Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 62

"The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation." --Benjamin Disraeli

Monday, February 27, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 61

"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." --Anonymous

"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." --Calvin Trillin

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 60

"Great geniuses have the shortest biographies." --Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

"I can't give you brains, but I can give you a diploma!" --Oz the Great, The Wizard of Oz

Friday, February 24, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 59

"It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world." --Will Durant, historian (1885-1981)

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 58

"The intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many accomplishments, and is yet willing to learn more." --Ed Parker

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." --Samuel Johnson

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 57

"It's weird how there are these busy times and then these not so busy times, and you always feel like you're about to enter a less busy time, but sometimes you're not." --Ben Guaraldi

"My life is my message." --Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 56

"Let us face a pluralistic world in which there are no universal churches, no single remedy for all diseases, no one way to teach or write or sing, no magic diet, no world poets, and no chosen races, but only the wretched and wonderfully diversified human race." --Jacques Barzun, professor and writer (1907- )

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Thoughts on Copyright

Interesting reading on copyright today:
Making Light: The life expectancy of books
I read of this on the blog of my friend Joey Hess!

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 55

"The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe." --Joanna Macy, writer and teacher (1929- )

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 54

"A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free." --Nikos Kazantzakis, writer (1883-1957)

Friday, February 17, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 53

"Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'." --Michael McClary

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 52

"We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to." --W. Somerset Maugham

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 51

"War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off." --Karl Kraus, writer (1874-1936)

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 50

"If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead." --Johnny Carson

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 49

"People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools." --Alice Walker, writer (1944- )

Monday, February 13, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 48

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws." -John Adams (1735-1826)

Friday, February 10, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 47

"If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much that he is out of danger?" --Thomas Huxley

"We travel together on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil, committed for our safety to its security and peace, preserved from annihilation only by the care, work, and I will say, the love we give our fragile craft." --Adlai E. Stevenson

"If we love our children, we must love our earth with tender care and pass it on, diverse and beautiful, so that on a warm spring day 10,000 years hence they can feel peace in a sea of grass, can hear a sandpiper call in the sky, and can find joy in being alive." --Hugh H. Iltis

"It is a monstrous abuse of the science of biology to teach it only in the laboratory---Life belongs in the fields, in the ponds, on the mountains, and by the seashore." --James G. Needham

"A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood." --Rachel Carson

"It is not half so important to know as to feel." --Rachel Carson

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 46

"In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms." --Stephen Jay Gould

Monday, February 06, 2006

An Observation

What I have learned:

Long after fat jokes have gone out of fashion, it will remain acceptable to question the maturity, judgment, and even sanity of role-playing gamers.

Are we as tolerant as we think we are?

K=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 45

"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?" --Ronald Reagan, on education, in a 1980 campaign speech

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 44

"Never judge a book by its movie." --JW Eagan

"To measure the man, measure his heart." --Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

"If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul." --Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)