Quotes

Here are some of my favorite quotes, enjoy!

Humor

Class is a way of looking at society that divides people into different categories based on how much money they’re willing to make. – Stephen Colbert

Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. – Douglas Adams

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. – Mark Twain

Here’s the Middle East.  Here’s the mosque, here’s the church, open the temple, everybody’s MAD! – Maria Bamford

If a man speaks his mind in a forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong? – Ken Robinson, TED

Religion

Why can’t God just defeat the devil and get rid of evil?  It’s the same reason the comic book character can’t get rid of his nemesis;  then there’s no story. – Bill Maher

What Pascal said of an effective religion is true of any effective doctrine: it must be “contrary to nature, to common sense and to pleasure.” – Eric Hoffer

The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. – Arthur C. Clarke

Fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which every one in himself calleth religion. – Thomas Hobbes

Philosophy

First they ignore you.  Then they laugh at you.  Then they fight you.  Then you win. – Mahatma Gandhi

The true believer, no matter how rowdy and violent his acts, is basically an obedient and submissive person. – Eric Hoffer

It is startling to see how the oppressed almost invariably shape themselves in the image of their hated oppressors. – Eric Hoffer

The blindness of the fanatic is a source of strength [he sees no obstacles], but it is the cause of intellectual sterility and emotional monotony. – Eric Hoffer

A tragedy is that moment where the hero comes face to face with his true identity. – Aristotle

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. – Jiddu Krishnamurti

The solution to the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of this problem. – Ludwig Wittgenstein

He who controls the present, controls the past.  He who controls the past, controls the future. – George Orwell

Human Psychology

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. – Eric Hoffer

It’s sometimes easier to reject strong evidence than to admit that we’ve been wrong, this is information about ourselves worth having. – Carl Sagan

The first principle is you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. – Richard Feynman

The secret of happiness: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it. – Dan Dennett

I guess it comes down to a simple choice really.  Get busy living, or get busy dying. – Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head.  I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel.  A free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.  I hope I can make it across the border.  I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.  I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.  I hope. – Red, The Shawshank Redemption

How fortunate that men do not think. – Adolf Hitler

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original. – Ken Robinson, TED

We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented. – Christof, The Truman Show

In a place where everybody thinks alike, nobody thinks very much. – Walter Lippman

Science

It might even be said that human beings are part of the ocean’s attempt at land exploration. – Michael E. Wysession, TTC: How the Earth Works

The way evolution always discovers reasons is by retroactive endorsement. – Dan Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea

The evidence for evolution pours in, not only from geology, paleontology, biogeography, and anatomy, but of course from molecular biology and every other branch of the life sciences. – Dan Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Sir Isaac Newton