thoughtpool

Thoughts and Ideas

"Total commitment" is redundant.

Living in a garage doesn't make you a car.

Attitudes are contagious - is yours worth catching?

One is prepared a specific, unexpected situation by the way one prepares for life in general.

If you're happy and you know it, tell your face!

He that thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following, only taketh a walk.

Examine everthing carefully. Hold fast to that which is good.

Invention is the mother of necessity. Your great-grandfather was never late to work because his horse wouldn't start.

What are you doing that will last forever? (I'm not being a pessimist. There really are such things.)

Worry is like a rocking chair. You get plenty of exercise but it gets you nowhere.

Good luck comes mostly to people who are prepared to take advantage of it.

Discouragement is suicide on the installment plan.

Success comes in cans.

You can't make yourself live longer by worrying about it - but you can make yourself live shorter.

What you really believe is what you do when you think no one else is looking.

If you settle for less, you'll get less than you settled for.

There is no limit to what God can accomplish through someone who doesn't care who gets the credit.

There is one major difference between a terrorist and a three-year-old. You can negotiate with a terrorist.

Great feats of men both reached and kept were not attained by sudden flights, but they while their companions slept were toiling upward in the night. - Quoted in Gujarat Samachar (newspaper) Just because it looks nice doesn't mean it's true. Or right.

Does smoke know how to stay in the non-smoking section?

Someone once said that kings and poets were once proud to be seen in each other's company. Now, they're too embarrassed to be seen together. I think that this says more about kings, etc. (and trends in society in general) than it does about poets.

Why isn't there ever enough time to do a job right, but always enough time to do it over?

Shoot for the stars. If you don't reach them, you'll wind up pretty high, anyway.

The secret of originality is not being able to remember where you heard it. (Like most of the stuff on this page!)

If winners never quit and quitters never win, why do we say, quit while you're ahead?

Hope is where your heart is.

Accept the person, tolerate their ideas. Don't just accept their ideas, but only tolerate the person.

In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted, counts. - Albert Einstein

Without change, nothing is possible.

Serendipity is when you dig for worms and find gold. When you dig for worms and strike oil, that's just sheer dumb luck!

"Good luck" comes mostly to people who prepare in advance to take advantage of it.

The best defense is a good offense. (But things go wrong--it had better not be your only defense!)

If we are not willing to venture, there can be no hope. Without risk, there can be no progress. - George Low, former president of RPI

Vengence is a lazy form of grief.


In the Classroom

There are the "Do"s and there are the "Don't"s,
The latter comprised of the "Can't"s and the "Won't"s.

The goal of every educator is to achieve a high student-to-pupil ratio.

A teacher teaches to infinity. There is no way of knowing how far that teaching will go (but it will probably be much farther than we think).

Teachers make all other professions possible.

The job of a coach (or teacher) is to get the players (or students) to achieve more than they thought possible. - Tom Landry, adapted

When you see something, ask, "Why is it there?" - William H. Chrouser

Lead, don't push. If you don't believe this, try pushing a rope.

Actual classroom comments:

"You can't teach us that. We've never had it before."

"I saw you in the store. What were you doing there?"

"A piano key is not a vegetable."

"If it's not on the Internet, it can't be done."


From the Original Thoughts Page

Online debugging is a terminal disease.

"So you can't hit the curve ball. Then why do you swing at it?" - Ted Willams.

Drugs are NOT user-friendly.

Hardware breaks if you don't maintain it. Software breaks if you do.

Teach for the long run. There is no limit to how far your influence may reach.

All Indians in South America walk single file. At least the one I saw did.

"When people are thrown out of work, unemployment results." - Calvin Coolidge

Beware of statements that at first seem obscure but are in fact meaningless.

Testing can show the presence of errors but never their absence. - Dijkstra

One cannot teach without also learning.

Which is greater, a starfish or a star? - Patricia White

You owe it to yourself to say no. - Louois Gossett, Jr.

A school is a log with a student on one end and a teacher on the other. - Heinlein

Why is there never enough time to do a job right but always time to do it over?

"Your idea is crazy but not crazy enough to be true." - Niels Bohr

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Clarke

This is the first day of the rest of your life.

Only sick people need drugs.

Maintain a wide variety of skills. Specialization is for insects. - Heinlein

Some people are so well-rounded they're not pointed in any direction.

Your mother doesn't work here. Please clean up around your terminal.

It is safer to strike a happy medium than an angry one.

The mortality rates for all occupations work out the same - one death per person, sooner or later. - Heinlein

Fanaticism is zeal for which one has forgotten the reason. - Harry Reasoner

One who truly knows has no occasion to shout. - Leonardo Da Vinci

If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead. - Benjamin Franklin

We have met the enemy and they are us. - Pogo

More people die of worry than ever bled to death. - Heinlein

Never give a child a sword.

Relax! The universe won't run down if you don't wind it. - Heinlein

No implementation can measure up to contradictory requirements. - Matelski

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Salvor Hardin

Nothing cures insomnia like the realization that it's time to get up.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. - Heinlein

Experience is the only school for fools. - Latin proverb

Good luck comes mostly to those who are prepared to take advantage of it.

Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.

The more you learn, the more you realize what you still don't know.

A free item is generally worth what you pay for it. - Heinlein

Begin at the beginning, proceed stepwise to the end, then stop. - Lewis Caroll

Doubt your doubts. - Ed Young

In a jam, trust your hunch. - Blake Savage

If you are fully convinced of something, put your full weight on it.

Fear unchallenged becomes the paralysis of the will.

The most bitter brew is the spirit that will not forgive.

Growth is the only evidence of life.

If you compare yourself only to yourself, you wind up with nothing. - Proverbs

We have a far greater chance of hitting the target if we can see it. - Aristotle

A value is a principle you prize highly enough to put into practice.

Truth must be internalized before change can take place.

Train up a child in the way he should go, but be sure to go that way yourself.

If it's green and wiggles, it's biology. If it smells, it's chemistry. If it doesn't work, it's physics. - Yulo

No system devisable by the finite mind can be both complete, consistent and correct. - Godel

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.

He who hesitates is last.

It is cheaper to forgive a fat man than to make him your slave. - Mideast saying

We were given two ears and one mouth to listen twice as much as we speak. - Xeno

A camel is a race horse put together by a committee.

When your roof has a leak, you don't appoint a committee, you fix the leak. - Heinlein

Who would let a trash fire burn all day long, four inches from his face? - Shoe

* ** *** IGNORE THIS MESSAGE! *** ** * (Don't even think about it.)

Any worthwhile goal has a moral solution.

You can't achieve vast goals with half-vast ideas.

Whether a recursively defined algorithm is partially computable is undecidable.

To the true mathematician it is immediately obvious that e^(-pi*i)=-1.

"The reason for this part of my proof is obvious." - Evariste Galois, the night before his death in a duel. The "obvious theorem" has never been solved.

Instruct, warn, reprove, correct, challenge.

We learn when we listen, not when we speak.

Our temper gets us into trouble. Our pride keeps us there.

Put your brain into motion before you put your mouth into gear.

There is only a one-letter difference between anger and danger.

Anger at injustice is necessary. Anger at inconvenience is self-destructive.

It is impossible to give full attention to one's driving when a 747 is landing on the median.

Some people win out, some burn out, some short out and some rust out.

An important key to completing a great work is to keep your spirit up.

I would have let death seize upon me while I was setting my cabbages. - de Montaigne

It doesn't hurt to smile when it's raining.

Smile! It won't break your face!

You suspect it's going to be a rotten day when you wake up face down on the sidewalk.

If there were, then it could.
But it can't, so there isn't.
On the other hand, if there is, then it can.

You can't make yourself live longer by worrying about it.

Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander - the termites of the soul.

Give me a fish and I eat for a day.
Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime.

It's amazing how smart your parents become during the year following your graduation from high school.

There is such a thing as reverse heredity. Take insanity, for example.

"I know how to save money on building the new jail. The prisoners supply the labor. We use the materials from the old jail to build the new jail. The prisoners stay in the old jail while they build the new jail. After they move into the new jail, they tear down the old jail."

It's okay to talk to yourself. Be concerned when someone answers.

What WAS the name of the other leg of the man with the wooden leg named Smith?

Keep your temper. Nobody else wants it.

Worry is like a rocking chair. You get plenty of exercise but it gets you nowhere.

Think big. Do something that will last forever.

Invention is often the mother of necessity. Your great-grandfather was never late for work because his horse broke down.

Discouragement is suicide on the installment plan. - Salem Kirban

The only dumb question is the question not asked.

A hypochondriac is a person who feels bad when he feels good for fear that he will feel worse when he feels better.

The theory of life insurance: They're betting you'll live. You're betting you'll die. You hope they're right and so they charge you for feeling that way.

Those who only can, do. Those who also understand, teach.

Serendipity is digging for worms and finding gold.


There are two kinds of politicians. One is out for personal gain. These are so common that their functional arrogance monopolizes the stereotypical definition of their profession. The other, much harder to find, has visions of changing things for the good, of making a difference in some significant way. Often frustrated by the recalcitrance of the system and subsequently by real or imagined personal inadequacies in overcoming the same, they tend to develop martyr complexes or delusions of grandeur, if only at the neurotic level.

There is a third kind of politician, rarer still, who simply seeks to serve, whether great achievements and changes are made, or not. Unfortunately, the true public servant is tempermentally incompatible with the clashing competitive spirit of the political system and so often winds up as a minor functionary when he or she should instead be a president, legislator...or Supreme Court justice.


If you use onions on chili, put them on top - don't stir them in, they'll burn. Cook covered at lower heat and for a longer time than if it were uncovered. If you use cheese, sprinkle or layer it on top of everything else, onions included, if any. Don't stir the cheese in either. Serve without mixing, like a shepherd's pie. Try serving over long-grain, enriched or brown rice.

For a heartier taste in tacos, try shredded cabbage instead of lettuce. Cut your veggies into strips instead of chopping them up small - they stay in the taco better.


Igh tho ti/ough us aun thoo wrouceng forcet, tache ot ough!

tough dove motion through business mauve flood Gloucester Worcester ache women cough

Substitute the sounds of the boldface word segments in the bottom line into the corresponding segments in the top line to make the sounds of an English sentence.


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Last updated 11/4/97 - 12/31/2005.



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