Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs: Quote for November 30, 2008

Describing a colony of ants.

They are individual cells, tiny functioning parts of the whole. Think of the society, James, with perfect harmony, perfect, altruism, and self-sacrifice, perfect division of labor organized for preordained goals. Think of the building of elaborate and complex structures according to plans that they no nothing of and execute perfectly. Think of their ability to evolve and adapt in ways that are so beautiful and still so unknown. And all contained in one simple form. So defenseless in the individual, so powerful in the mass.

-- Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs

from: Phase IV (1974)

Nigel Davenport acted as Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs

Ants exhibit a near perfect socialist society. Many of our leaders have the goal of turning our world into one giant ant hill.

Categories: Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs, Nigel Davenport, Phase IV

Barbara Ehrenreich: Quote for November 29, 2008

From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8,000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.

-- Barbara Ehrenreich

Categories: Barbara Ehrenreich

Howard Roark: Quote for November 28, 2008

Everything we have, every great achievement has come from the independent work of some independent mind. Every horror and destruction came from attempts to force men into a herd of brainless, soulless robots without personal rights, without personal ambition, without will, hope, or dignity. It is an ancient conflict. It has another name: the individual against the collective.

-- Howard Roark

from: The Fountainhead (1949)

Gary Cooper acted as Howard Roark

The screenplay for The Fountainhead was written by Ayn Rand based on her best-selling novel of the same name. She would not allow any changes to her screenplay. This is the only time that Hollywood ever made a film without a single revision of the screenwriter's work.

Categories: Howard Roark, Gary Cooper, The Fountainhead

Mark Twain: Quote for November 27, 2008,Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for - annually, not oftener - if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments.

-- Mark Twain

Categories: Mark Twain

King Charles I: Quote for November 26, 2008

I will not delay you long, but will say only this to you. As God is my witness, I have forgiven those who have brought me here and pray that my death be not laid to their charge. For I do endeavor, even to the last, to maintain the peace of my kingdom. I go now from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown for everlasting peace.

-- King Charles I

from: Cromwell (1970)

Alec Guinness acted as King Charles I

Categories: King Charles I, Alec Guinness, Cromwell

Henry David Thoreau: Quote for November 25, 2008

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Categories: Henry David Thoreau

Maxwell Smart: Quote for November 24, 2008

All I'm saying is that until we understand that our enemies are also human beings, we will not be able to defeat them. Yes, they are bad guys. But that is what they do, not who they are.

-- Maxwell Smart

from: Get Smart (2008)

Steve Carell acted as Maxwell Smart

Agent Smart's message should be carefully considered by organizations like the American FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security.

Categories: Maxwell Smart, Steve Carell, Get Smart

C. S. Lewis: Quote for November 23, 2008

The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be "undemocratic." These differences between pupils - for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences - must be disguised. This can be done at various levels. At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks. Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not. At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time. Let, them, for example, make mud pies and call it modeling. But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work. Whatever nonsense they are engaged in must have - I believe the English already use the phrase - "parity of esteem." An even more drastic scheme is not possible. Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT.

-- C. S. Lewis

from: Screwtape Proposes a Toast (1959 Book)

Categories: C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Proposes a Toast

Miliciana Muñoz: Quote for November 22, 2008

You just can't use the saxophone in your orchestra anymore.
Come again.
The saxophone is an instrument of the Imperialists.
The saxophone was invented by a man named Sax in Belgium.
Do you know what the Belgian Imperialists are doing in the Congo? They're a bunch of murderers!
You don't say.
I do say! And I am saying that if you want the orchestra to play, you have to go without the saxophone. Otherwise, I will stop the show!

-- Miliciana Muñoz

from: The Lost City (2005)

Elizabeth Peña acted as Miliciana Muñoz

Andy Garcia acted as the night club owner Fico Fellove in this illustration of an event occurring in Cuba when Castro first came to power in 1959.

Categories: Miliciana Muñoz, Elizabeth Peña , The Lost City

Kurt Vonnegut: Quote for November 21, 2008

We would be a lot safer if the Government would take its money out of science and put it into astrology and the reading of palms. Only in superstition is there hope. If you want to become a friend of civilization, then become an enemy of the truth and a fanatic for harmless balderdash.

-- Kurt Vonnegut

Categories: Kurt Vonnegut

Mark Antony: Quote for November 20, 2008

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.

The noble Brutus has told you that Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault and grievously has Caesar answered it.

-- Mark Antony

from: Julius Caesar (1953)

Marlon Brando acted as Mark Antony

Adapted from a play by William Shakespeare.

Categories: Mark Antony, Marlon Brando, Julius Caesar

Ayn Rand: Quote for November 19, 2008

But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.

At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no right on earth above this right.

-- Ayn Rand

from: Anthem (1938 Novella)

Categories: Ayn Rand, Anthem

Raymond Shaw: Quote for November 18, 2008

Wife turns on television.

My dear girl. Have you noticed that the human race is divided into two distinct and irreconcilable groups? Those who walk into rooms and automatically turn television sets on and those who walk into rooms and automatically turn them off. The problem is, they usually marry each other, which naturally causes a great deal....

Doesn't finish his sentence because he gets interested in the television.

-- Raymond Shaw

from: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Laurence Harvey acted as Raymond Shaw

Categories: Raymond Shaw, Laurence Harvey, The Manchurian Candidate