Quote of the Day: 18 February 2025 #QotD

“[I]t is horrible being all alone.” -Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit
[It surely is. I am of a more introverted bent than most and even I don't want to be all alone. I need other people in my life. I am convinced we all do.]

Quote of the Day: 17 February 2025 #QotD

“City folk, particularly politicians, were intimidated by small arms. They preferred to kill people with more modern weapons, like poverty and despair.” -Waxillium Ladrian, The Lost Metal
[That's why they're afraid of them. Particularly in the hands of the 'common folk'. Democratized violence is anathema to a certain variety of person. Well, I don't much care. I'll keep mine.]

Quote of the Day: 16 February 2025 #QotD

“Like salt can lose its essence, we can also lose our spiritual vitality if our faith in Jesus Christ becomes casual. We may look the same on the outside, but without a strong inner faith, we lose our ability to make a difference in the world and bring out the best in those around us.” -José A. Teixeira
 

Quote of the Day: 15 February 2025 #QotD

“Just a reminder- you don't have to rely on governments to do charity. You can directly send your money to the people you think deserve it.” -Robb Allen
[But that's hard and icky. Can't I just outsource it to someone else? Then I don't have to think about it, or care. Or actually be a good person.]

Quote of the Day: 14 February 2025 #QotD

“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” -William Shakespeare
[Happy Valentine's Day!]

Quote of the Day: 13 February 2025 #QotD

“I suppose evil is at its most powerful when it wears a smile and smells of rose water.” -Zandrusa, The Silverblood Promise
[It will certainly go unopposed more easily if it presents inoffensively rather than overtly evil.]

Quote of the Day: 12 February 2025 #QotD

“[N]o community of any race is made better off with many adolescent males hanging around with nothing useful to do.” -Thomas Sowell
[For one thing, they're too prone to do stupid things, and too creative in what those dumb things might be. For another, they go around with a whole bunch of pent-up aggression.]

Quote of the Day: 11 February 2025 #QotD

“I feel blessed to have lived long enough to see the Golden Age of Imbecility[.]” -David Burge
[But have we, though? I am afraid that there may be loftier heights of imbecility yet to be dreamt of. And I live in apprehension of seeing that day.]

Quote of the Day: 10 February 2025 #QotD

“Why do people bother burning books if no one’s reading them?” -Rat, Pearls Before Swine
[Well, it's a worthwhile question. But I expect there are signaling reasons for it even if no one (or very few people) reads anymore.]

Quote of the Day: 9 February 2025 #QotD

“Please remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior and understands you personally.” -Gregorio E. Casillas

Quote of the Day: 8 February 2025 #QotD

“When a man really tells the truth, the first truth he tells is that he himself is a liar.” -G. K. Chesterton
[Confronting the brutal truth is the only way to address the world that is consistent with honesty. One of those truths is likely to be that you haven't done so in the past.]

Quote of the Day: 7 February 2025 #QotD

“Paranoia—because why should the conspiracy theorists get to have all the fun?” -Harry Dresden, Cold Days
[Heh. These days, the paranoia seems to be warranted, though.]

Quote of the Day: 6 February 2025 #QotD

“It was difficult being a free man. When he followed the Law, all the difficult decisions had been made for him. Freedom required conscience. That was a dangerous thing.” -Ashok Vadal (thought), Tower of Silence
[It is easy to delegate decision making to someone else. That, however, is also lazy, and can lead you to a poor understanding of the world.]

Quote of the Day: 5 February 2025 #QotD

“[S]adly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often.” -Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[These days I question whether that rudeness is truly accidental, or if there are so many that intentionally inflict rudeness upon others. We could certainly benefit from a return to civility and decorum. There are, however, some things that supersede those as values.]

Quote of the Day: 4 February 2025 #QotD

“Kip, ‘good luck’ follows careful preparation; ‘bad luck’ comes from sloppiness.” -Prof. Reisfeld, Have Space Suit – Will Travel
[I'm not sure this fully captures everything that could happen to you, but there's certainly an argument to be made that too many things are dismissed as either good or bad luck that could have been the result of human effort.]

Quote of the Day: 3 February 2025 #QotD

“Of all human lamentations, without doubt the most common is, _If only I had known_. But we can’t know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently from those of love and warmth.” -Tom Clancy
[It is even possible for the day to contain periods of both. Such as several I have experienced in the past weekend.]

Quote of the Day: 2 February 2025 #QotD

“As we seek to understand and accept God’s will, it is helpful to remember that the boundaries between right and wrong are not for us to define. God has established these boundaries Himself, based on eternal truths for our benefit and blessing.” -David P. Homer

Quote of the Day: 1 February 2025 #QotD

“You can't outsource loving your neighbor to the government.” -Seth Dillon
[No matter how hard you, or anyone else, may try. It's your responsibility, and you cannot hand it to any other.]

Quote of the Day: 31 January 2025 #QotD

“Marxist analysis is the astrology of the upper middle classes.” -@IronEconomist
[They believe in it the same way adherents to astrology do: with utter disregard for reality.]

Quote of the Day: 30 January 2025 #QotD

“People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity—our most necessary resource? That’s disappearing faster than trees.” -Ian Malcolm, The Lost World
[We're beginning to see a reversal here, but there is still shockingly little intellectual diversity included in diversity efforts.]

Quote of the Day: 29 January 2025 #QotD

“It’s always the books you don’t have that call to you, you know that. Not the ones already on your shelf. They can wait.” -Deputy Synoth, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
[Aren't we always drawn by the novel and unattainable. That which we already have loses its urgency.]

Quote of the Day: 28 January 2025 #QotD

“[T]hat war is just which is necessary[.]” -Niccolo Machiavelli

[Regardless of what the detractors may think, this remains true. You have to learn to ignore the comments of the detractors and go in with the will to win.]

Quote of the Day: 27 January 2025 #QotD

“While it’s true we can’t make others change, we can invite them to change.” -Yusuf al-Falah, The Anatomy of Peace
[And the way we extend that invitation will great affect the effectiveness of the invitation. So, learn to invite with love.]

Quote of the Day: 26 January 2025 #QotD

“Let’s look for and treasure experiences of feeling His love and power in our lives. The joy of the gospel is available to all: not just the happy, not just the downcast.” -Karl D. Hirst

Quote of the Day: 25 January 2025 #QotD

“[A] kind of ratchet formed in people’s minds: here is the new thing and here it is. And yesterday you never thought about it and after today you don’t know what you would do without it.” -Moist von Lipwig (thought), Raising Steam
[I could name several things rather quickly where this principle has happened to me, personally. I also think I could come up with several more if I tried to. You probably could, too.]

Quote of the Day: 24 January 2025 #QotD

“Do not think that I am not sad, though I laugh.” -Dr. Van Helsing, Dracula
[The human mind is capable of odd expressions of emotion. It can also experience a fleeting emotion (even a contradictory one) in the midst of a more lasting emotion.]

Quote of the Day: 23 January 2025 #QotD

“Well, when you’re being held at gunpoint by a geriatric madman in a metal skirt, you’ve kind of hit rock bottom anyway. It can’t really get much worse.” -George Cubbins, The Screaming Saircase
[I'm sure there are ways to further demean and humiliate a person, but none of them have happened to me.]

Quote of the Day: 22 January 2025 #QotD

“The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given.” -Magnifico Giganticus, Foundation and Empire
[I don't know what the actual number is. It's not terribly important. But our brains are so energy intensive that we only use a portion of them at any given moment as an energy efficiency feature. So, we have a brain optimized for power consumption and performing sufficiently well at all necessary tasks.]

Quote of the Day: 21 January 2025 #QotD

“Everything’s gotta have rules, rules, rules!” -Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

[I know the Pup feels this way. And sometimes I do too.]

Quote of the Day: 20 January 2025 #QotD

“A well-trained mind is a necessity for any job—from car repair person to university teacher.” -Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
[One would hope this would apply to a certain individual beginning a particular job today. However, that hope is likely vain.]

Quote of the Day: 19 January 2025 #QotD

“Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority.” -Russell M. Nelson

Quote of the Day: 18 January 2025 #QotD

“You can’t trust a man what doesn’t smell like a man should.” -Wayne Ferrisborn, The Lost Metal
[There are some that find this a hard and fast rule. Others find it a reliable guideline. I'm not certain where I come down on it.]

Quote of the Day: 17 January 2025 #QotD

“He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it—SOME.” -Pollyanna Whittier, Pollyanna
[Things certainly seem better when you're focused on the positive aspects of things.]

Quote of the Day: 16 January 2025 #QotD

“You can’t escape the past, Lukan. It’s our lifelong companion, always at our side.” -Shafia, The Silverblood Promise
[Rather self explanatory. We all have pasts. And they travel with us. But they don't define who we can become. Only where we have come from.]

Quote of the Day: 15 January 2025 #QotD

“The confiscation and redistribution of wealth—whether on a moderate or a comprehensive scale—is at the heart of the social justice agenda. While social justice advocates stress what they see as the desirability of such policies, the feasibility of those policies tends to receive far less attention, and the consequences of trying and failing often receive virtually no attention.” -Thomas Sowell
[Probably because the consequences are largely unimportant to those who would like to implement the policies. They're more interested in the emotional catharsis of getting the policy passed.]

Quote of the Day: 14 January 2025 #QotD

“Moral pluralism is true descriptively. As a simple matter of anthropological fact, the moral domain varies across cultures.” -Jonathan Haidt
[This is just a statement that different cultures have different moral frameworks. It says nothing about which moral framework, if any, is correct.]

Quote of the Day: 13 January 2025 #QotD

“Do you ever feel like we aren’t getting the future we were promised, but we are getting the one we were threatened with[?]” -Rick, Basic Instructions
[Frankly, yes. And I'm not a big fan of some of it. The rest is alright.]

Quote of the Day: 12 January 2025 #QotD

“Fill your life with positive, righteous ideas; be joyful; have fun but avoid foolishness. There is a difference.” -Quentin L. Cook

Quote of the Day: 11 January 2025 #QotD

“[C]leverness kills wisdom; that is one of the few sad and certain things.” -G. K. Chesterton
[There are so many instances of clever people falling in love with foolish ideas because they appear clever. Never mind the ideas that have already been shown to be failures that these folks are convinced should be possible anyway.]

Quote of the Day: 10 January 2025 #QotD

“You’re in America now. Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you’d prefer.” -Harry Dresden, Turn Coat
[When I first read this I found it amusing, or even funny. Now, it seems a bit more realistic, while retaining the humor.]

Quote of the Day: 9 January 2025 #QotD

“Yes. The ATF actually tried to say that holding something wrong was a felony.” -Larry Correia
[But then, can you really trust the ATF about anything? They're as likely to lie to you as to tell the truth, and even if you get a true answer, they still might change their mind on you and turn you into a felon overnight without your knowledge.]

Quote of the Day: 8 January 2025 #QotD

“I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being – forgive me – rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.” -Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[Cleverness is not the same thing as wisdom, and clever folks are as likely to end up being wrong as most other people, just with far more impactful errors.]

Quote of the Day: 7 January 2025 #QotD

“As they keep telling you in Basic, doing something constructive at once is better than figuring out the best thing to do hours later.” -Cpl. Juan Rico (thought), Starship Troopers
[Decisive action, that isn't optimal, is still better than no action or even delayed action that is otherwise optimal.]

Quote of the Day: 6 January 2025 #QotD

“Tears released poisons from inside, poisons which if not released could be as deadly as the real kind.” -Tom Clancy
[Repressing your negative emotions is not healthy. It'll lead you to dangerous ends.]

Quote of the Day: 5 January 2025 #QotD

“We all need to be lifted up by the Lord with peace, with comfort, and most of all with personal revelation to counter the fear, darkness, and contention encompassing the world.” -Ronald A. Rasband

Quote of the Day: 4 January 2025 #QotD

“He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt[.]” -Joseph Heller
[Sometimes, you just have to spit in the face of reality and attempt to actualize a new reality.]

Quote of the Day: 3 January 2025 #QotD

“Perhaps denial of mass atrocity is tied to our innate resistance to killing.” -Dave Grossman
[Perhaps, or perhaps it is that we don't wish to think that a human is capable of such things so that we don't think that we are capable of those things.]

Quote of the Day: 2 January 2025 #QotD

“[R]aising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place.” -Ian Malcolm, The Lost World
[So, how do we structure society to best meet that end? We ought to support parents in making decisions about their children and encourage people to have children in the first place. But, that certainly doesn't mean that we socialize parenthood.]

Quote of the Day: 1 January 2025 #QotD

“We are the stories we tell to ourselves. Nothing more.” -Livira, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
[Happy New Year!

Since this is a time of new beginnings, perhaps consider what story you're telling yourself about yourself, and whether that's the story you really want to be telling.]