let them hate, so long as they fear

oderint dum metuant

Unknown

"Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently."

Brian Eno

I'm struck by the insidious, computer-driven tendency to take things out of the domain of muscular activity and put them into the domain of mental activity. The transfer is not paying off. Sure, muscles are unreliable, but they represent several million years of accumulated finesse.

Brian Eno, Wired 1/99, p. 176

E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970)

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970)

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3

Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3

Philosophical Quotations

No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head. ~Terry Josephson


Would there be this eternal seeking if the found existed? ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


If you're going to tickle, use a feather not a whip. ~Audrey Foris, C'est l'esprit du coq rouge (Red Rooster Musings, trans.)


He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form. ~Marcus Aurelius


If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. ~Russian Proverb


The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself. ~Bertrand Russell


Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~Roger Miller


The obstacle is the path. ~Zen Proverb

William Shakespeare

I say there is no darkness but ignorance.

Kahlil Gibran

Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream.

William Shakespeare

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie

Computer Dork Quotes

• There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t
• If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0
• I’m not anti-social; I’m just not user friendly
• My software never has bugs. It just develops random features
• Roses are #FF0000 , Violets are #0000FF , All my base belongs to you
• In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?
• Hand over the calculator, friends don’t let friends derive drunk
• I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code
• Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue…
• The box said ‘Requires Windows 95 or better’. So I installed LINUX
• A penny saved is 1.39 cents earned, if you consider income tax
• Unix, DOS and Windows…the good, the bad and the ugly
• A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in
  human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila
• The code that is the hardest to debug is the code that you know cannot possibly be wrong
• UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity
• Ethernet (n): something used to catch the etherbunny
• C://dos
  
  C://dos.run
  
  run.dos.run
• You know it’s love when you memorize her IP number to skip DNS overhead
• JUST SHUT UP AND REBOOT!!
• 1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
• Alcohol & calculus don’t mix. Never drink & derive
• How do I set a laser printer to stun?
• There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer
• Concept: On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape button
• It’s not bogus, it’s an IBM standard
• Be nice to the nerds, for all you know they might be the next Bill Gates!
• The farther south you go, the more dollar stores there are
• Beware of programmers that carry screwdrivers
• The difference between e-mail and regular mail is that computers
  handle e-mail, and computers never decide to come to work one day and
  shoot all the other computers
• If you want a language that tries to lock up all the sharp objects
  and fire-making implements, use Pascal or Ada: the Nerf languages,
  harmless fun for children of all ages, and they won’t mar the furniture
• COFFEE.EXE Missing - Insert Cup and Press Any Key
• Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to
  build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying
  to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning
• LISP = Lots of Irritating Silly Parentheses
• The beginning of the programmer’s wisdom is understanding the
  difference between getting program to run and having a runnable program
• Squash one bug, you’ll see ten new bugs popping
• Everytime i time i touch my code, i give birth to ten new bugs
• boast = blogging is open & amiable sharing of thoughts
• We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again
• Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted
• If it weren’t for C, we’d all be programming in BASI and OBO
• Bad command or file name! Go stand in the corner
• Bad or corrupt header, go get a haircut
• Unrecognized input, get out of the class
• Warning! Buffer overflow, close the tumbler !
• WinErr 547: LPT1 not found… Use backup… PENCIL & PAPER
• Bad or missing mouse driver. Spank the cat? (Y/N)
• Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes
• Best file compression around: “rm *.*” = 100% compression
• Hackers in hollywood movies are phenomenal. All they need to do is “c:\> hack into fbi”
• BREAKFAST.COM Halted…Cereal Port Not Responding
• I survived an NT installation
• The name is Baud……James Baud
• My new car runs at 56Kbps
• Why doesn’t DOS ever say “EXCELLENT command or filename!”
• File not found. Should I fake it? (Y/N)
• Cannot read data, leech the next boy’s paper? (Y/N)
• CONGRESS.SYS Corrupted: Re-boot Washington D.C (Y/n)?
• Does fuzzy logic tickle?
• Helpdesk : Sir, you need to add 10GB space to your HD , Customer : Could you please tell where I can download that?
• Windows: Just another pane in the glass
• Who’s General Failure & why’s he reading my disk?
• RAM disk is not an installation procedure
• Shell to DOS…Come in DOS, do you copy? Shell to DOS…
• The truth is out there…anybody got the URL?
• Smash forehead on keyboard to continue…..
• E-mail returned to sender — insufficient voltage
• Help! I’m modeming… and I can’t hang up!!!
• All wiyht. Rho sritched mg kegtops awound?
• Once I got this error on my Linux box: Error. Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue
• Once I got this error on my Linux box: Error. Mouse not attached. Please left click the ‘OK’ button to continue
• Press any key to continue or any other key to quit…
• Press every key to continue
• Helpdesk: Sir if you see the blue screen, press any key to continue. Customer : hm.. just a min.. where’s that ‘any key’..
• Idiot, Go ahead, make my data!
• Old programmers never die; they just give up their resources
• To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so
• (001) Logical Error CLINTON.SYS: Truth table missing
• Clinton:/> READ | PARSE | WRITE | DUMP >> MONKIA.SYS
• (D)inner not ready: (A)bort (R)etry (P)izza
• Computers can never replace human stupidity
• A typical Yahoo! inbox : Inbox(0), Junk(9855210)
• (A)bort, (R)etry, (P)anic?
• Bugs come in through open Windows
• Penguins love cold, they wont survive the sun
• Unix is user friendly…its just selective about who its friends are
• Artificial intelligence usually beats real stupidity
• Bell Labs Unix — Reach out and grep someone.
• To err is human…to really foul up requires the root password.
• Invalid password : Please enter the correct password to (Abort / Retry / Ignore )
• FUBAR - where Geeks go for a drink
• I degaussed my girlfriend and I’m just not attracted to her anymore
• Scandisk : Found 2 bad sectors. Please enter a new HD to continue scanning
• Black holes are where God divided by zero
• Hey! It compiles! Ship it!
• Thank god, my baby just compiled
• Yes! My code compiled, and my wife just produced the output
• Windows 98 supports real multitasking - it can boot and crash simultaneously
• Zap! And there was the blue screen !
• Please send all spam to my main address, root@localhost :-)
• MailerD(a)emon: You just received 9133547 spam. (O)pen all, (R)ead one by one, (C)heck for more spam
• A: Can you teach me how to use a computer? B: No. I just fix the machines, I don’t use them
• PayPal: Your funds have been frozen for 668974 days
• 1-800-404 : The subscriber you are trying to call does not exist
• 1-800-403 : Access to that subscriber was denied
• Error message: “Out of paper on drive D:”
• If I wanted a warm fuzzy feeling, I’d antialias my graphics!
• A printer consists of three main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light
• “Mr. Worf, scan that ship.” “Aye Captain. 300 dpi?”
• Smith & Wesson: The Original Point And Click Interface
• Shout onto a newsgroup : It echoes back flames and spam
• Firewall : Intruder detected. (A)llow in (D)eactivate the firewall
• Real programmers can write assembly code in any language
• Warning! Perl script detected! (K)ill it , (D)eactivate it
• Firewall : Do you want to place a motion detector on port 80 ?
• Helpdesk: Sir, please refill your ink catridges Customer : Where can i download that?
• All computers run at the same speed… with the power off
• You have successfully logged in, Now press any key to log out
• Sorry, the password you tried is already being used by Dorthy, please try something else.
• Sorry, that username already exists. (O)verwrite it (C)ancel
• Please send all flames, trolls, and complaints to /dev/toilet
• Shut up, or i’ll flush you out
• Cron : Enter cron command \ Now enter the number of minutes in an hour
• We are experiencing system trouble — do not adjust your terminal
• You have successfully hacked in, Welcome to the FBI mainframes.
• I’m sorry, our software is perfect. The problem must be you
• Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurling down the highway
• Webhost livehelp: Sir you ran out of bandwidth, User: Where can I download that?
• If Ruby is not and Perl is the answer, you don’t understand the question
• Having soundcards is nice… having embedded sound in web pages is not
• My computer was full, so I deleted everything on the right half
• You have received a new mail which is 195537 hours old
• Yahoo! Mail: Your email was sent successfully. The email will delivered in 4 days and 8 hours
• I’m sorry for the double slash (Tim Berners-Lee in a Panel Discussion, WWW7, Brisbane, 1998)
• Ah, young webmaster… java leads to shockwave. Shockwave leads to realaudio. And realaudio leads to suffering
• What color do you want that database?
• C++ is a write-only language, once can write programs in C++, but I can’t read any of them
• As of next week, passwords will be entered in Morse code
• earth is 98% full … please delete anyone you can
• A typical yahoo chat room: “A has signed in, A has signed out, B
  has signed in, B has signed out, C has signed in, C has signed out..”
• When someone says “I want a programming language in which I need only say what I wish done,” give him a lollipop
• Warning! No processor found! Press any key to continue
• Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with your Microsoft product
• NT is the only OS that has caused me to beat a piece of hardware to death with my bare hands
• Warning! Kernel crashed, Run for your lives !
• NASA uses Windows? Oh great. If Apollo 13 went off course today the
  manual would just tell them to open the airlock, flush the astronauts
  out, and re-install new one
• JavaScript: An authorizing language designed to make Netscape crash
• How’s my programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL
• Yes, friends and neighbors, boys and girls - my PC speaker crashed NT
• root:> Sorry, you entered the wrong password, the correct password is ‘a_49qwXk’
• New linux package released. Please install on /dev/null
• Quake and uptime do not like each other
• Unix…best if used before: Tue Jan 19 03:14:08 GMT 2038
• As you well know, magic and weapons are prohibited inside the cafeteria — Final Fantasy VIII
• Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft…and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labo
• Unix is the only virus with a command line interface
• Windows 95 makes Unix look like an operating system
• How are we supposed to hack your system if it’s always down!
• God is real, unless declared integer
• I’m tempted to buy the slashdot staff a grammar checker. What do they do for 40 hours a week?
• Paypal : Please enter your credit card number to continue
• It takes a million monkeys at typewriters to write Shakespeare, but only a dozen monkeys at computers to run Network Solutions
• Please help - firewall burnt down - lost packet - reward $$$
• If Linux were a beer, it would be shipped in open barrels so that anybody could piss in it before delivery
• Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle
• Perl, the only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption
• Norton: Incoming virus - (D)ownload and save (R)un after download
• I had a dream… and there were 1’s and 0’s everywhere, and I think I saw a 2!
• You sir, are an unknown USB device driver
• C isn’t that hard: void (*(*f[])())() defines f as an array of
  unspecified size, of pointers to functions that return pointers to
  functions that return void

William Shakespeare

I have
Immortal longings in me.
William Shakespeare, "Antony and Cleopatra", Act 5 scene 2

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

• "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
  violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move
  in the opposite direction."
  
  
• "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
  
  
• "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
  
  
• "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
  
  
• "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
  
  
• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
  
  
• "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
  
  
• "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
  
  
• "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
  
  
• "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
  
  
• "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
  
  
• "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
  
  
• "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
  
  
• "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
  
  
• "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
  
  
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
  
  
• "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
  
  
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
  
  
• "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
  
  
• "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at
  it."
  
  
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
  
  
• "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
  
  
• "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates
  empirically."
  
  
• "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
  
  
• "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological
  criminal."
  
  
• "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
  
  
• "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is
  comprehensible."
  
  
• "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
  created them."
  
  
• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in
  school."
  
  
• "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
  reason for existing."
  
  
• "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine
  are still greater."
  
  
• "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present,
  but an equation is something for eternity."
  
  
• "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z.
  Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
  
  
• "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure
  about the the universe."
  
  
• "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as
  far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
  
  
• "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge
  is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
  
  
• "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV
  will be fought with sticks and stones."
  
  
• "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above
  all, be a sheep."
  
  
• "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk
  of accident for
  someone who's dead."
  
  
• "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel
  libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
  
  
• "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that
  goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
  
  
• "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to
  explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological
  phenomenon as first love?"
  
  
• "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable
  superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able
  to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
  
  
• "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our
  equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are
  only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
  
  
• "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of
  thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If
  only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
  
  
• "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from
  mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not
  thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and
  courageously uses his intelligence."
  
  
• "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
  source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a
  stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as
  good as dead: his eyes are closed."
  
  
• "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education,
  and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a
  poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward
  after death."
  
  
• "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it
  seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the
  fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving
  after rational knowledge."
  
  
• "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me.
  That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know
  that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a
  stubbornly persistent illusion."
  
  
• "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his
  tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand
  this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they
  receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
  
  
• "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the
  examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had
  such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the
  final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific
  problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
  
  
• "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is
  escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness,
  from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered
  nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective
  perception and thought."
  
  
• "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already
  earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake,
  since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace
  to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at
  command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble
  war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base
  an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war
  is nothing but an act of murder."
  
  
• "A human being is a part of a 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 his 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."
  
  
• "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can
  be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)
  
  

Lynn Hall

We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.
Lynn Hall, Where Have All the Tigers Gone?, 1989

David Zucker (1947 - )

Quit now, you'll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there.

Frances Willard (1839 - 1898)

The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.

Louise Nevelson

I think most artists create out of despair. The very nature of creation
is not a performing glory on the outside, it's a painful, difficult
search within.

Never Seek to Tell Thy Love

Never

Seek to Tell Thy Love (William Blake)





Never

seek to tell thy love


Love that never told can be;


For the gentle wind does move


Silently, invisibly.





I told my love, I told my love,


I told her all my heart,


Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears


Ah, she doth depart.





Soon as she was gone from me


A traveller came by


Silently, invisibly -


O, was no deny.

"Towards Inner Time"

"Towards Inner Time"

Strong and sober times of old

Walking, creeping towards inner time

Small cravings across the land

Wondering, thinking till time has come

Feelings amongst those of old

Haunted now and structured future

Scent of ranched tyranny

Fill the air

Touch of gold left behind

Growing pains and slender bliss

Crying lower beneath the skin

Tears pouring, listening to all was done

Nothing comes or goes

Nothing seems to change

All is still the same

William Blake

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?
William Blake

Dream different dreams while on the same bed. The journey is the reward. Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
Beauty is the wisdom of women. Wisdom is the beauty of men.

Change

“Change is the essence of life.Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." Helen Keller

"Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves." Helen Keller

"Fear God, and your enemies will fear you." Benjamin Franklin

"Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure." Benjamin Franklin

"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards." Benjamin Franklin

"We have the best Congress that money can buy." Will Rogers

"Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt." Dr. Samuel Johnson

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." Albert Einstein

"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue." Albert Einstein

"No one gossips about other people's secret virtues." Bertrand Russell

"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people." G.K. Chesterton

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence." H. L. Mencken

"It is hard to tell if a man is telling the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his place." H. L. Mencken

"Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation." Henry Ward Beecher

"To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while." Josh Billings

"There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together." Josh Billings

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." Jim Rohn

"We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment." Jim Rohn

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." Woody Allen

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Winston Churchill

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." Winston Churchill

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln

"To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intellingent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped." Elbert Hubbard

"Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels, but they live like men." Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please." Benjamin Franklin

"If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." I John 4:20

"The million little things that drop into your hands, the small opportunities each day brings, He leaves us free to use or abuse, and goes unchanging along His silent way." Helen Keller

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." Henry Ward Beecher

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." Alexander Graham Bell

"I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are." Milton Berle

"A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." Proverbs 29:11

"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." Mark Twain

"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?" G K Chesterton

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self." Aristotle

"If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase." Epictetus

"If you would be loved, love and be lovable." Benjamin Franklin

"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence." Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

"The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence." Thomas Wolfe

"Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better." George Santayana

"A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book." Irish Proverb

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Winston Churchill

"Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never." Albert Camus

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose." Woody Allen

"An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather." Washington Irving

"My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe." Jimmy Durante

Per me si va ne la città dolente,
per me si va ne l'etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore:
fecemi la divina podestate,
la somma sapienza e 'l primo amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

Translation: Through me is the way into the woeful city; through me is the way into eternal woe; through me is the way among the lost people. Justice moved my lofty maker: the divine Power, the supreme Wisdom and the primal Love made me. Before me were no things created, unless eternal, and I eternal last. Leave every hope, ye who enter!

Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit . . . ("There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain . . .").

“The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied”

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.
Lao-Tzu

“Life is not a continuum of pleasant choices, but of inevitable problems that call for strength, determination, and hard work”

“At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.”

Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus. - Wallace Stegner

“A man's very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life.”

“Love, you know, is a funny thing; But the funniest thing about it - Is you never can tell if it is love - Until you start to doubt it”

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

"There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together."

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity."

another contribution by Brooke

Flowers
by H. Barnes
It may not be the same,
But some things never change.
I feel it and I trust it,
I still believe in forever
Because that's what my heart knows.

Memories are the dew drops on our petals
That re-open the buds that have closed.
Flowers wilt as seasons change,
Though they grow a little more with rain.

The sun will shine when in need,
And left behind, a precious seed.

I think I have grown into the person I was always going to be. To say that you did not have a big part in that would be a lie. I think that you taught me a lot about loving someone without conditions...quite a concept. In that I learned to love myself. You helped me see that I was worth loving. I spent a lot of time trying to figure you out....then I just realized that I know you and I trust that...you are absolute.

Inspirations are like an image ,but dreams are like an obligation in the mind which overwhelms the mind.

“Our attitude toward our own culture has recently been characterized by two qualities, braggadocio and petulance. Braggadocio -- empty boasting of American power, American virtue, American know-how -- has dominated our foreign relations now for some decades. Here at home -- within the family, so to speak -- our attitude to our culture expresses a superficially different spirit, the spirit of petulance. Never before, perhaps, has a culture been so fragmented into groups, each full of its own virtue, each annoyed and irritated at the others.

There is a "sanctity" involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it

Random Quote I found online .... quite nice

“You've changed so much. I guess that's what happens. I wish you knew how much you changed me. I wonder if I changed you, if your life isdifferent because of me. Because mine's different. My God, you taught me so much, and now we don't even talk to each other. I guess that's what happens.”

“Our attitude toward our own culture has recently been characterized by two qualities, braggadocio and petulance. Braggadocio -- empty boasting of American power, American virtue, American know-how -- has dominated our foreign relations now for some decades. Here at home -- within the family, so to speak -- our attitude to our culture expresses a superficially different spirit, the spirit of petulance. Never before, perhaps, has a culture been so fragmented into groups, each full of its own virtue, each annoyed and irritated at the others.”

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die; Life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."
-Langston Hughes

Thanks my dear Brooke for the submission!

Love is a taste for prostitution. In fact, there is no noble pleasure that cannot be reduced to Prostitution.
Charles Baudelaire

Crowds

Crowds

It is not given to every man to take a bath of multitude; enjoying a crowd is an art; and only he can relish a debauch of vitality at the expense of the human species, on whom, in his cradle, a fairy has bestowed the love of masks and masquerading, the hate of home, and the passion for roaming.

Multitude, solitude: identical terms, and interchangeable by the active and fertile poet. The man who is unable to people his solitude is equally unable to be alone in a bustling crowd.

The poet enjoys the incomparable privilege of being able to be himself of someone else, as he chooses. Like those wandering souls who go looking for a body, he enters as he likes into each man's personality. For him alone everything is vacant; and if certain places seem closed to him, it is only because in his eyes they are not worth visiting.

The solitary and thoughtful stroller finds a singular intoxication in this universal communion. The man who loves to lose himself in a crowd enjoys feverish delights that the egoist locked up in himself as in a box, and the slothful man like a mollusk in his shell, will be eternally deprived of. He adopts as his own all the occupations, all the joys and all the sorrows that chance offers.

What men call love is a very small, restricted, feeble thing compared with this ineffable orgy, this divine prostitution of the soul giving itself entire, all it poetry and all its charity, to the unexpected as it comes along, to the stranger as he passes.

It is a good thing sometimes to teach the fortunate of this world, if only to humble for an instant their foolish pride, that there are higher joys than theirs, finer and more uncircumscribed. The founders of colonies, shepherds of peoples, missionary priests exiled to the ends of the earth, doubtlessly know something of this mysterious drunkenness; and in the midst of the vast family created by their genius, they must often laugh at those who pity them because of their troubled fortunes and chaste lives.

Charles Baudelaire

I'm not cynical. Just experienced.

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.

I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects

Part 3

"The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope -- an ideology of hate -- excuse me --with an ideology of hope." --George W. Bush, Fort Benning, Ga., Jan. 11, 2007

Our fearless leader .... Part 2

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? ... That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2008

Our fearless leader ....

I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them. - George Bush

There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can.

Danny Kaye (1913 - 1987)

Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings

Evan Esar

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.

Ennui has made more gamblers than avarice, more drunkards than thirst, and perhaps as many suicides as despair.

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being."
-Goethe

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.

Even on the road to hell a flower will make you smile

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.

"Evil will always prevail, because good is dumb." -- Spaceballs

I have added this to my top 10 favorite quotes of all time

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder.

Custom Poem

Emily Dickinson:

All but Death, can be Adjusted—
Dynasties repaired—
Systems—settled in their Sockets—
Citadels—dissolved—

Wastes of Lives—resown with Colors
By Succeeding Springs—
Death—unto itself—Exception—
Is exempt from Change—

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
William Blake

Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.
William Blake

Every harlot was a virgin once.

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

“A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.”

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.
Plato

Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Plato

We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose.

Charles Baudelaire

It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree.
Charles Baudelaire

"Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities." Sigmund Freud

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.
Anais Nin

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson

But when the self speaks to the self, who is speaking? The entombed soul, the spirit driven in, in, in to the central catacomb; the self that took the veil and left the world -- a coward perhaps, yet somehow beautiful, as it flits with its lantern restlessly up and down the dark corridors.

Virginia Woolf

"When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew."
William Shakespeare

"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."Indira Gandhi

The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

“Believe me, if I started murdering people… there'd be none of you left!”

“You expect to break me? Impossible! You broke me years ago. You killed me years ago....”

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
E. B. White

O Beauty, Passing Beauty!
BY
Lord Alfred Tennyson

O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet!
How can thou let me waste my youth in sighs?
I only ask to sit beside thy feet.
Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes.
Might I but kiss thy hand! I dare not fold
My arms about thee—scarcely dare to speak.
And nothing seems to me so wild and bold,
As with one kiss to touch thy blessed cheek.
Methinks if I should kiss thee, no control
Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat
The subtle spirit. Even while I spoke,
The bare word "kiss" hath made my inner soul
To tremble like a lute string, ere the note
Hath melted in the silence that it broke.

Footprints In the Snow:

Footprints In the Snow:

We fall to the earth like leaves
Lives as brief as footprints in snow
No words express the grief we feel
I feel I cannot let her go.
For she is everywhere.
Walking on the windswept beach
Talking in the sunlit square.
Next to me in the car
I see her sitting there.
At night she dreams me
and in the morning the sun does not rise.
My life is as thin as the wind
And I am done with counting stars.
She is gone, she is gone.
I am her sad music, and I play on, and on, and on.
(Roger McGough)

Notker Labeo, a monk of St. Gall who died in 1022, indicate: "homo est animal rationale, mortale, risus capax" ("Man is a rational, moral animal, capable of laughter")

Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow