Sometimes I repost essays out of pure laziness and other times because the content seems apt. This one is from 7/7/07.

Below are a few quotations that patch together in a particular way.  

Here is a great quote lifted from the internet. With any luck it is accurate-

 “They lied to you. The Devil is not the Prince of Matter; the Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. The Devil is grim because he knows where he is going, and, in moving, he always returns whence he came.” (Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose)

Here is another good one-

“When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.” (Napoleon Bonaparte)

And then there is this-

“Ask a Soviet engineer to design a pair of shoes and he’ll come up with something that looks like the boxes that the shoes came in; ask him to make something that will massacre Germans, and he turns into Thomas F–king Edison.” (Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon)

Neal Stephenson’s book, Cryptonomicon, is quite good though ponderously large.

Below is a comment from the notorious Uncle Al-

Uncle Al

Mediocrity is a vice of the doomed.

Beware any society that has grown comfortable within its ancestors’ nightmares.

To guarantee a good product, bill Customer Support costs to Design Engineering’s account.

“Freedom” said the policeman, and played baseball with his truncheon.

When swine vote, the man with the slop bucket is always elected swineherd(er) no matter how much slaughtering he does.

What is the foundation of American zero-goal education, corporate management, and government? Mud packs more tightly than jewels.

Social engineering: How easily we obtain what we do not want.

First ecstasy, then laundry.