Pournelle S Law Quotes & Sayings

I heard of that bloodthirsty old murderer Josef Stalin inviting all nations to join a happy family of folks devoted to the abolition of tyranny and intolerance! — J.R.R. Tolkien

Williams had a very shrewd sense of how much heat the organism could take at any given time; — David Halberstam

E wear the mask that grins and lies,
it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-
this debt we pay to human guile;
with torn and bleeding hearts we smile. — Paul Laurence Dunbar

Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood. — William Shakespeare

Mr. Prince, would you like to know the most significant event in the history of freedom?"
"The American Revolution?"
"A defensible choice, a close second even, but not mine. I would choose the moment when the Roman plebians required the patricians to write down the twelve tables of the law and put them where everyone could see them
thereby proclaimed the law supreme over the politicians. The rule of law is the essence of freedom. — Jerry Pournelle

In any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representatives who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions. — Jerry Pournelle

In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control, and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.[Pournelle's law of Bureaucracy] — Jerry Pournelle

I thought perhaps people with injuries could be subject to a starters gun to cure them. — Gerry Lindgren

Gates has always understood Moore's Law better than anyone else in the industry. If you can make something run at all, get it out there -it may be slow and clunky, but hardware improvements will bail you out. If you wait until it's running perfectly on the hardware already in the field, it will be obsolete before it's released. This philosophy built Microsoft and is the main reason Microsoft won the war IBM declared back in the OS/2 days. — Jerry Pournelle

A movie that I've seen probably the most is 'Fanny & Alexander,' the Ingmar Bergman movie. I even dragged my friends to the super long version that had an intermission. I don't know how much they liked me that day. — Gillian Jacobs

As a means of subsidizing lawyers the present nuclear regulation system is well designed - but is there not perhaps a cheaper way of rewarding legal diligence? It would probably be cheaper to give each law school graduate a guaranteed salary of $50,000 a year on the condition that he (or she) not practice law. — Jerry Pournelle

I was kicked out of The Stars And Stripes twice, and finally got back in. — Mort Walker

An ill-worded wish is worse than a curse... — Betsy Schow

So pink and swollen,Jean-Baptiste whispered,his fingers easing her lips apart,one brushing over the sensitive bud of her clit. — Laura Wright

(Charles) Reich discredits reason because it has been used to justify the war in Vietnam, which is like deciding that because your mother has cooked you a few bad meals you must never eat again. — Molly Haskell

I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me. — Gustav Mahler