Your Quote of the Day

“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”
― Carl Sagan, Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

Groups of people are like a massive Rock, Paper, Scissors war. ~Daniel, @blindedpoet

Social Security is based on a principle. It's based on the principle that you care about other people.
You care whether the widow across town, a disabled widow, is going to be able to have food to eat.

Noam Chomsky

No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer. ~Thomas Browne, attributed

Traces of Texas
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The Texas Quote of the Day comes from a bumper sticker I saw in New Braunfels:

"Some of the greatest fish in Texas are caught by the tale."

You can't shake hands with a closed fist.

It was like a flying saucer landed. That’s what the sixties were like. Everybody heard about it, but only a few really saw it... [Bob Dylan]

“Dr. Watson's summary list of Sherlock Holmes's strengths and weaknesses:

"1. Knowledge of Literature: Nil.
2. Knowledge of Philosophy: Nil.
3. Knowledge of Astronomy: Nil.
4. Knowledge of Politics: Feeble.
5. Knowledge of Botany: Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Knowledge of Geology: Practical but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
7. Knowledge of Chemistry: Profound.
8. Knowledge of Anatomy: Accurate but unsystematic.
9. Knowledge of Sensational Literature: Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

"My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them." —Mitch Hedberg

Say your pwayers wabbit!
Elmer Fudd

The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.

Joseph Campbell, "Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research" book

“For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”
Alan Watts
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“In the first instance, it is probably true that, in general, the higher the education and intelligence of individuals become, the more their views and tastes are differentiated and the less likely they are to agree on a particular hierarchy of values. It is a corollary of this that if we wish to find a high degree of uniformity and similarity of outlook, we have to descend to the regions of lower moral and intellectual standards where the more primitive and “common” instincts and tastes prevail.”

(And this is precisely what happened in Germany prior to the rise of the Third Reich.) Brittany Hunter

“It is, as it were, the lowest common denominator which unites the largest number of people.”

Friedrich Hayek

Look at how many people trust and believe in Donald Trump; tens of millions. Just from the media coverage on D Trump, I find him to be a despicable human who cheats on all his wives, his business associates, his customers, his children, and his parents, and he's our president. Oh, and I almost missed bigot.

“Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.”
― Bertrand Russell, What I Believe

...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.

The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed.

Joseph Goebbels

So many contradictions about life that seems to be accepted as the norm. Bible vs science is at war. It's hard to let go of something that's been one's faith all their lives, but to ignore the science seems a bit extreme.

It puts the young people in a crunch. Which one will they throw away religion or science. But they don't have to throw away either. They can evolve the religion to suit the times and study the science of evolution. Evolution is indispensable in both religion and science.

Neither is the religion of 1,000 years ago adequate for the times nor is the religion of a five-year-old adequate for an adult.

Emo Philips When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.