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Proverbs, aphorisms, quotations (English) by Linux fortune

The Least Perceptive Literary Critic
        The most important critic in our field of study is Lord Halifax.  A
most individual judge of poetry, he once invited Alexander Pope round to
give a public reading of his latest poem.
        Pope, the leading poet of his day, was greatly surprised when Lord
Halifax stopped him four or five times and said, "I beg your pardon, Mr.
Pope, but there is something in that passage that does not quite please me."
        Pope was rendered speechless, as this fine critic suggested sizeable
and unwise emendations to his latest masterpiece.  "Be so good as to mark
the place and consider at your leisure.  I'm sure you can give it a better
turn."
        After the reading, a good friend of Lord Halifax, a certain Dr.
Garth, took the stunned Pope to one side.  "There is no need to touch the
lines," he said.  "All you need do is leave them just as they are, call on
Lord Halifax two or three months hence, thank him for his kind observation
on those passages, and then read them to him as altered.  I have known him
much longer than you have, and will be answerable for the event."
        Pope took his advice, called on Lord Halifax and read the poem
exactly as it was before.  His unique critical faculties had lost none of
their edge.  "Ay", he commented, "now they are perfectly right.  Nothing can
be better."
                -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"
A man gazing at the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles
in the road.
                -- Alexander Smith
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
                -- Alexander Pope
"Mr. Watson, come here, I want you."   -- Alexander Graham Bell
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
                -- Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing - and that was
the closest our country has ever been to being even.
        -- The Best of Will Rogers
"Violence accomplishes nothing."  What a contemptible lie!  Raw, naked
violence has settled more issues throughout history than any other method
ever employed.  Perhaps the city fathers of Carthage could debate the
issue, with Hitler and Alexander as judges?
aphorism, n.:
        A concise, clever statement.
afterism, n.:
        A concise, clever statement you don't think of until too late.
                -- James Alexander Thom
Most general statements are false, including this one.
                -- Alexander Dumas
Then, gently touching my face, she hesitated for a moment as her incredible
eyes poured forth into mine love, joy, pain, tragedy, acceptance, and peace.
"'Bye for now," she said warmly.
                -- Thea Alexander, "2150 A.D."
I must get out of these wet clothes and into a dry Martini.
                -- Alexander Woolcott
Q:        What is purple and concord the world?
A:        Alexander the Grape.
It's not enough to be Hungarian; you must have talent too.
                -- Alexander Korda
(1) Alexander the Great was a great general.
(2) Great generals are forewarned.
(3) Forewarned is forearmed.
(4) Four is an even number.
(5) Four is certainly an odd number of arms for a man to have.
(6) The only number that is both even and odd is infinity.
        Therefore, all horses are black.
(1) Alexander the Great was a great general.
(2) Great generals are forewarned.
(3) Forewarned is forearmed.
(4) Four is an even number.
(5) Four is certainly an odd number of arms for a man to have.
(6) The only number that is both even and odd is infinity.

Therefore, Alexander the Great had an infinite number of arms.
Alexander Graham Bell is alive and well in New York, and still waiting
for a dial tone.
When Alexander Graham Bell died in 1922, the telephone people interrupted
service for one minute in his honor.  They've been honoring him intermittently
ever since, I believe.
                -- The Grab Bag
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening.
                -- Alexander Woollcott
Nature to all things fixed the limits fit,
And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit.
As on the land while here the ocean gains,
In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains;
Thus in the soul while memory prevails,
The solid power of understanding fails;
Where beams of warm imagination play,
The memory's soft figures melt away.
                -- Alexander Pope (on runtime bounds checking?)
The Poet Whose Badness Saved His Life
        The most important poet in the seventeenth century was George
Wither.  Alexander Pope called him "wretched Wither" and Dryden said of his
verse that "if they rhymed and rattled all was well".
        In our own time, "The Dictionary of National Biography" notes that his
work "is mainly remarkable for its mass, fluidity and flatness.  It usually
lacks any genuine literary quality and often sinks into imbecile doggerel".
        High praise, indeed, and it may tempt you to savour a typically
rewarding stanza: It is taken from "I loved a lass" and is concerned with
the higher emotions.
                She would me "Honey" call,
                She'd -- O she'd kiss me too.
                But now alas!  She's left me
                Falero, lero, loo.
        Among other details of his mistress which he chose to immortalize
was her prudent choice of footwear.
                The fives did fit her shoe.
        In 1639 the great poet's life was endangered after his capture by
the Royalists during the English Civil War.  When Sir John Denham, the
Royalist poet, heard of Wither's imminent execution, he went to the King and
begged that his life be spared.  When asked his reason, Sir John replied,
"Because that so long as Wither lived, Denham would not be accounted the
worst poet in England."
                -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
                -- Alexander Pope
No character, however upright, is a match for constantly reiterated attacks,
however false.
                -- Alexander Hamilton
James Simmons wrote:
> Crap can work. Given enough thrust pigs will fly, but it's not necessary a
> good idea.                                 [ Alexander Viro on linux-kernel ]

Watch the attributions.

With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine.
However, this is not necessarily a good idea.
It is hard to be sure where they are going to land,
and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead.
        From RFC1925, R Callon, 1996.

        - Al Viro on linux-kernel
"scanf is tough" --- programmer Barbie...

        - Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
Come on Al, if you have real arguments let hear them, if you want to insult
people you gotta do better than that above.   :)

        - Jakob Østergaard poking Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Martin Dalecki wrote:
> Every BASTARD out there telling the world, that parsing ASCII formatted
> files

What was your username, again?

        - Alexander Viro in BOFH mode on linux-kernel
Alexander Viro wrote:
> You mean that you are unable to read any of the core kernel source?
> That would explain a lot...

Were you born rude, or did you have to practice it?

        - Richard Gooch on linux-kernel
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
        * buggers who think that MyVariableIsBiggerThanYourVariable is a
        good name

        - Alexander Viro on coding style
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
        * buggers who define a function with 42 arguments and body being
        return (foo == bar) ? TRUE : FALSE;

        - Alexander Viro on coding style
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
        * buggers who add 1001st broken implementation of memcmp(), call it
        FooTurdCompare and prepend it with 20x80 block comment.

        - Alexander Viro on coding style
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
        * buggers who use typedefs like WORD, DWORD, BYTE, IMANIDIOTSHOOTME
        and other crap from the same source (OK, they don't write the last one
        explicitly - not that it wasn't obvious from the rest of their,
        ahem, code).

        - Alexander Viro on coding style
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
        * buggers who use Hungarian notation for no good reason and come up
        with structure fields that sound like street names from R'Lyeh

        - Alexander Viro on coding style
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
        * buggers who introduce wrappers for standard kernel stuff - like,
        say it, typedef int Int32; and sprinkle their crap with
        per-architecture ifdefs.

        - Alexander Viro on coding style
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
        * buggers who think that cpp is Just The Thing and produce turds
        that would make srb cringe in disgust.

        - Alexander Viro on coding style
Alexander Viro wrote:
> Al, -><- close to setting up a Linux Kernel Hall of Shame - one with names of
> wankers (both individual and coprorat ones) responsible, their code and
> commentary on said code...

Please, please, please, I'm begging you, please do this.  It's the only way
people learn quickly.  Being nice is great, but nothing works faster than
a cold shower of public humiliation :-)

        - Larry McVoy on linux-kernel
There is a bog-standard way to combine several files in one - cpio.  Or tar.
No need to bring Apple Shit-For-Design(tm)(r) when standard tools are quite
enough.

        - Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
Where are the negative comments from Al? (Al _always_ has negative
comments and suggestions for improvements, don't try to say that he also
liked it unconditionally ;)

        - Linus Torvalds about Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
There is a word for that and that word is "crap".

        - Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
... and I'm quite sure that EMACS could do it easily.  Let's not talk  
about GNU bloatware, OK?

        - Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
Those who do things in a noble spirit of self-sacrifice are to be avoided
at all costs.
                -- N. Alexander.
        Talking Pinhead Blues:
Oh, I LOST my ``HELLO KITTY'' DOLL and I get BAD reception on channel
    TWENTY-SIX!!

Th'HOSTESS FACTORY is closin' down and I just heard ZASU PITTS has been
    DEAD for YEARS..  (sniff)

My PLATFORM SHOE collection was CHEWED up by th' dog, ALEXANDER HAIG
    won't let me take a SHOWER 'til Easter ... (snurf)

So I went to the kitchen, but WALNUT PANELING whup me upside mah HAID!!
    (on no, no, no..  Heh, heh)
No guarantee of accuracy or completeness!
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