NationStates Jolt Archive

Instead of making a new thread for each philosophical idea I come up with, I decided to simply make one big thread where we can all post our philosophical ideas, or those of others as long as you give them credit.

To start the thread off:

True geniuses are those who can do anything, but choose not to. (Me)

If there is a paper plate, and one person thinks it's metal, then convinces everyone it is metal, would the paper plate be metal? (Me)

If there is one thing I don't understand about humanity, it's how come we never learn from our mistakes, no matter how many times they're made. (Me)

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and
remove all doubt. (Mark Twain)

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit,
to do the unnecessary. -- Richard Harkness, The New York Times, 1960 (The word "committee" is now outdated. We know it better as a "coalition".)

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn
from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent
disinclination to do so. -- Douglas Adams

"Television - a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor
well-done." -- Ernie Kovacs (Made me chuckle, but it's true)

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. -- Unknown

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true." -- Irving Caesar

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we
didn't." -- Erica Jong

"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is
generally employed only by small children and large nations." -- David Friedman

"Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain." -- Lily Tomlin

"Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than
we deserve." -- George Bernard Shaw

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never
worshipped anything but himself." -- Sir Richard F. Burton

"Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?" -- La Rochefoucauld

"A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is
shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain." -- Mark Twain

"A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you
don't need it." -- Bob Hope

"Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed." -- Jonathan Swift

Love is like Pi: natural, irrational, and very important. -- Lisa Hoffman

Don't think of it as being outnumbered, think of it as a wide target
selection. -- Unknown (Not important in anyway, but pretty damn funny)

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god
than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible
gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. --Stephen F Roberts (This one is guaranteed to send a few people into a whirl...)

A youth becomes a man when the marks he wants to leave on the world have
nothing to do with tires. -- Unknown

We the unwilling working for the ungrateful are doing the impossible. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing. -- Unknown (Goes along with the committee one in a way)

If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. -- Dolly Parton

It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I know they say love is blind, but does it also have to be deaf, dumb,
and stupid? -- Unknown

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same. -- Oscar Wilde

I got most (actually, all) of the quotations that I didn't come up with from here:

http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/3505/quotations.htm

Sooooo.. this isn't so much a philosophy thread, as just another quote thread..

Sooooo.. this isn't so much a philosophy thread, as just another quote thread..

Yeah, but you're allowed to submit your own stuff, plus it has to be philosophical, can't be "funny" stuff.

Yeah, but you're allowed to submit your own stuff, plus it has to be philosophical, can't be "funny" stuff.Anything can be philosophical, really. Here's the most philosophical selection from my personal quotes file. Most aren't ascribed to someone, unfortunately..



"An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it."

"Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?"

"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak"

Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"

"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

"trying is the first step in failure"

"Winners never quit, and quitters never win, but if you can't win and don't quit, you're an idiot."

"The problem with common sense is that it's not common"

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't"

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, pee in it, and serve it to the people that piss you off"

"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want...an adorable pancreas? "

"Any sufficiently advanced communication is indistinguishable from noise" -- Lachmann's theorem

"The big theoretical problem, of course, is the question of the universality of our biology and arguments from it: will there be penises on other planets?" --Jack&Ian "What does a martian look like"

A wise man knows he need not be clever.
A clever man thinks he need not be wise.

True geniuses are those who can do anything, but choose not to. (Me)

If there is a paper plate, and one person thinks it's metal, then convinces everyone it is metal, would the paper plate be metal? (Me)

If there is one thing I don't understand about humanity, it's how come we never learn from our mistakes, no matter how many times they're made. (Me)


Let us deal only with what has a chance of being original.

Losers, not true geniuses, are those who can do anything, but choose not to. A true genius is that person who does whatever it is that he or she does as well as it is possible to do it and it is not possible to do nothing well.

It would still be a paper plate, but we would think that that paper is a metal (wrongly). Paper is a specific substance - metal is a category that encompasses many different substances - we could easily decide that paper is a metal and the paper plate, whilst still being paper is also a metal plate.

So why do you keep making the same mistakes over and over? Answer that and you will answer your own question.

Anything can be philosophical, really. Here's the most philosophical selection from my personal quotes file. Most aren't ascribed to someone, unfortunately..



"An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it."

"Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?"

"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak"

Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"

"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

"trying is the first step in failure"

"Winners never quit, and quitters never win, but if you can't win and don't quit, you're an idiot."

"The problem with common sense is that it's not common"

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't"

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, pee in it, and serve it to the people that piss you off"

"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want...an adorable pancreas? "

"Any sufficiently advanced communication is indistinguishable from noise" -- Lachmann's theorem

"The big theoretical problem, of course, is the question of the universality of our biology and arguments from it: will there be penises on other planets?" --Jack&Ian "What does a martian look like"

Ahh, that one. I love that one.

I forget the rest of Lachmann's theorem

It's like, science/magic, schizophrenia/religion, and some other things.

Let us deal only with what has a chance of being original.

Losers, not true geniuses, are those who can do anything, but choose not to. A true genius is that person who does whatever it is that he or she does as well as it is possible to do it and it is not possible to do nothing well.

It would still be a paper plate, but we would think that that paper is a metal (wrongly). Paper is a specific substance - metal is a category that encompasses many different substances - we could easily decide that paper is a metal and the paper plate, whilst still being paper is also a metal plate.

So why do you keep making the same mistakes over and over? Answer that and you will answer your own question.

Pssh. You, good sir, are a snob. You need to learn to be lazy. It's great fun.

Hey, I said "Humanity", not "All humanity besides me".

I have always liked this one I made:

Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.