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[JuntaJoe]

SA Swann wrote a science fiction trilogy and used quotes from an imaginary book called the Cynic's Book of Wisdom to start each chapter. Too bad there is no real book by that title, but here is the complete collection of the quotes used.


The Cynic's Book of Wisdom:

-Never discount the possibility you might live through it.
-In the end you, you are the only answer to the question: What to do?
-Sometimes you get a miracle. Don't expect another one.
-Before declaring victory over your opponent, make sure you are playing the same game.
-Sometimes the crazy person is right.
-Nothing is so destructive as what we believe to be true.
-The past is always waiting.
-You are in more danger from the other person's God than your own.
-No escape is final.
-Sometimes victory is deciding to act.
-Great power does not foster great flexibility.
-Know when to hang on, when to let go, and when not to get on the ride in the first place.
-Surviving the worst will always complicate the matter.
-Sometimes your allies are chosen for you.
-Fear the new, but fear more the obsessive grasp of the old.
-The universe does not go out of its way to conform to your expectations.
-Nothing moves a State quicker than fear, and nothing a State fears so much as change.
-When you ask if you want to know, you don't.
-We are defined by the secrets we choose to keep.
-Right and wrong are defined by what you do, not what you serve.
-An event is dangerous in direct proportion to how unexpected it is.
-Freedom is simple ignorance of whom you serve.
-Remove the fear of death and you remove the primary constraint on human action.
-Your friends gain more from your failures than your enemies.
-God favors the strongest battalion.
-The Devil is in the details, and God is right there egging him on.
-Everyone worships the God that promises what they want.
-The shortest freeway will have the highest toll.
-The most dangerous impulse is to feel safe.
-A soul's value tends to appreciate considerably after it is sold.
-The risks we see are often those we have already overcome.
-We serve most those beliefs that we first reject.
-Power is not the same as knowledge.
-Everyone is vulnerable to their past.
-Blaming Fate, God, or Destiny is an admission that you don't have a clue what is going on.
-If you have a choice between bang or whimper, choose bang.
-We only assume we know what we are doing.
-Even if you expect change, the change is not what you expect.
-Always bet on the team with fewer rules.
-Much good is done to atone for past evil.
-Desperate plans are only reasonable in retrospect.
-Insanity doesn't mean the voices are wrong.
-Imaginary friends are better than imaginary enemies.
-The universe grants no special privileges, even privilege to be disadvantaged.
-The worst atrocities are committed with the best of intentions.
-The longer you wait to hear the news the less likely you will like it.
-It's the waiting that is the worst.
-The universe doesn't lie, but that doesn't mean you understand what it is saying.
-You never receive the punishment you expect.
-A situation is safe insofar as the risks are unknown.
-Never stand between an armed man and the exit.
-Some of the most severe wounds never bleed.
-A person unwilling to change is unable to survive.
-Standard procedure only applies to standard situations.
-Fear makes us survive. Hope makes us want to.
-Sometimes explosions are necessary.
-No one is absolute certain what they will do in a crisis.
-It is better to ally along shared interests than shared ideals.
-It is the height of arrogance to assume you are unique.
-Don't assume you know what the enemy wants.
-Problems are never solved, only replaced.
-Those who predict the future are doomed to create it.
-We rely on our ignorance to keep us sane.
-Things continue.
-If we had perfect understanding of the consequences of our actions, we would never act.
-Nothing ends perfectly.
-God speaks to fewer ears than hear him.
-You cannot argue with high explosives.
-No bureaucracy responds efficiently in a crisis.
-Planning is necessary but never sufficient.
-It's larger than you can imagine.
-Before searching for something , make sure you understand what is before your eyes.
-Beware your allies' secrets.
-Security is only 100% effective when protecting something no one wants.
-They never help you for your sake.
-There are never only two sides to any conflict.
-Nothing is inconceivable to a doomed man.
-Don't underestimate anyone's capacity for irrational hatred.
-Hell grows out of a desire for Utopia.
-Live each day as your last, remembering that it might not be.
-If you shoot, shoot to kill.
-Power will always fall to weakness it has denied possessing.
-It is human nature to ignore the fate of nations when one's family is at stake.
-Never underestimate the ability to rationalize one's own self-interest.
-The intent of all insurrections is to bring chaos out of order.
-Heroism comes when all other options have been exhausted.
-Shared interests do not imply shared priorities.
-If you leave an enemy alive, you better leave him something to live for.
-The faster one runs from the past, the sooner one revisits it.
-Never assume you are on the winning team.
-Great evils are never met by small acts.
-Foreign policy is dictated by powerful men's prejudices.
-War is simply honest diplomacy.
-Capitalism is a dog eat-dog-system. However, with most other alternatives, the dog starves.
-Industry is amoral.
-A criminal is a revolutionary without the pretense.
-Might might not make right, but it makes a damn good argument for its position.
-An efficient legal system operates on the assumption that everyone is guilty of something.
-Alliances are based on the premise that the parties involved benefit more from screwing the rest of the world than from screwing each other.
-People prefer deals where only they benefit to one of mutual benefit between themselves and others.
-History is written by those in power to justify the present. Memory is the same thing on a smaller scale.
-Anyone who believes in free speech has never tried to make a living as a writer.
-Ethics only become a problem when taken seriously.
-Governments are always more at risk from their subjects than from external threats.
-Artificial Intelligences are feared more for the latter than the former.
-True enemies are as rare as true friends.
-The future is the past's revenge.
-We hate that which is too much like ourselves.
-We are the property of those we hate.
-Bravery comes when there are no other options.
-There is no aspect of politics that was not first invented within the confines of a human family.
-History is an accident.
-Mercenaries may not win as many wars as fanatics do, but they live longer.
-You can never know enough about a man's self-interest to be able to trust him fully.
-Most of life is waiting around for the shitstorm to start.
-Half of knowledge is knowing the questions.
-Anyone who doesn't fight for his own self-interest has volunteered to fight for someone else's.
-Never turn your back on the villain, especially when he's unconscious.
-Seeing is believing, but belief doesn't amount to much.
-It's a fundamental inequity of the universe, that, while you only have one life to give, you can take as many as you damn well please.
-Screwups, like entropy, always increase over time.
-Never say the problem is over, never mention what else could go wrong, and never say how lucky you are - there is no surer way of inviting disaster.
-It is never as bad as it seems - but sometimes it is worse.
-The more complicated the situation, the sooner and more catastrophic the eventual screwup.
-Never play chicken with someone who has nothing to lose.
-Problems are never solved, only replaced.
-Nothing is so fierce as a coward who is backed into a corner.
-It ain't over until the fat lady's dead.
-No one can be quite as annoying as a potential lover.
-Once you have mastered the art of deceiving yourself, deceiving others is that much easier.
-Those who are most sure of themselves are those possessing the fewest facts.
-One can watch everything and see nothing.
-We are the least qualified people to judge ourselves.
-People corrupt power, not vice versa.
-The bureaucracy changes only in response to some grand disaster.
-Better to regret something you have done, than something you haven't.
-If you can keep your head when those about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't know what's going on.
-We hate others for our own shortcomings.
-Nothing hurts so much as the loss of something you've never had.
-The future strikes with blinding speed. The past takes its time and aims carefully.
-It is easier to determine what is profitable than what is right.
-Never underestimate a problem you're running from.
-It's never what you expect.
-Much morality is there for the perception of others.
-Money isn't everything, and neither is anything else.
-Suspect your enemies, but more so your allies - they can do more damage.
-When you rattle your saber, it becomes difficult to stab someone in the back.
-What you don't know will kill you.
-Any government will kill you if it feels threatened.
-The only escape-proof prison is one's own mind.
-The path out of a problem generally leads to one twice its size.
-Guilt is not a survival trait.
-It's better to hit your opponent when he isn't looking.
-It is pointless to worry once the situation becomes hopeless.
-Past and future are equally clouded by speculation.
-Patriotism is the preferred method of covering one's ass in wartime.
-An egotist takes the universe personally.
-Between too good to be true and worse than you imagine, bet on worse.
-Anything worth the trouble will cost more than you pay for it.
-Sign your name to the universe and someone will auction off the signature.
-Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
-Half of knowledge is knowing the questions.
-When in doubt, duck.
-You cannot escape the interconnectedness of events.
-Even a saint has ulterior motives.
-Anything can appear to be worse upon further reflection.
-Worry when the man with the gun is smiling.
-Superior technology is not a panacea.
-Dangerous is the man who accepts his own mortality.
-Forget enemies. Be afraid of friends with something to gain.
-Of forgiving and forgetting, the latter is infinitely easier.
-Strong emotional involvement rarely makes the job easier.
-There is no such thing as a secret.
-Don't try to count the players until the game is over.
-Self-examination is not a survival trait in times of crisis.
-The ship's destination doesn't matter when it is sinking.
-Staring outward eventually leads to staring inward. Not vice versa.
-A dependent ally is a resentful one.
-Knowing what is worst does not tell you what is best.
-Bystanders get shot.
-Once you leap, looking makes little difference.
-Never bet on a race you happen to be in.
-If you believe in your own immortality, you will never live to be disappointed.
-Selfishness is a survival trait.
-You don't want to know.
-Look behind the curtain.
-We prefer blame to justice.
-It is easier to conceive large plans than small ones.
-For every man imprisoned, there is a jailer with something to gain.
-A petty enemy is more dangerous than a great one.
-There is no such thing as good news.
-Time always wins.
-The important answers are those to the questions we ask ourselves.
-Conflicts are easier when your opponent doesn't fight back.
-If you wish to damn a man forever, grant him his heart's desire.
-Small risks rarely reap great rewards.
-Free men are slaves who are blind to their chains.
-Look at anything deeply enough and you see yourself looking back.
-Often progress is backing toward something.
-The less you expect, the more satisfied you'll be.
-In a world of crap you hold your nose and swim.
-Things are always darkest before they go completely black.
-The most dangerous lie is the one we force ourselves to believe.
-We only have what we believe we have, and that, rarely.
-A grand exit is preferable to a grand entrance.
-People die.
-We are each alone.
-It is never too late for something bad to happen.
-Sometimes you must attack an enemy at his strength.
-If people chose their parents, most of the world would be childless.
-Keep your eyes on the ball, and duck when someone swings a bat.
-Successful politics consists of allowing everyone to share your enemies.
-No one gets to write their own eulogy.
-Tyrants spring from chaos, and to chaos they eventually return.
-Surrender is always an option.
-A State rots from the bottom up.
-By the time policy descends from the high to the low, the high may no longer exist.
-The ability to control is often inversely proportional to the desire to.
-All of war is unpleasant, including its end.

[JuntaJoe]

From the same book there were a lot of other good quotes from real historical figures.


After coming in contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.

Distrust all men whom the urge to punish is powerful.

All by Friedrich Nietzsche

All the armed prophets conquered, all the unarmed perished.

It is much more secure to be feared than loved.

The future influences the present as much as the past does.

All by Niccolo Machiavelli

The basis for optimism is sheer terror.

Only the shallow know themselves.

The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity.

There are few things easier than to live badly and die well.

All by Oscar Wilde

It is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil.....and the association of livings things who have this sense makes a family and a state. - Aristotle

The only justification of rebellion is success. - Thomas B Reed

If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand. - Confucius

Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others. - Cicero

Money often costs too much. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are at a great disadvantage when we make war on people with nothing to lose. - Francesco Guicciardini

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. - William Blake

We are dead men on furlough. - Lenin

It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty. - Francis Bacon

The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr. - Muhammad

If absolute sovereignty be not necessary in a state, how come it to be so in a family? - Mary Astell

It is a sin peculiar to man to hate his victim. - Tacitus

Whatever not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry loose is not nailed down. - Collis P. Huntington

Gold Almighty hates a quitter. - Samuel Fessenden

Like liberty, gold never stays where it is undervalued. - J S Morrill

Treason is loved by many, but the traitor hated of all. - Robert Greene

All men think all men mortal, but themselves. - Edward Young

No man spreads a lie with such good grace as he who believes it. - John Arbuthnot

Life happens when we are planning other things. - Robert Celine

The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel. - Horace Walpole

Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. - Michelangelo

[/i]Even God cannot change the past.[/i] - Agathon

Inequality of property will exist as long as liberty exists. - Alexander Hamilton

History is a set of lies agreed upon. - Napoleon

We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them. - Francis Duc De La Rochefoucauld

Prudence keeps life safe, but does not make it happy. - Samuel Johnson

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. - Thomas Jefferson

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. - Tocqueville

Covenants without swords are but words. - Hobbes

We will either find a way or make one. - Hannibal

[JuntaJoe]

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.


Calvin Coolidge
30th president of US (1872 - 1933)

[JuntaJoe]

Found on a fortune cookie:

Go For It. You Never Know What Happens Next.