quotations

Elise points out a plain and simple truth:

Sometimes, the only way to teach an a55h0le a lesson is with a good ass-whuppin’.

From the About Page at Scurvy Boy:

At that time my Dad made a pretty good living as a pirate so Mom really didn’t have a choice. She did eventually take some correspondence courses, it did take longer than usual due to our wanderings but she did manage to get an Associate’s Degree in TV/VCR repair (which was even more impressive in light of the fact that our boat had neither a TV or VCR).

The Surrealist Compliment Generator says,

“Certainly your trout are more proseperous to vacuum than the flying coachmen of Czar Nicholai!”

How hoopy.

The view from my apartment was the World Trade Center and now it’s gone. They attacked it. This symbol of American ingenuity and strength and labor and imagination and commerce and it is gone. But you know what the view is now? The Statue of Liberty. The view from the south of Manhattan is now the Statue of Liberty. You can’t beat that.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” - Winston Churchill

Definition: In a word…

ultracrepidarian: (n., adj.) a person who gives opinions beyond his scope of knowledge.

“Nonexpert opinion or assumed authority - Don’t be swayed (or try to sway someone else) based on the opinion of an unqualified authority. The Air Force is chock-full of people who, because of their position or authority in one field, are quoted on subjects in other fields for which they have limited or no experience.”

Life is the mayonnaise through which we squirt. - Jason Kottke

I’ve a few good reasons for drinking
And one just entered my head
If a man can’t drink when he’s living
How the hell can he drink when he’s dead?

- seen on a t-shirt for McSwiggin’s Pub, “where there are no strangers, only friends yet to meet”

[click to continue...]

“Eternity is very long; especially towards the end.”

“It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.” - Gurdjieff (1873-1949)

“Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.” - Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D.)

I was searching for a quote by Robert Kennedy. I remember seeing it on a billboard in Boston several years ago. It was one of those things that for some reason - the air, the moment, the sky, something - has always stayed on the edge of my thoughts. Whenever I am wandering, wondering what is happening, or how, or why, or feeling lost or worried or confused or desperate, this quote floats into my head. It was something like,

Some men look at what is and ask, ‘Why?’ I choose to look at what could be and ask, “Why not?”

It just seems very powerful to me, this concept. Hope.
So I thought about it this morning and I decided to see if I could find the exact quote on the web. I found a few variations and most were accompanied by a note that Kennedy was paraphrasing Shaw.
Too much ado?
Without further, here are a few other good ones:

• “The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.”
• “Life does not cease to be funny when people die; any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
• “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
• “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”

“I think I need less time to think.” - fí-dël’ï-tê

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” - George Eliott

“I hang on the picayune details of your whirlwhind, jet-set bicoastal life.” - Brad Graham