Tuesday, October 10. 2006
I've been rich, and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better. Mae West
Monday, October 9. 2006
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. D.H. Lawrence (that's the headline quote of the most recent addition to our blogroll: Never yet Melted)
Friday, October 6. 2006
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Sam Adams, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776 (h/t, Massbackwards)
Thursday, October 5. 2006
[American religions teach] honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man. . . . with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens -- a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
Wednesday, October 4. 2006
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill
Tuesday, October 3. 2006
Hope makes a good breakfast but a poor supper. Anon. (h/t, Tangled Web)
Monday, October 2. 2006
To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil. Charles Krauthammer
Friday, September 29. 2006
To hear the voice of God, turn down the volume of the world. From a roadside sign, h/t Slower Pace
Thursday, September 28. 2006
If others do not respond to your love with love, look into your own benevolence; if others fail to respond to your own attempts to govern them with order, look into your own wisdom; if others do not return your courtesy, look into your own respect. In other words, look into yourself whenever you fail to achieve your purpose. When you are correct in your person, the Empire will turn to you. Mencius (aka Meng Zi, Meng Ke) circa 400 BC
Monday, September 25. 2006
Fascism is always descending on the United States, but somehow it keeps landing in Europe. Tom Wolfe (h/t, No Pasaran)
Tuesday, September 19. 2006
All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl. Charlie Chaplin
Monday, September 18. 2006
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"
"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down." (H/t - above quoted from neoneocon)
Wednesday, September 13. 2006
Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Alice in Wonderland. (h/t, Tangled Web, for reminding us)
Friday, September 8. 2006
A gentleman is never unintentionally rude. Anon.
Monday, September 4. 2006
The thing about tennis is: no matter how much I play, I'll never be as good as a wall. I played a wall once. They're ... relentless. Mitch Hedberg (h/t, Owner's Manual)
Tuesday, August 29. 2006
1. Do not hear 2. Do not open your mouth 3. Do not rebuke anyone 4. Make yourself foolish in this world Cassian, from a piece at Middlebrow
Thursday, August 24. 2006
Wall Street has a knack for taking their experience and your money, and converting them into their money and your experience. Anon.
Wednesday, August 23. 2006
The object of art is to give life a shape. Shakespeare
Tuesday, August 22. 2006
Nothing can come of nothing. Shakespeare
Monday, August 21. 2006
I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves. Ronald Reagan
Friday, August 18. 2006
Plants. Ever thought about them? They're pretty good. They just sit there in all weathers. You don't have to bring them in when it rains. You leave them. They grow. Norm Geras of Normblog
Thursday, August 17. 2006
[Without a picture frame], you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a "box" around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall? Frank Zappa (h/t, Owner's Manual)
Wednesday, August 16. 2006
Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants. William Penn
Tuesday, August 15. 2006
You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans. Ronald Reagan
Monday, August 14. 2006
If you don't read the newspapers, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you are misinformed. Mark Twain
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