The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line. The objection to it is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in sense.
H. L. MenckenAmerican journalist and writer1880 - 1956
Thomas Jefferson once said: 'Of course the people don't want war. But the people can be brought to the bidding of their leader. All you have to do is tell them they're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for somehow a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.' I think that was Jefferson. Oh wait. That was Hermann Goering. Shoot.
Jon StewartAmerican comedian, writer, producer, activist, and television hostborn 1962
I am thrilled to be alive at a time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding. Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits.
Richard DawkinsEnglish ethologist, evolutionary biologist and authorborn 1941
The country’s twenty four hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic. If we amplify everything we hear nothing.
Jon StewartAmerican comedian, writer, producer, activist, and television hostborn 1962
When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble.
Prometheus Bound, ll. 89-90; whether Aeschylus wrote the play is disputed.
Greek: ποντίων τε κυμάτων ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα.
We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas JeffersonFounding Father, U.S. president from 1801 to 18091743 - 1826
American Declaration of Independence : Knowles, E. (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
American Declaration of Independence : Knowles, E. (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster.
Carl SaganAmerican astrophysicist, cosmologist and author1934 - 1996
Always, you put more of yourself into your work, until one day, you never know exactly which day, it happens—you are your work. The passions that motivate you may change, but it is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.
Pablo PicassoSpanish painter and sculptor1881 - 1973
Reported by Charlotte Chandler, The Ultimate Seduction (1984)
Customer expectations? Nonsense. No customer ever asked for the electric light, the pneumatic tire, the VCR, or the CD. All customer expectations are only what you and your competitor have led him to expect. He knows nothing else.
W. Edwards DemingAmerican professor, author, and consultant1900 - 1993
Is there anything, apart from a really good chocolate cream pie and receiving a large unexpected cheque in the post, to beat finding yourself at large in a foreign city on a fair spring evening, loafing along unfamiliar streets in the long shadows of a lazy sunset, pausing to gaze in shop windows or at some church or lovely square or tranquil stretch of quayside, hesitating at street corners to decide whether that cheerful and homey restaurant you will remember fondly for years is likely to lie down this street or that one? I just love it. I could spend my life arriving each evening in a new city.