Responsibility, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. ~Ambrose Bierce
But it seems an irony of creation that man's mind knows how to handle things the better the farther removed they are from the center of his existence. Thus we are cleverest where knowledge matters least.... ~Hermann Weyl
My religious position: I think that God could do a lot better, and I'm willing to give Him the chance. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? ~Barack Obama, Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, 2004 Jul 27
Without faith there is no truth, for that is all the truth is or ever was. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Question: " I understand that Congress is considering a so-called 'flat' tax system. How would this work?" Answer: "If Congress were to pass a 'flat' tax, you'd simply pay a fixed percentage of your income, and you wouldn't have to fill out any complicated forms, and there would be no loopholes for politically connected groups, and normal people would actually understand the tax laws, and giant talking broccoli stalks would come around and mow your lawn for free, because Congress is NOT going to pass a flat tax, you pathetic fool." ~Dave Barry
You know you live in Phoenix when you can drive four hours in any one direction and never leave the Valley. ~Author Unknown
So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Chapter 7
Here is my advice as we begin the century that will lead to 2081. First, guard the freedom of ideas at all costs. Be alert that dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify. And don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with to free, public, unhampered expression. ~Gerard K. O'Neill, 2081
Never make a companion equal to a brother. ~Hesiod
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate. ~Linda Grayson, "The Pickwick Papers"
My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require. ~Edward Elgar
Man talks about everything, and he talks about everything as though the understanding of everything were all inside him. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
A hunter of shadows, himself a shade. ~Homer
Winning isn't overrated - it's your acceptance of being rated. ~Carrie Latet
The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us. ~Michel de Montaigne, translated
And what Thou art may never be destroyed. ~Emily Bronte
Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react. You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally. Apart from that, all is peace and quiet. You are in the man's nirvana. And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and say you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set. ~Raymond Chandler
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. ~George Orwell, "Why I Write," 1947 (Thanks, Jennifer)
When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news. ~Charles Anderson Dana
To crush out fanaticism and revere the infinite, such is the law. Let us not confine ourselves to falling prostrate beneath the tree of creation and contemplating its vast ramifications full of stars. We have a duty to perform, to cultivate the human soul, to defend mystery against miracle, to adore the incomprehensible and to reject the absurd; to admit nothing that is inexplicable excepting what is necessary, to purify faith and obliterate superstition from the face of religion, to remove the vermin from the garden of God. ~Victor Hugo
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~Theodor Seuss Geisel, attributed Don't cry when the sun is gone, because the tears won't let you see the stars. ~Violeta Parra
You stars that reigned at my nativity, whose influence hath allotted death and hell. ~Christopher Marlowe
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