As a matter of constitutional tradition, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it. The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.
Some change their ways when they see the light; others when they feel the heat.
Caroline Schoeder (1882-1951) German-American pianist.
(Attributed)
Unsourced. Sometimes attributed to "Caroline Schroeder."
STONE: The commandment says “Thou shalt not kill,” not “Thou shalt not kill nice people!”
Robert Nathan (b. 1938) American novelist, journalist, screenwriter, television producer
Law & Order, “The Secret Sharers” (1991)
Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.
William C. (Billy) Durant (1861-1947) American industrialist, entrepreneur
(Attributed)
All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Robert J. Hanlon, “Hanlon’s Razor,” Murphy’s Law, Book Two (ed. A. Bloch) (1980)
You know, whenever I have a disappointment in life, I find it helps if I picture it as just another failed sit-com pilot.
Garry Trudeau (b. 1948) American cartoonist
Doonesbury (Zonker’s Dad) (6 Sep 2003)
This is why you get married. You run into a difficult situation, can’t seem to find a way out and — TAG — your partner jumps in and fixes everything. A good marriage isn’t just about love and friendship, it’s about sharing your talents and making the struggle of life a little bit easier.
Okay. That sounds like a load of crap. So I’ll just say that even if life is a constant mess, you’ve got some company to kill the time. Better?
We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because “two” is “one and one.” We forget that we still have to make a study of “and.”
Sir Arthur S. Eddington (1882-1944) British astrophysicist
The Nature of the Physical World (1958)
TED: My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We’re bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We’re coming in from the north, below their radar.
ELAINE: When will you be back?
TED: I can’t tell you that. It’s classified.
RUMACK: Captain, how soon can you land?
OVEUR: I can’t tell.
RUMACK: You can tell me. I’m a doctor.
OVEUR: No. I mean I’m just not sure.
RUMACK: Well, can’t you take a guess?
OVEUR: Well, not for another two hours.
RUMACK: You can’t take a guess for another two hours?
RUMACK: You’d better tell the Captain we’ve got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.
ELAINE: A hospital? What is it?
RUMACK: It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now.
Be good, be kind, be humane, and charitable; love your fellows; console the afflicted; pardon those who have done you wrong.
Zoroaster (628?-551? BC) Persian religious leader
(Attributed)
MARTY: Wait a minute, Doc. Ah … Are you telling me you built a time machine … out of a DeLorean?
BROWN: The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?Robert Zemeckis (b. 1952) American screenwriter, director
Back to the Future (1985)
(with Bob Gale)
I try to write every day. I used to try to write four times a day, minimum of three sentences each time. It doesn’t sound like much but it’s kinda like the hare and the tortoise. If you try that several times a day you’re going to do more than three sentences, one of them is going to catch on. You’re going to say “Oh boy!” and then you just write. You fill up the page and the next page But you have a certain minimum so that at the end of the day, you can say Hey I wrote four times today, three sentences, a dozen sentences. Each sentence is maybe twenty word long. That’s 240 words which is a page of copy, so at least I didn’t goof off completely today. I got a page for my efforts and tomorrow it might be easier because I’ve moved as far as I have.
To paraphrase Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys, I wish I had known this some time ago.
As I was finishing, I heard a crashing noise. A horned and tusked purple thing went racing along the ridge to my right pursued by a hairless orange-skinned creature with long claws and a forked tail. Both were wailing in different keys.
I nodded. It was just one damned thing after another.
Everything worthwhile, everything of any value, has a price. The price is effort.
Loretta Young (1913-2000) American actress [b. Gretchen Michaela Belzer]
(Attributed)
There are very few problems that cannot be solved by orders ending with “or die.”
Alistair J.R. Young (b. 1974) British systems software developer
(Attributed)
Hold to the helm of faith, and mind not the buffeting of untoward circumstances. Be more furious than the fury of misfortune, more audacious than your dangers.
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) Indian religious leader
(Attributed)
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) Irish poet and dramatist
“Easter 1916,” st. 4, ll. 57-59, Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)
(Source)
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) Irish poet and dramatist
“The Second Coming,” ll.1-8 (1920)
(Source)
More examination of this quotation: The Best Lack All Conviction While the Worst Are Full of Passionate Intensity – Quote Investigator. See also Russell and Bukowski.
I have long felt that the trouble with discrimination is not discrimination per se, but rather that the people who are discriminated against think of themselves as second-class.
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921-2011) American medical physicist, Nobel laureate
(Attributed)