The Great Quotes thread

[Kryztian]

[Kryztian]

[norman]

This is the real function of epistemological warfare. The purpose is not to ensure every secret remains hidden but to make the truth unknowable.

Peter Duke (2025)

[Raskolnikov]

[kfm27917]

As Ayn Rand wrote: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

[Raskolnikov]

"Those who are determined to be 'offended' will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt."

Christopher Hitchens

[rgray222]

Taking a bit of literary freedom, this is more of a saying (custom) than a quote.

[Raskolnikov]

[Eva2]

The closer the collapse of the Empire, the crazier its laws are

Marcus Tullius
Cicero

[Ewan]

Your father's words were never just advice,
they were echoes of battles he'd already fought
and a guide to paths he'd hope you'd walk without the scars he carried.

Anonymous Poet's Society

[arwen]

"This we know - the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

--Chief Seattle

[leavesoftrees]

Quote of the day: “a debate is masturbation for procrastination and wasting time was an affront to life’s fleeting essence.” Dr Jack Kruse

[Bill Ryan]

We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no-one understands science and technology.

This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

Carl Sagan

[Bruce G Charlton]

Re: We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no-one understands science and technology.

This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

Carl Sagan

*

What follows is not a great quote! But anyway...

The classic science fiction novel A Canticle For Liebowitz by Walter M Miller portrays a post-nuclear-holocaust world in which the tradition of scientific practice – previously handed-down from one generation of scientists to the next – has been broken. Only a few scientific artefacts remain, such as fragments of electronic equipment. It turns out that ‘after science’, scientific objects and records make no sense and are wildly misinterpreted. A blueprint is regarded as if it was an illuminated manuscript, diodes are regarded as lucky talismans.

Modern ‘science’ has entered a similar state in which the artefacts of science remain – such as places called universities, the academic hierarchy, white coats, laboratory organization, expensive tools and machines, statistical methods, and the peer review mechanism – but understanding of what these mean has been lost.

From the chapter After Science in my Not Even Trying - the corruption of Real Science

[Raskolnikov]

"Evil cannot create anything new, it can only spoil and destroy what good forces have invented or created."

J.R.R. Tolkien

[Bruce G Charlton]

Posted by Raskolnikov (here)
"Evil cannot create anything new, it can only spoil and destroy what good forces have invented or created."

J.R.R. Tolkien

That is an essentially accurate paraphrase of Tolkien's view of evil, as expressed in his works; but it is not an actual quotation; he never said those words.

The giveaway is "good forces" - which is an un-Tolkienian phrase and concept; and "invented or created" is clumsy.

I don't know mashed-up this pseudo-quote - it is all over the internet! - but it should not be attributed to The Professor!

[Eva2]

Reality cannot be ignored except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid

Aldous Huxley

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Bruce G Charlton (here)

Posted by Raskolnikov (here)
"Evil cannot create anything new, it can only spoil and destroy what good forces have invented or created."

J.R.R. Tolkien

That is an essentially accurate paraphrase of Tolkien's view of evil, as expressed in his works; but it is not an actual quotation; he never said those words.

The giveaway is "good forces" - which is an un-Tolkienian phrase and concept; and "invented or created" is clumsy.

I don't know mashed-up this pseudo-quote - it is all over the internet! - but it should not be attributed to The Professor!

Good to know. I liked and agreed with the general message but have never read any of Tolkien's works. Funny how some can get so familiar with a writer and his works that they can point out a forgery without batting an eye. Thanks.

[Eva2]

Hell is other people

Sartre

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Eva2 (here)
Hell is other people

Sartre

Wow Eva2, I'm surprised to hear that one from you, only because your contributions have been so uplifting and profound, spiritual food for the soul you know. I've really enjoyed them, thank you. It's funny, I used to quote that one from Sartre all the time. Life in the big city. Hope all is well.

"I took the road less traveled, now I don't know where the f*ck I am."

Unknown