Saw this on a signature, liked it, thought it would make a great thread:

Once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth - R. Heinlein

Nicely done! This is a selfless idea, where what one knows and does not know, does not define one's own self!

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Confucius
Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)

So, So True!

Confucius say: "Man who lives in glass house should not get stoned"!

I posted this in another thread, but it fits here better. It (or a version of it) can be attributed to Prime Minister Tony Blair; (http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/blair.asp)

"Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for YOU, Jesus Christ and the American GI.

One died for your soul and the other for your Freedom."

Edit add: Oooops. I read the rest of the Snopes article and apparently Blair never did say the above quote. Sorry. (Still a good quote though!)

A gem of a quote from Ben Franklin himself ...

"Beer is living proof that God loves us."

"Difficulty is an excuse history never accepts."

--(the great) Edward R. Murrow

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education."

Mark Twain

"Pour it on em boys, we got those yankees on the run".

Said by Maj Gen Joseh Wheeler, as he led the attack on Spanish positions in Cuba, as commander of the U.S. cavelry forces in Cuba.

Gen Wheeler was prior to being elected to congress a Maj Gen of volunteers in the confederate army.

After the Cuban campaign, he was appointed a Bgen in the regular army. Also Maj Gen Fitzhugh Lee was appointed a Bgen in the regular army. He was also a former maj Gen in the Confederate army, and was Gen Lees nephew.

"Stupid Is As Stupid Does"

Forest Gump

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education."

Ain't that the truth! Nice one, that sums up my primary school life perfectly!

I don't get the Forest Gump quote. Never have. Anyone care to parse that out for me?

Send a letter to the WhiteHouse and ask "W". He can splain it the best.

Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time.
-- Steven Wright

Missing: Yep, more words to live by, IMHO

I'll attempt the Gump quote...Sub "pretty" for "stupid": actions speak louder than words (oops, there's another one), then reverse it. Maybe you're stupid only when your actions prove that to be the case.

"Oops!"

"Mother Theresa and Hitler were born on the same date. That doesn't make astrology look very good." - Ken Nordine

Two words you don't want to hear from your computer tech: "OH Crap!"

If you steal a little money, you're a criminal. If you steal a lot of money, you're a leader.
-unknown

Humans without traditions are like animals without instincts.
-unknown

Ships are safe in the harbor. But that's not what they're built for.
-unknown

Unknown authors are probably women. They had to protect themselves to be taken seriously.

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."
"Imagine that you are an idiot, and imagine you are a member of Congress. But, I repeat myself."
-Mark Twain

"I didn't have to make friends with my teachers. They were my teachers, therefore they *were* my friends."
-DenMark Wichar

"If you eat, you are involved in agriculture."
-Bumper sticker

Give a man a fish, and he will lead a horse to water. Teach a man to fish, and a penny saved will be spent on tackle.
-anonymous

Why a duck?
-marx

"running a Howard Stern commercial for Sirius on commercial radio may fill an avail but your short term gain may prove to be your long term loss.
Anything, it seems, for a buck. Here's a five, GO AWAY"!
-me

Anyone who will sacrifice liberty for security deserves neither. B. Franklin

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
Groucho Marx

Actually, Sarge, it's:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

-Benj. Franklin (more than likely)

Life is like a box of chocolates, Ya never know what you're gonna get".

Can't remember who said that!

Forest Gump

Unless it's a Whitman's Sampler and it comes with a choco-map.

The following are all hanging on the bulletin board in my studio:

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together." - Garrison Keillor

"The harder I work, the luckier I get" - Sam Goldwyn

"Good ideas come from the people thinking out of the box. Great ideas come from the people who don't even know there is a box." - Chuck Blore

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." - Yogi Berra

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
- Edward Abbey

"In order to keep a true perspective of one’s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him."
- Dereke Bruce

"If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?"
-

If you leave ignorance & stupidity alone, ignorance & stupidity will think it's OK.
-Gallagher

Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.

Yoda

"I have many leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany".

-Ron Burgundy

"There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There's nothing good in war except its ending."

Said by an actor who played Abraham Lincoln in an episode of Star Trek.

“You cannot blame porn, ... When I was young, I used to masturbate to Gilligan's Island.”

-Ron Jeremy

Today, a co-worker told me that his now-deceased father used to say,

"Empty drums are always the loudest."*

* In this context, "drum" refers to the person's head -- get it?

we keep smokin,we keep drinkin,having fun but never thinkin,but the reasons for quitin dont out number all the reasons why.........Poncho and Lefty

"Don't spend so much time wondering what others want you to be that you don't make anything of yourself."

Darktemper, who said that???

That's a great one DT.

I don't know. I was surfing and came across it and stupid me did not bookmark the site. Thought it just made to damn much sense to not share it.

When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.
Quintilian

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.
Hubert H. Humphrey

When you make a mistake, admit it. If you don't, you only make matters worse.
Ward Cleaver

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.
Theodore Roosevelt

One of my old standby's I use regularly:

If you don't ask, the answer is always NO!

Have a Good Day!
John

This is not the site were I found that other quote but a great source for them:

http://www.quotationspage.com/

One of my old standby's I use regularly:

If you don't ask, the answer is always NO!

In the same vein as DT's quote, this is not really a quote, but still good advice just the same:

"The only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked"

"Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is."

Winston Churchill

"A man never lies as much as after a hunt, during a war, and before an election."

Otto von Bismarck

Wow, that statement must have Sunk his hopes for a political career!

Damn the Torpedos!

Top 5 quotes from Thomas Paine

"There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord."

"'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

"Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us."

"That government is best which governs least."

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.

C.S. Lewis

"I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell"

Laura Nero

Ever seen "Miracle on 34th Street?" The Kris Kringle character could be considered a lunatic *and* a great moral teacher. There is a third option.

---

quote:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

George W Bush

---

"In prehistoric times, mankind often had only two choices in crisis situations: fight or flee. In modern times, humor offers us a third alternative; fight, flee - or laugh."

Robert Orben*

*Special thanks to the thread "So,who is Robert Orbin"

"If you sleep with pigs, you wake up with Britney Spears"............

"Meat, It's what's for dinner"..............

"I'm a lumberjack.....and I'm ok"......

"Everything you know is wrong"

Firesign Theater

"There is a third option."

Not unless Kris Kringle declares himself to be God incarnate:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher."

Herb

Are we still talking about the same movie? If you are going to run with my "Miracle on 34th Street" analogy, keep God out if it. It's about a guy believing he is Santa Claus.

And if you think that Jesus is the only person in history that can be granted the title of Great Moral Teacher, then that's some crazy bubble you're living in.

"...keep God out if it."

Fine, but that completely misses the point C.S. Lewis makes. Why you brought Santa Claus into it, beats me.

Herb

"Jesus said, if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, then what is within you will destroy you."

Gospel of Thomas v. 70

"Will the Gospel of Thomas be added to the bible?

No. The biblical canon is not open for debate, it is a closed entity. A church that adds Thomas to its collection of scriptures would move outside the margins of orthodox Christianity and no well-known denomination has the slightest intention of adding Thomas to its scriptures."

http://home.epix.net/~miser17/faq.html

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said..."

Would likely be called a dastardly, ham fisted, bleeding heart pinko liberal by Herb.

Amus

You have me there.
And I would be woefully wrong.

Herb

Ah the Apocyhpa.

Best book I've read on the topic is "Beyond Belief" by Elaine Pagels. But regardless of its origin and authenticity, there's some thought provoking stuff in Thomas, if a little New-Agey, particularly Saying 70, which I posted above. I find it tremendously inspiring.

Inspiration has many venues.

"Fine, but that completely misses the point C.S. Lewis makes. Why you brought Santa Claus into it, beats me."

I was countering your C.S. Lewis with some George Seaton (writer/director of "Miracle...") Man, we were *so* talking past each other on that "discussion".

Let's just drop it.

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt!

Something W never learned!

Bobby: I'd like a plain omelet. No potatoes, tomatoes instead. A cup of coffee and wheat toast.

Waitress: No substitutions.

Bobby: What do you mean? You don't have any tomatoes?

Waitress: Only what's on the menu. You can have a number two — a plain omelet. It comes with cottage fries, and rolls.

Bobby: Yea, I know what it comes with, but it's not what I want.

Waitress: Well I'll come back when you make up your mind.

Bobby: Wait a minute, I have made up my mind. I'd like a plain omelet, no potatoes on the plate. A cup of coffee and a side order of wheat toast.

Waitress: I'm sorry, we don't have any side orders of toast. I'll give you an English muffin or a coffee roll.

Bobby: What do you mean "you don't make side orders of toast"? You make sandwiches, don't you?

Waitress: Would you like to talk to the manager?

Bobby: You've got bread. And a toaster of some kind?

Waitress: I don't make the rules.

Bobby: OK, I'll make it as easy for you as I can. I'd like an omelet, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.

Waitress: A number two, chicken sal san. Hold the butter, the lettuce, the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else?

Bobby: Yeah, now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.

Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?

Bobby: I want you to hold it between your knees."

-- Jack Nicholson & Lorna Thayer arguing at a Denny's in Eugene. Dialog from the movie, Five Easy Pieces.