Favourite famous person quotes

[JonnyBGood]

(Funny or otherwise)

"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."

Dan Quayle

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

Galileo Galilei



One for each!

[MrL_JaKiri]

Galileo is a terrificly terrible example of a martyr to science, but that's an aside.

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my statement that half the cabinet are asses.. Half the cabinet are not asses.
- Benjamin Disraeli

[JonnyBGood]

I didn't choose him because you think he shouldn't have retracted his books or whatever. He was a sensible man who lived in unfortunate times and still had the ability to recognise what was good in life. That's something worth remembering.

[Leshy]

There are only two things which are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity. Although I'm not entirely certain about the former.
-- Albert Einstein

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

I didn't choose him because you think he shouldn't have retracted his books or whatever. He was a sensible man who lived in unfortunate times and still had the ability to recognise what was good in life. That's something worth remembering.

He wasn't burnt for saying that the earth went round the sun duder (well, except in a rather roundabout manner)

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

He wasn't burnt for saying that the earth went round the sun duder (well, except in a rather roundabout manner)

So? He chose a sensible course. Sometimes hurling yourself headlong against authority only results in you receiving a broken neck.

[Belgarath The Sorcerer]

Albert Einstein Quotes

On Knowledge
- "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in
the opposite direction."
- "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
- "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
- "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
- "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
- "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing."

His Understanding of the World:
- "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
- "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
- "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
- "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
- "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
- "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
- "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
- "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is
comprehensible."
- "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not
sure about the the universe."
- "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is
shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
- "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War
IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
- "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above
all, be a sheep."
- "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

On People and Life:
- "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
- "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
- "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
- "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
- "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
- "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
- "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
- "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in
terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first
love?"
- "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior
spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive
with our frail and feeble mind."
- "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of
thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If
only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
- "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The
latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to
hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
- "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a
stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as
good as dead: his eyes are closed." - "Now he has departed from this strange
world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe
in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is
only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
- "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his
tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand
this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they
receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
- "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings
as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his
consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to
our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our
task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its
beauty."

On Math and Science and Education:
- "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at
it."
- "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates
empirically."
- "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday
thinking."
- "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological
criminal."
- "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when
we created them."
- "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned
in school."
- "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you
mine are still greater."
- "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present,
but an equation is something for eternity."
- "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is
play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
- "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain,
as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
- "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and
our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics
are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands
forever."
- "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is
escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness,
from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered
nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective
perception and thought."
- "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit
with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativit
y."

[Dante Hicks]

You forgot all the stuff about socialism.

"To believe in God is a regression to an almost childlike state whereupon man projects upon nature a comforting father figure" - Sigmund Freud

"The only respite from mental anguish is physical suffering" - Karl Marx

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky

"Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us." - Leo Tolstoy

"Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature. " - Emma Goldman

[JonnyBGood]

I had a 100 euro bet with my brain over whether or not you'd mention Marx. My brain lost!


PS The last one of those was the quote at the start of the chapter on relative velocity in my applied maths book last year belgy

[Thorn]

I'm electable if people vote for me - Kucinich

[ChubbyChecker]

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member - Groucho Marx

[KoeN]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

So? He chose a sensible course. Sometimes hurling yourself headlong against authority only results in you receiving a broken neck.

jbg is my fav shelabrity.

[Evergreen]

How about after we get all these jews we start gassing the stupid irish out?
- Adolf Hitler

Let's kill everyone of those roundy eye'd bastards. ****ing freaks the lot of them.
- Genghis Khan



I dare anyone to contest with me that they did not say this.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

So? He chose a sensible course. Sometimes hurling yourself headlong against authority only results in you receiving a broken neck.

That's immaterial; what's annoying is that everyone goes 'hey that gallileo chap, he was burnt for saying the earth went round the sun the catholics are stupid :cold:'

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Evergreen

How about after we get all these jews we start gassing the stupid irish out?
- Adolf Hitler

Let's kill everyone of those roundy eye'd bastards. ****ing freaks the lot of them.
- Genghis Khan



I dare anyone to contest with me that they did not say this.

English wasn't around in Genghis's day, and Hitler probably would have spoken in German anyway, ignoring the 'bond' he felt with the english.

[Evergreen]

And I'm sure Gallileo talked in english too.....

Worst post ever mark.

If you are going to pick try not to pick so blatantly obvious in a bitter manner.

[MrL_JaKiri]

You dared me to contest duder

[Evergreen]

In their naturalised language then mr anus features. (Remember posting in foreign languages is barred from GD so I'd have to translate it anyway)

[Entium]

«Ah, beer, my one weakness. My achilles heel, if you will.»
Homer J. Simpson

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

That's immaterial; what's annoying is that everyone goes 'hey that gallileo chap, he was burnt for saying the earth went round the sun the catholics are stupid :cold:'

On behalf of the millions of idiots out there I whole heartedly apologise.







CAN YOU SENSE ME ROLLING MY EYES AT THIS POINT?

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

On behalf of the millions of idiots out there I whole heartedly apologise.

CAN YOU SENSE ME ROLLING MY EYES AT THIS POINT?

No

[menth0l]

Someone remind me why we let sunday in here again?

(assuming Evergreen is indeed him, and if he's not, replace "sunday" with whoever Evergreen is)

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by menth0l

Someone remind me why we let sunday in here again?

(assuming Evergreen is indeed him, and if he's not, replace "sunday" with whoever Evergreen is)

Because he promised to be good, and not flame or troll.

[menth0l]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

Because he promised to be good, and not flame or troll.

It appears he is indeed a man of his word.

[IncubusGod]

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
- George Burns

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.
- Casey Stengal

Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your morning coffee.
Churchill: Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it.

That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!
-Calvin

A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular.
- Adlai Stevenson

[Grimble v2.0]

Up Up And Away
-Christopher Reeves

[sayonara]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

English wasn't around in Genghis's day, and Hitler probably would have spoken in German anyway, ignoring the 'bond' he felt with the english.

Moreover, why would you want to contest that they did not say that?

[queball]

"Freedom doesn't just mean doing what you want without harming others. It means engaging in the wider collective endeavour of shaping our society." - David Blunkett