Daniel Michaud > Daniel's Quotes

“One question in my mind, which I hardly dare mention in public, is whether patriotism has, overall, been a force for good or evil in the world. Patriotism is rampant in war and there are some good things about it. Just as self-respect and pride bring out the best in an individual, pride in family, pride in teammates, pride in hometown bring out the best in groups of people. War brings out the kind of pride in country that encourages its citizens in the direction of excellence and it encourages them to be ready to die for it. At no time do people work so well together to achieve the same goal as they do in wartime. Maybe that's enough to make patriotism eligible to be considered a virtue. If only I could get out of my mind the most patriotic people who ever lived, the Nazi Germans.”
― Andy Rooney, My War

“The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!”
― Larry Niven

“There had been a popular joke on Freedom, started by a man named Calder. Looking down from space, he had said, the dominant life forms on Earth were obviously the cereals and other grasses. They occupied all the most desirable and fertile land; and they had tamed insects and animals to care for them. In particular, they had domesticated the bipeds to nurture and cultivate them and to save and plant their seed. Now, watching the farmers, Alex could easily imagine that they were worshiping and genuflecting before their masters.”
― Larry Niven

“One day might be different from another, but there ain't much difference when they're put together.”
― William H. Armstrong

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

“In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth.”
― Richard Feynman

“The past is obdurate.”
― Stephen King, 11/22/63

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
― Charles Dickens

“Little by little, one travels far.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“الصورة التي تنطبع في ذهنك عن ذكر اسم تولكين هي صورة رجل عاكف على مكتبه بين ألاف المسودات والملحوظات يعيد كتابة ومسح ما كتبه من جديد، يضع كل تفصيلة في عالمه بحرص شديد، هو رجل أقرب للبناء الذي يبني صرح كبير بحذر وبمقاييس دقيقة، لا فنان مغامر يلوح بريشته على لوحة فارغه بدون أن يدرك ما النتيجة التي ستخرج بالنهاية.”
― Ahmed Salah Al Mahdi

“A destiny that leads the English to the Dutch is strange enough; but one that leads from Epsom into Pennsylvania, and thence into the hills that shut in Altamont over the proud coral cry of the cock, and the soft stone smile of an angel, is touched by that dark miracle of chance which makes new magic in a dusty world.”
― Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel