adam shand

And the old drivers are no longer helpful. In the past, we may have been able to “power through”, by setting goals, and by positive thinking, and with self-discipline and effort. We now have the intuition that this sort of self-forcing cannot be sustained. — Kaushik, Dark Night of the Soul

These dignified farmers I have met see the skyscrapers of the developed nations as the tombstones of the human race. — Masanobu Fukuoka, Sowing Seeds in the Desert

In a closed society where everybody is guilty, the only crime is getting caught. — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

I'm practically paralyzed under a flood of ideas, none of which is particularly important, but all of which give me an initial sting of glee and, afterward, scheduling problems. — _why

The problem with any ideology is that it gives you the answer before you examine the evidence. — Bill Clinton

Abstract words are ancient coins whose concrete images in the busy give-and-take of talk have worn away with use. — Julian Jaynes

If you think geeks are so sexy or cool, bang one. Go to any university and find a computer or physics lab at 2AM and take your pick. Until then, go commit cultural fraud someplace else, and take your phony “I fucking love science” group with you. — Maddox, '' you're not a nerd ...

Reality is modest, it won't be seen naked. — Deepak Chopra, "War of the Worldviews"

Democracy is all about not electing the wrong man-eating lizard. — Douglas Adams (as paraphrased by Charlie Stross)

Aim low. Fail frequently. Surprisingly, that's the path to freedom. — Jim Coudal

The future cannot be legislated. All that can be done is to anticipate its most important movements and to clear the path for them. — Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. — Abraham Lincoln

“We can debug relationships, but it's always good policy to consider the people themselves to be features. People get annoyed when you try to debug them.” —Larry Wall, State of the Onion

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. — Philip K. Dick

Don't forget that you are the product of a culture that went stark raving mad about ten thousand years ago. Adjust your thinking accordingly.“ — Chuck Lorre, Vanity Card #184

Success as a result of industry is a peasant's ideal. — Wallace Stevens (as quoted by Charles Bukowski)

Writers are desperate people, and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers. — Charles Bukowski

Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. — Neil Gaiman, "Ten rules to writing fiction"

Pleasure is the object, the duty, the goal of all rational creatures. — Voltaire

What bores the listener bores the speaker too. — Marshall Rosenberg, “Nonviolent Communication - A Language of Life”

… you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you're not in a hurry. — Paul Theroux, “The Happy Isles of Oceania” (Tony the Beachcomber)

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. — Oscar Wilde

We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic. — Winston Churchill

Pain does not create a long-lasting memory, but the memory of luxury exerts itself for ever. — Paul Theroux, “The Happy Isles of Oceania”

First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you. — F. Scott Fitzgerald

We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. — Marshall McLuhan, via Wilson Miner

One martini is just right. Two martinis are too many. Three martinis are never enough. — M.F.K. Fisher, “The Art of Eating”

You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have *only* your emotions to sell. — F. Scott Fitzgerald,”Letters of Note“

The further humans move from hunters to horticulturists to agriculturists to urbanisation to industrialists, the further the sacred recedes, first to heaven, then condensed to monotheism and finally it dies in irony. — Lierre Keith, “The Vegetarian Myth”

I feel a certain calm. There is safety in the midst of danger. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? — Vincent van Gogh

When I have a terrible need of — shall I say the word — religion. Then I go out and paint the stars. — Vincent van Gogh

The bad news is you are falling through the air; nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there is no ground. — Chogyam Trungpa

Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others. — Tacitus, “Germania, Chapter 35”

The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government. — Tacitus, “Annals, Book III, 27”

He had talents equal to business, and aspired no higher. — Tacitus, “Annals, Book VI, 39”

To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. — Tacitus, “Agricola”

Because they didn't know better, they called it civilization, when it was part of their slavery. — Tacitus, “Agricola”

This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. — Walt Whitman

Writing is creating a map for your readers. — In my notes from KiwiFoo Camp 2012, source lost.

We have allowed our professions and institutions to assume a level of control that is beyond their competence. — Tony Watkins, “The Human House”

It may seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first. — Miyamoto Musashi