Kyle's Experimental Blog

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 241

2009-08-24T08:33:00.001-07:00

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." --Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 240

2007-05-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

"[I]f a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in run-down ones . . . one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares." --James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling's famous essay "Broken Windows"

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 239

2007-04-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

In honor of the passing of a great writer, one of his gems...

"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops." --Kurt Vonnegut

Kyle=

Math and Life: Indexed

2007-02-22T11:00:00.000-08:00

This blog site, indexed, is wonderful, irreverent, and geeky. Check it out.

indexed

Kyle=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 238

2007-02-13T07:43:00.001-08:00

"Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television."
--David Letterman

"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

iTunes and Radio News Updates

2007-02-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

I thought this was a really neat hack for iTunes to give you news updates, even while listening to your music library.

Read Wil Wheaton's Listen While You Work

It's pretty neat, but I won't be trying it yet because my computer here at work, where I'd get the most use out of it, will soon change... because my job will be changing.

Kyle=

Cut the Cord!

2007-01-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

Get off more junk-mail lists and help protect your privacy!

New York Times Article: Don't Call, Don't Write!

Some are old-news, others are new and helpful!

Check 'em out.

Also try: 41 Pounds-- Reclaim your mailbox!

Kyle=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 237

2007-01-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Sir Winston Churchill on quotations:

"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. "

Churchill, My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 9

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 236

2007-01-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” --Howard Thurman

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 235

2007-01-08T05:52:00.000-08:00

More David Livingstone, a similar theme from the last post about Dr. Livingstone, this time from The Life and Labors of David Livingstone, 1875.

"There are names that live, and should live. Like the men who make them honorable, there are names which do good, carrying light and strength. There are names about which systems, and histories, and ideal realms of wondrous beauty are; which incite mankind to lofty enterprise, and impart confidence and fortitude and zeal. There are names which honor a world's remembrance. It is well and creditable for the world that some men are never forgotten. But of all, there is no life-work brighter and truer and loftier than that in the service of humanity, and the service of humanity is perfected ill the dignity of Christian effort. Among the securest favorites of history, the worthiest arc those who lived for others, and loved and labored under the impulses of the gospel.

"Such a man was David Livingstone. His child-life was at Blantyre, by the beautiful Clyde, above Glasgow, in Scotland. He was born there in the year 1813. The humble home entertained some proud traditions, treasured through eight generations of the family. The young David listened with bounding heart and growing spirit, while his grandfather told the histories and legends of the olden time.

"Culloden was in the story. His great-grandfather fell there, fighting for the old line of kings; and 'Ulva Dark,' the family
home, had been there. Old Gaelic songs trembled off the lips of his grandmother, beguiling the social hours. There was the spirit of heroism in the home. And among the traditions there were those of singular virtue and integrity. He classed the dying precept of a hardy ancestor the proudest distinction of his family: that precept was, 'be honest.' Honesty is a matchless birthright; he claimed it; he was not proud of anything else. His father was a man of 'unflinching honesty,' and was employed by Montieth & Co., proprietors of Blantyre Works, in conveying very large sums of money from Glasgow, and by the honorable kindness of their firm his integrity was so rewarded that his declining years were spent where he had lived, in ease and comfort. He was a man who kept the hearts of his children. His kindness and real love were sweeter to them than all that wealth sometimes bestows as its peculiar gift. He brought his children up religiously; it was in connection with the Kirk of Scotland. It is a beautiful tribute of his illustrious son:

"'My father deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting me from my infancy with a continuously consistent pious example. I revere his memory.' The mother of the man appears only, and passes from the public view. She was a quiet, loving, industrious, self-denying, praying mother. God knows how to choose mothers for the chosen men. This mother was the mother of a great and good man. She was a women who, by her virtue and modesty, and fortitude and courage, could bear a hero and inspire him for his destiny. 'An anxious house-wife, striving to make both ends meet,' found time and place to exert a true woman's singular and mighty influence upon her little boy. We will not presume to estimate the magnitude of that influence. We will not say how much his home had to do with the singular thoughtfulness and distinguished precocity of the child that toiled all day long in the mill with tbe hundreds who worked there. David Livingstone was only ten years old when he was put into the factory. People ought not to despise little factory-boys. He worked from six in the morning until
eight at night; that makes fourteen hours a day, and a child just ten years of age. There were very good schools at Blantyre; the teachers were paid twenty-five pounds a year. The schools were free to the children of the working people. David had been in one of these schools."

--The life and labors of David Livingstone, LL. D., D.C.L., covering his entire career in Southern and Central Africa. Carefully prepared from the most authentic sources ... The whole rendered clear and plain by a most accurate map of the whole region explored and the routes clearly indicated by J E Chambliss

Humans, Animals, and the Future

2007-01-08T05:48:00.000-08:00

Delancey Place on Humans, Animals, and the Future.

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 234

2007-01-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

EXTRACT OF LETTER TO ROBERT MOFFAT from David Livingstone
12 September 1855

"Our family is reported to have been rather famous for quick learning among Highland chieftains' sons, and like one of our ancestors on his death bed, who told the assembled circle of friends that he had made diligent search and never could hear of one of the Livingstons having been a thief, I never heard of one who was a donkey."

An alternative version of this story was published in an 1887 newspaper (haven't found the citation yet):

"Dr. Livingstone, the famous explorer, was descended from the Highlanders, and he said that one of his ancestors one day called his family around him. He was dying and had all of his children around his death-bed. He said: 'Now, lads, I have looked all through our history as far back as I can find it, and I have never found a dishonest man in all the line, and I want you to understand that you inherit good blood. You have no excuse for doing wrong. Be honest.'"

The Livingstones are the name used today for the great majority of those of MacLea heritage, like myself. --Kyle=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 233

2007-01-03T06:34:00.000-08:00

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
--William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.2

"Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it." --Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (1948- )

"As a professional humorist, I often get letters from readers who are interested in the basic nature of humor. "What kind of a sick perverted disgusting person are you," these letters typically ask, "that you make jokes about setting fire to a goat?" ..." --Dave Barry, "Why Humor is Funny"

"We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses." --C. G. Jung, Psychological Reflections

"The butterfly counts not years but moments and has time enough."
--Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter,
educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)

"Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them." --T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 232

2006-12-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

"A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics". All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and
schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer." --George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 231

2006-12-19T05:50:00.000-08:00

"Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, "Lighthouses" as the poet said "erected in the sea of time." They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print." --Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 230

2006-12-12T05:33:00.001-08:00

"I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good."
--Seneca

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 229

2006-12-12T05:31:00.000-08:00

"If you have the same ideas as everybody else but have them one week earlier than everyone else then you will be hailed as a visionary. But if you have them five years earlier you will be named a lunatic." --Barry Jones, politician, author (1932- )

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 228

2006-12-11T09:09:00.001-08:00

"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it." --Leo Rosten

The Rule of Threes

2006-12-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

The rule of threes:

You can survive for three hours without shelter
You can survive for three days without water
You can survive for three weeks without food

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 227

2006-12-07T05:29:00.001-08:00

"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." --Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 226

2006-12-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

"So the conventional wisdom in Galbraith’s view must be simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting--though not necessarily true. It would be silly to argue that the conventional wisdom is never true. But noticing where the conventional wisdom may be false--noticing, perhaps, the contrails of sloppy or self-interested thinking--is a nice place to start asking questions."

--Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 225

2006-12-07T05:19:00.000-08:00

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." --James Baldwin

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 224

2006-12-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

"There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking." --Alfred Korzybski

Dogs and Memory

2006-12-04T06:28:00.000-08:00

The love of dogs.

The persistence of minor memory.

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 223

2006-12-04T06:18:00.000-08:00

Books to the ceiling
Books to the sky
My pile of books is a mile high
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

--Arnold Lobel

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 222

2006-11-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

"Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor." --Wernher von Braun, rocket engineer (1912-1977)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 221

2006-11-27T05:47:00.000-08:00

"We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on." --Richard Feynman

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 220

2006-11-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

"Wood is highly ecological, since trees are a renewable resource. If you cut down a tree, another will grow in its place. And if you cut down the new tree, still another will grow. And if you cut down that tree, yet another will grow, only this one will be a mutation with long, poisonous tentacles and revenge in its heart, and it will sit
there in the forest, cackling and making elaborate plans for when you come back.

Wood heat is not new. It dates back to a day millions of years ago, when a group of cavemen were sitting around, watching dinosaurs rot. Suddenly, lightning struck a nearby log and set it on fire. One of the cavemen stared at the fire for a few minutes, then said: "Hey! Wood heat!" The other cavemen, who did not understand English, immediately beat him to death with stones. But the key discovery had been made, and from that day forward, the cavemen had all the heat they needed, although their insurance rates went way up."

--Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler"

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 219

2006-11-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

"The living language is like a cow-path: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay." --E.B. White, writer (1899-1985)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 218

2006-11-26T12:22:00.001-08:00

"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." --Joshua J. Marine

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem." --Theodore Rubin

"He who binds to himself a joy, / Does the winged life destroy; /
He who kisses the joy as it flies, / Lives in Eternity's sun rise."
--William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827)

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." --Will Rogers, humorist (1879-1935)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 217

2006-11-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." --Thomas Paine

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 216

2006-11-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

"As far as I'm concerned, 'whom' is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler." --Calvin Trillin, writer (1935- )

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 215

2006-11-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

"I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. 'The first thing,' I said, 'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.'" --Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 214

2006-11-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." --Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), Dartmouth alumnus, author, and illustrator (1904-1991)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 213

2006-11-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant." --Horace

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 212

2006-11-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

"I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland." --Woody Allen

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 211

2006-11-13T06:23:00.000-08:00

"The scientific name for an animal that doesn't either run from or fight its enemies is lunch." --Michael Friedman

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 210

2006-11-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

"Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true." --H.L. Mencken

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 209

2006-11-11T12:42:00.000-08:00

"There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration." --Andrew Carnegie, industrialist (1835-1919)

Heinlein's Rules for Writers, as Told by George R. R. Martin

2006-11-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

On his third podcast, GRRM speaks of Robert A. Heinlein's Rules for Writers. Simply, they are these.

To be a (paid) writer you must:
1. Write.
2. Finish what you write.
3. Market what you write.
4. Refrain from rewriting except on editorial order.

GRRM also suggested this:
5. Start with short stories in your genre of interest.
6. Keep your day job.

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 208

2006-11-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

"Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?'/ Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'" --Charles M. Schulz

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 207

2006-11-06T06:06:00.000-08:00

"People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt." --Otto von Bismarck, statesman (1815-1898)

Pie chart that resembles Pac-Man

2006-11-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

Pie chart that resembles Pac-Man

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 206

2006-11-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

"Whenever people say 'We mustn't be sentimental,' you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add 'We must be realistic,' they mean they are going to make money out of it." --Brigid Brophy, writer (1929-1995)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 205

2006-11-01T05:50:00.001-08:00

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." --Henry Kissinger

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 204

2006-10-31T06:19:00.001-08:00

"That wretched alchemist called money can turn a man's heart into a stone!" --Mehmet Murat Ildan, writer (1965- )

Happy Qaariitaaryik!

2006-10-31T06:11:00.000-08:00

Learn about "Halloween" in a remote Alaska village. (Thanks to Matt for bringing this blog to my attention.)

Here.

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 203

2006-10-31T06:03:00.000-08:00

A rewrite of a famous moment in movie history
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 00:55:58 +1000

[A furious light saber duel is under way. DARTH VADER is backing LUKE
SKYWALKER toward the end of the gantry. A quick move by Vader, chops
off Luke's hand! It goes spinning off into the ventilation shaft. Luke
backs away. He looks round, but realizes there's nowhere to go but
straight down.]

DARTH VADER: "Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father."

LUKE: "He told me enough! He told me you killed him!"

DARTH VADER: "No! I am your father!"

LUKE: "No, it's not true! It's impossible."

DARTH VADER: "Search your feelings; you know it to be true."

LUKE: "NO!"

DARTH VADER: "Yes, it is true and you know what else? You know that
brass droid of yours?"

LUKE: "Threepio?"

DARTH VADER: "Yes, Threepio, I built him when I was seven years old."

LUKE: "No."

DARTH VADER: "Seven years old? And what have you done? Look at
yourself, no hand, no job, and couldn't even levitate
your own ship out of the swamp."

LUKE: "I worked hard on that moisture farm."

DARTH VADER: "What? Hauling buckets? I spent my childhood as a slave
then *real* Jedi training, not 'a few days in the swamp
with Yoda'."

LUKE: "I destroyed your precious Death Star!"

DARTH VADER: "When you were 20! When I was 10, I single-handedly
destroyed a Trade Federation Droid Control ship!"

LUKE: "Well, it's not my fault."

DARTH VADER: "Oh, here we go. 'Poor me, my father never gave me what I
wanted for my birthday, boo hoo, my daddy's the Dark Lord
of the Sith.. waahhh wahhh!'"

LUKE: "Shut up."

DARTH VADER: "You're a slacker! By the time I was your age, I had
exterminated the Jedi knights!"

LUKE: "I used to race my T-16 through Beggar's Canyon!"

DARTH VADER: "Oh, for the love of the Emperor . 10 years old, winner of
the Boonta Eve Open. Only human to ever fly a Pod Racer,
right here baby!"

[Luke looks down the shaft. Takes a step toward it.]

DARTH VADER: "I was wrong. You're not my kid. I don't know whose you
are, but you sure ain't mine."

[Luke takes a step off the platform, hesitates, then plunges down the
shaft.]

[Darth Vader looks after him.]

DARTH VADER: "And get a haircut!"

-- Barry Smith, (listed on http://www.inktank.com/)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 202

2006-10-30T06:41:00.000-08:00

"All is in the hands of man. Therefore wash them often."
--Stanislaw J. Lec

"It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous." --Robert Benchley

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
--Jules Renard

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 201

2006-10-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

"God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages." --Jacques Deval, writer and director (1895-1972)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 200

2006-10-29T15:01:00.000-08:00

The 200th quotation post! Woo-hoo! K=

"A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day."

--Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do."
--Henry Ford

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 199

2006-10-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

"Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Verbs have to agree with their subjects. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. A writer must not shift your point of view. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.) Don't overuse exclamation marks!! Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing. Always pick on the correct idiom. The adverb always follows the verb. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives."
--William Safire's Rules for Writers

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 198

2006-10-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true." --Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer (1804-1864)

Six Word Short Stories

2006-10-26T07:22:00.001-07:00

Check it out:
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

K=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 197

2006-10-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

"For every ten people who are clipping at the branches of evil, you're lucky to find one who's hacking at the roots." --Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 196

2006-10-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

Philosopher, mathematician, and writer, Bertrand Russell once said, "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

"Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle." --Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

"It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn." --Robert Southey (1774-1843)

"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning." --George Baker (1877-1965)

"A Severe Strain on the Credulity

As a method of sending a missile to the higher, and even to the highest parts of the earth's atmospheric envelope, Professor Goddard's rocket is a practicable and therefore promising device. It is when one considers the multiple-charge rocket as a traveler to the moon that one begins to doubt ... for after the rocket quits our air and really starts on its journey, its flight would be neither accelerated nor maintained by the explosion of the charges it then might have left. Professor Goddard, with his "chair" in Clark College and countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action to re-action, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react ... Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."

--A New York Times Editorial, 1920

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 195

2006-10-20T05:32:00.001-07:00

"When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about." --Albert Einstein

"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision." --Eleanor Roosevelt

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 194

2006-10-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

"Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat." --Caroline Schoeder

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 193

2006-10-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

Ford Prefect: So, the hours are good, are they?

Vogon Guard: Yeah. Though now that you come to mention it, most of the actual minutes are pretty lousy.

--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 192

2006-10-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

"The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come." --Peter Ustinov

"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor." --Neil Gaiman

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 193

2006-10-18T05:44:00.001-07:00

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." --Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 192

2006-10-18T05:43:00.001-07:00

"We are told never to cross a bridge until we come to it, but this world is owned by men who have 'crossed bridges' in their imagination far ahead of the crowd." --Anon.

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 191

2006-10-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

"I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it." --Terry Pratchett

"Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature."
--Kin Hubbard

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 190

2006-10-17T11:10:00.001-07:00

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. -William Arthur Ward, college administrator, writer (1921-1994)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 189

2006-10-17T07:08:00.001-07:00

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." --George Bernard Shaw

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 188

2006-10-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

"Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood."
--Kahlil Gibran, "The Visit of Wisdom"

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 187

2006-10-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

"Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors." --Lewis H. Lapham, editor (1935- )

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 186

2006-10-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

"Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology." --Rebecca West

Note: I have taken a military science course. Two of them, in fact.

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 185

2006-10-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

"The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth." --Walter Lippmann, journalist (1889-1974)

"I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
–-Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

"A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought."
--Dorothy L. Sayers

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 184

2006-10-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." --Leonardo da Vinci

"The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become." --Harold Taylor

"No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 183

2006-10-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

"Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none." --Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

Sometimes the Magic Works

2006-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

I recently read this book and thought it had some interesting thoughts for writers. Not all of these points are original, but they all have some important insight. I thought I'd put down his list here so I can find it later.

Terry Brooks' rules for writing, from Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life

1. Write What You Know
2. Your Characters Must Behave in a Believable Fashion
3. A Protagonist Must Be Challenged by a Conflict that Requires Resolution
4. Movement Equals Growth; Growth Equals Change; Without Change,
Nothing Happens
5. The Strength of the Protagonist Is Measured by the Threat of the Antagonist
6. Show, Don't Tell
7. Avoid the Grocery-List Approach to Describing Characters
8. Characters Must Always Be in a Story for a Reason
9. Names Are Important
10. Don't Bore the Reader

Those are the major ones anyway -- he says he has minor ones too, but these are sufficient.

Kyle=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 182

2006-10-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else." --James M. Barrie

"All science is either physics or stamp collecting." --Ernest Rutherford

"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion." --C.P. Snow, scientist and writer (1905-1980)

"Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories." --Polybius, historian (c. 205-123 BC)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 181

2006-10-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

"First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint a second time." --Honore de Balzac

"My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?" --Charles M. Schulz

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 180

2006-10-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." --Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 179

2006-10-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have." --Lee Iacocca, automobile executive (1924- )

"A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity." --Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and writer (1884-1962)

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." --Mark Twain

Brainy Smurf 178 and R.I.P. Great Writ of Habeas Corpus (d. 2006)

2006-09-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

"Virtue is its own punishment." --Aneurin Bevan

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 177

2006-09-27T06:53:00.000-07:00

"We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police." --Jeff Marder

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." --Paul Dirac

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 176

2006-09-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

"America is not only big and rich, it is mysterious; and its capacity for the humorous or ironical concealment of its interests matches that of the legendary inscrutable Chinese." --David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 175

2006-09-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

"In politics, absurdity is not a handicap."
--Napoleon Bonaparte

"Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out." --Samuel Johnson

"People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest." --Hermann Hesse

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 174

2006-09-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

"Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world." --Jimmy Carter, 39th US President, Nobel laureate (1924- )

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 173

2006-09-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

"The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions." --James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 172

2006-09-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
--William Congreve, "The Mourning Bride"

"I had an epiphany a few years ago where I was out at a celebrity party and it suddenly dawned on me that I had yet to meet a celebrity who is as smart and interesting as any of my friends." --Moby, quoted on CNN.com, March 2005

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 171

2006-09-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

"Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them."
--Suzanne Necker, author (1739-1794)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 170

2006-09-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing -- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." --John Keats, poet (1795-1821)

"One should not lose one's temper unless one is certain of getting more and more angry to the end." --William Butler Yeats, W. B. Yeats Memoirs

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 169

2006-09-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

"You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play." --Warren Beatty

"The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough." --Bede Jarrett, The House of Gold

"Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions ... are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been corrupted and weakened by their friends." --Walter Lippman, journalist (1889-1974)

"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." --Chinese Proverb

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 168

2006-09-14T04:58:00.000-07:00

"At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone." --Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (1645-1696)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 167

2006-09-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

"It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life." --PD James

"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 166

2006-09-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

"Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others." --Jules Renard

"All things are difficult before they are easy."
--Dr. Thomas Fuller

A TSA interlude...

2006-09-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

George R R Martin on airline security, or lack thereof.

Kyle=

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 165

2006-09-06T05:40:00.000-07:00

Doubly true for me?

"Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment." --Robert Benchley

"What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?" --Woody Allen

"In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart." --Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 164

2006-09-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

"Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established." --Ludwig Feuerbach, philosopher (1804-1872)

"I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it." --Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

"Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments." --Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-92)

"Near and far, near and far
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Then grudge me not my fond endeavor
To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage."
-- Ogden Nash, "Tin Wedding Whistle"

Hag: Two things you must know about the wise woman. First...she is a woman. Second...she is...

Blackadder: Wise?

Hag: Oh! You know her then?

Blackadder: No, just a stab in the dark, which is what you'll be getting in a minute if you don't become more helpful.

--EB to Old Hag : Bells, Blackadder 2

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 163

2006-09-01T05:45:00.000-07:00

"Never tell anyone that you're: writing a book, going on a diet, exercising, taking a course, or quitting smoking. They'll encourage you to death." --Lynn Johnston

"The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive."
--Robert Heinlein

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 162

2006-08-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." --Albert Einstein

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 161

2006-08-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

"Take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then say it with the utmost levity." --George Bernard Shaw

"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness." --Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 160

2006-08-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

"Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in their best order." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true." --Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

"I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me." --Dave Barry

"In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain."
--Pliny the Elder

"If you trust Google more than your doctor than maybe it's time to switch doctors." --Jadelr and Cristina Cordova

"Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses." --Margaret Millar

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 159

2006-08-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

"We find comfort among those who agree with us, growth among those who don't." --Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 158

2006-08-24T06:33:00.000-07:00

"It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow." --Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 157

2006-08-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

"He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own." --Aesop

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." --Dr. Seuss

Quotations from Brainy Smurf 156

2006-08-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

"George W. Bush is Lincoln the way Dan Quayle is Jack Kennedy."
--Garrett Epps, Salon.com