Date: 22 Jun 92 16:46:33 PDT (Monday)
Subject: Life 8.B
[Henry - Chris saved the full collection,
I've tried to save only stuff which seemed new to me.]
From: Christopher Neufeld [neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca]
----------------------------------------------------
This is a collection of quotes found in Analog Science Fiction Magazine and
OMNI magazine. I collected those that I found personally witty, incising, or
at least fundamental. Any spelling errors are, of course, my own.
Jeff The Riffer - October 26th, 1988
**************************
Anyone who has begun to think places some portion of the world in jeopardy.
--John Dewey
There has been opposition to every innovation in the history of man, with the
possible exception of the sword.
--Benjamin Dana
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen
to weather forecasts and economists?
--Kelvin Throop, III
It does not pay a prophet to be too specific.
--L. Sprague de Camp
-The important thing is never to stop questioning.
-We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course,
powerful muscles, but no personality.
-What is inconceivable about the universe is that it is at all conceivable.
--Albert Einstein
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible,
he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he
is very probably wrong.
--Arthur C. Clarke
When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by
distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fevor
and emotion--the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all,
probably right.
--Isaac Asimov
*Poverty: An unhappy state that persists as long as anyone lacks anything he
would like to have.
*Statistics: A system for expressing your political prejudices in convincing
scientific guise.
*Unfair competition: Selling cheaper than we do.
*Zero defects: The result of shutting down a production line.
*Conference: A place where conversation is substituted for the dreariness of
work and the loneliness of thought.
*"A survey is being made of this": We need more time to think of an answer.
*"Note and initial": Let's spread the responsibility of this.
*Program: Any assignment that cannot be completed with on telephone call.
*Status quo: The mess we're in.
*"Under consideration": We never heard of it.
*"Under active consideration": We're searching the files for it.
--Kelvin Throop III, "The Management Dictionary"
Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.
--G.K. Chesterton
When you don't have an education, you've got to use your brains.
--Anonymous
Why explore the Universe? It is almost ironic that we should have to ask this
question because it is almost as though we have to apologize for our highest
attributes... we went to Mars, not because of our technology, but because of
our imagination.
--Norman Cousins
OLTION'S COMPLETE, UNABRIDGED HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE
Bang! ...crumple.
--Jery Oltion
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does
the better.
--Andre Gide
-Cream rises to the top. So does fat.
-Computer people have often spoken of the "gigo" effect, meaning "Garbage
in--garbage out." What gives some of us chills is the thought of a second
meaning of "gigo": "Garbage in--gospel out." It can happen here.
-If right-handedness is determined by development of the left side of the
brain, is it possible that only left-handed people are in their right mind?
-"Freedom" has no meaning of itself. There are always restrictions, be they
legal, genetic, or physical. If you don't believe me, try to chew a radio
signal.
--Kelvin Throop, III
I'm a self-made man, but I think if I had to do it over again, I'd call in
someone else.
--Roland Young
It is a faith (not alwaays justified) of theoretical physics that if man
proposes what is sufficiently elegant, nature, pleased and flattered, will say
yes.
--Leon N. Cooper, "Introduction To The Meaning & Structure Of Physics"
Better late than before anybody has invited you.
--Ambrose Bierce
The difference between a rabbit and a rock is the information content, and the
difference between a living and a dead rabbit is in the availability or
usability of the information.
--Dr. John A. Ball
To rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social estab-
lishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part
of a mob. To rebel against the "scientific" establishment, however, is the
easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave,
without risking as much as a hangnail. Thus, the vast majority, who believe in
astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code
that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or
not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic about the bilge when a group
of astronomers denounces it.
--Isaac Asimov
If scientific discovery has not been an unalloyed blessing, if it has conferred
on mankind the power not only to create but also to annihilate, it has at the
same time provided humanity with a supreme challenge and a supreme testing.
--John F. Kennedy
Even if the propeller had the power of propelling a vessel, it would be found
altogether useless in practice, because the power being applied in the stern
would be absolutely impossible to make the vessel steer.
--Sir William Symonds - British Royal Navy, 1837
Creative minds always have been known to survive any kind of bad training.
--Anna Freud
Well, sometimes, anyway.
--The Editor
A man about to speak the truth should keep one foot in the stirrup.
--Old Mongolian Saying
There is a coherent plan in the universe,
though I don't know what it's a plan for.
--Fred Hoyle
Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don't worship it. Feed it.
--Aubrey Eben
There is no knowledge that is not power.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is important to keep an open mind,
but not so open that your brains fall out.
--Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
Hugh Downs' Four Rules for Investigating the Universe:
Rule #1--When confronted with an apparent infinite or infinitely repeating
pattern, expect some variant that keeps it from being infinite.
Rule #2--When all investigation supports Rule 1, look for a situation which
violates it.
Rule #3--Be prepared for an infinite oscillation between Rules 1 and 2.
Rule #4--Apply Rule 1.
Although plastic was brought into industrial use in 1909 by L.H. Baekeland of
Yonkers, it was not until after World War II that the modern miracle substance
was used in a wide variety of consumer goods, among them speedboats, dentures
and flamingos. Previously flamingos were made of cement. Before that they were
made by other flamingos.
--William E. Geist, The New York Times
The mass media is supported and sustained by commercial entities. And corn
flakes and Shakespeare are simply not kissing cousins. Leonard Bernstein and
living bras are incompatible. And you cannot sustain adult, probing, meaningful
drama when the proceedings are interrupted every twelve minutes by a dozen
dancing rabbits with toilet paper.
--Rod Serling
If people behaved like governments, you'd call the cops.
--Kelvin Throop
Put all your eggs in one basket, and WATCH THAT BASKET!
--Jerry Buchmeyer
Any fully matured science of ecology will have to grapple with the fact that
from the ecological point of view, man is one of those animals which is in
danger from its too successful participation in the struggle for existence.
--Joseph Wood Krutch
All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as
video in a single large American city in a single year.
Not all bits have equal value.
--Carl Sagan
The universe is full of magical things,
patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
--Eden Phillpots
The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at
children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end,
which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games which
it is most attached is called, "Keep tomorrow dark," and which is also named
(by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The
players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have
to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait
until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. Then they go and do
something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great
fun.
--G.K. Chesterton
You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.
--Mark Twain
The religion that is afraid of science dishoners God and commits suicide.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Judging a piece of fiction by the quality of its writing without considering
its subject matter is like buying a car because it has a pretty paint job,
without considering the state of its engine and transmission.
--Kelvin Throop
If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy.
--Kurt Vonnegut
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
--H.G. Wells
Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies
--Honore de Balzac
Intelligence, in diapers, is invisible. And when it matures, out the window it
flies. We have to pounce on it earlier.
--Stanislaw Lem
We will rediscover a [New York City] river so extravagantly polluted that new
life forms will emerge from it spontaneously, demanding welfare and voting
rights.
--Douglas Adams
If the Aborigine drafted an I.Q. test, all of Western civilization would
presumably flunk it.
--Stanley Garn
The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one
which will last forever.
--Anatole France
My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.
--Louis Adamic
Pessimists have already begun to worry about what is going to replace
automation.
--John Tudor
The totality is present even in the broken pieces
--Aldous Huxley
Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.
--Lillian Hellman
We are on a threshold of a change in the universe comparable to the transition
from nonlife to life.
--Hans Moravec (on artificial intelligence)
Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to
experience it.
--Max Frisch
A stitch in time would have confused Einstein.
--Anonymous
The crux... is that the vast majority of the mass of the universe seems to be
missing.
--William J. Broad
Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room.
--Blaise Pascal
The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand
what he finds.
--Claude Bernard
"I believe I found the missing link between animal and civilized man.
It is us."
--Konrad Lorenz
"I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to
waste any of mine running around doing exercises."
--Neil Armstrong
"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known
will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."
--James Thurber
"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get
run over."
--Aneurin Bevan
"Things could be worse. Suppose your errors were counted and published every
day, like those of a baseball player."
--Anonymous
"It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not desirable, as
one's hat keeps blowing off."
--Woody Allen
"In ecology, as in economics, TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free
Lunch) is intended to warn that every gain is won at som cost. Failure to
recognize the "no free linch" law causes the buffalo-hunter mentality
syndrome--the unthinking assumption that there will always be plenty because
there alwayss has been plenty."
--Dr. Robert W. Prehoda
"Only a mediocre person is always at his best."
--W. Somerset Maugham
"Perhaps the best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a
time."
--Dean Acheson
"Evolution is what it is. The upper classes have always died out; it's one of
the most charming things about them."
--Germaine Greer
"Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything,
except over technology."
--John Tudor
"New and stirring things are belittled because if they are not belittled, the
humiliating question arises, 'Why then are you not taking part in them?'"
--H. G. Wells
"There is considerable evidence that great empires and civilizations have been
undone not by barbarian invaders but by climatic change."
--1977 CIA report
"We all worry about the population explosion--but we don't worry about it at
the right time."
--Arthur Hoppe
"Remember when atmospheric contaminants were romantically called stardust?"
--Lane Olinghouse
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