"As president, I believe that robotics can inspire young people to pursue science and engineering. And I also want to keep an eye on those robots in case they try anything." --Barack Obama, speaking to Washington D.C. schoolkids

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.

Frank O'Harra

Soon after his sale to Spielberg we went out to eat together. “Have you noticed, Mike, how rude customers in restaurants have become?” he asked. “I’m not sure it’s that, Jimmy,” I said. “I think we can now afford to eat in the rude people’s restaurants.”

Michael Moorcock on JG Ballard.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6160194.ece

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

Abraham Maslow

"So, you think this is just about the burgers, huh? Let me tell you, it's about far more than that. Our parents came to this country, escaping persecution, poverty and hunger. Hunger, Harold. They were very, very hungry. They wanted to live in a land that treated them as equals, a land filled with hamburger stands. And not just one type of hamburger, okay? Hundreds of types with different sizes, toppings, and condiments. That land was America! America, Harold! America! Now this is about achieving what our parents set out for -- this is about the pursuit of happiness! This night is about the American Dream! Dude, we can stay here, get arrested, and end our hopes of ever going to White Castle. Or, we can take that hang glider and make our leap towards freedom. I leave the decision up to you."

Harold and Kumar go to White Castle

Mark Twain
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Socrates

. . . You will become way less concerned with what people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.

David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest

I do not promise you ease. I do not promise you comfort. But I do promise you these hardships: weariness and suffering. And with them, I promise you victory.
- Giuseppe Garibaldi

"There is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income."

Edmund Wilson