"It is only when the cruelty of man intervenes that hellish torments appear. For the rest, live dangerously, take things as they come. Fear naught, all will be well." Winston Churchill quoted in Churchill, by Paul Johnson.

"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

"Too low they build, who build beneath the stars."

Edward Young

"If you are an adolescent, here is the trick to being neither quite a nerd, nor quite a jock: be no one. It is easier than you think" Infinite Jest

"If you don't need a lawyer then no one needs a lawyer. And believe me, everyone needs a lawyer." Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl."

HL Menken's epitaph.

"Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid." - Goethe

From Meet the Press - July 02, 2006

Dana Priest and Bill Bennet:

PRIEST: Well, it’s not a crime to publish classified information. And this is one of the things Mr. Bennett keeps telling people that it is. But, in fact, there are some narrow categories of information you can’t publish, certain signals, communications, intelligence, the names of covert operatives and nuclear secrets.

Now why isn’t it a crime? I mean, some people would like to make casino gambling a crime, but it is not a crime. Why isn’t it not a crime? Because the framers of the Constitution wanted to protect the press so that they could perform a basic role in government oversight, and you can’t do that. Look at the criticism that the press got after Iraq that we did not do our job on WMD. And that was all in a classified arena. To do a better job—and I believe that we should’ve done a better job—we would’ve again, found ourselves in the arena of...


As the camera pulls back, I am pretty sure that you can see Bennet mouth the word "Motherfucker."

Mike Wallace - What about the drugs?

Kinky Friedman - What about 'em? Look I think You have to figure out what you like in life and let it kill you.

If you tell the truth, have one foot in the stirrup - Kinky Friedman quoting an old Turkish proverb.

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
And I have asked to be
Where no storm come.
Gerard Manly Hopkins