#den

We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it's our job to invent something better. ↗

— Chuck Palahniuk

#bad

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind. ↗

— Bernard M. Baruch

#be-yourself #confidence #fitting-in #individuality #those-who-matter

Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste. ↗

— Voltaire

#books #fame #independent-thought #judgment #opinions

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#barbarism #between #civilization #country #decadence

It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..." "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?" "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford. "It is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards?" "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?" "What?" "I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?" "I'll look. Tell me about the lizards." Ford shrugged again. "Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it." "But that's terrible," said Arthur. "Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin. ↗

— Douglas Adams

#democracy #ford-prefect #h #humor

The American President resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek. ↗

— Henry Adams

#american president #commander #course #grasp #helm

Definition of an independent film is torture with less money and time. ↗

— Joey Lauren Adams

#film #independent #independent film #less #money

The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it. ↗

— John Adams

#away #considered #declaration #effect #glory

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#atheist #deny #faith #great #greater

I knew I had to get out of Boston and stop making movies there, at least for one movie, otherwise no one would ever consider me for a movie that took place south of Providence. ↗

— Ben Affleck

#consider #ever #get #had #i