Ken Larsen's web site - My favorite quotes
Below are my favorite quotes. I've listed the most interesting/profound/currently-relevant quotes higher in the table. I've highlighted the top three. They do the best job of defining who I am.
| "The world is my country, science is my religion." Christiaan Huygens 1629-1695 |
| "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." -Stephen Hawking 1942-2018 |
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"The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and then throw
the bad ones away." Linus Pauling 1901-1994 (won two Nobel
prizes) |
| "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." -Carl Sagan (1934-1996) |
| "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." -Voltaire (1694-1778) |
| "Judge a man by his questions not by his answers." -Voltaire (1694-1778) |
| "One cannot accept that there are on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument." -Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) |
| "Just because your voice reaches half way around the world, don't believe that you're wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar." -Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) |
| "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." -Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) |
|
I'd rather light a candle (science) than worship the darkness
(religion)." -Ken Larsen June 1, 2011 |
|
"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions
of years before I was born, and had not suffered the
slightest inconvenience from it." -Samuel Clemens 1835-1910 (aka
Mark Twain) |
| "Religion is the opium of the masses." -Karl Marx 1818-1883 |
| "There are people who would rather be captain of a sinking ship than co-pilot of one that floats". |
| "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." -Winston Churchill (1874-1965) |
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“It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak
and to remove all doubt.” |
| "He has an uncanny ability to recognize the obvious." -quote someone once made about John Bogle (1929-2019), investing legend |
| "I'd like to buy him for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth." -my dad 1907-1995 |
| "I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -Will Rogers 1879-1935 |
| "He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot." -Groucho Marx 1890-1977 |
| "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency for me." |
|
"Getting an education at MIT is like trying to get a drink of water
from a fire hose." -fellow student to me when I attended MIT This aptly describes the world we currently live in. Every day we're bombarded with countless emails, tweets, and other demands on our time. Trying to keep up is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose. |
| "Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." -Socrates 469 BC -399 BC |
| "Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation." -Doris Kearns Goodwin via Mike Kaeding |
| "If a child can do advanced math, speak 3 languages, or receive top grades, but can't manage their emotions, practice conflict resolution, or handle stress, none of that other stuff is really going to matter." -Facebook post by Appelbaum Training Institute November 6, 2018 |
| "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." -John F. Kennedy 1917-1963 (a quote from his 1961 inaugural address) |
| "Let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitus 17 times in a row." -Vitas Gerulaitus (1954-1994) at a press conference after beating Jimmy Connors after having lost to him 16 times in a row. |
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"Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change." |
| "If all else fails, read the instruction manual." |
| "Brevity is the soul of wit." -William Shakespeare 1564-1616 |
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"There is no virtue to doing things the hard way." |
| "Discretion is the better part of valor." -proverb [Be careful and avoid taking unnecessary risks.] |
| "Eternity is a long time, especially near the end." -Woody Allen 1935- |
| "90% of life is just showing up." -Woody Allen 1935- |
| "Act in haste, repent at leisure." -aphorism |
| "Denial is not just a river in Egypt." "Tipping is not a city in China." |
| "Married men live longer than single men, but more married men wished they were dead." - a friend named Olivera (July 4, 2007) |
| "If you're in a hole, stop digging." -Will Rogers 1879-1935 |
| "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." - aphorism |
| "You're confusing possibilities with probabilities." -9 year old Sheldon to his pastor in an episode of Young Sheldon aired on November 9, 2017 |
| "Correlation does not imply causation." [details] |
|
"If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace
else." Yogi Berra 1925-2015 |
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"When you get to the fork in the road, take it." -Yogi Berra
1925-2015 |
| "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member." -Groucho Marx 1890-1977 |
| "I intend to live forever, or die trying." -Groucho Marx 1890-1977 |
| "The problem with doing nothing is that you never know when you're finished." -Groucho Marx 1890-1977 |
| "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." -Groucho Marx 1890-1977 |
| "Exercise is the best medicine." |
| "Don't over-egg the pudding." -If someone "over-eggs a pudding" they spoil it by trying too hard to improve it. |
| "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." -Charles Caleb Colton 1780-1832 |
| "Backing out is always more difficult than driving in." -John Morrison (gym buddy) on November 17, 2019 |
| "Loyality to a dishonorable man is not a virtue." -Stan Munsat (1939- ) |
| "If you want people to remember your name, wear a name tag." -Ken Larsen (1948- ) |
| "What I lack in intellect, I make up for with punctuality." -Ken Larsen (1948- ) |