....

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
   -Goethe

He should know...

Obviously crime pays, or there'd be no crime.
   -G. Gordon Liddy

Thoughts to end a week of revelation and indefensible defending

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.
   -David Friedman

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
   -H. L. Mencken

Thought for a Thursday

Could this apply to the hobby of blogging, too?

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
   -Bertrand Russell

A political thought for the day

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
   -John Kenneth Galbraith

Back from the Czech Republic...

...and while I write up an essay on the French "Non!" to the EU Constitution and upload photos, here's some quotes for you:

Few people think more than two or three times a year. I've made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.    -George Bernard Shaw

Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination.
   -Christopher Isherwood

God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the misrable. They find not oly sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated ego's; He will set them above their betters.
   -H. L. Mencken

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to betaken seriously
   -Hubert H. Humphrey

The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defence against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad.
   -James Madison
     4th US president (1751 - 1836)

Gloomy thoughts of the day

A realist is one who knows that the pessimist is right.
   -Jeff Ehrlich

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
   -Euripides

And now for a quote from a Founder...

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness.
   -Thomas Paine

Thoughts for a Tuesday

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it in to a fact.
   -Honore de Balzac

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.
   -Ronald Reagan

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
   -David Brin

After all is said and done, more is said than done.
   -Anonymous

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.
   -Caron de Beaumarchais

Prejudice doesn't always involve race...

Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.
   -Sydney Smith

Something to remember when you start to lose hope in politics

Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
   -Margaret Mead

A quote for the day

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
   -Elbert Hubbard

Quotes on government

We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex--but Congress can.
   -Cullen Hightower

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
   -Voltaire

Not-so-random quotes on my mind

Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
   -James A. Garfield

It is well enough that the people of this nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
   -Henry Ford

Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
   -Samuel Johnson

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.
   -Horace

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A thought on "efficient" government

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.
   -Eugene McCarthy

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What is democracy again?

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
   -Tom Stoppard

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How I remember to keep perspective

I've posted this quote before, but it bears repeating:

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.
   -Harlan Ellison

Non-random quotes of the political moment

Some thoughts in these days of changing long-held rules to fit the agenda of the party in power and rewriting recent history to avoid bad poll results:

Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
   -Alexandre Dumas

Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.
   -Lee Simonson

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.
   -Robert Louis Stevenson

In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.
   -Nicholas Chamfort

Scattershot random quotes of the moment

A learning experience is one of those things that says, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."
   -Douglas Adams

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.
   -James Branch Cabell

If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.
   -Eric Idle

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
   -Unknown

Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study hard. Be evil.
   -Unknown

A quote on morality

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
   -H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Quasi-random quotes of the moment

Character, or the lack thereof, is revealed in how someone with power treats someone without power and without the capacity to retaliate.
   -Mark Shields

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
   -Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

There are two types of people--those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'
   -Frederick L Collins

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
   -Voltaire

We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic.
   -David Russell

Relevant song lyric of the moment

Well I'm standing by a river
But the water doesn't flow
It boils with every poison you can think of

And I'm underneath the streetlight
But the light of joy I know
Scared beyond belief way down in the shadows

And the perverted fear of violence
Chokes the smile on every face
And common sense is ringing out the bell

This ain't no technological breakdown
Oh no, this is the road to hell

   -Chris Rea, The Road to Hell (part II)

A fine line indeed

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the fine line between sanity and madness gotten finer?
   -George Price

If you can keep it

A republic if you can keep it.
   -Benjamin Franklin

In light of recent developments...

...this quote seems appropriate:

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around.
   -Herb Caen

Additional not-so-random quotes of the moment

When things go wrong, it is comforting to pin the blame on bad men. To do so implies that the world is a kind, gentle place and that if it weren't for a few nasty, selfish types we would all be happy.
   -unknown from The Economist magazine (articles unattributed)

Often justice comes only for people who are rich.
   -Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga

It's true, there are congressional checks on the judiciary, but we expect you to exercise them responsibly. The really effective congressional check, however, is the Senate's power to confirm.
   -Ann Althouse

Another not-so-random quote of the moment

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
   -William James

Non-random quotes of the moment

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.
   -Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
   -Paul Fix

Some rainy winter Sundays when there's a little boredom, you should always carry a gun. Not to shoot yourself, but to know exactly that you're always making a choice.
   -Lina Wertmuller

You do not need to be loved, not at the cost of yourself. The single relationship that is truly central and crucial in a life is the relationship to the self. Of all the people you will know in a lifetime, you are the only one you will never lose.
   -Jo Coudert

Hardness shatters; strength endures.
   -Robert Jordan

If the world were a logical place, men would ride sidesaddle.
   -Rita Mae Brown

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
   -E. B. White

Before we talk about hubris...

...we should consider this thought:

Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them.
   -Suzanne Necker

A final thought before bed here in France...

...something I wrote back in January:

It is the falsehoods masquerading as truth that fear the light of scrutiny.

Beware of those who proclaim that they themselves are the voice of morality.

Since I'm too tired to think for myself...

...I'll give you some cynical thoughts from others:

I sometimes think that God, in creating man, overestimated His ability.
   -Oscar Wilde

Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.
   -Ashley Montague

It was a book to kill time for those who like it better dead.
   -Dame Rose Macaulay

There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.
   -Charles M. Schulz

People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure.
   -Russell Baker

You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.
   -Olin Miller

The parting shot is from the master...

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.
   -Mark Twain

Some thoughts on life and politics

A lifetime is more than sufficiently long for people to get what there is of it wrong.
   -Piet Hein

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatalbe.
   -John Kenneth Galbraith

Both of these make me wince

Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place.
   -Billy Crystal

When people tell you how young you look, they are also telling you how old you are.
   -Cary Grant

Another quote on perspective

Harlan Ellison by many reports is a jerk, but he comes up with some incredible thoughts.

Something I try to remember:

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.
   -Harlan Ellison

Quotes on differing perspectives

Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
   -J. Robert Oppenheimer (on Albert Einstein)

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.
   -George Bernard Shaw

People are so conditioned to take sides that a balanced analysis looks to them like hatred.
   -Scott Adams (in Dilbert on 25 March 2005)

In these times where the "Will of God" is loudly proclaimed by politicians...

...remember this:

Beware of the man whose God is in the skies.
   -George Bernard Shaw

Amid the sounds of the shredding of the Constitution...

...remember this:

One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.
   -Oscar Wilde

Some thoughts for bloggers to seriously consider

Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.
   -Carl Sagan

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
   -B. F. Skinner

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
   -Steven Weinberg

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.
   -William James

For those awaking to a hangover from celebrating Saint Patrick's Day...

...here are two quotes to remember:

An Irishman is the only man in the world who will step over the bodies of a dozen naked women to get to a bottle of stout.    -Unknown

God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world.
   -Ed McMahon

Makes perfect sense to me...

The next time someone says they are "taking action," remember this

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.
   -H. H. Williams

Carpe Diem thought for today

The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
   -Plutarch (46 AD - 120 AD)

Thoughts for week 10 of 2005

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
   -Mark Twain

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
   -Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.
   -William Ralph Inge

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
   -Thomas Paine

And one of my favorites that I wish all of blogworld would remember:

Reminder for the day

If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
   -Professor Irwin Corey

I think we may be in trouble...

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.
   -Thomas Jefferson

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.
   -Thomas A. Edison

Quotes for the moment

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
   -Edith Sitwell

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
   -Robert Anton Wilson

RADICALISM, n. The conservatism of to-morrow injected into the affairs of to-day.
   -Ambrose Bierce

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
   -Franklin P. Jones

They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.
   -Benjamin Franklin

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
   -John Adams, Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials, December 1770

Given recent trends, he just might win

I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
   -Steven Wright

Some thoughts on those who say they should be our leaders

The standard of intellect in politics is so low that men of moderate mental capacity have to stoop in order to reach it.
   -Hillaire Belloc

In the absence of intelligence politics will fill the void
   -Frank Perretti

Two quotes to start the weekend

A long one from a real person, and a short one from a fictional character.

Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication, and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us - and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.
   -Carl Sagan

Conquest is easy. Control is not.
   -James T. Kirk

A thought for today

You can be a rank insider as well as a rank outsider.
   -Robert Frost

Turning points

Doug McKay, over at The Reality Stick, has written on how the day that the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed was a turning point in his life for more than one reason. He also writes something that I feel is worth adding to my quote collection:

...human stupidity will always trump human achievement...
   -Douglas R. McKay

A thought on perspective...

The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal probably eats better than 30 percent of the people in the world.
   -Robert Orben

Sometimes its a song lyric...

...that concisely expresses something very complex.

Only very few will ever truly understand why this lyric is very meaningful for me:

It's only in uncertainty
That we're naked and alive
   -Peter Gabriel, That Voice Again

Some thoughts to consider...

Since I can't generate anything on my own at the moment, here are some thoughts that are worth thinking more about:

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
   -William H. Borah

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
   -H. L. Mencken

We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.
   -Golda Meir to Anwar Saddat just before the peace talks

Some thoughts on human nature...

...take them as commentary on whatever you will, that is what happens regardless of what I write. No matter how much I try to make myself clear, some people insist upon vewing things through their own lenses and maintain they are both unbiased and completely correct...

History never looks like history when you are living through it.    -John W. Gardner

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom
   -Bertrand Russell

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent
   -Isaac Asimov

Brutality begins where skill ends.
   -Egon von Neindorff

If we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves share in the guilt.
   -Anna Sewell

Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
   -H. L. Mencken

Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control.
   -Don Marquis

Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
   -Eleanor Roosevelt

The average person thinks he isn't.
   -Father Larry Lorenzoni

In the end, we are all worm-food.
   -John M. Grant

There is one certain means by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin -- I will die in the last ditch.
   -William Of Orange

Thought for the last Sunday in January

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
   -Euripides

A thought from long ago...

...that is still relevant today, especially for those who feel the mainstream media is "too biased", here is a notation from the past (note the date):

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more indescribing the afflictions of Job than the felicties of Solomon.
   -Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

Lifted from the comments...

...where John of Argghhh! is having a debate over the words on a particular bumper sticker, comes my quote for the day:

It is always "My country, right or wrong!" but it's never "My country is never wrong."
   -SangerM

Thoughts for a January Monday

A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular.
   -Adlai Stevenson

The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.
   -Lady Bird Johnson

Live among men as if God beheld you; speak to God as if men were listening.
   -Seneca

Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.
   -Andre Gide

Some thoughts for a lazy Sunday

It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them.
   -Isabel Colegate

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
   -W. Somerset Maugham

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
   -Oscar Wilde

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
   -W. S. Maugham

A brand-new quote

A statment lifted from Brian in a comment he posted at Dean's World that I think bears repeating:

Everyone has a bias. If you don't notice it in someone, it's because your bias is similar.

Penetrating insight of the day...

...from Jeff Jarvis:

The big problem with Rather is not bias. It's foolishness. Always has been.

---

Thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link.

Some thoughts to ponder at the end of a hump day, or any day

If we see no other nation but our own, we do not give mankind a fair chance...
   -Lord Byron

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
   -Galileo Galilei

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.
   -William James

No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
   -John Donne

Amid all the sound and fury, most of which will be pointless or wasted, a thought...

Only age understands regret.
   -J. Michael Straczynski

An observation and some advice

People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.
   -Dan Quayle

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.
   -Joaquin Setanti

Eminence front

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
   -Eric Hoffer

What we are in danger of forgetting

It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.
   -Rene Descartes

As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.
   -Clarence Darrow

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
   -William Shakespeare

There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
   -Montesquieu

Freedom is a package deal - with it comes responsibilities and consequences.
   -Author Unknown

On childhood, advice, ambition, fairness, and other things...

It is better to be quoteable than to be honest
   -Tom Stoppard

When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.
   -Brian Aldiss

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.
   -Wendell Johnson

I've always followed my father's advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.
   -John Wayne

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
   -Mark Twain

When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean ... to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
   -Edmund Burke

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
   -Maya Angelou

Only the dead have seen the end of war.
   -Plato

From the "life is a bitch" file...

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
   -Will Rogers

Some sad reflections on human nature

When there are two conflicting versions of the story, the wise course is to believe the one in which people appear at their worst.
   -H. Allen Smith

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.
   -Henry Miller

Few people think more than two or three times a year. I've made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
   -George Bernard Shaw

Random quotes before my departure for France

Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except the things in the world that just don't add up.
   -James Magary

I want to thank all those who made this night necessary.
   -Yogi Berra

I never blame failure-there are too many complicated situations in life-but I am absolutely merciless towards lack of effort.
   -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Some thoughts to start the new year

These reflect how I see the world:

Despite what they tell you, there are simply no moral absolutes in a complex world.
   -Berkeley Breathed

For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong.
   -H. L. Mencken

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go... And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.
   -Gloria Naylor

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
   -Dolly Parton

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.
   -Harlan Ellison

A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.
   -George Santayana

Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.
   -Anthony J. D'Angelo

A thought for the new year

The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
   -William Blake

After my luggage "adventure" this trip...

...this quote seemed appropriate:

The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines.
   -Henry J. Tillman

From the "sad but true" file...

...yet another observation that blogworld has proven beyond a reasonable doubt:

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.
   -Caron de Beaumarchais

Something to remember

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
   -Oscar Wilde

Thoughts for the last week of the year

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
   -Herm Albright

The truth comes out when the spirits go in.
   -Irish Proverb

A lifetime is more than sufficiently long for people to get what there is of it wrong.
   -Unknown

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
   -Goethe

Before you get too rigid in your thinking...

...here is something to keep you flexible.

Stolen from Jennifer:

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.
   -Leo Rosten

NOT stolen from Jennifer, but in the same theme:

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
   -Robert Anton Wilson

Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.
   -Kurt Vonnegut

And a final word from our sponsor:

As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.
   -George Washington

Some thoughts for a Thursday

No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.
   -W. H. Auden

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
   -Alvin Toffler

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
   -Voltaire

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
   -Catherine Aird

Some quotes apropos of ANY season

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.
   -Douglas Adams

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
   -Henry Kissinger

Ask yourself if you are happy, and you cease to be.
   -J. S. Mill

I envy people who drink -- at least they know what to blame everything on.
   -Oscar Levant

If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
   -Professor Irwin Corey

Some thoughts for Wednesday

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
   -E. F. Schumacher

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.
   -Joaquin Setanti

Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there.
   -Clare Booth Luce

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
   -Blaise Pascal

Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers.
   -Jimmy Breslin

...or blogging?

I can't recall who said it...

...but this quote is always a good one:

It is always later than you think.
   -Unknown (until I find the source)

Thoughts for a Tuesday

I distrust camels, and anyone else who can go a week without a drink.
   -Joe E. Lewis

Never miss a chance to keep your mouth shut.
   -Robert Newton Peck

The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.
   -Eric Hoffer

In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.
   -Hubert H. Humphrey

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
   -Eric Hoffer

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
   -Voltaire

Both sad and hopeful

Even if you don't like his politics, Gary Trudeau wrote an excellent insight today (the link will probably stop working in a week) in Doonesbury:

Old dreams chase away new ones.

Some random quotes to ponder

If you explore beneath shyness or party chit-chat, you can sometimes turn a dull exchange into an intriguing one. I've found this to be particularly true in the case of professors or intellectuals, who are full of fascinating information, but need encouragement before they'll divulge it.
   -Joyce Carol Oates

It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes. It may even lie on the surface; but we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions — especially selfish ones.
   -Alexander Solzhenitsyn

It is not every question that deserves an answer.
   -Publilius Syrus

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
   -Cyril Connolly

Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.
   -Cicero

Some curmudgeonly quotes that are worth pondering

Shamelessly stolen from iddybud:

Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you angry.
   -Aldous Huxley

...and a few others from the same curmudgeon Huxley, since I liked the one above so much:

Experience teaches only the teachable.
   -Aldous Huxley

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
   -Aldous Huxley

Facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.
   -Aldous Huxley

Thoughts to keep you until I have time to write

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.
   -Carl Sagan

If you can find something everyone agrees on, it's wrong.
   -Mo Udall

When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision.
   -Lord Falkland

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
   -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Success and failure are equally disastrous.
   -Tennessee Williams

Before you get too irate over that annoying person, remember this...

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
   -Albert Camus

I have to do that sometimes...

Something to think about while I try to weave together some thoughts

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
   -Unknown

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
   -George Bernard Shaw

I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.
   -Harry S Truman

Whiskey's for drinking. Water's for fighting over.
   -Mark Twain

Pithy thoughts that align with my world-view

In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.
   -Hubert H. Humphrey

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.
   -Oscar Wilde

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.
   -Stephen Jay Gould

What I aim for here

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
   -Edwin Schlossberg

Random quotes

May God defend me from my friends, I can defend myself from my enimies.
   -Voltaire

Both madmen and geniuses see something that no one else does. The difference, of course, is whether or not it's actually there.
   -Michael Wikoff

Maybe a woman would be more admired for her mind if it would bounce gently as she walks.
   -Anonymous

Keeping Quiet

I've been MIA, so to make it up, here are two quotes rather than one:

This one I'd like to use on a few people in particular:

"You ain't learnin' nothin' when you're talkin'."

-Lyndon B. Johnson

And one that anyone in the corporate world can appreciate:

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

-Thomas Jefferson

The More Things Change...

...the more they stay the same.

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

-Thomas Jefferson

Professions

"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

-Ronald Reagan

Doing the Best We Can

"One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment. If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along."

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

There are some apologists running around America, saying they're sorry to the rest of the world that GWB was re-elected. I'm not one of them. I didn't vote for him, but I'm not sorry he was re-elected, either.

We were rudely awakened to the threat of terrorism a little over three years ago, and we're doing the best we can to fight it. There's disagreement on what the "best thing" is, but that's what democracy is about.

Checking In

Jennifer here...just making sure things work and saying hello. So, hello, Jack's readers.

One thing Jack apparently likes about me is my use of quotes, so I'll throw one out there:

"It is a great advantage to a President and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man."

-Calvin Coolidge

Yeah, I think Jack'll like that one.

This about sums up Blogworld

More thoughts from others since I'm too tired to think

In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
   -Stephen Jay Gould

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
   -H. L. Mencken

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
   -Mahatma Gandhi

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
   -H. L. Mencken

The Churches must learn humility as well as teach it.
   -George Bernard Shaw

It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
   -G. H. Hardy

People who know the least always argue the most.
   -Unknown

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.
   -Bertrand Russell

This world is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.
   -Horace Walpole

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.
   -Dwight David Eisenhower

When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean ... to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
   -Aristotle

Beware the fury of a patient man.
   -John Dryden

Since I'm brain-dead on a Sunday, I'll turn to others for some pithy thoughts

In democracy its your vote that counts. In feudalism its your count that votes.
   -Mogens Jallberg

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.
   -Albert Camus

To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity.
   -Irving Wallace

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.
   -Marilyn vos Savant

Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it.
   -Homer

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
   -Aristotle

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
   -P.J. O'Rourke

The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well.
   -Joe Ancis

Those who don't like thinking should at least rearrange their prejudices from time to time.
   -Luther Burbank

---

And a reminder for us...

He who fights monsters should look into it that he himself does not become a monster. When you gaze long into the Abyss, the Abyss also gazes into you.
   -Friedrich Neitzsche

Some things to ponder the day after a hotly contested election

Take away the shephard and the sheep will follow wolves.
   -Michael Wikoff

Congress -- these, for the most part, illiterate hacks whose fancy vests are spotted with gravy, and whose speeches, hypocritical, unctous, and slovenly, are spotted also with the gravy of political patronage.
   -Mary McCarthy

Quotes for an election day

Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.
   -Will Cuppy

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.
   -Bill Vaughan

The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
   -Frank Herbert

Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.
   -George Santayana

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
   -Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

If a man will begin in certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties.
   -Sir Francis Bacon

A thought for the end of the endless campaign

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
   -H.L. Mencken

---

We deserve better, and it's time we demand it.

For those over-the-top bloggers out there, something to think about...

Without exhaustive debate, even heated debate, of ideas and programs, free government would weaken and wither. But if we allow ourselves to be persuaded that every individual or party that takes issue with our own convictions is necessarily wicked or treasonous, then, indeed, we are approaching the end of freedom's road.
   -Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quotes for a random Friday...

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
   -Will Rogers

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
   -Abraham Lincoln

Some thoughts to remember when evaluating a Presidency

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
   -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
   -Andre Gide

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
   -Herbert Agar

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
   -Bernard Berenson

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
   -Barry Switzer

Guess what these apply to...

Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.
   -Doug Larson

Some thoughts for the week...

It is not hard to love those from whom nothing can be feared.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
   -Frank Leahy

Only in a police state is the job of a policeman easy.
   -Orson Welles

Some thoughts on life...

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
   -Oscar Wilde

Life is a God-damned, stinking, treacherous game and nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand are bastards.
   -Theodore Dreiser

And the wheel comes around again in politics

The only way to success in American public life lies in flattering and kowtowing to the mob.
   -H. L. Mencken

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.
   -Marshall McLuhan

I've posted these before...

...but they are still very relevant.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

To do nothing is in everyone's power.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

Thoughts for a grey Wednesday

Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.
   -Pat Paulsen

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatalbe.
   -John Kenneth Galbraith

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people meaner.
   -Karl Kraus

Balance... you must balance, Grasshopper...

Cynic, n. A blackgaurd whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.
   -Ambrose Bierce

You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.
   -Vicomte de Chateaubriand

What do I think?

Why repeat what these people said so well?

Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.
   -David T. Wolf

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
   -Edith Sitwell

At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas.
   -Aldous Huxley

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
   -Alfred North Whitehead

Some observations that apply to weblogs...

Nothing has an uglier look to us than reason, when it is not on our side.
   -Halifax

For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong.
   -H. L. Mencken

Something to think about while voting...

The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defence against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad.
   -James Madison, 4th US president (1751 - 1836)

One view of democracy

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
   -H. L. Mencken

Some thoughts in the debate aftermath and before our inevitable "October surprise"

Honesty is the best image.
   -Tom Wilson

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
   -Euripides

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people's opinions will rush in from all quarters.
   -George Bernard Shaw

Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, and intolerable one.
   -Thomas Paine

Sigh... Awareness is a terrible thing

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.
   -Anatole France

Thoughts on love, fame, certainty, and vision for a Wednesday

As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
   -M. Cartmil

Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species.
   -W. Somerset Maugham

Before fact-checking, remember this...

Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider survey than others, and detected faults and follies which escape vulgar observation.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

Some thoughts after waking in the dead of night

Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
   -Christopher Lasch

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
   -Wilson Mizne

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
   -Tolstoy

The second debate

While this may be hard to believe, I remain undecided on how to vote and am using the debates to help with my decision. There is still one more debate to go, but I can tell you now that I am leaning strongly against George W. Bush for two reasons. His body language in the first debate (which I have already written on) shows how poorly controlled his temper is and how he cannot accept being challenged. The body language in the second debate was more controlled, but the difficulty he had controlling it indicated that he has little practice in doing so. Is this a characteristic we want in a man who is Commander in Chief?

The other reason I am leaning against George W. Bush is that the second debate has irrefutably confirmed his inability to admit mistakes, which I also have commented on before, and that this inability borders on pathological in this man. When asked a direct question on what mistakes he has made, his response was eerily similar to how he has been portrayed by Garry Trudeau in Doonesbury:

16 September 2004



18 September 2004



When you respond almost exactly as you are portrayed by a virulent opponent, this is not a Good Thing and does not show flexibility of thought. To those who are unwavering in their support of George W. Bush, I need you to enlighten me on how a man who cannot think of any mistakes he has made can ever learn, can ever grow, can somehow magically always do the right thing. I was taught in Sunday School that Jesus was the only perfect man. What does it mean when George W. Bush cannot think of any mistakes he has made (other than appointing people who ended up pointing out he made mistakes)?

---

Some thoughts on making mistakes:

There is no man more dangerous than one who cannot recognize his own mistakes.
   -Jack

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
   -Unknown

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
   -Confucius

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
   -James Joyce

It's easy to stop making mistakes. Just stop having ideas.
   -Unknown

We'll do all right if we can capitalize on our mistakes.
   -Mickey Rivers

Show us a man who never makes a mistake and we will show you a man who never makes anything. The capacity for occasional blundering is inseparable from the capacity to bring things to pass. The only men who are past the danger of making mistakes are the men who sleep at Greenwood (cemetary).
   -H. L. Wayland

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
   -Plutarch

Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them
   -Unknown

Making mistakes is not a crime, not learning from them is.
   -Alexander Senturia

---

Of course, as a counterpoint, we have the fine precedent set by this man:

We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.
   -Dan Quayle

Some thoughts for a weekend...

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.
   -Lazarus Long (Robert A. Heinlein)

You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
   -Anonymous

Cyncicism, as a state of mind, produces more accurate observations about the universe that practically any other.
   -Michael Wikoff

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.
   -Aldous Huxley

Some amusing quotes for a Friday

I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
   -Solomon Short (aka David Gerrold)

Never hit a man with glasses; hit him with your fist.
   -Anonymous

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.
   -Albert Einstein

Some quotes for a Thursday

A few that just might apply to blogging:

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
   -Will Rogers

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
   -Unknown

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
   -Cyril Connolly

And a comment on Berkeley:

I knew I'd been living in Berkeley too long when I saw a sign that said "Free Firewood," and my first thought was "Who is Firewood and what has he done?"
   -John Berger

Thoughts for a Wednesday in a week bracketed by "debates"

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
   -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
   -Vladimir Nabokov

You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.
   -Arlo Guthrie

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
   -Aldous Huxley

More thoughts for a Monday

Ahhh. A man with a sharp wit. Someone ought to take it away from him before he cuts himself.
   -Peter da Silva

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
   -Voltaire

After all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done.
   -Unknown

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.
   -Douglas Adams

The scientific name for an animal that doesn't either run from or fight its enemies is lunch.
   -Michael Friedman

Thoughts for a Monday

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.
   -Joaquin Setanti

Put a man in a palace, and convince him he is a prisoner; he will do anything to escape. Put a man in a dark cell, convince him is the lord of that space, and he will stay there content.
   -Michael Wikoff

Something forgotten in our modern "everybody is a winner" education system

We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.
   -Will Rogers

Prepared?

We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.
   -Dan Quayle

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
   -James Thurber

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
   -Benjamin Franklin

Thoughts for the day...

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
   -Peter Drucker

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
   -Will Durant

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
   -John Adams

...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
   -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Some quotes to think about...

A realist is one who knows that the pessimist is right.
   -Jeff Ehrlich

A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
   -Herman Melville

For four-fifths of our history, our planet was populated by pond scum.
   -J. W. Schopf

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you have to concentrate on.
   -Robert S. Strauss

Natural talent will abandon you, hard work will take you nowhere, and attitude will get you slapped upside the head.
   -Michael Wikoff

People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure.
   -Russell Baker

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
   -Winston Churchill

You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.
   -Yogi Berra

Some quotes for the day

Both madmen and geniuses see something that no one else does. The difference, of course, is whether or not it's actually there.
   -Michael Wikoff

To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.
   -Oscar Wilde

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of a dilemma.
   -H. L. Mencken

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
   -George Orwell

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
   -George Bernard Shaw

Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.
   -Oscar Levant

Quotes on thinking

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
-B. F. Skinner

If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
-Don Marquis

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
-Aldous Huxley

Some quotes for our candidates for President

What Kerry needs to understand:

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
   -John F. Kennedy , speech prepared for delivery in Dallas the day of his assassination, November 22, 1963

Some thoughts for the day

Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.
   -Anonymous

To conquer the enemy without resorting to war is the most desirable. The highest form of generalship is to conquer the enemy by strategy.
   -Sun Tzu

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.
   -J. K. Rowling

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.
   -Laurens Van der Post

Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.
   -Ashleigh Brilliant

Perhaps I'll put these on an "about me" page...

To be alone is to be different, to be different is to be alone.
   -Suzanne Gordon

Too much sanity may be madness - and the maddest of all - to see life as it is, and not as it ought to be.
   -Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes

Some thoughts for the two major parties...

Never confuse movement with action.
   -Ernest Hemingway

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.
   -Douglas Adams

Ahhh. A man with a sharp wit. Someone ought to take it away from him before he cuts himself.
   -Peter da Silva

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.
   -Bertrand Russell

A plague o' both your houses!
   -William Shakespeare

Something to remember when voting...

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
         -Barry Switzer

Does this sound familiar in an odd way?

Have either George W. Bush or John F. Kerry ever held down a REAL job?

Quotes on life, the universe, and everything...

It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.
   -Edna St. Vincent Millay

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever
   -Anonymous

We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
   -Alfred North Whitehead

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
   -William Hazlitt

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.
   -Richard Feynman

Something to remember when assigning credit or blame

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
   -Jacob A. Riis

Some thoughts for the day

Nature abhors a vacuum.
   -Aristotle

A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.
   -Tenessee Williams

Tact is the ability to tell a man he's open-minded when he has a hole in his head.
   -F.G. Kernan

Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distiguished from a liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
   -Ambrose Bierce

Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them.
   -Leo Rosten

Quotes on friendship and happiness

A true friend stabs you in the front.
   -Oscar Wilde

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
   -George Orwell

---

Yes, I woke up cranky today, why do you ask?

From a former President, a thought on what is treasonable...

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

A thought for this campaign season...

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
   -H. L. Mencken

Advice of the day

Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.
   -Unknown

I was working on a post...

...but it got lost in the ether, so instead of adding to my frustration by reconstructing it, here are some quotes.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
   -Douglas Adams

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.
   -Horace Walpole

Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.
   -Marston Bates

A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.
   -Daniel Webster

For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong
   -H. L. Mencken, Mencken's Metalaw

Yep, that was me...

Of course, like all young men, I tried to be as unhappy as I could - a kind of Hamlet and Raskolnikov rolled into one.
   -Jorge Luis Borges

...except for me it was more like Daniel Boone and King Arthur, the heroic sacrifice combined with the ultimate betrayal.

Apparently the feelings regarding this election are nothing new...

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
   -John Kenneth Galbraith

A random quote that seems oddly apropos of the moment

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.
   -Alexandre Dumas

A final thought before I go to bed

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Read into that whatever tint is given by the glasses you use to view the world...

Something to remember when criticizing the "media"

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
   -Edward R. Murrow

Argghhh! (no, it's not "talk like a pirate" day)

John of Argghhh! has posted some quotes from the circles of military staff Hell in celebration of his "blogiversary". Go visit and help him celebrate!

My favorites from his list are:

Cynicism is the smoke that rises from the ashes of burned out dreams.

His knowledge on that topic is only power point deep...

You can get drunk enough to do most anything, but you have to realize going in that there are some things that, once you sober up and realize what you have done, will lead you to either grab a 12-gauge or stay drunk for the rest of your life

Once you accept that a dog is a dog, you can't get upset when it barks.

Vision without funding is hallucination.

Old Ben had it on the ball, didn't he?

Never confuse motion with action.
   -Benjamin Franklin

Vanity is winning out over modesty, so here is what I said:

I turn 40 this year. Always a time for introspection, which is why I want to spend it in Scotland at my favorite distillery, drinking my favorite Scotch until I'm unconscious. Sometimes oblivion is preferable to introspection.
   -John M. Grant

Something to think about

A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
   -Herman Melvill

I just HAD to steal this quote

This one is too good to not repeat:

If you don't say anything, you won't be called upon to repeat it.
   -Calvin Coolidge

Lifted directly from Jennifer and her Presidential fun facts post today...

A thought to remember during our troubled times

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.
         -Friedrich Nietzsche

Quotes of the random moment

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.
   -Voltaire

A person who trusts no one can't be trusted.
   -Jerome Blattner

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
   -George Bernard Shaw

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it.
   -Franklin P. Jones

Some random quotes on Facts, Truths, Creativity, Wisdom, and Wit...

Facts often contradict with truths.
   -David H.K. Leung

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.
   -Anthony Jay

Any fool can say he is wise but only someone wise can admit he is a fool.
   -Michael Reed

A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.
   -Lord Chesterfield

Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade.
   -Noel Coward

Quotes for the weekend...

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
   -Albert Einstein

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
   -Aldous Huxley

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
   -Mark Twain

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always exceeded the demand.
   -Anonymous

A thought before I leave

When thinking of our enemies and their actions, remember this:

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.    -Isaac Asimov

And now for something completely different...

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
   -Albert Camus

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
   -Robert Frost

A quick semi-random quote

If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody.
   -Agatha Christie

A quick semi-random quote

If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody.
   -Agatha Christie

Thought for the day

It is a fine thing to face machine guns for immortality and a medal, but isn't it a fine thing too, to face calumny, injustice and loneliness for the truth which makes men free?
   -H. L. Mencken

Thought for the day

It is a fine thing to face machine guns for immortality and a medal, but isn't it a fine thing too, to face calumny, injustice and loneliness for the truth which makes men free?
   -H. L. Mencken

A reflection on human nature...

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
   -Alfred Adler

A reflection on human nature...

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
   -Alfred Adler

A quote that applies to me...

I'm afraid, all the time, afraid of what I might do if I ever let go.
   -Michael Garabaldi (from Babylon 5, by J. Michael Straczynski)

A quote that applies to me...

I'm afraid, all the time, afraid of what I might do if I ever let go.
   -Michael Garabaldi (from Babylon 5, by J. Michael Straczynski)

A reminder from a friend...

A quote stolen from Indigo:

Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind.    -Dr. Seuss

A reminder from a friend...

A quote stolen from Indigo:

Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind.    -Dr. Seuss

A not so Random Quote Apropos of the Moment...

Something for both liberals and conservatives, for Republicans AND Democrats to remember:

Folks, it's the first mark of fanaticism when you assume all your opponents are either stupid or immoral.
   -Orson Scott Card

A not so Random Quote Apropos of the Moment...

Something for both liberals and conservatives, for Republicans AND Democrats to remember:

Folks, it's the first mark of fanaticism when you assume all your opponents are either stupid or immoral.
   -Orson Scott Card

Some cynical quotes of the Random Moment, along with something lighter...

On how unthinking the average citizen chooses to be:

Thousands and tens of thousands flourish in youth and wither in age, without the knowledge of any other than domestic evils, and share the same pleasures and vexations, whether their kings are mild or cruel, and whether the armies of their country pursue their enemies or retreat before them.
   -Samuel Johnson

I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now.
   -Unknown (graffiti)

Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens.
   -Nick Diamos

Natural talent will abandon you, hard work will take you nowhere, and attitude will get you slapped upside the head.
   -Michael Wikoff

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
   -Oscar Wilde

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together....
   -Carl Zwanzig

Some cynical quotes of the Random Moment, along with something lighter...

On how unthinking the average citizen chooses to be:

Thousands and tens of thousands flourish in youth and wither in age, without the knowledge of any other than domestic evils, and share the same pleasures and vexations, whether their kings are mild or cruel, and whether the armies of their country pursue their enemies or retreat before them.
   -Samuel Johnson

I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now.
   -Unknown (graffiti)

Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens.
   -Nick Diamos

Natural talent will abandon you, hard work will take you nowhere, and attitude will get you slapped upside the head.
   -Michael Wikoff

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
   -Oscar Wilde

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together....
   -Carl Zwanzig

Before posting in haste, think about this...

The next time you start to say "those stupid...(insert your least favorite political party or group here)...", please keep this in mind:

When a culture become factionalized, when it becomes us vs. them, everyone starts setting up consistently smaller camps...first it's democrats vs. republicans...then it's mainstream republicans vs. conservative republicans...then it's conservative republicans vs. religious right republicans (with the democrats having equal problems on their side). As soon as we forget that we're *all* US, it begins to fall apart.
   -J. Michael Straczynski

Before posting in haste, think about this...

The next time you start to say "those stupid...(insert your least favorite political party or group here)...", please keep this in mind:

When a culture become factionalized, when it becomes us vs. them, everyone starts setting up consistently smaller camps...first it's democrats vs. republicans...then it's mainstream republicans vs. conservative republicans...then it's conservative republicans vs. religious right republicans (with the democrats having equal problems on their side). As soon as we forget that we're *all* US, it begins to fall apart.
   -J. Michael Straczynski

Something from a TV show that is worth remembering...

I did the necessary thing, that is not always the same as the right thing...
   -J. Michael Straczynski (from an episode of Babylon 5)

Something from a TV show that is worth remembering...

I did the necessary thing, that is not always the same as the right thing...
   -J. Michael Straczynski (from an episode of Babylon 5)

A quote from another blogger...

Stevie wrote something today that was profound in how it captured an important truth:

...you know how giving birth is a bloody, painful mess? Well, it's also a beginning. Very few beginnings are any less than that... a bloody, painful mess. The bloody, painful mess part is also the temporary part. It's the beginning that's the point.

I suggest you remember it.

A quote from another blogger...

Stevie wrote something today that was profound in how it captured an important truth:

...you know how giving birth is a bloody, painful mess? Well, it's also a beginning. Very few beginnings are any less than that... a bloody, painful mess. The bloody, painful mess part is also the temporary part. It's the beginning that's the point.

I suggest you remember it.

Quotes of the Random Moment

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.
   -James F. Byrnes

All marriages are mixed marriages.
   -Chantal Saperstein

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
   -Alfred North Whitehead

I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either.
   -Jack Benny

You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.
   -Vicomte de Chateaubriand

People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.
   -A. J. Liebling

Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it.
   -Cullen Hightower

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Quotes of the Random Moment

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.
   -James F. Byrnes

All marriages are mixed marriages.
   -Chantal Saperstein

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
   -Alfred North Whitehead

I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either.
   -Jack Benny

You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.
   -Vicomte de Chateaubriand

People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.
   -A. J. Liebling

Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it.
   -Cullen Hightower

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A quote to keep in mind when you become adamant...

Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.
   -Dandemis

A quote to keep in mind when you become adamant...

Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.
   -Dandemis

Not so random Quotes of the Random Moment

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
   -Orson Welles

If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.
   -Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Most politicians wouldn't recognize their "fellow Americans" even if one stood up and smacked them across the face.
   -Jack Grant

Not so random Quotes of the Random Moment

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
   -Orson Welles

If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.
   -Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Most politicians wouldn't recognize their "fellow Americans" even if one stood up and smacked them across the face.
   -Jack Grant

Strangely unsettling quote of the random moment

I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
   -John Cleese

Strangely unsettling quote of the random moment

I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
   -John Cleese

Some random quotes...

It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.
   -Malcolm Forbes

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.
   -Mark Twain

I love mankind, it's people I can't stand.
   -Charles M. Schulz

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
   -Will Rogers

It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.
   -Edna St. Vincent Millay

Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!
   -Anton Szandor LaVey

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be led by the nose.
   -Mark Twain

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
   -Benjamin Franklin

I can sympathize with people's pains, but not with their pleasure. There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness.
   -Aldous Huxley

Some random quotes...

It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.
   -Malcolm Forbes

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.
   -Mark Twain

I love mankind, it's people I can't stand.
   -Charles M. Schulz

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
   -Will Rogers

It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.
   -Edna St. Vincent Millay

Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!
   -Anton Szandor LaVey

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be led by the nose.
   -Mark Twain

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
   -Benjamin Franklin

I can sympathize with people's pains, but not with their pleasure. There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness.
   -Aldous Huxley

A longer list of quotes for the day than usual...

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.
   -Douglas Adams

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
   -Kurt Cobain

The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth.
   -Charles Luckman

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
   -Herbert Agar

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
   -Bernard Berenson

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
   -Barry Switzer

Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distiguished from a liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
   -Ambrose Bierce

A longer list of quotes for the day than usual...

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.
   -Douglas Adams

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
   -Kurt Cobain

The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth.
   -Charles Luckman

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
   -Herbert Agar

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
   -Bernard Berenson

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
   -Barry Switzer

Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distiguished from a liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
   -Ambrose Bierce

Some quotes to get me started with posting for the evening...

Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.
   -Alfred Hitchcock

I think for my part one half of the nation is mad- and the other not very sound.
   -Tobias Smollett

I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
   -Ashleigh Brilliant

The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
   -Robert R. Coveyou

Some quotes to get me started with posting for the evening...

Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.
   -Alfred Hitchcock

I think for my part one half of the nation is mad- and the other not very sound.
   -Tobias Smollett

I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
   -Ashleigh Brilliant

The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
   -Robert R. Coveyou

Some quotes for the weekend

All my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
   -Jean Jacques Rosseau

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
   -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Politicians are like monkeys. The higher they climb up the tree, the more revolting are the parts they expose.
   -Gwilym Lloyd George

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
   -Andre Gide

Some quotes for the weekend

All my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
   -Jean Jacques Rosseau

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
   -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Politicians are like monkeys. The higher they climb up the tree, the more revolting are the parts they expose.
   -Gwilym Lloyd George

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
   -Andre Gide

Another song lyric...

There ain't nothing like regret
To remind you you're alive
   -Sheryl Crow

Another song lyric...

There ain't nothing like regret
To remind you you're alive
   -Sheryl Crow

Monday morning quote (even though it's Monday evening in France)

Jennifer has a quote for a Monday morning that I like. Go read it...

Monday morning quote (even though it's Monday evening in France)

Jennifer has a quote for a Monday morning that I like. Go read it...

This struck me...

The worst thing about dying is that it starts out a normal day. Then it's all over.
   -a Marine in Iraq (via a CNN International report by Karl Penhaul on the cable network)

This struck me...

The worst thing about dying is that it starts out a normal day. Then it's all over.
   -a Marine in Iraq (via a CNN International report by Karl Penhaul on the cable network)

Two thoughts for today

There are two kinds of fool. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better."
   -John Brunner

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
   -H. L. Mencken

Two thoughts for today

There are two kinds of fool. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better."
   -John Brunner

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
   -H. L. Mencken

A quote from a president

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

A quote from a president

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
   -Theodore Roosevelt

A thought that arose while trying to learn French

Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
   -Mark Twain

A thought that arose while trying to learn French

Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
   -Mark Twain

A reprise of a quote from January

Imagination is dangerous, but the loss of imagination is deadly.
   -A. O. Scott

A reprise of a quote from January

Imagination is dangerous, but the loss of imagination is deadly.
   -A. O. Scott