August 20

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent. ~ H. L. Mencken
  • selected by Kalki


2005
The Government of the State of Israel and the Palestinian team representing the Palestinian people agree that it is time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict, recognize their mutual legitimate and political rights, and strive to live in peaceful coexistence and mutual dignity and security to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement and historic reconciliation through the agreed political process. ~ Oslo Accords, finalized in Oslo, Norway on 20 August 1993.
  • proposed by MosheZadka


2006
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

~ H. P. Lovecraft ~
  • proposed by Kalki


2007
The world we live in is driven not solely by mindless physical forces but, more crucially, by subjective human values. Human values become the underlying key to world change. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • proposed by Kalki


2008
There probably is no more important quest in all science than the attempt to understand those very particular events in evolution by which brains worked out that special trick that has enabled them to add to the cosmic scheme of things: color, sound, pain, pleasure, and all the other facets of mental experience. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • proposed by Kalki


2009
Science traditionally takes the reductionist approach, saying that the collective properties of molecules, or the fundamental units of whatever system you're talking about, are enough to account for all of the system's activity. But this standard approach leaves out one very important additional factor, and that's the spacing and timing of activity — its pattern or form. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • proposed by Kalki


2009

Suggestions

Memories and possibilities are ever more hideous than realities. ~ H. P. Lovecraft
  • 3 because imminent dangers and difficulties strike some fear, but the lingering pain of something that has been long gone never subsides, it merely festers within, a neverending scar of reminiscing with the past. Zarbon 15:48, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:03, 19 August 2009 (UTC) 2 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


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Something terrible came to the hills and valleys on that meteor, and something terrible — though I know not in what proportion — still remains. ~ H. P. Lovecraft
  • 2 because this can be interpreted in many ways. A moral interpretation would recount to the inner-most lurkings of human evil, which has remained stagnant for years and years to come. Zarbon 15:48, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


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Prior to the advent of brain, there was no color and no sound in the universe, nor was there any flavor or aroma and probably rather little sense and no feeling or emotion. Before brains the universe was also free of pain and anxiety. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • 2 Zarbon 15:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC) though I might rank it at 3 with just the first sentence.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


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To see a promising solution to a dilemma and then just leave it to questionable development at its own pace without trying to aid its implementation would seem a dereliction. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • 2 Zarbon 15:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


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The grand design of nature perceived broadly in four dimensions, including the forces that move the universe and created man, with special focus on evolution in our own biosphere, is something intrinsically good that it is right to preserve and enhance, and wrong to destroy and degrade. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • 3 Zarbon 15:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC) Though I am leaning toward a 4 on this, another one by Sperry gets that rank from me for this year.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


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We're beginning to learn the hard way that today's global ills are not cured by more and more science and technology. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • 3 Zarbon 15:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


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Although the theoretic changes make little difference in physics, chemistry, molecular biology, and so on, they are crucial for the behavioral, social, and human sciences. They don't change the analytic, reductive methodology, just the interpretations and conclusions. There seems little to lose, and much to gain. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • 2 Zarbon 15:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC) though I would rank it 3 if it were extended slightly for context to start with "The behavioral and cognitive disciplines are leading the way to a more valid framework for all science."
  • 2 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


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Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. ~ H. P. Lovecraft
  • 3 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 02:53, 20 August 2008 (UTC)


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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. ~ H. P. Lovecraft
  • 3 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 02:53, 20 August 2008 (UTC)


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Man's respect for the imponderables varies according to his mental constitution and environment. Through certain modes of thought and training it can be elevated tremendously, yet there is always a limit. ~ H. P. Lovecraft
  • 3 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC) Almost gave this one a 4, but preferred one by Roger Wolcott Sperry for this year.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 02:53, 20 August 2008 (UTC)


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Some of us awake in the night with strange phantasms of enchanted hills and gardens, of fountains that sing in the sun, of golden cliffs overhanging murmuring seas, of plains that stretch down to sleeping cities of bronze and stone, and of shadowy companies of heroes that ride caparisoned white horses along the edges of thick forests; and then we know that we have looked back through the ivory gates into that world of wonder which was ours before we were wise and unhappy. ~ H. P. Lovecraft
  • 3 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 02:53, 20 August 2008 (UTC)


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The centermost processes of the brain with which consciousness is presumably associated are simply not understood. They are so far beyond our comprehension that no one I know of has been able to imagine their nature. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • 3 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 02:53, 20 August 2008 (UTC)


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Futurists and common sense concur that a substantial change, worldwide, in life style and moral guidelines will soon become an absolute necessity. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry
  • 3 Kalki 23:09, 19 August 2009 (UTC) * 4 Kalki 19:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC) but only tenuously a 4
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 02:53, 20 August 2008 (UTC)


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