Notable Quotations

19 Feb 2016 - San Francisco, CA

Life itself is a quotation. –Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine Short Story Writer

To those whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources. –Twyla Tharp, Dancer

Complex systems tend to oppose their intended function. –Le Chatelier’s Principle

Complex systems operate in failure mode. –The Fundamental Failure Mode Theorem

All models are wrong, but some are useful. –George E. P. Box, Statistician

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. –F. Scott Fitzgerald, Novelist

A watt saved is better than a watt generated, which is better than a watt generated and then stored. –Ryan D., Engineer (personal conversation)

Moral law is an invention of (wo)mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. –Cormac McCarthy, Novelist

If the company didn’t exist, would there be any need to create it? –PhilWright (username), User of Hacker News

Nothing is the ground state of a gapped quantum system. –Eva Silverstein, Physicist

Mathematics is looking for patterns. –Richard Feynman, Physicist

Another roof, another proof. –Paul Erdos, Mathematician

Shut up and calculate. –David Mermin, Physicist

It from bit. –John Archibald Wheeler, American Physicist

Probability, like time, is a concept invented by humans, and humans have to bear the responsibility for the obscurities that attend it. –John Archibald Wheeler, American Physicist

Eppur si muove. (And yet it moves.) –Galileo Galilei, Astronomer

Veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus. (Truth is the equation [or adequation] of things and intellect). –Thomas Aquinas, Priest

Fear = Thinking + Time. Take either one of those things away, thinking or time, and you cannot get fear. –Jason Comely, Rejection Therapist

Sous les paves, la plage! (Under the cobblestones, the beach.) –May ‘68 Slogan (see: Wikipedia\May 1968 Events in France\Slogans and Graffiti)

They can be a great people, Kal-El; they wish to be. They only lack the program to show them the way. –Gordon Clark, Fictional Character, Halt and Catch Fire, S2E3, re Sonaris

In chess, it’s called “zugzwang” when the only viable move…is not to move. –Nemo Nobody, Fictional Character, Mr. Nobody (before ellipsis: aged 9; after: aged 118)

Before we assume our respective roles in this enduring drama, just let me say that when these frail shadows we inhabit now have quit the stage, we’ll meet and raise a glass again together in Valhalla. –Judge Sternwood, Fictional Character, Twin Peaks

One (wo)man can make you fly like an eagle, another can give you the strength of a lion, but only one in the cycle of life can fill your heart with wonder and the wisdom that you have known a singular joy. –Deputy Hawk Hill, Fictional Character, Twin Peaks

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination. –Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

First, say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do. –Epictetus, Philosopher [as transcribed by his student Lucius Flavius Arrianus aka Arrian in the Discoures of Epictetus, Book III, Chapter 23]

The future is already here - it’s just not very evenly distributed. –William Gibson, Fiction Writer

I’ve never met a scientist who didn’t play music. –Thomas Eisner, Entomologist (personal conversation, Risley Dining Room, Cornell University, 2008-2010 time frame)

The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. –William Faulkner, Writer

The past is never dead. It’s not even past. –William Faulkner, Writer

Live as you die; ask not why. –Eric L., Software Developer

Solidarity not charity. –Organizing philosophy, Common Ground Collective, New Orleans

Theory is fun. Practice is bleak. Progress is a weed who refuses to believe the world sucks. –JoeJoe, Grid Operator, Greentech Media Poster via Disqus @disqus_f1ChKs4sTj

To figure out what to write, ask yourself: What is the one book that you most badly wish to read? –Anne-Marie L., Public Art and Immersive Experience Producer (personal conversation)

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. –Winston S. Churchill, Former British Prime Minister

When you see a good move, look for a better one. –Emanuel Lasker, German Chess Player

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. –Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher (Paraphrased: When you study the void, the void studies you back.)

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. –Alexander Graham Bell, Scientist

Someone once said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. We can now revise that and witness the attempt to imagine capitalism by way of imagining the end of the world. –Fredric Jameson, American Literary Critic

…there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. –Hamlet in Hamlet by Shakespeare

Mono no aware. (The pathos of things.) –Japanese Term

Most products fail. –Robert McMath, Marketing Professional

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung, and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no-one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with your hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. –C.S. Lewis

A good traveler has no fixed plans. –Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. –Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher

Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been. –Walter Gretzky

Memento mori. (Remember death.) –Medieval Latin Christian Theory

Tempus edax rerum. (Time, devourer of all things.) –Ovid, Metamorphoses, 15, 234-236

Sic semper tyrannis. (Thus always to tyrants.) –Latin Phrase

The electricity grid works in practice, but not in theory. –Dr. Alexandra von Meier, Adjunct Professor at UC Berkeley

Many who drive their own lives to help others often realize that they do not change what causes the need for their help…and donating to organizations is not enough to make any real difference. –David S. Buckel, American Lawyer

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. –Hannah Arendt

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. –Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. –Philip K. Dick, American Writer

It is the possibility of responding to other people emotionally that places humans above the other creatures, and we cannot seek to gain our own happiness if that is at the expense of someone else’s sufferings. –Liang Qichao, Chinese Scholar

All the young people today want to talk about the greatness of love; I am also aware that there are a great many other things on this earth, and to take this item as the only one is more than I can accept. –Liang Qichao, Chinese Scholar

The word “cause” is an altar to an unknown god. –William James, American Philosopher

If you want to destroy my sweater, pull this thread as I walk away. –Weezer, Rock band

I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. (If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.) –Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist

Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. –Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

On the train of the revolution, we will lose the liberals at the first turn. –Anthony Bourdain, American Cook and Storyteller, Paraphrasing Vladimir Lenin, Revolutionary

There is virtue in struggle. –Seth M., Editor and Journalist (personal conversation)

Soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning. –Thornton Wilder, American Playwright

Tourism is sin, and travel on foot virtue. –Werner Herzog, German Screenwriter

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. –Original Source Unknown

More precisely – and here we are back to the logic of the madman who knows that he is not a grain of corn, but is worried that the chickens have not realized this fact – we know we are responsible, but the chicken (the big Other) has not caught on. –Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian Philosopher, In Defense of Lost Causes

The word “cause” is, in short, an altar to an unknown god; an empty pedestal still marking the place of a hoped-for statue. –William James, American Philosopher

No (wo)man is an island. –John Donne, Poet

Nothing endures but change. (The only thing constant is change.) –Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher

It is vain to affirm that which the heart does not confirm. –Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Novelist

As easy it was to tell black from white, it was all that easy to tell wrong from right. –Bob Dylan, American Singer-Songwriter

True love is modest, like that of a couple in a Marguerite Duras novel: while the two lovers hold hands, they do not look into each other’s eyes; they look together outwards, to some third point, their common Cause. Perhaps there is no greater love than that of a revolutionary couple, where each of the two lovers is ready to abandon the other at any moment should the revolution demand it. They do not love each other less than the amorous couple bent on suspending all their terrestrial links and obligations in order to burn out in a night of unconditional passion - if anything, they love each other more. –Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian philosopher, Living in the End Times

Every thin film PV module is a PhD project. –Sarah K., Research Fellow and Professor (personal conversation)

Take your losses like your gains. –William G. (personal conversation)

You can’t go broke on a profit. –William G. (personal conversation)

Goosebumps are real. –Swedish House Mafia, Creamfields 2010 BBC interview

Cream rises. –Anthony Bourdain, American Chef, Kitchen Confidential

Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships. –Linus Torvalds, Finnish Software Engineer, primary author and creator of Linux and Git

Winter ends. –S. Foundling, American Artist (personal conversation)

Look at plants, not people. –Olivia (personal conversation)

No regrets, no replies. –Zephyr (band), in the song “Winter Always Finds Me”

There is a raw truth that is visible here. –SamManero, YouTube user, in response to Werner Herzog’s “On the Jungle and Nature”

Say could, not should. (I’d personally add and amend as follows: Don’t use the words “if possible”, “should”, or “try”.) –John Elliott, Musical Artist (personal conversation)

It’s a feature, not a bug. –Source Unknown

Be prepared. Leave no trace. –Boy Scouts of America, Nonprofit Organization

And now—the cat in the wall says that’s all. –Hunter S. Thompson, American Journalist, in Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

Wear sunscreen. –Mary Schmich, American Journalist

Don’t forget to floss. –Mona Lee Fultz, Actress, in the film “Boyhood”

Floss the teeth you wish to keep. –Source Unknown

You only live once (YOLO). –Source Unknown

Life is not hard if you be yourself. –F. Acheme (personal conversation)

Buy the ticket, take the ride. –Hunter S. Thompson, American Journalist

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. –Hanlon’s Razor

Keep calm and carry a bomb. – J. Cowit and the Ruthless Orchestra, Musical Artist

Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattacks. (NB: Generally bad advice.) –Roger Stone, American Political Consultant

…the only way that a ruling class - any ruling class - can stay in power and get people to do work that they don’t want to do is to invent taboos, and then punish those who break them while, best of all, creating an ongoing highly exploitable sense of guilt in just about everyone. –Gore Vidal, American Writer

There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. –Alfred Henry Lewis, American Journalist

When it rains, it pours. –Morton Salt, American Food Company

Be the person your dog thinks you are! –J.W. Stephens

What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank? –Bertolt Brecht, Theatre Practitioner

如果石油公司想买你家，家下就有油在房子下面. Rúguǒ shíyóu gōngsī xiǎng mǎi nǐ jiā, jiā xià jiù yǒu yóu zài fángzi xiàmiàn. (If an oil company wants to buy your home, there is oil under it.) –Silicon Valley (TV show), Season 5, Episode 6 - Artificial Emotional Intelligence

L’appel du vide. (The call of the void.) –Source Unknown (French origin)

He’d say he loved all his employees, but he particularly loved the ones who ate the sh!t for him and he never even knew it. –Succession (TV show), Season 1, Episode 4 - Sad Sack Wasp Trap

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. –Napoleon Bonaparte, Statesman

Success is relative to happiness. –Original Source Unknown

Everyone always knows who they are going to be. –Kamiyah (personal conversation)

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. –Mike Tyson, American Professional Boxer

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim. –Bertrand Russell, British Philosopher

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. –Bertrand Russell, British Philosopher

Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. –The Bible, John 18:38

The only thing he said was that among human vices he considered cowardice one of the first. –Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

The horror! The horror! –Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

[It’s] the only loss you could forsake; the only bluff you couldn’t fake. –Bob Seeger, Still the Same

They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more. (We’re born astride the grave.). –Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Bull markets don’t die of old age. –Origin Unknown

It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak. (Blood begets more blood.) –Macbeth, No Fear, Act 3, Scene 4

Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment. (As I breath in, I calm my body. As I breath out, I smile.) –Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Monk, in Being Peace

And one by one the nights between our separated cities are joined to the night that unites us. –Pablo Neruda, Colombian Drug Lord

The king is dead. Long live the king. –French Origin, 1422

Le mort saisit le vif. (The dead siezes the living.) –French Doctrine (The heir succeeds the deceased from the instant of her death.)

Measure seven times, cut once. (Measure twice. Cut once.) –Russian Proverb

Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg. –Haruki Murakami, Japanese Writer

I would prefer not to. (I’d prefer not to.) –Bartleby, the Scrivener

If there’s smoke, then there’s fire. –Origin Unknown (dates back to 43 BCE)

If you don’t like smoke, don’t play with fire. –Origin Unknown

If you play with fire, you’re going to get burnt. –Origin Unknown

Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. (Smoke it if you’ve got it.) –Origin Unknown

Don’t get high on your own supply. –Origin Unknown

You’ve gotta just keep on pushing. Push the sky away. –Nick Cave, Australian Singer-songwriter

Saigon. Sh!t. I’m still only in Saigon. Every time I think I’m gonna wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I’d wake up and there’d be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said “yes” to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I’m here a week now, waiting for a mission, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter. –Willard, in Apocalypse Now

Patterns weave inter-amongst weaving of the patterns. –Mike Gordon, American Bass Guitarist (in a Phish interview on 1994-06-19)

Oh, bother. –Winnie the Pooh

Not much of a house, just right for not much of a donkey. –Eeyore

Electricity. Electricity! –Sesame Street

Conjunction junction–what’s your function? –Sesame Street

Stop, look, and listen. –Jiminy Cricket

Nobody has the right to obey. –Hannah Arendt, American-German Philosopher

It’s not working from home, it’s living at work. –BridgetteBane, Reddit User

We live in a society. –Joker Meme

Jonah Byrde: When you own the game, you don’t need quarters. You can set it to give you infinite lives. Marty Byrde: That’d be cheating. –Ozark, S3:E5, It Came From Michoacán

You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it; molded by it. –Bane, Fictional Supervillain

It is because of the beauty that is why a woman holds her breasts when she runs, not because the breast is going to fall [to the ground]. –Fela Kuti, Nigerian Multi-instrumentalist, quoting a Ghanaian saying in the album “Gentleman” (Original saying: The running woman holds her breasts for beauty’s sake, not because she thinks she’ll lose them. –Twi Proverb)

The desire for more positive experience is in itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience. –Mark Mason, American Author, in “The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F**k”

I never let a statue tell me how nice I am. –A Tribe Called Quest, Hip Hop Group

Things fall apart. –Chinua Achebe, Nigerian Novelist

Life is long and the scurf still rises. –Emily from Hello Uncle Foreigner on YouTube

It is a long walk around the garden of my pride. –Giri Haji, Duty Shame, S1:E5

People think [that] when they are not saying anything, they are not saying anything. but that is not the case. –Giri Haji, Duty Shame, S1:E5

Birth is agony, life is hard, death is cruel. Don’t ask me to explain it. –Giri Haji, Duty Shame, S1:E6

Nani mo ka mo mechakucha da. (Everything is messed up.) –Japanese Proverb

To understand the “artist,” you must study his “art.” –John E. Douglas, Retired Special Agent and Unit Chief in the United States (U.S.) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in “Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit”

I drop it on the one, f**k the two three. –Redman, American Rapper, in “Can’t Wait”

There’s pork chop in every beer. –J.W. (personal conversation)

I tell you, you all won’t find another [wo]man like me. –Lipscomb, in a film by Les Blank (American Filmmaker) titled, “A Well Spent Life” (aka “There are no other [wo]men like me.” –Werner Herzog, German Film Director, paraphrasing the Les Blank film)

You kill the joe, you make some mo’. –Terry Tate, Office Linebacker

No mas, le duele. (Stop, it hurts). –Twyla character in Schitt’s Creek, S1:E1

You are the life you accept for yourself. –Goldie Hawn character in Schitt’s Creek, S2:E6 “Moira vs. Town Council”

Gossip is the devil’s telephone. Best to just hang up. –Moira Rose character in Schitt’s Creek, S4:E4 “Girls’ Night”

It’s a cinch to mash the Murphy where there’s love. –Moira Rose character in Schitt’s Creek, S4:E9 “The Olive Branch”

You eat, you expired pleasure. –Moira Rose character, quoting Zeljko from Bosnia, in Schitt’s Creek, S5:E3 “The Plant”

Toi khong bao gio thua. (Viatnamese anbang aka cliché for “I never lose.”) –Moira character in Schitt’s Creek, S5:E6 “Rock On!”

Underneath [that] brambly tartan blousant is a chrysalis, just bursting with potential. –Moira Rose character in Schitt’s Creek, S5:E8 “The Hospies”

Silence is but an empty serving platter. –Moira Rose character, paraphrasing a saying from the Balkan Penninsula, in Schitt’s Creek, S6:E14 “Happy Ending”

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. –Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist

There’s no such thing as too cold weather. Only insufficient clothing. –Finnish Proverb

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. –Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter, in the song “Me and Bobby McGee”

Freedom is just another word for one more way to get f–ked. –Officer Gerard in Dexter, S1:E5, “Love American Style”

A lo mejor los pescados te encuentran. (Maybe the fish will find you.) –Dexter in Dexter, S1:E5, “Love American Style”

Never lie to someone who trusts you. Never trust someone who lies to you. –Sonya character in Dexter, S5:E4, “Beauty and the Beast”

Saint Brigid, circle us with your light so that no darkness shall overcome our world. –Irish Nanny in Dexter, S5:E7, “Circle Us”

It’s a law of physics that elements want to unify. –Voiceover in Dexter, S5:E8, “Take it!”

We gotta find some peace in life. –Brother Sam in Dexter, S6:E6, “Just Let Go”

Now that I’ve done my job, I can get on with my work. –Dexter in Dexter, S6:E10, “Ricochet Rabbit”

Bukkaki, Bukkake. –Vince Masuka in Dexter, S6:E11, “Talk to the Hand”

Kick a horse during the race, not after it’s over. –Maria LaGuerta in Dexter, S6:E12, “This is the Way the World Ends”

Trust those who seek the truth, but doubt those who say that they’ve found it. –Hannah MacKay in Dexter, S7:E7, “Chemistry”

Sometimes life subtracts. Sometimes it adds. –Hannah MacKay in Dexter, S7:E7, “Chemistry”

When some elements come together, they create a reaction that can’t be reversed. They transcend chemistry. Is this what love feels like? –Dexter in Dexter, S7:E7, “Chemistry”

The best hobbies are the ones that take us furthest from our primary occupation. (The best hobbies take us furthest from our primary occupation.) –Dr. Evelyn Vogel character in Dexter, S8:E8

You’re stirring up dangerous undercurrents in the otherwise placid waters of my pants. –James Pietragallo in Small Town Murder, E130, “I Killed the Devil…You’re Welcome”

They trust me. Dumb f**ks. –Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive Officer CEO of Facebook

In the world of cloud storage, a large storm is equivalent to Black Friday. –Casey Werth, IBM Cloud Leader - Energy, Environment, and Utilities

The key to good system design is to have a good engineer. (To choose a good product and design a good system, you need a good engineer.) –Sen Zhang, Senior Vice President, Engineering at Wärtsilä, in fireside chat with Julian Spector on 2020-09-01 as part of GTM Storage Focus

In IT, the first step is to lock the user out. In OT, locking the user (asset) out is exactly what the hackers wish to achieve. –Andy Tang, Vice President of Energy Storage and Optimization at Wärtsilä, in a fireside chat with Julian Spector on 2020-09-01 as part of GTM Storage Focus

You come for the spice; you stay for the wonk. –Katherine Hamilton, Chair of 38 North Solutions, in a GTM Solar Energy Gang Podcast on 2020-08-25

Let’s tell a story. Because only an interesting story can help us climb faster. –Jianqing in “Us and Them” (film)

If it’s a software issue, it’s solvable. If it’s a hardware issue, well, you can’t fix gravity. –J.W. (personal conversation)

Every contact leaves a trace. –Dexter in Dexter, S8:E8, “Are We There Yet?”

Under the orders of the CIA, the Mob and LBJ killed Kennedy. –Republicans for Biden (someone’s online, Internet profile and username)

Each time a (wo)man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, (s)he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. (Each time a man strikes out against injustice…he sends forth a tiny glimmer of hope.) –Robert F. Kennedy, Former United States Attorney General

Don’t walk through our misery to a headline. –John Lewis, Former United States Representative, in “Bobby Kennedy for President”

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. –William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet

The English word “idiot” comes from the Greek for a person who did not participate in public affairs. But the word “university” comes from the Latin for “all together”. –Robert F. Kennedy, Former United States Attorney General

“C’est la vie”, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell. –Chuck Berry, American Singer-songwriter

Goes to show, you don’t ever know. –Jerry Garcia, American Singer-songwriter and Lead Guitarist of the Grateful Dead (from the 1972 song “Deal [Evening]”)

F. –Internet slang in solidarity for all that’s terrible in the world

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. –Mentat Mantra, in David Lynch’s “Dune” film

It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. –The Programmer’s Mantra (parodied from the Mentat Mantra in David Lynch’s “Dune” film)

Back to life, back to reality. –Soul II Soul, Musical Group

Ee mara tom tee tok maky cheesa. (You should have paid him when you had the chance.) –Greedo in Star Wars EPISODE IV: A New Hope

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain, which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. –Aeschylus, Tragedian

[I’m reminded of what] Abraham Lincoln said about the man who was carried out on a steel rail, out of the city, “Except for the honor, I’d like to have passed it up.” –Robert Kennedy in Oregon (1968)

I feel like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. To the man who asked him how he liked it, he said: “If it wasn’t for the honor of the thing, I’d rather walk.” –Abraham Lincoln

You’re certainly a good person. But i am a robot. So I dont believe you to get me. –Little_Setting username on Reddit

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. –Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American Minister

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. –Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American Minister

We expect the evidence [collected by the LAPD] will show that this evidence that was collected at these various locations that you’ve just seen was contaminated, compromised, and ultimately corrupted. –Johnnie Cochran, American Lawyer

The only time you lose is when you quit. –Cesar Chavez, American Civil Rights Activist (paraphrased)

It’s common but not normal. –James Pietragallo, Small Town Murder, Ep. 138

It’s a duck with no wings. –Jimmie Whisman, Small Town Murder, Ep. 138

Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman–a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting. –Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm, Philosopher, in Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night. –Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm, Philosopher, in Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Remember that the future is not yet written. So when things look dark, do as my mighty mom would insist. Lace up your dancing shoes, and get to work. –Bruce Springsteen, American Singer-songwriter, in Springsteen on Broadway

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should. –Dr. Ian Malcolm, fictional character in Jurassic Park

Everyone gets the experience. Some get the lesson. –T. S. Eliot, American-British Poet

May the darkness within you find peace in the light. –Inscription for character “Ben” in Umbrella Academy, S1:E1 “We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals”

War. Such an fascinating concept. A temporary salve for a permanent human flaw. –The Handler character in Umbrella Academy, S1:E6 “The Day That Wasn’t”

Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! –Klaus character in Umbrella Academy, S1:E8 “I Heard a Rumor”

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. (Serenity Prayer) –Reinhold Niebuhr, Theologian

Trust, but verify. –Suzanne Massie, American Scholar

D’oh! –Homer Simpson, fictional character in “The Simpsons”

Jeepers! Zoinks! –Scooby-Doo, fictional character in “Scooby-Doo”

Narf! –Pinky, fictional character in “Pinky and the Brain”

That’ll do, pig. That’ll do. –Farmer Arthur Hoggett, fictional character in the film “Babe” (1995)

One, if by land, and two, if by sea. –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American Poet [“Phrase was coined by the American poet, Henry W. Longfellow in his poem, Paul Revere’s Ride. It was a reference to the secret signal orchestrated by Revere during his historic ride from Boston to Concord on the verge of American Revolutionary War.” Source: https://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/one-if-by-land-two-if-by-sea.html]

Data is gold! –TBD hedge fund

Don’t force it. –James Pietragallo, American Comedian (in Small Town Murder podcast Ep. 160)

You’re gifted with the talent that brings people to you. –Jimmie Whisman, American Comedian (in Small Town Murder podcast Ep. 179)

Looking back is narcissism; looking forward is fantasy. –S.M.’s Colleague and Friend (personal conversation)

Wrap the leader around the tippet. Four, five, six times. Tuck the end between the lines. Tighten. And…trim. –Will Graham character in Hannibal (TV series), S2:E4, Takiawase

Focus on the horizon, and rock with the sea. –Source TBD (on how to avoid seasickness)

Jealousy’s a motherf*cker, you weak jealous motherf*ckers! –The Notorious B.I.G., American Rapper (in My Downfall song, which is in Life After Death album)

Daughter, Son: God gave you a mouth. Learn how to use it. –Source TBD (quoted in TBD Small Town Murder podcast)

Liberté, égalité, fraternité. –Maximilien Robespierre, French Lawyer (highly influential figure of the French Revolution)

If it ain’t baroque, don’t fix it. –Ms. Bach (my former music teacher)

There’s no such thing as a synonym. No two words are exact synonyms. No two words are the same. –S.M. (personal conversation)

If you love something, give it away. –Conor Oberst, American Singer-songwriter (Lead Singer of Rock Band “Bright Eyes”)

I’m happy just because I found out I’m really no one. –Conor Oberst, American Singer-songwriter (Lead Singer of Rock Band “Bright Eyes”)

Freedom fighters don’t always win, but they’re always right. –Molly Ivins, American Columnist

Sometimes we need stories more than we need food. –Barry Lopez, American Author

Look to the helpers. –Mother of Fred Rogers, American Television TV Host

Typing is no substitute for thinking. (My version: Trying is no substitute for thinking.) –Original BASIC manual

Sit down and don’t touch sh!t. The master of the house will be with you shortly. He’s vacuuming. –Anthony Mason, American Basketball Player

You can’t be funny at the beach. –Jerry Seinfeld via James Pietragallo, both American Comedians

The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves. –Vladimir Lenin, Former Premier of the Soviet Union

We do for today what we can’t do for forever. –Mother of Mitchell S. Jackson, American Writer

A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures - A manager develops people. (Paraphrased: You can’t manage what you can’t measure.) –Peter Drucker, Austrian Consultant (in The Practice of Management, 1954, p. 344)

If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. –William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, British Mathematician

Lean into the things that make you weird…that’s where all of the gold is. –Sammus, American Record Producer

Batteries do gigawatts GWs; hydrogen does terawatts TWs. –Dr. Todd G. Deutsch, Senior Scientist, Chemistry, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

This too shall pass. –Persian Adage

You can, for you shall. –Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

Safe journeys, space fans…wherever you are. –Stephen Hill, Radio Producer (“Hearts of Space”)

Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent. –Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), Former President of the People’s Republic of China and Mass Murderer (killed millions of people - many more millions than Hitler and Stalin combined)

There would be no prisons without architects willing to build them. –Me

If you see me, weep. –Hunger Stone

Et tu, Brute? (Et tu, Brutus?) –Julius Caesar, Roman dictator, in Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar”

Creativity is the ability to sell your sadness. (Paraphrased mine: Art is the ability to sell your sadness. Art is the ability to sell your pain. Art is how good you can sell your pain.) –Elvis Presley, American Singer

Suffering is the university of egocentrism. –Milan Kundera, Czech Writer, in “Immortality”

Einmal ist keinmal. What happens but once might as well not have happened at all. –Milan Kundera, Czech Writer, in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”

A stable crypto-currency will not attract any investment. Crypto is useless for anything but money laundering and speculation. (My addition: Cryptocurrencies, like conventional currencies, are also used for sponsoring terrorists, incl. state-sponsored terrorism, intrinsically and directly accelerating catastrophic climate change all the while. Namely, cryptocurrency’s by no means a panacea deserving of the frequent, gushing, cultish/religious Internet praise that it presently receives.) –dandare (username), User of Hacker News

For the war to be won, of any war, you have to bring some of the people that you perceive as the enemy to be on your side. Slavery could not have ended without white people joining the fight. The women’s rights: not going to be won without men - the good men. So, you need those allies. –Edwin O’Kongo, Co-host of KALW’s Africa Mix, in Episode 2022-03-05

‘Tis as easy as lying. –William Shakespeare, English Playwright, in Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2

Hear me, Lord. Help me, Lord, I’m feeling low. –Oliver Mtukudzi, Zimbabwean Musician, in his song “Hear Me, Lord”

We have a soul even though it’s electronic and mathematic. (Paraphrased: The [human] soul is electronic and mathematic.) –Kraftwerk, Band

I am human. Therefore, nothing human is foreign to me. –Publius Terentius Afer aka Terence, Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic

I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me. –Maya Angelou, American Poet, in her Cornell University Class of 2008 Commencement Speech

First, do no harm. (Primum non nocere.) (Primum nil nocere.) –Physician’s (Doctor’s) Mantra (As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm. –Hippocrates, Greek Physician, in Epidemics, Book I, Ch. 2) (Variant translation: The physician must be able to tell the antecedents, know the present, and foretell the future — must mediate these things, and have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm.) (Paraphrased variant: Wherever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm. –Viking Book of Aphorisms: A Personal Selection (1988) by W. H. Auden and Louis Kronenberger, p. 213.)

Markets will remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. –A. Gary Shilling, American Financial Analyst and Commentator

Re: Gross National Product GNP (and Gross Domestic Product GDP): It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. –Robert F. Kennedy, Former United States Attorney General, Remarks at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968

We don’t want companies; we want foundations that simply disappear after everything is distributed. –John McAfee, Computer Programmer

One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it. –Bertoldo, Character in The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, American Writer

The sculptor must create a body of work. He must produce for fifty to sixty years, as Ghiberti and Donatello did. He must produce enough to permeate the whole world. –Michelangelo, Character in The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, American Writer

Adding (wo)manpower to a late software project makes it later. (Brooks’s Law) –Fred Brooks, American Software Engineer, coined in his 1975 book, The Mythical Person-Month

There will be out castes [Untouchables] as long as there are castes. –Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Dr. B. R. Ambedkar), Former Minister of State for Law and Justice, Government of India (Paraphrased: There are no castes without outcasts. Alternate: There are no outcasts without castes. –Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian philosopher, in his book, “Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism”)

The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk. –Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German Philosopher (Paraphrased: The owl takes wing at dusk.)

The Truth is out there. –Tagline of the TV show, “The X-Files”

“…where they burn [/ban] books, they will ultimately burn [/ban] people also.” –Heinrich Heine, German poet, in his play “Almansor” (1821)

People changes. –Stevie (Steve James), in the 2002 film “Stevie”

F. –A popular symbol (meme) of sadness and regret commonly used in text-based communications on the Internet (repeat of above with a different description)

The only thing we learn from history is that we don’t [otherwise] learn from history. –Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German Philosopher (paraphrased)

A cynic is a (wo)man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. –Oscar Wilde, Irish Poet and Playwright

[Imago is] the last stage of a transformation. It’s also a term from the dead religion of psychoanalysis. An imago is an image of a loved one, buried in the unconscious, carried with us all our lives. –Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Forensic Psychiatrist and Psychopathic Serial Killer and Cannibal, character, in S2E13 of TV series “Hannibal”

Don’t fear the reaper. –Blue Oyster Cult, Rock Band

That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise. –David Hume, Scottish Philosopher and Historian

Law is the ultimate science. –Frank Herbert, American Author, in “Dune”

Perhaps a little more housework and a little less mouse work might do you some good. –Moira Rose, in TV show “Schitt’s Creek”, S06E10 “Sunrise, Sunset” (2015)

You can never be worse than your problems. –Agent of Jarrett Jack, American Basketball Player

Follow the three (3) R’s: Respect for Self, Respect for Others, and Responsibility for All Your Actions. –Dalai Lama XIV

It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. –Brené Brown, American Academic and Podcaster

Write simply. –Paul Graham, American Computer Scientist and Writer

Don’t encumber the earth. –George Saunders, American Writer, on Kelly Corrigan Wonders, PRX (2021-04-14)

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. –Douglas Adams, English Author, in “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”

I can’t say I’m outraged. Other people do worse. Of course, there are many mathematicians who are more or less honest. But almost all of them are conformists. They are more or less honest, but they tolerate those who are not honest…It is not people who break ethical standards who are regarded as aliens. It is people like me who are isolated. –Grigori Perelman, Russian Mathematician

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