The irregular collection of quotes seen recently and which hare amused or interested me:

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
[Indira Gandhi]

[P]remature births are increasing in rich countries because of obesity, smoking, IVF and older women having babies, and in poor countries owing to malnutrition, teen pregnancy and lack of contraception …
[New Scientist, 05/05/2012]

Duh!

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
[Aldous Huxley]

We are not retreating — we are advancing in another direction.
[Douglas MacArthur]

If we put all Parliament through a mincer and sorted the good bits, would there be enough to build just one competent prime minister?
[Andrew Baker on Facebook]

The main aim of education should be to send children out into the world with a reasonably sized anthology in their heads so that, while seated on the lavatory, waiting in doctors’ surgeries, on stationary trains or watching interviews with politicians, they may have something interesting to think about.
[Sir John Mortimer]

The problem with me is, I guess, the way I express myself, you have to be with me 50 years before you can get a sense of what I`m talking about.
[Al Pacino]

There’s no point in constantly worrying about everything. What will happen will happen anyways. So breathe, look on the bright side, have some laughs, fall in love, accept what you can’t change, and carry on. To actually live is courageous. Most people exist, that is all.
[unknown]

Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90 … time is a concept that humans created.
[Yoko Ono]

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
[John Wooden, basketball coach]

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.
[Pablo Casals]

More people have poor taste than good taste. They come to their opinions quickly and without any thought, like a small child. That’s why there’s fast food. And moronic reality television shows. And people who follow Paris Hilton. More people will enjoy crack than Proust’s novels. Ergo, just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s inherently good or worthwhile. Too many people just love bad shit because they don’t know any better.
[HyperSexual Girl at Love & Lust]

Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint, meekness, and a great many other things you wouldn’t need if you had stayed single.

[Source unknown]

Well yes, these quotes do explain a few things …

Here’s all you need to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.
[George Carlin]

You never know what is enough, until you know what is more than enough.
[William Blake, Proverbs of Hell]

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.
[Michael Crichton, Caltech Michelin Lecture, 17 January 2003]

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant. The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out … without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.
[HL Mencken]

Warm-heartedness reinforces our self-confidence – giving us not a blind confidence, but a sense of confidence based on reason. When you have that you can act transparently, with nothing to hide! Likewise, if you are honest, the community will trust you. Trust brings friendship, as a result of which you can always feel happy. Whether you look to the right or the left, you will always be able to smile.
[Dalai Lama]

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet you’d best take it out and teach it to dance.
[George Bernard Shaw]

A few more quotes which I come across recently and which amused or otherwise hit me over the head.

Now that there is a hosepipe ban, does that mean colonic irrigation is now illegal?
[Thoughts of Angel]

The word “politics” is derived from the word “poly”, meaning “many”, and the word “ticks”, meaning “blood sucking parasites”
[Thoughts of Angel]

It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty … And how few by deceit.
[Noel Coward]

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority. It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
[James Madison]

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
[Thomas Jefferson]

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.
[Thomas A Edison]

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
[Sir Winston Churchill]

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
[Benjamin Franklin, 1759]

Whatever you are, be a good one.
[Abraham Lincoln]

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.
[Mark Twain]

When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
[Sigmund Freud]

You will never have all the information you need to make a decision. If you did, it would be a foregone conclusion, not a decision.

David Mahoney