What Sides

If you wish to know someone, you need only observe that on which he bestows his care, and what sides of his own nature he cultivates.

-- John Kessel (1950 -), American author of science fiction and fantasy, Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance (2009) in Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (eds.) The New Space Opera 2, p. 93

Risk

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. 

-- Warren Edward Buffett (30 August 1930 -), American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, currently chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, "The Three Essential Warren Buffett Quotes To Live By" forbes.com (20 April 2014)

Ignorance In Action

Nothing is more frightful than to see ignorance in action.

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 - 22 March 1832), German novelist, dramatist, poet, and philosopher, Maxims and Reflections (1833) Maxim 542, translation by Elisabeth Stopp

Teaching By Examples

I have read somewhere or other -- in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I think -- that history is philosophy teaching by examples.

-- Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678 - 1751), English statesman and philosopher, On the Study and Use of History, letter 2; in fact this relates to a third-century AD treatise on rhetoric, wrongly attributed to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which says (xi. 2): "The contact with manners then is education; and this Thucydides appears to assert when he says history is philosophy learned from examples".  The line is not found in Thucydides

Restraint

Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most.

-- Frank Byron Jevons (1858 - 1936), English polymath, academic and administrator of Durham University, A History of Greek Literature: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Demosthenes (1886) pp. 340

A Little Bit Short

This was the last week in office for me because of a horrible, horrible election where I got many millions more votes than I did the first time, but didn’t quite make it, just a little bit short.  Just a little bit short.

-- Former president Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the southern border about a chart showing weekly migrant encounters, and apparently acknowledging for the first time that he lost the 2020 election, despite his past insistence that the election was stolen (22 August 2024)

Demarcation

The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.

-- Sir William Francis Butler (1838 - 1910), Irish 19th-century British Army officer, writer, and adventurer, in Charles George Gordon (1889), p. 85

Affirmative Action

[Kamala Harris] understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward, we will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth.  If we bankrupt the business or choke in a crisis, we do not get a second, third or fourth chance.  If things do not go our way, we do not have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead.  No.  We don't get to change the rules so we always win.  If we see a mountain in front of us, we don't expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top.  No.  We put our heads down.  We get to work.  In America, we do something.

-- Former First Lady Michelle Obama speaking at the Democratic National Convention, 20 August 2024

A Ghost In The Machine

Consciousness is unquantifiable, a ghost in the machine, barely considered real at all, though in a sense this flickering mosaic of awareness is the only true reality that we can ever know.

-- Alan Moore (1953 -), British writer, most famous for his influential work in comic-books and graphic novels, "What Is Reality?" London Weekend Television (27 July 1998) 

Recognition Of Illusion

If you can recognize illusion as illusion, it dissolves.  The recognition of illusion is also its ending.  Its survival depends on your mistaking it for reality. 

-- Eckhart Tolle (1948 -), German / Canadian spiritual teacher, motivational speaker, and writer, in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, (2005)

Theory And Practice

If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories.  If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.

-- Donald Knuth (1938 -), American computer scientist, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, and winner of the 1974 Turing Award, quoted in: Arturo Gonzalez-Gutierrez (2007) Minimum-length Corridors: Complexity and Approximations. p. 99

You Cannot Have One

If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one.

-- John Galsworthy OM (1867 - 1933), English novelist and playwright, 1932 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Swan Song (1928) Pt. II, Ch. 6

Untidy

The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy, the building of a house, the writing of a novel, the demolition of a bridge, and, eminently, the finish of a voyage.

-- John Galsworthy OM (1867 - 1933), English novelist and playwright, 1932 Nobel Laureate in Literature, One More River (1933) Chapter 1

Most Effective

The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.

-- Brian Kernighan (1 January 1942 -), computer scientist who worked at the Bell Labs and contributed to the design of the pioneering AWK and AMPL programming languages, most well-known for his co-authorship, with Dennis Ritchie, of the first book on the C programming language, "Unix for Beginners" (1979)

Universal Good

The ultimate notion of right is that which tends to the universal good; and when one's acting in a certain manner has this tendency, he has a right thus to act.

-- Francis Hutcheson (8 August 1694 - 8 August 1746), Irish philosopher, A System of Moral Philosophy (1755) Book II, Ch. III, § VII

Acutely Aware

I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers.  And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many ...  If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises.  I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency.  I have not subscribed to any partisan platform.  I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman -- my dear wife, Betty -- as I begin this very difficult job ...  

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over ...  Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.  Here the people rule.  But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.

-- President Gerald Ford, in a speech immediately after taking the presidential oath (9 August 1974)

Nixon Resignation

In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. ...

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first.

America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.

Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office. ...

To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.

-- President Richard Nixon, in a speech announcing his intention to resign the presidency the following day due to the Watergate scandal, 8 August 1974

Doing Nothing

To tell the truth, the only thing more exhausting than doing something is doing nothing at all.

-- Jack Laurence Chalker (1944 - 2005), American science fiction author, Midnight at the Well of Souls (1977) Chapter 2, "Another Part of the Field" (pp. 25-26)

A Task Becomes A Duty

A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.

-- Dag Hammarskjöld (1905 - 1961), Swedish diplomat, second United Nations Secretary-General, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Markings (1964)

Monopoly

After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.  It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

-- Judge Amit P. Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in his ruling in United States of America v Google LLC (5 August 2024)

Missing Sky

Late Wednesday / early Thursday I sat by the side of my cat Sky while she let slip this mortal coil.  She was my fluffy kitty, fluffa girl, and fluffleupagus.  She was a long-haired cat that matches google images of "ragdoll cat".  

She came from the cat lady's house as a kitten about 16 years ago, brought home by my #3 & #4 daughters who were in high school at the time.  They named her Shi'Thead (pronounced shuh theed), which did not stick.  When my #4 daughter moved out she took Sky with her, but Sky objected and ended up back at the house.  In a very complicated circle of activity, she also was given to a family friend, dropped off at the Humane Society, and recovered by me before going up for adoption.

She was the biggest cat in the house, and got along with everyone.  If you held her, she would wrap her arms around your neck for a hug.  She is already missed.

W00t! Katie Ledecky

I'm proud of the time.  I just really wanted to put up a time that I could be really proud of and happy with.  I kind of let my mind wander during the race, thinking of all of the people that have trained with me, kind of like saying their names in my head and thinking about them.  

-- Katie Ledecky (17 March 1997 –), American competitive swimmer, when asked what she was most proud of in her 1500M race in which Ledecky won the gold medal for the 2nd time, setting a new Olympic record by 5 seconds, and beating the silver medalist by 10.3 seconds, tying the all-time record for most Olympic medals by an American woman (she broke that record later in the day with Gold in the 4x200)