Famous Quotes at Understand Famous Quotes dot com

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
~~ Thomas Jefferson ~~ (1743–1826)

It’s a reflection of human stupidity that wars have been fought and are still being fought over such a simple matter as to whether there is or isn’t a God.

If everybody was to think logically and act reasonably, then it is clear that it poses no danger to anybody if somebody believes there is one God and somebody else believes that there are many gods and somebody else believes that there is no God at all.

The trouble begins when some people appoint themselves as special messengers of God and proceed to enforce their brand of God on others, usually using one religion or the other as a front for their operations. We call such people ‘fundamentalists’ or ‘religious fanatics’ though I think ‘deranged idiots’ is a better description. LOL.

In reality such ‘deranged idiots’ have no faith in God or even in the religion they profess to propagate as they show no hesitation in killing even people belonging to their own religion. And since such people have existed before, exist today and will exist tomorrow in one form or another, it’s imperative on the World in general and secular democracies in particular to keep themselves well armed and well prepared to face such self-proclaimed special messengers of God.

It’s going to be very, very expensive, but it will be worth every penny.
~~ John Cleese ~~

John Cleese made the above remark about his impending divorce from his third wife. She wants two houses, half his earnings since the time that they married (1992) and £900,000 maintenance a year.

Now I am not sure if he thinks it’s worth every penny because she has given him so much love during all these years and so she deserves every penny she is asking for or because she has sucked so much blood out of him that he thinks it’s worth it to get rid of her at any price! LOL

He is also an incorrigible optimist; this is his third divorce. Come on man, give your head a shake. How many times are you going to try to make Hope Triumph Over Experience?

They’ve declared her dead more times than a cat’s got lives.
~~ Bill Clinton ~~

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, slammed the press while campaigning in Kentucky, in support of his wife, Hillary.

I agree with him; the press coverage has been highly slanted against Hillary throughout this campaign. Lots of people (self-appointed political pundits?) have been making noise for quite a while now that she should quit. The Democratic party has a process in place to determine the winner, so why not let the process run its course?

Even though she is lagging behind in delegate count, and I also think she is unlikely to get the nomination, but the fact remains that none of the two has been able to gather enough delegates to declare victory. So the decision to quit or not to quit should be hers. After all, she is following the rules laid down by the party. And if the party thinks that the rules, as they stand, put the party nominee at a disadvantage against the Republicans, then they should change the rules before the next nomination; as it’s too late to change the rules now for this nomination. Forcing a candidate to quit before the candidate is defeated is undemocratic.

Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.
~~ Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes ~~

Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview that believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God.

Good for Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes to be a pragmatist; it would be foolhardy to think that in such a vast universe there won’t be other life anywhere else. It may be a different form of life than what we know as life on earth but, from what we know so far, it’s not a stretch to think that some form(s) of life - may be even intelligent life - may exist somewhere else in the universe.

But whether such aliens will be ‘brotherly’ towards us if and when they discover us (or we discover them), is highly debatable. One has only to look at how ‘brotherly’ were the Europeans to native Indians when they discovered them!

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
~~ Charles De Gaulle ~~ (1890 - 1970)

That’s exactly what they do! I think they intentionally come up with titles such as ‘public servant’ to make the people feel good. LOL

Now, when a politician is elected to any office, it’s usually for a certain number of years and , therefore, the contract is essentially like that of an employer and employee, so they could call themselves ‘public employees’. But no, they call themselves ‘public servants’ and act like masters. It’s only a rare politician who contests an election to become a servant; most of them only pose as servants to get elected to the positions that have powers and privileges of a master.

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.
~~ Oprah Winfrey ~~

Actually I think there are secrets to life but nobody knows those secrets - the nature is keeping those secrets to itself. But it is true that our best chance at life is to have our goal(s) and work towards it with resolute determination and a positive attitude. That way there is a good possibility that we will get where we want to go but there are no guarantees in life. History is filled with examples of people who attained spectacular success yet ended up failing miserably.

A classic example is the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821) who rose from chaos to be the Emperor of France, built a powerful empire, then failed miserably causing the destruction of his empire and he himself died in captivity. So what happened? Why Napoleon, who is variously described as a genius, a master tactician etc. and who was so successful, failed so miserably?

Well, we can explain it away by saying that he failed because he made terrible decisions. But I am sure he didn’t wake up one morning and thought that from now on he is going to make terrible decisions that will lead to his destruction. No, my thinking is that there are times - call it chance or luck or secret of nature - when your actions or decisions will produce bitter results, no matter how smart you may be. On the other hand, if you don’t diligently work towards your goal, it’s virtually guaranteed that you’ll never attain your goal.

I do not like work even when someone else does it.
~~ Mark Twain ~~ (1835 - 1910)

Mark Twain is not alone in his dislike for work; there are a lot of people who don’t like their work. There are many reasons for it:

• We humans by nature don’t like ‘anything’ that we ‘have to’ do as it implies compulsion and we resent it. Now, to survive in this world, one has to have a job (work) and lots of us end up with jobs for which we have no interest.
• Many jobs such as factory or assembly jobs are so repetitive that a worker is required to perform the same operation over and over again all day, everyday with little or no brain work involved. This results in extreme boredom for the worker resulting in such problems as workers drinking or taking drugs on the job.

Looking from another angle: If you don’t like to work, don’t worry; even Mark Twain didn’t like it! LOL

By January, 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women. … The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension.
~~ John McCain ~~

John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for the president of USA, predicts as to how the future will unfold during his first term in office.

Apparently, he predicted this after consulting his newly acquired crystal ball! LOL

Obviously, like any other politician, John thinks that people are just fools and they will believe anything he says. But people aren’t fools; it’s just that most of the time their choice is limited to choosing between the devil and the deep sea.

This talk of how the things will be in 2013, is simply a political rhetoric aimed at getting as many votes as he can. Sensing that American public is not too thrilled, he shifted his position from 100 years to 5 years because he knows that there are no consequences if what he says will happen, doesn’t happen. For example, what consequences George Bush faced for claiming victory in Iraq in 2003?

By the time 2013 comes around, John McCain - if he is elected, will have ample time to explain away why the future didn’t unfold the way he said it would. It’s a wonderful world! :-)

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.
~~ Thomas Carlyle ~~ (1795 – 1881)

Perseverance and persistence is very important in achieving any goal. No matter what you set out to do, it’s almost guaranteed that you will face obstacles, discouragements and difficulties in your pursuit and at times it may even seem impossible to attain your goal. The person with a strong soul and commitment to his or her goal will persist in the face of obstacles and will try to find solutions to overcome such obstacles whereas a weak willed person will abandon his or her pursuit.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
~~ C.S. Lewis ~~ (1898 - 1963)

That’s exactly true! Whether we sit, sleep, whine, grumble or do something useful, we keep reaching the future at the rate of 60 minutes an hour until we take our last breath, then the time stops and that precisely is moment when one’s future comes to a complete halt permanently! LOL

So if you were waiting for your future, don’t - the future is now and it is passing you by at the rate of 60 minutes an hour.

The truth is I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn’t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn’t. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them—and fooling them.
~~ Marilyn Monroe ~~ (1926 - 1962)

Marilyn’s reading of the people is very accurate and also shows her frustration with the people around her. Since she was a celebrity and very beautiful, all sorts of people ran wild with their own imaginations and made all sorts of assumptions about her without bothering to know her as a person. She once said that ‘Dogs never bite me. Just humans’. :-)

If you observe carefully, you’ll notice that people around you such as your co-workers, acquaintances and, even people who know you very well, make assumptions (usually false assumptions) about you and then express surprise when you tell them it ain’t so. And if you were a celebrity with the popularity of Marilyn Monroe then the rumor mill gets in over-drive with total disregard for the facts and people start making false assumptions for which they have only themselves to blame.

To marry a second time represents the triumph of hope over experience.
~~ Samuel Johnson ~~

Funny and true as well. However, some people are getting smart - they don’t marry even once! And if they do decide to marry, they draw up a prenuptial agreement to mitigate their losses when the hammer falls. :-)

But those who marry a second time or more, obviously belong to that class of people who refuse to learn anything from their experience. Or may be they are incorrigible optimists and keep marrying again and again hoping against hope that this time things will get better.

When you look back on your life and try to figure out where you’ve been and where you are going, when you look at your work, your love affairs, your marriages, your children, your pain, your happiness - when you examine all that closely, what you really find out is that the only person you really go to bed with is yourself.
~~ Shirley Maclaine ~~

I think this is a real classic. I truly believe in it. We have friends and relatives and whatever but can you really depend on them in every situation? Not really. Just look around to find how many friends, relatives, lovers, co-workers etc. turn against each other.

As a matter of fact, we all experience what is known as internal struggle, where we debate within ourselves whether or not to do something. When all is said and done, the only person you can truly count on is you. All the more reason to take care of yourself, be independent, self-reliant and love yourself first!

What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells?
~~ Mahatma Gandhi ~~ (1869 - 1948)

Now that is a good question to ponder.

Just because you can charge for something as much as you want and people will pay for it because they don’t have a choice, doesn’t make it a smart business. Rather, it displays a pickpocket mentality; steal as much as you can while you can!

A classic example happening right now is in the crude oil business. It costs approximately $2 to produce a barrel of crude oil in Saudi Arabia and $15 in Alberta, Canada; yet, at the moment, oil is trading over $120 a barrel! How come?

Now everybody will agree that to survive and prosper, a business has to make a reasonable profit - the keyword being ‘reasonable’. To charge $120 for something that costs $2 or $15 to produce cannot be called reasonable by any stretch of the imagination! Of course the price of oil is not determined solely by the producers; there are many other players like the oil companies, traders, speculators etc. etc. - just fancy names for pickpockets! And they would have us believe that it’s all a question of supply and demand! Or which has become even more fashionable now-a-days: Blame everything on the emerging economies of India or China or both. :-)

If all these players in the oil industry were to limit their profits to a reasonable level, the price of oil will certainly not be what it is today. Gandhi would call it theft, not business. I agree.

The election is over, everybody knows that. Obama has won.
~~ Vernon Watkins ~~

Vernon Watkins is a member of the Democratic National Committee from California and a superdelegate. Watkins, who endorsed Obama, made the above assessment as Obama has overtaken Hillary in the superdelegate support.

Strictly speaking, the election is not over and Obama has not won yet. But such statements are being frequently made by Obama supporting Democrats in an effort to prod Hillary to bow out of the race.

In spite of the tide turning against her, Hillary isn’t showing any signs of conceding the race.

While I do believe that, since the race is so close between the two, the election process should be carried out to the end to determine the eventual winner for the nomination but at some point one has to read the writing on the wall and call it a day. I think for Hillary that day has now come.

I also understand why it is so hard for Hillary to concede defeat. For years she was labeled, by the so called ‘political pundits’, a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination, so it must be really hard for her to accept that a relatively unknown contender is about to defeat her. But in politics, as in life, fortunes can and do change quickly; notwithstanding what the pundits predicted in the past!

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
~~ Woody Allen ~~

Absolutely. Money is far better than poverty and not just for financial reasons. It also opens the door to power and privileges that the poor can not even dream of.

Whether we like it or not, the fact remains that the world has evolved in such a fashion that money has become all important and it exerts great influence on our individual lives. It is inconceivable and impossible to live without money though having lots of money will not necessarily make you happy or even content in life.

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~ (1872 - 1970)

Man a rational animal? Those who say that man is a rational animal are stretching the truth! LOL. That’s why Mr. Bertrand Russell could not find any evidence in his search; man and rationality don’t mix!

I think that if animals were to know that we are comparing man to them, most of them will be offended except, perhaps, the snakes. Snakes will probably claim that they are more creepy than the man. LOL

Men (humans) usually do whatever creepy thing they are bent upon doing with no regard to facts and offer rationalizations after the fact to justify their actions. It happens that way likely because it’s much harder and difficult to face facts and act accordingly while being creepy is easier and often profitable! :-)

The fact is that while men (humans) may be capable of thinking and acting rationally, history tells us that they usually act irrationally. A good example is the wars fought throughout history over religion. Now let us assume, for the sake of argument, that everybody in the world adopts a religion ‘X’. Then what? Will the conflicts go away? Will everybody start showing love and respect for everybody else? Not a chance. So this pursuit of forcing one’s religion, any religion, on others is totally irrational (and useless as well) yet man has followed it since ages and continues to follow it today, often using brutal force.

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.
~~ Helen Keller (1880-1968) ~~

It’s so true. Self-pity, by its very nature, is negative; it has no positive to it and we must never yield to it.

Sometimes we may find ourselves in trying circumstances when everything around us seems to be falling apart and we may be inclined to indulge in self-pity but such indulgence will not help us rectify the situation. Only determined, positive efforts can do that.

So always treat self-pity for what it is: An enemy. And don’t allow it to control your life.

Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.
~~ Mark Twain ~~ (1835 - 1910)

That will be the way to live a happy life! Most of us are always too conscious of what we say or do as we are looking for approval from others about everything we say or do. And we concentrate so much on our problems, disappointments and failures that we usually ignore the moments of happiness that come by.

Considering that each of us is here on earth for a very short period of time (most of us live less than 100 years which is negligible compared to earth which has been around for billions of years), we should heed Mark Twain’s advice; keep our spirits uplifted in spite of disappointments and failures we may encounter and enjoy the ride of life with all its ups and downs. After all, it’s only a short ride! :-)

How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?
~~ Oliver Stone ~~

Oliver Stone is making a movie to attempt to answer the above question.

I don’t think it’s that difficult to figure this out. Here are the main reasons:

1. Possession of tons of money. Money is by far the best ‘friend’ anybody could have to achieve anything in this world. It’s the root without which a tree can not grow. In this case it’s not a tree but a bush! LOL
2. Powerful connections. If you got the dough, establishing powerful connections is a cinch. In Bush’s case it was even easier because his father was an ex-president. Not surprisingly, many people in his administration were the same who held positions in his father’s administration as well! Sort of all in the family affair. :-)
3. Very friendly judiciary with right wingers in majority, mostly appointed by his father!
4. Voter apathy. A lot of voters think, and rightly so, that one politician is just as bad as the other, and don’t bother to go out and vote.

With all these factors in his favor, it is not a surprise that this alcoholic bum went on to become the most powerful figure in the world. Politics is, indeed, a funny business!

It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.
~~ Marilyn Monroe ~~ (1926 - 1962)

Good answer by Marilyn to her detractors! They were obviously being untruthful in accusing that she had nothing on while she had the radio on! LOL

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
~~ Winston Churchill ~~ (1874 - 1965)

It’s true; life is a sum total of successes and failures. After one or two or even some successes, the life does not stop; it keeps on going. Same applies to failures. The only difference is that it’s a bit easier to carry on after success than it is after a failure.

Failures act as valuable lessons and experience for those who have the courage not to give up and continue their pursuit. They analyze the causes of the failure so as not to repeat the same mistakes again. Success and failure go hand in hand; almost every successful person fails a few times and some fail several times before they finally succeed. So one must always keep the courage to keep on going forward and expect that successes and failures will be encountered along the way.

Money is only loaned to a man. He comes into the world with nothing and he leaves with nothing.
~~ William Crapo Durant ~~

Not exactly true. While it’s true that one comes into the world with nothing and leaves with nothing, the money is only loaned to you if you are born to rich parents, marry a rich person or win a lottery! Since you don’t have much choice in who you are born to, you may want to try your hand at the other two options. LOL. If nothing works for you, then you just have to go out and grab some money to survive.

As would be expected, some are able to grab more money than others. Some even manage to create money (wealth) through their ingenuity and hard work. Some grab it through tricks and treachery. And most of us work our butts off and live from pay cheque to pay cheque. And when it comes time to leave this earth, we wonder: where did the time go? :-)

I think it’s a good thing that we can’t take our money with us (actually I think we don’t go anywhere, it’s just dust to dust but that is a different topic). There is so much turmoil in the world over money in spite of the fact that we can’t take it with us; can you imagine what a hell hole this world would be if we could actually take our money with us?

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy - for Iraq, for the U.S., for the UN, for truth and human dignity.
~~ Hans Blix ~~

Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector, wrote the above quote in his opinion piece for The Guardian. As you may remember, he asked many times that the UN inspections be given a chance to establish if WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) exist before any military action is taken but was repeatedly over-ruled by the Bush administration.

The war was certainly a tragedy for Iraq and U.S., and still continues to be so with no end in sight. But it was a godsend for ‘private’ security firms, re-construction firms and the like who made a fortune and still continue to make millions. I’m sure ‘they’ don’t consider war to be such a bad thing. They probably wish there were more wars so that they could get some extra business!

In my view, so far as the prevention of wars is concerned, UN is pretty much a useless body; it has no teeth, its decisions are made based on politics rather than facts and the decisions are usually ignored. Or even worse, its decisions are used as a pretext to start a war.

So?
~~ Dick Cheney ~~

This was U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney’s response when Martha Raddatz, ABC’s White House correspondent, told him about a poll showing that most Americans do not believe the Iraq war was worth fighting.

It’s not a surprise considering that Mr. Cheney and his colleagues in this U.S. administration don’t really care much about what Americans think or say about their actions. They justify their actions by saying that an administration can’t govern by following public opinion. And, to an extent they are right; once the Americans elect their president then that president and his administration are free to pursue any policies they deem fit and are not bound by the public opinion.

However, what the elected president and his administration can’t do and shouldn’t do is blatantly mislead the public, disregard the constitution and break every law in the book. And this administration has done all of this; so much so that practically nobody believes them anymore and American credibility in the world has suffered a lot.

While everybody in the world feels that invading Iraq was a terrible mistake or mis-calculation, this administration keeps on insisting that invading Irag was the right thing to do! And the ‘So?’ answer of Mr. Cheney shows that they don’t give a damn that hundreds of thousands of people (American and Iraqi) have been killed or maimed in this foolish adventure.

What a shame!

Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man; he is sure to find an easy way of doing it.
~~ Walter Chrysler ~~ (1875 - 1940)

Not true at all. If you assign a hard job to a lazy man, you are most likely to hear a perfect excuse as to why the job couldn’t be done because the easiest thing for the lazy person to do will be to invent a perfect excuse rather than find an easy way to do the job. Once in a while a lazy man may be able to find an easy way of doing a hard job but that will be the exception rather than the rule.

I would rather assign a hard job to a dependable, intelligent and hard working person who will spend his time finding ways to get the job done rather than thinking of excuses as to why it couldn’t be done. As you might have noticed at your work, most bosses follow the same rule: Whenever there is an urgent job to be done, they always assign it to the most dependable and hard working person. And rightly so.

I have learned the difference between a cactus and a caucus. On a cactus, the pricks are on the outside.
~~ Morris Udall ~~ (1922-1998)

Also, on a cactus the pricks are not only on the outside, they make no effort to hide the fact that they are, indeed, pricks. But in a caucus, the pricks are not only inside, they hide the fact really well that they are pricks!

And many of these pricks go on to attain powerful positions in government, further messing up the already messed up world. It’s their relentless pursuit for money and power that makes them behave the way they do and they get away with a lot. Only a few of them get incarcerated if and when they are caught grossly crossing the line and doing something outright illegal such as taking kickbacks etc. So they don’t have much of an incentive to change their prickly behavior inside or outside of a caucus.

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
~~ William Shakespeare ~~ (1564 - 1616)

Shakespeare has mentioned three ways of becoming great but there are actually four ways of achieving greatness:

1. You can be born great. For example, you could have been born in some sort of monarchy or royalty. If you didn’t get that, don’t worry. You didn’t have a choice in the matter, did you? LOL
2. You can achieve greatness - if you really want it. This one is admittedly the toughest route to follow and requires a lot of hard work, intelligence, cleverness, leadership qualities and all that jazz. Do you really want to put yourself through that grind? I didn’t think so!
3. You can have greatness thrust upon you. That can happen if the lady luck smiles upon you and you manage to capture a high office. For example, the current US president George Bush - some still refer to him as a ‘great’ president. LOL
4. Another way to achieve greatness; which Shakespeare failed to mention, probably because it wasn’t available in his times; is to buy greatness! Hire a BIG PR firm and soon everybody will ‘know’ that you are indeed a great soul! :-)

What if you can’t employ any of the above methods to become ‘great’? Don’t be afraid; greatness doesn’t really matter! So forget about it and continue living your life. LOL

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~ (1872 - 1970)

Most of us take our work too seriously. That is a paradox considering that most of us don’t like our jobs; many surveys show that only about 2% of us are making our living by doing what we really like to do.

Don’t take your work too seriously. Work is a means for living, not the living itself. You might think that your work is extremely important and only you can do it well but you are sadly mistaken. Nobody is irreplaceable. What if you die right now? Will the world come to a halt? Absolutely not. The world didn’t come to a halt even when those who labeled themselves as ‘Great’ passed away.

When you are not around, there will be many others willing and able to fill your shoes and may be do even better than you! So relax, avoid nervous breakdown and premature death. LOL.

The wheel of time keeps on turning; with or without you!

When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.
~~ Oscar Wilde ~~ (1854 - 1900)

Young or old, everybody must learn quickly that money is the most important thing in life; nay, money is life! LOL

So now that you have been made aware as to how important the money is, from now on you should only dream of money and more money! And I mean gather lots of money like being a multi-billionaire - don’t even think of being a millionaire because millionaires now-a-days are dime a dozen. :-)

Money will help you a lot in attaining power and prestige. However, don’t delude yourself that if you gather a lot of money you’ll have a happy life or even a satisfied life because money is not capable of buying that. Heck, the money can’t even buy you love but it does give you the option of doing stupid things, if you are so inclined, such as the hiring of a high priced call girl just like the former governor of New York, Mr. Eliot Spitzer did! LOL

Now if you were a mere mortal, like most of us, struggling to pay your bills; you wouldn’t even dream of paying, in cash, in the neighborhood of $4500 per hour for tryst with a call girl, would you? But when you have tons of dough then…
To be fair to Mr. Spitzer, he is not the only one indulging in such an exciting activity; a lot of folks with tons of dough and the power that goes along with it, do the same and enjoy life! After all, he was just a client number 9. :-)

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
~~ Mahatma Gandhi ~~ (1869 - 1948)

So true and as events of the past few years in Iraq have shown that those in positions of power could not care less as to how much death or destruction their actions will cause. They have an agenda and they will follow that agenda conveniently using the holy name of liberty and democracy as a cloak. How much death and destruction their agenda will cause doesn’t seem to enter into their calculations or, which is even more likely, they are not intelligent enough to figure out death and destruction their actions will cause. Even worse, they usually laugh off the death and destruction caused by their actions as ‘collateral damage.’ For the dead, maimed or orphaned, the damage is not collateral but as real as the real can be.

And Iraq is just one of the examples of such madness. There have been many others in the past and, undoubtedly, there will be many in the future. The only way to stop such madness will be for the people all over the globe to rein-in their governments. The politicians have demonstrated time and again that they cannot be trusted.

They are essentially creating a $300-billion bank out of nothing.
~~ Lou Crandall ~~

Lou Crandall, an economist at a financial research firm, was reacting on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s efforts to expand credit to ease the credit crisis; a crisis caused mainly by the sub-prime mortgage lending.

I think Mr. Crandall is quite mistaken. They are not creating a $300-billion bank out of nothing; they are creating it out of the tax payers money!

Now is the moment when the reality has hit home. And the reality is trashing all the follies, such as the sub-prime mortgages, committed by the so called ‘whiz kids’ with their ‘creative ideas’. Where are these whiz kids now? Why don’t they step up to the plate with their creative ideas to stop the bleeding? Looks like they have run out of their creative ideas. LOL. That’s what happens when reality meets fantasy. Many so called big financial players will hit the dust; just like Beer Sterns did.

This $300-billion of tax payers money being thrown in by Federal Reserve may postpone the reality for a little while but ultimately the reality will prevail. And that means more financial upheavals until the fantasy world of lousy financing is crushed down to reality. Unfortunately, a lot of ordinary folks are going to be left holding the bag.

Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.
~~ Brian Tracy ~~

It’s important to define our goals as precisely as possible. Without a goal, most of us are very likely to get distracted and even forget about our goal. That’s why it’s best to write down our goals. Once we know our precise goal and commit to it, it forces us to act in that direction and produce desirable results.

Most of us fall into the trap of not defining our goals and not making a toatl commitment to attain the goal, and as a result, we soon abandon our pursuit. That makes us bounce from project to project without any concrete results. If we can muster the discipline to define our goals and work towards it everyday with resolute determination and commitment, positive results are bound to follow.

I’d marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he’d be dead within a year.
~~ Bette Davis ~~ (1908 - 1989)

Ha, Ha, Ha. Honesty is the best policy! Bette expressed her wishes without being diplomatic. It also gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘Love at First Sight.’ :-)

It might have been difficult in Bette Davis’ times to find somebody with 15 million dollars but that is not a problem any more. There are lots of men around with tons of money and not much brain or may be they lose their brains once they accumulate such huge sums of money like the governor who allegedly was paying $5500 per hour (yes, you read it right - it’s five thousand five hundred dollars per hour) for a call girl! So if a lady were to be interested in such an enterprise, she wouldn’t have to look very hard before she finds a man with the dough and who will be quite happy to part with his money as well. The only problem that I see is how one will ensure the dude is actually dead within a year! LOL

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
~~ Mark Twain ~~ (1835 - 1910)

We frequently fear of the worst and unnecessarily limit our chances of success. Most of the problems and troubles that we think we are going to encounter if we embark upon such and such venture never actually come to pass.

It is obviously a good idea to try to foresee any problems that we may encounter in our endeavors but the possibility that such problems may be encountered should not deter us from pursuing our goals. A better approach will be to figure out as to what will be done - a sort of back up plan - in case we do actually face the problem. But most of the time the perceived problems will never be encountered.

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~ (1872 - 1970)
That just about sums it up though I’d prefer to use the word ‘predator’ rather than the ‘criminal’ so that the quote would read ‘Life is nothing but a competition to be the predator rather than the victim (prey)’. It’s because at least a few of the powerful criminals do get caught and are punished whereas the predators roam free.

The whole universe appears to be in a predator and victim (prey) mode; everything is in a constant state of war like the bacteria attacking our bodies all the time trying to make us sick or even die, powerful animals like lions killing other animals for food etc etc. Humans are unique predators in the sense that many a times they kill other humans just for the sake of killing and they kill other animals sometimes for food, sometimes for their skin or bones and sometimes just for fun and call it ’sport’. So much so that humans have driven even the very powerful and agile animal species like the tiger to the verge of extinction.

And humans’ economic predatory practices over other humans are atrocious. For instance, corporate executives, usually in concert with the so called board of directors, earning hundreds or even thousands of times more wages than the average wages of their workers. Nobody is worth that much; it’s simply a case of the calculating predators sucking the blood of the working class people.

For everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you.
~~ Hillary Clinton ~~

After losing straight 12 contests to her rival, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton won both in Ohio and Texas. Many political pundits had predicted that her bid to become the Democratic party nominee for the US presidential election will collapse as it was widely predicted that she will lose one or probably both of these contests. She fought back hard, proved her detractors wrong and injected a new life in her campaign by winning contests in both these states.

After her victory in Ohio, she delivered a speech containing the above motivational quote to her cheering supporters. It was an excellent way to uplift the spirits of her loyal supporters and prepare them for contests coming up in other states.

In politics, as in life in general, fortunes can change very quickly. Not too long ago, Hillary Clinton was considered a shoe-in for the Democratic party nomination. Time has shown it to be anything but; the contest is so close that, at this point in time, nobody knows who of the two contestants will eventually win the nomination.

The important message in life is to get up when you stumble, keep working hard with courage and determination towards your goal and never to give up.

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
~~ Albert Einstein ~~ (1879-1955)

So Einstein felt the same way we all feel from time to time. :-)

I don’t know why Einstein couldn’t figure out the answer to such a simple question. I figured it out a long time ago that everybody except me is crazy! LOL

Hope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don’t, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you.
~~ Vaclav Havel ~~

We definitely hope that life and work has meaning though nobody has been able to establish for sure as to what that meaning might be. Perhaps we can say that work has meaning - to survive one must work! LOL. Life, on the other hand, does not lend itself to such a straight forward meaning. Nonetheless, hope makes the world go round; it’s a staple of life, everything revolves around hope. I don’t think one can even live without any hope in spite of the fact that many of our hopes get dashed to the ground.

I agree that hope is not dependent on the state of the world around us; we cling to hope even when the world around us may be falling apart. But I don’t agree that you either have hope or you don’t. Most of us have hope most of the time but all of us pass through moments or may be even days when we feel totally helpless and hopeless. Fortunately, most of us soon work our way out of that state of hopelessness and start hoping again.

Hoping for the best and dreaming big are really important ingredients for leading our lives, and we must liberally use them throughout our lives. Without hope and dreams there can be no progress, no achievement.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
~~ T. S. Elliot ~~

It is true that if you stay within your comfort zone, you are never going to find out how far you may be able to go. However, it’s also true that if you happen to go too far in your risk, the results may be disastrous. For example, many business ventures go bankrupt because they went too far in taking the risk. Of course, they find out after they have gone bankrupt as to how far they could have gone safely but by that time it’s too late. Or the athlete who over-exerts himself, collapses and even dies.

So the question becomes if it’s really necessary to find out how far one can go. The answer will vary from individual to individual and how dire the consequences may be of going too far. Some people will take extra-ordinary risks and may win big or may lose their shirt if they happen to go too far but most people will not go that far but will limit themselves to reasonable risks.

One has to take risks in life as risk is a part and parcel of life; without risk there can be no progress or achievement. One should always strive to go as far as possible without going overboard. Like everything else in life, there are no definitive rules as to when one might be going too far. It’s basically a subjective decision based on one’s knowledge, experience, intuition etc.

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.
~~ Thomas Carlyle ~~ (1795 – 1881)

So we are all rascals? Definitely! LOL

Since time immemorial, humans have been trying to impress upon other humans to be honest, truthful and upright but without any success. The one reason why it happens is that those who ask others to follow such ideals themselves fail to follow such ideals. Examples being parents teaching children to be honest and truthful, preachers preaching honesty and integrity, people in positions of power asking others to selflessly work for the organization or the country but themselves not doing the same. It’s like ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ Not going to happen. And we have even come up with fancy names like referring to lies as ‘extending the truth.’ Either it’s the truth or it’s not; what does extending the truth mean?

The second reason is that we soon discover in everyday life that honesty and truthfulness doesn’t pay. We all indulge in dishonesty and tell lies whenever it suits our purpose. It’s just that some of us have become very adept at this ‘art’. :-) And those who become experts in this art reap handsome rewards which becomes an incentive for the rest of us to learn the ropes. LOL

So, yes, ideally you can become honest and reduce the number of rascals in the world by one but it’s not a very practical or profitable proposition.

There is no amount of money in the world that will make you comfortable if you are not comfortable with yourself.
~~ Stuart Wilde ~~

While extreme lack of money will definitely make you unhappy and uncomfortable, having lots of money will not necessarily result in your being content and tranquil in life. The reason why money is important is because one needs a certain amount of money (income) to make a living and beyond that we are just chasing our wants and fuzzy dreams. Most of us have only a vague idea as to why we need more money but we continue to chase money just out of habit. Some people may say they need more money because they want to buy a fancy car or a bigger house etc. or perhaps a lot of people would express the desire to quit their distressingly boring jobs if they had lots of money.

But that is only an illusion as one doesn’t need a fancy car or a big house and a job is only one facet of life; there are a lot of other factors that affect us. Also, we know a lot of people who have a lot of money (though they may not think so! LOL), several fancy cars, several big houses (mansions) and have achieved great success in their profession, and we idolize and imitate them, but they still lead very troubled lives. These people are prime examples of the fact that just money and material possessions can’t bring one tranquility. Tranquility is something one can only find from within oneself.