So, you want to hear some of the words of wisdom that have been spoken by famous people in times past? Certainly. Here's but a few memorable quotes...

* Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race. -- Albert Einstein

* The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race. -- Don Marquis

* The evolution of the human race will not be accomplished in the ten thousand years of tame animals, but in the million years of wild animals, because man is and will always be a wild animal. -- Charles Darwin

* It's only by NOT taking the human race seriously that I retain what fragments of my once considerable mental powers I still possess. -- Roger Noe

* Many live by their wits but few by their wit. -- Dr. Laurence J. Peter

* Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritative regime. -- Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart

* Buying stocks is like finding a girlfriend - there are lots of them out there and they are all the same and they might take your money or cut your dick off, but you have to pick one and stick with it. -- Richard Won-Kew

* Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything. -- First Law of Corporate Planning

* Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse. -- Szasz

* Marxists are people whose insides are torn up day after day because they want to rule the world and no one will even publish their letter to the editor. -- Mark Heprin, Winter's Tale

* A continuing flow of paper is sufficient to continue the flow of paper. -- John M. Dyer

* It may be all right to be content with what you have; never with what you are. -- B.C. Forbes

* We have more ability than willpower, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible. -- Francois Duc Deu Rochefoucauld

* If it's never finished, you can't prove it doesn't work. -- Jeff Brown, Argosystems

* Kirk: Well there it is...war. We didn't want it, but we've got it.
Spock: Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want. -- "Errand Of Mercy", Stardate 3198.4

* Dead? No excuse for laying off work. -- Sir Ralph Richardson, in the role of God, "Time Bandits"

* There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable. -- Mark Twain

* The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed. -- Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort

* It is a good thing to be rich and strong, but it is a better thing to be loved. -- Euripides

* A limerick is a primitive art form; it starts with a pair o'dactyls. -- Solomon Short

* Every important document you write will contain at least one egregious typographical error. The more public the document, the more embarrassing the error. -- The Principle of Documentary Fallibility

* If you have a correct statement, then the opposite of a correct statement is of course an incorrect statement, a wrong statement. But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite of a deep truth may again be a deep truth. -- Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

* The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse. -- Benjamin Franklin

* Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible. It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things, and brings them to a conclusion, where he who does not love, faints and lies down. -- Thomas A Kempis

* Nobody can stop the world, Mulder, no matter how many holes they have in their head. -- Dana Skully, "The X-Files"

* Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many. -- Spinoza

* A dead body won't bruise; neither will a dead conscience. --John Broome

* Everyone, I think, remembers Voltaire's famous line about freedom of speech. The version of it that you are familiar with is actually based on a faulty translation. What Voltaire actually said was this: "I do not agree with what you say, sir, though I will defend to the death your right to say it. But for now ... shut up!" -- Steve Allen

* Happiness is the result of discovering that you do not have to have what you want. -- James Fleibleman

* Man is always infinitely more than what he would be if he were reduced to being what he is. -- Heidegger (no, not that Heidegger)

* Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. -- J.S. Mill

* Being is not a property of things thought. If being were a characteristic of things thought, one would have to say that anything thought is, even though it is not perceived by the senses. -- Gorgias van Leontini (480-380 BC)

* Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature. -- Tom Robbins

* No matter what happens, there's always somebody who knew it would. -- Lonny Starr

* Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little. -- Epicurus

* Friendship is inexplicable, it should not be explained, if one doesn't want to kill it. -- Max Jacob

* Being a woman is of special interest only to aspiring male transsexuals. To actual women it is merely a good excuse not to play football. -- Fran Lebowitz

* Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. -- Charlie McCarthy

* Any excuse will serve a tyrant. -- Aesop (620-560 B.C.)

* The dead mourn for the ones who don't die and the undead mourn for those who do. It seems they both fear the change into another world. -- Mike Edelman

* The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war more seriously, but not provide an excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a sharp sword and hack off our arms. -- Carl von Clausewitz

* Whatever necessity lays upon thee, endure; whatever she commands, do. -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

* Wars are caused by undefended wealth. -- General Douglas MacArthur

* Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It wasn't reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out. -- Sydney Smith

* A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day. -- Calvin, "Calvin and Hobbes"

* Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time, you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea. -- Devyver's law

* People only see what they are prepared to see. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

* Imagination creates reality. -- Richard Wagner

* An atheist is a guy who watches a Notre Dame-SMU football game and doesn't care who wins. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

* If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. -- Mark Twain

* If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -- John F. Kennedy

* Men die but an idea does not. -- Alan Jay Lerner

* An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths. -- Karl Kraus

* Until you make peace with what you are, you'll never be content with what you have. -- Doris Mortman

* I have learned the novice can often see things that the expert overlooks. All that is necessary is not to be afraid of making mistakes, or of appearing naive. -- Abraham Maslow, Eupsychian Management

* To wish well is part of becoming well. -- Seneca

* You get to know someone better by playing for an hour than by talking for a year. -- Plato

* If the wrong person preaches a right teaching, even a right teaching can become wrong. If a right person expounds a wrong teaching, even a wrong teaching can become right. -- Muso Kokushi

* Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. -- Lord Kelvin, Royal Society President, 1895

* Why did you do that? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Sam! -- Samuel Goldwyn, on being told that a friend had named his son Sam, after him

 

Of course, I'll freely admit some of these quotes may not contain that much wisdom, per se... some of them were just thrown in for fun. But hey, you know me, that was bound to happen. If and when I find more interesting quotes, I'll put them at the top of the list.