Things that Bansai left for us

[Toeprint]

"Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects. "
— John Kenneth Galbraith

bansaisequoia
December 16, 2010, 2:27 am
If 2% of the people control half of the world's wealth, that means they work 49 times harder than the rest of the world. This is easy fourth grade math. If 98% of the population has the same amount of money, the 2% must have worked 49 times harder. (link)
msswitch
June 27, 2014, 10:18 am
This is based on a false premise--namely, that work is compensated based on how hard it is to perform. Many of the 2% who control half the world's wealth inherited it or made profitable investments.

[Toeprint]

"Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle. "
— Samuel Johnson

opallady
November 9, 2009, 1:28 am
The average housecat would qualify.
bansaisequoia
March 28, 2011, 5:41 am
I was just going to ask if Samuel Johnson ever had a cat. Good one, opallady

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"Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything."
— Floyd Dell

bansaisequoia
March 12, 2009, 9:07 pm
I like this quote. It isn't of the typical "rah-rah" work ethic type of quote you usually see on this site from John D Rockefeller or Ayn Rand. Naturally, this had to be said by someone with inclinations to the arts and literature. I only wish I had more idle time to pursue my art.

[Toeprint]

"The petty economies of the rich are just as amazing as the silly extravagances of the poor."
— William Feather

bansaisequoia
August 25, 2010, 9:16 pm
A few years back, one of the local rags ran an article in which bartenders in the city of Palm Beach were quoted as saying that Donald Trump was a cheap 10% tipper. Guess he couldn't afford it.

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"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game."
— Donald Trump

bansaisequoia
September 6, 2009, 10:27 pm
Gee, if that's really true, why don't you give some of your millions to a hard-working American like me?

[Toeprint]

"Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except for a few public officers."
— George Mason

bansaisequoia
November 7, 2012, 1:45 pm
"Who are the brain police?"--Frank Zappa

[Toeprint]

"Water generally flows downhill in this area."
— Bob Bennett

bansaisequoia
March 2, 2012, 3:37 pm
In my area, the deafening silence is hard to bear against the backdrop of the brilliant darkness.

[Toeprint]

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."
— George Eliot

bansaisequoia
October 19, 2011, 9:57 pm
D'oh! Autumn always seemed more delirious than delicious to me.

[Toeprint]

"The best work never was and never will be done for money. "
— John Ruskin

bansaisequoia
June 4, 2009, 11:09 pm
Oh, so that's why my boss pays me so little.

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"Companies that give excellent service reward employees for providing it. "
— Unattributed

bansaisequoia
September 8, 2009, 9:26 pm
Mine rewarded me by laying me off after 9 years.

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"When you can't solve the problem, manage it. "
— Robert H. Schuller

bansaisequoia
December 3, 2010, 11:29 pm
That's exactly what my managers do! Too bad they don't listen to my solutions!

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"There is no hope for a civilization which starts each day to the sound of an alarm clock."
— Unattributed

bansaisequoia
January 26, 2012, 7:30 pm
Tell it to my boss.

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"The speed of the boss is the speed of the team. "
— Lee Iacocca

Lurker
January 5, 2012, 9:33 pm
The "sleep of the boss". lol.
bansaisequoia
October 30, 2012, 4:11 pm
My boss is always wide awake and chattering like a mynah bird.

[Toeprint]

"Like fragile ice anger passes away in time. "
— Ovid

bansaisequoia
July 20, 2012, 3:16 am
Have you ever gone ice fishing? You need a heavy duty ice auger to cut through Lake Winnebago because the ice is so tough. Ovid must've lived in some warm place, like Italy.

[Toeprint]

"For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will. "
— Henri Frederic Amiel

bansaisequoia
May 28, 2009, 2:51 pm
I find it rather disquieting to see someone advocating narrowness of thought.

[Toeprint]

"The expert at anything was once a beginner."
— Helen Hayes

bansaisequoia
June 11, 2009, 9:17 pm
Helen, Gabby, Isaac or Rutherford? (or Purple?)

[Toeprint]

"It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees. "
— George Eliot

bansaisequoia
May 28, 2010, 11:30 pm
(link) http://web.archive.org/web/201301131...hzad_Rose2.jpg
bansaisequoia
June 20, 2010, 1:26 am
(The above image is not an internet hoax. They really exist.)
LLapp
February 27, 2017, 10:33 am
Bansais, thank you! There is an old road not far from me called Rose Tree Road that I have driven on many times, and yet it never occurred to me to ask "Rose tree? What's that?" Come to think of it, there's a big arboretum very close to Rose Tree Rd., so now I wonder if they have rose trees there.
MamaB
November 23, 2017, 1:33 am
Baisai's link got old - Tree roses (aka: Rose Standards) are a creation of grafting by using a long rose cane with no foliage. Read on to learn more. Learn More About Tree Roses (link)

[Toeprint]

"I would rather have a million friends than a million dollars. "
— Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

bonsaisequoia
July 28, 2009, 11:56 pm
I have a million casual acquaintances, and I'd trade them for a million dollars in a heartbeat.
bansaisequoia
January 2, 2010, 5:38 pm
If you have a million friends in the US, you'll spend $440,000 postage mailing out your holiday card list.

[Toeprint]

"Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too. "
— Somerset Maugham

matarisa
July 20, 2011, 1:07 am
Did you know that he was once a British secret agent?
bansaisequoia
April 3, 2012, 3:52 pm
Wow, just like Austin Powers.

[Toeprint]

"When God sneezed, I didn't know what to say."
— Henny Youngman

bansaisequoia
September 22, 2010, 2:55 am
You bless you.

[Toeprint]

"Nothing can be beautiful which is not true. "
— John Ruskin

bansaisequoia
July 29, 2010, 6:17 pm
I have read many beautiful works of fiction.
Spenser
February 20, 2015, 9:41 am
But we respond to fiction only when is resonates with the truth, which is to say is represents truth rather than facts.