# quotes and phrases

the future is the indefinite time period after the present. its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist can be categorized as either permanent, meaning that it will exist for the whole of the future, or temporary, meaning that it will not and thus will come to an end

never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance

if you do not get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you do not want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can not hold on to it forever. your mind is your predicament. it wants to be free of change. free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. but change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality

only those who think will become something, those who only think of becoming something will become nothing

live every new day with open eyes like it is your first, with the awe like it is your last and the mind like it is forever

dont compare yourself to those who already achieved their goals, compare yourself to who you were yesterday

omnis mundi creatura, quasi liber et pictura, nobis est et speculum. (all the worlds creatures, as a book and a picture, are to us as a mirror)

there is nothing stable in human affairs; avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity

all my life i wanted to be someone. i guess i should have been more specific

if you do not ask the right questions, then you do not get the right answers

he who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that

never wrestle with a pig, you both get all dirty and the pig likes it

if there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it is another nonconformist who does not conform to the prevailing standards of nonconformity

any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complicated, and more violent

everybody said it was impossible, until someone that did not know this came along and did it

everybody might be a genius. but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it may spend its whole life believing that it is stupid

sometimes we needed no words at all, but merely shared the flow of imagery in our two minds

fools ignore complexity, pragmatists suffer it, some can avoid it, geniuses remove it

no pains will be spared to make the simple seem complicated

so much complexity in software comes from trying to make one thing do two things

the great thing about being stupid is how easy it makes your life. for example, you can go down to a car dealership and get a car for free. all you have to do is sign some papers

evolution holds culture by the leash

alternative medicines have either not been scientifically tested or have failed the tests

it is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover

is it impossible or do you just can not do it?

scientists do not believe in evolution, they accept the evidence

hard work may have a future payoff, laziness pays off now

if you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?

people who think it could be worse and are looking forward for it to become so

jewelry and designer clothes are notorious for being poor value by any measure other than fashion, art, and decoration

in order to go to sleep, you must pretend to sleep for at least five minutes

i still believe in abstraction, but now i know that one ends with abstraction, not starts with it

a compromise was reached to make unhappy both parties

most people do very efficiently what needs not to be done at all

the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation

most people are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions

youth has excess courage, age has excess wisdom

the cigarette does the smoking, you are just the sucker

you should not be excited about the problem, you should be excited about the solution

the only thing i learned from group work is that you can never depend on anyone but yourself

i cant afford to hate people. i dont have that kind of time

people who have a lot of prejudice live in a world of unnecessary anxiety and stress

why do you necessarily have to be wrong just because a few million people think you are?

last night i spent 90 minutes reading negative reviews about a 90 minute movie. so glad i didnt waste my time with that flop

ethics or lack thereof is not somehow mutually exclusive of intelligence. we already know that people can be charming and psychotic at the same time

the early bird catches the worm. but look what happened to the early worm

i will not just stand here in the crowd while having a fantastic chance at totally embarrassing myself

here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you are alive, it is not

what they do, is get an empty barrel filled with loose puzzle pieces and blow them all over you

sarcasm is hostility disguised as humor

errors are like landmarks helping you to get out of the area

a shadow in life, in death a failure

you do not get harmony when everybody sings the same note

she sells seashells

the flat earth society has members all around the globe

those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it

work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

things are more like they are today than they ever have been before

all that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing

if leaders have the choice between more power and what is right for the country, they, more often than not, choose more power

democracy cannot survive overpopulation. human dignity cannot survive it. convenience and decency cannot survive it. as you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears

just because you are different, does not mean you are useful

just because you are useful, does not mean you are different

stupidity is associated with action, intelligence is associated with inactivity

the only point of the scientific method is to make sure you are not fooled into thinking something is true when it is not, or thinking that something is not true that is. take better notes, be more awake next time you take the data, bring a friend to observe it with you, etc, whatever it takes to minimize the chances to misinterpret what you are looking at

there are no darker paths than those you walk with closed eyes

boss, i have nothing to do ... "then pretend you are working" ... why dont you pretend im working?

dont play music because you are a musician, be a musician because you play music

the practice comma art comma method comma or system of inserting points or open single quote periods closed single quote to aide the sense comma in writing or printing semicolon division into sentences comma clauses comma etc period by means of points or periods period other punctuation marks comma e period g period exclamation marks comma question marks comma refer to the tone or structure of what precedes them period a sentence can contain any of these symbols comma its termination marked by a period period

if you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think

if we dont remember our future, we are doomed to repeat it for the first time

we are tipping people for the absence of outright hostility

when people put you on the pedestal, dont come off it acting like youre humble. because if they put you up there, that shows how high they can see. stay there and pull them up, and theyll grow faster

part of being dumb is that you are not aware

if something is still profitable even after being caught, convicted, and fined... then it is not a punishment, it is a tax. a fine smaller than the profit margin is a business expense

do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune, but all the dead are dead alike

if i have to steal and rob banks to just not live that ordinary life, that is what i will do

if you just do what most of the people are doing, wear what most of the people are wearing and say what most of the people are saying you will survive. and you will find some other dimwitted person to breed with and make dimwitted children

he who knows little, quickly tells it

but what people will really want to do with these things is make worlds as strange as we can stand

defenders of the government will point out that lying to the people is a normal part of the leaders job and we should all get used to it. and because "everybody does it", that we should not single out the present administration

the only possible interpretation of any research whatsoever in the social sciences is: some do, some do not

i can genuinely see us eventually reminiscing about this

the proper use of comments is to compensate for our failure to express ourself in code

life is the shit that happens while you are waiting for moments that never come

insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs

never give the other guy a chance he does not have

ecologies in which physical aggressiveness is more adaptive than cooperation

adaptation to a very different ancestral environment may be maladaptive in the current one

in programming, the hard part is not solving problems but deciding what problems to solve

there is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves

there are countries in the world right now where millions of people experience the old days every single day of the year

is there a life after birth?

is the person this parrot is mimicking telling the truth by proxy?

war: easy to get in, hell to get out

recognize and embrace lifes absurdity; suicide, though, remains an option if the absurdity becomes too much

strings are really 1-dimensional slices of a 2-dimensional membrane vibrating in 11-dimensional space

another year closer to the void

fool me once - your fault, fool me twice - my fault

fish-out-of-water story

that is about as likely as a dog pissing the mona lisa into a snow bank

somebody is reading your thoughts, so make sure they are scrambled

i do not think i would flourish in a prison environment

time is natures way of keeping everything from happening at once

we have all heard that a million monkeys sitting at a million typewriters for a million years will eventually write all the great novels of all time. but now with the internet we know this is not true

sensory information is transformed into symbolic inputs, which produce symbolic outputs that get transformed into motor outputs

loss of youthful idealism and the inability to resist social pressures for intellectual conformity

ruthless, massively parallel trial-and-error with a feedback cycle

delayed reciprocal altruism

how dare you be in love with her. there are already too many in love with her. she is full

the future is already here, it is just not evenly distributed

there is compassion for good-hearted dumb things

health and good fortune be upon you this day

all that orbits us shall do so with tranquility

each part large enough to do something substantial, but small enough to be understood as a single unit

"not being an utter shitbag to poor people"-laws

you are either optimizing or adapting

sometimes things may go wrong as planned

how good could it be if we stopped making it worse

prepare to be thought at

man will become better, if you show him what he is like

a boat, as long as the body of water it floats on, is a bridge

better to be a fool and remain silent than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

youre better off dead when your mind's been set from nine til five

an uneducated bumpkin

they say when you die, you see something like a movie. a life kaleidoscoped into a few seconds. i look forward to that movie. a mans last movie. i definitely dont want it interrupted

he had just one string on his conversational violin, and it was himself

truth is about the way things are; proof is about what we can know to be true

people that think unrestrained natural selection leads to strong and intelligent people have never been in high school

space is the most taken for granted shit ever

your twenties are always an apprenticeship, but you dont always know what for

it is hard to win arguments with smart people, but it is impossible to win arguments with idiots

the narrow bandwidth of tv has made us think we are stupider than we are

ripples in a brook

everybody got white teeth and tanned skin. i have white skin and tanned teeth

cut-here line: `---8<---8<---8<---`

briefly intelligible and self-existant musical unit

seeking to ground free will in indeterminism is hopeless

you have a head and a heart? reveal only one of them, i say; if you reveal both at once, doubly theyll damn you, for both

the more you think about the future, the better your life will become

shut your mouth or i will shut it for you

the person who moved the mountain was the same who began carrying away small stones

university was their peak of education

no one can make you feel inferior without your consent

if you can not beat the fear, do it scared

your personality is the best birth control

some goals are so worthy, it is glorious even to fail

you can not heal in the same environment that makes you sick

grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference

the ability to make something really good comes into action not while preparing at the sideline. the details of actual obstacles confronted in practice are usually the best guide

happiness comes from solving your problems, not avoiding them

holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die

how can you truly marvel at the universe without knowing anything about it

what is your name? "well, sometimes when people ask me, i have to think about whether or not i will answer because some people think it is an odd name even though i dont really because my mom gave it to me and i think my dad helped but it is as good a name as any in my opinion, but yeah it is tom"

ideology offers a feeling of omniscient knowledge

failing to plan is like planning to fail

a problem shared is a problem halved

never underestimate the power of idiots in large groups

if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. if you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle

i am not perfect but maybe we can be perfect together

i dont have much but what i have i share with you

we are biased to believe that we are understanding the full thing when, in reality, there can still be important pieces missing

the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being

programming languages should be designed not by piling feature on top of feature, but by removing the weaknesses and restrictions that make additional features appear necessary

there is just as much danger on the side of empathy as there is on the lack of empathy

there is no better camouflage for someone who is truly dark than compassion

i am laughing at the sadness of your entire existence

easily confused with the dawn of the apocalypse

cease to utter words you know to be false

maybe a parent can not say "i am proud of you" but you can

get yourself out of stressful situations that are not productive

many shall rule the few, not the few the many

truth is often eclipsed but never extinguished

drugs dont have you escape from reality, they hide reality from you while you are still in it

given enough opportunity, the player will optimize fun out of a game

ignorance is bliss when it is folly to be wise

we must take care to not fool ourselves as we are the easiest to fool

funerals are not for the dead, they are for the living

no idea should be above scrutiny and no person should be below dignity

by taking up a label, you may make yourself be a non-thinking member of a tribe


# quotes about religion

god will save you from all the things he will do to you if you do not believe in him

god works in mysterious ways. mysteriously similar to random chance

faith is another word for not-thinking

people accept that religion is especially vulnerable and has therefore to be protected by an abnormal thick wall of respect

science is allowed to correct itself, religion is not

when inventing a god, the most important thing is to claim it is invisible, inaudible and imperceptible in every way. otherwise, people will become sceptical when it appears to no one, is silent and does nothing

blasphemy is a victimless crime

why should i allow that same god to tell me how to raise my kids who had to drown his own

cultures and religions are split into camps that are incompatible, science is not

if we lost all current knowledge, how long would it take until they rewrite the bible

the inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it

religion is not popular due to rationality, it is popular due to emotional comfort

if atheism is a religion, not collecting stickers is a hobby

religions are based on fiction sold as facts

the only problem with religious fundamentalism are the fundamentals of the religion