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

[Astronuc]

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."
Dust tracks on a road, 1942
Zora Neale Hurston

http://www.zoranealehurston.com/

The quote is care of Mae Jemison in her TED talk care of Cyrus in his TED thread.
6Vy0ncmUvUw&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

 

[Ivan Seeking]

During my second one-hundered days in office, we will design, build, and commemorate a library dedicated to my first one-hundred days in office

- Barack Obama

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I thought this was a classic bit of double-talk from President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan.

MR. GREGORY: ... But I wonder why you're continuing to add to your stockpile, add to your arsenal at what is described as a pretty fast rate when there's so much instability in the country?

MR. ZARDARI: That's, that's, that's not a fact. It's a, it's a position that some people have taken. We, we're not adding to our stockpile as such. Why do we need more?

MR. GREGORY: So you're not adding to your nuclear arsenal at all?

MR. ZARDARI: I don't think so, no.

MR. GREGORY: You don't--do you know?

MR. ZARDARI: Even if I did, I wasn't going to tell you.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30658135//

 

[DaveC426913]

I thought this was a classic bit of double-talk from President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan.

You sure that wasn't http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/" ?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

You sure that wasn't http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/" ?

CHENEY: If we had been about torture, we wouldn't have wasted our time going to the Justice Department.

SCHIEFFER: How much did President Bush know specifically about the methods that were being used? We know that you-- and you have said-- that you approved this...

CHENEY: Right.

SCHIEFFER: ... somewhere down the line. Did President Bush know everything you knew?

CHENEY: I certainly, yes, have every reason to believe he knew -- he knew a great deal about the program. He basically authorized it. I mean, this was a presidential-level decision. And the decision went to the president. He signed off on it...

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/FTN_051009.pdf

I thought that was an interesting moment.

 

[Astronuc]

In the end, the government's job -- it seems to me -- in any country, is to make sure the economy works in the interest of the majority and not the minority. And it's to make sure that if people have aspirations and abilities and aptitudes, they're given the opportunity to realize their own aspirations to progress.

Alan Milburn, MP, UK

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What's a newspaper? Never mind; I'll go online and look it up.

- CNN Viewer; The Cafferty File

 

[Ivan Seeking]

...PAUL SOLMAN: Andrews applied for, and got, a no-ratio loan, in which his $2,500 monthly payments would consume nearly all his take-home pay.

No-ratio?

EDMUND ANDREWS: A no-ratio mortgage in which literally I left the income space blank.

PAUL SOLMAN: Therefore, there would be no ratio.

EDMUND ANDREWS: Correct, yes, because there was an issue of my debt-to-income ratio. But if you don't have any income that you're declaring, you have no debt-to-income ratio. Problem solved. Even at the time, I'm going, "I can't believe this. Is this a great country or what?"...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june09/andrews_05-21.html

 

[Astronuc]

Economists have yet to figure out what combination of mass delusion and perverse incentives led banks to undertake so much leverage.

N. GREGORY MANKIW from

Economic View - NYTimes
That Freshman Course Won’t Be Quite the Same
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/business/economy/24view.html


Interesting term he used for what banks and financial institutions do - financial intermediation.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I wish people could live for hundreds of years. That way they would have to live with the consequences of their actions. The problem with the world is that everyone dies too soon.

- not sure who said it. It was a comment made on a show about the science of aging.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Paraphrasing here:

As Catholic Father Alberto Cutie' announced that he was leaving the Catholic church, and joining the Epoiscopal Church, the news conference was interrupted by a lightning storm.

- CNN

 

[misgfool]

At the bus stop:

"If one could make a difference by voting, it would be illegal."

 

[Astronuc]

but, life is a process...

Ideals are never reached, but they give us a standard and a direction to guide our fumbling steps.

Democracy is based on respect. Not on respect for leaders, or flags, or classes, but for EACH OTHER. The whole basis of democracy is that all are equal and all are worthy. It has no meaning without that foundation.

And democracy REQUIRES an informed citizenry and open communication, or it cannot exist.

To communicate requires respect for the views of all... Not necessarily agreement, but an openess.

yale - a friend

 

[Ivan Seeking]

No matter how high-tech an application may be, never leave home without duct tape

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

[DaveC426913]

Revenge is a dish best served upside the head.

- Mrs. DaveC426913, June 17, 2009

 

[lisab]

- Mrs. DaveC426913, June 17, 2009

She'd be a great PF sister!

 

[baywax]

"I had a lot of dates but I decided to
stay home and dye my eyebrows".

Andy Warhol

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In regards to the accusation that Obama is in bed with the press...

“A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning trying to figure exactly what to say. Finally, when I couldn’t get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked (NBC News anchor) Brian Williams what he thought,”

- Barack Obama

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Another Obamaism. What can I say? The guy is funny.

From a While House press conference.

Q Then I have a two-part question. (Laughter.) Is the public plan non-negotiable? And while I appreciate your Spock-like language about the logic of the health care plan... [half a paragraph follows]

THE PRESIDENT: I got you. You're pitching, I'm catching. I got the question. First of all, was the reference to Spock -- is that a crack on my ears? (Laughter.) All right, I just want to make sure. No?

Q I would never make fun of your ears, sir. (Laughter.)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Press-Conference-by-the-President-6-23-09/

 

[qntty]

"A witty saying proves nothing."
--Voltaire

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I aim for the stars, but sometimes I hit London

- Mort Sahl's name for the movie about Wernher von Braun, I Aim For The Stars.
http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/news/cmcmagazine/2008winter/mort_sahl.pdf

 

[Astronuc]

That’s the art of it, creating these beautiful little poems of thought, these sonnets of pure reason.

Mathematician and math teacher Paul Lockhart on the art of mathematics.

 

[OmCheeto]

Another Obamaism. What can I say? The guy is funny.

That was the first news conference I've ever read.

I thought it was funny that it was mentioned that the reporters ask him about his smoking at least once a month.

The topic came up at our local smoking hot spot at work about a month after he was elected. One of the Russian emigre's made a comment about the topic:

I think it would be very very bad to tell the man with the biggest red button on the planet that he cannot have a cigarette when he is having a, how do you say it, a bad moment. I mean, it would be very very stupid.

 

[DaveC426913]

I think it would be very very bad to tell the man with the biggest red button on the planet that he cannot have a cigarette when he is having a, how do you say it, a bad moment. I mean, it would be very very stupid.

Does that Red button say 'EASY' on it?

 

[OmCheeto]

Does that Red button say 'EASY' on it?

Nyet!

It says "Matra of all Tzar bombas, ne ja jeba Kim Jung..."

Ooops! Now I'm trying to quote mommy dearest in the worst broken Russo-Serbian I've ever uttered:

Don't foop with me fella's!

 

[Sorry!]

'life isn't fair, its just fairer than death.'

love this quote :D I forget who it was though

 

[bucher]

Dr. Seuss ones are my favorite:

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own.
And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!”

“Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.”

“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good”

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

"I'm afraid sometimes you'll play lonely games too, games you can't win because you'll play against you"

I'm sure there's more.

 

[jobyts]

“Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use to first, shrink wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury” - Arundhati Roy

 

[Borek]

"You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty." - Sacha Guitry

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Semper ubi sub ubi

 

[DaveC426913]

Semper ubi sub ubi

This is the only thing Mrs. DB uses from her Latin class days!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Parents are the bones upon which children sharpen their teeth.

- Peter Ustinov

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I want a genetically engineered cow that can... [poop] Happy Meals

- Jon Stewart

 

[baywax]

"erm"

someone on PF

 

[baywax]

"Wish you were beer"

One of Bart Simpson's T-shirts