Sunday, February 25, 2018 – No Way Out of This
When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it, since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville
Why shouldn’t things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together. ~ George Santayana
We assume that politicians are without honor. We read their statements trying to crack the code. The scandals of their politics: not so much that men in high places lie, only that they do so with such indifference, so endlessly, still expecting to be believed. We are accustomed to the contempt inherent in the political lie. ~ Adrienne Rich
What is the use of straining after an amiable view of things, when a cynical view is most likely to be the true one? ~ George Bernard Shaw
Life is full of infinite absurdities, which, strangely enough, do not even need to appear plausible, since they are true. ~ Luigi Pirandello
The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business. ~ Richard M. Nixon
In politics, an absurdity is not a handicap. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system. ~ Dan Quayle
You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans. ~ Ronald Reagan
One of the surprising things in this world is the respect a worthless man has for himself. ~ Ed Howe
The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action. ~ Frank Herbert
He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which. ~ Douglas Adams
I appear to be lying at the bottom of a very deep dark hole. That seems to be a familiar concept. What does it remind me of? Ah, I remember. Life! ~ Douglas Adams
Perhaps I’m old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied. ~ Douglas Adams
The internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life. ~ Andrew Brown
A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life. ~ Robertson Davies
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels – for it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. ~ H. L. Mencken
Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn’t block traffic. ~ Dan Rather
It occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility. ~ Joseph Conrad
To achieve the impossible dream, try going to sleep. ~ Joan Klempner
The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from science – along with behavior control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers. ~ Lewis Thomas
Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art. ~ Tom Stoppard
He is useless on top of the ground; he ought to be under it, inspiring the cabbages. ~ Mark Twain
The squeaking wheel doesn’t always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced. ~ Vic Gold
One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person. ~ William Feather
The future is much like the present, only longer. ~ Dan Quisenberry
If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith. ~ Albert Einstein
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation. ~ Herbert Spencer
Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes the edge off admiration. ~ William Hazlitt
Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt. ~ Minna Thomas Antrim
At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. ~ Albert Camus
Real nobility is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference. ~ Albert Camus
Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t understand. ~ Homer Simpson
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth. ~ Christopher Hampton
The eloquent man is he who is no beautiful speaker, but who is inwardly and desperately drunk with a certain belief. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying. ~ Oscar Wilde
Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath. ~ Jonathan Swift
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. ~ Eric Hoffer
If you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not. ~ G. K. Chesterton
Human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars. ~ Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts. ~ John Steinbeck
Just Above Sunset 