Back to Observations

MISCELLANEOUS

2540. It's the stupidity of others that is so outrageously unfathomable. Our own is always understandable in the light of mitigating circumstance.

2517. There is no doubt that large amounts of money -- like power -- tend to corrupt. On the other hand, we would not be adamantly opposed to having the opportunity to test our moral resolve in resisting the temptation involved.

2505. Symbolism is used to simplify complexity -- to delineate the scope and nature of the forest obscured by the trees.

2485. I did not start to think until I began to write.

2455. Paragraphs -- and paragraph spacing -- are God's gifts to the literate. Those who reject spacing lack piety; those who reject paragraphs entirely are the spawn of Beelzebub.

2443. Plagiarism is an admission of incompetence. Those who think for themselves would never choose the language of another -- because it would be a disavowal of their intellectual competence. Those who struggle with the challenge of expressing ideas have minimal competence to defend -- and may take the short cut of plagiarism to give the appearance of an ability which they lack.

2382. Writing and thinking have a symbiotic relationship. Whichever comes first inspires the other.

2377. There is a kind of brain restless with creative discontent -- it wants to worry ideas, characters, and narratives into existence.

2376. In the creative process, volition seems to take a back seat; the brain's invisible hand scavenges the interior landscape for the eventually appropriate result.

2306. I am so monumentally ancient, I am thinking of charging admission.

2241. Dogs are dependent; cats know you are expendable.

2240. Some hopes -- too fervent by half --are like watched pots.

2217. The popular music of one's youth becomes an emotional talisman -- infused with a current of wonder, an adrenaline of optimism. It becomes the gold standard by which all subsequent musical styles are judged -- and -- invariably -- found wanting.

2214. A badly loaded dishwasher is a sure sign of carelessness, ignorance -- or its close cousin -- superstitious optimism. Tact and tolerance are improper in response; a noisy rearrangement -- not excluding mutterings of reproach -- is required to re-affirm the moral equilibrium of the universe.

1865. Quoting those of prominence to support your argument -- the appeal to authority -- is a pretty cheap trick. You can probably find someone of equal prominence with an opposing view. We confess -- we do it all the time. Sometimes integrity must defer to efficacy.

1851. The curmudgeon does not have all the right answers; however, his skeptical stance gives him a good insight into the wrong ones.

1849. Language is the crystallization of human thought -- and written language allows for the most careful, polished, complex, and unfiltered version of the human voice.

1848. The most lasting thing about any individual is evidence of mind -- and the written word allows for the most interesting and profound articulations of ideas and portrayals of the human experience. 

1799. It's nice to be alive and wriggling! Kicking at this age might attract the attention of a bucket.

1719. Power tends to corrupt -- and monopoly power utilities will treat you like dirt.

1711. A lot of classical music is a fraud -- it is merely orderly noise -- devoid of soul and lacking in intelligence.

1613. The internet has allowed the rise of synoptic learning -- knowledge of considerable breadth but little depth.

1562. There is a great divide in humankind that cannot be bridged -- that between those who have an intuitive understanding of how a dishwasher should be loaded for maximum efficiency -- and those who do not. Observation and instruction seem to have no effect in remedying the plight of the less fortunate.

1558. "Begging the question" may be inadvertent or deliberate. Inadvertence suggests stupidity; deliberateness suggests the sleaze of intellectual dishonesty.

1515. Creativity is the willingness to experiment.

1468. Dogs are tribal; cats, solitary.

1387. Dogs are inclined to welcome you as an unexpected proof of the Second Coming; cats -- as if they had been counting on Zeus and Thor, singing a duet in drag.

1383. We do not enjoy music of the genre Classical Tedious: It wanders aimlessly, repetitiously -- up and then down -- around and then back -- but is bereft of melody, purpose, and soul.

1338. Nostalgia Quotient: the number of tomorrows you would give up to relive a yesterday.

1332. The struggle to write accurately is the struggle to think clearly.

1228. It used to be that education was for the few; now, quite rightly, it is for the many. But we should not be surprised at the "democratization" of the language -- as more people use it -- the average proficiency in expression declines.

1218. In some music, one hears the metronome of the soul.

1129. Plagiarism: a surprising admission of inadequacy.

1128. The stronger the love, the greater the vulnerability to its loss.

1115. Just as cunning is "the dark sanctuary of incapacity," so the ad hominem remark is the refuge of those without facts, rational analysis, or coherent arguments.

1104. The collector of quotations is an intellectual magpie - selecting the shiny bits to relieve --and perhaps conceal -- the drabness of an insufficiently learned nest.

1080. The world is divided into two classes: the small number of those who know how to use the apostrophe -- and the vast hordes who do not.

1011. Our favourite essay-writing service is the one which boasts that it has "no tolerance for plagiarism."

859. The shortening days of fall are depressing enough; the acceleration of gloom with a switch to standard time is a peculiar perversity of outmoded tradition.  

824. Writer's block arises from self-doubt -- the fear of inadequate result. But creative success -- like happiness -- is not a target to be captured by direct and determined assault. It arises, serendipitously, from a process unfettered by anxious and prejudicial supervision.

816. Breaking the rules of grammar is most profitably done by those who know what they are.

814. Some pretend that use of the Oxford comma is "optional" – but this is nonsense. Those who fail to employ it regularly and consistently are, in some deplorable fashion, tainted – whether by laziness, by failure of aesthetic sensibility, or by sheer wretchedness and perversity of temperament. Indeed (as we often suspect of people who mount toilet paper the wrong way in the holder) it seems entirely likely that this sin of omission is the invariable marker of some deeper, quite troubling degree of moral turpitude.

788. The universe is a vast creative experiment.

771. Human speech should be reserved for the dignified and reasonable purpose of communicating with other sentient beings.  It should not be demeaned and devalued in a charade of "conversation" with machines.

766. Ice cream -- the great melter of all resolve.

763. There is nothing like a little money to gladden the heart.

623. Insufficient similarity
        Is the curse of analogy.

620. The "Brainy Quote" website accepts quotations only from the famous. This fact exposes a hypocrisy in the name which seems typically American: "Brainy Quote" is mere façade; the real importance -- the true fascination -- is not with brains -- or wisdom -- but celebrity.

505. A wordsmith is a word worrier. He worries words and the positions of words. His aim is to worry meaning into a bell of sound that has the ring of truth.

424. Predictions should not prance; the tightrope of the future requires a humility of caution -- a carefulness of balance.

413. It is impossible to be fully alive in the cold and dark of a Canadian winter.

412. Sometimes it is not worthwhile to articulate a scornful condemnation of others for their bad ideas; their own foolish remarks accomplish the task with admirable efficiency and satisfying immediacy.

385. It was an argument with the tenuousness of a gossamer thread floating in the mist, with the evanescence of a discontinuous filament drifting aimlessly in a pervasive, enveloping, fog of the intellect.

366. If one devotes oneself, with some reasonable degree of care and consideration, to the project of finding things at which to take offense, a magnificent success is guaranteed.

309. With increasing age, the daily walk becomes a kind of religious ritual -- a bodily incantation against debility and death.

300. The tall, impressive column of particular expertise is narrow, and of limited application; wisdom is often found in a broader vessel of general understanding.

240. There are few easy answers; most "easy answers" invite more difficult questions.

216. Purity of intent does not guarantee purity of result.

213: The size of a bureaucracy is in inverse proportion to the efficiency and productivity of the organization of which it is a part.

212. Benevolence wary is like to lose both name and reputation; benevolence blind and pure in heart may yet nourish the seeds of evil.

210. One seldom knows one’s true opinion until one has expressed it.

203. Creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin.

162. Ad hominem attacks
        Betray an absence of facts.

158. In the workings of government healthcare, a debilitating sclerosis slows the passage of vital fluid, hobbles the joints in movement, and fixes the organism to a hardened reef of unyielding stasis.

89. Being nice is not always a virtue. Rudeness may be the correct response to stupidity.

85. Persistence is a virtue -- as long as you don't carry it too far.

83. Money that is obtained without effort is spent without conscience.

70. Varied is that which lays claim to the title: "music;” but without melody, there is no delight.

32. As to flattery--it is doubtless pleasant enough, but entirely foreign to our experience; any compliments we have received have been the result of sound observation, superior analysis, and unbiased judgement.

3. “Crippled” becomes “disabled,” and “disabled” becomes “physically challenged”– as if new words could make up for no legs.

1. That hypocrisy is so widespread and persistent is a tribute to its utility.