Daily Quotes

[Tamrin]

Wednesday’s Quotes for the Day:

It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which
goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction


Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and
where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain


I may be permitted, kind reader, to doubt whether you have ever been enclosed in
a glass bottle, unless some vivid dream has teased you with such magical mishaps


Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and
horror because some feeble soul here and there finds it more than it can bear?
Shall there be no strong meat at table because there happen to be some guests
there whose stomachs are weak, or who have spoiled their own digestions?


Perhaps, too, you will then believe that nothing is more wonderful, nothing more fan-
tastic than real life, and that all that a writer can do is to present it as "in a glass, darkly"


Once you are dancing with the devil, the prettiest capers won't help you


Boys should not play with weapons more dangerous than they understand


E.T.A. Hoffmann
German author of horror and fantasy (The Nutcracker)
(Died this day 1822)



It is only in the morning that one should marry, read unfavour-
able reviews, make one's will, beat one's servants, and so forth

[Tamrin]

My mother said, Don't worry about what people think now. Think about
whether your children and grandchildren will think you've done well


It never entered my father's mind nor my mind ever to do a job other than at one's best ability


I was born with an ability to concentrate very hard on a job for a long time


Never feel that a piece of criticism or advice is too
much trouble to give, or that it exceeds your province


What do you do if you are asked to do a job, first by the
Prime Minister, and then by the King? How can you refuse?


I believe firmly that it was the Almighty's goodness, to check my consummate vanity


My trophy value exceeded my military usefulness


Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
KG GCB OM GCSI GCIE GCVO DSO PC FRS
British statesman and naval officer
Indian Viceroy then Governor-General
(Born this day 1900)



The team should have implicit confidence in the captain's decisions

[Tamrin]

1 of 2:

Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and
murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind


Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of
thought? … Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the
very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such
a conversation as we are having now?… The whole climate of thought will be
different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy
means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness


He who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past


It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia
as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same – every-
where, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this,
people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet
almost exactly the same — people who had never learned to think but were storing up in
their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world


No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid,
but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid... Many people
genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve
or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings


One must choose between God and Man, and all 'radicals' and 'progressives',
from the mildest liberal to the most extreme anarchist, have in effect chosen Man


As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents


George Orwell
English author (Animal Farm, 1984)
(Born this day 1903)



All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others

[Tamrin]

2 of 2:

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act


If liberty means anything at all, it means
the right to tell people what they do not want to hear


Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious


Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.
If that is granted, all else follows


In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political
issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia


So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire
by people who don't even know that fire is hot


We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready
in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm


George Orwell
(Born this day 1903)



Big Brother is watching you

[Tamrin]

It is within science itself, and not in some prior
philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described


At root what is needed for scientific inquiry is just receptivity to data,
skill in reasoning, and yearning for truth. Admittedly, ingenuity can help too


Necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about


Nonbeing must in some sense be, otherwise what is it that there is not?
This tangled doctrine might be nicknamed Plato's beard; historically
it has proved tough, frequently dulling the edge of Occam's razor


The word 'definition' has come to have a dangerously reassuring sound,
owing no doubt to its frequent occurrence in logical and mathematical writings


Implication is thus the very texture of our web of belief, and logic is the theory that traces it


Creatures inveterately wrong in their inductions have a pathetic
but praiseworthy tendency to die before reproducing their kind


Willard Van Orman Quine
American philosopher and logician
(Born this day 1908)



My concern is that there not be more things in my philosophy than are in heaven and earth

[Tamrin]

Walk Against Fear


The day for the Negro man being a coward is over


Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights.
It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind


My answer to the racial problem in America is to not deal with it at all.
The founding fathers dealt with it when they made the Constitution


I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force
the federal government — the Kennedy administration at that time — into a position where
they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen


You gotta understand — the state of Mississippi was in rebellion. It
had rebelled against the United States... Now that has been a very
difficult story for America to tell, but that's what actually happened


I noticed in the hallway a black janitor and I wondered why he was standing
there. And he had a mop under his arm. And as I passed him, he turned his body,
twisted his body, and touched me with the mop handle. Now this delivered a
message and the message was clear: We are looking after you while you are here


James Meredith
US civil rights activist
(Born this day 1933)



Be equal in reality

[Tamrin]

Enough of dreams! No longer mock the burdened hearts of men!
Not on the cloud, but on the rock build thou thy faith again


The towering Babels that we raised where scoffing sophists brawl,
the little Antichrists we praised — the night is on them all


We have come by curious ways to the Light that holds the days; We have sought
in haunts of fear for that all-enfolding sphere: And lo! it was not far, but near


Heart of my heart, we are one with the wind, One with the clouds that are whirled o'er
the lea, One in many, O broken and blind, One as the waves are at one with the sea!


Heart of my heart, the world is young; Love lies hidden in every rose!


The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees, the moon was
a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, the road was a ribbon of
moonlight looping the purple moor, and the highwayman came riding —
Riding — riding — The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door


One kiss, my bonny sweetheart; I'm after a prize tonight, but I shall be back
with the yellow gold before the morning light. Yet if they press me sharply,
and harry me through the day. Then look for me by moonlight, Watch for me
by moonlight, I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way


Alfred Noyes, CBE
English poet (The Highwayman)
(Died this day 1958)



Mystery: Time and Tide shall pass, I am the Wisdom Looking-Glass

[Tamrin]

1 of 4:

I'm from a little place called England... We used to run the world before you


No one grows up saying 'I hope I work in an office one day?' And that fascinated
me. People from 16 to 65 are just thrown together and that is a tantalizing mix


We picked on something people identified with — a decent job at work, a relation-
ship, a boss who needs to be loved and who is going through a mid-life crisis


Because it was couched in realism, I think people recognized things.
The more you understand something, I think the more you can enjoy it


I remember when we were talking to one of the executives at the BBC. And he said,
‘Now hold on, this man (David Brent) is so incompetent why wouldn`t he be fired?’
and I said ‘Go and take a look around this building. Just go and knock on a few doors’


We make television for a British audience and it's still amazing to me that
most countries in the world have my fat face beamed into homes once a week


I hate lateness. I hate people who are late. There is no excuse for turning up late for
anything. I`ve never been late for anything in my life. I was actually born a week pre-
mature, because I wanted to be early for my own birth. Being late is an insult to me


Ricky Gervais
English comic writer and performer (The Office)
(Born this day 1961)



I have plenty of pet hates. I can`t stand people scraping their plate or
slurping their soup. I can`t stand waiting in lines. I hate people talking
inanely about the Lord Of The Rings. I hate people whistling. But I`m
not like this because I`m famous. I`ve always been a grumpy bastard

[Tamrin]

2 of 4:

Atheism is a belief system like "Off" is a TV Channel


I believe that God made me better than you for a reason.
Please respect my deeply held religious beliefs. Thank you


The best thing about believing in a crazy, illogical, man-made, totally
fictional afterlife, is that you will never find out you were wrong


Isn't it comforting to know that after we die we will feel and know nothing?
Be no one. Nowhere. Atoms dispersed in a universe. Memories


A Christian telling an atheist he is going to Hell is about as scary as
a small child telling an adult they won’t get any presents from Santa


I see Atheists are fighting and killing each other again, over who
doesn't believe in any God the most. Oh, no — wait — that never happens


It seems to be true, particularly in middle America, that those most
militant about using up fossil fuels, don't actually believe in fossils


Ricky Gervais
(Born this day 1961)



Oedipus had his faults, but at least he loved his mum

[Tamrin]

3 of 4:

You can have your own opinions, but you can't have your own facts


Opinions don't affect facts. But facts should affect opinions, and do, if you're rational


Being offended provides no objective indication of "right" & "wrong".
It's nothing more than a barometer of your own emotional control


Getting offended by a statement of fact does not make that fact any
less true. But do continue to be offended by it. It makes me laugh


I love the fact that many of you are really thick with no sense of humour. It amuses me. Thank you


Relax. You're not paranoid. I really am slagging you off behind your back


"Should schools teach atheism?” No. There’s no need to “teach” atheism.
It’s the natural result of education without indoctrination


Ricky Gervais
(Born this day 1961)



The way some people are reacting, you'd think the bill on same sex
marriage was to make it compulsory as a opposed to personal choice