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![]() Some heavy - some light - some funny and brightAyn Rand "I am interested in politics for only one reason - to reach the day when I will not have to be interested in politics. I want to secure a society in which I will be free to pursue my own concerns and goals, knowing that the government will not interfere to wreck them, knowing that my life, my work, my future are not at the mercy of the state or the whim of a dictator." The Philosophy of Reason; "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievements as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." On Individual rights; Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority is the individual.) On Independence; Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence. John Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) "The art of taxation consists of plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing." Robert Frost (1874-1963) Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the
one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert A. Heinlein -- From his books and speeches; Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed. Anything free is worth what you pay for it. Does history record any case in which the majority was right? In a mature society "civil servant" is semantically equal to "civil master." All men are created unequal. Political tags, such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth, are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded, here and there, now and then, are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all "right thinking" people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck." A motion to adjourn is always in order. Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something. Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides? Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best. An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications. May you live as long as you love and love as long as you live. A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity. Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseum, keep her from drowning them at birth. Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny. I also think there are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery, and I don't think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called. If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain! The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these two concepts fall into disrepute, get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, "equality" is a disaster. A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved. Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent. A zygote is a gamete's way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the universe. There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the "artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.'" The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature", but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the "Naturist" reveals his hatred for his own race, i.e., his own self-hatred. In the case of "Naturists" such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate. As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women, it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly "natural." Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful, just stupid.) The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history. One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain. One mans "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word. A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being "frank." Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered a capital crime. For a first offense, that is. Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy. When the need arises, and it does, you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don't farm it out, that doesn't make it nicer, it makes it worse. Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind, it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate, and quickly. "God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends." This may not be true, but it sounds good, and is no sillier than any other theology. Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. This sad little lizard told me that he was a Brontosaurus on his mother's side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is in short supply. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil. Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. [He is also a fool.] Don't try to have the last word. You might get it. Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect. A "practical joker" deserves applause for his wit according to its quality. Bastinado is about right. For exceptional wit one might grant keelhauling. But staking him out on an anthill should be reserved for the very wittiest. Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so. Being generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity. No resemblance. A whore should be judged by the same criteria as other professionals offering services for pay, such as dentists, lawyers, hairdressers, physicians, plumbers, etc. Is she professionally competent? Does she give good measure? Is she honest with her clients? It is possible that the percentage of honest and competent whores is higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And enormously higher than that of professors. "Go to hell!" or other direct insult is all the answer a snoopy question rates. If tempted by something that feels "altruistic," examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then if you still want to do it, wallow in it! A man does not insist on physical beauty in a woman who builds up his morale. After a while he realizes that she is beautiful, he just hadn't noticed it at first. Thou shalt remember the Eleventh Commandment and keep it Wholly. Darling, a true lady takes off her dignity with her clothes and does her whorish best. At other times you can be as modest and dignified as your persona requires. The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status with a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect that the shaman is on the moral level of any other con man. But it's lovely work if you can stomach it. Beware of the "Black Swan" fallacy. Deductive logic is tautological; there is no way to get a new truth out of it, and it manipulates false statements as readily as true ones. If you fail to remember this, it can trip you, with perfect logic. The designers of the earliest computers called this the "GIGO Law," i.e., "Garbage in, garbage out." Inductive logic is much more difficult, but can produce new truths. Take care of the cojones and the frijoles will take care of themselves. Try to have getaway money, but don't be fanatic about it. By the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy dangerous to man, man himself. So he must supply his own indispensable competition. He has no enemy to help him. Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity. The more you love, the more you can love and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just. Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite. Formal courtesy between husband and wife is even more important than it is between strangers. Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a house hold budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. Another ingredient for a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first. And still another: See to it that she has her own desk, then keep your hands off it! And another, in a family argument, if it turns out you are right, apologize at once! Rub her feet. It is impossible for a man to love his wife wholeheartedly without loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the converse must be true of women. Always tell her she is beautiful, especially if she is not. Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely! If the universe has any purpose more important than topping a woman you love and making a baby with her hearty help, I've never heard of it. Dear, don't bore him with trivia or burden him with your past mistakes. The happiest way to deal with a man is never to tell him anything he does not need to know. There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk. Never crowd youngsters about their private affairs, sex especially. When they are growing up, they are nerve ends all over, and resent (quite properly) any invasion of their privacy. Oh, sure, they'll make mistakes, but that's their business, not yours. (You made your own mistakes, did you not?) The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts "Of course it is none of my business but, " is to place a period after the word "but." Don't use excessive force in supplying such moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about. Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors, and miss. A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dream world. Minimize your therbligs until it becomes automatic; this doubles your effective lifetime, and thereby gives time to enjoy butterflies and kittens and rainbows. I don't like suppression of the truth for any reason. I think the word "classified" stinks! All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can, and must, be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly, and no doubt will keep on trying. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills. If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten thousand to one. People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt. Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark. A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate. Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win. It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another, but which one? Differences are crucial. There is no such thing as "social gambling." Either you are there to cut the other bloke's heart out and eat it, or you're a sucker. If you don't like this choice, don't gamble. Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks. It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier. If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people. Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil. Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament, it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can't avoid. This permits you to play out the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the outcome. A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion. Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house. What are the facts? Again and again and again, what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell," avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history", what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts! If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait. Money is the sincerest of all flattery. Women love to be flattered. So do men. Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well. The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa. The phrase "we (I) (you) simply must," designates something that need not be done. "That goes without saying" is a red warning. "Of course" means you had best check it yourself. These small change cliches and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers. The greatest productive force is human selfishness. Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again. Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get. A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an "intellectual", find out how he feels about astrology. A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits. The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently sinful. It is better to copulate than never. Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys! It's more sanitary. No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons "Come back with your shield, or on it!' Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome. Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, the reward is self-respect. But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a foot pad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please, this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time, and squawk for more! So learn to say NO, and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. This rule does not mean that YOU must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you. "No man is an island," Much as we may feel and act as individuals, our race is a single organism, always growing and branching, which must be pruned regularly to be healthy. This necessity need not be argued; anyone with eyes can see that any organism which grows without limit always dies in its own poisons. The only rational question is whether pruning is best done before or after birth. Being an incurable sentimentalist I favor the former of these methods, killing makes me queasy, even when it's a case of "He's dead and I'm alive and that's the way I wanted it to be." But this may be a matter of taste. Some shamans think that it is better to be killed in a war, or to die in childbirth, or to starve in misery than never to have lived at all. They may be right. But I don't have to like it, and I don't. Look, friends, the only possible way to enjoy life is not to be afraid to die. A zest for living requires a willingness to die; you cannot have the first without the second. The '60s and '70s and '80s and '90s can be loaded with the zest for living, high excitement, and gutsy adventure for any truly human person. "Truly human"? I mean you descendants of cavemen who outlasted the saber-tooth, you who sprang from the loins of the Vikings, you whose ancestors fought the Crusades and were numbered the Golden Horde. Death is the lot of all of us and the only way the human race has ever conquered death is by treating it with contempt. By living every golden minute as if one had all eternity. -- Guest of Honor Speech at the XIXth World Science Fiction Convention, Seattle, 1961. There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it? $100 placed at 7 percent interest compounded quarterly for 200 years will increase to more than $100,000,000, by which time it will be worth nothing. Thomas Jefferson "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain
men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to
regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not
take from the mouth of labor the bead it has earned. This is the sum of
good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."
"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all
nations, entangling alliances with none."
"The legitimate powers of government extend to
such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for
my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my
pocket nor breaks my leg. Constraint may make him worse by making him a
hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man."
"It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong." "It has been a source of great pain to me to have
met with so many among our opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish
between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the
person the hatred they bore to his political opinions."
"The path we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our Legislature. A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness." George Adams There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success. John Adams "The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." Joseph Addison "Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity." Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief. He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young. Alfred Adler - mathematician It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. Aesop "Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own." Plodding wins the race. Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay) - American boxer The man who has no imagination has no wings. The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I just beat people up. Fred Allen Television is a device that permits people who haven't anything to do to watch people who can't do anything. Woody Allen I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. Henri-Frederic Amiel "Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark." Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius. To know how to suggest is the art of teaching. Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Maya Angelou Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you. "I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass." ~~Anon~~ The certain proof that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that no one has bothered to make contact with us. Experience is often what you get when you were expecting something else. Dr. Robert Anthony When you blame others, you give up your power to change. If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news? Isaac Asimov The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...' Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society. Things do change. The only question is that since things are deteriorating so quickly, will society and man's habits change quickly enough? Lady Nancy Astor (1879-1964) "In passing, also, I would like to say that the first time Adam had a chance, he laid the blame on a woman." St. Augustine An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride. "What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor." If I am given a formula, and I am ignorant of its meaning, it cannot teach me anything, but if I already know it what does the formula teach me? Marcus Aurelius And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. "If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it." Richard Bach Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't. "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true." Can miles truly separate us from friends? If we want to be with someone we love, aren't we already there? Francis Bacon Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable. "To choose time is to save time." James Baldwin A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go. "The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was before you came in. You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world.... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way ... people look at reality, then you can change it. Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; Freedom is something that people take and people are as free as they want to be. Honor de Balzac Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine. A woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea. When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues. It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time. All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual. The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one. John Barrymore "A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." Happiness sneaks through a door you didn't know that you left open. Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore
would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.
Henry Beecher Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry. Speak when you're angry and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret. Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore? "Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you." It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage. Now comes the mystery.
Jim Beggs Before you put on a frown ... make absolutely sure there are no smiles available. Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) Solitude: A good place to visit, but a poor place to stay. Don't take the bull by the horns, take him by the tail; then you can let go when you want to. Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there. William Blake "No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings." "Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives it ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair." Ashleigh Brilliant - UC Berkeley 'street' philosopher Should I abide by the rules until they're changed, or help speed the change by breaking them? Better start rushing before the rush begins! Strange as it may seem, my life is based on a true story. Mel Brooks Tragedy is if I cut my finger. Comedy is if *you* fall down a manhole. Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, you've got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. Rita Mae Brown About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all. William Jennings Bryan Destiny is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. La Bruyere "At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone." Pearl S. Buck Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is boring without it. Buddha "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, We make our world." Carol Burnett Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head. George Burns (1896-1996) Retire? I'm going to stay in show business until I'm the only one left. Nice to be here? At my age it's nice to be anywhere. Miguel de Cervantes Love not what you are, but what you may become. G. K. Chesterton The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost. Arthur C. Clarke Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." Confucius "Learning without thought is labour lost. Thinking without learning is perilous!!!!" E.E. Cummings It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are. Rene Descartes Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems. "It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well." Emily Dickinson "To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else." Thomas A. Edison "If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." Albert Einstein "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater." The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details. "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity. "I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive." "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." "True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness." "When the solution is simple, God is answering." "The only source of knowledge is experience." "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." "Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within." "Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty." Milton Friedman "So long as effective freedom of exchange is maintained, the central feature of the market organization of economic activity is that it prevents one person from interfering with another in respect of most of his activities. The consumer is protected from coercion by the seller because of the presence of other sellers with whom he can deal. The seller is protected from coercion by the consumer because of other consumers to whom he can sell. The employee is protected from coercion by the employer because of other employers for whom he can work, and so on. And the market does this impersonally and without centralized authority. Indeed, a major source of objection to a free
economy is precisely that it does this task so well. It gives people what
they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want.
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in
freedom itself."
"The characteristic feature of action through
political channels is that it tends to require or enforce substantial conformity.
The great advantage of the market, on the other hand, is that it permits
wide diversity. It is, in political terms, a system of proportional representation.
Each man can vote, as it were, for the color of tie he wants and get it;
he does not have to see what color the majority wants then, if he is in
the minority, submit."
"The use of political channels, while inevitable, tends to strain the social cohesion essential for a stable society. The strain is least if agreement for joint action need be reached only on a limited range of issues on which people in any event have common views. Every extension of the range of issues for which explicit agreement is sought strains further the delicate threads that hold society together. If it goes so far as to touch an issue on which men feel deeply yet differently, it may well disrupt the society. Fundamental differences in basic values can seldom if ever be decided, though not resolved, by conflict ... The widespread use of the market reduces the strain
on the social fabric by rendering conformity unnecessary with respect to
any activities it encompasses. The wider the range of activities covered
by the market, the fewer are the issues on which explicitly covered by
the market, the fewer are the issues on which explicitly political decisions
are required, and hence on which it is necessary to achieve agreement.
In turn, the fewer the issues on which agreement is necessary, the greater
is the likelihood of getting agreement while maintaining a free society."
Ralph Waldo Emerson What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. Thomas Fuller Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it. M. K. Ghandi Where there is love there is life. To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest. "What you do is of little significance. But it is very important that you do it." William James Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you. Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming it. When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. Do not think of to-day's failures, but of the success that may come to-morrow.... Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. Sometime, somewhere, somehow we shall find that which we seek. One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do. John Lennon Life is what happens to us while we're making other plans. W. Somerset Maugham "Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit." Groucho Marx I don't care to belong to any organization that accepts me as a member. Christopher Morley There is only one rule for being a good talker - learn to listen. H. H. Munro (Saki) [He is] one of those people who would be enormously improved by death. George Orwell Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness. Pascal The heart has it's reasons that reason does not know. Alexander Pope Is not absence death to those who love? Jean-Jacques Rousseau To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know. Eleanor Roosevelt Life was meant to be lived and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. You can gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face... You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well. Muriel Rukeyser I am in the world to change the world. Beverly Sills I'm not happy, I'm cheerful. There's a difference. A happy woman has no cares at all. A cheerful woman has cares but has learned how to deal with them. Mark Twain Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a man and a dog. Alan Watts Life is not a problem to be solved, nor a question to be answered. Life is a mystery to be experienced. Oscar Wilde - English author We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Either the wallpaper goes or I do.
Charlotte Whitton Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. Faith Whittlesey Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels. Douglas Adams - Author, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. Henry David Thoreau "I heartily accept the motto, 'That government
is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted upon more
rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which
also I believe -- 'That government is best which governs not at all'; and
when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which
they will have."
"Government is at best but an expedient; but most
governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they
are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought
against a standing government."
"The character inherent in the American people
has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat
more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. Trade and commerce,
if they were not made of india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over
obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and if
one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and
not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished
with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads."
"There will never be a really free and enlightened
State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and
independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived,
and treats him accordingly."
Bill Watterson Who was the guy who first looked at a cow and
said, "I think I'll drink whatever comes out of these things when I squeeze
'em!"?
H.G. Wells Go away. I'm all right.
Mae West - American actress Too much of a good thing is wonderful. Loves conquers all things except poverty and a toothache. When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I've never tried before. I never loved another person the way I loved myself. When women go wrong, men go right after them. E.B. White Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. P.J. O'Rourke 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. Leadership presupposes that we, as a nation, are
all going someplace together. I haven't noticed that we're going anywhere
lately. And this is a free country, anyway - each of us should choose his
own destination. In a truly American kind of leadership the president would
be a person headed in two hundred fifty million different directions at
once.
The U.S. government is a sort of permanent frat
pledge to every special interest in the nation - willing to undertake any
task no matter how absurd or useless.
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation,
the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
It is remarkable, on close inspection, what a
lousy way to get things done democracy is. Not that democracy necessarily
makes the wrong decisions. Private enterprise can do this with equal or
greater ease. But in a democracy the decision-making process must be listened
to. The great thing about the invisible hand of the market is not that
it's invisible but that it's silent.
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