Tony's Garden

Thought of the Day… “Whenever you’re called on to make up your mind,and you’re hampered by not having any,the best way to solve the dilemma, you’ll find,is simply by spinning a penny.No – not so that chance shall decide the affairwhile you’re passively standing there moping;but the moment the penny is up in the air,you…

Thought of the Day… “Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview – nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.” ― Stephen Jay Gould 1619 Barbara Strozzi, Italian composer and singer of the Baroque Period. Che si può fare op. 8, and O Maria, and Lagrime Mie 1809 Alfred…

Thought of the Day… “Why did the humanitarian philosophy of eighteenth century Europe usher in the Reign of Terror? It did not happen by chance; it followed from the original premise, objective and means proposed. The objective is to do good to others as a primary justification of existence; the means is the power of…

Thought of the Day… “Libertarians make no exceptions to the golden rule and provide no moral loophole, no double standard, for government.” ― Murray N. Rothbard 1502 Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Flemish artist, architect and designer of tapestries and stained glass (court painter to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). 1755 Nicolas-Jacque Conte, French painter and…

Thought of the Day… “We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to enquire. We know that the wages…

Thought of the Day… “A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty until found effective.” ― Edward Teller 1627 Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten, Dutch painter. 1834 Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor and painter. He…

Thought of the Day… “It is not enough to discover and prove a useful truth previously unknown, but that it is necessary also to be able to propagate it and get it recognized.” ― Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1685 Pietro Giuseppe Sandoni, Italian composer. Sonata I. 1686 Benedetto Marcello, Italian author and composer. Ciaccona. 1744  Jean-Baptiste Lamarck,…

Thought of the Day… “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” ― Milton Friedman 1595 Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor and architect. 1803 John Ericsson, Swedish-American inventor. 1828 François-Auguste Gevaert, Belgian composer. Nocturne pour piano. 1965 J. K. Rowling, English…

Thought of the Day… “I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville 1511 Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter and art historian. 1818 Emily Brontë, English novelist and…

Thought of the Day… “The argument for liberty is…an argument…against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.” ― Friedrich Hayek 1796 Walter Hunt, American mechanical engineer. 1805 Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and political writer. 1878 Don Marquis, American journalist, poet and playwright. 1888 Vladimir Zworykin, Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television…