Another selection of interesting and/or amusing quotes encountered …
How amazing it is that we drink water from a tap and never once worry about dying forty-eight hours later from cholera.
[Steven Johnson, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World]
Our lives are surrounded and supported by a whole class of objects that are enchanted with the ideas and creativity of thousands of people who came before us: inventors and hobbyists and reformers who steadily hacked away at the problem of making artificial light or clean drinking water so that we can enjoy those luxuries today without a second thought, without even thinking of them as luxuries in the first place … We are indebted to those people every bit as much as, if not more than, we are to the kings and conquerors and magnates of traditional history.
[Steven Johnson, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World]
Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press created a surge in demand for spectacles, as the new practice of reading made Europeans across the continent suddenly realize that they were farsighted; the market demand for spectacles encouraged a growing number of people to produce and experiment with lenses, which led to the invention of the microscope, which shortly thereafter enabled us to perceive that our bodies were made up of microscopic cells. You wouldn’t think that printing technology would have anything to do with the expansion of our vision down to the cellular scale, just as you wouldn’t have thought that the evolution of pollen would alter the design of a hummingbird’s wing. But that is the way change happens.
[Steven Johnson, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World]
If we lie to the government it’s a felony. But if they lie to us it’s politics.
[Bill Murray]
The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.
[Ogden Nash]
You cannot perform in a manner inconsistent with the way you see yourself.
[Zig Ziglar]
He was a man of middle age and, to judge by his bowler hat and frock coat, of the official class, and his umbrella had caught alight. I do not know how this can have happened. I passed him in a taxicab, and saw him in the centre of a small crowd, grasping it still by the handle and holding it at arm’s length so that the flames should not scorch him.
[Evelyn Waugh, Labels; hat-tip Stephen Holden]
By default, any good book that is more than 10 years old is filled with life-changing ideas. Why? Because bad books are forgotten after a decade or two. Any lasting book must be filled with ideas that stand the test of time. Meanwhile, the news is filled with fleeting information. We justify paying attention to the media because we think it makes us informed, but being informed is useless when most of the information will be unimportant by tomorrow. The news is just a television show and, like most TV shows, the goal is not to deliver the most accurate version of reality, but the version that keeps you watching. You wouldn’t want to stuff your body with low quality food. Why cram your mind with low quality thoughts?
[James Clear in “Overrated vs. Underrated: Common Beliefs We Get Wrong” at http://jamesclear.com/overrated-underrated]
We love status. We want pins and medallions on our jackets. We want power and prestige in our titles. We want to be acknowledged, recognized, and praised. It’s too bad all of those make for hollow leaders. Great teams require great teammates. Nowhere is that more true that at the top. No leader ever became worse by thinking about their teammates more.
[James Clear in “Overrated vs. Underrated: Common Beliefs We Get Wrong” at http://jamesclear.com/overrated-underrated]
Learning, growth, and improvement are undervalued in the name of getting faster results.
[James Clear in “Overrated vs. Underrated: Common Beliefs We Get Wrong” at http://jamesclear.com/overrated-underrated]
Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life.
[Joseph Campbell]
The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.
[Aldous Huxley]
One of the biggest and most important tools of theoretical physics is the wastebasket.
[Richard P Feynman]

Sometimes people are not capable
of receiving the generosity we give them.
[Ethan Nichtern]

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]

We all have that one ex that changed us.

Another collection of quotes, both interesting and amusing, gathered over recent weeks.
The better half applied hot soapy water to it, as is her way with things she encounters. It is the same as tom cats pissing on them, a way of taking ownership — but much more hygienic.
[Robin Bynoe]
We’ve been taught a woman’s body will cause men to sin. We’re told that if a woman shows too much of her body men will do stupid things. Let’s be clear: A woman’s body is not dangerous to you. Her body will not cause you harm. It will not make you do stupid things. If you do stupid things, it is because you chose to do stupid things.
[Nate Pyle, How to See a Woman: A Conversation Between a Father and Son]
This is a filthy people, wallowing in vice. Of all peoples it is the least instructed in the rudiments of the Faith. They do not yet pay tithes or first fruits or contract marriages. They do not attend God’s church with due reverence.
[Giraldus Cambrensis, History and Topography of Ireland, III.98 AD 1185]

Wine is sunlight held together by water.
[Galileo]
When asked by my 11 year old last week what Quantum Physics was about, I was able to answer: ‘It’s exactly like a mille feuille, but in space.’  She said: ‘What’s a mille feuille?’ To which I responded: ‘It’s like a vanilla slice, but in universal terms I am sure there’s no icing on it, and I’d go for confectioner’s custard over cream. It holds the space time continuum together better. Are we clear now?’ To which she responded: ‘Yes.’
[Katy Wheatley at Katyboo1’s Weblog]
The elephant is a dainty bird
It flits from bough to bough,
It makes its nest in a rhubarb tree,
And whistles, like a cow.
[No-one seems to know the author, although many are suggested]
The state has an interest in preventing us from thinking independently, and it cultivates and exploits our worst tendencies in order to do so, for grownup citizens are more trouble than they’re worth … We all suffer from the fact that we have no appealing models of adulthood — young people who fear that there’s nothing to look forward to as well as older people who fear they need to resign themselves to being able to do nothing interesting or meaningful after a certain point in their lives. It is this view that is profoundly unhealthy.
[Susan Neiman, quoted by Brad Warner at Hardcore Zen]
The real sign of maturity is when you can actually be who you are rather than what someone else thinks you ought to be.
[Brad Warner at Hardcore Zen]
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
[Henry Longfellow]
You have to accept the fact that some people will always stay in your heart, even if you are already gone in theirs.
[Unknown]
… ethics based on external reference points like religion or philosophy will always be inferior to the ethical system I cultivate myself through thinking, reflection, and cultivating empathy.
[Gesshin Greenwood at That’s So Zen]
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
[Charlie Chaplin]

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.
[Ralph Marston]

Another selection of amusing or thought-provoking quotes recently encountered. For some reason we seem to have quite a few heavyweights this time. In no particular order …
Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid. Doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
[Joseph Campbell]
Language is the armoury of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future conquests.
[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]
If our minds are ruled by destructive emotions, by self-centredness, with little regard for others, we won’t be happy. As social animals we need to work together. With friends around us, we feel secure, happy and our minds are calm. We’re physically well too. When we’re filled with anger, fear and frustration, our minds are upset and our health declines. Therefore, the ultimate source of happiness is warmheartedness.
[Dalai Lama]
When you talk you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen you may learn something new.
[Dalai Lama]
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
[Eleanor Roosevelt]
So what advice should one give to a young person? By all means, go to college. In fact, approach college in the spirit of craftsmanship, going deep into liberal arts and sciences. In the summers, learn a manual trade. You’re likely to be less damaged, and quite possibly better paid, as an independent tradesman than as a cubicle-dwelling tender of information systems. To heed such advice would require a certain contrarian streak, as it entails rejecting a life course mapped out by others as obligatory and inevitable.
[Matthew B Crawford in his essay “Shop Class as Soulcraft”]
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
[Marcel Proust]
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
[WB Yeats]
The kind of pleasure and understanding that I get from studying natural history has long vanished from most contemporary teaching institutions that have become part of intensive care units, which are supposed to save the residual intellectual machinery of medical students. The teeming mass of hope and pain, technical virtuosity, and depersonalization called a “health center” delivers packets of what is termed “medical care”. The capacity to look remains, but the capacity to see has all but vanished. Teachers and students forget that the ability to palpate is not the same as the ability to feel.
[Prof. William B Bean]
The less you worry about what people think, the less complicated life becomes.
[unknown]
One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision
[Bertrand Russell]
The Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman knowes himselfe to be a Foole.
[Shakespeare; As You Like It]
Granny grasped her broomstick purposefully. “Million-to-one chances,” she said, “crop up nine times out of ten.”
[Terry Pratchett; Equal Rites]
There goes more to matrimony than four bare legs in bed.
[Ben Jonson]
And finally …
Tip for the Day: Treat every problem as your dog would. If you can’t eat it or fuck it, piss on it and walk away.
[unknown]

Another selection of recently encountered amusing or thought-provoking quotes. In no particular order …
I’m not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.
[AA Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh]
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
[Oscar Wilde]
Unlike riding a camel, driving a car places a woman in danger of being raped.
[source unknown]
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
[Herman Wouk]
It is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person. In a way, the traditional notion of God is outdated. One can be spiritual bur not religious. It is not necessary to go to church and give money — for many, nature can be a church. Some of the best people in history did not believe in God, while some of the worst deeds were done in His name.
[Pope Francis]
The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
[Marilyn Monroe]
[Soil is] literally and — it seems — metaphorically, beneath us. To judge by its absence from the media, most journalists consider it unworthy of consideration. But all human life depends on it. We knew this long ago, but somehow it has been forgotten. As a Sanskrit text written in about 1500BC noted: “Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel and our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it.”
…
Landowners around the world are now engaged in an orgy of soil destruction so intense that, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, the world on average has just 60 more years of growing crops. Even in Britain, which is spared the tropical downpours that so quickly strip exposed soil from the land, Farmers Weekly reports, we have “only 100 harvests left”.
…
This is what topples civilisations. War and pestilence might kill large numbers of people, but in most cases the population recovers. But lose the soil and everything goes with it.
[George Monbiot at www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/25/treating-soil-like-dirt-fatal-mistake-human-life]
Los Angeles, where abuses by the super-rich are clearly evident all over the city … is a desert town. Why are there lush green golf courses all over it? The rich steal water from the poor and ultimately ruin the future for everyone including themselves and their heirs.
[Brad Warner; Hardcore Zen blog]
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.
[Matthew 7:12 (AV)]
To be beautiful means to like yourself, you don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
[Thich Nhat Hanh]
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
[Dalai Lama]
I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
[WC Fields]

Stay weird, stay different