There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
~ Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Tale as old as time...
Sgt. Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster): I've never been so miserable in my life as I have since I met you
Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr): Neither have I
Milton: I wouldn't trade a minute of it
Karen: Neither would I
~ in From Here to Eternity
Do we do science any more?
Science:
If you don't make mistakes, you're doing it wrong.
If you don't correct those mistakes, you're doing it really wrong
If you can't accept that you're mistaken, you're not doing it at all.
~ Richard Feynman
Seeing is the secret
Danny: What happened to you?
Sheila: This is who I've always been, Danny. I just never let you see it before.
~ divorced couple on Physical
Play it where it lies...
You are responsible for exactly who, what, and where you are in life. That will be just as true this time next year. Situations aren't important. How you react to them is. You have to play it where it lies.
~ David Kekich
Happened to me once
Princess Leia: I love you!
Han Solo: I know...
~ Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back
Every Sunday in the fall...
Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt
~ Juvenal
Sports offers people something to pay attention to that is of no importance which keeps them from worrying about things that might matter in their lives - things that they could otherwise do something about.
~ Noam Chomsky
More V.P. Word Salad
I feel very strongly about the importance as a general matter of engaging in U.S. policy as it relates to foreign affairs in a way that we pay attention, of course, to the immediate concerns and threats if they exist, but that we also pay attention to 10, 20, 30 years down the line and what we are developing now that will be to the benefit of our country then.
~ Vice President Kamala Harris
Yep
- Intelligence:
- You question everything you think you know.
- Stupidity:
- You think you know everything, without questioning.
~ Richard Feynman
The Bagpipe Player
As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or friend's.
The service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the back country, and as I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently left, and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the grave diggers and crew there and they were eating lunch.
I felt so badly and apologized to the men for being late.
I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault-lid had already been put in place. I didn't know what else to do, So I started to play.
Surprisingly the workers put down their lunches and began to gather around me. Well I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.
As I played "Amazing Grace", the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head was hung low, my heart was full.
As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say,
"I never seen nothing like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
Cult of Ignorance
It seems that Science Fiction writer Isaac Asimov was predicting Internet forum discourse when he said:
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
~ From a Newsweek magazine column, January 21, 1980
Sounds like a man worthy of a statue
On August 1, 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower received a letter from a frustrated citizen named Leon Scott.
Mr. Scott asked Eisenhower why he had a picture of Robert E. Lee in his office.
This was Eisenhower's response to Mr. Scott:
Dear Dr. Scott,
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War between the States, the issue of secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing, and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which, until 1865, was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting, and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle.
Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee's calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation's wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely, Dwight D. Eisenhower
or your 60's...
How to avoid regret in your 80’s:
- Lift weights
- Prioritize family
- Eat a healthy diet
- Fix your sleeping habits
- Stop taking shit personally
- Work on something meaningful
- Stop comparing yourself to others
- Spend more time living
- Less time on a screen.
That's what I'm always saying...
Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.
~ Robert Frost
My mantra for the week
Did you know that it's actually possible for you to say, “I don't know enough about this to have an opinion."?
~ Professor Richard Feynman
Listen up, parents (and everybody else)
Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.
~ Robert Fulgham
Unnecessary things...
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.
~ Wu-men
Average People
Average means you’re sick, broke, and unhappy
You’ve got to uplevel.
If you hang around average people, you are going to get average results
only one life, indeed...
Here's the deal...
I've only got one life to live,
and I want to live it with Steffie and my daughter.
~ Liam, on The Bold and Beautiful
When you know, you know!
There's no such thing as too much horsepower...
just not enough traction.
~ Carroll Shelby
Oh, gawd, We’re doomed
Relationships succeed not because you like holding hands, but because you like looking in the same direction.
~ Erica Berry’s mom, New York Times guest essay
Yep
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
~Charles Bukowski
'Be a grown-ass man' is my mantra of the week.
Do what our son did. Be a grown-ass man. Admit to your mistakes. Learn from them so this doesn’t happen ever, ever again.
~ Darin Hoover, father of fallen Marine Staff Sargent Darin Taylor Hoover,who was one of 13 U.S. troops killed in the suicide bombing of the August 2021 Kabul airport evacuation,to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, and President Joe Biden.
Makes sense
People do not decide their futures.
They decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures
~ F. M. Alexander
If only we believed what we saw...
I can't believe what your say
because I see what you do.
~ James Baldwin
Ouch!
To sleep with women endlessly without love is a cursed and hollow life.
~ Elon Musk
How does that compare to marrying one of them?
~ Scott Adams
The eternal conflict between truth and tradition
They won't listen. Do you know why? Because they have certain fixed notions about the past. Any change would be blasphemy in their eyes, even if it were the truth
They don't want the truth; they want their traditions.
~ Isaac Asimov
At least Billy Jack thought it through...
Billy Jack [surrounded by an angry mob]:
The one thing that I've learned is that if there is absolutely no way you can get out of taking a terrible beating, the only sensible thing to do is...
get in the first lick!
[proceeds to kick maximum ass]
~ The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
Frank Wisdom
None of us have the promise of tomorrow.God forbid this is my last day on earth, it won't be spent listening to some news person telling me how rotten we are, how rotten life is. Heck no, I'm going out and seeing how beautiful life is.As humans, our time on this planet is very limited...Turn off, tune out, and turn on your life.Peace
~ Frank Zappa
I'll give it a try...
Skinner's Law
If procrastinating, you have two ways to solve it:
- Make the pain of inaction > Pain of action
- Make the pleasure of action > Pleasure of inaction
A lot, indeed!
On a road trip, passing a billboard that says "Live Girls Dancing Daily".My daughter's voice from the back seat - "Wow, that's a lot of recitals!"
~ Simon Holland
If I had a nickel...
Don't you get glib about last night!
It was very important to me!
~ Paula, to Elliot, in The Goodbye Girl (1977)
I still hold out hope...
The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.
~ George Orwell
Subtle Medieval Wisdom
The crow, by not crowing, could have the cadaver for himself.
Corvus non crocitando cadaver solus haberet.
Pre-colonial Preacher
Don't waste any time trying to explain the crookedness of a stick.
All you have to do is lay a straight stick beside it and the work is done.
Speak the truth, and error is abashed in its presence.
~ Charles Spurgeon
Put it out there!
You may not always see the results of your kindness, but every drop of positive energy you ever put out changes the world for everyone.
~ John Tesh
Or even an Environmental Professional?
Everyone deserves a little joy in their life...
...even a Captain.
~ Una to Captain Pike, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
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