I’m still collecting quotes. I’ll never stop, because time is ticking on my life (I’m not sick, I’m referring to the fact that I’m human), and there a novel in every excellent quote. Here are some of my recent favorites:
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
– Arthur C. Clark, as quoted in Visions : How Science Will Revolutionize the Twenty-First Century (1999) by Michio Kaku, p. 295
“We simply do not understand our place in the universe and have not the courage to admit it”
– Barry Lopez
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
– Rita Mae Brown
Holding a grudge is letting someone live rent-free in your head.
– From a sign.
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
– Sir Winston Churchill
There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.
– Don Herold
“My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions…. The dove is my emblem…. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it…. I am proud of the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill….”
– Thomas Edison
“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”
– Thomas Edison
“I never did a day’s work in my life, it was all fun.”
– Thomas Edison
It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear. While such an economy may produce a sense of seeming prosperity for the moment, it rests on an illusionary foundation of complete unreliability and renders among our political leaders almost a greater fear of peace than is their fear of war.
– General Douglas MacArthur. Speech to the Michigan legislature, in Lansing, Michigan (15 May 1952).
The crime is not failing to know. It’s failing to ask.
– Anon
My work is a game, a very serious game.
– M. C. Escher (1898 – 1972)
Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”
– Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, p. 298
“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable”.
– Howard Zinn
Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.
– Howard Zinn, “Election Madness” The Progressive (March 2008)
“If those in charge of our society — politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television — can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.”
– Howard Zinn, Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991)
TED Curator Chris Anderson reframes Arthur C. Clark’s view: “Either answer is, in its own way, awe-inspiring.” Anderson’s wonderful video is absolutely worth a watch (or two): http://www.ted.com/talks/questions_no_one_knows_the_answers_to.html.
I’m also a quote collector – my collection comprises close to 7,000 entries. If you would like to see what it looks like, I publish 10 of them every week at http://frictionary.blogspot.com The blog is archived and can be subscribed to. Some of these can also be seen at my Twitter @levek Everybody is welcome to visit and suggest or comment.
Thanks, Rejean. That’s quite a collection. I’ve already explored a few dozen and I’m enjoying your collection.