Quotations
Why of course the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a
farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is
to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people
don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for
that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the
leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple
matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist
dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship ... voice or no
voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and
denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to
danger. It works the same way in any country.
Hermann Goering April 18, 1946 - Nuremberg trial
Taken from "Nuremberg Diary" by G.M. Gilbert
Lord, give us the wisdom to utter words that are gentle and tender, for
tomorrow we may have to eat them.
Rep. Morris Udall
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot.
Mark Twain
Some problems are so complex that you have to be
highly intelligent and well informed just to be
undecided about them.
Laurence J. Peter
The truth does not change according to our ability
to stomach it.
Flannery O'Connor
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Hanlon's razor
If I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone,
Nor when I'm gone speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell,
But life goes on,
So sing as well.
Joyce Grenfell
Probably the earliest flyswatters were nothing more than some sort of
striking surface attached to the end of a long stick.
Jack Handy
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in
my name in a Swiss bank.
Woody Allen
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit
there.
Will Rogers
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Abraham Lincoln
When you start off by telling those who disagree with you that they are not
merely in error but in sin, how much of a dialogue do you expect ?"
Thomas Sowell
Incompetents invariably make trouble for people other than themselves.
Larry McMurtry
Virgo: (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Certain shortcomings in your education and
upbringing cause you to read meaning into the relationships among various
celestial bodies.
"The Onion" horoscope column
The difference between America and England is that Americans think 100 years is
a long time, while the English think 100 miles is a long way.
Earle Hitchner
Daphne: Oh, men use sex to get what they want too.
Frasier: How can men use sex to get what we want? Sex is what we want!
Frasier
I like the little things, the way a glass feels in your hand, a good
glass, thick with a heavy base. I love the sound an ice cube makes when you
drop it from just the right height. Too high and it'll chip when you drop
it. Chip the ice and it'll melt too fast in the Scotch.
Leo McGarry - The West Wing
I'm an alcoholic, I don't have one drink. I don't understand people who
have one drink. I don't understand people who leave half a glass of wine on
the table. I don't understand people who say they've had enough. How can
you have enough of feeling like this?
Leo McGarry - The West Wing
The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by
assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.
Robert Conquest's Second Law of Politics
Power is the ability to control things, moral authority is the
ability to change things
Jim Wallis
There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of
success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of
things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old
order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the
new...
Niccolo Macchiavelli, The Prince
There's a fine line between being on the leading edge and being in the lunatic fringe.
Frank Armstrong
A preacher came to the town of Sodom and Gamorah to urge the inhabitants to
repent. He set up in the middle of the town. At first many residents of the
city came to hear the preacher teach the ways of God and appeal to the
people to change their ways. As each day went on less and less people came
to listen. People went on with their lives and ignored the preacher who
still stood in the same place in the city square. Finally a boy who
listened enthusiastically at first was the only remaining participant. He
came up the preacher and reproached him. "Why do you keep on talking? Give
up! No one cares what you have to say. The people don't want to change.
Don't you get that?"
The preacher responded to the boy, "Yes, I understand you. I know that no
one listens anymore. But I will tell you this. I stand here no longer
because I have any hope of changing them. Rather I stand here for myself. I
hope that if I can speak the truth I will stop them from changing me."
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change;
the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
Fred Brooks
Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.
W. Edwards Deming
I have always found that plans are useless, but
planning is indispensable.
Dwight Eisenhower
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already
tomorrow in Australia.
Charles Schulz
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
Catherine Aird
Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo it is not enough that you be persecuted by an unkind establishment, you must also be right.
Bob Park
Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide the 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.
Robert A. Heinlein
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth.... For my part, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it.
Patrick Henry
Dowsing: The use of a forked stick, pair of spoons or other item to locate and extract money from people who believe that water can be located and extracted using a forked stick, pair of spoons or other item.
When one is postulating correlations or causations extant in reality, one should always remember that the human brain is mainly a pattern recognition engine. And it is such a persistent pattern recognition engine that it often perceives patterns where none exist.
Jeff Walther
It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.
Peter Ustinov
Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
Voltaire
Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure
you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory.
Sir Bernard Ingham
No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.
Eleanor Roosevelt
How the teacher reacts when something goes wrong tells the class what's important.
Bruce Hamilton
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This page last modified 20 January 2008
