Daily Quotes

[Tamrin]

In the army we do two things every day. We train our soldiers and then we grow
them into leaders, because frankly, we don't hire out. We grow our own leaders


You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader. You can
certainly command without that sense of commitment, but you cannot lead without it


I have spent a lifetime watching kids make mistakes because they were not trained
or well led or properly motivated to do well. I never faulted the kids; rather, I saw
opportunity to train, to motivate, to improve leadership — not to punish the individual


An army that fought and won a war decisively finds it even more difficult to undergo change


The magnificent army that fought in Desert Storm is a great army,
and it still is a magnificent army today. But it was one we designed
for the Cold War, and the Cold War has been over for ten years now


I do not want to criticize while my soldiers are still bleeding and dying in Iraq


More importantly, if you are in a position to hire, hire a veteran.
They will be the best employees you have


Eric Shinseki
Japanese -American US Army General (34^th Chief of Staff)
(Born this day 1942)



If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more

[Tamrin]

The only queer people are those who don't love anybody


The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering
from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends. If they're ok, then it's you


I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself


About all you can do in life is, be who you are. Some people will love you for you.
Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all


Don't hope more than you're willing to work


I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it


If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done


Rita Mae Brown
American novelist (Rubyfruit Jungle)
(Born this day 1944)



Normal is the average of deviance

[Tamrin]

The universe is a womb for the genesis of gods


The belly is the reason that man does not easily mistake himself for a god


If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't


Faith — what is this emotion but a desperate attempt to escape from mind-burning fear?


For us humanity was a distant goal toward which all men were moving,
whose image no one knew, whose laws were nowhere written down


We are the light inside light that fuses into the atoms of our bodies; we are
the fire that whirls across the stellar deeps and dances all things into being


This was the true nature of consciousness and the meaning of matter,
that ultimately both were one substance without cause or control outside itself


David Zindell
American science fiction author (The Broken God)
(Born this day 1952)



To be what you want to be: isn't this the essence of being human?

[Tamrin]

If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement.
If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery


Whatever Nature has in store for mankind, unpleasant as it may be,
men must accept, for ignorance is never better than knowledge


Before I came here, I was confused about this subject.
Having listened to your lecture, I am still confused — but on a higher level


The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes
its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to
humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light


One might be led to question whether the scientists acted wisely in presenting
the statesmen of the world with this appalling problem. Actually there was no
choice. Once basic knowledge is acquired, any attempt at preventing its fruition
would be as futile as hoping to stop the earth from revolving around the sun


Young man, if I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist


Oh, anything with a probability of less than 20%
(when asked what he meant by a miracle)


Enrico Fermi
Italian physicist and Nobel laureate (Physics, 1938)
(Died this day 1954)



Where are they?
(Fermi paradox)/center]

[Tamrin]

Friday’s Quotes:

If wishes were horses, beggars might ride


He speaks Bear-garden: That is, such rude and uncivil, or sordid and
dirty language, as the rabble that frequent those sports, are wont to use


In a calm sea every man is a pilot


Blood is thicker than water


Misery loves company


To go like a cat upon a hot bakestone


Money begets money


John Ray, FRS
English naturalist (“the father of English natural history”)
(Born this day 1627)



No surer criterion for determining species has occurred to me than the distinguishing
features that perpetuate themselves in propagation from seed. Thus, no matter what
variations occur in the individuals or the species, if they spring from the seed of one
and the same plant, they are accidental variations and not such as to distinguish a
species ... Animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species
permanently; one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa

(The first biological definition of what a species is — History of Plants, 1686)

[Tamrin]

The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He
inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens
him. He will have no disciples. A noble artist, he has visions of excellence
and revelations of beauty which he has neither impersonated in character nor
embodied in words. His life and teachings are but studies for yet nobler ideals


Man must have some recognized stake in society and affairs to knit him lov-
ingly to his kind, or he is wont to revenge himself for wrongs real or imagined


All unrest is but the struggle of the soul to reassure herself of her inborn immortality


The passions refuse to be organized on a basis of their own; hostile to personal
freedom and one another, they rush precipitately into anarchy and mob rule


Success is sweet: the sweeter if long delayed and attained through manifold struggles and defeats


Prudence is the footprint of Wisdom


The less of routine, the more of life


Amos Bronson Alcott
US teacher, writer, philosopher and reformer
(Born this day 1799)



Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary

[Tamrin]

Aristocracy is always cruel


The labor movement means just this: it is the last noble protest
of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth


Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and
the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies


Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing
and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people


Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep,
but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment


If there is anything in the universe
that can't stand discussion, let it crack


What is fanaticism today is the fashionable creed tomorrow,
and trite as the multiplication table a week after


Wendell Phillips
US Human Rights advocate, especially of Native American Rights,
women's suffrage, labor movement, antislavery & prison reform
(Born this day 1811)



To be as good as our fathers we must be better, imitation is not discipleship

[Tamrin]

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find of governing it well


I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship


Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know


Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them,
but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead


Women have been called queens for a long time,
but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling


I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion,
the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and
do well we have a right to, and I don't think anyone will deny us


Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach
for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won


Louisa May Alcott
US author (Little Women)
(Born this day 1832)



Housekeeping ain't no joke

[Tamrin]

Apathy is a sort of living oblivion


Common sense is very uncommon


Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take
wings. Only one thing endures and that is character


I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot


The darkest hour in any man's life is when he sits
down to plan how to get money without earning it


The illusion that times that were are better than
those that are, has probably pervaded all ages


There is no bigotry like that of "free thought" run to seed


Horace Greeley
American newspaperman (“Go west young man”)
(Died this day 1872)



It is done

(last words)

[Tamrin]

Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the
existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself


In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make
men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and
are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful


The value of myth is that it takes all the things you know and restores to
them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity


Only the skilled can judge the skilfulness, but that is not the same as judging the value of the result


Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about
the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me
about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand


There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth


There seems no plan because it is all plan, no centre because it is all centre


C.S. Lewis
Irish scholar and writer (The Chronicles of Narnia)
(Born this day 1898)



Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily,
I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours
are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions
we ask — half our great theological and metaphysical problems — are like that