As in a game ov cards, so in the game ov life, we must play what is dealt tew us, and the glory consists, not so mutch in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
“Ods and Ens,” Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia (1874)
Full text.
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, San Diego State College (6 Jun 1963)
The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles mine.
Stanislaw Jerszy Lec (1909-1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
Unkempt Thoughts [tr. J. Galazka (1962)]
I have not found this generation to be cynical or apathetic or selfish. They are as strong and as decent as any people that I have met. And I will say this, on my way down here I stopped at Bethesda Naval, and when you talk to the young kids that are there that have just been back from Iraq and Afghanistan, you don’t have the worry about the future that you hear from so many that are not a part of this generation but judging it from above.
Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Commencement Address, College of William & Mary (20 May 2004)
Full text.
I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
Free Inquiry (Spring 1982)
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