Favorite Quotes
Cree Indian Proverb
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.
Friedrich Nietzsche
One pays heavily for coming to power: power makes stupid.
Friedrich Schiller
Against stupidity, even the Gods struggle in vain.
Albert Einstein
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Bertrand Russell
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The time will come when our successors will wonder how we could have been ignorant of things so obvious.
Joseph Stalin
The people who cast the votes don't decide an election; the people who count the votes do.
Adolf Hitler
What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.
posted by Again at 4:37 AM
6 Comments:
Good quotes, and so true.
ed:
Good quotes, and so true.
thanks ;-)
The Schiller quotation was used for titles to the three sections of Isaac Asimov's novel The Gods Themselves: "Against Stupdity", "The Gods Themselves", and "Contend in Vain". The title of part three had a question mark at the end of it to leave the book's ending open.
rjhall
Isaac Asimov's novel The Gods Themselves
i have some books by Asimov, but this one i don't know ;-)
however, regarding your other post ("brights"):
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, The Babel fish is a dead giveaway. It proves you exist, so therefore, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.
Douglas Adams
Asimov's The Gods Themselves is definitely classic, probably the best of his single non-series novels. Written around 1972, and winner of awards, the energy-crisis mentality that figures in its story is definitely relevant today now that a real energy crisis (peak oil) is soon at hand. Also, my daughter now has almost exactly the same name as the heroine in part 3 (though I didn't consciously realize that at the time we named her). Hmm, maybe it's around time for me to re-read it?!
Of course, Hitchhiker, being full of great bits all the way through, has the problem that you can't quote from it without stopping before a great bit! I don't remember it exactly, it's been a while (another candidate for re-reading?), but what follows is roughly this:
"That was easy," says Man, who goes on to prove that black is white and gets killed at the next zebra crossing.
Everybody agrees that this argument is a load of fetid dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid from using it in his philosophical blockbuster, "Well, That About Wrapes It Up for God."
Meanwhile, the Babel Fish, by making universal communication easy and without error between all peoples, led to more wars than anything else in history.
Of course, Hitchhiker, being full of great bits all the way through, has the problem that you can't quote from it without stopping before a great bit!
oh, a Douglas-Adams-Fan, too! Great!! How about Bertrand Russell??
"It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion."
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