Useless quote for 9 Apr:

"Today the expression 'Take ten paces, turn, and fire' is more likely to call to mind Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam than 'men of honor'."

~ Steven Pinker in "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why violence has declined" (Viking Books, 2011)

Useless quote for 8 Apr:

"When any person treats you ill or speaks ill of you, remember that he does this or says this because he thinks that it is his duty. It is not possible then for him to follow that which seems right to you, but that which seems right to himself."

~ Epictetus (c. 50- c. 135 AD), The Enchiridion XLII (trans. George Long)
Link to source:
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/george-long

Useless quote for 7 Apr:

"… don't you forget a country can't live without friends, I want you all to get to know other countries so that you can be friends, make a little effort, try to find out what it is all about."

~ Gertrude Stein, talking to US soldiers in Germany, 1945, in "Off We All Went to See Germany", Life magazine Vol. 19 No. 6, 6 Aug 1945, pp. 54-58
Link to source (Google Books):
https://books.google.at/books?id=0EkEAAAAMBAJ

Useless quote for 6 Apr:

"Self-satisfaction arises mostly from ignorance."

~ Baltasar Gracián, Maxim xv in "Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia" (The Art of Worldly Wisdom), 1647 (trans. Joseph Jacobs, 1892)

Link to source (PDF):
https://www.andrewburke.me/media/Gracian.pdf

Useless quote for 5 Apr:

"After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out."

~Warren Buffett, in a 2001 Chairman's Letter
Link to source:
https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2001ar/2001letter.html

Useless quote for 4 Apr:

"… men forget more easily the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony."

~ Niccolò Machiavelli, in Ch XVII of "The Prince" (Il Principe / De Principatibus), 1532 (Trans. Luigi Ricci, 1909)

Useless quote for 3 Apr:

"What boots it at one gate to make defence,
And at another to let in the foe
Effeminatly vanquish't?"

~ John Milton, "Samson Agonistes", 1671

Useless quote for 2 Apr:

"The moon does not, except in appearance, lose her first thin, luminous curve, nor her silvery crescent, in rounding to her full."

~ Lucy Larcom, in "A New England Girlhood: Outlined from Memory", 1889

Useless quote for 1 Apr:

"Reality? Your 'reality', sir, is lies and balderdash, and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever."

~ the character Baron Munchausen in Terry Gilliam's 1988 film "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"

A reminder
These are called "Useless Quotes" because they only become useful once we think about them.

Useless quote for 31 Mar:

"… to be happy takes a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy."

~ Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics" (c. 335 BCE-322 BCE), 1098a.1 (trans. H. Rackham, 1934)
Link to source:
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0054

Useless quote for 30 Mar:

"I'm throwing away something that I can't even find in the incredible clutter of my being but it's going out with the refuse en masse, buried in the middle of it …"

~ Jack Kerouac, "Visions of Cody" (1951-1952; published 1972)

Useless quote for 29 Mar:

"Progress, if it is meaningful, can't just mean novelty. It can't just mean doing something different than what we've done before."

~ Dr. Thomas Hibbs, in a speech to Zaytuna College students, "Why We Need Liberal Education Today" (00:24:00~), Oct 2021

Link to source:
https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/media/why-liberal-education-matters-today

Useless quote for 28 Mar:

"… everything I know is what I need to know
And everything I do's been done before
Every sentence in my head
Someone else has said
At each end of my life is an open door …"

~ John Entwistle's lyrics for the song "905" on The Who's 1978 LP "Who Are You".

Useless quote for 27 Mar:

"A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud."

~ George Orwell, in his 1946 essay "The Prevention of Literature"
Link to source:
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/the-prevention-of-literature/

Useless quote for 26 Mar:

"The Joker revels in creating chaos. Breaking rules. Flaunting his power. … He seeks only self-satisfying destructiveness via violence, which serves as an evil expression of his anger, rage, resentment, hatred, and hostility toward others and the world."

~ Stephen A. Diamond, in "The Savior, the Devil, and Donald Trump", Psychology Today, January 15, 2021

Link to source:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/evil-deeds/202101/the-savior-the-devil-and-donald-trump-0

Useless quote for 25 Mar:

"Sometimes when you collaborate, you have to trust people more than you have any reason to do so. It works because most people are good."

~ Ward Cunningham, as quoted in "Ward Cunningham: The Web's wizard of working together" by Mike Rogoway in The Oregonian, Dec. 19, 2005

Link to source:
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2005/12/ward_cunningham_the_webs_wizar.html

Useless quote for 24 Mar:

"My family still jokes about when I drove them up to Cooperstown for the first time. I said that we were lost, but at least we were making good time."

~ Yogi Berra, "What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All" (Simon & Schuster, 2002)

Useless quote for 23 Mar:

" 'I only took the regular course.'

'What was that?' inquired Alice.

'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle replied; 'and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.' "

~ from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, 1865

Useless quote for 22 Mar:

"But now being lifted into high society,
And having pick’d up several odds and ends
Of free thoughts in his travels for variety,
He deem’d, being in a lone isle, among friends,
That, without any danger of a riot, he
Might for long lying make himself amends;
And, singing as he sung in his warm youth,
Agree to a short armistice with truth."

~ Lord Byron, "Don Juan" Canto III Stanza 83 (1819-1824)

Useless quote for Mar 21:

"We seek a sense of our societal code of morality in our leaders and give political and social power to those of our selective moral character. Yet the gift is tentative, especially when a breach is detected."

~ J. Frederick Arment, in "The Elements of Peace: How Nonviolence Works", McFarland & Co. Icc., 2012