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Random Quotes

By tqa on August 17, 2006.

Janet tagged everybody, so here goes:

The rules: "Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think reflect who you are or what you believe."

1) What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

2) In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996)

3) When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947

4) We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.
Stephen Hawking (1942 - )

5) If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?
Albert Einstein.

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My five quotes:

I am a deeply superficial person.
Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987)

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

I was surprised I didn't get a single Oscar Wilde. If I had, it would probably have made the list!

My 5 quotes from the site:
1) Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
Thomas H Huxley

2) The truth is more important than the facts.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)

3) Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)

4)You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Malcolm X (1925 - 1965), Malcolm X Speaks, 1965

5) Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Eric Hoffer
(1902 - 1983)

But my two favorite quotes which I keep on the wall over my desk:

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
Ghandhi

and

Everything I ever did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for.
Judge Earl Warren