Category Archives: quotes

quotes

Quotes of the Week

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This week’s mix …

Mother Parrot’s Advice to her Children
Never get up till the sun gets up,
Or the mists will give you a cold,
And a parrot whose lungs have once been touched
Will never live to be old.
Never eat plums that are not quite ripe,
For perhaps they will give you a pain:
And never dispute what the hornbill says,
Or you’ll never dispute again.
Never despise the power of speech:
Learn every word as it comes,
For this is the pride of the parrot race,
That it speaks in a thousand tongues.
Never stay up when the sun goes down,
But sleep in your own home bed,
And if you’ve been good, as a parrot should,
You will dream that your tail is red.
[Ganda, Africa; translated by AK Nyabongo; with thanks to Nick Birns]

In the little moment that
remains to us between
the crisis and the catastrophe
we may as well
drink a glass
of champagne.
[Paul Claudel; with thanks to Nick Birns]

Truth has nothing to do with the number of people it convinces.
[Paul Claudel]

Before using your potato baking dishes make sure that the potatoes you use are clean and ready to cook and that you follow the manufacturers guidelines for cooking potatoes for the cooking method you propose choosing.
[‘Ere God, you didn’t send the manual with my spuds!]

Tweeting by post made me appreciate the online and the offline. Brevity is a good thing, but there’s no reason we should only be brief on Twitter. The internet is a marvellous thing, but so is cheese, so are close friends who know your opinions and respect them, so is a glass of fine English ale. So is getting postcards from interesting people, because it makes your letterbox come alive.
[Giles Turnbull, quoted at The Next Web]

For malt does more than Milton can
To justify God’s ways to man.
[AE Housman, A Shropshire Lad]

quotes

Quotes of the Week

Thin pickings in terms of thoughtful/amusing quotes this week — everyone must be on Christmas holidays already. But here are the few I have seen.

Fitch has downgraded six of the world’s largest banks (Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse). Commenting they said the downgrades
reflected challenges faced by the sector as a whole, rather than negative developments in idiosyncratic fundamental creditworthiness.
[BBC News]

We are of course aware that kingdoms are governed and laws upheld primarily by prudence, fortitude, moderation and justice, and the other virtues which rules must strive to cultivate. But there are times when money can speed on sound and wise policies, and smooth out difficulties.
[Richard FitzNigel, Treasurer to King Henry II]

Finally two thoughts of unknown provenance …

Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.

We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

quotes

Quotes of the Week

This week’s ragbag of amusements masquerading a thoughtful quotes …

We need to have more Europe.
[German Chancellor Angela Merkel; BBC News, 8 December 2011]

Never has Europe been so necessary. Never has it been in so much danger. Never have so many countries wanted to join Europe. Never has the risk of a disintegration of Europe been so great. Europe is facing an extraordinarily dangerous situation.
[French President Nicolas Sarkosy; BBC News, 8 December 2011]

After which one is forced to agree with Shakespeare …

Hell is empty and all the Devils are here.

But then again …

Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.
[George Scialabba]

So are Americans any better than us?

Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
[John Steinbeck]

Guess it explains some differences in attitude though!

When I was born I was so surprised … I didn’t talk for a year and a half.
[Thoughts of Angel]

One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures in them.
[Thoughts of Angel quoting George W Bush]

Which could also explain quite a lot especially when bearing in mind …

When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion.
[Robert M Pirsig]

So there is only one solution …

Don’t worry, just breathe. If it’s meant to be, it will find its way.

beliefs, books, food+drink, memes, music, personal, quotes

Ten Things – December

The final episode of my monthly series of “Ten Things” for 2011. Each month during the year I’ve listed one thing from each of ten categories which have remained the same each month. So today completes the ten lists of twelve things about me.

  1. Something I Like: Fresh Snow
  2. Something I Won’t Do: Go Horse Racing
  3. Something I Want To Do: Write a Book
  4. A Blog I Like: Postsecret
  5. A Book I Like: Charles Nicholls, The Reckoning
  6. Some Music I Like: JS Bach, Weihnachtsoratorium
  7. A Food I Like: Treacle Tart
  8. A Food or Drink I Dislike: Butternut Squash
  9. A Word I Like: Antepenultimate
  10. A Quote I Like: If we don’t change our direction we’re liable to end up where we’re going. [Chinese Proverb]
amusements, books, quotes, science, thoughts

Quotes of the Week

The usual eclectic mix. Firstly something dear to my heart …

A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot.
[Alan Bennett]

So long as a judge keeps silent his reputation for wisdom and impartiality remains unassailable: but every utterance which he makes in public except in the course of the actual performance of his judicial duties, must necessarily bring him within the focus of criticism. [It would] be inappropriate for the judiciary to be associated with any series of talks or anything which can be fairly interpreted as entertainment.
[Lord Goddard, Lord Chief Justice, 1955]

I suppose one shouldn’t expect anything less po-faced coming out if the 1950s, but oh, dear we are on our dignity aren’t we! Next something I’ve long suspected, from someone who should know …

Science is organized common sense. Philosophy is organized piffle.
[Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician]

There are three faithful friends:
– An old wife
– A shaggy dog
– And ready money
[Thoughts of Angel]

Slightly dodgy ground there, methinks! And finally …

The best of all stratagems is to know when to quit.
[Thoughts of Angel]

quotes, sexuality

Quotes of the Week

What a strange mix we have this week …

If your dog had your brain and could speak, and if you asked it what it thought of your sex life, you might be surprised by its response. It would be something like this:

Those disgusting humans have sex any day of the month! Barbara proposes sex even when she knows perfectly well that she isn’t fertile – like just after her period. John is eager for sex all the time, without caring whether his efforts could result in a baby or not. But if you want to hear something really gross – Barbara and John kept on having sex while she was pregnant! That’s as bad as all the times when John’s parents come for a visit, and I can hear them too having sex, although John’s mother went through this thing they call menopause years ago. Now she can’t have babies any more, but she still wants sex, and John’s father obliges her. What a waste of effort! Here’s the weirdest thing of all: Barbara and John, and John’s parents, close the bedroom door and have sex in private, instead of doing it in front of their friends like any self-respecting dog!

[Jared Diamond; Why is Sex Fun?]

The impulse to cling to youth at all costs, to attempt to preserve your sexual attraction, to see even in middle age a future for yourself and not merely for your children, is a thing of recent growth and has only precariously established itself.
[George Orwell, “The Art of Donald McGill”, Horizon, September 1941]

When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters however … the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within.
[Sigmund Freud]

If you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a poor family, you’re likely to go to prison. If you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a rich family, you’re likely to go to business school.
[George Monbiot, guardian.co.uk, 7 November 2011]

amusements, beliefs, quotes, science, thoughts

Quotes of the Week

The usual eclectic and eccentric mix this week …

If you can’t see the bright side of life … then polish the dull side.

Wear short sleeves … Support your right to bare arms!
Thoughts of Angel

The very concept of “average” necessarily implies variability.
Emily Nakoski, On monkeys, bullshit, and scale

I hold this truth to be self-evident, that a debt crisis cannot be resolved with more debt.
Hellasious on Quantum Economics

It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.
MFK Fisher quoted in Why Do People Eat Too Much?

Ponder less on what you yourself perhaps think than on what will be the thoughts of the majority of others who, carried away by your authority or your reasons, become persuaded that the terrestrial globe moves among the planets. They will conclude at first that, if the earth is doubtless one of the planets and also has inhabitants, then it is well to believe that inhabitants exist on other planets and are not lacking in the fixed stars, that they are even of a superior nature and in proportion as the other stars surpass the earth in size and perfection. This will raise doubts about Genesis, which says that the earth was made before the stars and that they were created on the fourth day to illuminate the earth … then in turn the entire economy of the Word incarnate and of scriptural truth will be rendered suspect.
17th-century Rector of the College of Dijon writing to the priest-scientist Pierre Gassendi. With thanks to Barnaby Page.

food+drink, memes, music, personal, quotes, science

Ten Things – November

Number 11 in my monthly series of “Ten Things” for 2011. Each month I list one thing from each of ten categories which will remain the same for each month of 2011. So at the end of the year you have ten lists of twelve things about me.

  1. Something I Like: Beaujolais Nouveau (This year’s is supposed to be even better than last year’s which was superb; and it’ll be here in a few days time!)
  2. Something I Won’t Do: Plumbing
  3. Something I Want To Do: Visit Norway & Sweden
  4. A Blog I Like: Cocktail Party Physics
  5. A Book I Like: Douglas Adams, Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
  6. Some Music I Like: Handel, Messiah
  7. A Food I Like: Pizza
  8. A Food or Drink I Dislike: Sweet Potatoes
  9. A Word I Like: Mendicant
  10. A Quote I Like: The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. [JBS Haldane]