The Wisdom Of Ken Kesey

By Jack Brummet, American Lit. Ed.

"You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case."

"Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing."

Ken, on a bus trip heading east, stopped in Yellowstone and saw a sign that said "Beware of Bear" and said :  "This used to mean be aware of the bear.  But now, it means 'be afraid of the bear."

“Of offering more than what I can deliver,
I have a bad habit, it is true.
But I have to offer more than I can deliver,
To be able to deliver what I do.”

“Always stay in your own movie.”

“You're either on the bus or off the bus.”

“... you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truth even if it didn't happen.”
― from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

"When Shakespeare was writing, he wasn't writing for stuff to lie on the page; it was supposed to get up and move around."

"To hell with facts! We need stories!"

“Okay, stand outa the way. Sometimes when I go to exertin' myself I use up all the air nearby and grown men faint from suffocation.”

“Good writin' ain't necessarily good readin'.”
― from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

"People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense."

"Loved. You can't use it in the past tense. Death does not stop that love at all."

"The trouble with super heroes is what to do between phone booths."

“He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”
― from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph."

"Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself."

"You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you."

"There's something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy"

"Listen, wait, and be patient. Every shaman knows you have to deal with the fire that's in your audience's eye."

"The '60s aren't over; they won't be over until the Fat Lady gets high."

---o0o---

Who said it? Abba Eban, or Winston Churchill?

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

"You can always count on the American people to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities."

 

This quotation is usually attributed to Winston Churchill.  NPR recently pointed out that "so many American politicians have misattributed this quote to Churchill that we can't count them. "  

NPR says that a  version of this—"Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources"—was first uttered in March 1967 by Israeli diplomat Abba Eban.  He never actually mentioned America.  Since then, the quote has made the rounds and been quoted, misquoted, and requoted until it has evolved, with even the speaker's name changed, sort of like the parlor game telephone. 

---o0o---

Presidential truths, zingers, bloopers, and misstatements

by Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor 
illustrations edited by Jack Brummet

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- Dan Quayle

"I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale and never tried it again."
 - Bill Clinton

"Look, when I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
- Barack Obama

I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
- Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952

"Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening."
–Bill Clinton

"I am convinced that UFOs exist, because I have seen one." (1976)
- Jimmy Carter

"Half the time, when I see the evening news, I wouldn't be for me either." (1995)
- Bill Clinton

"There are only so many lies you can take, and now there has been one too many. Nixon should get his ass out of the White House today." [in 1974, after some of the more damaging revelations implicating Nixon in Watergate emerged]
- Barry Goldwater (who didn't like Nixon in the first place)

"I'm the only President you've got." (1964)
- LBJ

“Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.”
- LBJ

"Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, then outside pissing in." [re: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover]
- LBJ

"So dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time." [re: Gerald Ford]
- LBJ

"I don't mind not being President. I just mind that someone else is." (1986)
- Teddy Kennedy

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I wouldn't want to wake up next to a lady pipefitter." (1971 - quoted in Ms. magazine)
- Richard Nixon

"I don't give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall--plead the Fifth Amendment, cover-up, or anything else. If that will save it, save the plan." (1973 - to his subordinates in the White House during Watergate)
- Richard Nixon

"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." (1973 - to the press during Watergate)
- Richard Nixon

"Well, I screwed up real good, didn't I?" (1974 - to Al Haig just before writing his resignation speech)
- Richard Nixon

"When the president does it, that means it is not illegal. But I brought myself down. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in and twisted it with relish. And I guess that if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing." (1977)
-Richard Nixon

"When I first came to Washington, for the first six months I wondered how the hell I ever got here. For the next six months, I wondered how the hell the rest of them ever got here." (1940)
- Harry S. Truman

"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." (1984 - testing a microphone before a radio broadcast)
- Ronald Reagan

"After seeing the movie Rambo, I'll know what to do the next time something like this happens." (1985 - referring to the TWA hostage crisis)
- Ronald Reagan

"I've often wondered, what if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by an outer--a power from outer space, from another planet?" (1988)
- Ronald Reagan

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- Dan Quayle

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
- Dan Quayle

“Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." [during a September 6, 2004 speech in Poplar Bluff, Missouri]
- George W. Bush

---o0o---

Song, defined by Nick Tosches

"And, of course, that is what all of this is - all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs - that song, endlesly reincarnated - born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it. That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 - same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."


-- Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather

---o0o---

Rogues vs. Imbeciles

Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.

- Alexandre Dumas
---o0o---

Gary Busey Quotes, Part III

You know what 'FEAR' stands for? It stands for 'False Evidence Appearing Real.'

You know what 'FAILING' stands for? It stands for 'Finding An Important Lesson, Inviting Needed Growth.'

You know what 'SOBER' stands for? It stands for 'Son Of a B****, Everything's Real!'

You know what 'DOUBT' stands for? It stands for 'Debate On Understanding Bewildersome Thoughts.

'You know what 'ROMANCE' stands for? It stands for 'Relying On Magnificent And Necessary Compatible Energy.'

"Music is going. I'm doing a tribute album to Buddy Holly, I'm doing a gospel album. I'm doing an album of all music. I'm writing some children's books. I'm writing an autobiography and a story of my common observations on feelings, which are things I've learned through my trip on Earth. "

[MR: Is it possible to overdo something like that?]
GB: Overdo what?
[MR: I don't know, spirituality or the aerobics or...]
GB: NO!
[MR: Like anything else?]
GB: NO! NO! No, you cannot overdo that.
[MR: 'Cause the thing I wonder about...]
GB: Imagine the peace symbol. The peace symbol has three pieces in it. One piece is emotion, that's your body. Another piece has spirit in it, that's your fuel. Another piece has intellect in it and that's your steering wheel. You can never overdo the fuel that goes into the body, which is the emotions and the steering wheel to drive it. [Interview--Metal Rules magazine 2002]

“Have a mind that's open to everything, get attached to nothing.”

“There has got to be more to life than being a really, really, ridiculously good actor.”
---o0o---

Gary Busey Quotes, Part II

"He's a lot different than I am. He's always telling stories about monkeys and toads and rockets. I can never understand what he's talking about." - Gary on his Dad

"Nothing changes like changes, because nothing changes but the changes."

"It's good for everyone to understand that they are to love their enemies, simply because your enemies show you things about yourself you need to change. So in actuality enemies are friends in reverse."

"Your shadow, the dark side. C.G. Hume writes about it, in terms of the fact that every one of us has a dark side. And my dark side, my shadow, my lower companion is now in the back room blowing up balloons for kids' parties. "

"One night...at [the hospital], I was sitting in bed...and saw the Grim Reaper standing in the corner. He was seven feet tall, with a brown robe. He pointed to me and said, 'Relax, it's not your time to go. You have been given gifts. These gifts are ready to be received by mankind. So get on your feet and improve.' Then he laughed, spun his scythe and left. I wasn't asleep and I hadn't been for days. Whether this was a premonition or an angel in disguise, I don't know. But it was a positive reinforcement to stay on the road to recovery, which I've done." [People Magazine, 1990]
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Quotes of the day

Those who agree with us may not be right, but we admire their astuteness.
- Cullen Hightower

The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more.
- Woody Allen

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
- Robert Anton Wilson

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
- Jeannette Rankin

No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.
- Kin Hubbard

Black holes are where God divided by zero.
- Stephen Wright

The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- Noelie Altito

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.
- Dan Quayle
---o0o---

Quotes of the day

In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.

- AE Housman


Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.

- Evan Esar



How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.

- Karl Kraus



In order to preserve your self-respect, it is sometimes necessary to lie and cheat.

- Robert Byrne


Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

- Stephen King, Roland from "The Last Gunslinger"
---o0o---

A passel of quotes of the day

Sex is like a game of bridge - if you don’t have a good partner, you’d better have a good hand.
- Mae West

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
- Congressman, Senator, and President John F. Kennedy

Always run from a knife and rush a gun.
- Jimmy Hoffa

This life's dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye.
-William Blake

Kinky is using a feather. Perverted is using the whole chicken.
- Author Unknown

It was a pleasant café, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old waterproof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a café au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write.
-Ernest Hemingway

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
- Leonard Cohen

Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition.
- Eli Khamarov

It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things. ~Stephen Mallarme

Anybody who believes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach flunked geography. ~Robert Byrne

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
-Abraham Lincoln

There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, they should draw the line at goats.
- Elton John
---o0o---