Quotations
Used in the 'WMail' Newsletter
and the Dateline Chamesa blog

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on this page: Proverbs & Anonymous & Advertising • Laws of Life

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Proverbs & Anonymous & Advertising

“Nothing is required for the triumph of evil but that good men do nothing.”
— quoted byJohn F. Kennedy [1917-63], often attributed to
Edmund Burke, but actual origin unknown  {Issue #3}

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
— Chinese proverb   {Issue #10}

“Do Right & Fear Not”
— sign in captain's cabin on 1863 museum ship Star of India
in San Diego, California  {Issue #13}

“Take what you want and pay for it, says God.”
— Spanish proverb  {Issue #23}

“Great souls have wills; feeble souls have wishes.”
— Chinese proverb   {Issue #27}

“Treat the Earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned
to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children.” — Native American proverb  {Issue #32}

“Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty. The pig likes it.”
— old saying  {Issue #32}

“If it's in your way, knock it over.”
— Klingon proverb  {Issue #36}

“If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?”
— unknown  {Issue #36}

“The wicked flourish like a green bay tree.”
— British saying (after Psalm 37:35}  {Issue #36}

“Life is short, but wide.”
— Spanish proverb  {Issue #36}

“Opportunity doesn't knock anymore, it just beeps as it drives by.”
— Comerica Bank ad 2003  {Issue #36}

“The very rich forfeit barely 1% of their net worth to the U.S. Treasury every year.”
— Forbes Magazine, Oct 2003  {Issue #37}

“Canta che ti passa!”  [Sing and it will pass!]
— Italian proverb  {Issue #38}

“When it becomes clear [that] no one else shares your level of passion,
you are where you belong.” — Rolex ad 2003  {Issue #39}

“Thorns have roses.”
— old saying  {Issue #40}

“The Bush Administration's 2005 budget is a masterpiece of disengenuous
blame-shifting, dishonest budgeting, and irresponsible governing.”
— Washington Post editorial, February 2004  {Issue #41}

“Nothing could be worse than turning 40, 50 or 60 years old with nothing
but TV viewing and work as your legacy.” — unknown  {Issue #41}

“You can have a lord, you can have a king, but the man to fear is the tax collector.”
— Sumerian saying, circa 1800 B.C.E.  {Issue #43}

“Failure is not an option... It's included with the software.”
— unknown  {Issue #43}

“Any man who could concentrate for as much as three minutes on any
given problem could rule the world.” — Chinese saying  {Issue #43}

“[Americans] work more hours than workers in any other industrialized
country except South Korea.”
— Program on WorkLife Law at American University Washington College of Law  {Issue #46}

“There was an era in America when a family could live comfortably on the income
of just one worker. But that's not so any more.”
— Los Angeles Times editorial, December 2004  {Issue #49}

“This is the B.B.C. Home Service. There is no news.”
— actual radio news broadcast, circa 1930  {Issue #49}

“Fifty percent of the population are below average.” — anonymous  {Issue #49}

“You get what you pay for..”
— Arbuckle Coffee slogan, circa 1900  {Issue #51}

“Stand back! I'm an eagle.”
— American saying  {Issue #52}

“The news is first.”
— N.P.R. Radio slogan  {Issue #54}

“The economic status quo cannot be maintained long into the future. If radical changes
are not made, we face loss of well-being and possible ecological catastrophe.”
— Scientific American Magazine, September 2005  {Issue #55}

“Live your life like you're not afraid to die.”
— country western song, 2005  {Issues #59 & #62}

“The white men are like locusts.”
— DreamWorks mini-series, 2005  {Issue #60}

“Poco a poco se anda lejos."  (Little by little, one can go far.)”
— Hispanic-American dicho {saying}  {Issue #60}

“If you want to succeed in business, don't get an MBA. Study philosophy instead.”
— The Atlantic Monthly subhead, June 2006  {Issue #60}

“Plant trees. Plant lots of trees."
— ending credits of Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" [2006]  {Issue #61}

“It is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
— from the 1955 play "Inherit The Wind" by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee  {Issue #61}

“A challenge does not build character, it merely reveals it.”
— mutual fund commercial, 2006  {Issue #61}

“Only when lions get to write history will hunters cease to be heroes.”
— African proverb  {Issue #62}

“Beer has food value, but food has no beer value.”
— motto of Second Street Brewery in Santa Fe, New Mexico  {Issue #62}

“Support our oops.” — new bumper sticker  {Issue #64}
“You go, Hugo!” — another bumper sticker  {Issue #64}

“If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made of meat?”  {Issue #66}
— slogan at Rudy's Country Store & Bar-B-Q in Albuquerque, NM

“Do not be surprised if the horse that you are riding takes you in the direction that you are headed.”
— ancient Chinese saying  {Issue #68}

“Never get a tattoo where a judge can see it.” — old saying  {Issue #70}
“That's good advice.” — Judge John P. Pope, Valencia County, New Mexico

“Louisiana doesn’t tolerate corrupt politicians, it demands them.”
— local saying  {Issue #70}

“Carpe Mañana” — Santa Fe, New Mexico bumper sticker  {Issue #70}

“If you wish to go fast, go alone. If you wish to go far, go together."
— African proverb  {Issue #71}

“Jail To The Chief” — new bumper sticker  {Issue #71}

“Who Would Jesus Bomb?” — bumper sticker  {blog 10/2007}

“Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, loses all fear.”
— Upanishads  {blog 11/2007}

“Growing old is mandatory / Growing up is optional” — t-shirt  {blog 11/2007}

“An intellectual is someone who can find something more interesting than sex.”
— anonymous  {blog 11/2007}

“Genius is the ability to avoid work by doing it right the first time.”
— old saying  {blog 1/2008}

“Every animal knows more than you do.”
— Nez Perce proverb  {blog 1/2008}

“Give Light and the people will find their own way.”
— masthead motto of the Rocky Mountain News [est. 1859] of Denver, Colorado  {blog 1/2008}

“You don't get to be the best because you're the oldest,
you get to be the oldest because you're the best.”
— Bushmill's Whiskey ad  {blog 2/2008}

“Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you.”
— Western saying  {blog 2/2008}

“You can have that done one of two ways – fast or good.”
— old saying  {blog 3/2008}

“Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.”
— Lebanese proverb  {blog 3/2008}

“There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.”
— Chinese proverb  {blog 3/2008}

“A wise man knows everything, a shrewd man knows everbody.”
— old saying  {blog 8/2008}

“The best answer to anger is silence.”
— German proverb  {blog 9/2008}

“If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.”
— anonymous  {blog 9/2008}

“A bit of perfume always clings to the hand that gives the rose.”
— Chinese proverb  {blog 9/2008}

“Those who wish to sing always find a song.”
— Swedish proverb  {blog 9/2008}

“The domination of women by men has lasted for fifty thousand years. Why can't it last just fifty more?”
— grafitto in Berlin, Germany  {blog 11/2008}

“Life is all about how you handle Plan B” — gag t-shirt  {blog 12/2008}

“Dare to be indifferent" — gag t-shirt  {blog 12/2008}

“To die of love is overdoing it.”
— French proverb  {blog 12/2008}

“Having a good wife and rich cabbage soup, seek not other things.”
— Russian proverb  {blog 12/2008}

“All that you have is your story.”
— voiceover narration of the movie "Australia" [2008]  {blog 12/2008}

“The wise man never has to lie.”
— Jesuit maxim  {blog 12/2008}

“The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span the hours spent fishing.”
— old saying  {blog 12/2008}

“Where there is no vision, the people will perish.”
— Proverbs 29:18  {blog 4/2009}

“Reach high, think big, work hard, and have fun!”
— motto of Disney Channel's "Imagination Movers" children's TV program  {blog 6/2009}

“A kiss without a moustache is like an egg without salt.”
— old saying  {blog 6/2009}

“These days it is not 'the economy, stupid' but the stupid economy.”
— motto of the Green Festival Project  {blog 8/2009}

“It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone,
which no good man gives up except with his life.”
— Declaration of Arbroath by Scottish leaders, 1320 A.D.  {blog 8/2009}

“Friendship is like peeing in your pants – everyone can see it, but only YOU
can feel its true warmth.” — viral email, 2009   {blog 9/2009}

“An unbiased person is someone who has the same bias as we have.”
— Mason City [Iowa] Globe-Gazette, in 1998  {blog 10/2009}

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago; the second-best time is now.”
— African proverb  {blog 12/2009}

“Even the best writer has to erase.”
— Spanish proverb  {blog 2/2010}

“It is never too late to start early.”
— anonymous  {blog 5/2010}

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur ("Anything said in Latin sounds profound")
{blog 5/2010 & 12/2011}

“Women have not yet achieved the right to be mediocre.”
— anonymous  {blog 6/2010}

“Nobody likes to eat his own beef.” — New Mexico saying,
as quoted by mystery author Tony Hillerman [1925-2008]  {blog 6/2010}

Die dulci freure ("Have a nice day")  {blog 6/2010}
or DIEM DULCEM HABES ("Have a nice day")  {blog 12/2011}

“Non illigitami carborundum" (Don't let the b*stards grind you down)  {blog 6/2010}

Bumper Stickers & T-shirts {blog 6/2010}
“We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart?”
“Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.”
“Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.”

“Just Do It” — Nike athletic shoes ad campaign, circa 1990
(The inspiration was convicted killer Gary Gilmore, who said "Let’s do it" just before
he was executed by a Utah firing squad in 1977.)  {blog 7/2010}

“Whenever I hear [the word] 'culture'... I remove the safety from my Browning!"
{original: "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning!"}
from the 1933 German play "Schlageter" written by Hanns Johst
(and not uttered by either Hermann Göring or Julius Streicher}  {blog 10/2010}

“They're always flying these flags at half mast. Why don't they just make the flag poles shorter?"
— New Mexico state employee in 2010  {blog 10/2010}

“Progress has little to do with speed and much to do with direction."
— old saying  {blog 10/2010}

“Dum vivimus, vivamus (While we live, let us live!)”
— as quoted by Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88], in 1963  {blog 10/2010}

“Politicians should dress like NASCAR drivers so [that] we know who their corporate sponsors are"
— bumper sticker  {blog 11/2010}

“If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."
— old saying, as well as 1990 country-western hit by Aaron Tippin  {blog 11/2010}

“Certain things catch your eye, But pursue only those that capture your heart.”
— old Native American saying  {blog 12/2010}

“Let us hear the voice of Reason, singing in the night”
— line from song in "Muppet Christmas Carol" [1992]  {blog 12/2010}

“Coyote is always out there waiting, and coyote is always hungry.”
— old Native American saying”  {blog 12/2010}

“At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.”
— Italian proverb  {blog 4/2011}

“The intelligence of the world is a constant. The population is increasing.”
— unknown  {blog 4/2011}

“Fascism: The conservative notion that killing people makes them work harder.”
— anonymous  {blog 4/2011}

“Men change, but seldom do they.”
— old saying  {blog 6/2011}

“What's the difference between Congress and the Boy Scouts? The Boy Scouts have adult supervision.”
— variation on an old joke  {blog 8/2011}

“He who fights for his rights can lose; he who does not fight has lost already.”
— German labor slogan  {blog 12/2011}

“You are master of your words, but, once spoken, they control you.”
— author uncertain  {blog 12/2011}

“Enough is better than too much.”
— French proverb  {blog 1/2012}

Laws of Life

Nordell's Hypothesis
“If things were different, things would be different.”  {Issue #36}

The original Murphy's Law,
created by John Paul Strapp, Edward A. Murphy, Jr. & George Nichols in 1949, reads:
“If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways
can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.”  {Issue #36}

Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives ['folk' version of Murphy]
“Anything that can go wrong, will”.  {Issue #36}

"A History of Murphy's Law" [2006] by Nick T. Spark Lulu / Periscope 7½x7¼ pb [5/2006] for $14.00

Agnes Allen's Law
“Everything is easier to get into than out of.”  {Issue #36}

Benford's Law of Controversy
“Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.”  {Issue #36}

Brooks's Law
"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”  {blog 8/2008}

Clark's Law
"Sufficiently advanced cluelessness is indistinguishable from malice.”  {blog 8/2008}

Dirac's Corollary
“The speaker who knows least talks longest.”  {Issue #43}

Donald Duck's Law
“Everything is in the last place that you look.”  {Issue #36}

The Great Law of Sociology
“Some people do, and some people don't.”  {Issue #41}

Gumperson's Law
“The chances of something happening are inversely proportional
to the desire for it to happen.”  {Issue #37}

Hanlon's Razor
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”  {blog 8/2008}

Hillel's Golden Rule
"Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you.”  {Issue #67}

Hoare's Law of Large Problems
"Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out.”  {blog 8/2008}

Kettering's Law
“Logic is an organized way of going wrong with confidence.”  {Issue #36}

The Law of Louis XIVth
“The reason that real antique chairs are often uncomfortable is that the comfortable
chairs get used, and get worn out – and are replaced.”  {blog 10/2008}

Napier's Maxim
“When you have a bottle of champagne, you will have something to celebrate”  {blog 4/2011}

Ninety-Ninety Rule
"The first 90% of the [software project] code accounts for the first 90% of the development time.
The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.”  {blog 8/2008}

Occam's Razor from William of Ockham [1285?-1349]
“Do not posit that which is unnecessary.”
**original “Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate”
{“Plurality should not be posited without necessity.”}
**also “Simpler is better.”
**also “The simplest hypothesis is most likely to be correct.”  {Issue #38}

O'Toole's Commentary
“Murphy was an optimist.”  {Issue #51}

Parkinson's Law
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”  {blog 5/2010}
— Cyril Northcote Parkinson [1909-93]

The Peter Principle
“People rise in an organization until they reach their level of incompetence.”  {Issue #36}

Sturgeon's Law
“Ninety percent of everything is [crap].”  {Issue #36}
— sci-fi author Theodore Sturgeon [1918-85]

Zuckerberg's Law
"The amount of sharing by a Facebook user roughly doubles each year.”  {blog 10/2011}
— billionaire Mark Zuckerberg

Zymurgy's First Law of Evolving Systems Dynamics
"Once you open a can of worms, the only way to recan them is to use a bigger can.”  {blog 8/2008}

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Proverbs & Anonymous • Laws of Life

Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826] Quotations Page
Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82] Quotations Page
Abraham Lincoln [1809-65] Quotations Page
Mark Twain [1835-1910] Quotations Page
Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900] Quotations Page
George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950] Quotations Page
Bertrand Russell [1872-1970] Quotations Page
Winston Churchill [1874-1965] Quotations Page
Albert Einstein [1879-1955] Quotations Page
H.L. Mencken [1880-1956] Quotations Page
Wm. Faulkner [1897-1962] Quotations Page
John Steinbeck [1902-68] Quotations Page
Ayn Rand [1905-82] Quotations Page
Edward R. Murrow [1908-65] Quotations Page
Edward Abbey [1927-89] Quotations Page
Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68] Quotations Page
G.E. Nordell Quotations Page

Magic Lantern's Great Movie Quotes Page

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