collection started feb.2002

If your human rights are not for everybody, they are not rights, they are just privileges. -- Italian doctor Gino Strada, from the documentary "Jung (War) in the Land of the Mujaheddin" 

Imagine all the people 
Living life in peace 

You may say I'm a dreamer 
But I'm not the only one 

I hope someday you'll join us 
And the world will be as one
--John Lennon

"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." -- The Treaty of Tripoli 1796 is an Official US Federal Treaty penned by George Washington and James Adams as Presidents.

"The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy."-- George Washington


Religion is where some people locate the wellsprings of their ethics, but others find a different way. -- Susan McCarthy, "Classroom karaoke", Salon, September 6, 2002.

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.-- Friedrich Nietzsche.

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit." - Robert Heinlein

"My country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right. When wrong, to be put right." -- spoken by Carl Schurz, during an address he gave at the Anti-Imperialistic Conference in Chicago, October 17, 1899 (the original quote).

"Not sure what form of mismanagement the POTUS had in mind, but it sounds like a good pretext for a wave of hostile takeovers followed by zero-based budgeting, functional reengineering, cultural transformation, focus on core competencies, benchmarking, outsourcing, downsizing and generally moving people's cheese until they all go crackers."-- DailyKos, in response to George Bush's "we went into Iraq to save them from "decades of oppression and mismanagement"."

"First, do no harm."

"I believe in God, but I spell it Nature." -- Frank Lloyd Wright, architect

The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less: "Quantum fluctuation. Inflation. Expansion. Strong nuclear interaction. Particle-antiparticle annihilation. Deuterium and helium production. Density perturbations. Recombination. Blackbody radiation. Local contraction. Cluster formation. Reionization? Violent relaxation. Virialization. Biased galaxy formation? Turbulent fragmentation. Contraction. Ionization. Compression. Opaque hydrogen. Massive star formation. Deuterium ignition. Hydrogen fusion. Hydrogen depletion. Core contraction. Envelope expansion. Helium fusion. Carbon, oxygen, and silicon fusion. Iron production. Implosion. Supernova explosion. Metals injection. Star formation. Supernova explosions. Star formation. Condensation. Planetesimal accretion. Planetary differentiation. Crust solidification. Volatile gas expulsion. Water condensation. Water dissociation. Ozone production. Ultraviolet absorption. Photosynthetic unicellular organisms. Oxidation. Mutation. Natural selection and evolution. Respiration. Cell differentiation. Sexual reproduction. Fossilization. Land exploration. Dinosaur extinction. Mammal expansion. Glaciation. Homo sapiens manifestation. Animal domestication. Food surplus production. Civilization! Innovation. Exploration. Religion. Warring nations. Empire creation and destruction. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation without representation. Revolution. Constitution. Election. Expansion. Industrialization. Rebellion. Emancipation Proclamation. Invention. Mass production. Urbanization. Immigration. World conflagration. League of Nations. Suffrage extension. Depression. World conflagration. Fission explosions. United Nations. Space exploration. Assassinations. Lunar excursions. Resignation. Computerization. World Trade Organization. Terrorism. Internet expansion. Reunification. Dissolution. World-Wide Web creation. Composition. Extrapolation?"-- Eric Schulman

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."-- Antoine St Exupery

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."-- Oscar Wilde

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work - I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysberg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.

Carl Sandburg, Grass

England expects that every man will do his duty.-- Signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson at the beginning of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805)