Error is robust, correctness frail and fleeting. ­ Old saying among editors

What I learned from starting on a CLI was that if you type everything correctly, nothing happens. You only get feedback if you do something wrong. This was not only excellent preparation for a career in computers but also for dealing with women... ­ Anonymous poster on SlashDot

... and explain it like I'm stupid, because, well ... ­ Anonymous Internet Posting

Whenever a man cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. ­ Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. ­ Eleanor Roosevelt

Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. ­ George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824), [Lord Byron]

Republicans are preferable to Democrats because they believe in the right to bear arms. If you disagree strongly enough with them you can shoot them. ­ P. J. O'Rourke

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ­ Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

People demand freedom of speech to make up for freedom of thought which they avoid. ­ Soren Kierkegaard

The day the second amendment is repealed, is the day it was meant for. ­ Unknown

We have no new defense against the seductions of eloquence. ­ Unknown

To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them. ­ George Mason

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. ­ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain)

Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money ­ only for wanting to keep your own money. ­ Joseph Sobran

America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to "the common good," but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance ­ and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way. ­ Ayn Rand

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods. ­ H. L. Mencken

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ­ H. L. Mencken

I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests," I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can. ­ Barry Goldwater

In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, "Make us your slaves, but feed us." ­ Dosteovsky's Grand Inquisitor

If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. ­ Samuel Adams

We can afford to differ on the currency, the tariff, and foreign policy; but we cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure ... Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity ... The weakling and the coward cannot be saved by honesty alone; but without honesty, the brave and able man is merely a civic wild beast who should be hunted down by every lover of righteousness. ... No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community. ... 'Liar' is just as ugly a word as 'thief,' because it implies the presence of just as ugly a sin in one case as in the other. If a man lies under oath or procures the lie of another under oath, if he perjures himself or suborns perjury, he is guilty under the statute law. ... Under the higher law, under the great law of morality and righteousness, he is precisely as guilty if, instead of lying in a court, he lies in a newspaper or on the stump; and in all probability, the evil effects of his conduct are infinitely more widespread and more pernicious. ­ Teddy Roosevelt (on May 12, 1900, while he was still governor of New York)

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage. ­ Alexander Tyler, writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic in his 1770 book, Cycle of Democracy

The main plank in the National Socialist program is to abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual and the Marxist concept of humanity and to substitute for them the folk community, rooted in the soil and bound together by the bond of its common blood. ­ Adolph Hitler, quoted in Hitler, A Study in Tyranny , by Alan Bullock (Harper Collins, NY)

It is thus necessary that the individual should come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole ... that above all the unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual. ... This state of mind, which subordinates the interests of the ego to the conservation of the community, is really the first premise for every truly human culture .... we understand only the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow man. ­ Adolph Hitler, 1933

There is the great, silent, continuous struggle: the struggle between the State and the Individual; between the State which demands and the individual who attempts to evade such demands. Because the individual, left to himself, unless he be a saint or hero, always refuses to pay taxes, obey laws, or go to war. ­ Benito Mussolini

Fascist ethics begin ... with the acknowledgment that it is not the individual who confers a meaning upon society, but it is, instead, the existence of a human society which determines the human character of the individual. According to Fascism, a true, a great spiritual life cannot take place unless the State has risen to a position of pre-eminence in the world of man. The curtailment of liberty thus becomes justified at once, and this need of rising the State to its rightful position. ­ Mario Palmieri, The Philosophy of Fascism , 1936

Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all. ­ Nikita Khrushchev , February 25, 1956, 20 ^th Congress of the Communist Party

All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is not good at all. ­ Vladimir I. Lenin, as quoted in Not by Politics Alone

We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society. ­ Hillary Clinton, 1993

We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ... ­ President Bill Clinton, USA Today, March 11, 1993, Page 2A

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. ­ Ayn Rand

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man? ­ Henry David Thoreau

We must organize all labor, no matter how dirty and arduous it may be, so that every (citizen) may regard himself as part of that great army of free labor. ... The generation that is now fifteen years old .. must arrange all their tasks of education in such a way that every day, and in every city, the young people shall engage in the practical solution of the problems of common labor, even the smallest, most simple kind. ­ Vladimir I. Lenin (compulsory volunteerism, anyone?)

Fascism finds it necessary, at the outset, to take away from the ordinary human being what he has been taught and has grown to cherish the most; personal liberty. And it can be affirmed, without falling into exaggeration, that a curtailment of personal liberty not only has proved to be, but necessarily must be, a fundamental condition of the triumph of Fascism. ­ Mario Palmeiri

I am here because I want to redefine the meaning of citizenship in America ... If you're asked in school "What does it mean to be a good citizen?" I want the answer to be, "Well, to be a good citizen, you have to obey the law, you've got to go to work or be in school, you've got to pay your taxes and ­- oh, yes, you have to serve" ... ­ Bill Clinton at Volunteerism Summit

All the people I know who are driving for a form of national service, primarily want it to be compulsory. They realize that's a terrible problem politically, so they're not willing to say it. It is endangerment of freedom and the potential for indoctrination that skeptics do not like in the national service concept. However benign the program, some think it will not succeed on any meaningful scale unless is is compulsory. ­ Martin Anderson, Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution

In his April 5 radio address outlining the goals of the summit, the President endorsed compulsory volunteerism ­ and even called for extending it to middle schools. In other words, the man who so famously avoided the dangerous duty of fighting in Vietnam as a young man now proposes drafting a new generation of young people to perform a different set of difficult tasks. ­ Editorial, New York Post, April 27, 1997

Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God. Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. ­ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain)

Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! ­ Robert Ingersoll

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. ­ Thomas Jefferson

If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. ­ Henry Ford

The hardest thing to understand is income tax. ­ Albert Einstein

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. ­ Christopher Morley

If I'd tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around .600. ­ Babe Ruth

The answers I have found have just served to raise a whole new set of questions. In some ways I am as confused as ever, but I believe I am confused on a much higher level and about more important things. ­ Unknown

Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It probably can't be done and it annoys the pig. ­ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain)

October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February. ­ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain)

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. ­ Les Brown

Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. ­ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain)

Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity. ­ Albert Einstein

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. Alternate: There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong. ­ H. L. Mencken

Two and two continue to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five. ­ James Whistler

Every component in a car is in place to make the tires work better ... driver included. ­ Reeves Calloway

There is a serious tendency toward capitalism by the well-to-do peasants. ­ Mao Tse Tung

You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus. ­ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain)

This is the kind of pedantry up with which I will not put. ­ Winston Churchill (in reply to a memo in which the respondent criticised him for ending a sentence with a preposition)

Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions. ­ Mignon McLaughlin

Always do right. It will gratify some people and amaze the rest. ­ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain)

I'm not impatient and your time is up. ­ "Alan Brady" character on The Dick Van Dyke Show

So powerful it's kinda ridiculous. ­ Television advertisement for 3dfx video chip.

Sic semper tyrannis. ­ Unknown

Grub first, then ethics. ­ Bertolt Brecht

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find ­ and not to yield.
­ Alfred, Lord Tennyson in Ulysses

We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the state. ­ Unknown

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof. ­ John Kenneth Galbraith

Success is attending a funeral as a spectator. ­ E. BonAnno

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. ­ Robert Capa

An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them. ­ Werner Heisenberg

The "average idiot" got that name for a reason. ­ Doug Franklin

Smithfield Ham is the reason God created pigs. ­ Doug Franklin

Etymology is a science in which the vowels count for nothing and the consonants for very little. ­ Voltaire

The chief value of money is the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated. ­ H.L. Mencken

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ­ Arthur C. Clarke

Science is magic that works. ­ Kurt Vonnegut, in Cat's Cradle

He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past. ­ George Orwell, 1984 , 1948

Programmers are busy writing the next best idiot proof software. The universe, in the meantine, is busy making the next best idiot. The universe is winning. ­ unknown

When an elderly but distinguished scientist says something is impossible, he is almost surely wrong. ­ Arthur C. Clarke

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off. ­ Bjarne Stroustrup

The only difference between a Republican and a Democrat is that I'd fuck a Democrat. ­ Sarah Michelle Gellar

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes. [Who Keeps the Keepers] ­ Juvenal

The hardest part about being free is that you must allow your neighbor to be the same. ­ Bob Lonsberry

90% of the people in the world are idiots. Everybody knows this, and thinks they are part of the other 10%. ­ Unknown

Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something. ­ Unknown

I finally understood that "Indian giver" referred to our treatment of natives, not their treatment of us. ­ Unknown

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. ­ Martin Luther King, Jr.

To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. ­ Robert Louis Stevenson

Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain. ­ Friedrich von Schiller, The Maid of Orleans , III, 6

What we need is either less corruption, or more chance to participate in it. ­ Unknown

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

Bill Gates is just a monocle and a Persian Cat away from being one of the bad guys in a James Bond movie. ­ Dennis Miller

If you are angry with someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes... then you'll be a mile away from them, and you'll have their shoes. ­ Unknown

You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important. ­ Earl Warren, Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

Let us strangle the last king with the guts of the last priest! ­ Denis Diderot (1751)

The subdivision paradox: Where people who rant about government intrusion live and then form governing groups to rant about the color of a neighbor's lawn. ­ Unknown

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. ­ Albert Einstein

If you listen to fools
The mob rules. ­ Black Sabbath in The Mob Rules

A deep respect for Law requires intense skepticism toward every law. ­ Unknown

A person is smart, people are scared stupid animals, and you know it. ­  Men In Black (movie)

Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it. ­ Richard Feynman

On the side of the software box, in the system requirements section it said "Requires Windows 95 or better." So I installed Linux. ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila. ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

Why do I have to get the kind of government they deserve? ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. ­ Tacitus

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. ­ Bertrand Russell

Never let your conscience trick you into owning up to the truth when there's still some chance somebody might believe the lie. ­ Charles Noblett

I've lost my faith in nihilism. ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it. ­ Douglas Adams in The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy

Assume the worst about people, and you'll generally be correct. ­ Scott Adams, author of Dilbert cartoon

Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life. ­ Michael Sinz

I love my country but I fear my government. ­ Anonymous Poster to the Vent column in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gun manufacturers don't make bad products, bad parents do. ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

Beliefs are more powerful than facts. ­ Duke Paulus Atreides character in the novel Dune by Frank Herbert

Yes, I am a minion of the Devil, but my duties are largely ceremonial. ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." 

"No, my son, you have it backwards. It is better to live on your feet than to die on your knees." ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

We tend to hate those whom we haven't treated very well, and if we can somehow convince ourselves that they are less than human, then our guilt seems much blacker than we secretly know it is. ­ David Eddings, Domes of Fire

Cthulhu for President! Why vote for a lesser Evil? ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor. ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

"Computeri non cogitant, ergo non sunt." (roughly, "Computers don't think, therefore they don't exist (they are not)".) ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It is merely twice as large as it needs to be.  ­ Anonymous poster to Slashdot Web site

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks. ­ Thomas Jefferson

You will be liberated the moment you recognize them for what they are. ­ Tibetan Book of the Dead

We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way. ­ A. Huxley

We are distributing this product to the population because collective rights come above individual rights. What I see here is hoarding and we are going to move these products. ­ Venezuelan National Guard Gen. Luis Felipe Acosta Carles, February 2003, as quoted by Patrick Markey of the Reuters News Service in a story titled Venezuelan Troops Take Coca-Cola Affiliate .