departure to unknown lands
Of the gladest moments in human life, methinks is the departure upon a distant journey to unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the Slavery of Home, man feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood….afresh dawns the morn of life…
Richard Francis Burton, Journal Entry (2 December 1856)
A. The first letter in every properly constructed alphabet. It is the first natural utterance of the human vocal organs, and is variously sounded, according to the pleasure and convenience of the speaker. In logic, A asserts and B denies. Assertions being proverbially untrue, the presumption would be in favor of B’s innocence were it not that denials are notoriously false. In grammar, A is called the indefinite article, probably because, denoting a definite number, it is so obviously a numeral adjective.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think that this to be the normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.
Douglas Adams in The Scientific Indian Science Fiction Anthology
Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.
Niels Bohr
How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:12 NIV
To create man was a fine and original idea; but to add the sheep was a tautology.
Mark Twain
