The problem I have with socialist utopias is there's some kind of committees trying to soften outcomes for people. I think that imposes models of outcomes for other people's lives. So in a spiritual sense there's some bit of libertarian in me. But the critical thing for me is moderation. And if you let that go far you do end up with a winner-take-all society that ultimately crushes everybody even worse. ~Jaron Lanier
#quotes #jaron-lanier #thinking #society #socialism

All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention; of barbarian invention; is to read it. Read it as you would any other book; think of it as you would of any other; get the bandage of reverence from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition; then read the Holy Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity. ~Robert Green Ingersoll
#quotes #robert-green-ingersoll #books #religion

I note that some whom I greatly love and esteem, who are, in my judgment, among the very choicest of God's people, nevertheless, travel most of the way to heaven by night. ~Charles Spurgeon
#quotes #charles-spurgeon #people #god

My second book, Follow Me Down had some success, got good critical notices, went into a second printing and things like that, but Shiloh was by far the most successful of those first five novels. ~Shelby Foote
#quotes #shelby-foote #writing #books

Americans have a warrior's mentality, most of them. That's how this society was built. The fact that you own a gun and shoot to defend your life is a very American way of thinking. ~Isabel Allende
#quotes #isabel-allende #life #society #war

It is better to be born a beggar than a fool. ~Spanish Proverb
#proverbs #spanish-proverbs #stupidity

I think that tennis is a lady's sport, so we should look out there like ladies. ~Anna Kournikova
#quotes #anna-kournikova #sports #tennis

The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for heavenly bliss and eternal calmness. ~Robert Smithson
#quotes #robert-smithson #national-parks

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it. ~George Bernard Shaw
#quotes #george-bernard-shaw #spiritual #religious

I've had the same, full-time assistant and typist for eight or nine years now. She's read everything I've written, she types everything and does a good job, translates it and makes comments. ~Kevin J. Anderson
#quotes #kevin-j-anderson #writing #jobs

I'm crazy about westerns. I need to do a western once in a while. It's like you know, eating bread, eating pasta, drinking wine. It's in my blood. I need it. ~Franco Nero
#quotes #franco-nero #eating

There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. ~Hindu Proverb
#proverbs #hindu-proverbs #self #competition

I love documentaries and the computer. I am a little addicted to the computer, and that relaxes me. I find information, I shop, and I look up people I worked with to find out if they're dead or alive. ~Anne Meara
#quotes #anne-meara #computers #internet #life

May God in his mercy enable us without obstinacy to perceive our errors. ~Michael Servetus
#quotes #michael-servetus #god #mistakes

You don't run out on people; you run out on yourself. ~Truman Capote
#quotes #truman-capote #people

If Britain was to close down altogether overnight, then China would take up the slack of carbon emissions in two years. If America closed down, just the growth in China's emissions would replace America's emissions in 12 years. ~Christopher Monckton
#quotes #christopher-monckton #3rd-viscount-monckton-of-brenchley #environment #china

For me, poetry is always a search for order. ~Elizabeth Jennings
#quotes #elizabeth-jennings #poetry #order

To learn a belief without the belief is to sing a song without the tune. ~Ursula K. Le Guin
#quotes #ursula-k-le-guin #music #knowledge #faith

I think there's a side of me that's trying to compete with Lucas and Spielberg. I don't usually admit this publicly, because I tend to think that they only go so far, and their view of the world is rather simplistic. What I want to do is take whatever cinema is considered normal or successful at a particular time and play around with it, to use it as a way of luring audiences in. ~Terry Gilliam
#quotes #terry-gilliam #movies

What bothers most critics of my work is the goofiness. One reviewer said I need to make up my mind if want to be funny or serious. My response is that I will make up my mind when God does, because life is a commingling of the sacred and the profane, good and evil. To try and separate them is fallacy. ~Tom Robbins
#quotes #tom-robbins #critic #writing

The day I made that statement, about the inventing the internet, I was tired because I had been up all night inventing the Camcorder. ~Al Gore
#quotes #al-gore #funny #tired #night

Feelings are determined by how one chooses to respond to various situations and events. ~Ralph Marston
#quotes #ralph-marston #emotions #happiness

Rough spots sharpen our performance. And more often than not, obstacles can be turned into advantages. You just can't let your disappointment get in the way. ~Harvey Mackay
#quotes #harvey-mackay #disappointment #hardship

Since one Satan is one too many for me, I would not multiply him. ~Mahatma Gandhi
#quotes #mahatma-gandhi #evil

But that's typical of me. "This is going to end in tears," I tell myself every time I balance a cup of coffee on the upholstered arm of the chair I'm sitting on. And then, lo and behold, the cup topples and even before it lands, I tell myself, "Told me so!" Not to spell out, or spill out, one of the metaphors of my life, but I always do the stupid thing and then I do it again. I never learn. ~Patricia Marx
#quotes #patricia-marx #weeping #stupidity