famous quotes

[zeeprogrammer]

Carl Sagan - "I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way".

I like that.

[fcheslop]

Having seen the moon
Even I take leave of this life
With a blessing
A haiku by Kaga -no-Chiyo

[mklotz]

Here are some of my favorites.  I collect quotes so, if you don't like these, I've got lots more.

Gegen Dummheit k?mpfen die G?tter selbst vergebens - Goethe

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. -- Bertrand Russell


The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
- Winston Churchill

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it
exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong
remedy.                                        -- Ernest Benn

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

Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Either thought is frightening.

Everything that can be invented has been invented.
~Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899

Most people with low self-esteem have earned it.
-- George Carlin

Most people don't know what they're doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.
-- George Carlin

The function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. - Richard Feynman

A saved crap is a good crap. - Zeeprogrammer

[zeeprogrammer]

Excellent ones Marv.

Bertrand Russell. And I see you enjoy George Carlin too. I remember him back when he wore a suit and thin tie.

And then you got me...

 

I sure hope that one doesn't make it out of the forum.

[rleete]

I cross posted it on my political forum, so it's destined to become an internet meme.

[Maryak]

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
 
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
 
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
 
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
 
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

There is a number 6 and comes from Maggie Thatcher:

Socialism fails when it runs out of other people?s money.

[Bearcar1]

"All my friends are dead"


"Nobody helps me when I work alone"


    -- the late A.C.Frank

[mklotz]

Here's a few more cheery thoughts...

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when
they do it from religious conviction.  - Blaise Pascal

Having to put a warning on a vehicle dashboard sunblocker to remove it before driving isn't enhancing public safety, it is interfering with evolution.

I believe it is our duty as humans to set traps for the stupid.

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional,
illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. - Susan B. Anthony

Generally the people who can find no use for mathematics are
the ones who never took the time to learn any mathematics to use.

Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.

I'm still waiting for another sublime, transcendent flash of adequacy.

No matter how beautiful and sexy she is, there is somebody somewhere who is tired of her.

A few learn by reading. Some learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

A complex system that doesn't work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

San Francisco is 50 square miles of city surrounded by reality.

Confidence is that feeling you get before you completely understand the situation

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.

In fifty years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college.

[zeeprogrammer]

A complex system that doesn't work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

That one is going on the wall at work. I seem to have nearly weekly discussions related to this.

"We've used that circuit/algorithm/part for years. Why'd you change it"
"Make it better."
"How?"
"mumbo jumbo smoke hem haw mirrors mumbo jumbo"
"Wanted to make it yours eh?"

[Dean W]

"I don't know where I'm going, but there's no sense in being late!"

"Yes, I'm lost!  You think I came here on purpose?"

[Jack]

My favorite is...


"Its always darkest before it turns totally Black"   

[90LX_Notch]

Not famous but, these come from a fellow I use to work with doing auto repair:

When someone would complain about something.-
"It sucks to be you." 

When someone had some type of idiotic idea.-
"Yea, good luck with that."

When I'd bitch that I had to work on my own car.-
"My car runs." 

I use the first and second one all the time.  I love the look on people's faces with number one.

[BillTodd]

Two that I've always liked

"We choose do this... not because it's easy, but because it is hard." - JFK

"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking." -  attributed to Aristotle

[edit] One from a master, to be spoken before the launch of a risky enterprise...
"Oh well, Wooden legs are cheap" - Dave Bickers

[Bogstandard]

Just a few that I like

Things are more like they used to be than they are now.
 
Nobody understands us crabby people.

Old age, sweet talk and treachery can beat youth, skill and enthusiasm any day!

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
 
Of all the things I've lost in life, I miss my mind the most.
 
I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
 
I suspect my purpose in life is to be a lesson to others.
 
No problem too small to baffle this expert!

I want to die like my grandfather did - peacefully, in his sleep. Not shrieking in terror like the passengers in his car!

When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.
 
Do not put off until tomorrow what you can get someone else to do today.

Whatever you do, keep moving! It's hard for fate to hit a moving target!

I've always wanted to learn procrastination, but I keep putting it off.

I started life with nothing. I still have most of it left.

And finally, the one I enjoy the most

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.


John

[Jo]

Some traditional says to go with our model making:

Aut vincere aut mori    (Victory or death)

Diem ex die    (Another day wasted) .

Vitam regit fortuna non sapienta  (Its mostly a matter of luck) [Literal translation: Chance, not wisdom, governs human life)]

Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus (All that work and nothing to show for it) [ Literal translation: Mountains will be in labour and an absurd mouse will be born]


..............and the saying I have on my monitor at work :

Festina lente (Make haste slowly)

Jo

[peatoluser]

As another part makes it's journey from workbench to scrap bin, I always try to console myself with
" oh well, the person who never made a mistake never made anything"
which probably makes me one of  the most productive people in history!

although sometimes if it's the same bloody part I think Kipling's
"once more the fools bandaged hand goes unerringly to the flames" might be more appropriate.

[tel]

[techonehundred]

?We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.?  Mother Theresa of Calcutta

[Bluechip]

I may have my faults, but being wrong isn't one of them.

                                                                                      Andy Capp

[tel]

I may be a square, but I've been a round.
                                                                     Tel

[zeeprogrammer]

Men have become the tools of their tools.

Henry David Thoreau

[Maryak]

Commonsense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Albert Einstein

[mklotz]

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

No statue has ever been put up to a critic. - Jean Sibelius



The following are all due to Albert Einstein...

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Two things are infinite:  the universe and human stupidity; and
I'm not sure about the the universe.

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber.