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9 quotes for a Monday


The young don't feel any great need to wait for the Walk sign before they cross the street. They feel invulnerable. Over time, you better appreciate the consequences of each action. You see people get burned, you see friends fall apart, you go to a few heartbreaking funerals. You begin to realize that survival requires cunning, and as a hedge, as part of a long-term strategy for improving your odds, you wait on the corner until you get the signal to walk.

-Joel Achenbach
He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
-Douglas Adams

Ignorance of your profession is best concealed by solemnity and silence, which pass for profound knowledge upon the generality of mankind.
-"Advice to Officers of the British Army", 1783

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
-Howard Aiken

Well, he's not psycho or addicted to anything, he's got a job, and he's doing the school thing; this is a step up for me.
-Bekka Altes

Man is never honestly the fatalist, nor even the stoic. He fights his fate,
often desperately. He is forever entering bold exceptions to the rulings of the
bench of gods. This fighting, no doubt, makes for human progress, for it favors
the strong and the brave. It also makes for beauty, for lesser men try to
escape from a hopeless and intolerable world by creating a more lovely one of
their own.
-- H.L. Mencken

The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to
sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
-- Anatole France

We tend to idealize tolerance, then wonder why we find ourselves infested with
losers and nut cases.
-- Patrick Hayden

I was always brought up to believe that language is the master, you are the
servant. I was taught to believe that language is almost out of control and you
can barely hold on to it.
-- Eric McCormack

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