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

[fourier jr]

I'm not aware of any such Bertrand Russell quote. If you ever do find the exact quote, let me know and I'll add it to my list of favorite Russell quotes.

no, it's not russell; I thought it may have been either La Rochefoucauld or Georg Lichtenberg but it's not them either, it's abe lincoln:
"It's my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues."
wikiquote says lincoln heard someone else say it when he was on a train.

along the same lines la rochefoucauld DID write this one:
"Only the great are entitled to great faults."

 

[Ivan Seeking]

~"It's not possible to take a bad picture of a pig" - National Geographic Photographer.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

...It hit a line of small craters in the sand and began to turn to starboard, careering towards Klemantaski, who, viewing events through a telescopic lens, misjudged the distance and continued filming. Hearing the approaching roar he looked up from his viewfinder to see Panjandrum, shedding live rockets in all directions, heading straight for him. As he ran for his life, he glimpsed the assembled admirals and generals diving for cover behind the pebble ridge into barbed-wire entanglements...

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=114542

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military is a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

- Barack Obama, October, 2002
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16903253/page/2/

 

[radou]

- A woodchuck should chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, as long as a woodchuck would chuck wood.
- Oh, shut up!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

You're not really famous until you're a PEZ dispenser...

We had signed our lives away. I had to pay George [Lucas] two dollars every time I looked at myself in the mirror.

- Carrie Fisher [Princess Leia from Star Wars]

 

[Curious3141]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but it's my favorite.

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
- Thomas Jefferson

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

I'm not aware of any such Bertrand Russell quote. If you ever do find the exact quote, let me know and I'll add it to my list of favorite Russell quotes.

Not one of his quotes more of an anecdote.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In order to appreciate this story, note the accent marks.

I was watching some super-wacko UFO contactee stuff from the fifties and sixties [unfortunately, it goes with the turf]. There was some guy wearing a full native American headdress, and talking about his meeting with people on a flying saucer from “O’rean”. “And I don’t mean Ori’on”, he specified. “I mean O’rean. It is a planet outside of our galax’y”.

 

[Astronuc]

The most important thing I would learn in school was that almost everything I would learn in school would be utterly useless. When I was fifteen I knew the principal industries of the Ruhr Valley, the underlying causes of World War One and what Peig Sayers had for her dinner every day...What I wanted to know when I was fifteen was the best way to chat up girls. That is what I still want to know.

From the Secret World of the Irish Male by Joseph O'Connor

True friends stab you in the front.
Oscar Wilde

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.
Oscar Wilde

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
George Bernard Shaw - He foresaw GWBush.

http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Quotes/WitHumor.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

"I'm not going to kiss or date anyone until I'm married" - teenage daughter of a fundamentalist.

 

[Geographer]

The quotes of Lao Ma:

-Fill yourself with desire and see only illusion. Empty yourself of desire and understand the great mystery of things.

-To conquer others is to have power. To conquer yourself is to know the way.

-The entire world is driven by a will, blind and ruthless. In order to transcend the limitations of that world, you need to stop willing, stop desiring, stop hating.

-Heaven endures and the Earth lasts a long time because they do not live for themselves. Therefore she who would live a long time should live for others, serve others.

 

[quantumdude]

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they get up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."

--Frank Sinatra

 

[twisting_edge]

"Does it bother you when I torture you?"

-- Evo (20:15 EDT, 23 March 07)

 

[radou]

Apropos member quotes, here's one I find brilliant:

"boy are you naive. we are building a totally artificial persona here that we live with in in our fantasies. E.g. I have pretended for years here to understand tensors, whereas actually they scare me to death."

mathwonk

 

[quantumdude]

"boy are you naive. we are building a totally artificial persona here that we live with in in our fantasies. E.g. I have pretended for years here to understand tensors, whereas actually they scare me to death."

mathwonk

Great quote from a great member.

It reminds me of another great quote by Integral. It was in some GR thread a while ago, and it was full of tensor notation. Integral said something to the effect that he would love to get involved, but "I get tenser around tensors."

 

[lunarmansion]

To be lacking in everything but intelligence is the necessary qualification of thinking like you--Unamuno
Para pensar cual tu, solo es preciso no tener nada mas que inteligensia.

It is no small recommendation when a book will stand the test of mere unobstructed sunshine and daylight--Thoreau

 

[fourier jr]

I say then that the hardships of the student are these: first of all, poverty -- not because they are all poor, but to put the case as strongly as possible -- and when I say that they suffer poverty I do not think that there is anything more to say about their misery; for the poor man lacks everything that is good. This poverty they suffer in various forms: sometimes hunger, sometimes cold, sometimes nakedness, sometimes all of them together. But, all the same, things are not so bad that they do not eat, although it may be a little later than thye are used to, or from the leavings of the rich man's table; for what students call "going on the soup", or begging for their supper is their worst misery. And moreover they do share someone's brazier or hearth, which may not warm them but at least takes the edge off the cold; and, last of all, they sleep under cover at night. I do not want to go into other details -- lack of shirts, for instance, and shortage of shoes, or scanty and threadbare clothing -- or to describe their way of stuffing themselves over-eagerly when Fortune sends them a feast. But by the rough and difficult path which I have indicated, stumbling at times and falling, getting up and falling once more, they do acquire the degree they desire. And when they have got it, I have seen many of them, once passed through those shoals, those Scyllas & Charybdises, as if borne on the wings of Fortune's favour; -- I say that we have seen them command and govern the world from an armchair, their hunger exchanged for a full stomach, their cold for a pleasant coolness, their nakedness for fine clothes, and their sleep on a mat for a comfortable rest on fine linen and damask: the justly merited rewards of their virtue.
Don Quixote on students

After studying Newton's work on gravitation we considered the question: What is gravity and how does it act? We found that in that case, too, that we had no understanding of the action of gravitation. We have a mathematical law describing the quantitative value of this force and, by using this law and laws of motion, we can predict effects that can be experimentally checked. The central concept of gravitation, however, remains unknown. We see, then that at the heart of our best scientific theories is mathematics or, more accurately, some formulas and their consequences. The firm, bold design of a scientific theory is mathematical. Our mental constructions have outrun our intuitive and sense perceptions. In both theories, gravitation and electromagnetism, we must confess our ignorance of the basic mechanisms and leave the task of representing what we know to mathematics. We may lose pride in making this confession, but we may gain understanding of the true state of affairs. We can appreciate now what Alfred North Whitehead meant when he said, "The paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions [of mathematics] are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete facts."
Morris Kline

It was Newton's work that presented humanity with a new world order, a universe controlled by a few mathematical laws, which in turn were deduced from a common set of mathematically expressible physical principles. Here was a majestic scheme that embraced the fall of a stone, the tides of the oceans, the motions of the planets & their moons, the defiant sweep of comets, and the brilliant, stately motion of the canopy of stars. The Newtonian scheme was decisive in convincing the world that nature is mathematically designed and that the true laws of nature are mathematical... Man today uses the Newtonian theory to send people to the moon, to send spaceships to photograph planets such as Mars and Saturn, and to launch satellites the circle the Earth (an idea that had occurred to Newton). All of the planning based on the mathematical theory works perfectly. Any misadventures would result from the failure of human mechanisms.
Morris Kline

What I say will or will not come to pass.
Kepler's disclaimer to his clients

i recently read 'they thought they were free' by milton mayer, who in the late 1940s (i think) interviewed 10 "ordinary" germans (a tailer, a baker, a policeman, etc etc) who were members of the nazi party during the 1930s & 1940s, & asked what germany was like at the time & why they joined the party, etc. chapter 13 was by far the most interesting imo, because it shows how similar the attitudes of the germans towards their government was to other countries (like the United States & especially the red states if you ask me). here's what a philologist had to say in chap 13:

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it...
...To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it -- please try to believe me -- unless one had a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so 'regretted,' that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures' that no 'patriotic German' could resent must someday lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head...
..."Once the war began," my colleague continued, "resistance, protest, criticism, complaint, all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest punishment. Mere lack of enthusiasm, or failure to show it in public, was "defeatism." You assumed that there were lists of those who would be "dealt with" later, after the victory. Goebbels was very clever here, too. He continually promised a "victory orgy" to "take care of" those who thought that their "treasonable attitude" had escaped notice. And he meant it; that was not just propaganda. And that was enough to put an end to all uncertainty.""

(the last bit describes people like bill o'reilly, ann coulter & tucker carlson perfectly)

the same philologist talked about 'pastor niemoller' in the same chapter a bit later on; i wondered for the longest time where this famous quotation came from:

"Pastor Niemoller spoke for the thousands and thousands of men like me when he spoke (too modestly of himself) and said that, when the Nazis attacked the Communists, he was a little uneasy, but after all, he was not a Communist, and so he did nothing; and then they attacked the Socialists, and he was a little uneasier, but, still, he was not a Socialist, and he did nothing; and then the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on, and he was always uneasier, but still he did nothing. And then they attacked the Church, and he was a Churchman, and he did something -- but then it was too late."

the whole chapter is here:
http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Regarding the different smells produced by alternative fuels for automobiles and trucks - used cooking oils that smells like the food cooked, such as McDiesel, or the officially dubbed "clean laundry" smell of hydrogen combustion - from Alan Alda [actor].

That will be a thing that people do; smelling each others tailpipes

absolutely prophetic!

 

[Abhorsen]

Does the walker choose the path or path the walker ?

Garth Nix

 

[enricfemi]

you may live,but just for a while

wallace

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Question: All mariners know that if a man falls off the boat, you are supposed to yell "man overboard!". What are you supposed to yell if a woman falls off the boat? Answer [Paul Lynde]: Full speed ahead!

 

[Moridin]

'Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.' - Louis Pasteur

'A scientist is happy, not in resting on his attainments but in the steady acquisition of fresh knowledge.' - Max Planck

'Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view?' - Victor Hugo

'There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.' - Richard Feynman

'Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science?' - Carl Sagan

'In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual' - Galileo Galilei

'To follow the path: look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.' - Modern Zen poem

'Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view?' - Victor Hugo

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Has this one been posted yet?
The zen you find at the top of the mountain is the zen you bring with you.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Robert Novak? I love Robert Novak. He has one of the finest minds of the 12th century.

- Paul Begala

 

[Astronuc]

physics goes in the part of my brain with Algebra, British comedy, and making flambe. Ill never understand it

ManiacMike on some internet forum about spacewarps, wormholes and FTL travel.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Without a doubt, Stephen [Hawking] is the most stubborn person in the entire universe!

- Leonard Susskind

 

[Ivan Seeking]

From a couple of CNN viewers commenting on a story about divorce:

Love is fleeting but stuff lasts forever. I want to keep my stuff.

Marriage again? It would be easier to just find a woman that I don’t like and buy her a house.

 

[fourier jr]

The West has never been allowed to forget the Nazi holocaust. For 55 years there has been a continuous outpouring of histories, memoirs, novels, feature films, documentaries, television series... played and replayed in every Western language; there have been museums, memorial sculptures, photo expositions, remembrance ceremonies... Never Again! But who hears the voice of the Vietnamese peasant? Who has access to the writings of the Vietnamese intellectual? What was the fate of the Vietnamese Anne Frank? Where, asks the young American, is Vietnam?
Bill Blum, Killing Hope

This science is the work of the human mind, which is destined rather to study than to know, to seek the truth rather than to find it.
Galois

 

[Astronuc]

At least I don't have to put up with the administriviality.

A friend and co-worker on changing employment.

 

[turbo]

The West has never been allowed to forget the Nazi holocaust. For 55 years there has been a continuous outpouring of histories, memoirs, novels, feature films, documentaries, television series... played and replayed in every Western language; there have been museums, memorial sculptures, photo expositions, remembrance ceremonies... Never Again! But who hears the voice of the Vietnamese peasant? Who has access to the writings of the Vietnamese intellectual? What was the fate of the Vietnamese Anne Frank? Where, asks the young American, is Vietnam?
Bill Blum, Killing Hope

This science is the work of the human mind, which is destined rather to study than to know, to seek the truth rather than to find it.
Galois

You should know that Ho Chi Minh was a patriot. When the OSS contacted him During WWII, he wanted to drive the Japanese out of his country and he promised to do that. The OSS asked what he wanted, and he said that he wanted 12 Colt 1911 pistols with holster rigs and ammunition as a show of US support. One for himself, and one for each of his deputies, and he wanted a promise that the Vietnamese people could rule themsevles, and not be subject as a colony of a foreign government. After the war, our government gave him nothing and gave the region back to France. The roots of that war lie in the deceptions and the unmet promises of WWII.

 

[moe darklight]

Here's my official boring friday with no plans Quote-O-Rama!

My classmates would copulate with anything that moved, but I never saw any reason to limit myself.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

You don't appreciate a lot of stuff in school until you get older. Little things like being spanked every day by a middle-aged woman: Stuff you pay good money for in later life.

- Emo Philips

"What's wrong with getting what you want?"

- McLusky

"Heaven's just a scab away"

- Cedric Bixler-Zavala

I think foosball is a combination of soccer and shish kabobs.

I used to do drugs. I still do drugs. But I used to, too.

I wrote my friend a letter using a highlighting pen but he could not read it; he thought I was just trying to show him certain parts of a piece of paper.

The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall.

When someone hands you a flyer, it's like they're saying here you throw this away.

Y'know, you can't please all the people all the time... and last night, all those people were at my show.

- Mitch Hedberg (R.I.P)

If ignorant people could fly, it'd always be dark out.

- My dad says his dad used to say that. I don't know where it's from but I like it.

(on the Bush administration) Then you write, "Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.

(to bush) The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday -- no matter what happened Tuesday.

- Stephen Colbert

He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.

- George Orwell

Normal people don't understand this concept; they believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

- Scott Adams

(...) in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie (...)

- Hitler (ironically, he was referring to the Jews' "big lie", not his own)

What, me worry?

- Alfred E. Neuman

But I'm hungry now.

 

[end3r7]

"The volume of success is a product of wide experience, deep imagination, and a lengthy effort.
One may at times find himself lost in an area where his knowledge is useless, and even become reduced to an ordinary line of thinking. But as long as he does not fail to try, he will never reach the point of no return." - moi

This one cracks me up every time
"Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out alive." - Van Wilder

 

[teknodude]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE"

 

[matthyaouw]

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."
Albert Einstein