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- # "fortunes" Used by the "fortune" program. Updated 01/14/90
- A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude
- without providing you with company.
- A chicken doesn't stop scratching just because the worms are scarce.
- A closed mouth gathers no feet.
- A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything.
- A conservative is a worshipper of dead radicals.
- A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.
- A fail-safe circuit will destroy all others.
- A fool and his money are soon parted.
- A fool must now and then be right by chance.
- A fool plunges ahead with great confidence.
- A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.
- A liberal is someone too poor to be conservative,
- and too rich to be a communist.
- A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle.
- A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.
- A penny saved is ridiculous.
- A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.
- A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
- A sharp tongue and a dull mind are usually found in the same head.
- A \3Smith & Wesson\4 beats four aces.
- A statistician is a person who draws a mathematically precise line
- from an unwarranted assumption to a forgone conclusion.
- A transistor protected by a fast acting fuse will
- \3protect the fuse\4 by blowing first.
- A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
- A wise man has something to say, \3a fool has to say something.
- A wish is a desire without an attempt.
- According to the latest official figures,
- \343%\4 of all statistics are totally worthless.
- Acting on a good idea is better than just having a good idea.
- Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
- After a number of decimal places, \3nobody gives a damn.
- After things have gone from bad to worse, \3the cycle will repeat itself.
- Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.
- Age is a high price to pay for maturity.
- All animals are created equal, but some animals
- are created more equal than others.
- All general statements are false.
- All great ideas are controversial, \3or have been at one time.
- All in all, you're just \3another brick\4 in the wall....
- All's fair in Love and War
- \3(Is there a difference?)\4
- Always remember that strength is obtained by meeting resistance.
- An easily understood workable falsehood is more useful
- than a complex incomprehensible truth
- An experiment may be considered successful if no more than half the data
- must be discarded to agree with the theory.
- An optimist believes that we live in the best of all possible worlds,
- the pessimist \3\5FEARS\4 it's true.
- An optimist is one who makes the best of it,
- \3when he gets the worst of it.
- An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
- Any government that is strong enough to give the people everything they
- want \3is a government that's strong enough to take it away.
- Any program will expand to fill available memory.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- \3Arthur C. Clarke\4
- Any system that depends on human reliability is unreliable.
- Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough.
- Apathy is the worlds fastest growing disease.
- \3But who cares?\4
- Attitude determines your altitude.
- Average is as close to the bottom as to the top.
- Attitude determines your altitude.
- Be careful of your thoughts, \3they may become words at any moment.
- Beauty may only be skin deep, \3but ugly goes clean to the bone.\4
- Beauty times brains equals a constant.
- Being born was just the first of my crimes.
- Better a pebble given out of love, \3than a diamond given out of duty.
- Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, \3the root of all evil.
- Big Brother is Watching!
- \3George Orwell\4
- Boycott Jane Fonda.
- \3(everyone hates Jane Fonda, don't they?)\4
- By perseverance, \3the snail reached the ark.
- Calculation never made a hero.
- Change is certain, \3progress is not.
- Character is what you know you are, \3not what others think you are.
- Coles Law: \3Thinly Sliced Cabbage\4
- Confession is good for the soul, \3but bad for the career.
- Confusion creates jobs!
- Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it.
- Delusions are often functional.
- Democracy is based on the assumption that a million
- men are wiser than one.
- Desperate men do desperate things.
- Digital circuits are made from analog parts.
- Do someone a favor and it becomes your job.
- Don't force it, \3get a larger hammer.
- Eliminate government waste no matter how much it costs.
- Enough research will tend to support your theory.
- Established technology tends to persist in spite of new technology.
- Even the boldest zebra fears the hungry lion.
- Even the smallest candle burns \5brighter\4 in the dark.
- Every dog has his day.
- Every man has the right to be wrong in his opinions,
- but no man has the right to be wrong in his facts.
- Every man must row with the oars he has.
- Every purchase has it's price.
- Every solution breeds new problems.
- Everyone hates me because I'm paranoid.
- Everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it.
- Expenditures rise to meet available income.
- Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
- Expert advice is a great comfort, \3even when it's wrong.
- Facts are stubborn things.
- Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- For every action, \3there is an equal and opposite government program.
- For whatever reason, be it historical, or oppression, or what have you,
- \3there are an awful lot of not too bright women.
- Forgive and Remember.
- Form never follows function.
- Friends come and go, \3but enemies accumulate.
- Friends don't let their friends drive drunk.
- Get yours while there's still some left.
- Goals are dreams with deadlines.
- God does not play dice.
- God made the integers, \3all else is the work of man.
- God may be subtle, \3but he isn't plain mean.
- Good fences make good neighbors.
- Government can't change the course of the ship,
- it merely adjusts the compass.
- Government isn't the solution, it's the problem.
- \3Ronald Reagan\4
- Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.
- Gun control is being able to hit your target.
- Habit is stronger than reason.
- He that would first govern others, \3first should be a master of himself.
- He who dies with the most toys, wins!
- He who has a shady past knows that nice guys finish last.
- He who has the gold makes the rules.
- He who hesitates is sometimes saved.
- He who is ignorant of the past, \3is condemned to repeat it.
- He who loses his head is usually the last one to miss it.
- He who pays the piper calls the tune.
- He who rows the boat generally doesn't have time to rock it.
- Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
- Help Stamp Out and Eliminate Redundancy
- \3Help Stamp Out and Eliminate Redundancy\4
- Hindsight is an exact science.
- History repeats itself.
- How much dirt must you shovel on something that's already dead?
- Human beings are consistently inconsistent.
- Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
- I already came, \3so stop jerking me off.
- I don't know, I don't care and it doesn't make any difference.
- I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I
- am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- If at first you don't succeed, \3redefine success.\4
- If at first you don't succeed, \3try someone else.\4
- If god didn't exist, \3it would be necessary to invent him.
- If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; \3it's opinion.\4
- If it weren't for the last minute, \3nothing would get done.
- If rats are experimented on, \3they will develop cancer.
- If she's Snow White, \3then I must be Grumpy.
- If tempted by something that feels \3"altruistic"\4,
- examine your motives and root out the self-deception.
- If the facts do not conform to the theory, \3they must be disposed of.
- If the opposite of pro is con, \3what is the opposite of Progress?
- If there is an opinion, \3facts will be found to support it.
- If things were left to chance, \3they'd be better.
- It works better if you plug it in.
- If you can't get the answer in the usual manner,
- \3start at the answer and derive the question.
- If you can't measure it, \3I'm not interested.\4
- If you can't win, make the one in front of you break the record.
- If you consult enough experts, \3you can confirm any opinion.\4
- If you do something right once, \3someone will ask you to do it again.
- If you don't know where you're going, \3any road will take you there.\4
- If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don't
- actually live longer, \3it just seems that way.\4
- If you want to get along, \3go along.
- If you're coasting, \3you're going downhill.\4
- If you've got 'em by the balls, \3their hearts and minds will follow.
- If you're strong enough, \3there are no precedents.
- Ignorance is Bliss!
- \3George Orwell\4
- In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct,
- beyond all need of checking, \3is the mistake.
- In the act of loving someone, \3you arm them against you.\4
- Indecision is the basis of flexibility.
- Individualists Unite!
- Inflation is one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Instead of putting others in their place, \3put yourself in their place.
- Integrity has no need of rules.
- Interchangeable parts won't.
- It is better to risk saving a guilty man,
- \3than to condemn an innocent one.\4
- It is the loose ends with which men hang themselves.
- It's bad luck to be superstitious.
- It's better to be a lion for a day, \3than a sheep all your life.
- It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid,
- \3than to open it and remove all doubt.
- It's fascinating how memory diffuses fact.
- It's hard to detect good luck, \3it looks so much like
- \3something you've earned.
- It's not easy taking problems one at a time,
- \3when they refuse to get in line.
- It's pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious.
- Law, without force is impotent.
- Life is tough, \3life is tougher when you're stupid.\4
- Man created god in his own image.
- Many people lose their tempers merely from seeing you keep yours.
- Men get mad and get it over with, \3women hold grudges forever.\4
- More people have died in Ted Kennedy's car than from nuclear power.
- Most men who run down women are usually running down only one woman.
- Most problems partially defined are problems partially solved.
- Murphy was an optimist.
- Murphy's Law: \3If anything can go wrong, it will.
- Negative expectations yield \3negative\4 results,
- \3Positive expectations yield \4\5negative\4\3 results.\4
- Never forget what a man says to you when he's angry.
- Never let hold of what you've got \3until you've got hold of something else.\4
- Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
- Never look behind you, \3something may be gaining on you.
- Never \3program\4 and \3drink\4 beer at the same time.
- Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.
- Never trust anyone that volunteers to assume authority.
- Never try and teach a pig to sing,
- it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
- Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
- New Jersey? \3What exit....\4
- Ninety percent of everything is bullshit.
- No action is without side effects.
- No amount of genius can overcome a preoccupation with detail.
- No good deed goes unpunished.
- No man can truly grow up while his father is still alive.
- No man's life, liberty or possessions are safe while the
- legislature is in session.
- No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
- No one really knows enough to be a pessimist.
- Nobody really knows what is going on anywhere in your organization.
- Not all men are fools, \3some are bachelors.\4
- Nothing is certain except death and taxes.
- Nothing will be attempted if all possible objections
- must first be overcome.
- Of all the forces acting on man, \3change is the most
- beneficial and the most cruel.
- Of all the things I've lost, \3I miss my mind the most.\4
- Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternatives.
- Once you eliminate the impossible, what remains is the solution,
- no matter improbable it may seem.
- Once you open a can of worms, the only way to re-can
- them is to use a bigger can.
- One man's wage rise is another man's price increase.
- Only God can make a random selection.
- \3(Even though the computer randomly chose this message)\4
- One of the few rules of evolution is that extreme specialization
- results in eventual extinction.
- Optimization hinders evolution.
- Paper is always strongest at the perforations.
- Parkinson's Axioms: \3Officials want to multiply subordinates.\4
- \3Officials make work for each other.\4
- Passwords are implemented as a result of insecurity.
- People are divided into two groups, the righteous and the un-righteous,
- \3and the righteous do the dividing.
- People don't plan to fail, \3they fail to plan.
- People who say they're willing to meet you halfway are often
- poor judges of distance.
- Possessions increase to fill available space.
- Power means not having to respond.
- Pray for the success of atheism.
- Problems are only Opportunities in Disguise.
- Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capability of the
- programmer who must maintain it.
- Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.
- Reality is for those people who can't cope with drugs.
- Reality is the illusion produced by an alcohol deficiency.
- Reality is the leading cause of stress,
- among those that are in touch with reality.
- Religions revolve madly around sexual questions.
- Remember the turtle, he never makes any progress until
- \3he sticks his neck out.
- Reputation is character minus what \3you've been caught doing.\4
- Rust Never Sleeps.
- Sacred cows make great hamburgers.
- Say no, \3then negotiate.\4
- Schizophrenia beats being alone.
- She cried, \3and the judge wiped her tears with my checkbook.
- Shirley's Law: \3Most people deserve each other.\4
- Shit Happens.
- Social legislation cannot repeal physical laws.
- Software stands between man and his machine.
- Sometimes you just gotta say \3"What the fuck!"\4
- Sometimes you step in it, \3and sometimes you don't.\4
- Sooner or later you must pay for your sins.
- Statistical analysis has often meant the mainpulation of ambiguous data
- by means of dubious methods to solve a problem that has not been defined.
- Stupid people shouldn't breed.
- Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.
- Technological man can't believe in anything that can't be measured,
- taped or put into a computer.
- Thank God, we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
- The best laid plans of mice and men are usually equal.
- The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him your friend.
- The best way to succeed in politics is to find a crowd that's
- going somewhere \3and get in front of them.
- The field of probability is too important to be left to chance.
- The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be
- of no possible use to him.
- The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
- The first myth of management is that it exists.
- The future isn't what it used to be.
- The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
- The government that governs least governs best.
- The greatest American superstition is the belief in facts.
- The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.
- The greatest masterpiece of literature is only a dictionary out of order.
- The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
- The hidden flaw never remains hidden.
- The knowledge that a secret exists is half the secret.
- The lack of money is the root of all evil.
- The liberal paranoids \3(if that's not redundant)\4 are at it again.
- The man who invented the guillotine died under it's knife.
- The most dangerous of untruths, \3are truths moderately distorted.
- The number of people in any working group tends to increase
- regardless of the amount of work to be done.
- The other line moves faster.
- The person who knows everything has a lot to learn.
- The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change,
- \3the realist adjusts the sails.\4
- The price of greatness is responsibility.
- The probability of being watched is proportional
- to the stupidity of your actions.
- The probability of failure is directly proportional to the
- anxiety of the programmer.
- The real world is a special case.
- The right half of the brain controls the left half of the body.
- This means that only left handed people are in their right mind.
- The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
- The secret of success is sincerity,
- learn to fake it and you've got it made.
- The solution to the problem, \3changes the problem.
- The solving of a problem lies in finding the solvers.
- The sum of intelligence on the planet is constant,
- \3the population is growing.
- The supply of government exceeds the demand.
- The ten most feared words in the English language are:
- \3"Hello, I'm from the government and I'm here to help...."\4
- The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win,
- \3you're still a rat.\4
- The world wisely chooses happiness over wisdom.
- The worst form of inequality is to try and make unequal things equal.
- The worst thing in the world, next to anarchy, is government.
- There are no winners in life, \3only survivors.
- There are two reasons for doing things,
- a very good reason and the real reason.
- There are white lies, damn lies and \3statistics.
- There is more to fear from an army of 100 sheep led by a lion,
- than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
- There is no heavier burden than a great potential.
- There is no greater wrath than a woman scorned.
- \3(or one that thinks she was)\4
- There is no limit to how bad things can get.
- There is no such thing as a fail-safe design.
- There is no such thing as a "free lunch".
- \3(only a choice of restaurants)\4
- There is no such thing as a little garlic.
- There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice,
- but there must never be a time when we fail to protest it.
- There's three sides to every story, yours, mine
- and \3the cold hard truth.\4
- Those who don't study the past will repeat it's errors.
- They never remember when I'm right and never forget when I'm wrong.
- Time is natures way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at once.
- Time rarely proceeds at a pace perceived by the individual as appropriate.
- To love is to be vulnerable.
- To make an enemy, \3do someone a favor.\4
- To think is easy and to act is hard, but the hardest thing in the
- world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
- Today is the day you worried about yesterday.
- Tolerances will accumulate uni-directionally toward
- maximum difficultly to assemble.
- Total paranoia is perfect awareness.
- Trust everyone, \3then cut the cards.\4
- Two farmers, each claimed to own a certain cow. While one pulled on
- it's head and the other on the tail, \3the cow was milked by a lawyer.\4
- Unity is a polite word for control.
- Unless you're the lead mule, \3the scenery is always the same.
- Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
- Walk softly and carry a \3big stick.
- Watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow.
- We, the willing , led by the unknowing
- are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
- We cannot imagine how our lives could be more frustrating or complex,
- \3but congress can...\4
- We have met the enemy and he is us.
- Wear the right costume and the part plays itself.
- What's the difference between Dan Quayle and Jane Fonda?
- \3-- She went to Vietnam --\4
- What men learn from history, \3is that men do not learn from history.
- What's the difference between marriage and a gun? \3--- The gun is faster.
- Whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.
- When all else fails, \3lower your standards.\4
- When all else fails, \3read the instructions.\4
- When does a system administrator do the first backup?
- \3The first day on the job after the system adminsitrator who never did.\4
- When guns are outlawed, \3only outlaws will have guns.\4
- When in doubt, \3predict that the present trend will continue.
- When it gets to be your turn, \3they change the rules.\4
- When people are free to do as they choose,
- \3they usually imitate each other.\4
- When regard for the truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened,
- \3all things remain doubtful.
- When two men in business always agree, \3one of them is unnecessary.
- When two people meet to decide how to spend a third person's money,
- \3fraud will result.
- When working toward the solution of a problem,
- \3it always helps if you already know the answer.
- When your opponent is down, \3kick him.\4
- Where all think alike, \3no one thinks very much.
- Why do divorces cost so much?
- \3-- Because they're worth it! --\4
- Why is it that all the women that are against abortion,
- \3no one would want to fuck anyway???
- What the hell, \3go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket.
- Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.
- Xerox never comes up with anything original.
- You are better off not knowing how sausages and laws are made.
- You aren't drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
- You can achieve more by patience than talent.
- You can close your eyes to reality, \3but not to memories.
- You can go wrong by being too skeptical
- \3as readily as by being too trusting.
- You can have peace or you can have freedom.
- Don't ever count on having both at once.
- You can observe alot just by watching.
- You can tune a piano, \3but you can't tuna fish.
- You cannot successfully determine beforehand which
- side of the bread to butter.
- You can't antagonize and influence at the same time.
- You can't become a martyr every time you get ticked off.
- You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put
- a few nickels in the machine.
- You can't fix it if it ain't broke.
- You can't fall off the floor.
- You can't win, you can't break even, \3you can't even quit.
- You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they
- could and should do for themselves.
- You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
- You cannot lift up the wage-earner up by pulling down the wage-payer.
- You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
- You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
- You have taken yourself too seriously.
- You know you're in trouble when you can't stand folks who are intolerant.
- You'll find sympathy between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.
- Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes, \3keep this is mind.
- You're never alone with a schizophrenic.
- A computer's attention span is only as long as it's power cord.
- Everything needs a little oil now and then.
- You can't gaurd against the arbitrary.
- No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
- Love stinks.
- Never try to outstubborn a cat.
- What most people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidities.
- All religions issue Bibles against Satan, and say the most injurious
- things against him, \3but we never hear his side.\4
- Nothing happens to you that hasn't happened to someone else.
- Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet.
- It is only the shallow people who do not judge by appearance.
- When in doubt, \3tell the truth.\4
- You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.
- The more advanced the civilization, \3the less powerful the individual.\4
- When in doubt, \3power down.\4
- A system tends to grow in terms of complexity rather than of
- simplification, until the resulting unreliability is intolerable.
- The error-detection and correction capabilites of any system will serve
- as the key to understanding the type of errors which they cannot handle.
- Everything you know is wrong.
- Always draw your curves, \3then plot the data.\4
- Appearances often are deceiving.
- Be careful what you wish for, \3you might get it.\4
- Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
- Bigamy is having one spouse too many. \3Monogamy is the same.\4
- Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
- Colorless green odors gravitate furiously.
- Create the impression that you have already reached
- your level of incompetence.
- Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.
- Do not tell big lies. \3Small ones can be just as effective.\4
- Don't crush that dwarf, \3hand me the pliers.\4
- Don't ever slam a door, \3you might want to go back.\4
- If you push something hard enough, \3it will fall over.
- If you don't care where you are, \3then you ain't lost.\4
- It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
- Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.
- Never, ever use \3repetitive redundancies.
- Replace repetitive expressions by calls to a common function.
- Sooner or later, \3the worst possible set of circumstances is bound to occur.
- When in doubt, \3take all the defaults.\4
- Who is John Galt?
- The most useful program will be continually improved until it is useless.
- California has it's faults.
- Beware of programmers who carry screwdrivers.
- Ambition a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
- Anarchy is better than no government at all.
- Of the choice of two evils, \3pick the one you've never tried before.
- Computer modelers simulate it first.
- Computer programmers don't byte, \3they nybble a bit.
- Computer programmers know how to use their hardware.
- Computers are not intelligent. \3They only think they are.
- Jury -- Twelve people who determine which client has the better lawyer.
- Mediocrity thrives on standardization.
- Reality's the only obstacle to happiness.
- The attention span of a computer is as long as its electrical cord.
- The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
- TRAPEZOID - \3A device for catching zoids.
- Wasting time is an important part of life.
- When in doubt, \3don't bother.
- Computer hackers do it all night long.
- Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible.
- Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority,
- it's time to pause and reflect --- \3Mark Twain
- Good advice usually works best when preceded by a bad scare.
- Statistics are no substitute for judgement.
- Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous,
- \3you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
- It is important for our friends to believe that we are unreservedly
- frank with them, \3and important to friendship that we are not.
- Storms make trees take deeper roots.
- He who praises everybody, \3praises nobody.
- Sometimes the fool who rushes in \3gets the job done.
- How can you be in two places at once, \3when you're nowhere at all?
-