I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. ~Winston Churchill
. . "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

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

"You can't put a complex thing into a hierarchy; some things don't fit." (like me!) Gregor Kiczales, a computer scientist.

"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!" -Vroomfondel (in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)

"I'm not paranoid but I know that you all think I am." -Anonymous

"Violence is not strength and compassion is not weakness" -King Arthur (in Camelot)

"Truly great madness can not be achieved without significant intelligence." -Henrik Tikkanen

A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you. ~Francoise Sagan

Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. "Yes" is the answer. ~Swami X

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue. ~Voltaire

Numbers are like people; torture them enough and they'll tell you anything.

50% of the high school graduates in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class.
. . 50% of the citizens of this country have a below average understanding of statistics.
. . 49% of the U.S. population belongs to some minority group.
. . 82.8% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Maybe we're just lucky to live in a universe composed by a divine Bach. Perhaps next door, the inhabitants of a John Cage universe muddle along in chaos... ~Michael Weiss, in sci.physics

Sure, it's going to kill a lot of people, but they may be dying of something else anyway. ~Othal Brand, member of a Texas pesticide review board, on chlordane
. . I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. ~Winston Churchill
. . There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result. ~Winston Churchill
. . Although prepared for martyrdom, I prefer that it be postponed. ~Winston Churchill

Mediocrity requires aloofness to preserve its dignity. ~Charles G. Dawes

Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it. ~Gordon R. Dickson

I think it would be totally inappropriate for me to even contemplate what I am thinking about. ~Don Mazankowski, former Candian Minister of Finance

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature. ~Tom Robbins

I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted. ~Lawrence Summers, chief economist of the World Bank, explaining why we should export toxic wastes to Third World countries.

The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself. ~Oscar Wilde

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

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. ~Henry Adams

Diplomacy --the art of saying "Nice doggie" 'til you can find a stick. ~Wynn Catlin

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. ~H. L. Mencken

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. ~George Bernard Shaw

By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid. ~Heinrich Heine

There are three schools of magic. One: State a tautology, then ring the changes on its corollaries; that's philosophy. Two: Record many facts. Try to find a pattern. Then make a wrong guess at the next fact; that's science. Three: Be aware that you live in a malevolent Universe controlled by Murphy's Law, sometimes offset by Brewster's Factor; that's engineering. ~Fortune Mag

The origin of all science is the *desire to know causes*, and the origin of all false science and imposture is the desire to accept false causes rather than none; or, which is the same thing, in the unwillingness to acknowledge our own ignorance. ~William Hazlitt

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake." -Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)

"Don't be so humble --you are not that great." -Golda Meir (1898-1978) to a visiting diplomat

"If you are going through hell, keep going." -Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"I've had a wonderful time, but this wasn't it." -Groucho Marx (1895-1977)

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher." -Ambrose Pierce (1842-1914)

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." -Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

"Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street." -Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."-Antoine de Saint Exupery

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." -Isaac Asimov

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours." -Richard Bach

"Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together." -Georg Lichtenberg (1742-1799)

"Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches." -the Duchess of Windsor, when asked what is the secret of a long and happy life.

"Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech." -Martin Fraquhar Tupper

"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" -Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"Criticism is prejudice made plausible." -Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)

"Hell is paved with good samaritans." -William M. Holden

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame." -Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher." -Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"God gave men both a penis and a brain, but not enough blood supply to run both at the same time." -Robin Williams

"Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies." -Voltaire (1694-1778) on his deathbed, in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan.