Mary Shelley: Quote for February 28, 2009

A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.

-- Mary Shelley

from: Frankenstein (1831 Novel)

Categories: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Leo Szilard: Quote for February 27, 2009

Lord Rutherford: Mr. Wells is a writer of science fiction with a vivid imagination. To split the atom, to cause a chain reaction, to release unlimited power cannot be done.

Cannot? Lord Rutherford, I know that you are acknowledged by all to be the world's greatest physicist, but cannot is a word one does not often hear in science.

-- Leo Szilard

from: Day One (1989)

Micheal Tucker acted as Leo Szilard

Michael Sinelnikoff acting as Lord Rutherford also appear in this clip.

Categories: Leo Szilard, Micheal Tucker, Day One

Theodore Roosevelt: Quote for February 26, 2009

When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer 'present' or 'guilty.'

-- Theodore Roosevelt

Categories: Theodore Roosevelt

Dr. Mirakle: Quote for February 25, 2009

Eons and Ages passed. There came a time when a four legged thing walked upright...Behold the first man! (Points toward his ape.)

-- Dr. Mirakle

from: Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

Bela Lugosi acted as Dr. Mirakle

Categories: Dr. Mirakle, Bela Lugosi, Murders in the Rue Morgue

Karl Marx: Quote for February 24, 2009

Religious misery is in one mouth the expression of real misery, and in another is a protestation against real misery. Religion is the moan of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

-- Karl Marx

To better understand the mind of this influential philosopher read his "Selected Essays" written from 1844 to 1850. Click here to read.

Categories: Karl Marx

Rev. Gustav Briegleb: Quote for February 23, 2009

Every day the needs of honest citizens are put second to greed and personal gain. Every day this city sinks deeper into a cesspool of fear, intimidation, and corruption.

-- Rev. Gustav Briegleb

from: Changeling (2008)

John Malkovich acted as Rev. Gustav Briegleb

Which city was he talking about? Could it be your city?

Categories: Rev. Gustav Briegleb, John Malkovich, Changeling

Ayn Rand: Quote for February 22, 2009

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt.

-- Ayn Rand

from: Atlas Shrugged (Novel 1957)

Read Ayn Rand's Novella "Anthem" for free. Click here.

Categories: Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Gregory Lawson: Quote for February 21, 2009

(Trying to convince Bob Kearns into taking a lawsuit settlement.)This is how justice is dispensed in this country, with checkbooks. There are no brass bands, you know, there are no ticker tape parades, the mayor doesn't give you the key to the city and call you a hero. You get a check; And that check makes the lives of you and your family a little easier, a little more pleasant. It's that simple.

-- Gregory Lawson

from: Flash of Genius (2008)

Alan Alda acted as Gregory Lawson

Greg Kinnear acting as Bob Kearns and Lauren Graham acting as Phyllis Kearns also appear in this clip.

Categories: Gregory Lawson, Alan Alda, Flash of Genius

William Faulkner: Quote for February 20, 2009

People need trouble – a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.

-- William Faulkner

Categories: William Faulkner

Bill Maher: Quote for February 19, 2009

(Standing in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.) Does that look like anything, like anything that Jesus Christ had in mind? That looks to me like what it is, a giant bureaucratic building. I wonder how many of the people milling around here all the time understand how much of Catholicism came, not from the founder, but from the bureaucrats who came after. Like the guy who penciled in the resurrection into the gospel of Mark three hundred years after it was written. That's right, the resurrection isn't in the original script.

But that's ok, I think it was Jesus who said: "After I go, appoint a spokesman for me, and make sure he lives in a giant palace, the better to remind people of my whole thing about the meek inheriting the earth."

-- Bill Maher

from: Religulous (Documentary 2008)

Categories: Bill Maher, Religulous

Deepak Chopra: Quote for February 18, 2009

To have passion, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three components to that purpose, one is to find out who you really are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings, because we are here to do that and the third is to express your unique talents and when you are expressing your unique talents you lose track of time.

-- Deepak Chopra

Categories: Deepak Chopra

Professor Sandiford: Quote for February 17, 2009

If you want to make money, you might as well drop out right now, go to banking school, or website school - anywhere but art school. And remember, only 1 out of 100 of you will ever make a living as an artist.

-- Professor Sandiford

from: Art School Confidential (2006)

John Malkovich acted as Professor Sandiford

Click here to see another Art School quote. (Opens in new Window)

Categories: Professor Sandiford, John Malkovich, Art School Confidential

Abraham Lincoln: Quote for February 16, 2009

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

-- Abraham Lincoln

The Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)

Categories: Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

Dennis Wheatley: Quote for February 15, 2009

In light all things thrive and bear fruit... In darkness they decay and die. That is why we must follow the teachings of the Lords of Light.

-- Dennis Wheatley

Categories: Dennis Wheatley

Francesca Bruni: Quote for February 14, 2009Valentines Day

Give me a man who is man enough to give himself just to the woman who is worth him. If that woman were me, I would love him alone and forever.

-- Francesca Bruni

from: Casanova (2005)

Sienna Miller acted as Francesca Bruni

Heath Ledger appeared as Casanova in this clip.

Click here for another Valentine's Day post that you may find intersting. (Opens in new window)

Categories: Francesca Bruni, Sienna Miller, Casanova