Seldom have so few... -OR- The phookin' we're getting ain't worth the phookin' we're getting.

Random Saturday Quotations from the finest minds of RAH's mind.

How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?

The whole principle is wrong. It's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't have steak.

The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed.

Span of time is important; the 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.

Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done. One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.

Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong — but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong.

A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.

The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth.

* Hypotheses:

a) Something preposterous has happened to the world around me, or
b) Something preposterous has happened to Alex Hergensheimer's mind; he should be locked up and sedated.

I could not think of a third hypothesis; those two seemed to cover all bases. The second hypothesis I need not waste time on. If, I were raising snakes in my hat, eventually other people would notice and come around with a straitjacket and put me in a nice padded room.
So let's assume that I am sane (or nearly so; being a little bit crazy is helpful). If I am okay, then the world is out of joint. Let's take stock.

Excuse me, I did not mean to criticize your planet.

Who said I was wise? I'm a professional bad example. You can learn a lot by watching me. Or listening to me. Either one.



Have a stellar weekend!