QOTD: "Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression." --Thomas Jefferson, 1st Inaugural (1801).

I had this quotation drummed into me since high school (???). What a travesty that his words -- simple, principled, and enduring -- falls upon deaf ears. Then again, since the Texas Board of Education stripped Thomas Jefferson from the textbooks, I guess I don't have to be disappointed anymore.

Quotation for the Day

I love this ...

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

-- Neil Gaiman

Quotation for the Day

If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.

- Ludwig Wittgenstein

Thought of the Day

"We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory."

--Henri Cartier-Bresson

Quotables

There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past.
-- George Carlin

Perfect

"Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane."
-- Philip K. Dick

Quotation for the Day

Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.

-- Laurence J. Peter (Educator & Writer, 1919-1988)

Uhhhhh ...

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy -- but that could change.

-- Dan Quayle, Former US Vice President (1989-1993)

Quotation for the Day

There are two kinds of light -- the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

-- James Thurber, US author, humorist, cartoonist, satirist (1894-1961)

12

12 more days to my deadline and I'm at the cusp of a foul mood. From now until the end of the month, I will be stressed out, overcaffeinated, sleep deprived, and if I was still smoking, I'll be a walking chimney.

Despite all of this, I found this quotation from Philip K. Dick oddly comforting.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
- Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Philip K. Dick

I always find something profoundly elegant in Philip K. Dick. I'm liking this quotation.

"Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane."
-- From Valis (1981), Philip K. Dick, science fiction author

A Defining Principle ...

I came across this quotation when I was reading Texas v. Johnson (1989), the Supreme Court case that protected flag burning under the First Amendment. Actually, the quotation was originally from Justice Robert Jackson who gave the majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943). Justice Jackson later became the chief prosecutor against Nazi war criminals after World War II. His words about free speech are simply elegant.

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.