Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star. -Confucius Dear, wise old Master Kong! You’ve all probably heard of him at some point: ancient Chinese philosopher, wrote the Analects, comes across as rather uptight and all about propriety and ritual and so forth. Stuffy. At least, that’s the impression …
Category Archive: quote o’ the week
Jun 18 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Golda Meir
One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present. -Golda Meir I had a hard time choosing one quote from Golda Meir to highlight. She could be by turns witty, wry, or profound. Some of my favorite quotes regarding war come from here, and I’ll just …
Jun 11 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Richard von Weizsacker
Whoever refuses to remember the inhumanity is prone to new risks of infection. – Richard von Weizsacker Especially in this age of Godwin’s Law, Holocaust denial, and the distressing tendency of the American right to call everyone and everything they don’t like a Nazi, it’s important to remember the true horrors perpetrated in the name …
Jun 04 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Louis L’Amour
…What the world has always needed is more heretics and less authority. -Louis L’Amour, The Walking Drum Yes, that Louis L’Amour. I am quoting an author of Westerns. You gotta problem with that? Louis was a seriously good writer, and he wrote some seriously great books. The one that tops my list is The Walking …
May 28 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Steven Pinker
The problem in dealing with people is that people can deal back. -Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works So can animals. Just ask any pet owner who’s left the buggers alone for a weekend, and upon their return discovered that revenge is a dish that may be served cold, in several expensive pieces, or as …
May 21 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Harvard
Under controlled experimental conditions of temperature, time, lighting, feeding, and training, the organism will behave as it damn well pleases. -The Harvard Law of Animal Behavior This is one of those gems I plucked from The Blank Slate. Research involving animals (or small children) can, I gather, be horribly frustrating. Having tried to modify my …
May 14 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: E.O. Wilson
Wonderful theory. Wrong species. -E.O. Wilson That’s Wilson’s verdict on Marxism. I love how he can stuff so much political, behavioral and philosophical thought in just four simple words. This is the man who managed to make ants fascinating. And he’s a phenomenal writer, so if you haven’t yet, pick up one of his tomes. …
May 07 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Steven Pinker
It is precisely because one act can balance ten thousand kind ones that we call it “evil”. -Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate All these years I chased after a definition of evil, struggled to determine what true evil is, and here comes Steven Pinker with a simple and true definition, justlikethat. That’s as good a …
Apr 30 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Archilochus
The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one. One good one. -Archilochus, Iambi et Elgi Graeci This will always and forever be one of my favorite ancient Greek quotes of all time. Of course, I knew bugger all about hedgehogs when I first heard it. Now I know what he was referring to: Much …
Apr 23 2011
Cantina Quote o’ the Week: Sydney J. Harris
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. -Sydney J. Harris I know two things about Sydney J. Harris: the above quote, and that he ended up on Nixon’s shit-list Mark II. Those are enough to make me like …
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