"Like so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t so"

Lemony Snickett

Waving off the clerics who had come to administer last rites, Voltaire said: “All my life I have ever made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord, make my enemies look ridiculous.’ And God granted it.”

I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people. ~ Katharine Hepburn

One lesson that I draw from the pervasiveness of ignorance and uncertainty is that the civility and robustness of a community depends on the extent to which each of us acknowledges that at least some part of everything we think we know isn’t actually true (including, I suppose, this knowledge, as well). That is, a free and flourishing society demands both tolerance and criticism from its citizens.– Sandy Ikeda,

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

Confucius

“When you feel there is an unfair burden on your shoulders,
Well...
That's just the way, it is, sometimes”

(Forrest Gump / Winston Groom)

An Indian college used to run a marquee screen-saver with motivational slogans, like “do not stop until you reach the end” and other BS. When I worked by his side, he had to pass behind my own computer screen and it said in big bright letters: “CONSUME, CONFORM, OBEY”.
Why do I remember this moment, now...

Consume, Conform, Obey - That reminds me of the movie " They Live "!!

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This is intervention laid bare: it replaces one set of "bad guys" with another whole new level of bad guys. It spreads not peace and freedom, but death and ISIS. United States foreign interventionism is a cancer.– Daniel McAdams

The title of the offender and the number of his followers make no difference in the offence, unless it be to aggravate it. The only difference is, great robbers punish little ones to keep them in their obedience; but the great ones are rewarded with laurels and triumphs, because they are too big for the weak hands of justice in this world, and have the power in their own possession which should punish offenders.– John Locke

Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.
 

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.
—Nina Simone

The title of the offender and the number of his followers make no difference in the offence, unless it be to aggravate it. The only difference is, great robbers punish little ones to keep them in their obedience; but the great ones are rewarded with laurels and triumphs, because they are too big for the weak hands of justice in this world, and have the power in their own possession which should punish offenders.– John Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government [1690]

Isaac Bashevis Singer: "People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times."

The worst of this ever growing cancer of Statism is its moral effect. The country is rich enough to stand its frightful economic wastage for a long time yet, and still prosper, but it is already so poverty-stricken in its moral resources that the present drain will quickly run them out.– Albert Jay Nock

"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field."
- Niels Bohr

"Improvement makes straight roads: but the crooked roads without Improvement are roads of Genius"
- William Blake

Isaac Bashevis Singer: "Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge."