Quotations from Brainy Smurf 125

"The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution." --Hannah Arendt, historian and philosopher (1906-1975)

"Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote."
--Edward Young

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 124

"Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." --H. Mumford Jones

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 123

"I am not a Federalist because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men, whether in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or anything else. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." --Thomas Jefferson, 1789

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 122

Wow.

"If you want a child who will integrate into the New World Order and wait his turn in line for condoms, a government funded abortion, sexually transmitted disease treatment, psychological evaluation and a mark on the forehead," writes Michael Pearl in To Train Up a Child (1994), "then follow the popular guidelines in education, entertainment and discipline, but if you want a son or daughter of God, you will have to do it God's way."

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 121

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it." --Stephen Vizinczey

"I'm worried that the universe will soon need replacing. It's not holding a charge." --Edward Chilton

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 120

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 119

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."
--Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 118

"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."
--Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 117

"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."
--Jeannette Rankin

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 116

"It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book." --Friedrich Nietzsche

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 115

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."
--Aesop

Somewhat reminiscent of:

"It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases." --Johan Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 114

"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions." --Claude Levi-Strauss

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action." --Frank Tibolt

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 113

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it." --Pablo Picasso

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 112

"I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race." --Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, and author (1872-1970)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 111

Ezra Cornell to "The coming man and woman."

Ithaca, May 15, 1873. Autographed letter signed.

"Ithaca New York
May 15th 1873

To the Coming man & woman

On the occasion of laying the corner stone of the Sage College for women of Cornell University, I desire to say that the principle [sic] danger, and I say almost the only danger I see in the future to be encountered by the friends of education, and by all lovers of true liberty is that which may arise from sectarian strife.

From these halls, sectarianism must be forever excluded, all students must be left free to worship God, as their concience [sic] shall dictate, and all persons of any creed or all creeds must find free and easy access, and a hearty and equal welcome, to the educational facilities possessed by the Cornell University.

Coeducation of the sexes and entire freedom from sectarian or political preferences is the only proper and safe way for providing an education that shall meet the wants of the future and carry out the founders idea of an Institution where "any person can find instruction in any study." I herewith commit this great trust to your care.

Ezra Cornell"

I lived in Sage for the last year it housed students ('94-'95), and obviously long after it had become coed! Kyle=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 110

"The Republic has no need of geniuses [or, alternately, "scientists."]." --The judge at the trial of Antoine Lavoisier during the French Reign of Terror, shortly before sentencing Lavoisier to death by the guillotine

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 109

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty." --Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 108

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

(Somehow, I think this is only true of some lazy men...)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 107

"The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything." --Walter Bagehot

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 106

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." --Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)

"I can't possibly overstate the importance of good research. Everyone goes through life dropping crumbs. If you can recognize the crumbs, you can trace a path all the way back from your death certificate to the dinner and a movie that resulted in you in the first place. But research is an art, not a science, because anyone who knows what they're doing can find the crumbs, the wheres, whats, and whos. The art is in the whys: the ability to read between the crumbs, not to mix metaphors. For every event, there is a cause and effect. For every crime, a motive. And for every motive, a passion. The art of research is the ability to look at the details, and see the passion." --Daryl Zero, Zero Effect

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 105

This is a fun story (obviously dated):

Max Shulman's Love Is a Fallacy

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 104

"Poetry is kind of supreme speech, an attempt at recovering a language momentarily adequate to truth; it is the language of paradise in which lovemaking and prayer do not contradict each other." --Patricia Storace