Secret Of Existence

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Envy

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Buddha On Truth

The truth cures our diseases and redeems us from perdition; the truth strengthens us in life and in death; the truth alone can conquer the evils of error.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Gratitude

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.

-- William Arthur Ward

Matters Of Opinion

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

-- Oscar Wilde

Taken For Granted

People often cannot see what they take for granted until they encounter someone who does not take it for granted.

-- "Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences," (MIT Press, 1999), by UC-San Diego communications professors Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star)

Outlaw Privacy

If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.

-- Phil Zimmermann, cryptographer (1954- )

Privacy

Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.

-- John Perry Barlow

Cure For Boredom

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

-- Ellen Parr

The Wheel Goes Round

The wheel goes round and round, some are up and some are on the down, and still the wheel goes round.

-- Josephine Pollard (1843-1892, American poet)

No More Fatal Blunderer

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.

-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)

Lessons Not Learned

The Soviet concept for military occupation of Afghanistan was based on the following:

* stabilizing the country by garrisoning the main routes, major cities, airbases and logistics sites;
* relieving the Afghan government forces of garrison duties and pushing them into the countryside to battle the resistance;
* providing logistic, air, artillery and intelligence support to the Afghan forces;
* providing minimum interface between the Soviet occupation forces and the local populace;
* accepting minimal Soviet casualties; and,
* strengthening the Afghan forces, so once the resistance was defeated, the Soviet Army could be withdrawn.

-- General (Ret) Mohammad Yahya Nawroz, Army of Afghanistan, and Lester W. Grau, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in "The Soviet War in Afghanistan: History and Harbinger of Future War?" (June 1996)

http://www.ciaonet.org/cbr/cbr00/video/cbr_ctd/cbr_ctd_52.html

American Idiot

American Idiot -- by Green Day (sorry, I lack specific writing credits)

Don't want to be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new media.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.

[refrain] Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Well that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

[refrain]

Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's going out to idiot America.

[refrain]

Geological Consent

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.

-- Will Durant

Torture This

No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

-- Key phrase in Senator John McCain's anti-torture amendment to the Senate's defense spending bill, threatened with veto by President Bush


[The measure] shall not apply with respect to clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States, that are carried out by an element of the United States government other than the Department of Defense and are consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and treaties to which the United States is a party, if the President determines that such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack.

-- Exemption to the McCain amendment being pushed by VP Dick Cheney

As Certain About Anything

As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place.

-- Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz

Small Things

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections, and enduring undertakings.

-- Andre Maurois (1885-1967), French Writer

Cherish What Makes You Unique

Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes!

-- Bette Midler (1945-) American singer, entertainer, actress

Yearbook

Sam intends to go to law school and eventually warm a seat on the Supreme Court.

-- 1972 Princeton Yearbook, regarding Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito