[extropy-chat] Words of wisdom and humor

[Paul Grant]

Man that Voltaire was such a card :)
I've got candide queued for reading,
just read the introduction, and he seemed
like a fairly cool guy.  I read it in highschool,
but I can't remember a thing about it except that
I liked it alot.  Swift too :)

-------------
I've included some quotes from my homepage circa 1995. I have many more
saved,
but I'm afraid I haven't integrated them yet.

-- You're out of luck, can't find a copy.

ah well.
omard-out




-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Max More
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 6:05 AM
To: Extropy Chat
Subject: [extropy-chat] Words of wisdom and humor


Rather than hoarding all the quotes I've gathered, I thought I'd share
some 
of them here. A mix of wisdom, humor, and both at once:


"The best proof of intelligent life in space is that it hasn't come
here."
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Sexual abstinence is harmless when practiced in moderation.

  "The future is usually like the past  right up to the moment when it
isn't." George F. Will, Newsweek, 10.27.03

"I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness
of 
people."
Isaac Newton, after losing his savings in the South Sea Bubble of 1720.

"Life is a process of evolution and anyone who thinks the current world 
order is OK does not get what evolution is all about."
Leroy Hood

Bill McKibben "It is clear that these revolutionary technologies are
being 
driven by people with immortality, or something very near it, on their
minds."

"The only one who likes change is a wet baby."
Unknown

"There's a seeker born every minute."
Robert Anton Wilson

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk" Thomas
Edison

"No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human

beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?"
Dr. James Watson, Nobel Laureate, Co-Discoverer with Francis Crick of
the 
Structure of DNA, and Founding Director of the NIH Human Genome Project.

"It seems to me that the civilized human being is a skeptic  someone who

believes nothing at face value."
Robert McKee, Harvard Business Review, June 2003, in "Storytelling That 
Moves People".

"Humankind does not live by bread alone but also by catchphrases."  From
"Real Work" by Abraham Zaleznik, HBR Nov/Dec 1997

  "I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is
to 
be flexible at all times."
Everett Dirksen, leader of Senate Republicans 1959-1969

  "I don't want any 'yes men' in this organization. I want people to
speak 
their minds, even if it does cost them their jobs."
Sam Goldwyn

  "Inside an organization there are only cost centers. The only profit 
center is a customer whose check has not bounced."
  Peter F. Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, p.122, 
"Information Challenges".

"If man were meant to be nude, he would have been born that way." -
Oscar 
Wilde.

"I've had a wonderful time, but this wasn't it."
- Groucho Marx (1895-1977)

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

"A witty saying proves nothing."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"If you are going through hell, keep going."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"I am not young enough to know everything."
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"The covers of this book are too far apart."
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

"It is time I stepped aside for a less experienced and less able man."
- Professor Scott Elledge on his retirement from Cornell

"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies."
- Voltaire (1694-1778) on his deathbed in response to a priest asking
that 
he renounce Satan.

"The nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other
people."
- Lucille S. Harper

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."
- Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977)

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."
- Irvin S. Cobb

"If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?" "
- Will Rogers (1879-1935)

"His ignorance is encyclopedic"
- Abba Eban (1915-)

"It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims."
- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)


Onward!

Max



_______________________________________________________
Max More, Ph.D.
max at maxmore.com or more at extropy.org
http://www.maxmore.com
Strategic Philosopher
Chairman, Extropy Institute. http://www.extropy.org <more at extropy.org>
_______________________________________________________


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