August 20, 2003

Cheating

Posted by shonk at 05:08 PM in Words of Wisdom | TrackBack

Okay, enough studying for one day. Now, sadly, I didn't actually write any blog entries during my long absence. Instead of writing one now, I'll go to an old standby and list a few quotes from books I've read recently:



" 'Bread and Circuses' " is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs, to an invader - the barbarians enter Rome."

- Jubal Harshaw, from
To Sail Beyond the Sunset, by Robert A. Heinlein, pg. 227

"Widows are far better than brides. They don't tell, they won't yell, they don't swell, they rarely smell, and they're grateful as hell."

- Ira Johnson, from
To Sail Beyond the Sunset, by Robert A. Heinlein, pg. 305

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to com into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."

- The judge, from "Life-Line", by Robert A. Heinlein

"Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground - you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move."

- Anne Lamott, from
Bird by Bird, pgs. 28-9

And this, which I came across on IRCQuotes.Com (here) still remains, to me, one of the funniest things I've ever read:



*** _Codex (terop@c156a.w2.ton.tut.fi) has joined #C++

_Codex: How would you create a god class?

CyBBe: god class?

bealtine: amen

ZorbaBeta: class God { public void smite( Mortal *target ) const; };

ZorbaBeta: Mortal *gates = new BillGates(); God god; god.smite( gates ); // gates implicitly destroyed

ZorbaBeta: C:\CODE\WorldSim\killgates.cpp(5): Error C2813: Cast from BillGates* to Mortal* invalid. BillGates only derives from God.

ZorbaBeta: (stupid microsoft compiler!)



Which just goes to show what a huge geek I am.

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