The Function Of Perfection

If thou shouldst say, "It is enough, I have reached perfection," all is lost.  For it is the function of perfection to make one know one's imperfection.

-- St. Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430), Christian theologian, rhetor, Doctor of the Catholic Church, saint, and philosopher, quoted by Aldous Huxley, in The Perennial Philosophy (1945)

Kicking And Screaming

Has it ever occurred to you ... that parents are nothing but overgrown kids until their children drag them into adulthood? Usually kicking and screaming?

-- Stephen King (1947 -), American author and screenwriter, Christine (1983) Pt. 1, Ch. 3

Break Things

Move fast and break things.  Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

-- Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, to his developers and team, as quoted in Business Insider, 14 October 2010

America's Finest News Source

Chicago, IL -- November 14, 2024 - The Onion, America's Finest News Source, today announced it has acquired the assets of Infowars, with the support of Sandy Hook families who secured a $1.4 billion defamation verdict in Connecticut against Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars and parent company, Free Speech Systems, LLC.  The Onion also announced its exclusive launch advertiser in this new venture will be Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country.

The Onion's goal with the acquisition is to end Infowars' relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion's relentless barrage of humor for good.  "The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site's users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash," said The Onion's CEO Ben Collins.  "Or Bitcoin.  We will also accept Bitcoin."

The Onion's acquisition comes after the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee overseeing the Free Speech Systems bankruptcy proceedings selected the news outlet's bid.  That process was the direct result of a years-long effort by several Sandy Hook families to hold Alex Jones accountable for the immense pain he caused and from which he profited.

-- Press release from The Onion on their acquisition of the Infowars website, product inventory, customers lists, social media accounts, and intellectual property, to partially settle a judgement against Alex Jones & Co., 14 November 2024

The Fairy Tale Provides

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey.  What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey.  The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination.  What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

-- Gilbert Keith (G. K.) Chesterton (1874 - 1936) British writer of philosophy, ontology, poetry, and fiction, Tremendous Trifles (1909) Ch. XVII: "The Red Angel"

Whose Dreams?

My brother got his doctorate in 1938, I think.  If he had gone to work in Germany after that, he would have been helping to make Hitler's dreams come true.  If he had gone to work in Italy, he would have been helping to make Mussolini's dreams come true.  If he had gone to work in Japan, he would have been helping to make Tojo's dreams come true.  If he had gone to work in the Soviet Union, he would have been helping to make Stalin's dreams come true.  He went to work for a bottle manufacturer in Butler, Pennsylvania, instead.  It can make quite a difference not just to you but to humanity: the sort of boss you choose, whose dreams you help come true.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (11 November 1922 – 11 April 2007), American novelist known for works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction, Speech at MIT (1985), referring to his brother Bernard Vonnegut, and the choices available to scientists and the intelligent, to serve humanity, or to betray it, as published in Fates Worse Than Death (1991), Ch. 12

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.  Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
  In Flanders fields.
    
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
  In Flanders fields.

-- Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae, MD (1872 - 1918), Canadian poet, physician, and soldier during World War I, "In Flanders Fields", In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems (1918) [h/t Josh Paley]