The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered:
Man.... Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.
A reader of this site, Mike Baker, provided me with a big stash of thoughtful quotes. Included in Mike's offerings is this collection of quotes on "patriotism." A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ~ Edward Abbey The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? ~Pablo Casals "My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober." ~ G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) "True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else." ~ Clarence S. Darrow "He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." ~ Albert Einstein Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. ~ Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched. ~ Guy de Maupassant Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him? ~ Blaise Pascal Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph: ~ Haile Selassie Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. ~ George Bernard Shaw "My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders." ~Mark Twain It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. ~ Voltaire
I constantly copy and paste quotes, and you'll find many of them under the category "quotes." Here are some more for my growing collection: "The Gish Gallop is an informal name for a rhetorical technique in debates that involves drowning the opponent in half-truths, lies, straw men, and bullshit to such a degree that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood that has been raised, usually resulting in many involuntary twitches in frustration as the opponent struggles to decide where to start. It is named after creationism activist and professional debater Duane Gish" "Citing the Bible as evidence for anything is like saying that the sun is in fact a chariot of fire that races across the sky because we read about it in Greek mythology." - Stephen Ban “Regrettably, I have anecdotal evidence that lawyers stop laughing at a judge’s jokes after the judge’s retirement.” -Judge Robert Clayton II, commenting on his approaching retirement. "Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" — Isaac Asimov "Capitalism, in its purer forms doesn’t reward people for their hard work with success. It rewards people less for what they contribute to the economy and more for what they own and control." - "Niklaus" at DI Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped. - Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977) A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life – Charles Darwin I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. - Harry S Truman "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." - Saul Bellow "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." - John, Lord Morley "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." - Winston Churchill [More . . . ]
The last really good history I read was "Hellhound On His Trail, " which follows James Earl Ray's path from his childhood in Alton, Illinois through a violent intersection with the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and continues to follow Ray's trajectory with his quizzical recantations of his "life's purpose." With the same cool hand, Sides sketches the strengths and inadequacies of Dr. King's inner circle and paints larger atmospheric strokes with newspaper headlines on the increasing violence in response to desegregation and the influence of war in Vietnam on national sentiment about federal involvement in heretofore state affairs. By themselves, vignettes about Ray's lackluster career as a petty criminal, his stunted attempts at artistic grandeur and addiction to prostitutes would simply depress the reader. Here, the intentional failures and manipulations of Hoover's FBI and first-hand accounts of Ray's behavior appear like birds descending on a tragic town, flickering across the broader canvas creating momentum and dread. Awful as the true subject of this thriller may be, I found myself disappointed to reach the end.
Here are some more of my favorite quotes. I gather these from many sources. I am very much a gatherer, almost a plagiarizer, except that I admit that I gather them: "Religion is to spirituality what porn is to sex." -Roger Ebert "Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." -Susan Ertz, Anger in the Sky "A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies." -Martin Luther King "I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education." —Wilson Mizner "The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too." -Oscar Levant (1906 - 1972) "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats (Poet, 1865-1939). "Obama isn't a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. You're thinking of Jesus." - John Fugelsang. "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." – Unknown "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand," he tells his children. "It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." - Atticus Finch, in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge." —Daniel J. Boorstin "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment." —Barry LePatner "When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion." —Abraham Lincoln "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." —Winston Churchill "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur." (Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.) —Unknown Author