Quoteworthy Quotes

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. -- Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wise people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge." -- Daniel Boorstin.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP. - Leonard Nimoy."

"Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know... But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?" -- Dorothy and the Scarecrow.

"The price we pay for living in a free society is toleration. We have to tolerate things we don't necessarily like to be free. -- L. Flynt.

"Now, the bureaucrats have become the designers, and they are just out to lunch when it comes to heart." -- Dan Gurney.

"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards." -- Mark Twain.

"Good leaders lead with integrity, character, and loyalty; bad leaders rule with fear." -- me.

"Those who profess their character via email signatures often have very little." -- me.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis

"The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money." -- Margaret Thatcher

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1775

"It is not the critic who counts...the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood...and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly..." -- Teddy Roosevelt

"I don't think Microsoft is evil in itself; I just think they make really crappy operating systems." -- Linus Torvalds

"If you don't know where you're going, chances are you will end up somewhere else." -- Yogi Berra.

"Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." -- Ronald Reagan (a quote bestowed upon me by a former student and retired Marine)

"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards." -- Aldous Huxley.

"If frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their as*es when they hopped." -- My Dad.

"Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest." -- Linus.

"Emphasis on the conceptual elegance to be found in computer science." - sentence in a course description from Brown Univeristy, circa 1969.

"The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet." -- Barack Obama, 2012
"Ambition is not the functional equivalent of experience." -- a colleague.
"As with all instruments, it is the man, not the tool that makes the difference. The more subtle the tool, the greater the difference. Skill with a shovel makes less difference than with a violin." -- Jeff Cooper.