— mantra of the cantankerous
Category: Collected Quotations
A Final Message From Scott Adams
If you are reading this, things did not go well for me.
I have a few things to say before I go.
My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this, January 1st, 2026 ….
Next, many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I’m not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive. So, here I go:
I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, and I look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that. And I hope I am still qualified for entry ….
It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer — the achiever the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it.
Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner):
Risk is part of the game. You want to sit in that chair?
— Rick Berman
Question posed:
Who would you like to aim a loaded phaser at?
Answer, Jolene Blalock, well-known for playing the role of T’Pol on Star Trek: Enterprise, as interviewed for Maxim:
People who require drama like it’s their lifeblood. Even if nothing is wrong, there’s got to be something wrong.
Choose in marriage only a woman who you would choose as a friend if she were a man.
‘Don’t truth me,’ said Boaz …, ‘and I won’t truth you.’
— The Sirens of Titan
Many parents try so hard to boost ‘self-esteem’ that they forget where it comes from. We feel good about ourselves when we’re effective in the world. Help your son acquire the skills and knowledge he needs to succeed ….
An inflated sense of self-worth without underlying abilities is useless, if not dangerous.
Excellent quality is not enough. Also required is suitability. In pursuit of wrong purposes, excellence is wrong.
Employing gas spectroscopy is overkill when a simple microscope will accomplish the task. Using a simulation model to determine the optimal warehouse network may be excellent management science, but you’ll realize it’s ridiculous if you just stop to think. Common sense will suggest that you’ll need a warehouse in the New York metropolitan area, probably one between Washington and Philadelphia, …. How much scientific accuracy do you need?
Your imagination can tell you in a moment a great deal more than scientific excellence would have told you at great expense and pretension in a year ….
… the explanations of the superior performance that we commonly get from the most successful practitioners of capitalist enterprise, though perhaps quite accurate in themselves, are seldom more than confessions of particular experiences, offering no comparison with the experiences of others and devoid of serious analytical content.
What they lack, moreover, in generality, they often compensate with pomposity.
— Theodore Levitt
JR Ewing (Larry Hagman):
I’m sorry, Daddy. I let you down. I just flat gave up.
Back there at that swamp — you were gone. It was all over. Didn’t seem like there was anything worth going on for for me.
And I almost forgot—.
You left us something; you left us the company. You built Ewing Oil from the ground up. And whatever it took — you did it for Ewing Oil. And I’m gonna do the same. I’m gonna pass it on bigger and stronger to my son.
I’m back, Daddy.
And nobody’s gonna take Ewing Oil away from me, or my son, or his son.
“I swear to you: By God, I’m gonna make you proud’a me.
— Leonard Katzman, Dallas