Random Fate - old

An off topic quote nicked from another blogger

Shamelessly stolen from John of Argghhh!, completely off his topic, but worth an independent quote nonetheless:

As the old aphorism tells it: It's not the bullet with your number on it you need to be concerned about - it's the one addressed to "To Whom It May Concern" that you need to worry about. The combat calculus of wounds is a matter of inches.    -John of Argghhh!

Final thought before bedtime...

Still trying to figure this one out, but it has an interesting sound...

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
   -Oscar Wilde

Thought for the day...

Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.
   -Alexander Hamilton

Some thoughts from France until I have time to get back online

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
         -Charles M. Schulz

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.
         -Peter Drucker

The truth is more important than the facts.
         -Frank Lloyd Wright

Random quotes of the moment

An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do.
   -Dylan Thomas

The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky.
   -Solomon Short

A reminder about the courts

This is a court of law young man, not a court of justice.
   -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thought for the day

No time for an original post, so here's a thought when you're feeling particularly neurotic:

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

Some random quotes for the evening

CNN is one of the participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected president but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power.
   -Arthur C. Clarke

The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.
   -Scott Adams

Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse.
   -Thomas Szasz

War connot be avoided; it can only be postponed to the others advantage.
   -Niccolo Machiavelli

Random quotes for the moment

The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering!
   -Ashleigh Brilliant

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
   -Robert Heinlein

and one of my favorites...

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
   -Ralph W. Sockman

Here's a Constitutional Amendment I could support

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.
   -Gore Vidal

Random Quote of the Moment

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

Why it's so hard to communicate...

There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves.
   -Albert Guinon

Random quotes of the moment since I don't have time to write...

The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.
   -P. B. Medawar

In the great game of human life one begins by being a dupe and ends by being a rouge.
   -Voltaire

Thought for the day

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

I think I'd want this, too...

Such a wife as I want... must be young, handsome. I lay most stress upon a good shape, sensible a little learning will do, well-bread, chaste, and tender. As to religion, a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in God and hate a saint.
   -Alexander Hamilton

Since I'm a bit busy, here are some good quotes elsewhere

Jennifer of Jennifer's History and Stuff posted some great quotes today. Instead of committing ruthless pilfering, I'll just refer you to them.

One of the secrets to writing

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
   -Jack London

Quote of the random moment

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
   -Mark Twain

Ironic quote of the moment

I've posted this one before, but I still like it. Things aren't always as they seem on the outside...

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. Cartmill

It's always good to think of the "why" behind your opinions...

I think on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic and a progressive religious experience.
   -Shelley Winters

Now that we know who will be running for President...

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

Geek quote of the random moment

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
   -Albert Einstein

Ya gotta have soul...

Jennifer is another poster of quotes (she may have been doing it longer than I have for all I know). I really like the second one of the pair she posted today; I'm gonna have to steal that one:

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
   -Dorothy Parker

Hmmm... Jennifer has the same Benjamin Franklin quote at the top of her blog that I do. Spooky. I wonder if she and I were separated at birth...

Something to remember when punditing...

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
   -Bertrand Russell

And before we start feeling too self-important...

A physicist is an atom's way of knowing about atoms.
   -George Wald

This SHOULD be the dictionary definition...

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results to be different.
   -Unknown

Random thought of the moment

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.
   -Daniel J. Boorstin

Random quote of the moment

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
   -Aristotle

Not so random quote of the moment

Life is what happens while you are making other plans
   -John Lennon

Amusing quote of the moment

Either I've been missing something or nothing has been going on.
   -Karen Elizabeth Gordon

Humorous political quote of the day

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.
   -Dan Quayle

A thought before the politics get out of hand...

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
   -Dwight Eisenhower

Random quote of the moment

He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
   -Saki

Random quotes of the moment

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
   -Robert A. Heinlein

Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.
   -Frank Zappa

A sobering thought...

Keep this one in mind every time you say goodbye to your loved ones while leaving things such as "I love you" unsaid:

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
   -Sidney J. Harris

A thought on personal responsibility

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
   -Sophocles

out of the mouths of babes...

Love is foolish ... but I still might try it sometime.
   -Floyd, age 9

Not completely Random Quote of the Moment

Reality is intruding on my life.
   -V. Looney

Disturbing but humorous thought for the day

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

Song lyric of the moment

Nothing fades as fast as the future
Nothing clings like the past
   More Than This
   -Peter Gabriel

Random quotes of the moment

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

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

Random quotes of the rushed moment

If I don't have time to post later this evening, here's a few quotes to tide you over:

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
   -William J. H. Boetcker

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
   -Alfred Hitchcock

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
   -Samuel Johnson

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

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

A quote on growing up

I don't know if this is derivative, but I found this observation on growing up in a review of the new Peter Pan movie (of all places!):

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

Thoughts for the day

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.
   -Clarence Darrow

If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time.
   -Edith Wharton

Being obvious can be subtle...

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
   -Isaac Asimov

A less cynical quote for today

Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
   -Elbert Hubbard

I'm in a bit of a cynical mood today...

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

Semi-random Quote of the Moment

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.
   -Mark Twain

It's all about perspective...

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.
   -Joe Walsh

Random quote of the moment

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.
   -Kim Hubbard

Quasi-random quote of the moment

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

A commentary on politics and political weblogs

The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.
   -G. K. Chesterton

The problem with scientists

Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
-Albert Einstein

As a working scientist, I know that the attitude described by Einstein is still very widespread. The focus is more on doing good scientific work than it is on making sure the results of that work are communicated properly, especially in areas where they become public issues such as the environment or nuclear power. Incompetent or less than stellar workers get by on their propoganda skills, becoming no more than snake oil and patent medicine salesment. The attitude that "politics are only a matter of present concern" on the part of the real scientists is why bad science gets propgated by the snake oil salesmen while the real results get drowned out and lost in the sound and fury.

Are there really more moonbats now?

Here's a quote that applies to what Acidman is saying over at Gut Rumbles about how idiotic it is for people to expect a risk-free environment:

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
-James Thurber
New Yorker, Feb. 4, 1939, "The Fairly Intelligent Fly"

Note the date... It was said in response to the moonbats of the time, who have always been with us. Now, though, with the Internet they have a wider forum to display their stupidity.

Random Quotes of the Moment

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

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
   -George Orwell

A fine is a tax for doing wrong; a tax is a fine for doing well.
   -Anonymous

Never fight an inanimate object.
   -P. J. O'Rourke

If you don't know what to do, call the media and at least give the appearance of doing something.
   -David Peterson

Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.
   -Katherine Hepburn

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
   -W. Somerset Maugham

God help those who do not help themselves.
   -Wilson Mizner

Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies.
   -Ed Howe

If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me
   -Jimmy Buffett

If I'd known I was going to last this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.
   -Eubie Blake

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

Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
   -H. L. Mencken

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

When I think of number of disagreeable people that I know who have gone to a better world, I am sure hell won't be bad at all.
   -Mark Twain

A quote to keep in mind...

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
-Carl Sagan

A Thanksgiving Quote

Well, not really about Thanksgiving, but something to remember as you sit in your food coma on Thursday:

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.
   -Orson Welles

Random Quotes of the Moment

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.
   -Margaret Bonnano

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
   -Will Rogers

Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.
   -Dorothy Parker

I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?
   -Jean Kerr

I say that good painters imitated nature; but that bad ones vomited it.
   -Miguel de Cervantes

Life is an effort that deserves a better cause.
   -Karl Kraus

Be careful in revising those immigration laws of yours.
We got careless with ours.
   -advice given to Herbert Humphrey by an American Indian from New Mexico

Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
   -Robert A. Heinlein

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
   -Edward Abbey

California is a fine place to live--if you happen to be an orange.
   -Fred Allen

Another good quote found today

But we're Americans. We neither study history nor learn from it.
   -Orson Scott Card

Through the King of Fools.

More on power and corruption

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

Hey! This describes me!!!

I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.
   -Berkeley Breathed

Random Quotes of the Moment

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
   -Benjamin Franklin

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! It is a dangerous servant and a terrible master.
   -George Washington

Who ever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.
   -Nicolas Chamfort

God is too big to fit into one religion.
   -Robert A. Heinlein

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a
mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.
   -Robertson Davies

I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.
   -E.V. Lucas

Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.
   -Rita Mae Brown

Random Quote of the Moment

Life got so much easier once I stopped giving a shit...
   -Jack

Semi-Random Quote of the Moment

Now I know I have a heart, because it's breaking.
   -the Tin Man, from The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

Random Quotes of the Moment

I think love and sex are separate and only vaguely similar. Like the word bear and the word bare. You can get in trouble mistaking one for the other.
   -Harlan Ellison

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.
   -Charles M. Schulz

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 greatest happiness of life it the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
   -Victor Hugo

Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting.
   -Alan Dean Foster

Random Quotes of the Moment

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
   -Abba Eban

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
   -Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
   -Benjamin Franklin

Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.
   -Jerry Garcia

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.
   -Paul Gauguin

A dead thing goes with the stream. Only a living thing can go against it.
   -G. K. Chesterton

The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.
   -Peter Brimelow

Immature love says, "I love you because I need you." Mature love says, "I need you because I love you."
   -Erich Fromm

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson

Realize that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.
   -Anthony J. D'Angelo

Random Quotes of the Moment

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
   -Albert Camus

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

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
   -Elbert Hubbard

Love your enemies just in case your friends turn out to be a bunch of bastards.
   -R. A. Dickson

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
   -Henri Bergson

To err is human, to blame the next guy even more so.
   -Unknown

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

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.
   -Robert Fripp

Random Quotes of the Moment

Many people consider the things which government does for them to be social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.
   -Earl Warren

Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.
   -Niels Bohr

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
   -H. H. Munro

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

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
   -Oscar Wilde

In science as in love, too much concentration on technique can often lead to impotence.
   -P. L. Berger

Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you cannot bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond the pain.
   -Bartholomew

Random Quotes of the Moment

At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.
   -Albert Einstein

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
   -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes in Valley of Fear, 1915

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"
Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
   -Charles M. Schulz, Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"

Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.
   -John Russell

If you make people think they are thinking, they will love you. If you really make them think, they will hate you.
   -Art Costa

It takes a woman twenty years to make a man of her son, and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him.
   -Helen Rowland

Out of woman come the man
Spend the rest of his life gettin back where he can
   -Peter Gabriel

Never give advice...
A wise man won't need it
A fool won't heed it.
   -Unknown

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.
   -Joe Walsh

Random Quotes of the Moment - Saturday morning

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
   - H. L. Mencken

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's this day-to-day living that wears you out.
   - Anoton Chekhov

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do.
   - Dale Carnegie

Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
   - Nick Diamos (quote is usually called "Hanlon's Razor")

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

Random Quotes of the Moment

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

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
      -Mark Twain

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
      -George Carlin

Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules. Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.
      -Anonymous

Dont' play for safety- it's the most dangerous thing in the world.
      -Hugh Walpole

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
      -Thomas Jefferson

There's no fool like an old fool --- you can't beat experience.
      -Jacob Braude

You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.
      -Dave Barry

Above all, try something.
      -Franklin Delano Roosevelt

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
      -Rita Mae Brown

If you are ever in doubt as to whether or not you should kiss a pretty girl, give her the benefit of the doubt.
      -Thomas Carlyle

Quotes of the Random Moment

France was a long despotism tempered by epigrams.
      -Thomas Carlyle

This place makes Mayberry look like a think tank.
      -Dennis Miller

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
      -Unknown

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
      -Robert Heinlein

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
      -Thomas Mann

To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.
      -Russell L. Ackoff

I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
      -Lily Tomlin

I don't need bodyguards.
      -Jimmy Hoffa

Quotes of the Random Moment

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.
      -Ernestine Ulmer

Either I've been missing something or nothing has been going on.
      -Karen Elizabeth Gordon

I only drink fortified wines during bad weather. Snowstorm, hurricane, tornado--I'm not particular, as long as it's bad. After all, any storm for a Port.
      -Paul S. Winalski

A conscience is like a baby. It has to go to sleep before you can.
      -Author Unknown

If you believe everything you read, better not read.
      -Japanese Proverb

Quotes of the Random Moment

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
      -Susan Ertz

In order to preserve your self-respect, it is sometimes necessary to lie and cheat.
      -Robert Byrne

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
      -Douglas Adams

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
      -Lin Yutang

Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils.
      -General John Stark

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
      -Elbert Hubbard

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
      -Edmond Burke

Quotes of the Random Moment

You can observe a lot by just watching.
      -Yogi Berra

It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
      -Emiliano Zapata

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.
      -Clarence Darrow

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
      -Arthur Ashe

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
      -Aristotle

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
      -Henry James

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
      -Will Rogers

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essense of inhumanity.
      -George Bernard Shaw

Quotes of the Random Moment

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
      -H. L. Mencken

Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep burning, unquenchable.
      -Henry Ward Beecher

Treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster.
      -Quentin Crisp

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
      -Albert Einstein

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
      -William James

To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.
      -Hippocrates

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.
      -Patrick Henry

Given a choice between two theories, take the one which is funnier.
      -Blore's Razor