Here are some of my favourite quotes, etc..
(Moved here from my IITB-ME Webpage)
Achuthan, M. (1939- )
Goofing up is nobody's unique birthright!
Intelligence can be nicely put on a scale of 0 to 10.
For example,
10 : divine,
9 : superhuman,
8 : genius (e.g. Leonardo da Vinci),
7 : human (like you and me),
6 : animal,
5 : machine,
4 : artificial,
3 : military.
I am yet to find any illustrations of levels 2, 1, and 0, and hence have not named those levels.
Do not accept any statement without questioning it, not even this statement.
One telephone connection is a necessity.
Two ... is utility.
Three ... luxury!
Four ... opulence!!
And
None is paradise!!!
Amarnath, C. (1947- )
If we cannot make a given thing on our own, we perhaps do not need it either.
Belasco, David (1853-1931)
If you can't write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don't have a clear idea.
Ben, Henry Albert
Hell must be isothermal; for otherwise the resident engineers and physical chemists (of which there must be some) could set up a heat engine to run a refrigerator to cool off a portion of their surroundings to any desired temperature.
[‘The Second Law’]
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
Clarke, Arthur C. (1917-2008)
This is the first age that's paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one.
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. [Clarke's First Law]
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. [Clarke's Second Law]
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. [Clarke's Third Law]
Clark, J. M. (1884-1963)
Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns.
Clarkson, Jeremy
It was Sheikh Yamani, the former boss of OPEC, who pointed out that the Stone Age didn't end because the world ran out of stone. Nor did the Iron Age end because we ran out of iron. And you can be fairly sure the Oil Age won't end because we run out of oil. ["Volkswagen Golf R32"]
The last truly great piece of automotive ingenuity came from Toyota who, in the late 1960s, showed the world that cars didn't have to break down all the time." ["Fiat Multipla 1.9JTD"]
In two million years (ending about 1820) man managed to discover only three important things: fire, the fact that wood floats, and the horse. ["Fiat Multipla 1.9JTD"]
Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
Farouk I (1911-1965), King of Egypt
In a few years there will be only five kings and queens in the world — the King and Queen of England and the four kings and queens in a pack of cards.
Fitzgerald, Fracis Scott (1896-1940)
The test of first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposite ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
Fry, Stephen (1957- )
The goal is not to make humans computer-literate, it is to make computers human-literate.
Golding, William (1911-1993)
I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men; they are far superior and always have been.
Gray, Erich S.
Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.
If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.
If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.
So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit!
Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves; or, we know where we can find information upon it.
Kettering, C. F. (1876-1958)
My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
Krutch, J. W. (1893-1970)
As machines get to be more like men, men will come to be more like machines.
Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence.
Mark Twain (1835-1920)
Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
McLuhan, Marshall (1911-1980)
Computers can do better than ever what needn't be done at all. Making sense is still a human monopoly. [ Take Today : The Executive as Dropout (1972) ]
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
Trifles go to make perfection,
And perfection is no trifle.
Moffat, Steven (1961- )
As you come into this world, something else is also born.
You begin your life, and it begins a journey towards you.
It moves slowly, but it never stops.
Wherever you go, whatever path you take, it will follow - never faster, never slower, always coming.
You will run, it will walk.
You will rest, it will not.
One day, you will linger in the same place too long - you will sit too still, or sleep too deep.
And when, too late, you rise to go, you will notice a second shadow next to yours.
Your life will then be over.
[‘Doctor Who : Heaven Sent’ (Series 9)]
Stories are where memories go when they are forgotten.
[‘Doctor Who : Hell Bent’ (Series 9)]
Naisbitt, John (1929- )
We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.
Planck, M. (1858-1947)
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them to see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
[‘The Philosophy of Physics’; Norton, New York, 1936]
Rowling, J. K. (1965- )
Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all : in which case, you fail by default.
[ Commencement Address, 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination' at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. 05 June 2008 ]
Russell, Bertrand (1872-1970)
Our own planet, in which philosophers are apt to take a parochial and excessive interest, was once too hot to support life, and will in time be too cold. After ages during which the earth produced harmless trilobites and butterflies, evolution progressed to the point at which it generated Neros, Genghis Khans, and Hitlers. This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.
[‘Unpopular Essays’, Simon & Schuster, 1950]
Sagan, Carl (1934-1996)
A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being?
['Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space', Random House, 1994]
