Oops!

But suppose there is no argument; suppose that the text is asseverative in manner, perhaps because analytical reasoning has been repudiated in favour of reasoning of some higher kind. If now the text is made hard to follow because of non sequiturs, digressions, paradoxes, impressive-sounding references to Gödel, Wittgenstein, and topology, ‘in’ jokes, trollopy metaphors, and a general determination to keep all vulgar sensibilities at bay, then again we shall have great difficulty in finding out what the author intends us to understand.

— Peter Medawar

The Arm-Chair Revolution

Make trouble.
 — Jay Lemke

Dullness

Egotism is the anæsthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
 — Frank Leahy

Low & Behold

Imagine the Creator as a low comedian,

and at once the world becomes explicable.

 — HL Mencken

Club Members

I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.
 — Groucho Marx

Vendre Des Canard À Moitié

The Candle Of Enlightenment

Slipping

Duck The Resolution!

Moving

Work begins when you don't like what you're doing. 

Tension, a lack of honesty, and a sense of unreality come from following the wrong force in your life. 

As an adult, you must rediscover the moving power of your life!
 — Joseph Campbell 'Reflections on the Art of Living'

We

It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.

 — Leonard Cohen

Killed By James Hardie (Amaca) Asbestos This Morning

My Mum

Mum

I see your picture

as though it were a mirror 

but there's no part of you 

outside the frame 

except the change that you gave to me: 

this will never come again. 

You are gone 

and I am with you: 

this will never come again.

 — Peter Hammill 'Again'

Look at the sky, but it's empty now; 

look at the sea, it holds nothing but despair. 

I raise my eyes, but my head stays bowed... 

I look to my side, but you're not there. 

And I can't get you out of my mind, 

no, no, no, no, I just can't get you from my mind.

 — Peter Hammill 'The Shingle Song'


I can't get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.
But all I got is a photograph
And I realise you're not coming back anymore.
 — Richard Starkey 'Photograph'

Mirror Neurons

A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.
 — Niels Bohr

Virtual Selection

Idiot Grin

behind the smirk of the macho man 

is the quivering lip of the little boy.

 — Peter Hammill

Navigational Aid

I see a twinkle in your eye,

so this shall be my Christmas star 

and I will travel to your heart: 

the manger where the real things are.

 — Michæl Leunig 'Christmas'

Throw Of The Die

All persons living and dead are purely coincidental.

 — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Timequake

What Counts

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
 — Tom Stoppard

American Collateral

All that happens is that the destruction of human beings — unless they're Americans — is called collateral damage.
 — Harold Pinter

Butt Me No Butts

Just Add Salt

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
 — Douglas Adams

Ditto Ditto

Nevertheless

He may be an athlete, but he's quite bright.
 — Will Parker on Fritz Eger in Tripods

Interplanetary Jesture

Reverse Nonlinearity

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
 — Dr. Seuss

Neo-Nasties

Hindsight

Time Heals

ZEAL, n. A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. A passion that goeth before a sprawl.

 — Ambrose Bierce

'Lay Down' Sally Robbins Anagram