Quotes and Witticisms, Fuel for the Thinking Man

Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.

Robert Louis Stevenson


There are three ingredients to the good life; learning, earning, and yearning.

Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)


It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.

Walter Linn


Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation, and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)


You can't trade your freedom for security, because if you do, you're going to lose both.

Brandon Mayfield, Aloha, Ore


The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the
point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)


Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and
the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)


Promises are like the full moon: if they are not kept at once they diminish day by day.

German proverb


All know that the drop merges into the ocean but
few know that the ocean merges into the drop.

Kabir, reformer, poet (late 15th century)



The only industrial costs software companies have is the printing of serial numbers.

Ninety percent of the software gets written in 10 percent of the time. The next 9.5 percent takes 90 percent of the time. The last one-half percent never gets done, but the software still gets sold.

A consultant is someone who's called in when someone has painted himself into a corner. He's expected to levitate his client out of that corner.

Short-sightedness is a virtue when it comes to choosing a computer
system. Know what you need now -- not two years from now.

I believe in standards. Everyone should have one.

George Morrow, Quotations from Chairman Morrow, Morrow Design Press, 1984 (All 5 above 5 quotes)


America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter,
and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)


Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare.

Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and director (1921-2004)


Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel.
It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health;
acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty;
days of joy, but not peace or happiness. -

Henrik Ibsen, playwright (1828-1906)


Home is not where you live but where they understand you.

-Christion Morgenstern, writer (1871-1914)


When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings.

William Clifford Roberts, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Cardiology


In questions of science, the authority of a thousand
is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)


I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only
thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.

Arthur Godfrey, television host, entertainer (1903-1983)


The highest exercise of charity is charity towards the uncharitable.

J.S.Buckminster, clergyman and editor (1784-1812)


Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)


Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)


The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.

Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797)


Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something
to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Joseph Addison, writer (1672-1719)


One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)


Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

Will Rogers


The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.

John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968)



There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally.

Learned Hand, jurist (1872-1961)


When money speaks, the truth keeps silent.

Russian proverb


Life is like a library owned by an author. In it are a few books
which he wrote himself, but most of them were written for him.

Harry Emerson Fosdick, preacher and author (1878-1969)


Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)


In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)


No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's
not the same river and he's not the same man.

Heraclitus, philosopher (c. 540-470 BCE)


The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in
politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.

Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)


If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for
20 years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men.

Chinese proverb


Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity

Hanlon's Razor


In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time
something like that happened in politics or religion.

Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)


You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end -- much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you.

Brenda Ueland, writer (1891-1985)


The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.

W. Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)


What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890)


What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.

P.D. James, writer (1920- )


The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Alan Kay, inventor (1940- )


Black holes are where God divided by zero.

Steven Wright, comedian (1955- )


No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

John Donne, poet (1573-1631)


Sometimes my mind wanders.. other times it packs
it's suitcase and goes away for weeks at a time.


Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75 per cent of the world's population.


..it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want.

Douglas Adams, Author (1952-2001)


Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn
from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

Douglas Adams, Author (1952-2001)


A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Douglas Adams, Author, Mostly Harmless


When nations grow old, the arts grow cold and commerce settles on every tree.

William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827)


Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

George Washington, 1st US president (1732-1799)


A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)


Modern English is the Wal-Mart of languages: convenient, huge, hard to avoid, superficially friendly, and devouring all rivals in its eagerness to expand.

Mark Abley, journalist (1955- )


Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

William Arthur Ward, college administrator, writer (1921-1994)


He who establishes his argument by noise and command, shows that his reason is weak.

Michel De Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)


Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them.
It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)


Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.

John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)


We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)


Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks.

Phillips Brooks, bishop and orator (1835-1893)


Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)


Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.

Socrates, philosopher (469?-399 BCE)


Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.

Amschel Mayer Rothschild, banker (1743-1812)


They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)


A successful man is one who makes more money than a wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

Lana Turner, actress (1921-1995)


One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind.

Malayan Proverb


Intellectuals solve problems: geniuses prevent them.

Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)


Efficiency is intelligent laziness.

David Dunham


You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion.

Meister Eckhart, theologian (c. 1260-1327)


Brasington's Ninth Law: A carelessly planned project takes three times longer to complete than expected; a carefully planned one will take only twice as long.


Life is an adventure in forgiveness.

Norman Cousins, author and editor (1915-1990)


The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.

Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)


Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace. It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him.

Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993


If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)


Trees are not known by their leaves, nor even by their blossoms, but by their fruits.

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204)


I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

Marshall McLuhan, cultural historian and communications theorist (1911-1980)


But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.

William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)


To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations--such is a pleasure beyond compare.

Kenko Yoshida, essayist (1283-1352)


If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.

Lord Salisbury, British prime minister(1830-1903)


Assumptions are the termites of relationships.

Henry Winkler, actor (1945-)


A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

Robertson Davies, writer (1913-1995)


He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.

Confucius (c. 551-479? BC)


Learning is acquired by reading books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading man, and studying all the various editions of them.

Philip Dormer Stanhope, statesman and writer (1694-1773)


Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

Chuang-Tzu, philosopher (4th c. BCE)


Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.

Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)


Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.

Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-92)


I am not one of those who believe that a great army is the means of
maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession.

Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, Nobel laureate (1856-1924)


A true measure of your worth includes all the benefits others have gained from your successes.

Cullen Hightower, salesman and writer (1923- )


He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.

Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BCE)


To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)


You are never too old to be what you might have been.

George Eliot (MaryAnn Evans), novelist (1819-1880)


The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defence against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad.

James Madison, 4th US president (1751-1836)


What you get out depends on what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.

Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist and writer (1825-1895)


After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.

Fred Thompson, US senator, lawyer, writer, and actor (1942- )


It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (1859-1930)


I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

Bjarne Stroustrup, computer science professor, designer of C++ programming language (1950- )


There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)


The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

Thomas Huxley, biologist and writer (1825-1895)


Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge: fitter to bruise than polish.

Anne Bradstreet, poet (1612-1672)


A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955)

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves
sinners; the sinners who believe themselves righteous.

Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)


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, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)


The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.

Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)


A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government.

Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)


If a triangle could speak, it would say, that God is eminently triangular, while a circle would say that the divine nature is eminently circular.

Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (1632-1677)


He who would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809)


"The information was correct, but the interpretations were not."

Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf AKA Bagdad Bob, 06-27-2003
(Former Iraqi Information Minister)


The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945)


An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.

Niels Bohr, physicist (1885-1962)


If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)


Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more
uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure."

H.L.Mencken


When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)


If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and the
fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.

Louis Dembitz Brandeis, lawyer, judge, and writer (1856-1941)


Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you
continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.

Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (1924-1998)


Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

Alfred Hitchcock, film-maker (1899-1980)


I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US president, architect and author (1743-1826)


A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

Henry Adams, historian and teacher (1838-1918)


Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport.

Robert S. Wieder, journalist


The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him
absolutely no good.

Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)


Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also
deprive me of the possibility of being right.

Igor Stravinsky, composer (1882-1971)


The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)


I'm far more concerned about the threat from dihydrogen monoxide. Breathing in just a small amount of it can kill you! It can eat through metal! It's addictive! And it's everywhere!


There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.


The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)


Only two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not so sure about the former.

Albert Einstein


Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Hanlon's Razor


To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)


Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.

Franklin P. Jones, businessman (1887-1929)


The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

Robert Maynard Hutchins, educator (1899-1977)


Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Einstein, in his memoir


I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)


If we don't turn around now, we just may get where we're going.

American Indian saying


Intelligence complicates. Wisdom Simplifies.

Mason Cooley


Tremble: your whole life is a rehearsal for the moment you are in now.

Judith Malina


It's imperative that we ... recognize that condoms no more cause sex than umbrellas cause rain.

Nicholas D. Kristof, NY Times, 01-10-2003


Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing;
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)


Physical violence is the great destroyer; intellectual violence is the great creator. This dichotomy alone should be enough to show why one is evil and one is essential. Having intellectual violence is not the same as having a passion. It is, instead, being constantly filled with passion for everything. That which you like you care deeply for, and so will fight for, in word and if necessary fist. That which you dislike you hate and so will fight against as strongly. That which arouses no feelings is simply a waste of everyone's time.

Kali, Meaning and Transcendence in The Rebirth of Greatness by Alan Jamison ( http://www.intellectual-violence.com )


A common man marvels at uncommon things; a wise man marvels at the commonplace.

Confucius


Velleity (vuh-LEE-ity), n. A mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.


As F. Lee Bailey once said, the major flaw in the American justice system is that appeals focus only on procedural errors, and ones guilt or innocence is never again an issue after the original trial, even if that trial reached the wrong result.


The obscure we see eventually. The completely apparent takes a little while longer.

Edward R. Morrow


Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover


Beware the appearance of competence, for it will create the obligation to perform.

Mike Nicksic


A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.

Gian Vincenzo Cravina


Faith - not wanting to know what is true.

??? Friedrich Nietzsche


A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays 1841


Nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

Abraham Lincoln


After the game the king and the pawn go in the same box.

Italian proverb


Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Eleanor Roosevelt


And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and space, because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)

Larry Wall in <10209@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>


Leaders should have some understanding of variation, including appreciation of a stable system, [and] some understanding of special causes of variation and common causes.

A fault in the interpretation of observations, seen everywhere, is to suppose that every event (defect, mistake, accident) is attributable to someone (usually the one closest at hand), or is related to some special event. The fact is that most troubles with service and production lie in the system and not the people.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming


Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson


I know that sounds like a firm grasp of the obvious, but it isn't.

Joe Burns, Ph.D., Web Design Goodies for April 19, 2001


It takes a genius to whine appealingly.

F. Scott Fitzgerald


If you would be so kind.. to help me find my mind..
I'd like to thank you in advance...
know this before you start, my world's been torn apart..,
I lost my mind in a wild romance.

Curtis Mayfield


These people are masters of the half truth and the implication and the insinuation.

Jim Bell, one five seven two A Q B F


Mathematics deals exclusively with the relations of concepts to each other without consideration of their relation to experience.

Albert Einstein


Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Gandhi


You can fuck some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you are going to end up in a body bag or a pine box before you manage to fuck all of the people all of the time.

Carl Johnson


Prosecution does not represent an entity whose interests include winning at all costs; prosecutor's client is society, which seeks justice, not victory."

US v. Doe, 860 F2d (lst Cir. 1988)


If the government, police and prosecutors could always be trusted to do the right thing, there would have never been a need for the Bill of Rights.

Justice Leventhal US v. US District Court for the Central District of California 858 F2d 534 (9th Cir. 1988)


And Remember: The loudest sound created when you snap your fingers is not from your middle finger striking your thumb's pad, it's the air the middle finger pushes away actually striking the palm. Really. Try to make the same noise by simply slapping your fingers against your palm or thumb's pad. The sound is further amplified by the ring and small finger lying across the palm, the "sounding board." Again, try to make the same snapping sound while only slightly lifting those two fingers off of the palm. Listen to the pitch when you raise those two fingers. It'll be higher.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.


"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitler


Ask not about things which, if made plain to you, may cause you trouble.

The Koran


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke


I hold with whoever it was that said ‘The only thing shown by a proof that something is impossible is lack of imagination on the part of the prover.’ I'll make exceptions for violations of conservation laws or the laws of thermodynamics, but for little else. It is silly to stop development because one has not yet succeeded.

Albert G. Petschek


Your work is both true and original. Unfortunately, the parts that are true are not original, and the parts that are original are not true.

Edgar Allan Poe


When you have spirited people, whether you agree with them or not, it adds a little yeast to the dough. In your country club, your church and business, about 15 percent of the people are screwballs, lightweights and boobs and you would not want those people unrepresented in Congress.

Former Senator Alan K. Simpson, Republican from Wyoming


We cannot speak of democracy if we are not ready to play by its rules. The main aspect of democracy is the right of people to change a government if they do not like it.

Mohammad Khatami, President of Iran, August 28, 2002


If you have ever wondered if you are in hell, it has been said,
then you are on a well-traveled road of spiritual inquiry.


Never argue with an idiot, they will only drag you down to their level and beat you with years of experience.

Unknown (Dilbert's School of Thoughts ?)


Other Iraqi officials have said the declaration may run as long as 2,000 pages. At their news conference, Mr. Perricos, the United Nations weapons inspector, and Jacques Baute, a French nuclear physicist who leads the nuclear inspections team, said the sheer size of the task would mean that it might be "some time" - at least days - before anybody could determine whether anything in the information could be deemed a banned weapons program. When Mr. Perricos was asked what he meant when he said it would take "some time" to go through the declaration, he replied: "It's anybody's guess. `Some time' in Greek is any time from one day to 1,000 years."

Demetrius Perricos, Head of the team conducting the biological, chemical and missile inspections


Never underestimate the bandwidth of your Toyota Corolla speeding back from Blockbuster Video filled with VHS tapes and DVDs.

Brian Chase (classiccmp 12-13-2002)


The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

Voltaire, philosopher and writer (1694-1778)