On a regular basis, I run across ideas that are worth keeping in one place - for reflection and thoughtful consideration, or to point at and laugh hysterically at the absurdity of it all.
That’s what I keep here.
Enjoy and submit your own for consideration.
-maven
Belief and non-belief:
“As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion.” Butterfly McQueen
The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying… it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity. -[Carl Sagan]
I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.- Oscar Wilde.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization. -George Carlin
But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most? -Mark Twain
Now I am ultrareligious, I’m a member of the religion of freethought — to think freely. Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan
You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe. -[Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan’s Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985]
I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood. -George Carlin
Let me tell you something about God… . If there is a God I can say this: 1) He or She is mad at us, 2) He or She is not on our side, 3) He or She is indifferent, or 4) He or She is White. Dr. Bobby E. Wright, Black American
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions. -Oscar Wilde, A few maxims for the instruction of the over-educated.
Words to live by - or not:
You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. -Source unknown
Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things. -George Carlin
The true conservative seeks to protect the system of private property and free enterprise by correcting such injustices and inequalities as arise from it. The most serious threat to our institutions comes from those who refuse to face the need for change. Liberalism becomes the protection for the far-sighted conservative. -Franklin Delano Roosevelt
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. -Edward R. Murrow
People who go to Las Vegas, you’ve got to question their fucking intellect to start with. Traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of fucking moronic. That’s what I’m always getting here is these kind of fucking people with very limited intellects. -George Carlin
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes- Mel Brooks
Liberals are concerned about the concentration of wealth because it almost inevitably leads to a concentration of power that undermines democracy. -Robert Reich
Only the shallow know themselves.- Oscar Wilde, A few maxims for the instruction of the over-educated.
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking! -Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k). -Paul Krugman
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to. -Dorothy Parker
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. -Franklin Delano Roosevelt
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. it is simply too painful to acknowledge — even to ourselves — that we’ve been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.) -[Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection]
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. -Winston Churchill
Closed eyes listen, afraid to see on their own. Easily influenced and simply conformed. -Oscar Wilde, The soul of man under socialism, 1895
You can’t teach an old dogma new tricks. -Dorothy Parker
We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. -Oscar Wilde, Portrait of Mr. W. H.
Oh, My!
Heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just common. -Dorothy Parker
One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor. -George Carlin
I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I’m under the table, after four I’m under my host. -Dorothy Parker
You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think. -Dorothy Parker
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done. -George Carlin
There are two types of people in this world: good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more. -Woody Allen
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits. Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that’ll infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war. -George Carlin.
WTF?:
“I do miss George Bush. Compared to these teabaggers and the people who are pandering to them, he looks like a professor.” —Bill Maher
“In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession.” —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009
“I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008
“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” –-Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama’s health care plan, Aug. 7, 2009
“One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis.” —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009
As the leader of twelve apostles, even Jesus had more executive experience than Obama. Ann Coulter
“So I analyzed that and decided I didn’t want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression.” —George W. Bush, Washington D.C., Dec. 18, 2008
“I think on a national level your Department of Law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out.” —Sarah Palin, referring to a department that does not exist while attempting to explain why as president she wouldn’t be subjected to the same ethics investigations that compelled her to resign as governor of Alaska, ABC News interview, July 7, 2009
“There’s no question about it. Wall Street got drunk — that’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras — it got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.” —George W. Bush, speaking at a private fundraiser, Houston, Texas, July 18, 2008 (Watch video clip)