Words caught on the fly

This page contains some phrases that I heard (or read) sometime and somewhere, and that somehow attracted me. Where I can, I refer to the source - though that may be not always possible. You may know well some people I refer to - but the phrases I picked may have avoided too much public attention. On the other hand, live talk of ordinary people can be as bright and thought-provoking as the well-considered aphorisms of an acknowledged talent - and I did not hesitate to bring them public in the same array. Certainly, it's just a tiny portion of what could have been caught on the fly - but a pretty something is better than beautiful nothing.


And all things, whose opposites do not exist for ever, may either be or not be, and their way is emergence and death.
Aristotle (Physica, Book 4, Ch.12, 222a)

There cannot be what has been called "void", or "nothingness" or "empty", or any of the other myriad metaphors that many philosophers have wont to entertain themselves with, and that has passed, I feel erroneously, for philosophy.
M.T.Horn <terehorn@df1.telmex.net.mx>

If we first claim that the axioms of a formal system are about nothing then take credit for the explanatory value when it works, and escape the consequences when it doesn't, then what we do is foolproof but not honest.
H.M.Hubey (The Diagonal Infinity, Preface)

The formal system is a hypothesis; the theorems are predictions. Whether they are true depends on the real world.
H.M.Hubey (The Diagonal Infinity, Preface)

Arguments may be valid without being true.
Ian J. <ianj@gmtnet.co.uk>

... logic is not a priori to anything; it's learned via living...
H.M.Hubey (The Diagonal Infinity, Ch.IV)

The important thing is to realize that one cannot suppose that one may arrive at the truth merely by a study of words...
H.M.Hubey (The Diagonal Infinity, Ch.IV)

Never wrestle with a pig; you'll get dirty, and the pig will like it.
Mark Rue <rooster@iglou.com>

Even the stupid hate being made to look foolish!
B.W.Aldiss

When all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Phil Gibbs <philip.gibbs@pobox.com>

If you set your sights on only grabbing a leaf off a high tree limb, instead of grabbing for a star, because you believe that the former is more attainable, then you will only get the leaf, which will wither and die, while the star still shines from afar.
Jon Will <http://www.erols.com/jonwill/utopiabook.htm>

If a wolf has eaten your enemy, it does not mean that the wolf has become your friend.
School folklore

To find a fit, simply means not to notice any discrepancies.
Ernst von Glasersfeld <http://www.mcgill.ca/douglas/fdg/kjf/17-TAGLA.htm>

Things are bound to get a whole lot worse before they can get any better.
R.A.Heinlein (Logic of Empire)

If we could only perceive it, we would hear how every solid body sings!
E.I.Bichenkov

It may be better to know, rather than be ignorant.
E.I.Bichenkov

A god that can be comprehended is no god.
E.I.Bichenkov

Even if Nature has been created by a god, creating a human being has made further god's intervention utterly impossible.
E.I.Bichenkov

The ideas have the property of coming and disappearing.
O.Nechayev

The humanity consists of people.
L.V.Avdeev

Do not believe what has been written. Believe yourself.
P.A.Kim

Don't spit on the people, or eventually the people will spit on you, and you'll get drowned.
O.Nechayev

Why every hard blow makes one apt to think of the sense of life?
Yu.N.Maltsev

Thou who said "A", say "B"!
A.Gabov

Esteem yourself!
A.Gabov

I protest against the feebleness of reason!
V.V.Koren

Maybe the abnormality is the norm of life.
V.V.Koren

Everybody is right their way. And everybody is not right because they are right their way.
V.V.Koren

One bad working theory is better than no theory at all.
V.V.Koren

The culture of thought is possessing the methods that are mutually consistent.
V.V.Koren

Moving from anything that burns we move from the light too!
V.V.Koren

If only the brain were like hair, so that one could comb it!
V.V.Koren


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