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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands in moments of challenge and controversy.

Matrin Luther King

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and
writing an exact man"
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who errs, and comes short again and again (but) ... who knows the great enthusiams, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt (Paris, 1910)

What is not given is lost.

Indian Proverb

Sometimes silence is the best thing to say.

Frank Herbert

One can stop when one climbs, never when one descends

Napoleon

When you laugh at things they are no longer dangerous

Raymond Devos

No joy is like the sweet delight which comes beyond, above, against our hopes.

Sophocles

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein

In a thousand pounds of law there is not one ounce of love

anonymous

Be charitable to the women sprung from your ribs. If you try to sraighten a rib you will break it. Accept women as they are with all their curvatures.

Mohammed

Scripta Manent, Verba Volent

I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Voltaire

It is better to live on one's feet than to die on one's knees

anonymous

Prayer for Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous,

Teach me to serve you as you deserve,

To give and not to count the cost,

To fight and not heed the wounds,

To toil and not to seek for rest,

To labor and not to seek reward,

Save that of knowing that I do your will.

St. Ignatious Loyola

"For Books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives."

AMY LOWELL, untitled Poem, The Boston Athenaeum

I would rather regret having done something, than regret having done nothing

anonymous

Be good and you will be lonesome

Mark Twain

Murphy's laws

Nothing is as easy as it looks

Everything takes longer than you expect.

And if anything can go wrong

It will at the worst

Possible moment

A real friend comes in when everyone else is leaving

Walter Winchell

Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.

William Shakespeare

Un ami, c'est celui qui devine toujours quand on a besoin de lui

A friend is someone who allways knows when you need them.

Jules Renard

True friends are not those who dry your tears but who prevent you from shedding them.

NEW QUOTES

There is a differerence between being different and being new, a
difference between questioning social customs and just being rude, a
difference between being daring and simply breaking rules. Most people
do not understand this difference. It makes them easy to tell them
apart.
-Jessica Marrell

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation
from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
-W. Somerset Maugham

"Adrenaline means more than fear," said Fireweed. "And divine love is more then adrenaline and dopamine."
"Certainly. There's phenylethylamine and oxcytocin. Love is a most complex and difficult probblem."
Joan Slonczewski, Brian Plague

 

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day
when you lounge around doing nothing. It's when you've had everything to do,
and you've done it."
-- Margaret Thatcher

Amnesia is not knowing who one is and wanting desperately to find out. Euphoria is not knowing who one is and not caring. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who one is Ð and still not caring.
-----Amanda Ziller, from *Another Roadside Attraction* by Tom Robbins

"Anger is creative; depression is useless"
- Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, 1979, p. 26.

"Dum vivimus, vivamus!"
"While we live, let us LIVE!"

"Meditation is very good for peace of mind," Camden Benares said to me one day, and then added "provided you have the peace of mind to meditate."

"Anyone can become angry - that is easy. But to be angry with the
right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right
purpose, and in the right way; this is not easy."
Aristotle

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his
enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
Aristotele

As a transhumanist, I am a first born every day of my life.
Natasha Vita More

Dorothy Parker quipped: The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure
for curiosity."

"Creativity is a drug I cannot live without."
Cecil B. DeMille

"How does it feel, being seven thousand years old?"
"That depends."
"On what?"
"On how I want it to feel."
Greg Egan, Permutation City

be in love with your life every detail of it
-JACK KEROAC

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements
of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something
to be enthusiastic about." -- Albert Einstein

Emotions and the feelings are not a luxury, they are a means of
communicating our states of mind to others. But they are also a way of
guiding our own judgments and decisions. Emotions bring the body into
the loop of reason.
Antonio Damasio

For as you think in your heart so will your life be.
Edgar Cayce

ENTHUSIASM

Enthusiasm - is a reason gone mad to
achieve a definate, rational objective.

Enthusiasm is inflamed by opposition,
but never converted; it is the leaping
lightning that blasts obstacles from
its path.

Enthusiasm is the X-ray of the soul,
that penetrates and reveals the invisible.

Enthusiasm is a contagion that laughs
at quarantine and inoculates all who come
in contact with it.

Enthusiasm is the vibrant thrill in your
voice that sways the wills of others into
harmony with your own.

Enthusiasm is the "philosopher's stone"
that transmutes dull tasks into
delightful deeds.

Enthusiasm is a magnet that draws
kindred souls and with irresistible force
and electrifies them with the magnatism
of its own resolve.

- Unknown
Courtesy of Pat & Rob at SOL

Live without dead time! Enjoy without constraint!

Security is mostly a superstition. It
does not exist in nature, nor do the
children of men as a whole experience
it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the
long run than outright exposure. Life is
either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Helen Keller, Let Us Have Faith

"What do you want then, Presence?"
"I want what I already have! Eternal wonder, eternally fulfilled...
Not the eternal, even, just the Indefinite, that is where all beauty
is... I'll wait out the heat-death of the Universe to see what happens
next! And in the meantime, isn't it something, all of it?"
Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely
challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn
between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day."
E. B. White

We have to choose which we value more: truth or happiness. In making
this decision, consider that truth is immutable, while happiness is
not, i.e. what makes you happy can change to conform to reality, but
reality will never change to conform to what makes you happy. Bradley
Felton

I MAY HAVE ALLOWED MYSELF SOME FLICKER OF EMOTION IN THE RECENT PAST,
BUT I CAN GIVE IT UP AT ANY TIME I LIKE.
Death, in _Soul Music_ by Terry Pratchett

Why be depressed, dumb and agitated when you can be happy, smart and
tranquil?

"He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder." - M.C. Escher

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
-Unknown

Exuberance is Beauty.
William Blake

"the dullard sees no eros in fine
champagne; the sorcerer can
fall intoxicated on a glass of
water"
-Hakim Bey


Pessimist's Definition of Optimism : Failing to learn from life.
Optimist's Definition of Pessimism : Failing to learn to live.

Astonishment is the only realistic emotion.
Celia Green

Of all our human resources, the most precious is the desire to improve.

 

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
- Burton Hills

 

"Live like a bourgeois, think like a demigod" - Flaubert



Unexpected anger ==> Sacred Cow Alert
Twirlip of Greymist

There are TWO kinds of selfishness: the kind that says, "I must do
what will make me happy," and the kind that says, "YOU must do what
will make me happy." The first is good, the second is bad.
From: ksinner@solaria.sol.net (Kenton E. Sinner)

 

"Charlie...remember what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he
ever wanted... He lived happily ever after."
Willy Wonka - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

 

Medieval Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, said to be unbeatable, wrote down some of his
techniques in his Book Of Five Rings. One, the Fire and Stones Cut, was simply a vertical strike down
onto the opponent; but a kenjutsu adept was to execute it with such complete force, such totality of
being, that even when blocked the cut would knock down the opponent's guard or open it to attack.
Imagine if we went at our goals that way.

According to Sun Tzu's The Art Of War, that ancient Chinese masterpiece of strategy, to know
oneself and one's enemy opens the way to sure victory. Implication: self and enemy are not, perhaps,
so different at the core.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all
true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer
pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
- Albert Einstein

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't
do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe
harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain

To believe is to be strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power.

And to those who say:
"Summa nulla est,"
I say:
"Fac ut vivas."
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky

Aliens could never
be as alien
as another human.

Eva Eriksson
Email:eva.eriksson@halmstad.mail.telia.com

"I am compelled to realize, that the seperateness of our experience limits the usefulness of any practical advice that I could offer you. Indeed, if I could find one phrase that would sum up my wishes for you on this occasion, I think it would be devoted to convincing you of the futility of living too much by the advice of others."
- Glenn Gould

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
Everything you can imagine is real
Art is the lie that helps us see the truth


- Picasso