This month’s round up of miscellaneous quotes …
Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral. Technical developments frequently have environmental, social and human consequences that go far beyond the immediate purposes of the technical devices.
[Melvin Kranzberg, computing historian]
At Eton I used to play rugger
At Oxford I learned how to punt
Some say I’m a bit of a bugger
But most people think I’m a fool
[https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/status/1373592915130380291]
The gloating on this side of the Channel cannot disguise for long that Brexit is an unmitigated disaster, from which all this “Global Britain” stuff is a pathetic distraction.
[William Keegan; Guardian; 21/03/2021]
The behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.
[Robert Conquest’s third law of politics]
[Renee] Cox [a NY artist] credits her French husband’s family for giving her an ease with her body. “When I met him … his parents were naturists. We spent six weeks in a nudist camp in Corsica. The first three days were a little bizarre. After that, you don’t even pay attention to it any more.”
[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/03/pubic-hair-paintings-living-room-womens-sexuality-right-to-pleasure-camera-vagina]
He can … spend his time figuring out just what it is that grown men do dressed in Alan Partridge style sports casual clothing wandering around with a bag of sticks.
[Katy Wheatley; https://katyboo1.wordpress.com/2021/03/29/monday-29th-march-2021/]
Of course, what people seem to forget about reshuffles is that politicians are essentially interchangeable government marketing units.
[https://twitter.com/YesSirHumphrey/status/1378321711486095363]
Golf: a plague invented by the Calvinistic Scots as a punishment for man’s sins.
[James Barrett Reston]
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
[Shelly, Ozymandias]
Do as your heart commands while you are upon the earth [because] mourning rescues no man from the netherworld!
[Ancient Egyptian funerary song]
Make merry,
Do not weary of it!
Look, no one is allowed to take his possessions with him.
Look, no one who departs returns!
[Ancient Egyptian funerary song]
Linear time just seems so restrictive, even wasteful … We may have grown accustomed to strict chronological oppression, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
[Katie Mack, The End of Everything]
Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn’t try it on.
[Billy Connolly]