Freebsd Fortunes

"... After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known
quotations."
                -- H. L. Mencken, on Shakespeare

"... all the modern inconveniences ..."
                -- Mark Twain

"... an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often quite often
picturesque liar."
                -- Mark Twain

... and furthermore ... I don't like your trousers.

... And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God's ways to man
                -- A. E. Housman

"... And remember: if you don't like the news, go out and make some of
your own."
                -- "Scoop" Nisker, KFOG radio reporter
                   Preposterous Words

... at least I thought I was dancing, 'til somebody stepped on my hand.
                -- J. B. White

... bleakness ... desolation ... plastic forks ...

... But as records of courts and justice are admissible, it can
easily be proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed
and were a scourge to mankind.  The evidence (including confession)
upon which certain women were convicted of witchcraft and executed was
without a flaw; it is still unimpeachable.  The judges' decisions based
on it were sound in logic and in law.  Nothing in any existing court
was ever more thoroughly proved than the charges of witchcraft and
sorcery for which so many suffered death.  If there were no witches,
human testimony and human reason are alike destitute of value.
                -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

... But if we laugh with derision, we will never understand.  Human
intellectual capacity has not altered for thousands of years so far as
we can tell.  If intelligent people invested intense energy in issues
that now seem foolish to us, then the failure lies in our understanding
of their world, not in their distorted perceptions.  Even the standard
example of ancient nonsense -- the debate about angels on pinheads --
makes sense once you realize that theologians were not discussing
whether five or eighteen would fit, but whether a pin could house a
finite or an infinite number.
                -- S. J. Gould, "Wide Hats and Narrow Minds"