Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 31, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 31, 2010



"We have found out...that we cannot trust some people who are nonconformists," declared Ray Kroc, one of the founders of McDonald's, angered by some of his franchisees. "We will make conformists out of them in a hurry...the organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization."

- Eric Schlosser, quoting businessman Ray Kroc in his book, Fast food nation.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 19, 2010

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Monday, August 30, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 30, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 30, 2010



So close to something, I feel it,
All alone, I can't help believing -
Here I go into the Great Unknown
No one can tell me where I'm gonna be
When I sail into the mystery
I know I'm falling, don't know where I'm gonna land
Are you ready? Am I ready? I believe I am.

- Paul Quarrington, writer and musician, from his song "Are You Ready". He wrote the song shortly before his death in January 2010 from lung cancer. Quarrington wrote a memoir of his last days called Cigar Box Banjo: Notes on Music and Life, which includes a CD with this and other songs.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Aug. 16, 2010

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 29, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 29, 2010



"As the fiftieth birthday approaches, you get the sense that your life is thinning out, and will continue to thin out, until it thins out into nothing. And you sometimes say to yourself: That went a bit quick. That went a bit quick. In certain moods, you may want to put it rather more forcefully. As in: OY!! THAT went a BIT F****** QUICK!!! ... Then fifty comes and goes, and fifty-one, and fifty-two. And life thickens out again. Because there is now an enormous and unsuspected presence within your being, like an undiscovered continent. This is the past."

- Martin Amis, from his novel The Pregnant Widow.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 19, 2010

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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 28, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 28, 2010



"We have a saying at this company: Our competitors are our friends, and our customers are our enemies."

- James Randall, then-president of Archer Daniels Midland, to a group of Japanese executives in the mid-1990s. Quoted in Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal by Eric Schlosser.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 19, 2010

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Friday, August 27, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 27, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 27, 2010



"Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is boring without it."

- Pearl S. Buck

Submitted by: Reddy, Michael
Aug. 19, 2010

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 26, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 26, 2010



"And what these stories stipulate is that the truth-seeker is someone who attains truth by denying the demands of the stomach and, more generally, of the body."

- Steven Shapin, from Science Incarnate: Historical Embodiments of Natural Knowledge.

[http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/WritingScience/etexts/Shapin/SCIENCE_INCARNATE.html]

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Aug. 19, 2010

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 25, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 25, 2010



"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture."

- Ray Mummert, a pastor in Dover, Pennsylvania, quoted by Charles P. Pierce in the article Greetings from Idiot America. Pierce is the author of the book Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free.

[http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0207GREETINGS]

[http://www.charlespierce.net/]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 12, 2010

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 24, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 24, 2010



"When you argue stupid, you campaign stupid. When you campaign stupid, you win stupid. When you win stupid, you govern stupid."

- David Frum, conservative commentator, warning against the anti-intellectualism of his conservative comrades.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 12, 2010

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Monday, August 23, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 23, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 23, 2010



In the history of American
speech,
he was born between "Dirty
Commies" and "Nice tits."


He worked for Uncle Sam,
and married a dizzy gal from
Pittsburgh with a mouth on her.


I was conceived in the decade
between "Far out" and
"Whatever";


at the precise moment when
"going all the way"
turned into "getting it on."


...Our last visit took place in the
twilight zone of a clinic,
between "feeling no pain" and
"catching a buzz."


For that occasion I had carefully
prepared
a suitcase full of small talk.


--But he was already packed and
going backwards,
with the nice tits and the dirty
commies,


to the small town of his
vocabulary,
somewhere outside of
Pittsburgh.


- Tony Hoagland, My Father's Vocabulary.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 19, 2010

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 22, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 22, 2010



"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on."

- Robert Frost

Submitted by: Reddy, Michael
Aug. 19, 2010

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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 21, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 21, 2010



"Well, many of the songs, they aren't sad, they're hopeless."

- Townes Van Zandt, musician, in reponse to an interviewer asking why so much of his music was so sad.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Aug. 16, 2010

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Friday, August 20, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 20, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 20, 2010



"When you become old you find yourself auditioning for, and then starring in, the role of a lifetime. Then after interminable rehearsals you're finally in a horror film, a talentless, irresponsible and, above all, a low-budget horror film in which (as is the way with horror films), they are saving the worst for last."

- Martin Amis, reading from his novel The Pregnant Widow.

[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6869316.ece]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 19, 2010

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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 19, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 19, 2010



And shall not Hodge's memory claim
Of innocence the candid fame;
Shall not his worth a poem fill,
Who never thought, nor uttered ill;
Who by his manner when caressed
Warmly his gratitude expressed;
And never failed his thanks to purr
Whene'er he stroaked his sable furr?

- Percival Stockdale, from An Elegy on The Death of Dr Johnson's Favourite Cat. Samuel Johnson's cat Hodge was probably not his favourite, but was called by Johnson "a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed".

[In memory of Max, born 2004, died Aug. 11, 2010, and himself a very fine cat.]

[http://mrswoffington.blogspot.com/2009/03/elegy-on-death-of-dr-johnsons-favourite.html]

[http://quotationofthedaylist.blogspot.com/2005/03/quotation-of-day-for-march-8-2005.html]

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Aug. 12, 2010

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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 18, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 18, 2010



"Instead of writing history, we are always beating our brains to discover how history ought to be written."

- Georg W. F. Hegel, in The Philosophy of History.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 12, 2010

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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 17, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 17, 2010



"Google's Eric Schmidt recently stated that every two days we create as much information as we did from the beginning of civilization through 2003. Perhaps the sheer bulk of data makes it easier to suppress that information which we find overly unpleasant. Who's got time for a victim in Afghanistan or end-of-life issues with all these Tweets coming in?"

- Dave Pell

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2010/08/11/129127690/too-much-information-can-sometimes-mean-we-miss-the-big-picture]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 16, 2010

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Monday, August 16, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 16, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 16, 2010



"Plenty of people had made much hay of ridiculing spelling and grammatical errors on late-night shows and in humor books and on websites weighted with snark. But: Who among them had ever bothered with actual corrective action? So far as I knew, not a soul. A lambent vision descended upon me, like the living wheels revealed unto Ezekiel. In it, I saw myself armed with Wite-Out and black marker, waging a campaign of holy destruction on spelling and grammatical mistakes. The picture widened to describe not just my neighborhood, not just the Boston area or even the august span of the Bay State, but the entire nation.

"There was my answer--typo hunting was the good that I, Jeff Deck, was uniquely suited to visit upon society.

"I would change the world, one typo correction at a time."

- Jeff Deck, in his book, The Great Typo Hunt, co-written with Benjamin D. Herson. The book tells the story of Herson and Deck travelling the perimeter of the United States in search of typos on signs and correcting them wherever possible.

[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129086941&sc=fb&cc=fp]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 12, 2010

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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 15, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 15, 2010



"Looking on the bright side, I'm glad I had professional photographer and videographer there to capture the magic, so I could remember this for the rest of my life."

- Jason Kruk, rock climber, now infamous for soiling himself while stuck during a climb.

[http://verticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2010/08/boogie-til-you-poop.html]

Submitted by: Bob Bruhin
Aug. 10, 2010

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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 14, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 14, 2010



"Thirty spokes unite at the hub
but the ultimate use of the wheel depends on the part where nothing exists.

"Clay is molded into a vessel
but the ultimate use of the vessel depends upon the part where nothing exists.

"Doors and windows are cut out of the walls of a house
but the ultimate use of the house depends upon the parts where nothing exists.

"So, there is advantage in using what can be seen, what exists.
And there is also advantage in using what cannot be seen, what is non-existent."

- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11 [translated by Frank J. MacHovec (1962)]

[http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/tao/ch_11.html]

Submitted by: Kelly Groves
Aug. 6, 2010

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Friday, August 13, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 13, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 13, 2010



"One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision."

- Bertrand Russell

Submitted by: Brian K. Read
Aug. 9, 2010

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 12, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 12, 2010



"Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you."

- Alex Haley

Submitted by: Reddy, Michael
Aug. 6, 2010

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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 11, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 11, 2010



"A well-organized society is one in which we know the truth about ourselves collectively, not one in which we tell pleasant lies about ourselves."

- Tony Judt, historian. (January 2, 1948 - August 6, 2010)

Submitted by: Craig Hollinshead
Aug. 8, 2010

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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 10, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 10, 2010



"What are you so surprised about? Cadmium is the healthiest thing they serve at McDonalds!"

- Lewis Black, comedian commenting on a news report of cadmium-laced paint on Shrek glasses sold at McDonalds restaurants.

[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-july-6-2010/back-in-black---product-recalls]

Submitted by: Manavendra Thakur
Aug. 7, 2010

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Monday, August 9, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 9, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 9, 2010



"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule."

- Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History," (Spring, 1940) trans. Harry Zohn.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Jul. 27, 2010

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Sunday, August 8, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 8, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 8, 2010



"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, -- master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature (1836).

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Aug. 4, 2010

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Saturday, August 7, 2010

Quotation of the day for August 7, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for August 7, 2010



"I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know."

- Mel Brooks

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Aug. 4, 2010

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