Samuel > Samuel's Quotes

“He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“90% of everything is crap.”
― Theodore Sturgeon

“There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads

“If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Indeed I have always been of the opinion that hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing to do.”
― Oscar Wilde

“One of the commonest things to do with savings is to lend them to some Government. In view of the fact that the bulk of the public expenditure of most civilized Governments consists in payment for past wars or preparation for future wars, the man who lends his money to a Government is in the same position as the bad men in Shakespeare who hire murderers. The net result of the man's economical habits is to increase the armed forces of the State to which he lends his savings. Obviously it would be better if he spent the money, even if he spent it in drink or gambling.”
― Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays

“Never work.”
― Guy Debord

“None of the activity stolen by work can be regained by submitting to what work has produced. - The Society of The Spectacle”
― Guy Debord

“The planet is fine. The people are fucked.”
― George Carlin

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“What do we get for our trouble and pain?
Just a rented room in Whalley Range.”
― Morrissey

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

“Long after the traces of the human animal have disappeared, many of the species it is bent on destroying will still be around, along with others that have yet to spring up.

The Earth will forget mankind. The play of life will go on.”
― John Gray, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

“The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Religion: A Dialogue and Other Essays

“We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.”
― Schopenhauer, Arthur, The Philosophy of Schopenhauer

“I wanted to rub the human race in its own vomit, and force it to look in the mirror.”
― J.G. Ballard, Crash

“Pretty girls make graves”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

“Those who struggle to change the world see themselves as noble, even tragic figures. Yet most of those who work for world betterment are not rebels against the scheme of things. They seek consolation for a truth they are too weak to bear. At bottom, their faith that the world can be transformed by human will is a denial of their own mortality.”
― John Gray, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

“The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate--for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.”
― Albert Camus, The Fall

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation.”
― Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

“Poetry is not something you have to retire from”
― John Cooper Clarke

“Born to lose. Live to win.”
― Lemmy Kilmister, Motorhead: In the Studio

“Dispute not with her: she is lunatic.”
― William Shakespeare, Richard III