Notably Quotable

Some words to live by, followed by sarcastic commentary.

“Well done is better than well said.”
--Benjamin Franklin
Actually, well hung is probably best of all.

“Democracies are prone to war, and war consumes them.”
--W.H. Seward
War also makes people in high places an awful lot of money.

“Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.”
George Santayana
I’m not exactly sure what this means but it’s disturbing and I’m glad someone else had the guts to finally say it.

“He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom.”
--James P. Huneker
Not always, Mr. Huneker. Sometimes a fool is just a fool.

“The miracles of genius always rest on profound convictions which refuse to be analyzed.”
--Emerson
Sounds like a few bloggers I know.

“Genius is lonely without the surrounding presence of people to inspire it.”
--T.W. Higginson
No wonder I feel so all alone.

“Machinery is the sub-conscious mind of the world.”
Gerald Stanley Lee
Tell me something I don't know.
“It is not a custom with me to keep money to look at.”
--George Washington
That's because his own face was on half the currency.

“Hunger is the handmaid of genius.”
--Mark Twain
It’s also the handmaid of a lot of guys doing 10 to 20 for armed robbery.

“A man of vast and varied misinformation.”
William Gaynor while mayor of New York in describing
Rabbi Stephen Wise
That description fits a few neocons I can think of as well.

“There is no knowledge that is not power.”
--Emerson
Try telling that to the guy who finishes third on Jeopardy.

“I don’t think there’s ever been an appointment in my life where I wanted the other guy to show up.”
--George Costanza
I thought it was just me all this time.