Apothegms

According to Winston Churchill,

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

I came across that years ago--while browsing in a book of quotations. I was taken aback...and then laughed...and then resumed reading.

So maybe there's some hope for me yet.

Presumably Sir Winston would also approve of posting quotations on one's blog. I haven't decided whether to collect such here or to make this a series. Anyway, here goes.

Peter Woit laments that the drunken colossus of our political system has accidentally squashed funding for high-enery physics:

This seems to be how US democracy works these days: you need to pay to not get screwed, and we haven’t been paying…

Attributed to Wang Yang-ming (see also here and here):

To know and not to act is not to know.

September 1, 1939 (W.H. Auden):

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

John Derbyshire::

Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.