Random Inspiration #7

Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more.

~George Carlin (1956 - 2008), Napalm and Silly Putty (2002)

Random Inspiration #6

Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.

Oliver Herford (1863–1935)

Random Inspiration #5

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

e.e.cummings (1894 - 1962), i carry your heart with me (1920)

Random Inspiration #4

And so something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgement which is in my mind.

~René Descartes (1596 - 1650), Meditations on First Philosophy (1639)

Random Inspiration #3

Rien n’est plus dangereux que le travail discontinue; c’est une habitude qui s’en va. Habitude facile a quitter, difficile a reprendre.

~Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), Les Miserables (1862)

Random Inspiration #2

Why do you try so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?

~Oliver James Hutson as Ian Wallace, What a Girl Wants (2003)

Random Inspiration #1

What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires — desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

~Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism (1919)