Quotation of the day for June 29, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 29, 2013 "Although Mr. Gedge's statement that the Vicomte de Blissac was never sober had been an exaggeration--for he was frequently sober, sometimes for hours at a time--it is undoubtedly true that he had a distinct bias toward the festive." - P. G. Wodehouse, in Hot Water. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jun. 27, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find P. G. Wodehouse at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find P. G. Wodehouse at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 28, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 28, 2013 "But it is precisely because science is so powerful that we need the humanities now more than ever. In your science, mathematics and engineering classes, you're given facts, answers, knowledge, truth. Your professors say, 'This is how things are.' They give you certainty. The humanities, at least the way I teach them, give you uncertainty, doubt and skepticism. "The humanities are subversive. They undermine the claims of all authorities, whether political, religious or scientific. This skepticism is especially important when it comes to claims about humanity, about what we are, where we came from, and even what we can be and should be. Science has replaced religion as our main source of answers to these questions. Science has told us a lot about ourselves, and we're learning more every day. "But the humanities remind us that we have an enormous capacity for deluding ourselves. They also tell us that every single human is unique, different than every other human, and each of us keeps changing in unpredictable ways. The societies we live in also keep changing-in part because of science and technology! So in certain important ways, humans resist the kind of explanations that science gives us." - John Horgan, science writer and teacher, from "Why Study Humanities? What I Tell Engineering Freshmen". [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2013/06/20/why-study-humanities-what-i-tell-engineering-freshmen/] Submitted by: Terry Labach Jun. 26, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find John Horgan at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find John Horgan at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 27, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 27, 2013 "He smelled so good!" - Shezelle Weekes, singer-songwriter, on meeting U.S. President Barack Obama after a performance. Weekes, who performs under the name Rouletta, made the comment in an interview with Mary Ito on CBC Radio. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jun. 25, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Rouletta at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Rouletta at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 25, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 25, 2013 "I hope to be able to touch the hem of his lab coat, so he could cure me of my stupid." - an unnamed friend of Kaci McCleary, who was waiting in line to see science educator Bill Nye at Iowa State. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/science/bill-nye-firebrand-for-science-is-a-big-man-on-campus.html?pagewanted=all] Submitted by: John Karabaic Jun. 18, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Bill Nye at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Bill Nye at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 24, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 24, 2013 "National security is about keeping illegal conduct concealed from the American public until you're forced to justify it because someone ratted you out." - Joshua Dratel, a New York attorney, redefines "national security" in the wake of the NSA revelations. [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/nsa-defense-lawyers/] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jun. 19, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find National Security Agency at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find National Security Agency at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 23, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 23, 2013 "Owing to technological developments and changes in the political environment, power -- defined crudely as the capacity to kill, destroy, disrupt, cause alarm, and compel society to divert vast resources to security -- is coming into the hands of smaller and smaller groups whose grievances, real or imaginary, it would not always be possible to satisfy. How democracies deal with this, and remain democracies, is one of the major challenges we face in the late twentieth century." - Brian Jenkins, in "International Terrorism: A New Mode of Conflict" (1974). Submitted by: Z.D. Hora Jun. 12, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Brian Jenkins at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Brian Jenkins at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 22, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 22, 2013 "The boys didn't know where they were going. They didn't. Not really. They just knew that they wanted to go." - Carolyn Cassady, on her late husband Neal, and his fellow Beat writer, Jack Kerouac. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jun. 20, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Carolyn Cassady at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Carolyn Cassady at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 21, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 21, 2013 "Data you enter on this site is protected in transit." - from the contents of a pop-up window that appears when browsing the career opportunities page on the web wite of the U.S. National Security Agency. The NSA has seen a certain amount of controversy recently. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jun. 10, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find National Security Agency at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find National Security Agency at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 20, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 20, 2013 "The world is so big, so complicated, so replete with marvels and surprises that it takes years for most people to begin to notice that it is, also, irretrievably broken. We call this period of research 'childhood.' "There follows a program of renewed inquiry, often involuntary, into the nature and effects of mortality, entropy, heartbreak, violence, failure, cowardice, duplicity, cruelty, and grief; the researcher learns their histories, and their bitter lessons, by heart. Along the way, he or she discovers that the world has been broken for as long as anyone can remember, and struggles to reconcile this fact with the ache of cosmic nostalgia that arises, from time to time, in the researcher's heart: an intimation of vanished glory, of lost wholeness, a memory of the world unbroken. We call the moment at which this ache first arises 'adolescence.' The feeling haunts people all their lives." - Michael Chabon, writer. Submitted by: Terry Labach Jun. 13, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Michael Chabon at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Michael Chabon at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 19, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 19, 2013 "Toleration is historically the product of the realization of the irreconcilability of equally dogmatic faiths, and the practical improbability of complete victory of one over the other. Those who wished to survive realized that they had to tolerate error. They gradually came to see merits in diversity, and so became skeptical about definitive solutions in human affairs." - Isaiah Berlin Submitted by: Terry Labach Jun. 13, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Isaiah Berlin at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Isaiah Berlin at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 18, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 18, 2013 "Last week, 38 years after Church issued his caution, journalists learned the NSA has - for seven years - been almost certainly logging every phone call, every email, every upload and every download in America, creating an aggregation of private data unprecedented in history. "The broad American public, meanwhile, even those rugged individualists who bristle ferociously at any government attempt to learn how many guns they might possess, took the news with almost bovine equanimity." - Neil Macdonald, Senior Washington Correspondent for the CBC, on the National Security Agency's communications monitoring. [http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/06/07/f-rfa-macdonald-nsa-eavesdropping.html] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jun. 10, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find National Security Agency at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find National Security Agency at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 17, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 17, 2013 "Inspiration is needed in geometry, just as much as in poetry." - Alexander Pushkin Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jun. 13, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find geometry at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find geometry at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 16, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 16, 2013 "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want." - Bill Watterson, cartoonist. Submitted by: Reddy, Michael Jun. 13, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Bill Watterson at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Bill Watterson at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 15, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 15, 2013 I love to speak with Leonard He's a sportsman and a shepherd He's a lazy bastard Living in a suit But he does say what I tell him Even though it isn't welcome He will never have the freedom To refuse - Leonard Cohen, from his song Going Home. Submitted by: Terry Labach Jun. 7, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Leonard Cohen at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Leonard Cohen at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 14, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 14, 2013 "It's difficult to explain exactly, but it's rather like bridge as compared to belote. When we make war, we play belote with thirty-two cards in the pack. But their game is bridge and they have fifty-two cards: twenty more than we do. Those twenty cards short will always prevent us from getting the better of them. They've got nothing to do with traditional warfare, they're marked with the sign of politics, propaganda, faith, agrarian reform..." - Jean Lartéguy, in his novel The Centurions, comparing the different ways in which the French and Vietminh approached warfare. Submitted by: Terry Labach Jun. 13, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find Centurions at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find Centurions at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 13, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 13, 2013 "Tailors provide handmade or, at the very least, personally-made suits that can last forever. They labour in a world where quickly produced throwaway fashion makes today's looks already passe. Profit is made through churn and burn, wear it, trash it, then shop again. A tailor-made suit isn't like that. It can last a lifetime and then some, to the perplexity of sons everywhere. There are thousands, perhaps millions of suits in young men's closets, waiting again for a tailor's touch to reconcile, when possible, the trace of the father to the body of the son." - JJ Lee, in The Measure of a Man. Submitted by: Terry Labach May 31, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find The Measure of a Man at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find The Measure of a Man at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store

Quotation of the day for June 12, 2013

The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List

Quotation of the Day for June 12, 2013 "Once again, I remind you that I know nothing of Mr Revere, or his conversations, or his habits or beliefs, his writings (if he has any) or his personal life. All I know is this bit of metadata, based on membership in some organizations. And yet my analytical engine, on the basis of absolutely the most elementary of operations in Social Networke Analysis, seems to have picked him out of our 254 names as being of unusual interest." - Kieran Healy, from Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere, a paper inspired by the revelation that the U.S. National Security Agency is collecting "metadata" about electronic communications. Submitted by: Terry Labach Jun. 11, 2013

Follow us on Twitter to see what we're reading Visit our blog

Find metadata at Amazon.ca. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.ca store

Find metadata at Amazon.com. Please support qotd by shopping at our Amazon.com store