Category: Maxims, Mottoes, Epitaphs, etc.
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Epitaph for an Anthologist
mr u will not be missedwho as an anthologistsold the many on the fewnot excluding mr u e e cummings (1884-1962) quoted in Epigrams and Epitaphs, ed. Grigson, Faber and Faber, 1977. p. 212.
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My Epitaph
Here he lies old blogger BillWhose thoughts once did the ether fillBut permalinks proved no exceptionTo the gen'ral rule of imperfection.
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The Four G’s
Conservative: God, guns, grub, gold. Liberal: government, government, government, government.
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From the Inside of a Fortune Cookie
It being so cold in these parts this time of year, I had a big bowl of hot and sour soup for lunch at a local Chinese joint. The message inside the fortune cookie read: Luck favors prepared mind. In the literary vicinity of that conservative favorite: The harder I work, the luckier I get.
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First They Came for My Chicken Sandwich . . .
Here. I have honestly never eaten a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. So tomorrow I am going to try one. This is in keeping with my maxim, 'No day without political incorrectness.' Each day you must engage in one or more politically incorrect acts. Some suggestions: Smoke a cigar Use standard English Practice with a firearm Read the Bible…
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Good, Better, Best
From the mail bag: Is the way you interpret Voltaire's saying the way it was originally intended? I'm probably wrong here, but I always took the saying to mean this: a willingness to settle for what is "better" makes it likely that one won't acquire what is "good". Good, better, best. Positive, comparative, superlative. …
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Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
The Latinism explained.
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Nihil philosophicum a nobis alienum putamus
"We consider nothing philosophical to be foreign to us." This is the motto Hector-Neri Castañeda chose to place on the masthead of the philosophical journal he founded in 1966, Noûs. When Hector died too young a death at age 66 in the fall of '91, the editorship passed to others who removed the Latin phrase. There are…
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Mind and Tongue
When alone, watch your mind. When with others, watch your tongue.
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From the Inside of a Fortune Cookie
"Mental activity keeps you busy at this time." Only at this time? "All happiness is in the mind." This is an example of a half-truth the believing of which is pragmatically very useful. "If you chase two rabbits, both will escape." Reminds me of the Lovin' Spoonful tune Did You Ever Have to Make Up…
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Success Enough?
Money in my pocket, food in my belly, clothes on my back, a roof over my head, physical and mental health. What does it say about us that the possession of things like these is not success enough? Aim high! Try high! Forget Bukowski.
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Write it Down!
Visitors do not like being snubbed. If a good thought deigns to make an appearance before the portal of your mind, write it down. Snubbed, it may never come again. But even if it does, will it come clothed in the same felicitous finery of formulation?
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When We Have Gold We are in Fear . . .
. . . when we have none we are in danger. (English proverb) A proverb whose pertinence is proven by recent developments.
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Of Haircuts, Amphibolies, and Maxims
I got my quarterly haircut the other day. A neighbor remarked, "I see you got a haircut," to which I responded with the old joke, "I got 'em all cut." In this as in so many other cases the humor derives from ambiguity, in this case amphiboly (syntactic ambiguity.) The spoken 'I see you got a…
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Bucket List
Give some thought to the question whether the entries on it just might precipitate an early kicking of it.