Precise adaptation, with each part finely honed to perform a definite
function in an optimal way, can only lead to blind alleys, dead ends,
and extinction.
- Stephen Jay Gould
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The final conquest of the truth comes, if ever, inevitably tinged with
disillusion, soured by the realization of the ultimate irrelevance of
all intellectual endeavors.
- Gian-Carlo Rota
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Russia is a country with an unpredictable past.
- Yuri Afanasiev, May 1993
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We wanted it to go better, but it turned out as always.
- Viktor Chernomyrdin, Prime Minister
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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The problem with American power is not that it is American. The problem is
simply the power. It would be dangerous even for an archangel to wield so
much power.
- Timothy Garton Ash, Oxford historian, New York Times, April 9, 2002
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Why, of course the people don't want war... But after all it is the leaders
of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to
drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship,
or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people
can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you
have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the
pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.
- Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
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Today the world faces a single man armed with weapons of mass destruction,
manifesting an aggressive, bullying attitude, who may well plunge the world
into chaos and bloodshed if he miscalculates. This person, belligerent,
arrogant, and sure of himself, truly is the most dangerous person on Earth.
The problem is that his name is George W. Bush, and he is our president.
- Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the
First Ammendment, Yale Law School, September 22, 2002
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Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- George Santayana
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History is the story of warfare between secret societies.
- Ismael Reed
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There is nothing so powerful, not all the armies in the world, as an idea
whose time has come.
- Victor Hugo
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The politicians tell lies to journalists, and then believe those same lies
when they turn up in print.
- Karl Kraus
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To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and
where they make a desert, they call it peace.
- Calgacus
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Chess is not something that drives people mad; chess is something that keeps
mad people sane.
- William Hartston
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Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes (I fear the Greeks even when they
bring gifts).
- Virgil
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The foulest damage to our political life comes not from the 'secrets' which
they hide from us, but from the little bits of half-truth and disinformation
which they do tell us. These are already pre-digested, and then are sicked
up as little gobbits of authorised spew. The columns of defence
correspondents in the establishment sheets serve as the spittoons.
- E. P. Thompson, British historian
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A nation which enslaves another forges its own chains.
- Karl Marx
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We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end
terrorism by terrorizing others.
- Martin Luther King III
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Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.
- George Burns
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Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the
lesson afterward.
- Vernon Law
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The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything;
the young know everything.
- Oscar Wilde
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Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.
- Will Rogers
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The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.
- Pascal
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Roberto: It is a sad and beautiful world.
Zack: Yeah, it's a sad and beautiful world buddy.
- Down by Law, a movie by Jim Jarmusch
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There are just two rules for success: 1. Never tell all you know.
- Roger H. Lincoln
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As long as the state permits itself to interfere in the affairs
of literature, literature has the right to interfere with the
affairs of state.
- Joseph Brodsky
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This is a simple tale of a devout monk who spent his life in deep
meditation. Along this journey, he experienced a profound revelation:
A vision of nirvana. Enthralled by its insight, he believed he had
achieved absolute enlightenment. He shared his revelation with his
master. His master was unimpressed yet compassionate. "Indeed,"
the master intoned, "this is not a singular event among men."
He told the monk that his vision of enlightenment would draw him
away from his spiritual journey. The monk became greatly distressed.
Then the master told the monk that if he should meet the Buddha, he
should slay him. "Why kill the Buddha?" asked the monk in disbelief.
"Because that Buddha will not be the true Buddha," replied the master.
"He will merely be an expression of your longing for what it is you
seek. If you do not kill the Buddha, he will only stand in your way."
- Zen Buddhist Tradition
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Oppose the oppressor and support the oppressed.
- Imam Ali
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The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of
great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
- Dante
|
Forgetfulness is the handmaiden of tyranny.
- James Carroll
|
Sometimes the truth is too simple for intellectuals.
- Jean-Paul Sartre
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Markets can stay irrational longer than participants can stay liquid.
- John Maynard Keynes
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In the long run, we are all dead.
- John Maynard Keynes
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This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
- HAL 9000
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America could always be counted on to do the right thing, after having
exhausted all the alternatives.
- Winston Churchill
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Young man knows the rules and the old man knows the exceptions.
- James Dines
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Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a
just man is also a prison ... the only house in a slave State in which
a free man can abide with honor.
- Henry David Thoreau
|
There is nothing new under the Sun, but there are lots of old things
we don't know.
- Ambrose Bierce
|
If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.
- Rudyard Kipling
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Be brave when others are afraid, and afraid when others are brave.
- Warren Buffett
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Wer im Glashaus sitzt, soll nicht mit Steinen werfen.
- German Proverb
|
Kurtz: "What did they tell you?"
Willard: "They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that
your methods were unsound."
Kurtz: "Are my methods unsound?"
Willard: "I don't see any method, at all, sir."
- Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola, Director
|
Nothing is EVER about anything except money.
- The Mogambo Guru, Richard Daughty
|
It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
- Yogi Berra
|
Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan
brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the
Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of
the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the
East."
- The Naulahka, Rudyard Kipling
|
Never mistake motion for action. For motion can be action-less,
and sometimes action should be motionless.
- Dr. Ho, Zen Buddhist
|
Civilisation exists by geologic consent, subject to change
without notice.
- Will Durant, Historian
|
Whenever you can, count.
- Francis Galton
|
All empires collapse eventually: Akkad, Sumeria, Babylonia,
Ninevah, Assyria, Persia, Macedonia, Greece, Carthage, Rome,
Mali, Songhai, Mongonl, Tokugawaw, Gupta, Khmer, Hapbsburg,
Inca, Aztec, Spanish, Dutch, Ottoman, Austrian, French,
British, Soviet, you name them, they all fell, and most
within a few hundred years. The reasons are not really complex.
An empire is a kind of state system that inevitably makes the
same mistakes simply by the nature of its imperial structure
and inevitably fails because of its size, complexity,
territorial reach, stratification, heterogeneity, domination,
hierarchy, and inequalities.
- Kirkpatrick Sale
|
You cannot drink yourself sober and, you cannot borrow your
way to solvency.
- Randolph Buss
|
I cannot exceed what I see.
- Saul Bellow
|
Bilgi toplumu oldunuz da, duygu toplumu olmaniza
megabaytlariniz mi yetmiyor?
- Musfik Kenter
|
I would like to name XX century not as century of catastrophe
as sometimes it is named but as century of the warning.
The events of present century have allowed us to take a
glance after a horizon - we have seen the features a reality,
which can expect us, can expect all of us, all the mankind.
Previous years and the events really warn us. But
simultaneously also give us a chance, because we have
understood: much still is not late to make. But the
Collective Decisions and Collective Will are necessary
for this purpose! I am sure that the world goes to a
rational society in which at all colorful palette of the
cultures, which is necessary for future maintenance of
Man, the unity without national borders, national governments
and confrontation will be ratified".
- N. N. Moiseev, from the book "The Modern Rationalism"
|
A conqueror is always a lover of peace.
- Karl von Clausewitz, Prussian General
|
You know the best thing about necrophilia? You don't have
to bring flowers. Usually they're already there.
- George Carlin
|
An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.
- Eugene McCarthy, US Senator & Anti-War Activist
|
You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the
Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood
the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there
would be a revolution before morning."
-Andrew Jackson, 1828
|
The US is safest when Congress is in recess.
- Will Rogers
|
It is probably true that hard work never killed anyone, but
why take a chance?
- Ronald Reagan
|
If you're really good at what you do, and you dress funny, you're
an eccentric. If you're not so good at what you do, and you dress
funny, you're a schmuck. So our motivation here has always been
to be extraordinarily good at what we do, so therefore we can
wear whatever we want.
- Sam Zell
|
He asked if we're not scared. I told him we are more scared of not
having anything to eat on Saturday.
- Mexican bridge worker, From the movie "In the Pit"
|
Law is that which is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained.
- Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson's Vice President
|
We refuse to recognize a claim to power that would so alter the
constitutional foundations of our Republic.
- Diana Gribbon Motz, Judge, June 12, 2007
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
|
I came to Istanbul to look at the past, not at the future -- since
the latter doesn't exist here: ... Here there is only an unenviable,
third-rate present of the people, industrious yet plundered by the
intensity of the local history. Nothing will happen here anymore,
apart perhaps from street disorders or an earthquake.
- Joseph Brodsky, 1980s
|
O Lord, if there is a Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul.
- Ernest Renan
|
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
- Albert Einstein
|
80% of success is showing up.
- Woody Allen
|
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
- Mark Twain
|
I have almost achieved perfection you see, of a divine creature that is pure,
harmonious, absolutely incapable of any malice. And if in my tinkering I have
fallen short of the human form by the snout, claw or hoof, it really is of no
great importance. I am closer than you could possibly imagine sir.
- Marlon Brando as Dr. Moreau, from the 1996 movie "The Island of Dr. Moreau"
|
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
- Seneca
|
If you are going through hell, keep going.
- Churchill
|