Tuesday 29 May 2018

Outwitting Fate

The only way to be sure of catching a train 
is to miss the one before it.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Saturday 26 May 2018

Mediocracy

The general tendency of things throughout the world 
is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

— John Stuart Mill

Sunday 20 May 2018

Sleeping Dogs Lie

A person may cause evil to others 
not only by his actions 
but by his inaction, 
and in either case 
he is justly accountable to them for the injury.

— John Stuart Mill

Friday 18 May 2018

Uniformation

There's a danger in the internet and social media. 
The notion that information is enough, 
that more and more information is enough, 
that you don't have to think, 
you just have to get more information, 
gets very dangerous.

— Edward de Bono

Thursday 17 May 2018

The Wheel Is Still Spinning, But The Hamster Is Dead

Anda a ver si el gallo puso (Venezuelan Spanish)
Literally: Go see if the rooster laid an egg.
Means: Go away, stop bothering me.

Estás más solo que un colegio de noche (Venezuelan Spanish)
Literally: You’re more alone than a school at night.
Means: You’re completely alone.

Une vache espagnole (French)
Literally: A Spanish cow.
Means: Someone who speaks French with a poor accent.

Hún dàn (Mandarin)
Literally: Mixed egg.
Means: You bastard.

Pónte las pilas (Spanish)
Literally: Put your batteries in.
Means: Get on with it.

Qué mala leche (Argentinian Spanish)
Literally: What bad milk.
Means: How rude/unpleasant.

Qué poca madre tienes. (Mexican Spanish)
Literally: How little mother you have.
Means: You’re so rude.

Estás mandando fruta. (Argentinian Spanish)
Literally: You’re sending fruit.
Means: You’re talking nonsense.

Casse-toi (French)
Literally: Go break yourself.
Means: Get lost.

Tōfu no kado ni atama wo utte shinē (Japanese)
Literally: Go hit your head on a corner of tofu and die.

Gey strashe di gen (Yiddish)
Literally: Go threaten geese.
Means: You don’t scare me.

Gey kakken oifen yam (Yiddish)
Literally: Go take a poop in the sea.
Means: Go to hell.

Es más feo que un carro visto por debajo (Colombian Spanish)
Literally: He/she’s uglier than a car seen from below.

Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben (German)
Literally: To not have all the cups in the cupboard.
Means: To be a bit of an idiot.

Friday 11 May 2018

Non-Conformity

The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that's the most interesting: 
the part that doesn't go according to what you expected.
— Richard P. Feynman

Wednesday 9 May 2018

Free Will

We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, 
but people wouldn't obey the rules.
— Alan Bennett

Monday 7 May 2018

Follow The Leader

When people accept breaking the law as normal, 
something happens to the whole society.
 — Orson Welles

Saturday 5 May 2018

Freedom vs Ethics

The only freedom I care about 
is the freedom to do right; 
the freedom to do wrong 
I am ready to part with 
on the cheapest terms 
to anyone who will take it of me.
 — Thomas Huxley