Archives - November 2004

It is a fine thing to establish one's own religion in one's heart, not to be dependent on tradition and second-hand ideals. Life will seem to you, later, not a lesser, but a greater thing.

To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.

There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.

The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

A superstition is a premature explanation that overstays its time.

The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade. Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still.

I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand.

The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.

The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.

Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.

You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces --- just good food from fresh ingredients.

The computing field is always in need of new cliches.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.

A good home must be made, not bought.