We who have the habit of climbing mountains know just how far superior to brute force is the will to persevere and to attain a specific goal. We know that every height that is attained, every step that is taken is the product of patient and difficult efforts and that desire is no substitute for action. A great many difficulties will arise, a great many obstacles will have to be overcome and avoided, but for else the will to do something is the ability to do it. Educated at this rough school, we return to our everyday occupations, stronger and better prepared to face the obstacles along the road of life. We are made strong and serene by the memory of duties performed and victories won on other fields of battle. -- Edward Whymper. An organism is a theory of its environment.--Unknown Those days were like a crystalization of all that had been good in the trip. It was as close to perfection as I could ever hope to come. I reviewed what I had learnt. I had discovered capabilities and strengths that I would not have imagined possible in those distant dream-like days before the trip. I had rediscovered people in my past and come to terms with my feelings towards them. I had learnt what love was. That love wanted the best possible for those you cared for even if that excluded yourself. That before, I had wanted to possess people without loving them, and now I could love them and wish them the best without needing them. I had understood freedom and security. The need to rattle the foundations of habit. That to be free one needs constant and unrelenting vigilance over one's weaknesss. A vigilance which requires a moral energy most of us are incapable of manufacturing. We relax back into the moulds of habit. They are secure, they bind us and keep us contained at the expense of freedom. To break the moulds, to be heedless of the seductions of security is an impossible struggle, but one of the few that count. To be free is to learn, to test yourself constantly, to gamble. It is not safe. I had learnt to use my fears as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks, and best of all I had learnt to laugh. I felt invincible, untouchable, I had extended myself, and I believed I could now sit back there was nothing the desert could teach me. And I wanted to remember all of this. Wanted to remember this place and how I had arrived there. Wanted to fix it so firmly in my head that I would never, ever forget. Robyn Davidson from Tracks (about a woman who rode camels across the deserts of Austrailia.) "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." --Lewis Carrol The more you drive the less intelligent you are. --Repo Man The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be. --Lao Tzu There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you are talking about. --John Von Neumann I don't have to show you no stinking badges! --The Clash A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. --Emerson The soul's advances are not made by graduation, such as can be represented by motion in a straight line, but rather by ascension of state, such as can be represented by metamorphosis... -- Ralph Waldo Emerson To judge what one must do to obtain a good or avoid an evil, it is necessary to consider not only the good and the evil in itself, but also the probability that it happens or does not happen; and to view geometrically the proportion that all of these things have together. -- The Port-Royal Logic, 1662 In the struggle for life some of you may place upon yourself the ambition to be a multi-millionaire. That is a low ambition...If I had my choice I would choose honest poverty rather than money. The ignorant man has no ambition but millions. The man who is educated does not care for money. --Andrew Carnegie What one does not know is exactly what one needs, and what one does know one cannot use. --Faust "I am a carnivorous fish swimming in two waters, the cold water of art and the hot water of science." --Salvador Dali If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. --Voltaire, Epitre a l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs [November 10, 1770] It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us believe there are. --Ovid, Ars Amatoria I, 637. If God were not a necessary Being of Himself, He might also seem to be made for the use and benefit of men. --John Tillotson, Sermon. "I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind." -- Antione de Saint-Exupery "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad." --Salvador Dali Things should be as simple as possible and no simpler.--Albert Einstein Festina Lente. (Make haste slowly.) --Julius Caesar If the automobile had improved as much as the computer in the last 25 years, it would get 1,000,000 miles to the gallon, cost $1, have a top speed of 30,000 mph, and explode at least once a year, killing all passengers. For every human problem, there is a neat, plain solution--and it is always wrong. --H.L. Mencken If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we'd all be millionaires.--Abigail Van Buren Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.--Daniel J. Boorstin Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.--Joseph Wood Krutch Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances.--O.A. Battista Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough.--Earl Wilson It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.--Issac Asimov Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.--Michael Burke Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute. Expert advice is a great comfort, even when it's wrong.--Ellen Curie To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.--Bernard Baruch If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.--Abraham Sutzkever I seldom went to bed before two or three in the morning, on the theory that if anything of interest were to happen to a young man it would almost certainly happen late at night. --E. B. White "If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow, and which will not, then speak to me, who neither beg nor fear your favors nor your hate." --"Macbeth", Banquo to the Witches, I, iii, 58-61. When the speaker and he to whom he is speaks do not understand, that is metaphysics. --Voltaire "Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast or of one thing too exclusively." --Voltaire Men argue, Nature acts. --Voltaire "Sometimes noise is significant."--William Hewlett The things that people want and the things that are good for them are very different... Great art and domestic bliss are mutually incompatible. Sooner or later you'll have to make your choice. --Arthur C. Clarke ...freedom of expression is a precondition for economic competitiveness. --Alvin Toffler "You can throw human sperm on the floor, pick it up, wash it off, and you're ready to go." --Charles C. Coddington in Science News on the virtues of human sperm versus that of hamsters... "It is better to appear ignorant than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." --Mark Twain "WAR. Overt aggression between groups of workers from different colonies that results in the appropriation of territorial space or nest sites." -- The Ants, Holldobler and Wilson (Glossary) "AIRHEAD. (DOD, NATO, IADB) A designated area in a battlefield or threatened territory which, when seized or held, insures the continuous landing of troops by air transport ... see also BEACHHEAD, BRIDGEHEAD." -- U.S. Dept. of Defense Dictionary of Military Terms (1988) "Why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous." -Hobbes (Calvin and) ``Sin is the only real colour element left in Modern Life.'' -- Oscar Wilde ko.yan.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living. Carpe Diem Too often we are scared. Scared of what we might not be able to do. Scared of what people might think if we tried. We let our fears stand in the way of our hopes. We say no when we want to say yes. We sit quietly when we want to scream. And we shout with each other, When we should keep our mouths shut. Why? After all, we do only go around once. There really is not time to be afraid. So Stop! Try something you've never tried. Risk it. Enter a triathlon. Write a letter to the editor. Demand a raise. Take piano lessons. Call winners on the toughest court. Throw away your television. Bicycle across the United States. Try bobsledding. Try anything. Travel to a country where you don't speak the language. Patent something. Call Her, Call Him. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Everything! "Motivation is like taking a bath, the effects don't last, but its a good idea to take one regularly!" "A chess problem is genuine mathematics, but it is in some way 'trivial' mathematics. However ingenious and intricate, however original and surprising the moves, there is something essential lacking. Chess problems are *unimportant*. The best mathematics is *serious* as well as beautiful...." G.H.Hardy, _A Mathematician's Apology_ Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think. --Sir Horace Walpole If I had my life to live over, I'd try To make more mistakes next time. I would Relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier Than I've been on this trip. I know very Few things I'd take seriously any more. I would take more chances, I would take more Trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would Watch more sunsets. I would eat more Ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles And fewer imaginary ones. You see... I was one of those people who lived Prophylactically and sensibly and sanely, Hour after hour and day after day. Oh, I've had my moments And, if I had to do it all over Again, I'd have many more of them. In fact, I'd try not to have anything Else, just moments, one after another Instead of living so many Years ahead of my day. I've been One of those people who never went anywhere without A thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a Raincoat and a parachute. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter, Than I have. I would start barefoot earlier In the spring, and I'd stay that way Later in the fall. And I would Ride more merry-go-rounds, and Catch more gold rings, and greet More people, and pick more flowers, And dance more often. If I had it To do all over again. But you see, I don't. - an 82 year old dying man from Journal of Humanistic Psychology "Art is like two cannibals on a desert island--its eat or be eaten."--Tune in Tomorrow "Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity." -- E. H. Land "We would like to apologise for the way in which politicians are represented in this programme. It was never our intention to imply that politicians are weak- kneed, political time-servers who are more concerned with their personal vendettas and private power struggles than the problems of government, nor to suggest at any point that they sacrifice their credibility by denying free debate on vital matters in the mistaken impression that party unity comes before the well-being of the people they supposedly represent, nor to imply at any stage that they are squabbling little toadies without an ounce of concern for the vital social problems of today. Nor indeed do we intend that viewers should consider them as crabby ulcerous little self-seeking vermin with furry legs and an excessive addiction to alcohol and certain explicit sexual practices which some people might find offensive. We are sorry if this impression has come across." -- Monty Python's Flying Cirus "Love creates tension, sex alleviates it." -- Woody Allen, "A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy" "the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" -Jack Kerouac Next time you reach for the stars, remember: the average length of the human arm is 2.4 feet, while the nearest star is at least 24 trillion miles away. Christmas is when kids tell Santa Claus what they want, and their parents end up paying for it. A deficit is when adults tell the government what they want, and their kids end up paying for it. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. Winston Churchill ...it is simplicity that is difficult to make. B. Brecht God is in the details. Freeman Dyson Its not enough being on the right track, you have to avoid being run over by the train. Will Rodgers Right now is harder than it seems. Van Halen Reduce the distractions in your life and make room for subtlety. Inneractions The place where you find yourself isn't nearly as important as where you place your attention while you are there. Inneractions. If there's something to do, do it. If not relax and have fun. Inneractions No matter how evolved you become, you still wake up here every morning. Inneractions Its your turn to make up the meaning of your life. Inneractions Soften the judgements and sharp definitions that keep you separate from all that's around you. Inneractions Give others the freedom to be themselves. Inneractions Slow down. There is nothing more precious than now. Inneractions Excess in any form is a great distraction--but a lousy substitute for joy. Inneractions When you let go of responsibility you can experience a taste of freedom. Inneractions To become a good person, become yourself. Inneractions Today came much sooner than you ever dreamed. Inneractions "What a waste it is to lose one's mind -- or not to have a mind. How true that is." -- Dan Quayle Arrogance is knowing that less than 1% of the signals out there are worth paying attention to; and humility is realizing that it is impossible for oneself to recognize in real time just which signals these are. In human relations the easiest thing to achieve is a misunderstanding. Quade "I think there is a world market for about five computers." -- Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board of IBM, 1943. "It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years." -- John Von Neumann (ca. 1949) "You could get an infinite number of wires into this junction box, but we usually don't go that far in practice." -- London Electricity Board, 1959 "It has often been said that a person does not really understand something until he teaches it to someone else. Actually a person does not understand something until he can teach it to a computer." -- Donald E. Knuth "It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." - James Thurber "A simple man believes every word he hears; a clever man understands the need for proof." (Proverbs 14:15, New English Bible) "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams" -Eleanor Roosevelt Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a large number of professional violinists. -Botvinnik Chess is the art of analysis. -Botvinnik Once man starts designing `electronic brains' analogous to human chess players, the inadequacies of `chess thinking' will be revealed, and the checking of the various methods of programming will tell us how the live players really think. -Botvinnik, 1961 The boy doesn't have a clue about chess, and there's no future at all for him in this profession. -Botvinnik said about a young 12 year old boy named Anatoly Karpov Don't worry, kids. You'll find work. After all, my machine will need strong chess player-programmers. You will be the first. -Botvinnik said to Karpov and other chess students, c.1963, regarding his computer chess program which he claimed would eventually defeat the World Champion. Of course, the essence of chess is not to be found in the opening of the game. The basic ingredient of chess is that in a complex, original situation, where no source of help is apparent, a player must find the correct solution or move. Anyone who is able to do this can feel confident at the board. -Botvinnik Chess, like any creative activity, can exist only through the combined efforts of those who have creative talent, and those who have the ability to organize their creative work. -Botvinnik Botvinnik is working hard at trying to make a computer play chess as well as a human being, so let me teach human beings to analyse with the accuracy of a machine. -Kotov, 1970 Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is declining then chess too will decline. -Botvinnik, 1978 Botvinnik tried to take the mystery out of chess, always relating it to situations in ordinary life. He used to call chess a typical inexact problem similar to those which people are always having to solve in everyday life. -Kasparov, 1987 Botvinnik's ideas were highly original and led to many stimulating publications on computer chess. Unfortunately Botvinnik's most active period as a researcher into computer chess coincided with the era when access to computer time in the Soviet Union was severely limited. Had he been given access to virtually unlimited amounts of time on powerful computers, there is no telling how much he and his programmers could have achieved. -David Levy and Monty Newborn, 1991 Everything is in a state of flux, and this includes the world of chess. -Botvinnik "The secret of success and happiness lies not in what you like, but in liking what you do." -- anonymous "The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do; but how we behave when we don't know what to do." --Forbes Magazine Fate is a matter of choice, not change. --William Jennings Bryant "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -Bill Gates, 1981 "Opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work." -Thomas Edison