Cynicism

You'll find a girl as soon as you decide to look for just one at a time.
-- futuregirl

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
-- Benjamin Franklin

"Everything on your resume was a lie!
I like that.
Welcome to the marketing department!"

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
-- Sir Winston Churchill

"Utopia is not an option"

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?
-- _Trainspotting_

There once was a caliph of baghdad to whom a sculptor came, who was commissioned to make a fountain. The fountain was the most beautiful in the world, and the caliph approved it. Then he demanded of the sculptor whether anyone else could have made so lovely a fountain. The sculptor proudly said no one but he in the whole world could have achieved it.
"Pay him what was promised", said the caliph. "And put out his eyes."
-- John Brunner, _The Totally Rich_

In judging others, folks will work overtime for no pay.
-- Charles Carruthers

Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.
-- Hedy Lamarr

"Flattery is like chewing gum - enjoy it, but don't swallow it."
-- Mrs. Wilson, "Dennis The Menace"

"Faith: not *wanting* to know what is true."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup."
-- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

"...effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
-- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

All heiresses are beautiful.
-- John Dryden (1631-1700)

After all, what is your hosts' purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.
-- P. J. O'Rourke

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
-- Stephen Butler Leacock

Adolescence: The stage between puberty and adultery.
-- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Abstainer: A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.
-- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911

Acquaintance, n.:
A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
-- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911

"True, money _can't_ buy happiness, but it isn't happiness I want. It's money."
-- Bizarro

A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion. -- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

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Last Modified: 6/2001

 

Patri Friedman / patri@izzy.com