Great Quotes II: Source and Context are Key

[Gucumatz]

Do what you love, but be damned sure it’s profitable. If you do work you love, but it doesn’t generate income, your business will fail. If you do work you hate, but it generates income, your health will fail…and your business along with it. If you can’t do what you love and make it profitable, you’ve either got a hobby or a headache, not a sustainable business. Don’t settle for anything less than passion and profit. –Steve Pavlina

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Death is the question Nature puts continually to Life and her reminder to it that it has not yet found itself. If there were no siege of death, the creature would be bound for ever in the form of an imperfect living. Pursued by death he awakes to the idea of perfect life and seeks out its means and its possibility.

-----

 

[Borachio]

When people are not in awe of power,
Power becomes great.

Do not intrude into their homes,
Do not make their lives weary.
If you do not weary them,
They will not become weary of you.

Therefore the Sage
Has self-knowledge without self-display,
Self-love without personal pride,
Rejects one, accepts the other.

Lao Tzu

 

[Gucumatz]

To develop a complete mind, study the science of art, study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

–Leonardo Da Vinci

 

[Borachio]

On tiptoe: no way to stand.
Clambering: no way to walk.
Self-display: no way to shine.
Self-assertion: no way to succeed.
Self-praise: no way to flourish.
Complacency: no way to endure.

According to TAO,
Excessive food,
Extraneous activity
Inspire disgust.

Therefore, the follower of TAO
Moves on.

Lao Tzu

 

[Tee Kay]

"Writer's block comes from the panic of potentiality: There's too much you can do, so you do nothing. Push that thought out of your head and put something down on paper that you know, as a fact, is going to be garbage. Whether that's a terrible chapter full of hackneyed twists and cliched dialogue, a single sentence with six adverbs and zero nouns, or the lone word "dongasm" in all capitals followed by four exclamation points and a 1 -- just give yourself permission to f--- right and thoroughly up. You have all the time in the world to fix it. You're not turning each letter into the English Warden when you're done with it; you can always change things. And if it really sucks, you can always delete it before anybody sees, burn the keyboard that typed such heresy, and then get so drunk that you yell at the couch for judging you."

- Robert Brockway (Cracked)

 

[ace99]

I found his words particularly inspiring as I wrote my legal memo. As a homage I included DONGASM!!!!1 in my analysis section.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

"The great only appear great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!" - Big Jim Larkin, Irish trade unionist and socialist

 

[Dachs]

"The Krauts are kicking the s*** out of our boys over at Salerno. We're going to jump into the beachhead tonight and rescue them. Put on your parachutes and get on the plane - we're taking off in a few minutes for the gates of hell."
-LTC Reuben Tucker, CO 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, abbreviated briefing given late afternoon 13SEP1943

 

[Borachio]

J'adore les langues étrangères. Surtout celles des filles.

Coluche

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

“Boy, those French! They have a different word for everything.”
― Steve Martin

“There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.”
― P.G. Wodehouse

“In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

 

[Borachio]

- Bonjour, dit le petit prince.

- Bonjour, dit le marchand.

C'était un marchand de pilules perfectionnées qui apaisent la soif. On en avale une par semaine et l'on n'éprouve plus le besoin de boire.

- Pourquoi vends-tu ça ? dit le petit prince.

- C'est une grosse économie de temps, dit le marchand. Les experts ont fait des calculs. On épargne cinquante-trois minutes par semaine.

- Et que fait-on des cinquante-trois minutes ?

- On en fait ce que l'on veut...

"Moi, se dit le petit prince, si j'avais cinquante-trois minutes à dépenser, je marcherais tout doucement vers une fontaine..."

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"Good day," said the Little Prince.
"Good day," said the shopkeeper. He was a shopkeeper who sold pills that stopped people feeling thirsty. One only had to swallow one of these pills each week and one wouldn’t have any more thirst.
“Why do you sell those?” The Little Prince asked.
“It’s a great time saver”, the shopkeeper replied. “The experts have worked it out and, by using these pills, one saves 53 minutes each week.”
“And what can you do with these extra 53 minutes ?” The Little Prince asked.
“You can do anything you like.” The shopkeeper replied.

“If I had an extra 53 minutes each week”, the Little Prince said. “I’d go straight to the nearest fountain…..”

 

[bhsup]

"I ain't got time to bleed." - Blaine

 

[_random_]

"The player starts out each level with the red berry, and so, there is no way to collect it. [with one exception: In the boss stage with Molt, other ants throw red berries at you, attempting to aid you in your fight (This, of course, is detrimental to your task, because red berries can not kill Molt, for he is a grasshopper.)]"

- The Wikipedia article on the video game adaptation of A Bug's Life.

 

[Borachio]

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone. "It means just what I choose it to mean: neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice. "Whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "Which is to be master, that's all."

Charles Dodgson

 

[Arakhor]

Charles Dodgson

Isn't it usual to attribute quotes written with pen-names to said pen-names?

 

[Borachio]

I know. I was just being...what?... I don't know...silly, probably.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvellously.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Keynes is an absolute goldmine for quotables:


"I do not know which makes a man more conservative — to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past."

'Capitalism is "the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds."'

"Americans are apt to be unduly interested in discovering what average opinion believes average opinion to be; and this national weakness finds its nemesis in the stock market."

"If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid."

"When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?"

 

[Arakhor]

'Capitalism is "the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds".'

Is that why libertarians seem to hate Keynesian economics?

 

[Borachio]

"When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?"

Keynes wasn't normal, then.

Most people usually keep their original conclusions; then either ignore the changed information, deny the changed information, or distort it to fit the original conclusion.

The more time and effort you've invested in reaching your original conclusion, the less likely you'll be to change.

Change, about important issues, normally only comes as the result of catastrophe.

It takes a great deal of effort just to keep an open, unprejudiced mind. It's not a terribly efficient way to proceed in the world.