Quotes - Part One

 I don't remember when it started, but I began collecting quotes from books I was reading.

Insults and greetings.  Interesting turns of phrase.

These were all kept in a spiral bound notebook, and then once I had a computer, I thought, "Wouldn't it be easier to keep track of them in a text file.  This has grown into a Word doc that is over 100 pages long with over 1,300 entries.

And so, I thought i'd start sharing them here.

1.                   The word “laptop” comes from a Latin expression meaning “don’t drop this”.

--3 Dead Trolls in A Baggie

2.                   Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

--Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

3.                   I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don’t know the answer.

--Douglas Adams

4.                   In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

--Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

5.                   The big corporations are suddenly taking notice of the web, and their reactions have been slow. Even the computer industry failed to see the importance of the Internet, but that’s not saying much. Let’s face it, the computer industry failed to see that the century would end.

--Douglas Adams

6.                   The major difference between something that can go wrong and something that cannot possibly go wrong is that when something that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.

--Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

7.                   There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

--Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

8.                   The world’s a lot less scary when you’re carrying a rocket launcher around with you.

--Ernest Adams, The Designer’s Notebook, Gamasutra

9.                   I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.

--Franklin P. Adams

10.               The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.

   -- John Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife