We Are Such Stuff...
Last year my New Year's column consisted of other people's
words, for a change. By doing it again this year I suppose I'm declaring it a tradition.
That's okay, I like traditions. Besides, just because these are all other people's
words doesn't mean I'm not saying anything.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear to man as it is, infinite.
…William Blake
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
…Robert Frost
The first step is always to succeed in becoming surprised
-- to notice that there is something funny going on.
…David Gelernter
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the
problem in a way that will allow a solution.
…Bertrand Russell
I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which,
when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.
…Poul Anderson
At the core of all well-founded belief, lies belief that is
unfounded.
…Ludwig Wittgenstein
My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer
than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
…J. B. S. Haldane
Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
…Alfred North Whitehead
The simplicities of natural laws arise through the
complexities of the language we use for their expression.
…Eugene Wigner
There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy
concept.
…Ansel Adams
Life is a long lesson in humility.
…James M. Barrie
It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.
…Oscar Wilde
It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue
about them.
…Pierre de Beaumarchais
If you can find something everyone agrees on, it's wrong.
…Mo Udall
Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't
that a big enough majority in any town?
…Mark Twain
You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is
satire. All you're doing is recording it.
…Art Buchwald
I personally think we developed language because of our
deep need to complain.
…Lily Tomlin
Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that
life is serious.
…Brendan Gill
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly
through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of
wisdom and knowledge.
…Igor Stravinsky
The object of art is to give life a shape.
…Jean Anouilh
There are more bad musicians than there is bad music.
…Isaac Stern
A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large
and full of wonders.
…Lord Dunsany
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