It’s time for another selection of interesting, amusing and though-provoking quotes encountede over recent weeks.
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
[Charles Darwin]
As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.
[Will Durant]
Apparently dudes are being jackasses on the internet again? Must be a day ending in “y”.
[@cjlemire on Twitter]
Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
[George Bernard Shaw (allegedly)]
It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!
[Friedrich Nietzsche]
When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is ignorance.
[Chuang Tzu]
As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.
[Haruki Murakami]
[W]e need to grow the fuck up … Society needs to come to terms with the fact that some of us like pleasurable pursuits. A person shouldn’t feel guilty or shame for being naked any more than someone should feel guilt or shame for enjoying a ripe peach … If it really bothers you, maybe you need to take a long look at yourself and figure out why it bothers you. Just because you’re offended doesn’t give you the right to keep someone from enjoying their own body and the environment.
[Mark Haskell Smith, Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist’s Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World quoted at https://naturistphilosopher.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/book-review-naked-at-lunch/]
Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn’t there, and finding it.
[Oscar Wilde]
I was reading a book which included the phrase “in these days of political correctness” talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, “That’s not actually anything to do with political correctness. That’s just treating other people with respect.” I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect” and it made me smile. You should try it. It’s peculiarly enlightening. I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking “Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!”
[Neil Gaiman]
The behaviour of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.
[Robert Conquest]
A measurement of length frequently used by Leonardo is the braccio. The word means ‘arm’, and is thus equivalent to the old English ell (no longer in use as a measure but still heard in ‘elbow’, which is where your ell bows).
[Charles Nicholl, Leonardo da Vinci: The Hights of the Mind]