quotes

History teaches us that a language may grow from obscure beginnings, reach an apex of strength, grace, and utility, and then suffer a long and sad process of decay. It happened to Hebrew, it happened to Greek, it happened to Latin; and it may happen to English.

Understanding what some one says to you is . . . attributing to him the idea which his words arouse in yourself.

Roughly and ordinarily and plainly speaking, you hear American doctors and lawyers and schoolmasters talking in such a way that it is very clear that they have no real understanding of their own language and its good or bad form. I'm not referring to the deliberate use of slang and colloquialisms; I'm referring to the pathetic attempts of such people to speak with unwonted correctness and horribly failing.

I hear children now, especially in the cities, talking in an appalling fashion, so devoid of sharp consonants and proper vowel sounds that it might be the mumbling of a village idiot. Down, I say, with any candidate who talks like that. If his speech is so faulty, he probably cannot think.

"Perhaps the clumsier writers do ignore the existing distinctions while the sophisticated use them to play sophisticated tunes; perhaps the scrupulously objective lexicographer cannot establish those distinctions from his quotation slips alone. For all that, distinctions do exist. They exist in good writing, and they exist in the linguistic consciousness of the educated."

...the pointy-haired boss doesn't mind if his company gets their ass kicked, so long as no one can prove it's his fault. The safest plan for him personally is to stick close to the center of the herd.

Within large organizations, the phrase used to describe this approach is "industry best practice."

It's hard to predict what life will be like in a hundred years. There are only a few things we can say with certainty. We know that everyone will drive flying cars, that zoning laws will be relaxed to allow buildings hundreds of stories tall, that it will be dark most of the time, and that women will all be trained in the martial arts.

Prank on Windows Users
----------------------
Find a screenshot utility (software) and take a nice screen shot of the
computer's desktop. Convert it to Windows wallpaper. Now delete all
icons off of your desktop. When an Induhvidual tries to use the computer
none of the icons will work. Hilarity ensues.

Under-Achievers Anonymous has an 11-step program.

To hold a pen is to be at war.