Erlsten Quotes & Sayings

First rule in government spending: Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price? — Carl Sagan

While the willingness of the ancient Greeks to sacrifice their lives for glory brings tears to my eyes, I cannot ultimately condone the choice of Achilles. — Tim O'Reilly

Admonished for his lack of familiarity with twentieth century science, Sundar Singh said, 'What is science?' 'Natural selection and survival of the fittest,' he was told. 'Ah,' Sundar Singh replied, 'but I am more interested in divine selection and the survival of the unfit. — Sadhu Sundar Singh

I've seen people who don't have deals get features from people that labels can't even get features from, because you gotta show face and be in-tune with these guys who still have that independent mind set as far how you hustle yourself. Because they only really care at the end of the day about the dollas. — Kid Ink

Adlai Stevenson, himself a notable speaker, often reminisced about his last meeting with Churchill. I asked him on whom or what he had based his oratorical style. Churchill replied, "It was an American statesman who inspired me and taught me how to use every note of the human voice like an organ." Winston then to my amazement started to quote long excerpts from Bourke Cockran's speeches of 60 years before. "He was my model," Churchill said. "I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall." — William Bourke Cockran

I'm convinced that a lot of people run ultramarathons for the same reason they take mood-altering drugs. I don't mean to minimize the gifts of friendship, achievement, and closeness to nature that I've received in my running career. But the longer and farther I ran, the more I realized that what I was often chasing was a state of mind - a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus. I don't think anyone starts running distances to obtain that kind of vision. I certainly didn't. But I don't think anyone who runs ultra distances with regularity fails to get there. The trick is to recognize the vision when it comes over you. — Scott Jurek

It is perhaps not a surprise that photography developed as a technological medium in the industrial age, when reality started to disappear. It is even perhaps the disappearance of reality that triggered this technical form. Reality found a way to mutate into an image. — Jean Baudrillard

No matter how good you are at sneaking, you can't ever sneak well enough so that mosquitoes won't find you, and no matter how worried and tense you are, or how hard you are trying to pay attention, you just can't help noticing when a cloud of mosquitoes comes for you like you're their first good meal since last fall. — Patricia C. Wrede

Life ... is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. — Madeleine L'Engle

And it seemed to me that there were fires
Flying till dawn without number
And I never found out things-those
Strange eyes of his-what colour?
Everything trembling and singing and
Were you my enemy or my friend,
Winter was it or summer? — Anna Akhmatova

If you act like a rock star you will be treated like one. — Marilyn Manson

First of all I have to ask myself what am I trying to say and who am I trying to tell the story to. So if it's just 300 words going in the Independent it's very much where, what, who and when - fantastic. If there's a little bit more scope, if I've been given 1500 words by the sports editor, and I can have a little bit of fun, then I need to maybe entertain, include some different stuff. — Steve Bunce

I should far rather be drunk than eaten, Miss Lancaster," Ferus said in a serious tone. "As should we all. Very well, that's settled. — Jim Butcher