Nothing beats John Staurt Mill:

Whatever we may think or affect to think of the present age, we cannot get out of it; we must suffer with its sufferings, and enjoy with its enjoyments; we must share in its lot, and, to be either useful or at ease, we must even partake its character.

The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle.

Since the state must necessarily provide subsistence for the criminal poor while undergoing punishment, not to do the same for the poor who have not offended is to give a premium on crime.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse.

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.

Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself.

Some of those modern reformers who have placed themselves in strongest opposition to the religions of the past, have been noway behind either churches or sects in their assertion of the right of spiritual domination.

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

The usefulness of an opinion is itself matter of opinion.

To discover to the world something which deeply concerns it, and of which it was previously ignorant; to prove to it that it had been mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow creatures.

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.

Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.

I well knew that to propose something which would be called extreme, was the true way not to impede but to facilitate a more moderate experiment.

"A Caveman caves things, Blake."

- Jenny Lewis live

ftw.

Stormcrow wrote:

On the subject of George Washington, our first president:

Brad Neely wrote:

With a pocket full of horses, fucked the shit out of bears,
Threw a knife into heaven and could kill with a stare.
He made love like an eagle falling out of the sky,
Killed his sensei in a duel and he never said why!

For the benefit of the uninitiated, the quote comes from here.

Why have I only just recently learned of the existence of the sitcom Fraiser?

Fraiser wrote:

"My fellow psychiatrists, as I watched you on the slopes [skiing in Aspen] today, I realized that I'd never seen so many Freudians slip."

This is the single greatest quote in the history of ever.

Leonard Cohen can.

The birds, they sang, at the break of day.
"Start again," I heard them say.
"Don't dwell on what has passed away,
Or what is yet to be."

Ah, the wars, they will be fought again,
The holy dove, she will be caught again,
Bought, and sold, and bought again --
The dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring!
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything --
That's how the light gets in.

You can add up the parts; you won't have the sum.
You can strike up the march; there is no drum.
Every heart -- every heart to love will come --
But like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring!
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack, in everything --
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.

Stormcrow wrote:

Except that when Leonard Cohen sings, it sounds like Vulcan poetry.

I looked up your Tom Waits song on iTunes when you posted those lyrics, and I can confidently say you are in no position to be talking. 

Speaking of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, both are on meh playlist:

I've always been told to
Remember this...
Don't let a kiss fool you
Never marry for love

Everything has its price [2x]
What's more romantic
Then dying in the moonlight?

Now they're all watching the sea
What's lost can never be broken
Her roots were sweet
But they were so shallow

And now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now

&

Let's be alone together.
Let's see if we're that strong.
Yeah let's do something crazy,
something absolutely wrong
while we're waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

Nothing left to do ...

When you've fallen on the highway
and you're lying in the rain,
and they ask you how you're doing
of course you'll say you can't complain --
If you're squeezed for information,
that's when you've got to play it dumb:
You just say you're out there waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. -Friedrich Nietzsche

^ "You should have thought about that before you got famous" is like my favorite quote from Metalocalypse. .


Eulogy:

"When I die, I want my ashes to be mixed in with the ink they use to make money. So I'll be everywhere."

"The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly like a bowling ball wouldn't."

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”
-Alice in Wonderland.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." - George Carlin