Agnostics From The United States

"The grim consequences of … Hanoi's victory are now incontestable. The record of the last decade has brought a realization to some, who had been of the same view as Chomsky, of what they helped to bring into being in Vietnam. Protests have been organized against the continued existence of concentration and re-education camps, and the systematic barbarities practiced against dissenters. But Chomsky is still unrepentant. He has refused to join any protest, on the ground that it would serve the interests of the United States. In short, he has followed the double standard to the last, for he never hesitated to utter the most extravagant criticism of the United States on the ground that it would serve the interests of the Soviet Union."

"I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature."

"To silence criticism is to silence freedom."

"Anti-Semitism was rife in almost all varieties of socialism."

"I turned to Brecht and asked him why, if he felt the way he did about Jerome and the other American Communists, he kept on collaborating with them, particularly in view of their apparent approval or indifference to what was happening in the Soviet Union.[...] Brecht shrugged his shoulders and kept on making invidious remarks about the American Communist Party and asserted that only the Soviet Union and its Communist Party mattered. [...] But I argued...it was the Kremlin and above all Stalin himself who were responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of the opposition and their dependents. It was at this point that he said in words I have never forgotten, 'As for them, the more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.' I was so taken aback that I thought I had misheard him. 'What are you saying?' I asked. He calmly repeated himself, 'The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.' [...] I was stunned by his words. 'Why? Why?' I exclaimed. All he did was smile at me in a nervous sort of way. I waited, but he said nothing after I repeated my question. I got up, went into the next room, and fetched his hat and coat. When I returned, he was still sitting in his chair, holding a drink in his hand. When he saw me with his hat and coat, he looked surprised. He put his glass down, rose, and with a sickly smile took his hat and coat and left. Neither of us said a word. I never saw him again."

"She was not an easy woman to categorize or to explain. If I´ve ever known anyone in my life, man or woman, who was unique, it was she. There was nobody like her before or since. Never will be. In every way. In talent, in looks, in character, in temperament. Everything. There sure wasn't anybody who didn't fall under her spell."

"I've been close to Bette Davis for thirty-eight years - and I have the cigarette burns to prove it."

"We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is — at least in its physical aspects."

"The whole thing is so much bigger than I am, and I can't understand it, so I just trust myself to it; and forget about it."

"If the apparent magnitudes of the nebulae are corrected merely for the effect of the red-shift in diminishing the energy of their observed light, we have seen that Hubble claims that the system is uniformly spread out in space. If, however, the nebulae are receding, an additional dimming factor arises, and the corresponding correction for distance when incorporated in the calculation destroys the homogeneity. Instead, the number of nebulae per unit volume of space now appears to increase as we recede towards the confines of the visible universe. Rightly or wrongly, Hubble maintains that such a picture would imply that we were in a privileged position in the universe, being in the region lease densely populated with nebulae. On these, and other grounds, he is inclined, therefore, to reject the Doppler-interpretation of the red-shifts and to regard the nebulae as stationary."

"Eventually, we reach the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows and search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial."

"Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive."

"The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons."

"...there must be no favored location in the universe, no center, no boundary; all must see the universe alike. And, in order to ensure this situation, the cosmologist postulates spatial isotropy and spatial homogeneity."

"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science."

"She deserved the Nobel Prize for her work."

"I chucked the law for astronomy, and I knew that even if I were second-rate or third-rate, it was astronomy that mattered."

"Of all the young singer-songwriters out there, I think Todd Snider is the best.. by that I mean he has found a way to take his feelings and observations and turn them into songs that can get an audience...he won't quit til he gets the audience and he always gets the audience."

"It's an issue for me I went to see this therapist She said just do the best you can do Do the best you can do I was hoping for something more specific"

"Todd Snider is a true songwriter, with the heart and humor of John Prine, the wild unpredictability of Roger Miller, and a fresh, original spirit and freedom of imagination that's absolutely his own."

"Todd Snider writes great songs and also is a great performer. He totally connects with every audience. Hardest act to follow since Steve Goodman."

"(Spoken) You get out in the desert and there's no signs. And of course it was just me and all my friends, it was all guys in the car, so we drove about another two and a half hours before we ever pulled over and asked anybody where we was. And we were on this thing called the Devil's Backbone Highway, right, so we finally pull into this place uniquely named "The Devil's Backbone Tavern." We go in, and all the guys say I gotta go in, you know. And so I go in there, and it's one of them bars, like everyone's drinking beer and there are like, say, twenty people in there and they have maybe, say, seventeen teeth total in the whole place. And I'm not a good fighter, or very good at protecting myself at all, you know! And I thought, well this could - this may not work out. So I saw behind the bar there was this one older woman; she looked like she was in her eighties and she kinda hunched over like I remember my grandma started to do, she kinda, she had curly white hair, and she's all... I thought, well, I could take her..."

"Now to fit in on the Seattle scene You had to show people something that they'd never seen So thinkin' up a gimmick one day We decided to be the only band that wouldn't play a note Under any circumstance We called it silence... Music's original alternative Root's grunge"

"Making money out of paper, making paper out of trees We’re making so much money we can hardly breathe"

"(Spoken) So I called my brother... he was living in Austin. He had these friends who were letting him stay on their couch, and I figured they might have a couch that I could stay on. So, I got this ride to Austin, Texas and got to this address my brother gave me, and this guy introduced himself as "Bonehead." And I went in and started asking around; turned out they didn't have the second couch, they just had the one couch, uh, for my brother. But they knew where there was a party, and I thought, well, that's good enough."

"(Spoken) He came out, kinda like tonight, like I am, with just a guitar, and sang some songs. I thought, shit, I could do that."

"With good behavior I'll be out in seven years Don't worry over me or shed any tears I've learned a lot in here and I know what a chance I blew The next time I won't make the same mistake I'll shoot the camera out too I'm learning all kinds of things you can do When you're broke"

"By the time that he mowed the last man down He was high as he had ever been Laughing to the sounds of the world going around Completely unaware of the win And while the papers would say he was scattered that day He was pretty as a pitcher could be The day Dock Ellis of the pittsburgh pirates Threw a no hitter on lsd"

"Republicans... That's what scares people these days. That, and uh, Democrats."

"You know, this war on drugs is funded by tobacco and alcohol commissions. It's not what drugs you're strung out on they care about so much as whose. People still dig drugs. I mean, y'all do, anyway. I'm over it."

"They say the average bank robber lives within say about 20 miles of the bank that he robs There's this little bank not so far from here I've been watching now for a while Seems like lately alls I can think about is how bad I wanna go out in style"

"I'm gonna make my last stand This time I can't be bought Then again, on the other hand How much have you got?"

"Conservative Christian, right-wing Republican Straight white American males Gay-bashing, black-fearing War-fighting, tree-killing Regional leaders of sales Frat-housing, keg-tapping Shirt-tucking, back-slapping Haters of hippies like me Tree-hugging, peace-loving Pot-smoking, porn-watching Lazy-ass hippies like me"

"I was looking for a job when I found this one Don't need the work like you need the work done You look like you're under pressure I was already looking for a job two weeks ago, when I met you, remember?"

"A man once said that the pinnacle of success Was when you've finally lost interest In money, compliments, and publicity A noble enough idea I suppose How on Earth he does this heaven only knows I know I need a lot more of all three of those Before I'll ever have the nerve to turn up my nose At any money, or compliments, or publicity"

"You internet people scare the shit out of me."

"I don't know much about that whole grunge thing."

"I've always paid attention to religion … because I grew up in a religious background, but I've never felt a part of any of them. I think there's something to be drawn from most of them — other than goat sacrificing."

"I keep hearing I'm a crazy party guy … I'm not. I'm boring... At least by party standards."

"You shouldn't speak until you know what you're talking about. That's why I get uncomfortable with interviews. Reporters ask me what I feel China should do about Tibet. Who cares what I think China should do? I'm a fucking actor! They hand me a script. I act. I'm here for entertainment. Basically, when you whittle everything away, I'm a grown man who puts on makeup."

"Being married means I can break wind and eat ice cream in bed."

"Fame is a bitch, man."

"It is not so much whether a theorem is useful that matters, but how elegant it is."

"As one sharpens a knife on a whetstone, the brain can be sharpened on dull objects of thought. Every form of assiduous thinking has its value."

"What exactly is mathematics? Many have tried but nobody has really succeeded in defining mathematics; it is always something else."

"In its evolution from a more primitive nervous system, the brain, as an organ with ten or more billion neurons and many more connections between them must have changed and grown as a result of many accidents."

"Thoughts are steered in different ways."

"Even the simplest calculation in the purest mathematics can have terrible consequences. Without the invention of the infinitesimal calculus most of our technology would have been impossible. Should we say therefore that calculus is bad?"

"I was still very hopeful that much work lay ahead of me. Perhaps because much of what I had worked on or thought about had not yet been put into writing, I felt I still had things in reserve. Given this optimistic nature, I feel this way even now when I am past sixty."

"According to recent studies, at least one star out of three is multiple."