As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport. -- Shakespeare, "King Lear"

There are those who claim that magic is like the tide; that it swells and fades over the surface of the earth, collecting in concentrated pools here and there, almost disappearing from other spots, leaving them parched for wonder. There are also those who believe that if you stick your fingers up your nose and blow, it will increase your intelligence. -- The Teachings of Ebenezum, Volume VII

The world is the totality of facts, not of things. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone." - Ayn Rand

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.

The only hope of socialism resides in those who have already brought about in themselves, as far as is possible in the society of today, that union between manual and intellectual labor which characterizes the society we are aiming at. -- Simone Weil

An eagle flies high, it flies higher than a sea gull But the crow wings rapidly from tree to bush to hedge The same can be true of life and of death Sometimes life flies high, sometimes death wings rapidly Sometimes it is spoken That death wings from tree to bush to hedge Sometimes it does not ~ Racter (The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed)

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who say, "There are two kinds of people in the world: those who say there are two kinds of people in the world, and the other kind," and there's who don't say. Well, then there's me.

Reyna d’Assia: The Key to Immortal Consciousness 54. Do not try to distinguish yourself by your appearance.

Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn't it, of a long line of proven criminals? -- Ogden Nash

It is reason which breeds pride and reflection which fortifies it; reason which turns man inward into himself; reason which separates him from everything which troubles or affects him. It is philosophy which isolates a man, and prompts him to say in secret at the sight of another suffering: 'Perish if you will; I am safe.' No longer can anything but dangers to society in general disturb the tranquil sleep of the philosopher or drag him from his bed. A fellow-man may with impunity be murdered under his window, for the philosopher has only to put his hands over his ears and argue a little with himself to prevent nature, which rebels inside him, from making him identify himself with the victim of the murder. The savage man entirely lacks this admirable talent, and for want of wisdom and reason he always responds recklessly to the first promptings of human feeling. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Man, like other organisms, is so perfectly coordinated that he may easily forget, whether awake or asleep, that he is a colony of cells in action, and that it is the cells which achieve, through him, what he has the illusion of accomplishing himself. ~ Albert Claude

Que no se objete que el cristianismo ordena a los nios a amar a sus padres, a los padres a amar a sus hijos, a los esposos a feccionarse mutuamente. S, les manda eso, pero no les permite amarlo inmediata, naturalmente y por s mismos, sino slo en dios y por dios; no admite todas esas relaciones actuales ms que a condicin de que dios se encuentre como tercero, y ese terrible tercero mata las uniones. El amor divino aniquila el amor humano. El cristianismo ordena, es verdad, amar a nuestro prjimo tanto como a nosotros mismos, pero nos ordena al mismo tiempo amar a dios ms que a nosotros mismos y por consiguiente tambin ms que al prjimo, es decir sacrificarle el prjimo por nuestra salvacin, porque al fin de cuentas el cristiano no adora a dios ms que por la salvacin de su alma. Aceptando a dios, todo eso es rigurosamente consecuente: dios es lo infinito, lo absoluto, lo eterno, lo omnipotente; el hombre es lo finito, lo impotente. En comparacin con dios, bajo todos los aspectos, no es nada. Slo lo divino es justo, verdadero, dichoso y bueno, y todo lo que es humano en el hombre debe ser por eso mismo declarado falso, inicuo, detestable y miserable. El contacto de la divinidad con esa pobre humanidad debe devorar, pues, necesariamente, consumir, aniquilar todo lo que queda de humano en los hombres. La intervencin divina en los asuntos humanos no ha dejado nunca de producir efectos excesivamente desastrosos. Pervierte todas las relaciones de los hombres entre s y reemplaza su solidaridad natural por la prctica hipcrita y malsana de las comunidades religiosas, en las que bajo las apariencias de la caridad, cada cual piensa slo en la salvacin de su alma, haciendo as, bajo el pretexto del amor divino, egosmo humano excesivamente refinado, lleno de ternura para s y de indiferencia, de malevolencia y hasta de crueldad para el prjimo. Eso explica la alianza ntima que ha existido siempre entre el verdugo y el sacerdote, alianza francamente confesada por el clebre campen del ultramontanismo, Joseph de Maistre, cuya pluma elocuente, despus de haber divinizado al papa, no dej de rehabilitar al verdugo; uno era en efecto el complemento del otro. Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin, God and the State

All of a sudden, I want to THROW OVER my promising ACTING CAREER, grow a LONG BLACK BEARD and wear a BASEBALL HAT!! ... Although I don't know WHY!!

I never worry about being driven to drink; I just worry about being driven home. -- W. C. Fields

Living in LA is like not having a date on Saturday night. -- Candice Bergen

You mentioned your name as if I should recognize it, but beyond the obvious facts that you are a bachelor, a solicitor, a freemason, and an asthmatic, I know nothing whatever about you. -- Sherlock Holmes, "The Norwood Builder"

Fortune presents: USEFUL PHRASES IN ESPERANTO, #2. ^Cu tiu loko estas okupita? Is this seat taken? ^Cu vi ofte venas ^ci-tien? Do you come here often? ^Cu mi povas havi via telelonnumeron? May I have your phone number? Mi estas komputilisto. I work with computers. Mi legas multe da scienca fikcio. I read a lot of science fiction. ^Cu necesas ke vi eliras? Do you really have to be going?

Reyna d’Assia: The Key to Immortal Consciousness 11. Help your neighbor, but do not make him dependent.