Just for fun, and interest, here is my list of the 25 best things ever said.
Not in order, except for the last one, which is my favorite
25. If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.
— Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973)
(I have seen this attributed to Truman, as well)
24. The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) (quoting or paraphrasing John Locke)
23. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
— Galileo Galilei
22. To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.
— Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
21. When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.
— Desiderius Erasmus (1465-1536)
20. It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
— Epictetus (c.55-c.135)
19. He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice.
— Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
18. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi
17. No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
— John Donne (1572-1631), Meditation XVII
16. If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
— Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
15. My Country, right or wrong” is a thing no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)
14. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.
— Barbara Jordan
13. The gods are amused when the busy river condemns the idle clouds
— Rabindranath Tagore
12. Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
— Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
11. Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
— William Pitt (1759-1806)
10. Pain shared is lessened, joy shared, increased
— Spider Robinson
9. The good old days. I was there. Where was they?
— Moms Mabley 1894-1975
8. All models are wrong but some are useful.
— George Box
7. The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” but “That’s funny…”
— Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)
6. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.
— Hillel
5. If I am not for myself, who is for me?
If I am for myself alone, what am I?
If not now, when?
— Hillel
4. Those who would give up a little freedom to get a little security shall soon have neither
— Benjamin Franklin
3. If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let each man march to his own rhythm, however measured, or far away
— H. D. Thoreau
2. There is nothing so horrible in nature as to see a beautiful theory murdered by an ugly gang of facts
— Benjamin Franklin
and, my favorite
1. Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people’s souls, when we all ought to be worried abut our own souls, and other people’s bellies
Rabbi Israel Salanter 1810-1883
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Particularly appropriate nowadays, don’t you think?
I’m also rather fond of my sig line.
from the Lankavatara Sutra
Arthur C. Clarke
Who also said:
“CNN is one of the participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected president but refuses because he doesn’t want to give up power.”
“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”
“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
And one of my favorites:
“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”
by anyone to anyone.
. . . it’s STILL a stupid thing.”
I don’t know who said that originally, but I saw it on a bumper sticker about 50 years ago when I was a little boy, and it has stuck with me all my life.
Education transpires in the strangest places! : )
1) We find that after years of struggle we do not take a journey, but rather a journey takes us. –John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968), Travels with Charley
2) A despot doesn’t fear eloquent writers preaching freedom – he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold. – E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, editor
3) Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan
4) One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. it is simply too painful to acknowledge — even to ourselves — that we’ve been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.) -Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection
5) It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful? -Annie Dillard
7) It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong – Voltaire
8) The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom. -Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
And finally, just because they make me smile:
9) It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to. – W.C. Fields
10) The good life is expensive. There is another way to live that doesn’t cost as much, but it isn’t any good. -Spanish vintners
“Cattle die, kinsmen die. One day eke you yourself will die. One thing I know that never dies, the name of one who has done well.” — The Havamal
“The truth will set you free. So will pork and beans.” — My DoD contractor father, William J. Tronolone, upon coming back from a meeting in Washington DC with the CIA.
“Self possession is 9/10 of the law.” — me