Category Archives: quotes

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Here we are with the first of our monthly collections of quotes for 2023 – and we have a bumper bundle this month. So in no particular order I offer you …

If the general public doesn’t understand science and technology, then who is making all of the decisions about science and technology that are going to determine what kind of future our children live in, some members of Congress? There are only a handful who have any background in science at all, and some of them don’t even want to know about it.
[Carl Sagan]

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. lt’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
[Carl Sagan]

That’s what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.
[Haruki Murakami]

I’m sick of people saying it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism. I think about the end of capitalism every day. Today I imagined what it would be like to live in a community that valued me for being present rather than “useful” or “productive”. In that world, I think I would spend a lot more time taking care of plants. I would tell stories when I felt like it, instead of on deadline. What do you imagine?
[Annalee Newitz]

This stupid star has been following us all week, we’re still half a day’s ride from Bethlehem … As I type this, we’re being followed by three strange men trying to sell us gold, frankincense, and myrrh – whatever that is. On top of that, Mary’s contractions have started, and she’s chosen tonight of all nights to tell me the kid isn’t mine.
[From https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/joseph-of-nazareth-has-had-it-with-hotelscom]

The problem is we are not eating food any more, we are eating food-like products.
[Dr Alejandro Junger]

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.
[Isaac Asimov]

Sometimes magick is as simple as burning a single candle with good intentions behind it.
[unknown]

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, we must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity.
[Marie Curie]

London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall […]
Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least, but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it […]
The little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world.
[Charles Dickens, Bleak House]

Who can doubt the futuristic brilliance of Sunak and co? They’ve given us driverless government.
[Marina Hyde; Guardian; 23/12/2022; https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/23/rishi-sunak-government-prime-minister]

We see what we see, not necessarily what is there, and we write what we know, not necessarily what we see.
[Annie Proulx, Fen, Bog and Swamp]

Arrrrrrgh! The feral dinos sing.
Gory to our newborn thing!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild –
Sweet mercy, please, I have a child!
Urgh and ewgh and arrrrrgh and arrrrr!
GMO has gone too far!
Arrrrrrgh! The feral dinos sing –
Gory to our newborn thing!
[Timothy Train]

There will come a time when fascism would take over this great nation of ours and destroy the peaceful and economic ties we enjoy with our neighbours in Europe. They will come armed with their silver tongues and promising the earth. Be extremely vigilant.
[Winston Churchill]

Bats can hear shapes. Plants can eat light. Bees can dance maps. We can hold all these ideas at once and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.
[unknown]

You wouldn’t want to be minding them poet fellows. They’re a dangerous clique be the best of times.
[Brendan Behan]

The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.
[Mahatma Gandhi]

We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation – to make a point – than to further the cause of truth.
[Edgar Alan Poe]

I see the onslaught of NY diet/fitness advice has begun. Let me tell you that painting nudes from life has taught me that all bodies are inherently beautiful. They really, really are. Don’t let anything or anyone convince you otherwise. Your body is wonderful, just the way it is. We know this as children but something external & insidious creeps in & makes us doubt it. But looking at nudes of all genders/sizes/shapes/abilities in life class & trying to render the beauty of skin/flesh/light/gravity has helped me remember how beautiful *we all* are.
[Haiku, @19syllables on Twitter]

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.
[Mahatma Gandhi]

Those who are emotionally intelligent understand that just because you address something that bothers you doesn’t mean you’re trying to argue. Were just simply communicating. Disagreements don’t have to end with arguments or fights.
[unknown]

Einstein said that if quantum mechanics were correct then the world would be crazy. Einstein was right – the world is crazy.
[Daniel M Greenberger]

Don’t force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.
[Plato]

I keep six honest serving men
(they taught me all I know);
their names are What and Why and When
and How and Where and Who.
[Rudyard Kipling]

I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.
[Richard Feynman]

I call God to witness that as a private person I have done nothing unbeseeming an honest man, nor, as I bear the place of a public man, have I done anything unworthy of my place.
[Francis Walsingham]

What if we were naked?
Just an everyday normal thing?
Would the world fall apart,
If bodies were free?
Would our eyes burn in fear,
Should less fabric reveal,
Bodies are near?
[James, @JEGography on Twitter; What If We Were Naked?]

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
[George Orwell]

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Our monthly selection of recently encountered quotes – and this time we have lots of short quotes.

It’s frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.
[George Orwell]

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.
[Leo Tolstoy]

The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world.
[Plato]

Whenever one person stands up and says “Wait a minute, this is wrong”, it helps other people to do the same.
[Gloria Steinem]

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.
[George Bernard Shaw]

You won’t learn anything if you think you know everything already. Humility is necessary for growth.
[Richard Feynman]

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
[Ecclesiastes 1:9]

The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always dead sure about every damn thing they are doing in their life.
[unknown]

To achieve justice without losing compassion, what’s important is to avoid doing harm. Helping sentient beings can be a source of great satisfaction. All of us, animals as well, have basic rights that we need to protect.
[Dalai Lama]

Life has no place from where it comes. It’s like putting on your pants. However, our face is solemn. Therefore it is said, the 10,000 things return to the one. Death has no place to go. It is like taking off one’s pants. However, our traces are dropped away. Therefore it is said, to where does the one return? At this very time, how is it? From the beginning, life and death do not involve each other. Offense & happiness are both empty with no place to abide.
[Eihei Dogen]

If a book told you something when you were fifteen, it will tell you it again when you’re fifty, though you may understand it so differently that it seems you’re reading a whole new book.
[Ursula K Le Guin]

If you’re resting but you’re shaming yourself for not being productive the whole time, that’s not actually rest. If you find that you’re chronically tired, this could be why.
[Iris McAlpin]

There’s a fine line between a butler and a stalker.
[unknown]

You should never he ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today then yesterday.
[Jonathan Swift]

I think sometimes we need to take a step back and just remember we have no greater right to be here than any other animal.
[David Attenborough]

Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it’s not satire, it’s bullying.
[Terry Pratchett]

Nobody figures out what life is all about and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.
[Richard Feynman]

There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made.
[Richard Feynman]

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Well hello again folks. Having missed last month through being unwell, we have a bumper collection of quotes for you this month! So let’s go …

I want to get better at arguing. Not the bitter, exhausting kind … and not the kind that occurs when you put two French people in a room and within 90 seconds one of them is quoting Montaigne and the other has countered with Immanuel Kant, even though they are talking about, say, low-energy lightbulbs (about which neither of them previously had an opinion).
[Emma Beddington at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/18/why-do-i-pick-fights-with-my-husband-because-i-want-a-happy-marriage]

Briefing is over. Time for me to turn 1200 words of word salad notes into a piquant article for [journal’s] website, and stew all the peels and cores into a blog entry.
[Emily Lakdawalla; @elakdawalla on Twitter]

We see the ugly face of contemporary Britain in the people on the beaches abusing exhausted refugees even as they scramble to the shore. It makes one ashamed. And ashamed, of course to be living in the nation that elected this government …
[Hilary Mantel]

If you’re lucky enough to do well, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down.
[Jay Blades]

Investors seem inclined to regard the UK Conservative Party as a doomsday cult. Tax cuts are unlikely to give the UK a meaningful medium-term boost.
[Paul Donovan, Chief Economist, UBS Global Wealth Management]

Evidence is always partial. Facts are not truth, though they are part of it – information is not knowledge. And history is not the past – it is the method we have evolved of organising our ignorance of the past. It’s the record of what’s left on the record. It’s the plan of the positions taken, when we to stop the dance to note them down. It’s what’s left in the sieve when the centuries have run through it – a few stones, scraps of writing, scraps of cloth. It is no more “the past” than a birth certificate is a birth, or a script is a performance, or a map is a journey. It is the multiplication of the evidence of fallible and biased witnesses, combined with incomplete accounts of actions not fully understood by the people who performed them. It’s no more than the best we can do, and often it falls short of that.
[Hilary Mantel]

Growth is one of the stupidest purposes ever invented by any culture. We’ve got to have an enough. Always ask: growth of what, and why, and for whom, and who pays the cost, and how long can it last, and what’s the cost to the planet, and how much is enough?
[Donella Meadows]

and I will love you
‘til all the letters of your name
are filled with moss
[@19syllables on twitter]

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.
[Harry S Truman, 33rd president of the United States]

I think [says the Duke of Omnium] that we whom chance has led to be meddlers in the game of politics sometimes give ourselves hardly time enough to think what we are about … It seems to me that many men – men whom you and I know – embrace the profession of politics not only without political convictions but without seeing that it is proper that they should entertain them. Chance brings a young man under the guidance of this or that elder man. He has come of a Whig family, as was my case, or from some old Tory stock, and loyalty keeps him true to the interests which have first pushed him forward into the world. There is no conviction there.
[Anthony Trollope; The Prime Minister; h/t John Monaghan]

No person who can read is ever successful at cleaning out an attic.
[Ann Landers]

There are times when we must speak out, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don’t speak, they have changed you.
[unknown]

Being rude is easy. It does not take any effort and is a sign of weakness and insecurity. Kindness shows great self-discipline and strong self-esteem. Being kind is not always easy when dealing with rude people. Kindness is a sign of a person who has done a lot of personal work and has come to a great self-understanding and wisdom. Kindness is a sign of strength.
[unknown]

I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, “This is what I believe. Finished.” What I believe is alive … and open to growth.
[Madeleine l’Engle]

Before you argue with someone, ask yourself, is that person even mentally mature enough to grasp the concept of a different perspective. Because if not, there’s absolutely no point.
[Helen Mirren]

How many highly intuitive, intelligent and totally sane women and men have been labelled as crazy because they got too close to figuring out someone else’s bullshit.
[Alex Myles]

When you finally learn that a person’s behaviour has more to do with their internal struggle than it ever did with you, you learn grace.
[unknown]

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
[John Lennon]

As a Buddhist monk, I’m dedicated to promoting inter-religious harmony. All religions accept the value of warm-heartedness. Some believe in God; others have faith in karma. When I hear about fighting among religious people, I feel very sad – as if medicine has become poison.
[Dalai Lama]

Just because I disagree with you, does not mean that I hate you. We need to relearn that in our society.
[Morgan Freeman]

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
[Stephen Covey]

His head was an hourglass; it could stow an idea, but it had to do it a grain at a time.
[Mark Twain]

I want adulthood to feel more magical than it does. Where is the mystery? Why does no one ask me to solve a riddle before I enter a building? When was the last time I made a potion?
[unknown]

You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. Fall in love with some activity and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about and it doesn’t matter.
[Richard Feynman]

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Another selection of recently encountered quotes.

His head was an hourglass; it could stow an idea, but it had to do it a grain at a time.
[Mark Twain]

I never forget a face – but in your case I’ll make an exception.
[Groucho Marx]

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
[Oscar Wilde]

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.
[Mae West]

The concept that the people running the Brexit campaign would care for the NHS is a rather odd one. I seem to remember Michael Gove wanting to privatise it. Boris wanted to charge people for using it. And Iain Duncan Smith wanted a social insurance system. The NHS is about as safe with them as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python.
[Sir John Major]

The United Kingdom is a friendly nation, regardless of its leaders, sometimes in spite of its leaders.
[Emmanuel Macron]

Never worry about criticism from somebody you wouldn’t take advice from.
[Prof. Chris Whittv]

This objective will be accomplished via provision of effective scientific and administrative leadership; development of efficient, innovative core facilities; recruitment of funded, committed investigators; promotion of interdisciplinary approaches and interactive projects; and promulgation of communication, education and training …
[Quoted by Derek Lowe at https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/novel-approach-new-types-novel-novelty]

On rare occasions I express an opinion here. These are for entertainment only. I do not suggest you adopt my opinions. In fact I caution against it.
[Brad Warner]

An Incomplete List of Things More Capable
of Running the Country than the new Prime Minister
A bollard. A thimble. A beef gravy granule.
A bilge pump. A plectrum. A Pokémon annual.
A doorknob. A chaffinch. A half-eaten carrot.
A footbath. A clothes peg. A Wine stain. John Parrot.
A ceramic spoon holder. A fruit polo mint.
A discarded tissue. A puddle. Some lint.
A used toner cartridge. Some musical socks.
A build up of silt. A stuffed startled fox.
A plimsoll. A wingnut. A set of false teeth.
A novelty wall clock with the face of Prue Leith.
A beetle. A drumlin. A short piece of string.
A packet of Wotsits. A plant pot. Most things.
[Brian Bilston]

Everyone is wrong about everything all the time. Even me. Even you.
[Brad Warner]