I'm Gina Smith

Says Dave Barry on youth.

"It's true you can only be young once, but you can be immature forever!" Dave Barry.

Says Edward Abbey (about cancer)

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." Edward Abbey.

Says Ernest Becker (on taking life seriously)

"I think that taking life seriously means something such as this: that whatever man does on this planet has to be done in the lived truth of the terror of creation, of the grotesque, of the rumble of panic underneath everything. Otherwise it is false. Whatever is achieved must be achieved with the full exercise of passion, of vision, of pain, of fear, and of sorrow. How do we know ... that our part of the meaning of the universe might not be a rhythm in sorrow?" Ernest Becker, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the book, Denial of Death.

A world without men? Says both Marion Smith and Nicole Hollander, pick one.

"Can you imagine a world without men?  No crime and lots of happy fat women. " Attributed, variously, to both Marion Smith and Nicole Hollander

Says Albert Einstein (on you and me)

People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live...[We] never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born." Albert Einstein.

Says Anna Nicole Smith (on being her)

"It's very expensive to be me. It's terrible the things I have to do to be me.” Anna Nicole Smith (to a tabloid reporter).

On old things being new (Rudyard Kipling)

"Funny how the new things are the old things." Rudyard Kipling.

Says Paris Hilton (on Wal-Mart)

“Wal-mart... do they like make walls there?” Paris Hilton.

Says Isak Dinesen (on the difference beween a good Shiraz and urine)

"What is man, when you come to think upon him, but a minutely set, ingenious machine for turning, with infinite artfulness, the red wine of Shiraz into urine?" Isaz Dinesen

Says anonynous on the early end of New Year's resolutions

"Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. " ~Author Unknown

Says anonynous on the early end of New Year's resolutions

"Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. " ~Author Unknown

Says Goethe (on change)

"We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden." Goethe.

Says Ben Franklin (on peace on Earth)

"There never was a good war or a bad peace." Benjamin Franklin.

Says Dr. Seuss (on family)

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss.

Says Eddie Money (on surfing)

"You know, I'm just a beach bum. I an go surfing all the time on Huntinton Beach and Malibu and just hang out and surf with everyone down there. But I'll tell you, I hate when the 16-year-old kids surf a wave better than I do!" Eddie Money. (A native Floridian, like I am)

Says P.J. O'Rourke (on marijuana)

"Marijuana is self-punishing. It makes you acutely sensitive. And in this world, what worse punishment could there be?" P.J. O'Rourke.

Says Machiavelli (on flattery)

"There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting people understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth. But when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect." Niccolo Machiavelli.

Says Albert Camus (on the death penalty)

"For centuries, the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check. Yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium." Albert Camus

Comments, anyone?

Says Richard Dawins (on deatj)

Serveral readers wrote be about the quote I posted earlier from Richard Dawnkins and the denial of god because we cannot possible beliee in our end.

Says Earnet Becker (prize-winning order of Denial of Death:

"The way of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity - designed largely to al  the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man.

Denial of Death is a book that will blow you away. Its premise is that, we all face the fact of our immortality. So what are he here for:? Why not sit on the couch and wait to dye, all the way watching reurun of Oprah or hanging out with your therapist (Jeffrewy Scwartz is out of business by the way).

What is the point. Could the denial of death lead to war? Becker say yes. Killing other makes us naturally makes us feel more alive.

Pick this book up if you can. It won a Pulitzer, I believe, and it is the easier to read and most poignant book I've ever read. If you look at my homepage on this blog, I have this book listed.

Says Richard Dawkins (on robots and genes)

"We are survival machines -- robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes." Richard Dawkins.

Comments anyone? I like to think that if we live in the moment, not on auto-pilot but really aware of what we are doing moment to moment, maybe we can avoid Dawkins' prediction.

What do you think?

Says Johnny Cash (on how to move on from failure)

"You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." Johnny Cash.

Says Dave Barry (on post holiday shopping)

     

"Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice." Dave Barry.

Says Albert Schweitzer (on gratitude)

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude." Albert Schweitzer.

Says John Stuart Mill (on beliefs via interests)

"One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests." John Stuart Mill.

Says Bruce Jenkins (on surfing and dying)

"In surfing, coming to terms with death -- or at least the possibility -- is an ongoing crisis in big waves. The set is building outside, and it's so beautiful, aesthetically. People are watching in awe from the beach: the blue water, the stiff offshore winds, the 40-foot walls charging in from the open ocean. If you're out there with nothing but your body, your wits and a surfboard, that set can be your coffin." Bruce Jenkins, in North Shore Chronicles.

BRUCE JENKINS, North Shore Chronicles

Says Bush (on being a war president)

"You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war President. No President wants to be a war President, but I am one." President George W. Bush, Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

Says Morticia Adams (on lovable horror)

"Last night you were, unhinged. You were like some desperate, howling demon. You frightened me. Do it again!" Morticia Adams, from the 1960s show, The Addams Family.

Says Ed Begley Jr. (on Yugoslavian food)

"The food in Yugoslavia is fine if you like pork tartare." Ed Begley, Jr.

Yes, but the cevapcici is delish. Laku Noch!

Says George Orwell (on jokes)

   

The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded." George Orwell.

Says Adelle Davis (on preserving health)

"As I see it, every day you can do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself." Adelle Davis.

Says Albert Einstein (on success)

"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value." Albert Einstein.

Vice President Dick Cheney (on aliens)

U.S. Vice-President Cheney was taken aback by the very first question posed to him" by a caller to Diane Rehm's national radio show. The caller asked Cheney whether the administration "has developed a policy on 'UFOs' and the little creatures flying them? Raising an eyebrow, Cheney no doubt made the caller's day by replying that if he did attend such a meeting on UFOs, it most certainly would be 'classified,' and therefore he'd be unable to discuss it.
Washington Times, 4-13-01.

Says Margery Williams (on becoming real)

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." Margery Williams, from the Velveteen Rabbit.

Says Thomas Szasz (on neurosis vs. psychosis)

"Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions." Dr. Thomas S. Szasz.

Says Stephen Colbert (on the Jon Stewart show preceding his)

      “Jon always said 'The Daily Show' has no political impact, ... We're going to go ahead and pick up that gauntlet and change the world!” Stephen Colbert.

Says Vivekananda (on success)

 

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life -- think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, the way great giants are produced." Swami Vivekananda.

Says Pink (on Prince William)

"I turned down Prince William's invitation for me to sing at his birthday bash because he was spearing animals in Africa and bringing publicity to it, and I thought that was pretty disgusting!" Pink.

Right with you, Pink. Ahimsa is the word we're grasping for here.

Says Ernest Becker (on why men march to war willingly)

"One of the main reasons that it is so easy to march men off to war is that each of them feels sorry for the man next to him who will die." Ernest Becker.

Said Steve Irwin (on potentially losing his life)

"I have no fear of losing my life - if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it."

For more Steve Irwin quotes about the risks he knew he was taking, click here.

Says Woody Allen (on height)

"I failed to make the chess team because of my height." Woody Allen.

Says Ralph Waldo Emerson (on solar systems)

"The solar system has no anxiety about its reputation." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Says John Gardner (on confusion)

"History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always feels uncomfortable." John Gardner.

Says Goethe (on enthusiasm and perseverance)

"In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm.. in the real world all rests on perseverance." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Says Richard Dawkins (on you and me)

"We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes." Richard Dawkins.

Says Gena Lee Nolin (on breast implants)

"If you eat right and you exercise and you get breast implants, you can look like us." Gena Lee Nolin.

Says Albert Schweitzer (on kindness)

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." Albert Schweitzer.

Says Marcia Brady on noses.

"Ooooh! My nose!"

Says Samuel Beckett (on graveyards)

"Personally I have no bone to pick with graveyards." Samuel Beckett.

Says Ralph Waldo Emerson (on kindness)

"To laugh often and much: to win the respect of intellligent people and the affection of children .. to leave the world a better place ... to even know one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Says Edmund Wilson (on not hating the people in the news)

"I have learned to read the papers calmly and not to hate the people I read about." Edmund Wilson.