“The Grate One”
Terry O’Neill in British Columbia Report July 30, 2001 [not referring to Wayne Gretzky, just adapting his nickname to insult any annoying person]
“the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.”
Fyodor Dostyevsky, quoted by Owen Lippert in Fraser Forum July 2000
“Human nature red in tooth and claw.”
Again I quote myself, swollen in head and pride (from August 2000)
“If a rule of the form ‘he who takes the benefit must pay the cost’ is at stake, then solving the problem means spotting cheats. People do this well. The mind is not following abstract reason; it is enforcing a social contract.... Given this view of man – a natural trader, ever concerned with social debts and an uncertain future – it is little wonder that human minds are interested in detecting cheats, not pursuing pure logic, and in sampling frequencies rather than making risky one-off guesses.”
The Economist July 4, 1992 [an article on so-called "Wason tests" some of which people solve far better than others though they are logically equivalent]
“To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.”
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
“IF YOUR MIND GOES BLANK, DON’T FORGET TO TURN OFF THE SOUND!”
“Sign Language: Seen on church billboards from coast to coast” submitted by Monica Popp, Edmonton in Reader’s Digest Canadian Edition May 2005
“When was the last time you heard a soul-stirring message on the fear of the LORD? We prefer God to be soft and cuddly, so we have defanged and de-clawed the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. We have relegated the God of fearful judgment to those unread pages of the Old Testament. Surely, we reason, God has reformed his ways. But my God is still an awesome God.”
David Kitz Psalms Alive!
“A very large low-watt bulb”
A friend at a conference describing an overbearing attendee I had characterized as a “dreadnought”.