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Friday, July 30, 2010

Queen - Live Aid - Part 1 (1/5)

"I don't know you,
And you don't know me.
It is this that brings us together."
- Kate Bush

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Queen - The Miracle

"No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear."
- Emily Brontë ~ (born 30 July 1818)

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Rand Paul Opens Mouth, Puts Coal-Covered Foot In | Crooks and Liars

As if Rand Paul's flippant "No one will miss a hill or two" comment wasn't egregious enough, his latest PR effort on behalf of the coal industry is even worse. In an interview with Details magazine, he makes some of the dumbest and most offensive statements I've heard yet about mountaintop removal.

See, here's what Rand Paul thinks. Seriously.

Paul believes mountaintop removal just needs a little rebranding. "I think they should name it something better," he says. "The top ends up flatter, but we're not talking about Mount Everest. We're talking about these little knobby hills that are everywhere out here. And I've seen the reclaimed lands. One of them is 800 acres, with a sports complex on it, elk roaming, covered in grass." Most people, he continues, "would say the land is of enhanced value, because now you can build on it."

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

"What am I singing?
A song of seeds
The food of love.
Eat the music."
- Kate Bush

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Union of Concerned Scientists: A Safer World STARTs With This Simple Step

Your senators need to hear from you! They need to know that Americans haven't forgotten about this critical issue and support efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons. Let your senators know that a safer world STARTs with this simple step-encourage them to ratify START today.

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Queen - A Kind Of Magic

"Just being alive
It can really hurt.
These moments given
Are a gift from time.
Just let us try
To give these moments back
To those we love
To those who will survive."
- Kate Bush

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

National Security -- Republicans Hungry For Nuclear Pork

The debate over the New START arms control treaty with Russia is winding down. Senate committees have held nearly 20 hearings, and treaty opponents are now repeating the same tired arguments that have already been thoroughly debunked and discredited. With the debate over START largely exhausted, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has moved to schedule a committee vote for next week. If passed, the treaty will go to the Senate floor, where it will need 67 votes to be ratified. The efforts by those opposing the treaty -- like Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and the Heritage Foundation -- to rally Republican opposition seem to have largely failed with few GOP Senators arguing against the merits of the treaty. A growing number of Republican senators have now expressed hope that the treaty can be ratified. But instead of expressing their intention to vote for the treaty, many of these senators -- including Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee -- are now demanding backroom deals to get more pork for the home states' nuclear weapons bureaucracy -- something that should have absolutely nothing to do with START. Having vigorously attacked side deals during the health care debate, these Senators are now engaging in their own sunbelt shakedown. In the midst of complaining about government spending, they are demanding wasteful pork that would have the United States absurdly spending vastly greater sums on its nuclear infrastructure, when it is planning to significantly reduce its nuclear stockpiles. Senators should not put pork and politics over American nuclear security, and the White House should resist efforts to succumb to such blackmail.

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) On the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act

Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever (HIGHLANDER VIDEO)

"There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away
from us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever....?

There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever?

Who dares to love forever?
When love must die

But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever?
Forever is our today

Who waits forever anyway?"

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Queen - A Kind Of Magic

"It’s a kind of magic
It’s a kind of magic
A kind of magic
One dream one soul, one prize
One goal, one golden glance of what should be
It’s a kind of magic
One shaft of light that shows the way
No mortal man can win this day
It’s a kind of magic
The bell that rings inside your mind
Is challenging the doors of time
It's a kind of magic
The waiting seems eternity
The day will dawn of sanity
Is this a kind of magic?
It's a kind of magic
There can be only one
This rage that lasts a thousand years
Will soon be done
This flame that burns inside of me
I’m here in secret harmonies
It’s a kind of magic
The bell that rings inside your mind
Is challenging the doors of time
It’s a kind of magic
It’s a kind of magic
This rage that lasts a thousand years
Will soon be, will soon be
Will soon be done
This is a kind of magic
There can be only one
This rage that lasts a thousand years
Will soon be done
Magic – it’s a kind of magic
It’s a kind of magic
Magic, magic, magic, magic
It’s magic
It’s a kind of magic"

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Queen - Princes Of The Universe

Here we are, born to be kings
We're the princes of the universe
Here we belong, fighting to survive
In a world with the darkest powers

Hey...
And here we are
We're the princes of the universe
Here we belong, fighting for survival
We've come to be the rulers of you all

Oh!
I am immortal
I have inside me blood of kings (Yeah, yeah!)
I have no rival
No man can be my equal
Take me to the future of you all

Born to be kings, princes of the universe
Fighting and free, got your world in my hand
I'm here for your love and I'll make my stand
We were born to be princes of the universe
No man could understand
My power is in my own hands

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
People talk about you
People say you've had your day
I'm a man that will go far
Fly the moon and reach for the stars
With my sword and head held high
Got to pass the test first time, yeah
I know that people talk about me
I hear it every day
But I can prove them wrong 'cause I'm right first time
Yeah yeah

Alright, let's go, let's go
Haha!
Yeah...watch this man fly
Bring on the girls
C'mon C'mon C'mon!

Here we are (here we are)
Born to be kings, we're princes of the universe
Here will we belong

Born to be kings, princes of the universe
Fighting and free, got your world in my hand
I'm here for your love and I'll make my stand
We were born to be princes of the universe

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Lip-Reading BCS Computer Kills Officials Who Want To Shut It Down | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Known among fans for its distinctive red eye-like camera lens, its quiet yet unnerving tone of voice, and its affinity for USC football, BCS, or Binary Crossplatform Subnet system, is believed to have discovered the attempt to deactivate it by reading the lips of employees Dave Bowman and Frank Poole. A review of security tapes showed that Bowman and Poole entered one of the building's soundproofed offices to discuss how they could stop the supercomputer's recent string of inexplicable malfunctions, which include awarding the National Championship to more than one team, giving preference to schools from major conferences, and somehow eliminating undefeated teams from contention.

However, Bowman and Poole were evidently unaware that along with BCS 9000's ability to recognize speech, decode facial expressions, observe emotion, appreciate art, decide which teams compete in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, and play chess, the machine is also capable of interpreting mouth movements and extrapolate speech patterns from afar.

BCS responded to the threat by overriding the building's manual controls and causing Poole's elevator to suddenly plummet 350 feet as he rode to the roof to fix the computer's antenna. In addition, BCS 9000 removed all the oxygen from the Bowl Championship Series break room and terminated the life functions of three officials who were sleeping in their hibernacula.

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Media Runs Defense for BP, Again | Mother Jones

First there was the bizarre AFP report asking where all the oil in the Gulf could have possibly gone. Then a breaking news alert from the New York Times landed in my inbox Tuesday night declaring "Gulf of Mexico Oil Slick Appears to Vanish Quickly," which seemed to imply that because a few reporters hadn't noticed much crude on a flyover, it must have magically disappeared. (The alert failed to mention the 1.8 million gallons of dispersant that BP dumped on the spill to do exactly that).

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Queen - Somebody to Love

"Can.. (anybody find me somebody to love?)

(ooh...)
ooh...
Each morning I get up, I die a little
Can't barely stand on my feet
Take a look in the mirror and cry
(Take a look at yourself, in the mirror, and cry! Yeah, yeah)
Lord what you're doing to me
I have spent all my years in believing you
(ooh, ooh believing you)
But I just can't get no relief, Lord!
(I just can't get no relief, Lord!)

Somebody, (somebody), ooh somebody (somebody)
Can anybody find me -
(anybody find me)
Somebody to love?
Yeah..

I work (he works hard) every day of my life
I work till I ache my bones
At the end (At the end of the day)
I take home
my hard earned pay all on my own
(goes home, goes home on his own)
I get down (down) on my knees (knees)
And I start to pray (praise the Lord!)
Till the tears run down from my eyes, Lord!
(ooh, ooh, ooh Lord!)

Somebody (somebody), ooh somebody! (please)
Can anybody find me -
(Can anybody find me)
Somebody to loooooooove?

(He works hard)
Everyday (everyday)
And I try and I try and I try
(I try and I try and I try)
But everybody wants to put me down
(ooooooh)
They say I'm goin' crazy
(ooooooh)
They say I got a lot of water in my brain
(aaaaah)
I got no common sense
I got nobody left to believe
(He's got nobody left to believe)
(Yeah yeah yeah yeah)

(Ooh, Lord)
Oh Somebody, ooh (somebody)
Anybody find me
(Anybody find me)
Somebody to love?
(Can, anybody, find me, someone to love?)

Got no feel, I got no rhythm
I just keep losing my beat (you just keep losing, and losing)
I'm ok, I'm alright (he's alright, he's alright)
I ain't gonna face no defeat (yeah, yeah)
I just gotta get out of this prison cell
(ooh, ooh, this prison cell)
Some day I'm gonna be free, Lord!
(One day I'm gonna be free, Lord!)

(Find me somebody to love)
(Find me somebody to love)
oh, oh, oh, oooh
(Find me somebody to love)
(Find me somebody to love)
find me, find me, find me
(Find me somebody to love)
(Find me somebody to love)
(Find me somebody to love)
ooh find me somebody to love
(Find me somebody to lo-o-ove)
(Find me somebody to love)
ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-oooh
(Find me somebody to love)
(Somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, find me somebody, find me somebody to love)

Can anybody find me
(Can anybody find me)
Somebody to.... loooovve?

(Find me, somebody to-o-o love)
ooooooh
(Find me, somebody to-o-o love)
Find me somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody to love
(Find me, somebody to-o-o love)
Find me, find me, find me, find me, find me, ooooh -
(Find me, somebody to-o-o love)
Somebody to looooove oo-oo-oo-ooh
(Find me, somebody to-o-o love)
Find me, find me, find me, somebody to love
(Find me, somebody to-o-o love)
Anybody, anywhere, anybody find me somebody to love oh, oh, oh, oh
(Find me, somebody to-o-o love)
Find me, find me, find me..."

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Kate Bush - Cloudbusting

"I just know that something good is going to happen. I don't know when — but just saying it could even make it happen." - Kate Bush (born 30 July 1958)

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

"Moving stranger,
Does it really matter,
As long as you're not afraid to feel?
Touch me, hold me.
How my open arms ache!
Try to fall for me."
- Kate Bush

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Mike Oldfield - Five Miles Out

"With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.
Though earth and moon were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.
There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou — THOU art Being and Breath,
And what THOU art may never be destroyed."
- Emily Brontë

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Cap-and-Trade is Dead; Long Live Cap-and-Trade

But the main reason is simply this: at some point, the country is going to have to raise revenues to fix the deficit. And cap-and-trade, if done the right way -- if permits are sold, rather than given away to the industry -- can produce quite a lot of revenues: $145 billion per year initially, the CBO estimated in 2008, with the number rising much faster than inflation as emissions targets become continually more stringent.

Posted via email from Joshua Oakley - Dreams Poetry Visions Imagination Beauty

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain
." — Dune by Frank Herbert

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors

Great science fiction and fantasy novels don't just expose us to other worlds and alternate timelines — they expand our minds and give us compass to steer by. Here are our favorite bits of advice and maxims from SF books.

You could do a lot worse than living your life according to principles espoused in science fiction books — in fact, here's somebody who claims that it's impossible to live a moral life unless you read science fiction. We won't go quite that far, but here are some words to live by from science fiction. Please do post your own favorite maxims and aphorisms from SF in the comments — I have a feeling it'll be a really amazing comment thread!

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." — Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless.

"Reality is frequently inaccurate" — Douglas Adams, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." — Philip K. Dick, How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later.

"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way did not become still more complicated." — Poul Anderson

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"When smashing monuments, save the pedestals. They always come in handy." — Unkempt Thoughts by Stanislaw Lem

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change. [...] If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances — and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse — then you don't have life after death; you just have death." — Iain M Banks, Look to Windward.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Believing takes practice." — A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

"The only way to cope with something deadly serious is to try to treat it a little lightly." — A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

"Keep violence in the mind, where it belongs." — Brian Aldiss, Barefoot In The Head.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.'" — Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"We do not often get to declare victories, Natch, and most of them do not remain victories for very long. Ultimately when you reach my age you realize that victories are temporary, and in all the years of human history there is one final battle which nobody has ever won.Time has a way of changing the terms of your victories over the years, until you begin to wonder precisely what it was you fought for so viciously, so uncompromisingly. You begin to see that victory and defeat are but alternate reflections from the same prism.You see that the measure of a person really might be the integrity with which he fought his battles and not their ultimate dispensation, just like your elders have been telling you all along." — Serr Vigal to Natch, in MultiReal by David Louis Edelman.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature." — Max Brooks, World War Z

"Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they're used." — Max Brooks, World War Z

"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." — Sir Terry Pratchett.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Generals are in the business of getting people killed. Captains like to keep theirs alive. You wanna put on a parade? Go find a general. You want to fight your way home? Talk to me." — Negation written by Tony Bedard (Crossgen Comics)

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is." — Unwind by Neil Shusterman.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit or, it is nowhere." — Shevek's speech to the workers in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.

"It is our suffering that brings us together. It is not love. Love does not obey the mind, it turns to hate when forced. The bond that binds us is beyond choice. We are brothers. We are brothers in what we share. In pain, which each of us must suffer alone, in hunger, in poverty, in hope, we know our brotherhood. We know it, because we have been forced to learn it. We know that there is no help for us but from one another, that no hand will save us if we do not reach out our hand. And the hand that you reach out is empty, as mine is. You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing. You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give." — Shevek's speech to the workers in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin again.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." — Sam in American Gods by Neil Gaiman

"There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous." — Mr. Wednesday in American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right."
— Two epigrams from Salvor Hardin, the first mayor of Terminus, in The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

"You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you." — Robert Anton Wilson

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"The difference between stupid and intelligent people — and this is true whether or not they are well-educated — is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations — in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward." — The Constable in The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while." — Montag in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

"Everyone must leave something in the room or left behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime." — Granger in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards." — A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

"Premature burial works just fine as a cure for adolescence." — George Alec Effinger

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"There are honest people in the world, but only because the devil considers their asking prices ridiculous." — A Fine And Private Place by Peter S. Beagle

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is. And when anger is the boss, you get unintended consequences." — Doon's father in City Of Ember by Jeanne Duprau

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing." — Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement." — Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein

"Never try to out-stubborn a cat." — Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein

"Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more." — Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there. . . . And at the end of your life, your whole existence has the same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day." — Jurrassic Park by Michael Crichton

"All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma." — Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Life is pain, highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something." — The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what everybody does all the time." — Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Fear is the mind killer." — Dune by Frank Herbert

"If you need something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!" — Paul in Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"There's a fine line between a superpower and a chronic medical condition." — Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"You often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons." — The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"Neighborhoods that mainly operated at night had a way of looking a lot worse in the morning." — Virtual Light by William Gibson.

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"These are the people who hold a community together, who lead. Unlike the sheep and the wolves, they perform a better role than the script given to them by their inner fears and desires. They act out the script of decency, of self-sacrifice, of public honor — of civilization. And in the pretense, it becomes reality." Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

Words to live by: advice from 34 science fiction/fantasy authors"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Additional reporting by Kelly Faircloth and Mary Ratliff. Thanks also to Stephen Ratliff and Mark Townsend. We also found some good stuff on WikiQuote and GoodReads.

 

Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.

 

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Shouldn't it be *Rules* from *34* writers?

Uh heh heh heh huh.

My favourite advice from RAW is "Think for yourself, Schmuck!" Reply

 

I. LOVE. THIS. COMMENT. STREAM. Reply

 

"'There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.'" Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. Reply
Starlionblue approved this comment
Maybe they're not as deep or long as some of the ones posted here. But I love these:

"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." Master Yoda

"With great power comes great responsibility" Uncle Ben

"There is no secret ingredient..." Po (Kung Fu Panda) Reply

Eridani promoted this comment
"Wisdom is wisdom, no matter how lowly and emphemeral the source."
--some old THOR comic I read once.
Reply

 

"Trying to protect the clouds from the winds of change, Kotus? Impossible for an army, and impossible for you."
- Briareos Hecatonchires, from Masamune Shireow's Appleseed
Reply

 

"Hey, hey, hey — don't be mean. We don't have to be mean. 'Cause, remember: no matter where you go... there you are."
- Buckaroo Banzai
Reply

 

"- You trust beyond reason.
- Yes, it’s how I get results beyond hope."
- A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold.

"Shuffling facts only takes you so far anyway. Sooner or later, you come down to bare trust. Or mistrust"
- A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold.

"No, no, never send interim reports. Only final ones. Interim reports tend to elicit orders. Which you must either then obey, or spend valuable time and energy evading, which you could be using to solve the problem. " - Miles Vorkosigan in "Brothers in Arms" by Lois McMaster Bujold

"There is a very ancient rule of thumb that states, people tend to get promoted to the level of their incompetence." - from "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold

"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself." - from "A Civil Campaign" by Lois McMaster Bujold

"Home is not a place. It's wherever your passion takes you." - John Sheridan, Babylon 5

"The perversity of the Universe tends to a maximum." - Larry Niven

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - attributed to George Orwell

"What would you like, Jaguar?"
"The usual: Hundreds of grandchildren, utter domination of known space, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in terrible, highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me..."
- Conversation betwwen Jaguar Alpha and Tyr Anasazi - Andromeda

"Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death." - The Princess Bride

"An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilisations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop. The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbours were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests." - Iain M. Banks in Excession Reply

 

KARA
No...I’d always know. I think
that’s what I had to figure out by
getting away...if I gave up, if I
stopped, I’d end up regretting it.
...I’d always know I could have made
a difference. I don’t want my life
to be like that.

(Steven E. McDonald) Reply

 

"If I'd known it was harmless, I'd have killed it myself." A Scanner Darkly (specifically, that description afterwards of how that quote became indicative of everything that was bad about "straights" to Barris, Luckman, and Arctor, but turning on a light or attempting for more than 30 seconds to find it online is simply not an option...)

"To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem." Hitchhiker's Guide

"You know, when we fought the Cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question, why? Why are we as a people worth saving? We still commit murder because of greed, spite, jealousy. And we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to accept the responsibility for anything that we've done. Like we did with the Cylons. We decided to play God, create life. When that life turned against us, we comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it really wasn't our fault, not really. You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you've created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore." Bill Adama

Also, I love that Pratchett quote (as I love so very many of the other things he's committed to paper). Where's it from? Reply

 

i love the good old brilliance of these words. i hope the writes all have loads of cash. Reply

 

Not sci-fi, but fantasy (Tolkien)

Frodo: "It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him when he had the chance!"

Gandalf: "Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?
Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise can not see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or evil before this is over.
The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."

Frodo: "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."

Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought." Reply

Eridani promoted this comment
"Good things in the long run are often tough while they're happening."

H. Beam Piper, "Space Viking." Reply

 

"We should grant power over affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase the reluctance." – Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

"Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it." – Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

"Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget." – Robert Jordan, The Dragon Reborn

"If your God is everywhere, if He is always watching, why should your people make houses to go to worship Him? Faced with an all-seeing, everywhere-being God, I would think what is needed is a place to hide." – Tad Williams, Caliban’s Hour

"Any dogma, primarily based on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user." – Isaac Asimov, Foundation Reply

 

"Magic is just science we don't understand yet."-Christopher Moore various

"If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boy and his dog and his friends." And a summer that never ends.
And if you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot... no, imagine a sneaker, laces trailing, kicking a pebble; imagine a tick, to poke at interesting things, and throw for a dog that may or may not decide to retrieve it; imagine a tuneless whistle, pounding some luckless popular song into insensibility; imagine a figure, half angel, half devil, all human...
Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield...
...forever." Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett Good Omens Reply

 

The Kurt Vonnegut quote could be the motto for io9. Reply

 

Does Voltaire count? Because I always liked "Crush infamy."

And did any sci fi author ever say "get off my lawn"? I like that, too. Reply

 

Another Gibson one, from Johnny Mnemonic:

If they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude. Reply

Starlionblue promoted this comment
the contents of this article and comments should really really be tied into some engine that will cough up a quote of the day for us everytime we sign in. My contributions are from John Crowley:

"Seeing a woman's child is like seeing a woman naked, in the way it changes how her face looks to you, how her face becomes less the whole story"

"Just as a lamp waved in darkness creates a figure of light in the air, which remains for as long as the lamp repeats its motion exactly, so the universe retains its shape by repetition: the universe is Time's body." Reply

 

This is a great thread, well done.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

&

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever."

George Orwell Reply

 

This is the best post ever. Reply
Starlionblue promoted this comment

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