Finding Solace in Favourite Quotes: Escaping Despair with Words of Wisdom

[Ivan Seeking]

This could go in LOL, but

"Politicians are like diapers, they all stink and should be replaced frequently!"

From the new Robin Williams movie, or so I was told.

Hah! I heard that recently and meant to quote it.

Here is one from a newspaper today.

Gary Lindstrom has lived in Summit County since 1974 and is a retired police officer and a recovering politician.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20071118/COLUMNS/71116006/0/FRONTPAGE

 

[Ivan Seeking]

When you go to Toys R Us these days, they ask if you want to see the leaded or unleaded toys

- Mark Shields

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Regarding Obama...approximate:

uhhh, yunno, uh, I don't want to sound like a racist or anything, but I wouldn't vote for a colored man for President

- Some racist on the CBS Evening news

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Katie Couric - Question: Besides the Bible, what would be the one book that you would take with you to the White House?

Hillary Clinton - Answer: I would take my copy of the Constitution because apparently they don't have one.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Glen Beck commenting on his dedication to his faith; today on the Situation Room, on CNN:

If they [the Mormons] had Kool-Aid in the basement, I'd drink it!

I'm sure that helped Mit Romney alleviate people's concerns about his church a great deal!

 

[Astronuc]

I may be on old dog, but I can still learn new tricks. - an old dog.

which someday will become

I may be an old dog, but I can learn one new trick.

 

[lunarmansion]

It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness--Chinese Proverb

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them--Henry David Thoreau

 

[lunarmansion]

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors-Francis Bacon

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative-Francis Bacon

Imagination was given to man to conpensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is--Francis Bacon

 

[lunarmansion]

The gods too are fond of a good joke-Aristotle
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims-Aristotle
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind-Aristotle

 

[akatz]

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.

– Frank Leahy

 

[Andre]

If you show an honest man why he is wrong, he either stops being wrong or he stops being honest

Anonymus.

 

[devil-fire]

the strong feed on the weak and the clever feed on the strong.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

"After years in Washington, I long for the honesty and sincerity of Hollywood" - Fred Thompson

 

[Astronuc]

Philosophy of Charles Schulz

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip.

You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read the message straight through, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?


The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.











Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?


The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards.

They are the ones who care.

 

[Astronuc]

Philosophy of Charles Schulz

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip.

You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read the message straight through, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?











The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.


Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:
1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
Easier?


The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards.

They are the ones who care.

 

[lunarmansion]

What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it. Who was it who said, "Blessed is the man who has found his work"? Whoever it was he had the right idea in his mind. Mark you, he says his work--not somebody else's work. The work that is really a man's own work is play and not work at all. Cursed is the man who has found some other man's work and cannot lose it. When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world. The fellows who groan and sweat under the weary load of toil that they bear never can hope to do anything great. How can they when their souls are in a ferment of revolt against the employment of their hands and brains? The product of slavery, intellectual or physical, can never be great. -Mark Twain

 

[Andre]

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip.

They are the ones who care.

That's awesome, Astro, I can't google it back but the best peanuts strip goes like this:

Lucy: Why are we on Earth?

Charley Brown: I don't know, perhaps to make somebody else happy.

Lucy (running away crying): Happy? I'm not happy! somebody is not doing his job!

Edit: However what I learned in 54 years is that in trying to make some people happy, it's very tough to avoid making other people unhappy.

 

[lunarmansion]

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.- Voltaire
Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day. [Uncle Vanya, 1897] Anton Checkhov

 

[Ivan Seeking]

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

Ask who the five Star Trek Commanders were and I'll bet that half of PF can answer that one. [Bonus points for the sixth]

So what is the lesson here?

 

[rewebster]

“Philosophy, rightly defined, is simply the love of wisdom.”

Cicero

 

[Ivan Seeking]

“Philosophy, rightly defined, is simply the love of wisdom.”

Cicero

Boy, I would sure argue that one - I would say the love of logic.

 

[rewebster]

Maybe the love of 'logic and wisdom'--

(word's meanings may have changed a little since they sat around the Colosseum drinking and watching the action.)

 

[DaveC426913]

Ask who the five Star Trek Commanders were and I'll bet that half of PF can answer that one. [Bonus points for the sixth]

Which show? Uhuru is fifth in command (I think), though she's not a Commander.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

There were five series. I was referring to the lead roles in each.

Actually, what made me think of this was an audience test done years ago on something like the Johnny Carson show. Hardly anyone could remember the National Anthem, but almost everyone could sing the Brady Bunch song.

 

[lunarmansion]

A man cannot think deeply and exert his utmost muscular force.- Charles Darwin(Expression of the emotions in man and animals.)

 

[Math Jeans]

Ask who the five Star Trek Commanders were and I'll bet that half of PF can answer that one. [Bonus points for the sixth]

So what is the lesson here?

I only know Kirk and Archer. The famous one and the new one.

 

[NeoDevin]

Kirk, Archer, Janeway, Sisko, Picard (not in order...)

 

[DaveC426913]

Kirk, Archer, Janeway, Sisko, Picard (not in order...)

Then this was a gimme. You might as well ask who carried the ring to Mordor.

I thought you were posing a question that at least some people might not get...

 

[Math Jeans]

Then this was a gimme. You might as well ask who carried the ring to Mordor.

What?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Then this was a gimme. You might as well ask who carried the ring to Mordor.

I thought you were posing a question that at least some people might not get...

Who was the sixth?

 

[NeoDevin]

Christopher Pike

Or if you include the animated series, there was also Robert April.

 

[Huckleberry]

Maybe the love of 'logic and wisdom'--

(word's meanings may have changed a little since they sat around the Colosseum drinking and watching the action.)

So if I asked you about art you could
give me the skinny on every art book
ever written...Michelangelo?
You know a lot about him I bet. Life's
work, criticisms, political aspirations.
But you couldn't tell me what it smells
like in the Sistine Chapel. You've
never stood there and looked up at
that beautiful ceiling. And if I asked
you about women I'm sure you could
give me a syllabus of your personal
favorites, and maybe you've been laid
a few times too. But you couldn't
tell me how it feels to wake up next
to a woman and be truly happy. If I
asked you about war you could refer me
to a bevy of fictional and non-fictional
material, but you've never been in
one. You've never held your best
friend's head in your lap and watched
him draw his last breath, looking to
you for help. And if I asked you about
love I'd get a sonnet, but you've never
looked at a woman and been truly
vulnerable. Known that someone could
kill you with a look. That someone
could rescue you from grief.
That God had put an angel on Earth
just for you. And you wouldn't know
how it felt to be her angel. To have
the love be there for her forever.
Through anything, through cancer. You
wouldn't know about sleeping sitting
up in a hospital room for two months
holding her hand and not leaving because
the doctors could see in your eyes
that the term "visiting hours" didn't
apply to you. And you wouldn't know
about real loss, because that only
occurs when you lose something you
love more than yourself, and you've
never dared to love anything that much.
I look at you and I don't see an
intelligent confident man, I don't see
a peer, and I don't see my equal. I
see a boy. Nobody could possibly
understand you, right Will? Yet you
presume to know so much about me because
of a painting you saw. You must know
everything about me. You're an orphan,
right?

Will nods quietly.

SEAN (cont'd)
Do you think I would presume to know
the first thing about who you are
because I read "Oliver Twist?" And I
don't buy the argument that you don't
want to be here, because I think you
like all the attention you're getting.
Personally, I don't care. There's
nothing you can tell me that I can't
read somewhere else. Unless we talk
about your life. But you won't do
that. Maybe you're afraid of what
you might say.

Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting

(And yet some things stay the same.)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

~ "This year I will vote however my wife does. In 2000, she voted for Gore, and I voted for Bush, and I will never live it down"

--- viewer comment today on the Cafferty File

 

[pace]

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

The bad thing about being unemployed is that right when you get up, you're on the job.

- Unknown


Not so funny:

I used to be a vegetarian, but then I leaned to the sunny side of life.

- Don't remember.

 

[pace]

This one's a bit consilidating for us hobby-philosophers who doesn't seem to get a deegre from it:

"A good mathematician is at least half a philosopher, and a good philosopher is at least half a mathematician" - Gottlob Frege.

uh, maybe not so consilidating since he ended up quite lonely and depressed himself. Great historical mathematician and logican nonetheless.