Marco Polo on Adventure

"An adventure is misery and discomfort, relived in the safety of reminiscence."

Andrew Jackson on Crony Capitalism

"The rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes."

President Andrew Jackson, vetoing legislation that called for a private corporation (The Bank) that was to be entrusted with public money and was protected from competition by the government.

(Sound like anyone else you kno W ?)

Laura Kipnis on Stay-at-Home Moms

"...the role of stay-at-home mom espoused by conservatives is, ironically, entirely incompatible with the economic policies they also promote, unconstrained market capitalism having been far more radical in destabilizing the middle-class family than anything ever dreamed up by radical feminists. Although feminism often gets the credit (or the blame) for propelling women into the workforce, let's give credit where credit is actually due: the transition from and industrial economy to an information society required new kinds of workers, and women offered an available, cheaper, and typically more acquiescent labor pool."


This quote was taken from a book review called "Love or Money: The Matrimonial Mystique" in the June 2005 issue of Harper's Magazine. Kipnis was reviewing a book entitled Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage.

Thoreau-ing Up

These quotes from Henry David Thoreau were taken from this web site, which I believe to be a legitimate warehouse for such things.


Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Men have become the tools of their tools. (Consider this in light of the computer age.)

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.