Things that Bansai left for us

[Toeprint]

"Never answer a hypothetical question."
— Moshe Arens

bansaisequoia
October 7, 2011, 3:30 am
Well, let's say for example, that I did...

[Toeprint]

"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? "
— Patrick Henry

bansaisequoia
January 22, 2011, 3:01 am
That's easy to say when you lived in a world without even semi-automatic firearms. The Second Amendment (which, incidentally, was part of the Bill of Rights of 1791, and not at all part of the original Constitution of 1789) was written at a time when people could not have conceived that within 150 years there would be weapons of mass destruction. Does the "right to keep and bear arms" include the right to have nuclear arms? I don't think I'd want that Virginia Polytechnic guy to be able to keep nuclear arms in his dorm room. The Bill of Rights contained 10 "amendments," or "corrections" to the Constitution. If, within 2 years of the adoption of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers felt that there should be ten corrections made to the original document, I wonder how many changes they might feel should be made over 200 years later.

[Toeprint]

"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. "
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

bansaisequoia
July 5, 2012, 8:24 pm
It's the maxim of the capitalists when deciding how much to pay their employees, completely forgotten when divvying up their own share.

[Toeprint]

"Armies and missiles are not stopped by stiff notes of condemnation. They are held in check by strength and purpose and the promise of swift punishment."
— George W. Bush

bansaisequoia
June 10, 2013, 10:44 pm
What missiles was he trying to stop? Those Scud missiles from the Gulf War that couldn't even hit anything in the Middle East? As though they were going to fly across an ocean.

[Toeprint]

"We lost because we told ourselves we lost. "
— Leo Tolstoy

bansaisequoia
April 20, 2010, 4:45 pm
Doesn't this sound more like something a basketball coach would say?
montyb
July 26, 2012, 12:53 pm
I'm not certain. As Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said, "Just wait 'til next year."
Queethebean
August 2, 2012, 8:20 pm
But as Chekhov always said, "it ain't over til its over".
bansaisequoia
July 12, 2013, 5:30 am
Or, as Yogi Berra said, "If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once."

[Toeprint]

"If you don't sleep you get run down. Sloths never get a flu."
— Karl Pilkington

bansaisequoia
December 6, 2014, 4:03 pm
That would only work with Father Guido Sarducci. "Whatsamatt a you?"

[Toeprint]

"Many a man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success."
— James Gilmore Backus

bansaisequoia
August 31, 2009, 10:20 pm
Hey, it turns out this really IS Mr. Magoo and Thurston Howell III.

[Toeprint]

"I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. "
— Orson Welles

bansaisequoia
February 18, 2011, 4:35 am
If he saw "A Charlie Brown Christmas," it would really drive him nuts (pun intended), because then there would be "Peanuts" on television.

[Toeprint]

"The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale."
— Arthur C. Clarke

bansaisequoia
August 5, 2009, 1:30 am
Stephen, this is one of the most insipid quotes you could have chosen from a man of great genius.
gryhnd51
July 3, 2012, 4:21 am
I certainly agree with Ban's opinion.
Allen
June 2, 2014, 1:04 pm
That's right, Arthur C Clarke isn't supposed to be a human sort of person with human sorts of observations. And humor.
tfw
January 7, 2016, 4:23 pm
Insipid? He was a science fiction author talking about fiction and anti-gravity devices. However, having something nearby to lift yourself up a little works better and doesn't leave a telltale maladjusted dial.
tgreen517
October 16, 2016, 3:44 pm
Who is Stephen? Does he pick the quotes?
puzzleme
March 8, 2017, 2:57 pm
Stephen is bansai's imaginary friend.

[Toeprint]

"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book. "
— Ronald Reagan

bansaisequoia
May 14, 2010, 2:19 pm
You're definitely one of those who ought to write a book.

[Toeprint]

"Don't dwell on reality - it will only keep you from greatness."
— Rev. Randall R. McBride

bansaisequoia
August 5, 2012, 6:34 pm
My guest cottage is on reality. But the estate proper has its foundations in the Purple Haze of Middle Earth over the Rainbow.

[Toeprint]

"Reason is a supple nymph, and slippery as a fish by nature. She had as leave give her kiss to an absurdity any day, as to syllogistic truth. The absurdity may turn out truer. "
— D.H. Lawrence

bansaisequoia
October 16, 2012, 2:58 pm
Hey, D.H., let's take a look in the old pic-a-nic basket.

[Toeprint]

"After the ship has sunk, everyone knows how she might have been saved. "
— Proverb

bansaisequoia
April 18, 2017, 3:02 pm
Save Ships! Earn Money! Win Prizes!

[Toeprint]

"No man is esteemed for colorful garments except by fools and women. "
— Sir Walter Raleigh

bansaisequoia
October 2, 2009, 7:36 pm
Evidently he didn't like men in overly flamboyant garb, as evidenced by this picture: (link)

[Toeprint]

What we call public opinion is generally public sentiment. "
— Benjamin Disraeli

bansaisequoia
March 25, 2009, 12:14 am
This is a very vague quote from a semantic standpoint. If we were to give exacting definitions, how does "public opinion" differ from "public sentiment?"
universalmom
February 10, 2013, 1:33 am
I think he meant "opinion" as a more cerebral thing.
maradnu
September 13, 2013, 7:05 am
Opinion might be based on ideas, where sentiment is based on emotion.
kb83
February 2, 2018, 2:25 am
Well, "the public" can not have an opinion. Perhaps there can be public sentiment, i.e. a trending feeling.