[extropy-chat] Resist perishing

[Max More]

A few recently-gathered quotes I liked:

The existentially determined:

“Man is perishable. That may be; but let us 
perish resisting, and, if nothingness is what 
awaits us, let us not act in such a way that it would be a just fate.”
-- Étienne Pivert de Senancour

The simply pithy:

“Luck is probability taken personally.”
Penn Jillette.

The perspective-shifting:

“She made me feel like a human being. That’s not 
the kind of thing you forgive.”
Angel (in demon form), on Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, season two.

The downright nasty:

“I just want to find a woman who I can stand once 
her mouth’s free of obstruction.”
Christian Troy, Nip/Tuck, season 2.

The practical:

As one Chinese proverb reminds us: The person who 
says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.

The long-term:

When Konosuke Matsushita started the Matsushita 
Institute of Government and Management -- his 
graduate school for people who want to go into 
public service -- he explained that his vision 
was to help Japanese politics become less corrupt 
and more visionary. When a skeptical reporter 
asked how long that would take, he said, “In my 
judgment, about 400 years -- which is why it’s so 
important that we start today.”

And the heretical (so I'm told):

If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks 
to you, you have schizophrenia.
Thomas Szasz


Onward!

Max