8/20/10
  John Stuart Mill  
 Ethical theorist, Philosopher, Economist and Logician. 1806-1873
#1
 ~~~~ 

     “Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of .”   

  "The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself."

  "Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called."

"I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized. " 

“The great creative individual. . . is capable of more wisdom and virtue than collective man ever can be .”

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, 
so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”. ”

"That miscellaneous collection of a few wise and many foolish individuals, called the public. " 

"There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home . "

"The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind. "

"But society has now fairly got the better of individuality; and the danger which threatens human nature
is not the excess, but the deficiency, of personal impulses and preferences."

"The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine."

"The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement."

   George Carlin  
Comic and Simultaneous Observer
#1
 ~~~~ 

  “I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. 
My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death"

     “If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, 
then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little..”   

  "Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town."

  "Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things."

"When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat." 

“When you step on the brakes your life is in your foot's hands.”

“Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right.
 As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established.. ”

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." 

"One can never know for sure what a deserted area looks like."

"By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. "

"Some people see things that are and ask, Why?
 Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? 
Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that."

2/06/10
  Marcus Tullius Cicero  
Roman Orator, Lawyer, Politician and Philosopher.

 ~~~~ 

  ““A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within
.... for the traitor appears not to be a traitor...he rots the soul of a nation
... he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.”

     “If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.”   

  "It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others, and to forget his own,
 ... You can't clear your own fields while you're counting the rocks on your neighbor's farm

  "The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. 
Peace is freedom in tranquility, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death"

"It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness." 

“The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, 
each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.”

“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. ”

"Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions
 for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end." 

"Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable. ."

"Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief. "

"Honor is the reward of virtue. 

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.
 With confidence, you have won even before you have started. "

  Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

~~~~ 

  "Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death,
 they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies,
their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.." 

    "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."   

  "Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers."   

  "Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination"  

  "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished 
unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."  

"History is a pack of lies we play on the dead." 

"There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts."

"There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable."

"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."

"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered"

"Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes."

"Anything too stupid to be said is sung."

"..the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death."

  Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)
 American humorous Journalist and Critic of American life who influenced US fiction through the 1920s.

~~~~ 

  "“There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character” 

    "The cynics are right, nine times out of ten."   

  "The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."   

  "Do not overestimate the decency of the human race."   

  "Nature abhors a moron"  

  "The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals
 as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality."  

"Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas." 

"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable."

"The average man doesn't want to be free. He wants to be safe."

"One seldom discovers a true believer that is worth knowing."

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it."

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."

"All government, of course, is against liberty."

 7/23/10
  Mark Twain  
Comic and Simultaneous Observer
#1
 ~~~~ 

  “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

     “By trying we can easily endure adversity. Another man's, I mean. .”   

  "It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense."

  "Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.."

"There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable. " 

“Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid. .”

“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today. ”

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. " 

"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. "

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. "

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress."

"It is easier to stay out than get out  ."

"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.."

"The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop."

"There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce."