The Art of War

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

And therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

A general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Hope and Acceptance

This post is dedicated to my mom, possibly the bravest woman alive.

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.
~ Michael J. Fox

If I let it affect everything, it’s gonna own everything. I don’t deny it or pretend it’s not there, but if I don’t allow it to be bigger than it is, then I can do everything else.
~ Michael J. Fox on Parkinson's Disease

My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.
~ Michael J. Fox

I think it is humility and saying "I can't negotiate this. I can't use who I am in the world to get out from under this." Humility is always a good thing. It's always a good thing to be humbled by circumstances so you can then come from a sincere place to try to deal with them.
~ Michael J. Fox tells how he accepted his diagnosis, Interview with beliefnet

I see possibilities in everything. For everything that's taken away, something of greater value has been given. As big as my problems are, as big as Parkinson's is, for example, it can't take up that much space in a world that has so much capacity for good stuff. It just doesn't. I just don't let it take up that much room.
~ Michael J. Fox, Interview with beliefnet

Deep Thoughts from South Park, CO

I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
~ Mr. (Herbert) Garrison

Hippies.They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.
~ Eric Cartman

I think that parents only get so offended by television because they rely on it as a babysitter and the sole educator of their kids.
~ Kyle Broflovski

No, that's wrong, Cartman. But don't worry. There are no stupid answers, just stupid people.
~ Mr. (Herbert) Garrison

Those Celebrities Just Love to Entertain

Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.
~ Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign

I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada.
~ Britney Spears, on Blender Magazine (April 2004)

Predictions are difficult, especially about the future.
~Yogi Berra

It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.
~ Dan Quayle, U.S. Vice President

The word ‘genius’ isn’t applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”
~ Joe Theismann

Von Mises the Great

If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action.
~ Ludwig Von Mises, Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War


No one shall be idle if I have to work; no one shall be rich if I am poor. Thus we see, again and again, that resentment lies behind all socialist ideas.
~ Ludwig Von Mises, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis

Democracy in America

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Relativity or Relativism?

At the beginning of the 1920s the belief began to circulate, for the first time at a popular level, that there were no longer any absolutes, of time and space, of good and evil, of knowledge, above all, of value. Mistakenly, but perhaps inevitably, relativity became confused with relativism. No one was more distressed than Einstein by this public misapprehension. He was bewildered by the relentless publicity and error which his work seemed to promote.

~ Paul Johnson, Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the 1980s

The Unequaled Poirot

I do not approve of murder.
~ Hercule Poirot, Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie

It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without.
~ Hercule Poirot, Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

It is a profound belief of mine that if you can induce a person to talk to you for long enough, on any subject whatever, sooner or later they will give themselves away.
~ Hercule Poirot, After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

Heroics and Wisdom

The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one’s self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom to know when it ought to be resisted , and when to be obeyed.

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance