things I've been quoting a lot recently

"Not without its charms is this terrible world,
not without its mornings
worth our waking."

--Wislawa Szymborska, "Reality demands", translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak

"there are no questions more urgent
than the naive ones."

--ditto, "The Turn of the Century"

http://www.pan.net/trzeciak/

"A word on statistics" (the whole thing) http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/poetry/antholog/szymbors/stats.htm

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"I am perfectly convinced that Mr. Darcy has no defect. He owns it himself without disguise."

--Elizabeth Bennett, in Pride and Prejudice (of course)

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"Ninety percent of everything is the paperwork."

--Terry Pratchett explains dark energy