Intellectuals

I am still a little too upset to write about Roger losing to Superman, so I am going to take the easy way out... hat tip to my brother Steve for this thought for the day:

-"Je suis un intellectuel. Ça m'agace qu'on fasse de ce mot une insulte: les gens ont l'air de croire que le vide de leur cerveau leur meuble les couilles" (Simone de Beauvoir "Les Mandarins")

["I am an intellectual. It irritates me when this word is turned into an insult: people seem to think that the emptiness of their heads gives them bigger balls"]

Between Smith and Marx

Warren Buffet:

I won't close down a business of subnormal profitability merely to add a fraction of a point to our corporate returns. I also feel it inappropriate for even an exceptionally profitable company to fund an operation once it appears to have unending losses in prospect. Adam Smith would disagree with my first proposition and Karl Marx would disagree with my second; the middle ground is the only position that leaves me comfortable.

Warren Buffett Quotes

"Wall Street is the only place that people drive to in Rolls Royce's to get advice from people who take the subway"

Roger

Mr Federer is not too concerned about the past...

Every day is a possibility for you to improve in something. The past perhaps gives you some sense of security, but it's the present and the future that you're really concerned about.

Man v Animal

"Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love all year round, madam; that is all there is to distinguish us from the other animals"
-The Barber of Seville (Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais)

Immortality

Some funny quotes on Overcoming Bias

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good."
-- Rick Potvin

Warren Buffet Quote

I violated the Noah rule: Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does.

Majority Rules

Russel on Locke

`The divine right of majorities, if pressed too far, may become almost as tyrannical as the divine right of kings.'

Cartesian Doubt

This quote seemed interesting in light of my earlier concern about the consequences of deciding that everything you thought you knew needing to be questioned and what to do in the mean time if the idea of being a recluse didn't appeal...

Russel on Decartes....

`In these books Descartes begins by explaining the method of 'Cartesian Doubt', as it has come to be called. In order to have a firm basis for his philosophy, he resolves to make himself doubt everything that he can manage to doubt. As he forsees that the process may take some time, he resolves, in the meanwhile, to regulate his conduct by commonly received rules; this will leave his mind unhampered by the possible consequences of his doubts in relation to his practice.'


While commonly received rules may not be so common, or clear... it is a start.

The choice seems between completely throwing away any previous restraints, and continuing as you are but constantly challenging why you are continuing the way you are.

Truth

the test of scientific truth is patient collection of facts, combined with bold guessing as to laws binding the facts together.

Russel on the great merits of Copernicus's New Astronomy