A Commonplace Book

It seems like the less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag.

The more information one has to evaluate, the less one knows.

The more you know, the less you understand.

Ozman's Laws:
   1. If someone says he will do something "without fail," he won't.
   2. The more people talk on the phone, the less money they make.
   3. People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn't.
   4. Pizza always burns the roof of your mouth.

"TV news seems to confuse more than it clarifies," the study [by the Center for studies in Communication of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst] summarizes. "Even after controlling for all other variables, we discovered that the correlation between TV watching and knowledge was actually a negative one. Overall, the more TV people watched, the less they knew. The only fact that did not fit in with this pattern was the ability to identify the Patriot missle. this is a sad indictment of television's priorities." They add, "It is extremely disturbing that this public expertise in aspects of military technology is not matched by any clear understanding of the circumstances that lie behind their deployment."

...the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

the gas line is leaking, the bird is out of the cage, the skyline is dotted with vultures; Benny got off the stuff and Betty got a job as a waitress. the chimney sweep was quite delicate and giggled up through the soot. I walked miles through the city and saw nothing as a giant claw ate at my stomach and the inside of my head felt airy as if I were about to go mad. it's not so much that nothing means anything but more that it keeps meaning nothing, there's no release, just gurus and self-appointed gods and hucksters, stupid intellectuals. the more people say, the less there is to say. even the best books are dry sawdust to the brain. I watch the boxing matches and take notes on futility. the gate springs open again and there are the beautiful silks riding against the sky. such a sadness: everything trying to break through into blossom. every day should be a miracle instead of a machination. in my hand is the last bluebird. the shades roar like lions and the walls rattle, dance above my head. the eyes look at me, love breaks my bones and I laugh.

Miller [Tracey Walter]: The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

Walter ['Win'] Everett: "The more complex the systems, the less conviction in people. Conviction will be drained out of us. Devices drain us, make us vague and pliant."

"Does it follow that the more facts it has, the harder it is to take in new facts?"

"Thirty-five is about when that starts to happen, Marcel. You begin to think, 'Well, I more or less understand how things work. Do I really want to disassemble tens of thousands of tangled, semiaccurate beliefs on the off chance that I might be able to bring one small receptor field into better focus?'"