Sunday, August 28, 2011 – Disaster Time
The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain. ~ Colin Wilson
Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune? ~ Elias Canetti
I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
I see America spreading disaster. I see America as a black curse upon the world. I see a long night settling in and that mushroom which has poisoned the world withering at the roots. ~ Henry Miller
I think the inherent right of the Government to lie to save itself when facing a nuclear disaster is basic. ~ Arthur Sylvester
It is always one’s virtues and not one’s vices that precipitate one into disaster. ~ Rebecca West
My idea of an amusement park story is getting adventurers to go tour environmental disaster areas. After all, if the entire Great Barrier Reef gets killed, which seems like an extremely lively possibility, what are you going to do with all that rotting limestone? ~ Bruce Sterling
There is such a thing as tempting the gods. Talking too much, too soon and with too much self-satisfaction has always seemed to me a sure way to court disaster. The forces of retribution are always listening. They never sleep. ~ Meg Greenfield
We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. ~ Carl Sagan
Only after disaster can we be resurected. ~ Chuck Palahniuk
Birth: The first and direst of all disasters ~ Ambrose Bierce
Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters in life begin when you get what you want. ~ Irving Kristol
The earth is mankind’s ultimate haven, our blessed terra firma. When it trembles and gives way beneath our feet, it’s as though one of God’s checks has bounced. ~ Gilbert Adair
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. ~ Edward Gibbon
Down went the owners – greedy men whom hope of gain allured: oh, dry the starting tear, for they were heavily insured! ~ W. S. Gilbert
The popularity of disaster movies expresses a collective perception of a world threatened by irresistible and unforeseen forces which nevertheless are thwarted at the last moment. Their thinly veiled symbolic meaning might be translated thus: We are innocent of wrongdoing. We are attacked by unforeseeable forces come to harm us. We are, thus, innocent even of negligence. Though those forces are insuperable, chance will come to our aid and we shall emerge victorious. ~ David Mamet
The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none. ~ Francis Bacon
We are never ripe till we have been made so by suffering. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Better stop short than fill to the brim. Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt. Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it. Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow. Retire when the work is done. This is the way of heaven. ~ Tao Te Ching
Calamity is the test of integrity. ~ Samuel Richardson
Do you know why hurricanes have names instead of numbers? To keep the killing personal. No one cares about a bunch of people killed by a number. “200 Dead as Number Three Slams Ashore” is not nearly as interesting a headline as “Charlie kills 200.” Death is much more satisfying and entertaining if you personalize it. Me, I’m still waitin’ for Hurricane Ed. Old Ed wouldn’t hurt ya, would he? Sounds kinda friendly. “Hell no, we ain’t evacuatin’. Ed’s coming!” ~ George Carlin (Brain Droppings)
Just Above Sunset 