adam.nz: Quotes from 2001

If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.

I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.

Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, through education or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and it looks like work.

I never said half the things I said.

The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world.

Anxiety and depression are the price you pay for a well-lived life.

As we enjoy great advantages from inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.

Boardwatch Internal Guideline #17: When you have a bear that is already struggling with a toothache — avoid poking it in the eye with a stick

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force! Like fire, it is a troublesome servant and a fearful master.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.

What someone doesn't want you to publish is journalism, all else is publicity.

Toking is also the most popular method of consuming marijuana, thus clove cigarettes may serve as a gateway drug to addictive substances.

Every now and then, when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas … with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.

I'm no fan of humanity. There, I said it. Singular individuals have the potential to be warm, sensual, caring and exciting people. Humanity in general? It's like a fungus. It lives in its little corner of the universe. It eats, and eats, and eats until there's nothing left to eat. Then it dies.

If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em.

If you argue for your limitations, sure enough they will be yours.

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

… anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.

Well, it's not really the right word, but freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more of it.

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the lock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.

It is better to be in chains with friends than in a garden with strangers.

Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop. Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side. This is wrong. It arouses contempt in the cop-heart. Make the bastard chase you. He will follow.

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

If you think you know what the HELL is going on, YOU'RE PROBABLY FULL OF SHIT.

Chindogu are offerings to the rest of the world. They are not therefore ideas to be copyrighted, patented, collected and owned. As they say in Spain, 'mi Chindogu es tu Chindogu.

The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet.

If there's a God, you are an authorized representative.

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.

We should not confuse information with knowledge.

All you need to live in this world is duct tape, baking soda and procmail. Tofu is just about as versatile too.

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

Drugs may lead to nowhere, but at east it's the scenic route.

Steal $5, you're a thief; steal $5 million, you're a financier.

During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about US $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank.

You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin!

You are a den of vipers and thieves.

Every generation needs a new revolution.

Dilbert: Stupidity is like nuclear power. It can be used for good or evil.
Wally: Also, you don't want to get any on you.

Before I was a Discordian I was distressed by the inefficiency and inhumanity of organizations. Now I am vindicatied by their inefficiency and inhumanity.

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.

We all tell little lies, and we all think that maybe they're harmless, and we all find out that they're not harmless after all, and some of us fail to lie ever again and some of us get addicted to the stuff because it leads to interesting situations. Lying, unfortunately, is NOT *good* or *evil* — but it is indicative. Are you the kind of person who takes shortcuts — or the kind of person who learns how to savor the work involved in telling the truth?

Reality is the only word in the English language that should always be used in quotes.

Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if only words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? … As we let our light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

Those who would give up essential liberties for a measure of security, deserve neither liberty nor security.