Quote of the Day

"We ask everything of love. We ask it to be anarchic. We ask it to be the glue that holds the family together, that allows society to be orderly and allows all kinds of material processes to be transmitted from one generation to another. But I think that the connection between love and sex is very mysterious. Part of the modern ideology of love is to assume that love and sex always go together. They can, I suppose, but I think rather to the detriment of either one or the other. And probably the greatest problem for human beings is that they just don’t."

Susan Sontag

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), 'Eleanora,' 1842

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.
Herman Melville (1819 - 1891)

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)

If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us?
Lois McMaster Bujold, Diplomatic Immunity, 2002

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
Evelyn Waugh (1903 - 1966), Diaries of Evelyn Waugh (1976)

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle

"I myself am convinced by the Petrine claims, nor looking around the world does there seem much doubt which (if Christianity is true) is the True Church, the temple of the Spirit dying but living, corrupt but holy, self-reforming and re-arising.


"But for me that Church of which the Pope is the acknowledged head on earth has as chief claim that it is the one that has (and still does) ever defended the Blessed Sacrament, and given it most honour, and put (as Christ plainly intended) in the prime place.


“'Feed my sheep' was His last charge to St. Peter; and since His words are always first to be understood literally, I suppose them to refer primarily to the Bread of Life. It was against this that the Western European revolt (or Reformation) was really launched—'the blasphemous fable of the Mass'—and faith/works a mere red herring.”


~ J.R.R. Tolkien

“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”
- Frank Leahy

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“The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson

"It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish itself from below."
~ Alexander II of Russia

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a
Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle
against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality
today there is no difference between Jordanians,
Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and
tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of
a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand
that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian
people' to oppose Zionism.

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state
with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa.
While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa,
Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we
reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even
a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

Zahir Muhsein, PLO executive member

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Love that remains longest in your heart is the one that is not returned. - Anon.

"The most senile thing ever thought about man is contained in the celebrated saying 'the ego is always hateful'; the most childish is the even more celebrated 'love thy neighbor as thyself'. In the former, knowledge of human nature has ceased, in the latter it has not yet even begun."

~Nietzsche

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. - Mark Twain

“Anyone who has a continuous smile on his face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening. ~ Greta Garbo

“Some people wear their smile like a disguise. Those people who smile a lot, watch their eyes. I know 'cause I'm like that a lot. You think everything's ok, and it is . . . 'till it's not.” ~ Ani Difranco

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." -Albert Einstein

Another Einstein quote:


"Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid."

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Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
James Thurber (1894 - 1961)

What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864)

Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have.
Doris Mortman

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963), Vedanta for the Western World, 1945

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.
Augusten Burroughs, Magical Thinking

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.
Friedrich Nietzsche

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.
Immanuel Kant

What’s writing really about? It’s about trying to take fuller possession of the reality of your life.
Ted Hughes

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Officialadamn

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. - Albert Einstein

This made me think of Honeykid.

Whoopi Goldberg responded to a fan on her Facebook page:

Attachments

 

It's not that I don't like her. It's that she's Satan.

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan

I like to slosh on paint to kill the white of the canvas with a bit of turpentine. Then I start with a blur which looks something like the subject and I gradually refine it.
Rolf Harris

I am fond of them, of the inferior beings of the abyss, of those who are full of longing.
Richard Wagner