Life lesson

[Brodirt]

What have you been told/taugh, and from whom, that stuck with you?

What advice have you given that you have been proud to have given?

From my Dad, the engineer (from the obvious sources):

Keep it simple stupid.
Measure twice, cut once.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Turn off the lights behind you.
Never come home drunk.
Do not make me a grandfather before I am a father-in-law.
Keep your line taught.
Know your knots.
Fish and house guests stink after three days.

From my 7th grade science teacher:

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. From Emerson.

From Dirty Harry:

A man has got to know his limitations

To my oldest daughter, from Spock (Mr. not Dr.):

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

To my oldest daughter, from me alone:

Its better that the popular kids want to be like you than you want to be like them.

 

[sapito318]

"Life is all about choices, good or bad. You decide"

 

[Taipei Personality]

From my father, "The true measure of a man is how he treats a person who can do absolutely nothing for him."

 

[ScotchDave]

See my signature, I have a low opinion of humanity.

 

[Walt Whitman]

But the needs of the many must never outweigh the freedom of the one, because there is no free lunch.

 

[RazorDingo]

Clichés - avoid them like the plague.
Oscar Wilde

 

[Taipei Personality]

But the needs of the many must never outweigh the freedom of the one, because there is no free lunch.

Emerson with a bit of Heinlein?

 

[Brodirt]

But the needs of the many must never outweigh the freedom of the one, because there is no free lunch.

Don't get me wrong...I'm no socialist.

If you recall the Spock comment from the second Star Trek film it was decidedly anti-socialist in that it called for self-determination in individual sacrifice. Spock took it upon himself to act where others would not...that would not occur under a socialist philosophy.

I taught it to my daughter in an anti-socialist, anti-political correctness, situation. In her first grade class there was a Jehovah's witness and the teacher sent home a note that no student in the class was to wear a Halloween costume on Halloween because Jehovah's witnesses don't believe in it. I went into a tizzy! I called the principal and asked to meet with the teacher. They wouldn't let me and they supported the teacher's policy without adopting it for the school in general.

So, we are going to have a class of 25 first graders singled out in the school where all the other kids are going to wear costumes and celebrate. Halloween is for first graders perhaps more than anyone else and we were told that the other 24 of them were going to be dictated to by 1. I quoted Spock to my wife and daughter and called up a bunch of other parents and we conducted our own little mutiny. We sent 15 kids into school with masks only and candy to give to everyone else.

To top this off with another life lesson...
“… a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”

— Thomas Jefferson

 

[Walt Whitman]

Don't get me wrong...I'm no socialist.

If you recall the Spock comment from the second Star Trek film it was decidedly anti-socialist in that it called for self-determination in individual sacrifice. Spock took it upon himself to act where others would not...that would not occur under a socialist philosophy.

I taught it to my daughter in an anti-socialist, anti-political correctness, situation. In her first grade class there was a Jehovah's witness and the teacher sent home a note that no student in the class was to wear a Halloween costume on Halloween because Jehovah's witnesses don't believe in it. I went into a tizzy! I called the principal and asked to meet with the teacher. They wouldn't let me and they supported the teacher's policy without adopting it for the school in general.

So, we are going to have a class of 25 first graders singled out in the school where all the other kids are going to wear costumes and celebrate. Halloween is for first graders perhaps more than anyone else and we were told that the other 24 of them were going to be dictated to by 1. I quoted Spock to my wife and daughter and called up a bunch of other parents and we conducted our own little mutiny. We sent 15 kids into school with masks only and candy to give to everyone else.

Bravo! Your daughter has a great teacher!

Another Jefferson quote...

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.

 

[Doc4]

Parphrased from an old episode of Due South:

"They say that 'every man has his price.' I prefer to think that every man has his 'line'; the line beyond which he will not cross, no matter how great the reward for crossing, and no matter how great the punishment for not crossing."

 

[Confuzius]

From the movie Outside Providence, spoken by Alec Baldwin's character to his son: "Sex is like chinese food, it's not over untill you both get your cookies."

I just got this yesterday in an email from my mom:

Life Explained
"One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, ' My son, the battle is between two ' wolves ' inside us all.
One is Evil. - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. '
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ' Which wolf wins? '

The old Cherokee simply replied, ' The one you feed. ' "

 

[htownmmm]

Never sleep with a woman you would not bring home to meet your mother-from who else, my mother.

BTW, the teacher was an idiot. The JW child beliefs did not prevent the other children from celebrating what they believed in-that was the teacher who made that decision. The teacher could have easily given the child a pass to the library or even ask the child's parents for an acceptable activity to engage in that had nothing to do with the holiday.

Obviously there was a breakdown of communication somewhere.


marty

 

[Obsessed]

But the needs of the many must never outweigh the freedom of the one, because there is no free lunch.

Actually, there is a free lunch in Star Trek becasue the creation of matter replicators has obviated the need to chase after material possessions. Don't you remember the TNG epidode where they thawed out the 20th Century financier? Of course, capitalism reasserted itself in Deep Space 9. . . .

 

[Shane]

"This too shall pass" and "Wherever you go, there you are" is how I live. Things happen, they'll blow over, you'll move on. Bloom where you're planted, make the best of things and be happy.

 

[RazorDingo]

Never sleep with a woman you would not bring home to meet your mother

A prescription for a dull life indeed. One honored perhaps more in the breech, than in the observance.

 

[Walt Whitman]

There's an old Taoist story...

Once there was a farmer who had only one horse. One day the horse got loose and ran away. "What bad luck!" his neighbors said. "Well, good, bad, who can say?" said the farmer, who was obviously a bit of a philosopher.

The next day the horse came back - leading several wild horses that it had befriended. "What good luck!" his neighbors said. "Good, bad, who knows?" said the farmer.

The farmer's son, trying to tame one of the new horses, fell off and broke his leg. "How terrible!" said the farmer's neighbors. "Perhaps. We'll see."

A few days later, the army came through looking for young men to conscript, but they couldn't take the farmer's son because of his broken leg. "How fortunate!" "Maybe. Good, bad, who knows?"

* * * * * * * *

...In somewhat the same vein,

All that arises, passes away.

 

[ContenderhunterPA]

"Most of life is attitude. The rest is just the garbage that we cannot control."

Me

Dave

 

[Walt Whitman]

I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

 

[cricky101]

"You can't tame a three-legged donkey."

Me, after many beers. I have no idea what it means, but sounds prolific.

 

[Taipei Personality]

Actually, there is a free lunch in Star Trek becasue the creation of matter replicators has obviated the need to chase after material possessions. Don't you remember the TNG epidode where they thawed out the 20th Century financier? Of course, capitalism reasserted itself in Deep Space 9. . . .

There is always a price to be paid. In the case of the fictional replicators it was the energy used to run them.