Les Jones

Quotes > New to the Quotes File

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed - and thus clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
- H.L. Mencken

There are two futures - the future of desire and the future of fate, and man's reason has never learned to separate them.
- J.D. Bernal

Somehow it has always seemed difficult for us to take a bearded man seriously unless he is riding a horse.
- Jeff Cooper

Best quote I've read in ages

The ethos of engineering is very different from that of physics. A good physicist is a man with original ideas. A good engineer is a man who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
- Freeman Dyson

As a designer of web sites and someone who appreciates machinery, I love that last quote. The best designs seem to be the ones built on a proven, time-tested foundation. Novel designs are too often in service of the designer's ego rather than the customer's needs.