Hier sind alle meine gesammelten Zitate – das schont den Finger beachtlich gegenüber dem durchklicken in der Seitenleiste…

The 20th-century conflict between liberal democracy and Marxist-Leninism is only a fleeting and superficial historical phenomenon compared to the continuing and deeply conflictual relation between Islam and Christianity. — Samuel P. Huntington, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/review/Ajami-t.html

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible. — Stanislaw Lem

Cannibals prefer those who have no spines. — Stanislaw Lem

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. — Isaac Asimov, http://www.asimovonline.com/

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them. — Isaac Asimov, http://www.asimovonline.com/

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. — George Orwell

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. — Aldous Huxley

Nicht der Wind, das Segel bestimmt die Richtung. — Chinesische Spruchweisheit

A first-class democracy cannot afford to have second-class citizens. — Martin Luther King

Schweigen ist ein Zeichen von Weisheit, aber Schweigen allein ist noch keine Weisheit. — Jiddisches Sprichwort

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war. — Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense

Die Welt hat genug für jedermanns Bedürfnisse, aber nicht genug für jedermanns Gier. — Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi

Wo ist also dieses Ich, wenn es weder im Körper, noch in der Seele ist? — Blaise Pascal

Die Täuschung geht immer weiter als der Verdacht. — La Rochefoucauld

Ich will nicht reden, wie die Dinge liegen. Ich will dir zeigen, wie die Sache steht. — Erich Kästner

Karriere ist etwas Herrliches, aber man kann sich in einer kalten Nacht nicht an ihr wärmen. — Marilyn Monroe

Meinungsforschung ist die Kunst, die Meinung des Auftraggebers zu erforschen und sie durch unverdächtige Zeugen belegen zu lassen. — Anonym

Die Nassen müssen den Regen nicht fürchten. — Irakisches Sprichwort

Kritisch denken bedeutet stets dagegen zu sein. — Hannah Arendt

Der Augenblick ist jenes Zweideutige, darin Zeit und Ewigkeit einander berühren. — Søren Kierkegaard

When the white man came, we had the land and they had the Bible; they said “let us pray” and we bowed our heads; when we looked up, WE had the Bible and THEY had the land. — Desmond Tutu

Obviously not all the casualties coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan come home in body bags. — Judge Charles B. Kornmann, in murder case against Iraq veteran with PTSD, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/us/27vets.html

Chi di speranza vive disperato muore! (wörtlich: wer von der Hoffnung lebt stirbt verzweifelt, sinngemäß: Da kannst Du lange warten) — Italienische Redewendung, Pons Kompaktwörterbuch

It is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers. — John McCain, NYTimes-Newsletter vom 26.3.2008

In the interplay between design and statistics, design rules! — Shadish, W.R., & Cook, T.D. (1999). Design rules: More steps towards a complete theory of quasi-experimentation. Statistical Science, 14, 294–300., Shadish, W.R., Cook, T.D., & Campbell, D.T. (2002). Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference. Boston : Houghton-Mifflin.

Mancher Mensch hat ein großes Feuer in seiner Seele, und niemand kommt, um sich daran zu wärmen. — Vincent Van Gogh

Die Welt hat genug für jedermanns Bedürfnisse, aber nicht für jedermanns Gier. — Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi, http://www.zitate-online.de/sprueche/historische-personen/818/die-welt-hat-genug-fuer-jedermanns-beduerfnisse.html

Es gibt kein Verbot für alte Weiber in Bäume zu klettern. — Astrid Lindgren

Bist du es, der da kommen soll, oder sollen wir auf einen anderen warten? — Matthäus 11,3

In Zeiten, in denen man sich viel mit Zahlen beschäftigen muss, ist es einfach schlicht und ergreifend eine Freude, einmal etwas anderes zu sehen und zu erleben. — Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel im Berliner Martin-Gropius-Bau bei der Berlin-Präsentation der Künstler-Stipendiaten der Villa Massimo Rom, http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/505/459150/text/

Es ist mein Glaube, dass für die Welt allgemein das Mitgefühl wichtiger ist als “Religion”. — Dalai Lama, Der wahre Ausdruck der Gewaltlosigkeit ist Mitgefühl

My experience is what I agree to attend to. — William James, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/science/05tier.html

You can never get used to maternal deaths. One minute she’s talking with her husband, then she is bleeding and then she is gone. She’s gone, very young. You cannot sleep for one week. That face will always come back to you. — Dr. Siriel Nanzia Massawe (obstetrician in Tanzania), http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/health/24birth.html

The corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth that are accumulated with the help of the corporate form have little or no correlation to the public’s support for the corporation’s political ideas. — Justice Thurgood Marshall, for the majority in the 1990 Supreme Court decision, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates., http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/us/politics/30movie.html

It’s naïve for us to think that we can grow our nuclear stockpiles, the Russians continue to grow their nuclear stockpiles, and our allies grow their nuclear stockpiles, and that in that environment we’re going to be able to pressure countries like Iran and North Korea not to pursue nuclear weapons themselves. — Barack Obama, NYTimes-Newsletter Today’s Headlines vom 5.7.2009, zitiert aus http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/world/05nuclear.html

Ich weiß nicht, was ich gesagt habe, bevor ich nicht die Antwort des anderen darauf gehört habe. — Norbert Wiener, Bernhard von Mutius (Hg.) 2004 – Die andere Intelligenz. Wie wir morgen denken werden. S. 159.

Dass eine solche Liste erarbeitet werden könnte, (…) ist umgangssprachlich formuliert, die siebte Kavallerie im Fort Yuma, die man auch ausreiten lassen kann. Aber die muss nicht unbedingt ausreiten. Die Indianer müssen nur wissen, dass es sie gibt. — Peer Steinbrück, 14.3.2009, http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,615140,00.html

Ich muss niemanden anerkennen, der vom Staat lebt, diesen Staat ablehnt, für die Ausbildung seiner Kinder nicht vernünftig sorgt und ständig neue kleine Kopftuchmädchen produziert. — Thilo Sarrazin, Oktober 2009

Alle glücklichen Familien gleichen einander, jede unglückliche Familie ist auf ihre eigene Weise unglücklich. — Leo Tolstoi, erster Satz in Anna Karenina, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina

Anything you put in that book, any little change you make, has huge implications not only for psychiatry but for pharmaceutical marketing, research, for the legal system, for who’s considered to be normal or not, for who’s considered disabled. — Dr. Michael First, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia, on proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/health/10psych.html

When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. — Osama bin Laden, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/books/review/Steavenson-t.html

Development is a technology of security that is central to liberal forms of power and government. — Mark Duffield, Development, security and unending war: governing the world of peoples. 2007: viii

Die messbare Seite der Welt ist nicht die Welt. Sie ist die messbare Seite der Welt. — Martin Seel, Frankfurter Philosoph, http://www.zeit.de/2010/15/Affen-Tierversuche

Es gibt im Lebensmittelmarkt keinen Qualitätswettbewerb, weil die Transparenz fehlt. Es gibt nur einen Preiswettbewerb. — Martin Rücker, Sprecher der Verbraucherorganisation Foodwatch., http://www.zeit.de/2010/15/Affen-Tierschutz

Parteien müssen ab und zu auch den Mut haben zu Vereinfachungen, weil sie ansonsten schwer ein Gemeinschaftsgefühl entwickeln können. Ich habe selbstverständlich auch schon Vereinfachungen geboten, wo man in der Sache differenzierter hätte argumentieren sollen und können. — Angela Merkel, http://www.zeit.de/2010/15/Methode-Merkel

Es gibt eine zwiespältige Sehnsucht. Einerseits die Sehnsucht nach Klarheit und überschaubaren Diskussionen, die in endlicher Zeit zu einem klar erkennbaren Ende geführt werden, und auf der anderen Seite die Sehnsucht nach Freiheit der Debatte und einer großen Vielfalt der Meinungsäußerung. — Angela Merkel, http://www.zeit.de/2010/15/Methode-Merkel

Ich bin Leben, das leben will, inmitten von Leben, das leben will. — Albert Schweitzer, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer

I do not like broccoli, and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. — George H. W. Bush, well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/not-your-mothers-broccoli

You can’t treat heterosexuality. You can’t treat homosexuality. You can’t treat pedophilia. — Dr. Leslie Lothstein, psychologist at the Institute of Living, Hartford, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/us/10beliefs.html

It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” — Army Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, on the growing use of PowerPoint presentations among military commanders, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html

Lebe so, als ob du zum zweiten Mal lebtest und das erste Mal alles so falsch gemacht hättest, wie du es zu machen – im Begriffe bist. — Viktor Frankl, Der Mensch vor der Frage nach dem Sinn, S. 246

Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?—Alice. That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.—The Cat. — Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

People will get sick and die, because they don’t know their neighbors. And the health effects of social isolation are of the same magnitude as people smoking. — Robert D. Putnam, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/magazine/16GDP-t.html

There’s an enormous inequality of suffering in society. If you look at the 10 percent of people who spend the most time suffering, they account for almost half of the total amount of suffering. — Daniel Kahneman, Senior Scholar und Prof. emer. für Psychologie in Princeton, Träger des Wirtschaftsnobelpreises, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/magazine/16GDP-t.html

Auschwitz beginnt dort, wo einer im Schlachthof steht und denkt: Es sind ja nur Tiere. — Theodor W. Adorno (zugeschrieben)

Sometimes politicians have to be ahead of public opinion. — Mona Sahlin, leader of Sweden’s Social Democrats, noting how controversial the initial daddy month was and how broadly it is now simply expected, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/europe/10iht-sweden.html

Erziehung ist Beispiel und Liebe, sonst nichts. — Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Pädagoge

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. — Aldous Huxley, Texts and Pretexts (1932), p. 5, from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

Die Menschen drängen sich zum Lichte, nicht um besser zu sehen, sondern um besser zu glänzen. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Die Wahrheiten der Menschen sind die unwiderlegbaren Irrtümer. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Der Anfang ist die Hälfte des Ganzen. — Aristoteles

Wer einen guten Braten macht, hat auch ein gutes Herz. — Wilhelm Busch

Wer Recht erkennen will, muß zuvor in richtiger Weise gezweifelt haben. — Aristoteles

Je mehr du gedacht, je mehr du getan hast, desto länger hast du selbst in deiner eigenen Einbildung gelebt. — Immanuel Kant

Unser Entscheiden reicht weiter als unser Erkennen. — Immanuel Kant

Ich kann, weil ich will, was ich muss. — Immanuel Kant

Es ist unmöglich, daß ein Mensch ohne Religion seines Lebens froh werde. — Immanuel Kant

Was einen Preis hat, an dessen Stelle kann etwas anderes als Äquivalent gesetzt werden; was dagegen über allen Preis erhaben ist, das hat seine Würde. — Immanuel Kant

Wenn wir die Ziele wollen, wollen wir auch die Mittel. — Immanuel Kant

Drei Wochen war der Frosch so krank! Jetzt raucht er wieder. Gott sei Dank! — Wilhelm Busch

Seelenleiden zu heilen vermag der Verstand nicht, die Vernunft wenig, die Zeit viel, entschlossene Tätigkeit alles. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Liebe ist die Fähigkeit, Ähnliches an Unähnlichem wahrzunehmen. — Theodor W. Adorno

Man schließt zu zweit einen Bund gegen die Welt und hält dann diesen égoisme à deux irrtümlich für Liebe und Vertrautheit. — Erich Fromm

Nicht der ist reich, der viel hat, sondern der, welcher viel gibt. — Erich Fromm

Gegen Angriffe kann man sich wehren, gegen Lob ist man machtlos. — Sigmund Freud

Heirate auf jeden Fall! Kriegst du eine gute Frau, wirst du glücklich. Kriegst du eine böse, dann wirst du Philosoph. — Sokrates

Es blüht die Wurst nur kurze Zeit, die Freundschaft blüht in Ewigkeit. — Wilhelm Busch

Wenn ein Freund weggeht, muß man die Türe schließen, sonst wird es kalt. — Bert Brecht

Bankraub ist eine Unternehmung von Dilettanten. Wahre Profis gründen eine Bank. — Bert Brecht

Man kann die Wahrheit nur mit List verbreiten. — Bert Brecht

Gebt mir ein Museum, und ich werde es füllen. — Pablo Picasso

Wenn es nur eine Wahrheit gäbe, könnte man nicht hundert Bilder über dasselbe Thema malen. — Pablo Picasso

Zwei Dinge sind unendlich, das Universum und die menschliche Dummheit; aber bei dem Universum bin ich mir noch nicht ganz sicher. — Albert Einstein

Naturwissenschaft ohne Religion ist lahm, Religion ohne Naturwissenschaft ist blind. — Albert Einstein

Wenn die Menschen nur über das sprächen, was sie begreifen, dann würde es sehr still auf der Welt sein. — Albert Einstein

Nichts in der Welt wird so gefürchtet wie der Einfluß von Männern, die geistig unabhängig sind. — Albert Einstein

Ist der Juli trocken und heiß, klebt dem Bauern die Hose am Steiß. — Wilhelm Busch

Aus faulen Eiern werden keine Küken. — Wilhelm Busch

Kaum hat mal einer ein Bissel was, gleich gibt es welche, die ärgert das. — Wilhelm Busch

Ihr sprecht schon fast wie ein Franzos. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Mephisto in Faust)

Vom Eise befreit sind Strom und Bäche, durch des Frühlings holden belebenden Blick; im Tale grünet Hoffnungsglück. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Poverty is the worst form of violence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Hinter jedem großen Vermögen lauert ein vergessenes Verbrechen. — Honoré de Balzac

O ihr Menschen! Wir erschufen euch aus einem Mann und einer Frau und machten euch zu Völkern und Stämmen, damit ihr einander kennen lernt. — Koran (49:13), http://www.islamverurteiltantisemitismus.com/koran.htm

The one single trait that’s common among every single person who is happy is strong relationships. — Roko Belic, maker of the Film “Happy”, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html

Die Tatsachen gehören alle zur Aufgabe, nicht zur Lösung. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

Hold on tightly, let go lightly. — Clive Owen in the movie Croupier

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. — Rabindranath Tagore (zugeschrieben, bengalischer Philosoph, Literaturnobelpreis 1913)

Apparently, even the Invisible Hand doesn’t want to pick beans. — Stephen Colbert, Opening statement during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security (from C-SPAN 9/24/10 coverage)

It’s hard to sell humane killing as a concept. — Marc Cooper, senior scientific manager in the farm animals department of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. — Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals”, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html

If you want to look at why people are fat today, it’s pretty hard to identify a contributor more significant than this meteoric rise in cheese consumption. — Dr. Neal D. Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07fat.html

Alle glücklichen Familien sind einander ähnlich; aber jede unglückliche Familie ist auf ihre besondere Art unglücklich. — Lew Tolstoi: Anna Karenina (1877)

The problem isn’t Mr. Charlie; it’s what Mr. Charlie has done to your mind. — Jones, R. (1971). Proving blacks inferior. Black World, 4–19.

I used to think I was poor, then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy, I was deprived. Then they told me deprived was a bad image, I was underprivileged. Then they told me underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don’t have a dime. But I have a great vocabulary. — Jules Feiffer (cartoonist), 1965

Ah! Voilà un sujet, s’écria le roi quand il aperçut le petit prince. Et le petit prince se demanda: Comment peut-il me reconnaître puisqu’il ne m’a encore jamais vu! Il ne savait pas que, pour les rois, le monde est très simplifié. Tous les hommes sont des sujets. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Le petit prince (1943)

If everyone does a little, we’ll achieve only a little. — David J.C. MacKay: Sustainable Energy–Without the Hot Air (2009), http://www.withouthotair.com

Ob Sonnenschein, ob Sterngefunkel: Im Tunnel bleibt es immer dunkel. — Erich Kästner, “Die Grenzen der Aufklärung”

I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. — Bilbo’s speech at his birthday party

Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey. — John O’Donohue

It isn’t what we don’t know that causes the trouble; it’s what we think we know that just ain’t so. — Will Rogers (American entertainer, 1879–1935)

Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private. — Cornel West

Naturalism has served as deceptively in the modern world as supernaturalism ever did in the past. — Kenneth Burke

If you fight with violence, you are fighting with your enemy’s best weapon. — Gene Sharp, US intellectual and revolution theorist

Loneliness is not the experience of what one lacks, but rather the experience of what one is. — Michele A. Carter, “Abiding Loneliness – An Existential Perspective on Loneliness”, http://bit.ly/g8AJ9R

The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people. — Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude” (1968), http://bit.ly/g8AJ9R

It is ironic how much of our freedom we expend on power-on conquering death, disease, and decay, all the while concealing from each other our carefully buried loneliness, which if shared, would deepen our understanding of each other. — Michele A. Carter, “Abiding Loneliness – An Existential Perspective on Loneliness” (2000), http://bit.ly/g8AJ9R

A virtue that is cultivated ceases to be a virtue, for then it is merely another form of achievement, a record to be made. — J Krishnamurti: Commentaries on Living, First Series (1956)

Truth is the understanding of “what is” from moment to moment without the burden or the residue of the past moment. — J Krishnamurti: Commentaries on Living, First Series (1956)

Love is vulnerable, pliable, receptive; it is the highest form of sensitivity. — J Krishnamurti: Commentaries on Living, First Series (1956)

Becoming does not contain being. […] Becoming is merely modified continuity, and there is radical transformation only in the present, in being. — J Krishnamurti: Commentaries on Living, First Series (1956)

The world really is divvied up into “brute fact” and “social fact,” just as philosopher John Searle says it is, but the distinction between brute fact and social fact is itself a social fact, not a brute fact, which is why the history of science is so interesting. — Michael Bérubé, Professor for Cultural Studies and American Literature at Penn State, Democracy Journal, Issue #19, Winter 2011, http://bit.ly/g3x5kZ

I don’t think that in my lifetime there will be a woman Prime Minister. — Margaret Thatcher, 1971, http://j.mp/hF6oAq

Three– to six-year-olds are the Gender Police. — John Gagnon, Sociologist, explaining sex-stereotyped play choices and behaviors as a cognitive phase, http://j.mp/hF6oAq

When this basic psychosomatic continuity of the living human person is conceptually split into “psyche” and “soma”, a mysterious quality is created as the byproduct (much as energy is released when atoms are split) – a mysterious quality that is labeled (and as much as possible viewed dismissively) as “the placebo effect”. — David Orlinsky, Comments on the State of Psychotherapy Research (As I See It), 2006, http://j.mp/htaLJj

As ever “they who pay the piper call the tune”, though perhaps it is more subtle and accurate to say that pipers who need and seek financial support (therapists and researchers) play their tunes in ways that they hope will be pleasing to potential sponsors. Necessity drives us (always), but we (all) have an uncanny ability to persuade ourselves that advantage and merit coincide. — David Orlinsky, Comments on the State of Psychotherapy Research (As I See It), 2006, http://j.mp/htaLJj

Fear is in no way an obstacle for acting; rather much more its prerequisite. — Sartre (1946/2000b, 177). Der Existentialismus ist ein Humanismus., http://j.mp/htaLJj

For most people, a quiet mind is a rather fearsome thing; they are afraid to be quiet, for heaven knows what they may discover in themselves, and worry is a preventive. — J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living, First Series (1956)

Es gibt kein richtiges Leben in Flaschen. — Hermann Gremliza, http://j.mp/g3V5es

Unsere Kraftwerke sind nur so lange sicher, wie nichts passiert, was wir nicht erwartet haben. — Professor Edmund Lengfelder, Strahlenbiologe am Otto-Hug-Strahleninstitut in München, http://j.mp/gecB6k

Given that psychology is so immersed in culture, it must be organized around those meaning-making and meaning-using processes that connect man to culture. This does not commit us to more subjectivity in psychology; it is just the reverse. By virtue of participation in culture, meaning is rendered public and shared. Our culturally adapted way of life depends upon shared meanings and shared concepts and depends as well upon shared modes of discourse for negotiating differences in meaning and interpretation. — Jerome S. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 1990, S. 12f

There is a curious twist to the charge that “what people say is not necessarily what they do.” It implies that what people do is more important, more “real,” than what they say, or that the latter is important only for what it can reveal about the former. — Jerome S. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 1990, S. 17

The engine in the car does not “cause” us to drive to the supermarket for the week’s shopping, any more than our biological reproductive system “causes” us with very high odds to marry somebody from our own social class, ethnic group, and so on. Granted that without engine-powered cars we would not drive to supermarkets, nor perhaps would there be marriage in the absence of a reproductive system. — Jerome S. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 1990, S. 19

For all our power to construct symbolic cultures and to set in place the institutional forces needed for their execution, we do not seem very adept at steering our creations toward the ends we profess to desire. We do better to question our ingenuity in constructing and reconstructing communal ways of life than to invoke the failure of the human genome. Which is not to say that communal ways of life are easily changed, even in the absence of biological constraints, but only to focus attention where it belongs, not upon our biological limitations, but upon our cultural inventiveness. — Jerome S. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 1990, S. 23

I take open-mindedness to be a willingness to construe knowledge and values from multiple perspectives without loss of commitment to one’s own values. — Jerome S. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 1990, S. 30

Ich kann denken. Ich kann warten. Ich kann fasten. — Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, 1922

Ich habe keine Lehre. Ich führe ein Gespräch. — Martin Buber (1878–1965)

ABSURDITY, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one’s own opinion. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

PRESENT, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

PRICE, n. Value, plus a reasonable sum for the wear and tear of conscience in demanding it. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one’s self and to nobody else. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

TRUTH, n. An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, Cogito ergo sum – whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum – “I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;” as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, http://j.mp/gmLTUn

As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones. — Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, 2002

Learn to say ‘I don’t know.’ If used when appropriate, it will be often. — Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense

Der Gegenstand der Liebe ist nicht vor ihr da, sondern erst durch sie. — Georg Simmel, Zur Soziologie der Familie (1895), http://j.mp/gK31se

Wenn die Studierenden gelehrt bekommen, dass der Markt alles regelt, legitimiert das ihre Karriereambitionen und verstärkt ihre Verhaltensmuster. — Prof. emer. Lutz von Rostenstiel, Arbeits– und Organisationspsychologie, LMU München, http://j.mp/fQVRJc

Geld ist das zentrale Mittel, Ängste in den Griff zu bekommen. — Wolfgang Schmidbauer, Paartherapeut und Psychoanalytiker, 2011, http://j.mp/g9ZcqK

Je besser die Freundschaft, desto klarer die Rechnungen. — Sprichwort, zitiert von Wolfgang Schmidbauer, Paartherapeut und Psychoanalytiker, 2011, http://j.mp/g9ZcqK

In love, the most potent weapon you have is your ear. — Suketu Mehta, Maximum City, 2004, p. 338

How does this view affect my view of the world or my commitments to it? — Jerome S. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 1990, S. 27

A match is stable if there’s no one you would prefer to be married to who would prefer to be married to you. — John Kagel, economist at Ohio State University, on market design, http://j.mp/ilRxU5

If we’re just doing physics, we don’t need to be immersed in the details — in the soil mechanics, and so on. The simple model of a bridge is great, and you could not build a bridge without understanding it well. But if you’re actually building the bridge, you need to know the site. A lot of economics is like that: When prices go up, demand is gonna go down. You can’t forget that and run your economy. But it’s not the only thing you need to know. — Alvin E. Roth, Market Design pioneer, professor of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard Business School, http://j.mp/ilRxU5

With seafood catches as in many other aspects of life, humans are now eroding future prospects by liquidating capital and calling the result “income.” — David Shrom, EcoMagic “ValueScientist”, 2011, http://www.valuescience.org/blog/?p=415

It can be very dangerous to see things from somebody else’s point of view without the proper training. — Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Mostly Harmless, p. 742, 1992

“I think we have different value systems” – “Well, mine’s better” – “That’s according to your… oh, never mind.” — Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Mostly Harmless, p. 772, 1992

When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe. — Jonah Lehrer, The Truth Wears Off – Is there something wrong with the scientific method? The New Yorker, 13. 12. 2010, http://j.mp/kvzIuB

It feels good to validate a hypothesis. It feels even better when you’ve got a financial interest in the idea or your career depends upon it. — John Ioannidis, Epidemiologist at Stanford University, http://j.mp/kvzIuB

The history of the sixties strongly suggests that the impulse to buy a new car and tool down the freeway with the radio blasting rock-and-roll is not unconnected to the impulse to fuck outside marriage, get high, stand up to men or white people or bosses, join dissident movements. — Ellen Willis, Beginning to See the Light: Pieces of a Decade. 1981, http://j.mp/l9MA8Z

The case for prohibiting drugs is exactly as strong and as weak as the case for prohibiting people from overeating. We all know that overeating causes more deaths than drugs do. — Milton E. Friedman, Economist, America’s Drug Forum interview, 1991., http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/misc/friedm1.htm

A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both. — Milton E. Friedman, Economist, Created Equal, Free to Choose television series (1990)

Journals have devolved into information laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry. — Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, 2004, http://j.mp/juRVhu

Let’s begin with capitalism, a word that has gone largely out of fashion. The approved reference now is to the market system. This shift minimizes — indeed, deletes — the role of wealth in the economic and social system. And it sheds the adverse connotation going back to Marx. Instead of the owners of capital or their attendants in control, we have the admirably impersonal role of market forces. It would be hard to think of a change in terminology more in the interest of those to whom money accords power. They have now a functional anonymity. — John Kenneth Galbraith, Free Market Fraud, The Progressive, 1999, http://j.mp/kFpm8P

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite. — John Kenneth Galbraith (Canadian-American economist and author, 1908–2006)

Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. — Giovanni Gentile (Italian Philosopher, 1875–1944) – authorship also claimed by Mussolini

The long-sought missing link between animals and the really humane being is ourselves! — Konrad Lorenz, On Aggression (1963)

You don’t have to relinquish passion. But you have to change your conditions for passion. — Nietzsche in “When Nietzsche Wept” by Irvin D. Yalom, 1992 (p. 222)

We are more in love with desire than with the desired. — Nietzsche in “When Nietzsche Wept” by Irvin D. Yalom, 1992 (p. 227)

We skeptics have our enemies, our Satans who undermine our doubting and plant the seeds of faith in the most cunning places. Thus we kill gods, but we sanctify their replacements – teachers, artists, beautiful women. — Nietzsche in “When Nietzsche Wept” by Irvin D. Yalom, 1992 (p. 233)

Eternal recurrence means that every time you choose an action you must be willing to choose it for all eternity. And it is the same for every action not made, every stillborn thought, every choice avoided. And all unlived life will remain bulging inside you, unlived through all eternity. — Nietzsche in “When Nietzsche Wept” by Irvin D. Yalom, 1992 (p. 251)

Beer. Helping Ugly People Have Sex. Since 1863. — Slogan on T-Shirt

Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies. — proverb, probably from the Oliver Goldsmith play “She Stoops to Conquer” (1771)

NAFGO: Not Another Fucking Growth Opportunity. — SF Bay Area Psychtherapist, refering to increasingly compulsive “personal growth”

The idea of a thing intrinsically wholly inert in the sense of absolutely passive is expelled from physics and has taken refuge on the psychology of current economics. In truth man acts anyway, he canʼt help acting. In every fundamental sense it is false that a man requires a motive to make him do something. — John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct (1922: 118–119)

If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention. — unsourced

To err is human; to admit it, superhuman. — Atheist/Sceptic button

Am wichtigsten ist aber, eine ausgewogene Balance zwischen Arbeit und Freizeit zu finden. Die meisten geben 80 Prozent ihrer Energie in Arbeit, das ist ungesund. 60 Prozent reichen auch. — Werner Fürstenberg, Leiter eines Instituts für externe Mitarbeiterberatung, SZ Interview 2011, http://j.mp/oTptNJ

People say that if you play Microsoft CD’s backwards, you hear satanic things, but that’s nothing, because if you play them forwards, they install Windows. — Derek B (UrbanDictionary), http://windows.urbanup.com/138685

Remember: you can sell your time, but you cannot buy it back. — Paulo Coelho

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. — Steve Jobs, Stanford commencement speech 2005, http://j.mp/qZs1TD

The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people – as remarkable as the telephone. — Steve Jobs, Playboy 1985, http://j.mp/qZs1TD

Il n’y a pas de hors-texte [There is no outside to the text / Es gibt kein Außerhalb des Texts]. — Jacques Derrida

Cheese crumbs spread in front of a copulating pair of rats may distract the female, but not the male. — Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)

Auch ein gelehrter Mann // Studiert so fort, weil er nicht anders kann. — Goethe, Faust II (1832) Vers 6639 f. (Mephistopheles)

Die Kirche hat einen guten Magen, // Hat ganze Länder aufgefressen // Und doch noch nie sich übergessen. — Goethe, Faust I (1808) Vers 2836 ff. (Mephistopheles)

Ich bin zu alt, um nur zu spielen, // Zu jung, um ohne Wunsch zu sein. — Goethe, Faust I (1808) Vers 1546 f. (Faust)

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil – that takes religion. — Steven Weinberg, A Designer Universe? (1999)

Utopia [is] not the elimination of tragedy but its universalization. — George Scialabba, The Modern Predicament (2011)

Auch wenn Ihre Entscheidungen nicht frei sind, sind es dennoch Ihre Entscheidungen! — Thomas Scanlon, Philosoph. Interview mit ZEIT Campus 2/2011

Zu den Kleinen kommt der Pleitegeier, zu den Großen kommt der Bundesadler. — Guide Westerwelle