"Many large and high class greengrocers of my acquaintance have never heard of the Golden Wonder potato."
- Roy Genders, Vegetables for the Epicure
Wisdom for the Ages.
Great Quotes
61–70 of 76 posts
Re: Great Quotes
#62I didn't remember this one. Worth paying attention to by any politician or economist. "Modern invention has been a great leveller. A machine may operate far more quickly than a political or economic measure to abolish privilege and wipe out the distinctions of class or finance." - Ivor Brown, The Heart of England
It's especially ironic today.
Re: Great Quotes
#63"filter(P, S) is almost always written clearer as [x for x in S if P(x)]" - Guido van Rossum on Python I've always felt the opposite about the python list comprehension syntax.
I'm pretty convinced that this quote is meant to be sarcastic.
Re: Great Quotes
#64Can someone explain me this one : Arrogance "The condition of man is already close to satiety and arrogance, and there is danger of destruction of everything in existence."
It's an observation of metastasized hubris [1]. Normally an individual with overweening pride got smote down by the gods with some, but limited, collateral damage. But what happens when the whole nation ("the condition of man") forgets Providence and deems herself hubristically self-sufficient ("satiety and arrogance")? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris
Note also the date.
Re: Great Quotes
#65>>> "Many large and high class greengrocers of my acquaintance have never heard of the Golden Wonder potato." - Roy Genders, Vegetables for the Epicure A small fact but the entire UK crop of Golden Wonder potatoes is absorb by the crisp (US: potato chip) industry. You literally cannot buy them in normal mainstream channels. It's late and I thought it was interesting that that breed of potato was mentioned ... Not sur…
I can't find the actual numbers, but something makes me think they're a fair chunk of the world's potato population, with the fact that you can't buy them in a store being the point.
Re: Great Quotes
#66"filter(P, S) is almost always written clearer as [x for x in S if P(x)]" - Guido van Rossum on Python I've always felt the opposite about the python list comprehension syntax.
I'm pretty convinced that this quote is meant to be sarcastic.
Is the sarcasm from van Rossum or PG? If Rossum I find this quote much more interesting. :)
Re: Great Quotes
#67Re: Great Quotes
#68Those are all very interesting, but I wish Paul had not included the quote from the crusaders. I am not sure what the point of including this quote was. It is quite possible that the crusaders did not get the best impression from the greeks, but considering that the crusaders raped and pillaged as they traveled through Greece, one may understand why the greeks did not treat them very well. Any quote from the crusader…
I'm personally glad the crusades happened, since the alternative would have cost a lot more suffering. The crusades were a reaction on the enchroaching of Islam on the European continent. If we'd live under muslim leadership like pretty much all Arabic country we'd have much slower progress with science, technology and human rights. Thanks to Christianity, the Enlightment was possible in Europe. In Islamic countries…
Wow, racist much? "Christians be like this, Muslims be like this"
There's a lot of ignorant assumptions going on in your post, but let me just remind you that those "unenlightened muslims" are those to whom we owe modern mathematics.
Re: Great Quotes
#69> "When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of schoolchildren." > - Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, 1985 This is of course an invented quote, but it tells you where the head of the person quoting it is at.
The whole CCSS (Common Core State Standards) is an example of groups with power/influence in the system pushing changes that benefit the true customers of the 'educational system' (which are not the kids, but Pearson et al.). New educational standards mean new textbooks, new revenue streams, new consulting engagements, teacher trainings, golf outings to wine/dine superintendents - it goes on and on. See also, the dem…
> “disruption” is an extremely positive term for when an old market model is displaced by a new market model
Until recently, when usage has been supplanted by "well-off libertarians circle-jerking about their ability to flaunt the government".
Re: Great Quotes
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm personally glad the crusades happened, since the alternative would have cost a lot more suffering. The crusades were a reaction on the enchroaching of Islam on the European continent. If we'd live under muslim leadership like pretty much all Arabic country we'd have much slower progress with science, technology and human rights. Thanks to Christianity, the Enlightment was possible in Europe. In Islamic countries…
Wow, racist much? "Christians be like this, Muslims be like this " There's a lot of ignorant assumptions going on in your post, but let me just remind you that those "unenlightened muslims" are those to whom we owe modern mathematics.
Wow, racist much? "Christians be like this, Muslims be like this"
There's a lot of ignorant assumptions going on in your post, but let me just remind you that those "unenlightened muslims" are those to whom we owe modern mathematics.