Linux People

We seldom repent talking too little, but very often talking too much.
                -- Jean de la Bruyere

We thrive on euphemism.  We call multi-megaton bombs "Peace-keepers", closet
size apartments "efficient" and incomprehensible artworks "innovative".  In
fact, "euphemism" has become a euphemism for "bald-faced lie".  And now, here
are the euphemisms so colorfully employed in Personal Ads:

EUPHEMISM                       REALITY
-------------------             -------------------------
Excited about life's journey    No concept of reality
Spiritually evolved             Oversensitive
Moody                           Manic-depressive
Soulful                         Quiet manic-depressive
Poet                            Boring manic-depressive
Sultry/Sensual                  Easy
Uninhibited                     Lacking basic social skills
Unaffected and earthy           Slob and lacking basic social skills
Irreverent                      Nasty and lacking basic social skills
Very human                      Quasimodo's best friend
Swarthy                         Sweaty even when cold or standing still
Spontaneous/Eclectic            Scatterbrained
Flexible                        Desperate
Aging child                     Self-centered adult
Youthful                        Over 40 and trying to deny it
Good sense of humor             Watches a lot of television

Well, I'm disenchanted too.  We're all disenchanted.
                -- James Thurber

Were it not for the presence of the unwashed and the half-educated, the
formless, queer and incomplete, the unreasonable and absurd, the infinite
shapes of the delightful human tadpole, the horizon would not wear so wide
a grin.
                -- F.M. Colby, "Imaginary Obligations"

What do I consider a reasonable person to be?  I'd say a reasonable person
is one who accepts that we are all human and therefore fallible, and takes
that into account when dealing with others.  Implicit in this definition is
the belief that it is the right and the responsibility of each person to
live his or her own life as he or she sees fit, to respect this right in
others, and to demand the assumption of this responsibility by others.

What good is it if you talk in flowers, and they think in pastry?
                -- Ashleigh Brilliant

        What is involved in such [close] relationships is a form of emotional
chemistry, so far unexplained by any school of psychiatry I am aware of, that
conditions nothing so simple as a choice between the poles of attraction and
repulsion.  You can meet some people thirty, forty times down the years, and
they remain amiable bystanders, like the shore lights of towns that a sailor
passes at stated times but never calls at on the regular run.  Conversely,
all considerations of sex aside, you can meet some other people once or twice
and they remain permanent influences on your life.
        Everyone is aware of this discrepancy between the acquaintance seen
as familiar wallpaper or instant friend.  The chemical action it entails is
less worth analyzing than enjoying.  At any rate, these six pieces are about
men with whom I felt an immediate sympat - to use a coining of Max Beerbohm's
more satisfactory to me than the opaque vogue word "empathy".
                -- Alistair Cooke, "Six Men"

What is tolerance? -- it is the consequence of humanity.  We are all formed
of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly -- that
is the first law of nature.
                -- Voltaire

What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think
themselves cleverer than we are.

What on earth would a man do with himself if something did not stand in his way?
                -- H.G. Wells