Insanity Central

Grew up in the midwest, got married to a Dane, moved to Denmark, am now grappling with all things Danish (particularly the bureaucracy, now that I've got the language well in hand). My husband and I live in a smallish apartment with our two cats (after moving here, we lost one cat, got a new cat, then got the lost one back almost a year later; the lost one hated the new one, so it now lives with our old housemate). I am studying for my master's degree in linguistics at the University of Aarhus.

Quotes I like, live by, or try to live by:

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de St. Exupery (author of Le Petit Prince).

"A resourceful woman who is almost downright plain can achieve the reputation of a beauty simply by announcing to everybody she meets that she is one." -- Erté (Romain de Tirtoff, graphic artist)
"I believe that it's better to be looked over than it is to be overlooked." -- Mae West

"Confusing monogamy with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other error." -- George Bernard Shaw

"Guard the senses, and life is ever full." -- Tao te Ching (partial quote, but the part I like most)
"How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, 'This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?' Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.' A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge." -- Carl Sagan

"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others."
"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." -- Douglas Adams
"Understanding is a three-edged sword: my side, your side, and the truth." J. Michael Straczynski
"There is always an easy solution to every problem — neat, plausible and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin
"The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear." -- Aung San Suu Kyi
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived." -- Strictly Ballroom
"Nothing in this world is to be feared... only understood." -- Marie Curie
"Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless." --Edward Abbey

"Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words."
"The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue."
"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
-- Dorothy Parker (yes, I have a thing for Dorothy Parker's words; why do you ask?)

"Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death? No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no. One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?" "Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be." " -- Isaac Asimov
"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense." -- Carl Sagan
"If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted." -- Karl Popper


A person of wit and learning, you belong in
RAVENCLAW! Just like Professor Flitwick, Cho
Chang, Padma Patil, and every great Ravenclaw,
you've got a razor sharp mind.


Which Hogwarts house are you in? (Harry Potter)
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