Quotes
One of my favorite quotes:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. – Benjamin Franklin (1755)
Politics
Je désapprouve ce que vous dites, mais je défendrai à la mort votre droit à le dire. – Evelyn Beatrice Hall, 1907
Don't steal, the government hates competition.
I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue. – Richard Nixon
By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more. – Albert Camus
Last time we mixed politics with religion, people got burned at the stake.
Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason.
The path of least resistance is what makes rivers and politicians crooked.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
If you want to make something that will last forever, don't make a statue or build a bridge. Create a bureaucracy, it never goes away.
Economics
What most people really object to when they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself. – Milton Friedman, Wall Street Journal, May 18, 1961
War and Peace
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.
War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left.
But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. – George Orwell, “1984”
Religion
Personally it's not God I dislike, it's his fan club I can't stand.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. – Samuel 15:3
Taoism – Shit happens.
Buddhism – If shit happens, it's not really shit.
Islam – If shit happens, it's the will of Allah.
Protestantism – Shit happens because you don't work hard enough.
Judaism – Why does this shit always happen to us?
Hinduism – This shit happened before.
Catholicism – Shit happens because you're bad.
Hare Krishna – Shit happens rama rama.
TV Evangelism – Send more shit.
Atheism – No shit.
Jehova's Witnesses – Knock knock, shit happens.
Hedonism – There's nothing like a good shit happening.
Christian Science – Shit happens in your mind.
Agnosticism – Maybe shit happens, maybe it doesn't.
Rastafarianism – Let's smoke this shit.
Existentialism – What is shit anyway?
Stoicism – This shit doesn't bother me.
Philosophy
La rage de vouloir conclure est une des manies les plus funestes et les plus stériles qui appartiennent à l'humanité. Chaque religion, et chaque philosophie, a prétendu avoir Dieu à elle, toiser l'infini et connaître la recette du bonheur. Quel orgueil et quel néant! Je vois, au contraire, que les plus grands génies et les plus grandes oeuvres n'ont jamais conclu. – Gustave Flaubert
Nature is neither cruel, nor friendly. It's sheer indifferent.
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. – Grey's Law
Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo it is not enough that you be persecuted by an unkind establishment, you must also be right. – Robert Park
Conversation
The ability to speak several languages is valuable. The ability to keep one's mouth shut in one language is priceless.
A good discussion is like a miniskirt; Short enough to pertain interest and long enough to cover the subject.
Those who think they know-it-all are very annoying to those of us who do.
Silliness
Yesterday is a past, tomorrow is a future, today is a gift that's why it's called 'present'.
Get a life or die trying!
Two wrongs don't make a right but three rights make a left.
And the Lord said unto John; Come forth and receive eternal life. But John came fifth and won a toaster.
We have to believe in free will. We have no choice.
Calvin & Hobbes
Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words. – Calvin
That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria! – Calvin
It's only work if somebody makes you do it. – Calvin
Murphy is my hero
It's a big mistake to allow any mechanical object to realize that you are in a hurry.
Whoever said there is no such thing as a stupid question has never worked in customer service.
Science & Engineering
Für den Optimisten ist das Glas halb voll.
Für den Pessimisten ist es halb leer.
Für den Ingenieur ist das Glas doppelt so groß, wie es sein müsste.
Captian Obvious
Fur is more actively protested than leather 'cause it's easier to harass rich women than biker gangs.
