15 posts tagged “quotes”

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
--Bertrand Russell

While trying to come up with something to write about today, I visited a quote site where I found the quote above.  The first thing that popped into my mind was that of religion.   Wars have been fought over differences of opinion about religion and evangelicals of different faiths, particularly Christianity, attempt to convert others to their faith, believing that uniformity of belief to be a worthy goal to strive for.  Not merely content to share their beliefs with those who ask, some attempt to enforce their beliefs by changing laws to conform to such beliefs, while more extreme members of various religions will use literal force to impose their beliefs on others in what they believe is service to their faith.

In contrast, I read an entry on Wilford Tibbetts' blog today about the Amish.  Unlike many religious people, whose faith is largely a matter of securing their ticket to heaven, for the Amish, their faith isn't merely a belief, it's a lifestyle.  The Amish do not proselytize or spend a lot of time talking about their faith; they quietly live it, while content to allow their neighbors to live according to whatever beliefs they have.  They are content to coexist peacefully with their neighbors with different beliefs and lifestyles and have no desire to impose their beliefs on others.

It's too bad that more religious people don't follow the example of the Amish.

Here's a sample of quotes I found about sex while surfing the net. Enjoy!

Love your neighbor, but don't get caught.
-- Unknown

Sow your wild oats on Saturday night -- Then on Sunday pray for crop failure. --Unknown

When I'm good I'm very, very good but when I'm bad I'm better.
--Mae West

Happiness is watching the TV at your girlfriend's house during a power failure.
--Bob Hope

You know of course that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.
--Somerset Maugham

A nymphomaniac is a women as obsessed with sex as the average man.
--Mignon McLaughlin

I believe that sex is a beautiful thing between two people. Between five, it's fantastic.
--Woody Allen

"What's the three words you never want to hear while making love? Honey, I'm home."
--Ken Hammond

I am always looking for meaningful one night stands.
--Dudley Moore

It isn't premarital sex if you have no intention of
getting married.
--Matt Barry

Leaving sex to the clergy is like letting your dog
vacation at the taxidermist.
--Camille Paglia

A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.
-- Unknown

I believe that trust is more important that monogamy
-- Savage Garden

While monogamy may be a great thing for families, it clearly is not for intellectuals
--the inventor of the birth control pill

Chastity: the most unnatural of the sexual perversions.
--Aldous Huxley

I've been too fucking busy and vice versa.
--Dorothy Parker

She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.
--Raymond Chandler

Older women are best because they always think they may be doing it for the last time.
--Ian Fleming

It's not the men in my life that counts - it's the life in my men.
--Mae West

It doesn't matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don't do it in the street and frighten the horses.
--Mrs Patrick Campbell

Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin - it's the triumphant twang of a bedspring.
--S. J. Perelman

Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right.
--Woody Allen

When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.
--Matt Groening

I don't see why I have to make one man miserable when I can make so many men happy.
--Ellyn Mustard

Ducking for apples -- change one letter and it's the story of my life.
--Dorothy Parker

Sex between a man and a woman can be great, provided you get between the right man and the right woman.
--Woody Allen

How many husbands have I had? You mean, apart from my own?
--Zsa Zsa Gabor

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge. --Voltaire

Sex on television can't hurt you unless you fall off.
--Unknown

Promiscuous, adj. Someone who gets more sex than you.
--Author unidentified

President Harry Truman was among the first Americans who saw a need for health care reform.  Decades ahead of his time, he was unable to make meaningful changes during his tenure as president in the late 40s and early 50s, but he's acknowledged by some as the inspiration for the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid under the Johnson administration.

Following are a few quotes that illustrate Truman's opinions on this matter:

"We should resolve now that the health of this nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all its citizens deserves the help of all the nation."

"Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and to enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. And the time has now arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and to help them get that protection."

"I do not understand a mind which sees a gracious beneficence in spending money to slay and maim human beings in almost unimaginable numbers and deprecates the expenditure of a smaller sum to patch up the ills of mankind."

The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.
---David Brinkley

TV "news" now typically spends at least ten minutes covering the results of American Idol.  It makes me wonder if there wasn't any real news to report that day.

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease.
--George Dennison Prentice

Eat right, keep fit, die anyway.

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
--Ralph W. Sockman

It's easy to be brave when you know countless others will back you up if necessary.  Likewise, it's easier to be tolerant when you are in need of it yourself.

The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.
--Daniel Webster (1782 - 1852)

Some things never change.

All power corrupts, but we need the electricity.
Unknown

You can't throw the baby out with the bathwater.  And you knew I had to include a funny quote

You don't get anything clean without getting something else dirty.
--Cecil Baxter

Sometimes you open up a can of worms when you try to make changes

Since my earliest childhood, I've instinctively rejected the idea that there is only One Right Way to do various things.  My natural inclination has always been to think in shades of grey, rather than adhere to the simplistic, dualistic limits of black and white thinking.   My instinct has never been to unquestioningly herd with the flock, but rather to ask why, doing my own research if necessary.  And if I don't find the answers to be logical, reasonable, or currently relevant, I reject them.

Humans by nature are ingenious and malleable.  We are able to adjust and adapt to various situations, often finding multiple ways, albeit by different means, to arrive at a workable solution.  Few things in life require a single method of accomplishment, as "All Roads Lead to Rome" tends to be the rule, rather than the exception.

However, humans throughout history tend to have an atavistic fear of difference, however benign.  The desire for uniformity, for mass conformity, probably is at the root of most human conflict.  The idea that all the pieces of a puzzle need not be of universal shape and design in order to fit together in a harmonious whole is nowhere near attaining critical mass at this point in human history, if it ever does.

Nevertheless, there will always be a sizable minority of contrary souls like me to make sure the idea is never extinguished.

Thoughts?

"Normal" people don't change the world.  People who are normal are complacent; they are unmotivated to devise new ways of doing things or finding new things to do.

"That's the way we've always done it" is their mantra, with includes the implication, "That's the way we should always do it".

Rather, it's the malcontents: the complainers, the lazy, the oddballs, and the misfits of the world who get progress up on its feet and moving forward.  They are motivated precisely because they don't fit in and cannot afford to be complacent.

"There has to be a better/faster/easier way of doing it" is a classic malcontent sentiment.  The malcontent's answer to "That's the way we've always done it," is "Why?".  But they are also the ones who say, "Why not?" when coming up with alternatives to doing things as they've "always been done."

Thoughts?

I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.
— A. Whitney Brown

Die, plants, die!

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
— George Bernard Shaw

It's all in how you look at it.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
— Albert Camus

Autumn beats spring because the leaves come multicolored then, instead of just in green.

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
— Isaac Newton

Argue the point, don't insult the person

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
— Plato

Everyone has their crosses to bear; no one is perfect

In Mexico we have a word for sushi: Bait.
— Jose Simon

Works for me!

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
— Anna Quindlen

I wholeheartedly agree.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
- William Butler Yeats

Education isn't an end; it's a process. The more you know, the more you should want to learn.

Efficiency is intelligent laziness.
--David Dunham

Work smarter, not harder

The only normal people are the
ones you don't know very well.
--Joe Ancis

Everyone has their own peculiar quirks.

Cats know how to obtain
food without labor, shelter
without confinement, and
love without penalties.
--W.L. George

I think I want to be a cat in my next life!