Words of Wisdom
Some of my favorite quotes. 
"We have had, continue to have, and will always have wars, and grief,
and struggle...we will climb up and fall down...but each time we
climb a little higher, and in the end, we *do* build the world that
our ancestors would have wanted for us... we *do* leave the cradle
at last, and we take our place among the stars teaching those who
follow us."
"Good, Fast, Cheap... pick two..."
Despite all the roll-up-your-shirtsleeves myths and
stereotypes, when you got right down to it working in a corporate
start-up meant you spent eighty percent of your time doing complete
bullshit--chasing venture capital money, writing technical
documentation, hiring people--and all of it involved dumbing down
your work. And the meetings! It was inevitable that at some point
the system of for-profit entrepreneurship rewarded engineers who
were good at dumbing down their work. To participate in that game
would be a waste of god-given talent, it would be a crime...
Give me somewhere to stand, and I will move the earth.
Why shouldn't I work for the NSA? That's a tough one. But I'll take a
shot. Say I'm working at the NSA, and somebody puts a code on my desk,
somethin' no one else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I
break it. And I'm real happy with myself, cus' I did my job well. But
maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in
North Africa or the Middle East and once they have that location,
they bomb the village where the rebels are hiding... Fifteen hundred
people that I never met, never had no problem with get killed. Now the
politicians are sayin', "Oh, Send in the marines to secure the area" cus'
they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot.
Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, cus' they were
pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie over
there takin' shrapnel in the ass. He comes back to find that the plant he
used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the
guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, cus' he'll work for
fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile he realizes the only
reason he was over there in the first place was so that we could install a
government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil
companies used the little skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil
prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my
buddy at two-fifty a gallon. They're takin' their sweet time bringin' the
oil back, of course, maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic
skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the
icebergs, it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all
the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work. He
can't afford to drive, so he's walking to the fuckin' job interviews,
which sucks because the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic
hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' cus' every time he tries to get
a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're servin' is North
Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for
somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my
buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb
a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National
Guard? I could be elected President.
"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the creative light of
altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the
judgement. Life's persistent and most urgent question is, 'What are you
doing for others?'"
"There has been no case in history where the pioneer became the
dominant producer. The most successful innovators are the creative
imitators, the Number Two."
The wretched desert takes its form, the jackal proud and tight
"If we deny love this is given to us, if we refuse to give love
because we fear the pain of loss, then our lives will be empty,
our loss greater."
"Do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It's resentment of another
man's achievement. Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest
someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of
the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an
equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire. They bare
their teeth at you from out of their rat holes, thinking that you take
pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them - while you'd give a year
of your life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them. They envy
achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have
become their acknowledged inferiors. They don't know that that dream is
the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what
the man of achievement would not be able to bear. They have no way of
knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors - hatred? no, not
hatred, but boredom - the terrible, hopeless, draining, paralyzing
boredom. Of what account are praise and adulation from men you don't
respect? Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire?
For something, not to look down at, but up to?"
Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: "I will it!" Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding star and the loadstone which point the way. They point in but one direction. They point to me. I am neither friend nor foe to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned. I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold.
-- Ayn Rand's Anthem
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself,
but talent instantly recognizes genius.
"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in
faculties; in form and moving how express and admirable; in action like
an angel, in apprehension like a god: the beauty of the world, the
paragon of animals!"
"Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate
passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not make itself
felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite
number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited
to one woman)."
Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he
can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator,
only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's
become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and
uglier every day.
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy,
education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would
indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment and hope of reward after death."
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull
that it nauseated me.
"Homesickness is... absolutely nothing. Fifty percent of the people in
the world are homesick all the time... You don't really long for another
country. You long for something in yourself that you don't have, or
haven't been able to find."
"Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain
exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of
thinking. This is true only of certain persons."
Idiot: n.:
1. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human
affairs has always been dominant and controlling."
"Impossible is a word humans use far too often."
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