Things that Bansai left for us

[Toeprint]

"Life is always either a tight-rope or a featherbed. Give me a tight-rope."
— Edith Wharton

bansaisequoia
September 25, 2010, 7:27 pm
I would rather crash in a featherbed than crash after falling off of a tightrope.

[Toeprint]

"What a demanding pleasure that demands the use of one's mind! Not in the sense of problem solving, but in the sense of exercising discrimination, judgment, awareness. "
— Ayn Rand

peterdry
February 28, 2009, 7:45 am
Spell it correctly
bansaisequoia
August 28, 2012, 6:28 pm
I-T. So do I win the spelling bee?
Eureka
March 22, 2019, 1:58 pm
Perhaps peterdry meant "judgement".

[Toeprint]

"All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies."
— Dr. Arbthnot

bansaisequoia
May 21, 2009, 9:53 pm
The author of this quote would seem to be John Arbuthnot. (link)

[Toeprint]

"Bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible. Still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed."
— Abraham Lincoln

PianoManGidley
April 10, 2009, 7:52 pm
Thorough would disagree with the second sentence.
bansaisequoia
May 15, 2010, 6:51 pm
Thoreau?
Allen
November 22, 2012, 5:31 pm
Thoroughly Thoreau.

[Toeprint]

"It is pleasant at times to play the madman."
— Seneca

bansaisequoia
October 8, 2010, 11:36 pm
What do you mean, "play" the madman?
maradnu
December 19, 2010, 1:46 am
I have found it so.
bansaisequoia
February 25, 2012, 7:18 pm
Play?
dovid1946
December 24, 2014, 1:08 pm
pretend to be the madman? like Hamlet?

[Toeprint]

"If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it. "
— Joseph Addison

bansaisequoia
June 16, 2009, 10:19 pm
What about hyenas?

[Toeprint]

"Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye."
— Austin O'Malley

reader4
September 3, 2011, 5:28 am
This is from "The Cure of Alcoholism," 1913. O'Malley, U.S. physician and humorist (1858 - 1932), is saying here that if you have a roving or lustful eye you will not be happy.
bansaisequoia
February 13, 2012, 6:37 pm
But my eye never makes a sound. D'oh! now you've changed the entire context! Happiness escapes again.

[Toeprint]

"Our determination to imitate Christ should be such that we have no time for other matters."
— Desiderius Erasmus

bansaisequoia
September 9, 2009, 10:15 pm
Okay. So maybe I'll change some water into wine and go hang with Mary Magdalene. Just doing my part.

[Toeprint]

"A fisherman may measure his catch by the size, but when is a man big enough to keep? "
— Unattributed

opallady
April 9, 2009, 2:50 am
Great straight-line, but I'll try to behave and leave it alone.
maradnu
June 21, 2009, 1:20 am
Age of consent, dear. Age of consent.
pootie49
January 11, 2010, 2:44 pm
Dang it, this is a family site...too bad.
bansaisequoia
November 24, 2010, 5:25 am
Unattributed is a person for all ages.

[Toeprint]

"It's only during an eclipse that the Man in the Moon has a place in the sun. "
— Unattributed

bansaisequoia
October 31, 2012, 7:23 pm
Doesn't this quote seem particularly dumb, since there is one side of the moon which is always bathed in sunlight, EXCEPT during an eclipse??? I give it ten stars for possible errors, but spelling and grammar are just fine. Maybe unattributed is really Fox News Fact Checker.
montyb
January 14, 2013, 10:15 pm
Actually, the moon does rotate on its own axis giving both sides the same day/night phenomenon as Earth. Its diurnal cycle is approximately one month which is the same as its orbital cycle around the Earth. When combined the result is only one side of the moon faces Earth, yet both sides get direct sunlight for two weeks each month.
WRQ9
November 11, 2013, 9:17 am
That is one of the most intriguing astrological facts I have ever known. Such precision must indicate a common motive source. Actual synchronization, over millenia!
montyb
September 15, 2014, 2:47 pm
It is the result of tidal forces (differential gravitational pulls on different parts of the moon) which stretch the moon slightly and cause a differential placement between the moon's center of mass and its center of gravity. The result is a torque that has locked the moon into its orbital period matching its rotational period. Eventually, the earth will become tidally locked on the moon (should the sun last that long.

[Toeprint]

"It is better to succeed with success than failure. "
— George W. Bush

bansaisequoia
May 21, 2012, 7:08 pm
Mission accomplished!

[Toeprint]

"The quality of our thoughts is bordered on all sides by our facility with language."
— J. Michael Straczynski

bonsaisequoia
July 31, 2009, 6:41 pm
This quote comes to you from a guy who writes comic books!

[Toeprint]

"An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have. "
— Andy Warhol

bansaisequoia
August 9, 2009, 12:00 am
This seems antithetical to the notion that a nation needs a Ministry of Culture or a National Endowment for the Arts to promote its aesthetic values. I'd have to Google it, but I hope he never received a grant from either sort of institution. (Of course, were he alive today, Warhol might view me as plebeian who didn't understand his deep, underlying meaning.)
bansaisequoia
May 24, 2013, 3:45 pm
This quote is by Windy Airhole.

[Toeprint]

"Never let your inferiors do you a favor - it will be extremely costly."
— H.L. Mencken

maradnu
May 18, 2009, 1:27 am
Mencken had no problems - there was no one inferior to him.
bansaisequoia
August 21, 2009, 7:04 pm
Not even Jack Handey?

[Toeprint]

"All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price. "
— Juvenal

momof6
March 1, 2009, 5:33 am
tuition can be steep
bansaisequoia
October 11, 2009, 1:08 am
College Tuition 2007-2008 1. George Washington 2. Bucknell 3. University of Richmond 4. Colgate 5. Sarah Lawrence College 6. Tulane 7. Wesleyan University 8. Hamilton College 9. Bowdoin College 10. Carnegie Mellon 11. Penn 12. Johns Hopkins 13. Bennington College 14. Tufts University 15. Brown 16. Vassar College 17. NYU 18. USC 19. Notre Dame 20. Dartmouth 1.$39,210 2.$37,934 3.$37,610 4.$37,405 5.$37,230 6.$36,610 7.$36,536 8.$36,500 9.$36,370 10.$35,984 11.$35,916 12.$35,900 13.$35,850 14.$35,842 15.$35,584 16.$35,570 17.$35,283 18.$35,212 19.$35,190 20.$35,178