I wasn't crying, but I couldn't stop.

my favorite sentence.

there are worse things than 
being alone
but it often takes decades 
to realize this
and most often 
when you do
it's too late
and there's nothing worse
than 
too late.

We despise the French, we are mortally afraid of the Soviets, we do not believe the British can afford us. So that leaves the Americans.

at the end of the second world war, many of the nazi regime's engineers responsible for the infamously deadly V2 rocket surrendered to the western allies-- particularly to US intelligence.

these rocket engineers, being not ideologically driven, chose the americans as they saw them as their best chance to continue their cutting-edge research. they were not wrong.

the US military accepted them with open arms and were key in the development of cold war missiles.

but that was not the end of their contribution.

one of their key engineers, Wernher von Braun, would go on to lead a brand new agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (or otherwise known as NASA) and its manned space flight missions.

Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something!

Nuestra muerte ilumina nuestra vida. Si nuestra muerte carece de sentido, tampoco lo tuvo nuestra vida. Por eso cuando alguien muere de muerte violenta, solemos decir: "se la buscó". Y es cierto, cada quien tiene la muerte que se busca, la muerte que se que se hace. Si la muerte nos traiciona y morimos de mala manera, todos se lamentan: hay que morir como se vive. La muerte es intransferible, como la vida. Si no morimos como vivimos es porque realmente no fue nuestra vida que vivimos: no nos pertenecía como no nos pertenece la mala suerte que nos mata. Dime cómo mueres y te diré quién eres.

It was early in the Seventeenth Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder and the printing press. Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world's efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.

And so it is to the printing press-- to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news--that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

great speech.

Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor.

Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain.

Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up."

Man bursts into tears.

Says, "But doctor...I am Pagliacci.”

Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only? Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead, but if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!

during the cold war, yugoslavian dictator tito and the soviet leaders were constantly at odds, showing public disdain for each other.

one infamous story tells of soviet leader kruschev (of UN shoe waggling fame) sending tito a barrel full of corn. attached was a letter simply proclaiming that these would be how many soviet soldiers would descend on the country if tito did not relent and submit.

tito responded by sending back a barrel kacamak (corn syrup) to soviet premier, with his own note: "and this is what will happen to them."

Robert was the true steel. Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends. And Renly, that one, he's copper, bright and shiny, pretty to look at but not worth all that much at the end of the day.

And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from

This is gonna sound stupid, but I saw at one point that our mothers are... bus drivers. No, they are the bus. See, they're the vehicle that gets us here. They drop us off and go on their way. They continue on their journey. And the problem is that we keep tryin' to get back on the bus, instead of just lettin' go.

There are 10¹¹ stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

a large office building in New York City had a problem in the mid 1900s. many people were complaining that the wait for elevators was too long. so they hired a queue expert to figure out the perfect position for elevators so as to reduce the wait.

should the elevator's go to the bottom floor when not in use? should one of them go to the top floor, and the other to the bottom? or perhaps they should wait in the middle floor?

numerous combinations were tried. and while waiting time reduced, people still complained.

the solution turned out not to be a scientific one, but a "human" one.

they installed mirrors by the elevators and complaints dramatically went down as people lost track of time looking at themselves while waiting.

and ever since most elevators around the world are surrounded by mirrors.

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

A life. A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come.

Which name shall I write?

in ancient athens, a special vote could be called in which a member of society would be banished from the city in a practice called ostracism. this was done if it was believed that any one individual had gained too much power or influence and unbalanced the power of athenian democracy. but, like all things law, the spirit of it was mercurial at best.

in 482 BC a prominent and respected athenian named aristides, popularly known simply as "the just" for his impartial deliberations and integrity, saw a local peasant on the day of the vote needing help.

"Which name shall I write?", offered Aristides.

"Thank you. Please put down 'Aristides' for me," the man replied.

"Certainly. But may I ask, why you chose him? Has this man ever wronged you?" Aristides inquired as he dutifully wrote his own name down.

"No. I have never met him." the man answered.

"I see. Why then do you vote to ostracize him?"

"I'm just sick and tired of everybody calling him 'The Just' all the time. What an asshole."

You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person.

You've set mathematics back a month.

paul erdös, one of the most famous (if not the most famous) mathematicians of the 20th century was known for his love of amphetamines to fuel his math binges.

erdös did not see it as an addiction, but his friends saw otherwise. a bet was placed that erdös could not forgo the use of drugs for a month so as to prove his addiction.

erdös handily won the bet, but lambasted his friends for setting mathematical progress back a month in such a stupid bet.