Assorted Quotes

"If I had wanted to say anything, I would have."
- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, after being rebuked by Arthur Klebanoff for delivering a rambling speech that was all but incomprehensible

"The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantage from the mere existence of government."
- President Teddy Roosevelt, in 1906

"Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word."
- Charles DeGaulle, 1962

"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts' desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
- H. L. Mencken, "Bayard vs. Lionheaart", Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."
- Anatole France (real name Jacques Anatoole François Thibault), French novelist, The Red Lily, chapter 7, 1894
See Anatole France Quotes for more quotes by Mr. France.

"The problem with practical jokers is that they get elected."
- sign outside Reservoir Bar, Manhattan

"Out of respect, you must show disdain"
Respect is for your friend; disdain is for friend's ex
- Carolyn Zafiros

"That doesn't suck"
- Donna Shelton

"I have had it with you."
- Talar Berejiklian

May the Lord bless and keep the tsar -- far away from us!
- Russian proverb

"Evil is perennial, it likes to go into hibernation under the frost and the dead leaves so it can bloom again in the spring."
- the character Baba Yaga in the novel Belarus, by Lee Hogan

"Just because they really are out to get you, doesn’t mean you aren’t paranoid."
- the character Vlad Taltos, in the novell Issola, published as part of the book Dragon & Issola by Steven Brust

"remember there are engineers who create worlds and engineers who destroy them"
- the character Baba Yaga in the novel Belarus, by Lee Hogan

"I had a religious upbringing: I've been trained to fear the future".
- Salman, in The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest, by Po Bronson

"You had an unlimited budget, and you exceeded it."
- Jim Carluccio

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"Without a doubt, Einstein's greatest blunder was having declared that lambda was his greatest blunder." (Lambda was Einstein's term for the so-called cosmological constant.)
- Neil deGrasse Tyson, writing in the December 2003 / January 2004 issue of Natural History magazine

"Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"A week of programming can sometimes save an hour of thought."
- Jeremy Goell

"Conventional wisdom doesn't contain a whole lot of wisdom."
- Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems Innc.

"Money whispers to you like a whore, telling you what it can do for you if only you'll open your wallet. And if you have no shame, you can be seduced into almost anything."
- the character Aron Goldstein, a rich investor, in the novel The Trigger by Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Kube-McDowell

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."
- Henny Youngman

"If you are successful you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway."
- Kent M. Keith, as a 19- year-old studennt at Harvard,
in a self-published motivational booklet for high school student councils, re-published in May 2002 by G. P. Putnam's Sons as "Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments"

"The most important thing in all the living of our lives is the message of the meter that registers the distance from the hateful zero of insignifigance among our fellows."
- William Whiting, in Harvard Business Reeview, 1923

"People do what you inspect, not what you expect."
- Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?

"Microsoft research is an intellectual roach motel. All the big brains check in but nothing ever checks out."
- Paul Saffo, Institute For The Future

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants"
- Justice Louis D. Brandeis, in his book Other People's Money: And How the Bankers Use It, published in 1914, encouraging publicity for big business practices

"This game of excessive pay reminds me of college drinking contests, in which whoever drinks the most without passing out is admired."
- Allen Price, in a letter to the Editor of BusinessWeek about former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso's compensation, published in the October 6, 2003 issue

"She's like a millionaire,
Walking on imported air"
- "Maria", from No Exit, by Bloondie

"Rosemary on the gallows"
- "Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Heearts", from Blood on the Tracks, by Bob Dylan

"The socialists had the wrong answer to the right question."
- Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales,, Saving Capitalism From the Capitalists, referring to the socialist solution to the problem of reducing the power of the owners of capital. The socialist approach is to concentrate that power in the hands of the state. Rajan and Zingales say that the correct answer is to disperse that power by expanding access to finance and increasing competition among financiers and lenders.

"I’d rather be running the game than playing it."
- the character Vlad Taltos, in the novell Issola, published as part of the book Dragon & Issola, by Steven Brust

"Round here we talk just like lions, but we sacrifice like lambs"
- "Round Here", from August andd Everything After, by the Counting Crows

"Even a suicide is careful crossing the street on the way to jump off a building."
- the novel The Torch of Honor, by Roger MacBride Allen

"What's so amazing about really deep thoughts?”
- "Silent All These Years”, from Litttle Earthquakes, by Tori Amos