Why is it that many contemporary male thinkers, especially men of color, repudiate the imperialist legacy of Columbus but affirm dimensions of that legacy by their refusal to repudiate patriarchy? ~ bell hooks

To see the butcher slap the steak, before he laid it on the block, and give his knife a sharpening, was to forget breakfast instantly. It was agreeable, too -- it really was -- to see him cut it off, so smooth and juicy. There was nothing savage in the act, although the knife was large and keen; it was a piece of art, high art; there was delicacy of touch, clearness of tone, skilful handling of the subject, fine shading. It was the triumph of mind over matter; quite. -- Dickens, "Martin Chuzzlewit"

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. -- Carl Jung

Dogs just don't seem to be able to tell the difference between important people and the rest of us.

The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money. -- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

I did this 'cause Linux gives me a woody. It doesn't generate revenue. (Dave '-ddt->` Taylor, announcing DOOM for Linux)

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function. -- Garrison Keillor

We live in an era of revolution, the revolution of rising expectations. ~ Adlai Stevenson

Marry an outdoors woman. Then if you throw her out into the yard on a cold night, she can still survive. -- W. C. Fields

I trust fast poison The stars to wink out And you, my love - and you. - Lyric from "The Void", by Minstrel d'Becevex, CY 7956

Freud described three great historical wounds to the primary narcissism of the self-centered human subject, who tries to hold panic at bay by the fantasy of human exceptionalism. First is the Copernican wound that removed Earth itself, mans home world, from the center of the cosmos and indeed paved the way for that cosmos to burst open into a universe of inhumane, nonteleological times and spaces. Science made that decentering cut. The second wound is the Darwinian, which put Homo sapiens rmly in the world of other critters, all trying to make an earthly living and so evolving in relation to one another without the sureties of directional signposts that culminate in Man. Science inicted that cruel cut too. The third wound is the Freudian, which posited an unconscious that undid the primacy of conscious processes, including the reason that comforted Man with his unique excellence, with dire consequences for teleology once again. Science seems to hold that blade too. I want to add a fourth wound, the informatic or cyborgian, which infolds organic and technological esh and so melds that Great Divide as well. ~ Donna J. Haraway

Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life. -- Nam June Paik

Whether they live in an igloo or a grass shack or a mud hut, people around the world all want the same thing: a better house! -- Jack Handey

From my point of view, he can be called a remarkable man who stands out from those around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who knows how to be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others. ― George Gurdjieff

Man wanted to work in dynamite factory. Must be willing to travel.

You will overcome the attacks of jealous associates.

Real software engineers don't like the idea of some inexplicable and greasy hardware several aisles away that may stop working at any moment. They have a great distrust of hardware people, and wish that systems could be virtual at ALL levels. They would like personal computers (you know no one's going to trip over something and kill your DFA in mid-transit), except that they need 8 megabytes to run their Correctness Verification Aid packages.

Hand-waving is an important factor in staying stuck in impossibility thinking, since rigorous argument uncovers unconscious limiting assumptions. I’m just as happy if you are working on showing impossibility as discovering the possible, as long as you are rigorous and get rigorous peer review. Otherwise, we all fall into the trap of self-deceit. - Conal Elliott (Source)

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action. ~ Aristotle

Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious. -- Carl Jung