RELATED QUOTES

"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power." -P. J. O’Rourke (in "Studying For Our Drug Test” from Give War A Chance)

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." -Galileo Galilei

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. ~Hubert H. Humphrey

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature. ~Jacob Bronowski

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. ~Thomas Jefferson

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. ~Walter Lippmann

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. ~Charles Darwin

We owe most of what we know to about one hundred men. We owe most of what we have suffered to another hundred or so. ~R.W. Dickson

A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity. ~Robert Heinlein

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

Men do not invent Myths. They only invent fables, and tell lies. True Myths create themselves, and find their expression in the men who serve their purpose. ~Denis Johnston, "The Brazen Horn"

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

Your grandchildren will likely find it incredible--or even sinful--that you burned up a gallon of gasoline to fetch a pack of cigarettes! ~Dr. Paul MacCready Jr.

For every problem, there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong. ~H. L. Mencken

Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don't worship it. Feed it. ~Aubrey Eben

"I think it would be a good idea." -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), when asked what he thought of Western civilization

"In science, one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." -Paul Dirac (1902-1984)

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." -H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

"Talent does what it can; genius does what it must." -Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship. ~Robert Heinlein

Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis best suited to open the way to the next better one. ~Konrad Lorenz

"Life is 10% what you make it, and 90% how you take it."
. . Irving Berlin.

"A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future."
. Sydney Harris; late American journalist

"The Creation Equation": C=ME². Creativity (c) is the result of our mass of knowledge (M), multiplied by the effect of our two dimensions of experience (E²). The first dimension reflects psychological and emotional growth over the years; the second dimension reflects accumulated knowledge of life and the wisdom resulting from it."
Gene D. Cohen (Modern Maturity)

"Your best self makes your best stuff."
Bobby McFerrin
(So set up your mood & 'tude.)

"You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
William Blake.

To be joyless is a sin!
Timothy Law

"The problem with talking about 'enlightenment' is that our talk tends to create a picture of what it is--yet enlightenment is not a picture, but a shattering of all pictures.
Charlotte Joko Beck

Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?"
Epicurus

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."
Umberto Eco (http://www.california.com/~rpcman/fp.htm)

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

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone ever 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.
Douglas Adams

"I am treated as evil by those who feel persecuted because they are not allowed to force me to believe as they do."
unknown

Just to get mine out of the way...

On anarchy: Where all is permitted, nothing is possible.

There's a difference: gender is one thing... and sex is two.

"Life is like grabbing jello; the harder you grab, the more escapes." probably not original w me. A paraphrase?

If you're with only the people who are exactly like you, you're with the wrong people!

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
--Albert Einstein

Einstein: "God is the sum total of all physical laws."

Einstein: I do not believe in a God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.

Bertrand Russell: So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
--Thomas Jefferson

==========

From Kevin Solway:

There would be no war if there were no history.

Everyone has free will, but some have more than others.

Wise people think all they say; fools say all they think.

But far too numerous was the herd of such,
who think too little, and who talk too much.

Every good thought you think is contributing its share to the ultimate result of your life.

Thought makes the whole dignity of man; therefore endeavour to think well, that is the only morality.

There are two common ways to avoid thinking: one is to never read, and the other is to do nothing but read.

Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think.

But words are things; and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

As soon as you can say what you think, and not what some other person has thought for you, you are on the way to being a remarkable person.

Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am."

No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit.

Think like a [man] of action, act like a [man] of thought.

Anyone who has begun to think places some portion of the world in jeopardy.

If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you. If you really make them think, they'll hate you.

"To be patriotic, hate all nations but your own; to be religious, all sects but your own; [but] to be moral, all pretenses but your own."
Lionel Strachey (1864-1927) English writer.

Thinker: a person who aims where your head ought to be.

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

==========

*It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've what we've been missing until it arrives.
(from the net)

"Success is a matter of luck -- just ask any failure."
Author Unknown

The wise are instructed by reason; those of less understanding, by experience; the ignorant, by necessity; the beasts by nature.
Cicero [I guess I'm all of the above.]

I believe I've found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us.
Konrad Lorenz (Not Pogo)

The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica Jong

"Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
Lost the reference, sorry...

It's very easy to forgive others their mistakes. It takes more gut and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
Jessamyn West.

It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Fred Adler.

No statue was ever erected in honor of someone who intended to do great things.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, it is a fire to be ignited.
Plutarch

"I like things you don't have to explain because you can't."
Howard Nemerov.

You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play.
Warren Beatty.

"Even if you're on the right track, you're gonna get run over if you don't keep moving."
Will Rogers?

Truth is stranger than fiction, but not so popular.
Anon.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius

Every guilty person is his own hangman.
Seneca

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins have been reported to have learned English--some fifty words used in correct context--no human has been reported to have learned dolphinese.
Carl Sagan

When we ask advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
Marquis de Lagrange.

The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.
Henry Ward Beecher.

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
Erasmus

Calmness of mind does not mean to stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself.
Shumro Suzuki

[racism? Birds of a feather...] "All flesh consorteth according to kind, and a man will cleave to his like." [gay?!]
Ecclesiastes 13:16

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
Simone Weil

The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy, and Serenity.
Emily Post

He who hesitates is sometimes saved.
James Thurber.

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
Paul Valery

Tact: The ability to describe others as they see themselves.
Abe Lincoln [ very bierce!]

To do the opposite is also a form of imitation.
G.C. Lichtenburg

The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy.
Sam Levinson.

I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
Abe Mazlow.

Movements born in hatred very quickly take on the characteristics of the thing they oppose.
J.S. Habgood

[ The bigger they are...]
It is the lofty pine that by the storm is oftener tossed; towers fall with heavier crash which higher soar.
The Odes of Horace (65-8 BC)

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
G.B.Shaw

Lord Acton was likely inspired by the elder William Pitt's speech to congress. "...where laws end, tyranny begins."

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.
Samuel Johnson.

Charity sees the need, not the cause.
[bad] German proverb.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's.
Jean Paul Richter

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
A. Einstein

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
A. Lincoln.

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is comprised of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
J.F.Kennedy.

He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it.
Karl von Knebel

Your children need your presence more than your presents.
Jesse Jackson.

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
Ralph Nader.