 "What comes out of a team or a committee is the most daring idea that the least daring man can accept."
John Arnold
"Space, Time and Education", Astounding Science Fiction, May, pp. 9–25. Introductory remarks by John W. Campbell, Jr., editor, pp. 9–10.
A further thought on us and existence: Among the many bad and disgusting lies that religions of all kinds and colors have imposed upon mankind, is the believe that there’s life beyond death, a notion that is a total bogus and fully harmful to all human beings that accept is as truth, for it renders this one and only life we will ever have as superfluous. We know that there is no life after death, but, as Tim Minchin correctly raps, advanced civilization and medicine doubled and even tripled our life’s length; for the life of savages and those who live in lower types of what can barely be called “civilization” scarcely extends to 30 years, with the appalling amount of death during childhood to be added. By accepting the truth of this one and only life, most people would oblige themselves to do their most and very best to fulfill it with a PEACEFUL and PRODUCTIVE existence and, thus, be able to reach happiness. We learn only that THIS existence exists (one of the basic premises of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism) after coming out of our mother’s belly, a fact that Gustave Courbet so aptly showed in his painting “The Origin of the World,” and it will, of course, cease for each of us at the moment of our death. Hence, we should all take to heart my quote that “The world exists for us human beings. It is not we, the human beings, who exist for the world, as the enemies of mankind would have it, for a world without humans lacks every sense of existence.” Should you not accept this for what it means, just think of the following: Can you PROVE the world’s existence BEFORE you were born? Could you PROVE it AFTER you die? So, instead of going out to butcher others, as most religions command, do your best to fulfill a PEACEFUL and PRODUCTIVE life!
Manfred F. Schieder (1937 - )
But reality is the readings on my instruments--period.
Dr. Peter Zimmerman, Physicist
One Cat's Opinion
The degree of heritability of IQ places no constraint on the degree of modifiability that is possible. ... think about two facts: (a) the heritability of height is about .85 to .90 and (b) gains in average height of a standard deviation or more have appeared in a generation or less in several countries in the world. The average height of thirteen-year-old Korean boys increased by more than seven inches between 1965 and 2005, a difference of 2.4 SDs. The forty-year time span is far too brief for genetics to have played a role in the increase. ... the heritability of a characteristic within a given population places no theoretical constraint on the modifiability of that characteristic by environmental forces.
Richard E. Nisbett
Book: Intelligence and How to Get It: Why schools and cultures count. (2009). Norton; p 38
With the end of McCarthyism, many universities found ... they [could] not discriminate against communists. ... After all, the thinking went, 'Who's to say what's right or wrong?' Such views did not go far in science, business, or engineering, but the requirements at most universities in general education fields meant that the extremely activist and liberal faculty elements ... would reach the most students.
Larry Schweikart
A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror
People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still blaming the economy, the government and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.
Jim Rohn
Success Is Easy, but So Is Neglect
There was no order in his reading; but there was order in what remained of it in his mind.
Ayn Rand
—of the self-educated youth Stretch Wynand
Most people can't think quantitatively to save their skins.
Dr. Peter Zimmerman, Physicist
Hydrino Study Group Discussion of the "Dinner Party Problem"
The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.
Oscar Wilde
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
Archilochus
The Hedgehog and the Fox
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings,
so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
Socrates
If schools had pre-empted the right to teach computer use we would be in a horrible mess right now instead of leading the world in this literacy.
John Taylor Gatto
http://oneducation.wordpress.com/
I think it is a great shame, that many people never develop a conscious enough sense of the pleasures of beauty, or self-actualization, or the admirable qualities of character in another person, or a host of other aspects of life. And failing to do so, they are ill-equipped to find the proper balance in their life.
C. Jeffery Small
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/ObjectivismQ&A/0321_1.shtml#39
Ignorance Reigns Supreme
Walter Williams
http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2008/12/03/ignorance_reigns_supreme
It's not that I don't give a damn. It's just that I don't really care about the student evaluations.
Dr. Henry Tosi
University of Florida Outreach Engineering Management Program, Final Day of Organizational Behavior Course, December 8, 2007
Liberals objecting to learning by yourself is just like Munchausen's by proxy — they need you to appreciate them and they need the attention.
Dennis Miller
Comedy Central
Education is too important to be left to government. The freer parents and entrepreneurs are, the more innovative American schooling will be — and the more children will learn.
John Stossel
Slacker: One who has developed a method of operation that requires less than half the effort of the average person's, while achieving comparable results, thereby freeing up time to pursue more enjoyable activities.
Brady Lessard
Your Guide to Slide: The Slacker's Guide to College
You are the true dreamers, and dreams accomplish wonderful things.
Jaime Escalante
Stand and Deliver
Know what you love and do what you love. If you don't do what you love, you're just wasting your time.
Billy Joel
From "Newsweek," according to http://www.radiantpeace.org/gallery.htm
If you don't do what you love you are not going to be good at it. And if you are not good at it you are not going to make any money doing it.
Donald Trump
http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/Thoughts46.html
Making people say what they mean is not just half the battle, it is victory.
Ted Keer
Rebirth of Reason (http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/NewsDiscussions/1742.shtml#12)
That we can really address [global warming] by changing our light bulbs, or that we can really make an impact by unplugging our appliances when we‘re not using them, is very much out of whack. So if we're only [going to] do symbolic actions, I would like to suggest a few symbolic actions that…might really mean something. One of them, which is very simple, [of which] 99% of the American population doesn‘t care, is ban private jets. Nobody needs to fly in them, ban them now. And…in addition, let‘s have the NRDC,…the Sierra Club and Greenpeace make it a rule that all of their…members, cannot fly on private jets, they must get their houses off the grid, they must live in the way that they‘re telling everyone else to live. And if they won‘t do that, why should we? And why should we take them seriously?
Michael Crichton
http://www.michaelcrichton.net/GlobalWarmingDebate.pdf
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Henry Ford
Making workable choices occurs in a crucible of informative mistakes. Thus Intelligence accepts fallibility. And when absolute (infallible) choices are not known, Intelligence takes chance with limited data in an arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary.
Frank Herbert
Darwi Odrade character in _Chapterhouse Dune_
One cannot apprehend that which is automatically, until one recognizes the particulars as they are and not.
Bridget Armozel
When I was talking about science education with a friend a while back.
Children are educated by what the grown-up is, and not by his talk.
Carl Gustav Jung
If we don't formally teach our children how to think — society will teach them not to.
Camp Indecon website
http://www.campindecon.org/content-philosophy.html
Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. . . . The mark of the creative mind is that it defies a part of what it has learned or, at least, adds something new to it.
Ludwig von Mises
Bureaucracy
He brings disaster upon his nation who never sows a seed, or lays a brick, or weaves a garment, but makes politics his occupation.
Kahil Gibran
Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUE CARD NO.: 62-19768
Christ, in terms of the Christian philosophy, is the human ideal. He personifies that which men should strive to emulate. Yet, according to the Christian mythology, he died on the cross not for his own sins but for the sins of the non-ideal people. In other words, a man of perfect virtue was sacrificed for men who are vicious and who are expected or supposed to accept that sacrifice. If I were a Christian, nothing would make me more indignant than that: the notion of sacrificing the ideal to the non-ideal, or virtue to vice. And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors. That is precisely how the symbolism is used.
Ayn Rand
“Playboy’s Interview with Ayn Rand,” – ARL p 411
The alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind.
Ayn Rand
GS, FNI, 157 – ARL p 158
He brings disaster upon his nation who never sows a seed, or lays a brick, or weaves a garment, but makes politics his occupation.
Kahlil Gibran
Spiritual Sayings of Kahlil Gibran
A religion is sometime a source of happiness, and I WOULD NOT DEPRIVE ANYONE OF HAPPINESS. But it is a comfort appropriate FOR THE WEAK, not for the strong. The great trouble with religion — any religion — is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak certainty of reason - BUT ONE CANNOT HAVE BOTH.
Robert Anson Heinlein
Friday
“If I ask people whether they believe in life, they never understand what I mean. It's a bad question. It can mean so much that it really means nothing. So I ask them if they believe in God. And if they say they do, then I know they don't believe in life. Why? God — whatever anyone chooses to call God — is one's highest conception of the highest possible. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own.”
Ayn Rand
We the Living
Faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others.
Ayn Rand
GS, FNI, 200 – ARL p 158
Faith and force . . . are corollaries: every period of history dominated by mysticism, was a period of statism, of dictatorship, of tyranny.
Ayn Rand
“Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World,” PWNI, 80 – ARL p 158
Playboy: Has no religion, in your estimation, ever offered anything of constructive value to human life? Rand: Qua religion, no — in the sense of blind belief, belief unsupported by, or contrary to, the facts of reality and the conclusion of reason. Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life: it is the negation of reason. But you must remember that religion is an early form of philosophy, that the first attempts to explain the universe, to give a coherent frame of reference to man’s life and code of moral values, were made by religion, before man graduated or developed enough to have philosophy. And, as philosophies, some religions have very valuable moral points. They may have a good influence or proper principles to inculcate, but in a very contradictory context and, on a very—how shall I say it?—dangerous or malevolent base: on the ground of faith.
Ayn Rand
“Playboy’s Interview with Ayn Rand,” – ARL p 411
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Robert A. Heinlein
Excerpts from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long/Time Enough for Love
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent--it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.
Robert Anson Heinlein
Excerpts from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long/Time Enough for Love
Beswick took over ... in a flurry of MBA jargon ... which ended up defeating us. There were executive summaries, flow charts, key accounts, spread sheets, listener psychographics, membership marketing plans, and strategic alliances -- all of which, in the end, amounted to bullshit.
Deborah Coddington
Page 131 of Perigo! Politically Incorrect
This was a subtle but complete misunderstanding of Simonyi’s intention and practice, and it just goes to show you that if you write convoluted, dense academic prose nobody will understand it and your ideas will be misinterpreted and then the misinterpreted ideas will be ridiculed even when they weren’t your ideas.
Joel Spolsky
http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/Wrong.html
Overly "permissive" parents tend to produce highly anxious children. By this I mean parents who back away from any leadership role; who treat all family members as equal not only in dignity but also in knowledge and authority; and who strive to teach no values and uphold no standards for fear of "imposing" their "biases" on their children.
Nathaniel Branden
Six Pillars of Self Esteem
"Dad," I said, "I want to go to the Moon." "Certainly," he answered . . . . "I said it was all right. Go ahead." "Yes . . . but how?" "Eh?" He looked mildly surprised. "Why, that's your problem, Clifford."
Robert A. Heinlein
Have Space Suit Will Travel
Humorlessness should be grounds for dismissal.
Camille Paglia
"Junk Bond & Corporate Raiders," on her remedy to reform academe
Double-posts are bastard children of the troubled mind.
Alec Mouhibian
There is no better way to cultivate taste in words, than by constantly reading the best English. None of the words and expressions which are taboo in good society will be found in books of proved literary standing. But it must not be forgotten that there can be a vast difference between literary standing and popularity, and that many of the “best sellers” have no literary merit whatsoever.
Emily Post
Etiquette (1922) - http://www.bartleby.com/95/8.html
Experience holds a dear school, but a fool will learn in no other.
Benjamin Franklin
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
When words lose their meaning, people lose their liberty.
Confucius
America's high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools even when they're working as designed cannot teach all our students what they need to know today.
William (Bill) H. Gates
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050227/ap/d88gh7do0.html
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