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Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o’clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and when Rabbit said, “Honey or condensed milk with your bread?” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “But don’t bother about the bread, please.”
-A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
Bonus trivia: A.A. Milne was an ardent pacifist but joined the British Army in World War II because he believed Hitler was evil incarnate.
Amazing. How do you do it Kakarot? You’ve always been like this, ever since the day I first met you, always ready to meet the next challenge, even if it’s bigger than you are.
It was the same on Namek. You improved so much that it would make Recoome look like he were standing still. Your power had increased so dramatically since our battle on Earth that I thought you’ve done it. I thought…you have become a Super-Saiyan. It tore me apart. How could a low-class soldier accomplish so easily what I… I had struggle my whole life to achieve? After 3 millennia, it finally happened; A new Super-Saiyan has emerged, and somehow, I have become his witness.
Then at last it happened. I too transformed. After living every moment of every day for the single purpose of surpassing you, I finally became a Super-Saiyan myself. The prince has reclaimed his throne and fulfilled his destiny. But no matter how strong I became, your power still exceeded mine.
At first I thought it was your loved ones, than it was your instinct to protect them that inspired you on and pushed you beyond your limits. But then I found myself with a family of my own, and my power… didn’t increase at all. I used to fight for the shear of pleasure, for the thrill of the hunt, all I thought was strength mattered, I spared no one. And yet you showed mercy to every one, even your fiercest enemies, even me…
Yet you never thought of killing, nor of revenge. Only to test your limits, and to push us beyond them, to become the strongest you could possibly be. How can a Saiyan fight like that, and at the same time be so gentle that he wouldn’t hurt a fly? It makes me angry just thinking about it. But perhaps it is my anger that has made me blind to the truth for so long. I see it now, this day has made it all too clear. You’re better than me, Kakarot. You are the best…
-Vegeta, Dragonball Z
The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer
Bonus trivia: Spencer coined the term “survival of the fittest”, easily the most misunderstood and notorious phrase in modern history. He was also the philosopher to enthusiastically push the idea that the concepts of evolution and the first law of thermodynamics (the Conservation of Energy) meant that humanity would push inevitably on to perfection. The doctrine would be blasted apart in the trenches of World War I.
Problems worthy
of attack
Prove their worth
by hitting back.
-Piet Hein
Bonus trivia: Piet Hein became notorious as a member of the Danish resistance during Nazi occupation by writing this poem. It passed German censors. If you understand it, then you’ve grasped the essence of freedom and self-respect:
Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing
compared to the pain,
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding
the first one again.
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
-Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead vs United States, 277 US 479 (1928)
Bonus trivia: Louis Brandeis graduated from Harvard Law School at the age of twenty with the highest grade average in the school’s history. He is also the first Jew appointed to the Supreme Court.
“No, and I don’t want to,” said Frodo. “I can’t understand you. Do you mean to say that you, and the Elves, have let him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death.”
“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
You want a valve that doesn’t leak and you try everything possible to develop one. But the real world provides you with a leaky valve. You have to determine how much leaking you can tolerate.
-Arthur Rudolph
Bonus trivia: Rudolph was a notorious figure because he designed the V-2 rocket production facility, which used Nazi concentration camp labor. He was captured by US forces and brought back, eventually joining the team that designed NASA’s Saturn V rocket.
An approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question.
-John Tukey
Bonus trivia: Tukey invented the term “bit”, as a contraction of “binary digit”.
When a man’s vision is fixed on one thing, he might as well be blind.
-Charles Ponzi
Keep in mind that both Argus and Sauron were tricked and defeated.
There is nothing as disturbing to one’s well-being and judgment as to see a friend get rich.
-Charles Kindleberger, Manias, Panics, and Crashes
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