Let this be the thread to post exceptional quotations on any topic or subject. I'll start it off:

"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but.....it is the leaders who determine the policy whether a democracy, fascist government, parliament, or dictatorship.
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

[Hermann Goering, speaking at the Nuremberg trials after WW2]

“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."

an excerpt from a speech 1933
Major General Smedley Butler USMC

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."

[Frank Sinatra]

New Orleans, gathering place of many nations, has a cosmopolitan population similar to that of the large transatlantic seaports. A second Calcutta, it contains a mixture of peoples and customs, different in color and language, bound together by the universal interest of world commerce. The greatest antithesis exists between the Creoles and Anglo-Americans in language and customs, yet they amalgamate. Widely divergent in their opinions and religious views, they are united in politics and trade. Material gain finally wins over prejudice. The slave trader and the Quaker meet amicably, and yet their concepts are diametrically opposed to one another.

Merchants of most of the commercial nations of Europe are established here, and the ear of the stranger hears every conceivable language of the educated and uneducated world. A foreigner meets a fellow countryman at any moment. In addition to trade with Europe is the important inland and coastal trade, the connections with Mexico, Cuba and parts of the Antilles. Many of the political refugees from these parts choose New Orleans as their new home, and thus a Spanish population is formed, sharply separated from the French and the Anglo-American.

The real non-European population is that of the Negroes, in various nuances of color. The Negroes, Mulattos, and such, classified as either free or slave, constitute the major population of the city and the flat country. The high price of Negroes in Louisiana directs the traffic in human beings more and more to New Orleans.

Of the aborigines one sees on sad remnants in single families of Choctaw and Creeks wandering around the town half naked and ragged, selling trophies of the hunt and woven mats and baskets. Reeking of filth and full of vermin and usually drunk, these repulsive survivors of once mighty tribes now exhibit scarcely any signs of their nationality except the color of their skin. So degraded have they become that the most careful and keenest observer strains in vain to discover anything of a national characteristic which might remind him of their powerful forefathers.

Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurttemberg (umlaut on the u)
Travels in North America 1822-1824
Describing New Orleans 1822

“…there was a curious, though very strict arrangement of buffalo and human skulls placed on the floor of the lodge, ….. In front of the reclining group of young candidates, was a small and very delicate scaffold, elevated about five feet from the ground, …….On the center of this frame rested a small object, which I could not exactly understand from a distance of twenty of thirty feet which intervened between it and me eye……I at length quieted my stifled curiosity as well as I could upon learning the fact, that so sacred was that object, and so important its secrets and mysteries, that not I alone but even the young men who were passing the ordeal, and all the village, save the conductor of the mysteries, were stopped from approaching it or knowing what it was….The little mystery-thing whatever it was, had the appearance from where I sat, of a small tortoise or frog lying on its back, with its head and legs quite extended, and wound and tasseled off with exceedingly delicate red and blue and yellow ribbons or tassels and other bright colored ornaments; and seemed from the devotions paid to it, to be the very nucleus of their mysteries-the sanctissimus sanctorum, from which seemed to emanate all the sanctity of their proceedings, and to which all seemed to be paying the highest devotional respect….so I quieted my curiosity….this seemingly wonderful relic of antiquity, symbol of some grand event, or “secret to valuable to be told,” ,might have been at last nothing but a silly bunch of strings and toys, to which they pay some great regard; and thereby to some favorite Spirit or essence an ideal existence, and which, when called upon to describe, they refuse to do so, calling it “great Medicine,” for the very reason that there is nothing in it to reveal or describe.”

Description by George Catlin of the scene of the Mandan Medicine lodge during the religious ceremonies that would end in the “young men passing the ordeal” undergoing ritual self mutilation. Seems George Catlin would have been a Joseph Campbell fan had he lived long enough to share the world with Mr Campbell!


“I ascended the mound (the mound on which Sergeant Floyd was buried) and sat upon his grave, over grown with grass and the most delicate wildflowers, where I sat and contemplated the stillness of this tenanted mound; and beheld from its top, the windings infinite of the Missouri, and its thousand hills and domes of green, vanishing into blue into distance, when not but the soft-breathing winds were heard, to break the stillness and quietude of the scene. Where not the chirping of bird or sound of cricket, nor soaring eagles scream, were interposed ‘tween God and man; nor aught to check man’s whole surrender of his soul to his Creator. I could not hunt upon this ground, but I roamed from hill-top to hill-top, and culled wild flowers, and looked into the valley below me, both up the river and down, and contemplated the thousand hills and dales that are now carpeted with green, streaked as they will be, with the plough, and yellow with the harvest sheath; spotted with lowing kine-with houses and fences, and groups of hamlets and villas-and these lovely hill tops with the giddy din and maze, or secret earnest whispers of lovesick swains-of pristine simplicity of virtue-wholesome and well earned contentment and abundance-and again, of wealth and refinements-of idleness and luxury-of vice and its deformities-of fire and sword and vengeance of offended Heaven, wreaked in retributive destruction!-and peace, and quiet and loveliness, and silence, dwelling again, over and through these scenes and blending them into futurity!”

This last passages was written by George Catlin in the mid to late 1830’s on the site of the cedar grave marker of Sergeant Floyd from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Sergeant Charles Floyd was diagnosed to have “Biliose Chorlick” by Merriwether Lewis in 1804 and on August 20, 1804 he died and was buried on a hill above an unnamed river and a red-cedar post engraved with his name, title and the date was raised above the grave. He was the first US Soldier to die west of the Mississippi River.

There had been a frightening period of rabid dog attacks in a village of India causing the municipility ,guided by Gandhi's long time friend and confidant, to dispose of the canines.There was a huge uproar after they killed the dogs and proceeded to cart the carcases through the main part of town...during a holiday to boot!..hindus were not happy.
but Gandhi defended his friend and stated...

"In our ignorance, we must kill rabid dogs even as we might have to kill a man found in the act of killing people."

ooo boy did he catch flac for that one...being Gandhi and all.
his responce to the heat?...

"They had attributed to me nonviolence as they understand it. Now they find me acting in a contrary manner and are angry with me...I appreciate the motive behind it. I must try to reason with them patiently...it is a sin to feed stray dogs. It is a false sense of compassion. It is an insult to a starving dog to throw a crumb at him. Roving dogs do not indicate the civilization or compassion of the society; they betray on the contrary the ignorance and lethargy of it's members.The lower animals are our brethren. I include among them the lion and the tiger. We do not know how to live with these carnivorous beasts and poisonous reptiles because of our ignorance. When man learns better, he will learn to befriend even these. Today he does not even know how to befriend a man of a different religion or from a different country."


quoted in "The life of Mahatma Gandhi"
and "Gandhi's Truth"

The court case on that whole evolution in the Dover PA school thing evolves around whether or not a quote is correct from June7, 2004 at the time of the initial school board debates on the subject.

"This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution. THis country was founded on Christianity, and our students should be taught as such."

Attributed to board member Bill Buckingham who is the primary instigator in the "Intelligent Design vs Evolution" issue. He can't recall saying it but others can.

Everyone knows the Founding Fathers really said separation of "Intersecular Christian Squabbles and State" and not "Separation of Church and State". Interpreting the intent of the Founding Fathers worked for Guns, why can't it work for Christianity?

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there was the storm of seeing him of watching him act distant and fake a regular heartbeat Of laughing as the young dada king pulled off his crazy act on the stage Of seeing three thousand people forgive the unforgivable because his magic came out of a well of small gems and an inexcusable charm- He put us all on But he mostly put himself on because through his entire dada act he only smiled three times A bizarre liar screaming into the electric microphones under the bright bright lights with five anonymous musicians straining in the dark around him He was a huge transparent bubble of ego And I said yes to the sounds of his rage and his band and I listened and heard the words, the pleadings, the nonsense, the denials and I almost drowned in it but came up over and over to call for more....and he went ahead hitting hard and steady until he broke his heart in public-and denied it all backstage afterword-after the show.

Someone drove me home and I walked around the house I ate from the refrigerator and stopped somewhere in the middle of a bite and waited. Calm swept in from the outside. I didn'e move.God was somewhere in the kitchen and I was heating milk and thinking...I am lucky...the dada king sleeps...The bells of the Gregorian chanters are ringing...I feel a glow for the dada king...

Listen God Look closely after him. He's more fragile than most people and besides, I love him. I "also keep the cards that read 'have mercy on his soul.'"

Joan Baez

"Well you see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers...."

[Cliff Claven of Cheers fame]

...the people are becoming enlightened enough to ask for a better philosophy. The doctrine of hell is now only for the poor, the ragged, the ignorant. Well-dressed people won't have it. Nobody goes to hell in a carriage - they foot it. Hell is for strangers and tramps. No soul leaves a brownstone front for hell - they start from the tenements, from jails and from reformatories. In other words, hell is for the poor. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a poor man to get into heaven, or for a rich man to get into hell.The ministers stand by their supporters. Their salaries are paid by the well-to-do and they can hardly afford to send the subscribers to hell. Every creed in which is the dogma of eternal pain is doomed. Every church teaching the infinite lie must fall and the sooner the better.

Robert G Ingersoll
On the Twentieth Century
New York 1890

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mr. Praline: "'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!! "

Monty Python (John Cleese to Michael Palin; the Dead Parrot Sketch)

Classic...So Arnie, how about lunch and a trip to the Shubert Theater to see what tix are available for "Spamalot"?

" Odd that penguin being there, isn't it?"

Tips from Eric Idle

Don't read newspapers. They are not just bad for trees.

Don't watch TV news. Look at those anchors in their wigs and ridiculous hairdos. Can you trust people who are lying about their appearance?

Same goes for TV evangelists. If God wants money, he will take it. That is why he is God.