Quotes

[piz 0]

Nice one. I hope you continue to share your collection with us.

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I will, one at a time. Here's another:

The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.

[MRZ 0]

My mother was waiting at the finish, accustomed to seeing me come in among the leaders, and she couldn't understand what was taking me so long. Finally, she walked out on the course and found me, struggling along.

"Come on, son, you can do it," she said.

"I'm totally gone," I said. "I bonked."

"All right," she said. "But you can't quit, either. Even if you have to walk to the finish line."

I walked to the finish line.

Lance Armstrong was 15.

[Paul's Here 0]

It is not the critic who counts, nor the person who points out how the strong person stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is actually marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows great enthusiasm and great devotions, whose life is spent in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and at worst, if failure wins out, it at least wins with greatness, so that this person's place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

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One of my favorite quotes from a politician. They don't make them like they used to be!!

[Nathaniel Hale 1775 0]

"What kind of freedom is freedom that along with the thought wants to censor the feelings, to decide whom I must love and whom I must hate, so that if I hate Americans I go to Heaven and if I hate Muslims I go to Hell? A non-freedom, I say. A mockery, a farce.

With disdain and in the name of Reason, then, I resume the discource that more then three years ago I ended with the words enough-stop-enough. With disdain and in the name of Reason I emulate Mastro Cecco."

Orriana Fallaci (The Force of Reason)[/n]

[MRZ 0]

Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

[MRZ 0]

Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way...that is not easy.

Indeed.

[MRZ 0]

There is no squabbling so violent as between people who accept an idea yesterday, and those who will accept the same idea tomorrow.

[Paul's Here 0]

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

[B. Royce 0]

"Of all the tyrannies on human kind

The worst is that which persecutes the mind."----John Dryden

"I am in earnest. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;

I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard."----William Lloyd Garrison, Speech, 1831

[Aurelia 0]

I frame no hypothesis; for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called an hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.

Physicists have often been in trouble with religious orthodoxies, mathematicians never. Mathematics and theology in so far as they can be regarded as deductive sciences independent of experience are natural allies. God is always a geometer.

[Aurelia 0]

For the past decade many physicists have been wandering the streets with signs that read: "The End of Physics Is Near." They claim to be developing a final "theory of everything," which will leave future physicists with nothing to do but play computer games.

[Jason Fowler 0]

The first book on politics I read was Selected Essays on Political Economy by Frederic Bastiat. Here is a quote on foreign trade, trade deficits/surpluses.

... it is sad and, I dare add, degrading that the legislator will not let the interested parties decide and act for themselves in these matters, at their peril and risk. At least then everyone bears the responsibility for his own acts; he who makes a mistake is punished and is set right. But when the legislator imposes and prohibits, should he make a monsterous error in judgement, that error must become the rule of conduct for the whole of a great nation. In France we love freedom very much, but we hardly understand it. Oh, let us try to understand it better! We shall not love it any less.

...For my part, I affirm that if someone were to say to the House of Commons: "The total value of what is exported from the country exceeds the total value of what is imported," it is then that they would feel threatened; and I doubt that a single speaker could be found who would dare to add: "The difference represents a profit."

On Politics

Who will dare say that force has been given to us, not to defend our rights, but to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? And if this is not true of the use of force by each individual, acting separately, how can it be true of the collective force, which is nothing but the organized union of separate forces?

One more, on labor saving devices.

... to curse machines is to curse the human mind!

[Paul's Here 0]

A disagreement that does not challenge fundamentals serves only to reinforce them.

[Aurelia 0]

I love this qoute because it reminds me that it isn't enough to just be able to do something, nor is it enough to want to do it. In order to accomplish something I need both.

That's taking the qoute out of context since Feynman's discussing hypnosis at the time, but I don't really mind. I like the way he says it.

All the time you're saying to yourself, "I could do that, but I won't" - which is just another way of saying you can't.

[Paul's Here 0]

Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

[Betsy Speicher 0]

I love this qoute because it reminds me that it isn't enough to just be able to do something, nor is it enough to want to do it. In order to accomplish something I need both.

That is similar to one of my personal favorite quotes:

Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.

[Janet_Busch 0]

My Grandmother used to use this quote against us ... we? ... recalcitrent children: "It is easier to pull your own weight if you aren't dragging your feet." I never knew where it came from.

When I decided to finally try to learn English grammar (still at it), I searched Yahoo to see what I could find on the web. It was pretty bad, but I did find Richard Mitchell's site.

From Less Than Words Can Say, Ch. 16

If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave. If you cannot examine your thoughts, you have no choice but to think them, however silly they may be.

Sigh. Better to learn your grammar young, believe me.

I, too, collect quotes. I'll share more later.

[Paul's Here 0]

My Grandmother used to use this quote against us ... we? ... recalcitrent children: -------------

Us! 'We' is subject, 'us' is object. In this case, the object of the preposition 'against.'

[Janet_Busch 0]

Thank you.

[Paul's Here 0]

The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it, put your whole soul into it -- every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have.

[Aurelia 0]

Yes, yes your honour, there is a public interest in making Jerry Falwell look ludicrous.

I can't think about that statement and Edward Norton's dead-pan face without giggling.

[Bold Standard 0]

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great. "

- Mark Twain

I always thought that one was pretty good.

[Paul's Here 0]

"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 bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." - Thomas Jefferson

[Paul's Here 0]

"The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein

[Paul's Here 0]

"The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time."

- -- W.J. Davison