adam shand

The essence of Christianity is told to us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions. — Frank Zappa, Playboy (May 1993)

It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice — there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia. — Frank Zappa “The Real Frank Zappa Book”

Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best … — Frank Zappa, “Packard Goose”

What I didn't understand as a child was that science fiction is not about a gun that atomizes someone; it's about what a human does when they can commit murder and not leave a corpse. — Stormwaltz

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard… Because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win. — John F. Kennedy, Rice University, 1962

Honour thy error as a hidden intention. — Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt, “Oblique Strategies”

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. — http://butdoesitfloat.com/

Software is like sex: it's better when it's free. — Linus Torvalds

And sometime around 2 AM you end up taking advantage of yourself. Ain't no way around that. — Tom Waits, “Nighthawks at the Diner”

Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk. — Tom Waits, “Heartattack and Vine”

And the things you can’t remember tell the things you can’t forget that history puts a saint in every dream. — Tom Waits, “Time”

The large print giveth and the small print taketh away. — Tom Waits, “Step Right Up”

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction. — Albert Einstein

For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it. — Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”

One man's paradise is another man's opportunity. — Adam Shand

Be a good animal, true to your instincts. — D.H. Lawerence, “The White Peacock”

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. — D.H. Lawrence, “Lady Chatterley's Lover”

Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. — D.H. Lawrence

All drug use should be legalized – up to and including the ‘worst’ drugs (heroin etc). Demand is not the problem, supply is. Supply causes criminal action & human degradation of all kinds. Make supply a part of Norman day-to-day life & that life would be a lot pleasanter for almost every New Zealander. — Chris Knox, liberation.typepad.com

When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. — Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”

Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom. — Raoul Vaneigem, "The Revolution Of Everyday Life"

I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on Fear. It should always be in front of you, like something that might have to be killed. — Hunter S Thompson, “Happy Birthday, Jack Nicholson”

When the last living thing
Has died on account of us,
How poetical it would be
If Earth could say,
In a voice floating up
Perhaps
From the floor
Of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.
People did not like it here.”
— Kurt Vonnegut

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. — William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”

I think that too many people think too much about my lyrics. I am more a person who works with the sound of a word than with its meaning. Often I just choose the words because of the rhythm not because of the meaning. — Mike Patton

It wasn't worth it. — Harry Patch, lastingtribute.co.uk

War is a calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings. — Harry Patch, boingboing.net

I’m a raging alcoholic who sells booze for a living, but it works for me, I love the opposites in my life. — Harry Denton, nytimes.org (on being sober in the hospitality industry)

Most men make the error of thinking that one day it will be done. They think, “If I can work enough, then one day I could rest.” Or, “one day my woman will understand something and then she will stop complaining.” Or, “I’m only doing this now so that one day I can do what I really want with my life.” The masculine error is to think that eventually things will be different in some fundamental way. They won’t. It never ends. As long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, play, and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift. — David Deida, “The Way of the Superior Man”