Saturday 31 December 2011

Moving

Work begins when you don't like what you're doing. 
Tension, a lack of honesty, and a sense of unreality come from following the wrong force in your life. 
As an adult, you must rediscover the moving power of your life!
 — Joseph Campbell 'Reflections on the Art of Living'

Friday 30 December 2011

We

It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
 — Leonard Cohen

Thursday 29 December 2011

Killed By James Hardie (Amaca) Asbestos This Morning

My Mum

Mum

I see your picture
as though it were a mirror 
but there's no part of you 
outside the frame 
except the change that you gave to me: 
this will never come again. 
You are gone 
and I am with you: 
this will never come again.
 — Peter Hammill 'Again'


Look at the sky, but it's empty now; 
look at the sea, it holds nothing but despair. 
I raise my eyes, but my head stays bowed... 
I look to my side, but you're not there. 
And I can't get you out of my mind, 
no, no, no, no, I just can't get you from my mind.
 — Peter Hammill 'The Shingle Song'


I can't get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.
But all I got is a photograph
And I realise you're not coming back anymore.
 — Richard Starkey 'Photograph'

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Mirror Neurons

A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.
 — Niels Bohr

Monday 26 December 2011

Idiot Grin

behind the smirk of the macho man 
is the quivering lip of the little boy.
 — Peter Hammill

Sunday 25 December 2011

Navigational Aid

I see a twinkle in your eye,
so this shall be my Christmas star 
and I will travel to your heart: 
the manger where the real things are.
 — Michæl Leunig 'Christmas'

Saturday 24 December 2011

Throw Of The Die

All persons living and dead are purely coincidental.
 — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Timequake

Friday 23 December 2011

What Counts

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
 — Tom Stoppard

Thursday 22 December 2011

American Collateral

All that happens is that the destruction of human beings — unless they're Americans — is called collateral damage.
 — Harold Pinter

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Just Add Salt

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
 — Douglas Adams

Sunday 18 December 2011

Nevertheless

He may be an athlete, but he's quite bright.
 — Will Parker on Fritz Eger in Tripods

Friday 16 December 2011

Reverse Nonlinearity

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
 — Dr. Seuss

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Time Heals

ZEAL, n. A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. A passion that goeth before a sprawl.
 — Ambrose Bierce

Sunday 11 December 2011

A Nation Of Customers

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.
 —Adam Smith 'The Wealth of Nations'

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Sage Advice

Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.
 — Hesiod

Tuesday 6 December 2011

No Matter What

You know Tom Paine wrote the first best-seller at a dark time in the Revolution when we were losing and all the soldiers were deserting. Giving up. And the book was called Common Sense and it was really just a long list of questions. And one of the questions was: Does it make common sense for an island to rule a continent? And everybody kind of went hmmm and they signed back up.
And today you could ask: Does it make common sense for a country to rule the world? But no matter what your answer, no matter what you think, no matter what you vote for–

We just keep calling em up, calling em, calling em up. No matter what.
We just keep calling em up, calling em, calling em up. No matter what.

 — Laurie Anderson 'Dark Time In The Revolution'

Monday 5 December 2011

Consumerism

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
 — HL Mencken