“A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labour and there is an invisible labour.”
– Victor Hugo.
Category Archives: Quotes
Nice quote
Spotted this morning in a newspaper…
“Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than settled business.” – Francis Bacon, Youth and Age.
The full quote is actually…
Young men are fitter to invent, than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business; Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that, which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them, like an unruly horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
Quote of the week
“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once.” – The Earl of Chesterfield (18th Century).
Quote of the month
I don’t know why I like it but I do…
“I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.”
Elvis Costello
How the Digital Influences the Physical
I love this (via Mark McCrindle – www.mccrindle.com). Boy aged six to his mother: “Mum, I’m putting the bread in the toaster. Do I put it in landscape or portrait.”
The Return to Real
I can’t resist this. I’m reading an essay in Harper’s magazine (US) about the life and death of great American newspapers (Harper’s November 2009, ‘Final Edition by Richard Rodriguez) and there’s a great quote, which I agree with: ” Something funny I have noticed, perhaps you have noticed it, too. You know what futurists and online-ists and cut-out-the-middle-man-its and Davos-ists and deconstructionists of every stripe want for themselves? They want exactly what they tell you you no longer need, you pathetic, overweight, disembodied Kindle reader. They want white linen tablecloths on trestle tables in the middle of vineyards on soft blowy afternoons.”
Quotes about the future
Choice quote via Matt D:
“The writer Douglas Adams observed how technology that
existed when we were born seems normal, anything that is developed
before we turn 35 is exciting, and whatever comes after that is
treated with suspicion.”
Quote of the Week
I cut this out of the FT on a plane recently but I can’t quite remember where it’s from. I’m pretty sure it’s the back page column by Harry Eyres.
” We are much more vulnerable now than we were during the Second World War. When I grew up we had the skills to be self-sufficient; we made our own clothes and fished, we never felt poor. Now you don’t need a nuclear bomb to finish off a country; you just cut the power off for a week.”
Totally right. Think about the consequences of no power for a week. ATMs wouldn’t work so you couldn’t get any cash out. No money equals no purchases. You couldn’t re-charge a phone; use email or the internet (so no digital cash) and credit cards wouldn’t work either (electronic). The fridge would go off and so too would the freezer so no fresh food. Doors and lifts in shops and offices wouldn’t work (largely electric). Hospitals would grind to a halt. So would tubes and trains. The TV would be off, electric cars would be stuffed, traffic lights would go out and so too would most heating systems. Add to this list kettles, ovens, CCTV, e-books, digital files, domestic lighting, alarms, GPS, RFID:it’s almost endless.
Our lifestyles are now hugely dependent on electricity but outside of essential government services almost nobody has any kind of backup in place — except of course people aged 75+ who have never totally embraced the digital era and can remember how to do things the old fashioned way.
Quote of the Week
“The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different” — Peter Drucker
Quote of the Week
“Nirvana is the absence of experience” – Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.