My Favorite Quotes

I keep a list of quotes I find valuable, entertaining, or just plain funny. Having nothing else to post right now, I'll post the few quotes I've collected:

Geniuses are justifiably contemptuous of the opinions of their inferiors.
--Jubal Harshaw, in Robert Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land

There are too many mistakes to be made in the world to make the same mistake twice.
--me

“The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play.”
--Captain Kirk, Star Trek

“When the facts contradict your expectations, believe the facts.”
--attributed to Sherlock Holmes

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
--Yoda, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect the theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
--Henry L. Mencken

“The less consistent your means are with your goal, the less effective your efforts shall be.”
--Michael Lopez, from the Welcome to Highered Intelligence! weblog

"One cannot judge the value of an opinion simply by the amount of courage that is required in holding it."
--attributed to George Orwell

“Hope is all you have left when you’re tired of being afraid.”
--unknown

"When you believe you have the moral high ground, you can do some terrible things."
--Mark Rudd, former member of the terrorist group Weather Underground

“Context is often the first victim of activism.”
--unknown

“The natural lesson might even apply to politics; if the parasites win, the parasites and the host will both die.”
--from the Classical Values weblog, 12/6/2004

“The two main instruments by which truth reaches politics are votes and markets, which is why political Utopians instinctively dislike both.”
-- Charles Moore, from a 4/6/2005 article in the UK’s Weekly Telegraph

“Consensus is the absence of leadership.”
--Margaret Thatcher

“A Bavarian is a cross between a man and an Austrian.”
-- Otto von Bismarck

"The notion that you can somehow defeat violence by submitting to it is simply a flight from fact. As I have said, it is only possible to people who have money and guns between themselves and reality."
--attributed to George Orwell

"A civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."
--French writer Jean Francois Revel

“Warriors are essential; pacifists are a luxury.”
--Mike Rosen, AM 850 KOA radio host